Becoming a ’15-Minute City’ Could Be Within Reach for Tacoma
Panelists at a recent Tacoma On the Go event laid out ways that the Grit City could break car dependence and become a city of walkable 15-minute neighborhoods.
Urbanist Theory
Op-Ed: Expand Urbanism, Emphasize Inclusion and Equity in Our Shared Vision
King County Council Chair Girmay Zahilay and Rian Watt make the case for a more inclusive urbanism: “To fully realize the transformative promise of urbanism, we must be willing to ask: urbanism for whom?”
Urbanism 101: Solutions to the Housing Crisis and Bad Zoning
Restrictive zoning has contributed to the housing crisis across the U.S. and exacerbated inequality, but solutions exist to undo the damage. Here’s an overview.
Urbanism 101: Zoning’s History and Role in the Housing Crisis
Originally hatched as a subtler method to promote racial segregation, zoning ended up planting the seeds of our present day housing crisis. This Zoning 101 guide delves into how that history unfolded.
Urbanism 101: 15-Minute Cities, Walkability, and Accessibility
What is a 15 minute city and how might Seattle be able to get closer to achieving it? Other cities around the world offer a model.
Urbanism 101: How Urban Agriculture Can Boost Food Security
Producing food locally boosts food security and self-sufficiency, especially in urban areas. Beacon Food Forest and Tilth Alliance are advancing urban agriculture in Seattle, joining an international trend.
Sunday Video: Should Cities Be Circular?
Dave Amos of City Beautiful talks about some examples of circular cities and the history of circle cities. Whether circle cities are deeply practical at the local block level or at the regional level for organizing communities and transportation network are issues Amos discusses in this video.
Urbanism 101: Tactical Urbanism
Street improvements are often long and drawn-out affairs. Pop-up projects can show otherwise. Urban projects can take a significant amount of time and financing to implement. However, due to increasing pressures such as climate change, population influxes, and a widespread desire to create walkable, bicycle-friendly neighborhoods, more rapid approaches are
In Defense of Little or No Plans
American architect and urban designer Daniel Burnham’s famous “make no small plans” imperative is destroying your city and your life. You should get a bingo card when attending a city planning conference. Instead of numbers, the squares should have pop-planning phrases to be crossed off as you hear them
Let the Robots Write the Ordinance
Planners have a lot to wrestle with as ChatGPT comes to code drafting. “In the era of rapid urbanization and evolving urban landscapes, the development of effective zoning ordinances has become an essential aspect of urban planning. These regulations shape the future of cities, determining land use, building codes, and
Ray’s Exit Interview: Don’t Let the Bastards Grind You Down
This is a quote from a book and a song, so I can use it as a title. Even with a questionable intensifier. Today is my last day as interim Managing Editor of The Urbanist. You’ll be pardoned if you didn’t notice my reign. Mostly it’s that
Terra Nil Shows How To Unbuild a City
In time for Earth Day, a beautiful new game that lets players unwind while unwinding civilization. Terra Nil shows up on the App Store as “a reverse city builder.” Admittedly, I’m a little protective of my city builder games. Like, it would be weird to suggest a particular video
How a Forgotten Plaza Can Become Tacoma’s Connected Heart
Tollefson Plaza in downtown Tacoma confounds me. It’s an attractive space next to a bustling university campus and an art museum. It is adjacent to a pedestrian urban trail, near the city’s convention center, and it is flanked by well-served multi-modal transit stops. But it’s nearly always
The Urbanist Podcast: Wet Architecture with Weston Wright
In the song “Five Feet High and Rising,” Johnny Cash sings “Well, the rails are washed out north of town/ We got to head for higher ground/ We can’t come back till the water goes down/ Five feet high and risin’.” Unfortunately, with climate change we are facing a
Planes, Trains, and the Only True Thanksgiving Movie
The holiday is a Chicago kind of event It is Black Friday in America. For those of us avoiding the mall like it’s our racist uncle, there’s one true salve: Christmas movies. Christmas gets DEDICATED CHANNELS of movies devoted to every facet of the holiday season. There’s
Dubicki: ‘The Crown’s’ Claustrophobia in a Box of Its Own Creation
There is a concept in television called a bottle episode. It’s where a show puts one or a few characters into a single location and films them in virtually real time for the entire episode. Think about Seinfeld waiting “5 or 10 minutes” for a table before the movie.
7 Last-Minute Urbanist Halloween Costumes
Organized by what you already have on hand. It’s been weeks since we began celebrating Halloween. The Danny Elfman music, the pumpkin spice, and the rejection of sun all promptly started after Labor Day. But with all this business about smoke and city budgets, we never really got around
Who Runs Seattle’s Public Restrooms?
A journey into the city’s soft gates and silos. Here’s an interesting fact: Seattle has fewer 24/7 public restrooms than it does publicly financed stadiums. That doesn’t sound right. After all, there are only two stadiums and an arena in Seattle. And we have at least
Sunday Video: Why DTLA Is So Small
Why is Los Angeles’ downtown so small? It isn’t just because of the car. Dave Amos of City Beautiful explains.
