Lawmakers are aiming to add guardrails to the most addictive social media sites when it comes to usage by kids. But privacy and civil rights advocates are warning of significant unintended consequences.
Over the last decade, the Seattle metro area produced the most affordable housing in the nation, with more than 24,000 new income-restricted apartments. New revenue streams helped the region get there, but more work is needed to alleviate the affordability crisis and hit long-term goals.
Ray Delahanty of CityNerd debunks the myth that vacant homes could single-handedly solve the housing crisis, explaining with data why America doesn’t have anywhere close to 15 million homes readily available to fill the national housing shortage.
Which Washington cities have the deadliest streets and roads may surprise you. Puyallup, Lynnwood and Olympia are by far the most dangerous cities for people walking and biking based on per capita serious crash rate. Travis Merrigan breaks down the data.
Seattle’s human population is growing fast, but its car population has stalled out. Between 2017 and 2023, Seattle added 35,000 households and about 80,000 residents, but just 3,300 cars, new Census data has revealed — in news that is music to urbanist ears.
After losing three consecutive mayoral races and six of nine Council seats in two years, Seattle progressives sealed their best Primary election in over a decade. Across the board, Seattle progressives head into November as favorites.
Seattle has officially surpassed the 800,000 population mark, setting a record high of 816,600 residents in new state estimates released Friday. That marks the fifth year in a row that the Emerald City’s growth rate has exceeded 2%, making Seattle one of the fastest-growing cities in the country.
Automatic license plate readers have proliferated across 81 cities in Washington State, and audits have shown federal agents and anti-abortion states are using Washington plate data to hunt abortion seekers, immigrants, and refugees. This is despite state sanctuary laws intended to shield such vulne
A new Northwest Progressive Institute poll of Seattle voters that found challenger Katie Wilson had a slight lead over incumbent Bruce Harrell in the mayoral race, with 36% of respondents voting for challenger Katie Wilson if the general election for mayor were being held today, while 33% preferring
The 2017 Marymoor Village growth center has led to a number of larger multifamily developments in the area around Marymoor Park in Southeast Redmond. This weekend, light rail finally arrives.
New apartment buildings like Eastline and Polaris have brought hundreds of units close to Redmond’s forthcoming downtown light rail station. On the horizon are even bigger projects.
Redmond’s 1993 Downtown Plan led to an urban transformation that saw the construction of over 5,000 new units between 2000 and 2020. This Saturday, light rail arrives to support that urban growth.
In shift away from office and toward housing growth, Downtown Bellevue’s development pipeline has seen nearly 4,000 additional homes proposed and more than two million square feet of office space abandoned in just the last couple of years. Once built, the pipeline of 14,000 homes would more than dou
All three Swift Bus Rapid Transit routes operated by Community Transit saw double digit increases in ridership following the extension of light rail into Snohomish County, including a 36% jump for the Orange Line.
Ridership on the abridged Eastside-only 2 Line has surpassed agency expectations, with daily light rail boardings hovering around 6,000 between May and July. The Link 1 Line also posted strong ridership numbers this summer.
Builders have nearly 3,000 homes in the works near Lynnwood’s freshly opened light rail station. But more than half hang on two massive projects that are in limbo.
More than 1,800 homes are under construction, recently completed, or planned near Mountlake Terrace Station, where light rail service will soon commence.
Within a mile of Shoreline North Station, about 1,700 homes have been built or planned since 2019. While the development pipeline is petering out, the City could jumpstart it once more with zoning changes and action to redevelop public land.
A third of King County Metro’s pre-pandemic transit ridership has yet to return, and many agencies are seeing stronger rebounds. Where did the bus riders go?
Three years after the opening of Northgate’s Link light rail station, Simon Properties broke ground on the first residential development within their Northgate Mall property, which they have renamed “Northgate Station.” The mall operator and developer’s July 11th groundbreaking of 234 new homes took place as construction completions
Some people like consistency and little change, but others like vitality, energy, and dynamism. Ray Delahanty of CityNerd dives into a top 10 list of American cities that are in high demand and have lots of turnover. Seattle made the list. What place do you think it ranked?
Seattle grew by 18,500 residents in one year to a total of 797,700, according to recently released state figures. Meanwhile, Tacoma surpassed 225,000, Redmond crossed 80,000, and Bellevue hit 155,000 in those population estimates.
