The standoff last week between Amazon and the City of Seattle should leave the 20 cities vying for Amazon’s second headquarters with no illusions about what kind of civic partner Amazon will be. Seattle is proposing to dedicate an additional $75 million per year towards affordable housing, paid for
Everyone who cares about affordable housing and equitable, community-driven development should be paying attention to 23rd and Union in the Central District. The developments around that intersection showcase a variety of approaches to affordability, community involvement and equitable development. Taken together, the projects and the organizations behind them are some
When the Seattle City Council passed new rules on microhousing in 2014, opponents had hoped to put an end to the small apartments, while advocates warned that the Council would be killing off one of the few sources of affordable new construction. Over a year after the new rules came
Two recent articles, the first in ARCADE magazine, the second a follow-up in Seattle Magazine, have claimed that Seattle is experiencing an enormous and unprecedented increase in demolitions. This simply isn’t true. The erroneous analysis started in Schema Design’s ARCADE magazine, which ran a story and accompanying graphics
[Update: Seattle in Progress is now at www.seattleinprogress.com. The links below have been updated.] I pass construction sites every day — it’s hard not to in Seattle — and every time I do, I wonder what’s being built. This question started to bug me more and more: in
Several months ago I wrote about why tech workers should care about housing issues. I argued that the tech industry can’t help but alter the character of the city, and that gives those of us in the industry an obligation to engage constructively in urban issues, especially around housing.
Technology industry workers are not apathetic. The industry is known for its passionate defense of civil liberties, the unprecedented scope of the philanthropy of its most successful members (and not just Bill Gates—Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Pierre Omidyar of Ebay and Sergey Brin of Google were all amongst the