Seattle’s single family areas have seen their Black population plummet by 9,126 since 1990. Meanwhile, “urban village” neighborhood have added more than 8,000 Black residents in that span. Why then is low-density zoning expected to blunt displacement?
A new report analyzed traffic safety data, finding that the U.S. recently reached a 40-year high for pedestrian deaths. Pedestrian fatality rates vary widely across the country, with Seattle ranked 64 highest out of 101 metros studied.
We’re starting our transit-oriented development (TOD) series in Downtown Bellevue. Check out how the Eastside’s highrise capital has been growing, with 13,000 homes recently added or in development, in anticipation of East Link light rail’s arrival on April 27.
465 readers answered our call for feedback and told us how we can improve. Here’s what they said.
The survey found 56% of Seattleites supported a $1.7 billion transportation levy, with safety and transit top concerns.
Misunderstanding the size of an acre, floor area ratio, and the area of a circle ruins many conversations about the basic shape of where you live.
For decades, super-commuting has been a growing trend in many American metropolitan areas. Ray Delahanty of CityNerd digs into the data of where super-commuting is heavily prevalent in regions across the country and offers some commentary on why that might be.
Critics have raised concerns about a lack of privacy, data security, or demonstrated effectiveness in reducing crime. Mercer Island has a new initiative under consideration: Whether to implement a new automated license plate reader system, designed to track everyone entering and leaving the small Eastside community. The system, made by
![285 Reasons Seattle’s Zoning is an [Unfunny] Joke](/content/images/www-theurbanist-org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/seattle-pacmed-2571.jpg)
Strangely, it is very difficult to answer the question: “How many zones does Seattle have?” That alone suggests an uncomfortable answer. The Seattle Municipal Code lists 38 zones. These include 10 residential zones, 5 commercial zones, 4 downtown zones, and 5 (soon to be changed) industrial zones. There are also
On July 6, the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) launched their Legacy of Structural Racism Interactive Report. While this report is far from the first piece of literature to connect policies such as single-family zoning to structural racism, it provides a high-level overview and collection of resources on this history
A new poll found 82% of voters don’t believe highway expansions are the best solution for reducing congestion. America runs on highway sprawl and car commercials, but ample reason exists to think most Americans are seeking a different way to tackle transportation and growth issues. A new national poll
How many new homes could be created if cities in the Puget Sound region legalized denser housing near transit stations and where would they cluster on a map? A recently released tool from the Urban Institute demonstrates the impact of zoning on housing affordability and accessibility in Puget Sound cities
Social housing is popular in Seattle — so popular it even seems to override concerns about appropriate building scale and amorphous “neighborhood character.” To wit, 65% of respondents to a recent poll targeting high propensity Seattle voters support constructing four- to six-story apartment buildings “anywhere in Seattle” to expand social housing.
The distance to carry a bag of food is only argued against cities, never getting them to your car in the first place. Enter any discussion about slightly altering the number of cars in the city, and the first, often loudest, argument is “how will I get my groceries from
Denser housing would help too, as survey finds apartment dwellers more likely to ride transit or walk. Commute Seattle’s annual survey is a unique snapshot into how people are getting around the city. One big takeaway of this year’s report is transit ridership is rebounding slowly from pandemic
The Washington State Legislature is hotly debating where and how to allow multiplexes in more areas via HB 1110 and its companion SB 5190. The missing middle housing legislation is tailored to only apply in cities planning under the Growth Management Act and meeting specific locational or size criteria. That
Despite negative pandemic rhetoric, demand for walkable urbanism remains high, creating a source of untapped potential growth in cities across the country. Take a moment to visualize a walkable neighborhood you are familiar with. It could be a dense downtown or a smaller scale neighborhood hub of homes and small
Whenever I write an article or series that charts the development of cities and neighborhoods in the Puget Sound, I always make an effort to walk to the vast majority if not all the development sites that I list to take pictures and check my data. This was no different
Update: On January 20th, 2023, the City of Kirkland announced that Google will not be proceeding with the sale of the Lee Johnson site and proposed development plan. The tech giant’s development concept is rapidly growing Kirkland’s most ambitious proposal To close out The Urbanist’s series on
Having covered developments in transforming Totem Lake as well as the Downtown and Rose Hill corridor, what remains to tally up in Kirkland are the developments in smaller nodes of density. Juanita, Finn Hill, and Lake View are among the neighborhoods with some capacity for denser development. These nodes of
It’s no secret that restrictive zoning is prevalent in the Seattle metropolitan area, but a new study underway at the Urban Institute is taking a comprehensive look at the extent and impact. Cities like Lake Forest Park, Newcastle, Normandy Park, and Mercer Island dedicate more than 90% of their
After Totem Lake, a neighborhood that is experiencing a spree of significant growth, the next notable constellation of new commercial and residential development in Kirkland is occurring around NE 85th Street/Central Way. This corridor primarily consists of the city’s Downtown, which expands into the greater area known as
Given the Emerald City’s reputation for progressive environmental politics, it may come as no surprise to many people that Seattle was recently ranked seventh greenest city US in a recent report by WalletHub, a personal finance website. Seattle has been generally ahead of the curve, after all, when it
Last year, The Urbanist covered a Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties (MBAKS) report suggesting that townhouse development in Seattle might be dropping off a cliff. However, nine months later, data from the City of Seattle shows that townhouse production set a record in 2021 and that 2022
Rumors of a slowdown were averted, but how long can Seattle keep it up with its permitting maze and restrictive zoning unsolved? The pandemic has been tough on the construction industry, but apartment-building is showing signs of rebound, both nationally and in the Seattle metropolitan area. Multifamily construction is the
Often overshadowed by Bellevue and Redmond, not to mention Seattle, Kirkland doesn’t get the credit it deserves for the crafting of its lively downtown and growing Totem Lake neighborhood. Kirkland has also ended single-family zoning, though some land use quirks limit that change from full realization. These urban successes
During my research and writing of the Downtown Bellevue development articles, I actively estimated the amount of parking spaces that Bellevue had recently added and could add as part of its development boom. Accustomed to Seattle’s parking ratios, my original estimate was that around 10,000 parking spaces would
Buried behind a storm of mammoth projects are yet more potential development proposals in Downtown Bellevue. While these projects don’t possess the scale of the mega-projects addressed in the previous article, they do jockey for their potential place in the city’s skyline and will impact the look and
Among the many projects up for consideration in Downtown Bellevue, a significant faction stands out for the sheer scale of its developments. These projects are defined by being constructed in multiple phases, consisting of multiple mid-rises to skyscrapers, including hundreds of dwelling units, and adding millions of square feet of
Since 2018, a deluge of construction projects in Downtown Bellevue has been completed and begun to form Bellevue’s adolescent skyline. This spree has been in part due to the highly constricted zoning that the city has imposed elsewhere in its jurisdiction. Aside from small pockets in BelRed and Factoria,
Seattle’s population rebounded from its brief pandemic dip with a vengeance according to the latest population estimates from the Washington State Office of Financial Management (OFM). The Emerald City set a new OFM high of 762,500 as of April 1, 2022, which is an increase of 20,100
Some of my earliest memories of taking public transit were the times when my maternal grandparents would occasionally walk me and my brother to Northgate Transit Center and bus us down to Chinatown. They would treat the two of us to a meal at Mike’s Noodle House or 来来
Boosters of the Boring Company’s Las Vegas Loop tout high capacity of individual Teslas operating through the single lane tunnels. Is this really the future of transportation or just a gimmick? Ray Delahanty of CityNerd takes an inside look at the system and runs the numbers.
This past April 30th, the University District played host to its first Seattle Boba Fest. 18 businesses participated in the event, an incomplete count of boba-centric businesses in the neighborhood. In 2019, The Daily counted a rough 20 boba businesses in the U District, and if the number of restaurants
CityNerd takes a look at how American transit systems lost ridership during the pandemic and the pros and cons of fare-free systems. Wenatchee’s Link Transit system makes the list.
The chamber and friends are focused on homeless sweeps and pinning blame on progressive councilmembers, rather than housing solutions. On Monday, the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce released a poll and proceeded to spin the findings to promote their long-time agenda of increasing police spending and seeking to make homeless
Seattle is shrinking and that’s a good thing, columnist Danny Westneat opined in the Seattle Times, making a very big deal of one year of pandemic-era Census data. Making that shaky conclusion from one data point that is already one year out-of-date, Westneat proceeded to propose an entirely new
More than 4,500 homes have been constructed, permitted, or proposed in the Chinatown-International District since 2019 — 1,240 units of them affordable, based on our roundup of development. Like other neighborhoods in Seattle zoned for apartments, the Chinatown-International District (CID) faces heavy development pressure. These pressures are particularly acute
More than 60% of likely Washington voters indicated they were supportive of legislation to increase production of missing middle housing across the state in a recent poll completed for the Sightline Institute by Lake Research Partners. The poll results come at a moment in which missing middle housing legislation is
This month, King County announced roughly 45,300 residents experienced homelessness at some point during 2019, while in 2020, the number dipped slightly to 40,800 people. The revised figures are from a new integrated reporting system that the County considers far more accurate than its predecessor. The statistics paint
When Bellevue boasted they would eat Seattle’s lunch last month, I am not sure they realized the housing crisis was on the full course menu. For years, Bellevue has successfully lobbied to pull high-priced tech jobs away from Seattle, and now political leaders are caught flat-footed scrambling with a
Ahead of the 2023 election, the seven Seattle City Council districts are set to be redrawn using 2020 U.S. Census figures to rebalance each district’s population level. The bureau’s population estimate for Seattle came back surprisingly low — 24,000 lower that the April 2020 estimate of 761,
The United States Census bureau released its decennial population figures today and revealed that Washington state’s 7,705,281 residents represents 14.6% growth or nearly one million additional residents since the 2010 Census. The nation grew by 7.35%, surpassing 331 million residents. That’s the slowest growth
You would have to be quite old to remember when it was cheaper to live in the city than the countryside. It’s been a long time since that second-floor bachelor pad in Chinatown was more bargain basement than that cottage up the hill, and by now we’d be
Social housing composes 8.6% of Seattle’s housing stock, which is well below many peer cities around the globe. Some standouts are far ahead. In Singapore, that number is around 80% and in Vienna it’s more than 60%. Other cities are gaining ground fast. Paris is on pace
Davos Amos ask how big cities can get. Many megacities, largely defined as over 10 million people, are rapidly growing in industrialized countries. But cities over 100 million–gigacities–could be possible this century as megacities grow and merge. Happy Thanksgiving Day to you and your family from all of
In a recent blog post, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) has outlined the framework it will use to evaluate options to replace or extend the lifespan of the West Seattle High Bridge. This cost-benefit analysis will be completed in October. Working with their Technical Advisory Panel, SDOT has come
New population numbers for 2020 from the Washington State Office of Financial Management (OFM) show that Seattle has surpassed 761,100 residents while the four-county region has reached 4,264,200 residents. The data show growth rates continuing a slowing-down trend, which is a reflection of slowing economic expansion. The
The buzzwords “smart grid” have been floating around in environmentalist circles, national security circles, and it’s even made an appearance in urbanist media. Hype surrounding the “smart grid” claims major environmental benefits, increased affordability, and energy security. So, what is the “smart grid” and what does it look like?
In 2018, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan announced that the Miller Community Center would soon be home to a $3.3 million solar microgrid. This project is being funded by Seattle City Light and Governor Inslee’s Clean Energy Fund. Construction is expected to be completed in 2020. The microgrid will
America’s most regressive social policy has entrenched the racial wealth gap. It’s time for it to go. This article is the second half of a two-part series on the importance of ending the Mortgage Interest Deduction (MID). Part One focuses on how the MID works and what negative
We’ve moved beyond the initial excitement about the sizzle of smart cities. The basic idea—much heralded but limited so far in practical application—is to create a digital mobility ecosystem in a dense urban center. Its components would include a modernized electric grid ( ideally powered by renewable energy
On Thursday, the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) released the first part of a multi-year aviation study for the four-county region. The study’s early findings indicate that commercial aviation will see more than a doubling in passenger boardings by 2050. Takeoffs and landings are also forecast to more than
Seattle, King County, and Washington State growth rates all stabilized for the last year of this long decade. The Office of Financial Management’s (OFM) April 1st population estimates are the first survey of 2019’s population in Washington’s counties and cities. Last year the OFM’s Seattle population
The Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) has released their 2017 travel survey data and it contains some really interesting nuggets. Households were asked a variety of questions about how they get to work, whether or not they pay for parking, and if they have access to or use subsidized transit
In the summer of last year we discovered that Seattle’s population growth rate had fallen for the first time since 2010, according to state demographers at the Office of Financial Management. In 2017, the growth rate was 3.9%. The same time the next year it was 2.3%
Sea-Tac International Airport continues to post incredible passenger growth. In 2018, the airport moved 49,849,520 passengers, just shy of the magic 50-million mark. Passengers counts were up 5.9% year-over-year from 46,934,619 in 2017. For comparison, Sea-Tac saw passenger growth of 2.5% in 2017. According
In this video short, Dave Amos of City Beautiful talks about the how the United States Census Bureau measures population and highlights an oddity of how a suburban location is considered the densest place in America.
Seattle rents appeared to have flattened beginning late last year. Since then, as subsequent rent surveys strengthened the pattern, the consistent explanation has been the tremendous amount of new housing units built in Seattle. But the latest estimate of the city’s population complicates that story. For advocates of supply-side
New population estimates for 2018 have been released by the Washington State Office of Financial Management (OFM). The estimates differ from the annual census projections released last month ($), which date from July last year. OMF’s estimates are more current and look at population as of April this year. The
On Thursday, the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) unveiled new growth projections through 2050. The metropolitan planning organization is projecting 1.8 million more residents and 1.2 million more jobs by then. That means population could reach 5.8 million (42% increase from today) while jobs top 3.4
Every life is precious, and over the course of a year, thousands of lives in Seattle are impacted by traffic violence. In just the past few months in Seattle, two young parents were hit and killed by people driving, people young and old were maimed for life crossing the street,
Seattle is back on top. Among big cities, Seattle is growing faster than any other (on a percentage basis) as it added 20,847 people between July 1, 2015 and July 1, 2016, according to new US Census Bureau estimates. That 3.1% year-to-year growth puts Seattle at an estimated
Commute Seattle has released their biennual report on commuting habits to Downtown Seattle. The raw numbers from 2016 show that Seattle’s drive-alone rate continues to decline as job growth increases; that number now stands at 30%, down from 31% from two years prior. Transit ridership jumped two points to
Why do Seattle rents continue to rise to higher and higher levels of unaffordability? A new narrative has taken hold to explain this: the housing shortage. The housing shortage narrative has largely replaced the language of supply-and-demand, which has recently been criticized for being too reminiscent of trickle-down economics or
Wes Craiglow gives a TEDx talks about city budgeting services from a spatial point of view (per acre, per square mile) and uses a Walmart Superstore site versus a historic commercial property in a Arkansas city as an example. While Walmart delivers a massive tax assessment compared to its smaller
The Office of Housing gave their thrice-annual progress report on the Multifamily Tax Exemption (MFTE) program to the City Council last month. The report analyzed the timeframe of January 1st to April 30th and highlighted shifting trends in the program, most evident by an increase in the number of projects
Storefront establishments form the bedrock upon which successful urban, walkable communities are built. Seattle happens to be one American city well known for its tightly-knit and vibrant neighborhood business districts. But the larger Puget Sound metropolitan region has far fewer examples of walkable neighborhood business districts beyond other old peer
Slightly better than the worst possible outcome (detail), by Christine Hou By putting together 60+ years of housing data, much of it gathered from newspaper microfiche, Eric Fischer came up with a remarkably simple yet powerful model of rents in San Francisco. The model shows that apartment rents in the
If you thought that regional growth might be petering out, you’d be wrong. Recent data from the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) shows that job growth remains strong throughout the Sound. In January, 4,500 new jobs were added to the employment rolls at a pace of about 145
If Seattle were a 400-foot wide road (the widest street option available on StreetMix.net), it’d look something like this: That’s 27 lanes primarily for cars and trucks, 13 lanes for parking those cars, one 3.8-foot wide bike lane, and one 3-foot wide bus-only lane. In essence,
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
Hey fellow 12s! Here is a quick ELO summary of the 2015 season and wildcard game for your Seattle Seahawks. By Fivethirtyeight’s week-to-week ELO score, the Seahawks are the best team of the four NFC contenders heading into Sunday’s 10 AM game in Charlotte, North Carolina. Actually, they
Walking and biking rates have been steadily increasing throughout the Puget Sound Region over the past decade, a trend that has been particularly significant in urban areas. A 2014 regional commute study by the Puget Sound Regional Council found that walking and biking represented 12.3% of all commute trips.
We are a carbon-based society. Our daily lives are built around our ability to acquire and consume goods, produce things, move freely from one place to another, and maintain comfortable environments. And for the most part, these daily activities require energy, often carbon-intensive, to make them happen. But just how
Physicist Geoffrey West explores how natural laws apply to biology, cities, and corporations, predicting everything from walking speeds to crime and health.
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
Article Note: This is the second installment in a series on observations of people in Pike Place. See Part 1 for a brief background of public life studies, and observations of the existing design features and transitory activity at Pike Place. This part focuses on stationary activity. As discussed in