Midweek Video: Why Philly’s Streets Are Better Than Other North American Cities
Why are Philadelphia’s streets good and what can other North American cities learn from them? Alan Fisher of the ArmChair Urbanist explains in this video.
Midweek Video: How To Improve A Stroad (Seattle’s Aurora Avenue)
Ray Delahanty of CityNerd visited Seattle to showcase the city’s preeminent stroad: Aurora Avenue. Delahanty offers a sobering overview of the road, but he also discusses how it could be completely reimagined. The Urbanist and fellow local advocacy organizations make cameos in the video.
Urbanism 101: What is an EcoDistrict?
Urbanism 101 is a series that breaks down concepts in urban planning, policy, and related fields using vivid examples. In this introductory article, we’re going to define what an EcoDistrict is and share some examples of two different types of EcoDistricts, one in Seattle and one in Rennes, France.
Holiday Video: The City Planning of the North Pole
What does folklore and media tells us about the kind of city planning that the North Pole is built around? Nolan Gray takes on that fanciful question in a Christmas explainer. Hat tip to Ray Dubicki for finding this video gem. From all of us at The Urbanist, we wish
On the Prospect of an Urbanism of the Poor
Recently, I was asked for my definition of an urbanist. In reaching for a definition, I realized that I actually don’t have one–certainly not one that captures the contradictions and nuances that most interest me most about urban life and experiences. A Google search revealed to me that
Democracy and Cities
The relationship between democracy and cities is a close and longstanding one. It was in the ancient Greek city-state of Athens where the word democracy was first coined from the Greek roots demos (common people) and kratos (strength or power). Today democratic governments can be found on all seven continents
Cities Built by the Mouse
The Unique Urbanism of Disney’s Movie Cities For those of us who adore movies, seven months of pandemic has been a difficult drought. We’re down half a dozen film festivals and two full seasons of blockbusters, beyond just the weekly joy of sitting in a dark room with
Safe At Home: The Battle to Control the COVID Narrative
One of my favorite webcomics was the short-lived Minus. Beautifully painted, surreal, often touching, there is no place for it on the Internet. It ran two years, closing in 2008 after 140 episodes. The best Minus hangs on my wall next to the dinner table. I received the print from
Don’t Blame Density for Pandemics
If you’re a newspaper columnist or governor of New York, a pandemic is a great time to trot out medieval myths, repackage them like new, and feast on everyone’s anxiety to bring antiquated ideas into vogue once more. And that’s how you end up with “density is
Now Is the Time to Re-Read Jane Jacobs Backwards
My copy of Jane Jacobs’ The Death and Life of Great American Cities is dog eared and marked up. There are little arrows on the spine pointing me back to important quotes because the original tabs I stuck there are long gone. It’s lived in as many cities as
Urbanist 12 Days of Christmas Wishlist
Happy holidays from The Urbanist. In honor of the holiday, here’s an Urbanist wishlist set to 12 Days of Christmas. Let’s build this future together! On the 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me: Twelve thousand units social housing Eleven pipefitters piping Ten lords we’
Understanding Rent Control Politics
“If Sawant’s rent control bill went into effect, my apartment would get turned into a condo and I’d lose my place to live.” “Developers won’t be able to make a profit so it will destroy new home construction.” Those aren’t exact quotes, but I think it
What Kind of City do We Want to Be? Tacoma and the Arguments Cities Make
My summer reading list this year included a debut novel by Seth Fried titled The Municipalists, which CityLab described as “the urban planning Sci-Fi novel you’ve been waiting for.” There are many things to say about this novel, but rather than offer a pseudo-review (other than to say that
Joe Berridge’s “Perfect City” Celebrates the Many Forms of Urban Delight
Among urban planners of the 21st century, few can claim to have as interesting and expansive careers as Joe Berridge, partner at Urban Strategies Inc. in Toronto and the author of Perfect City: An Urban Fixer’s Global Search for Magic in the Modern Metropolis. With warmth and candor, Berridge
What Does It Take to Create Great Cities?
Actors call it charisma and scientists talk about the sense of wonder. There are fundamental competencies for every profession. City planning requires vision. Vision is the capacity to address many aspects of urban design while building a nice, safe, green, and entertraining city. Although modern cities tend to have the
Urbanist Hopes for 2019
Team Urbanism took some lumps in 2018, but there’s plenty of opportunities to turn the tables and advance the cause in 2019. Our writers each lay out their hopes for progress in the coming year and what emerges is a bold vision of social justice urbanism that could well
Introducing Alex Wheeler, Operations and Development Coordinator
The Urbanist is approaching its fifth anniversary. From the start, we’ve wanted to help shape a better city for all. We know building a better city won’t happen with one campaign or election. It will require time and perseverance. Most importantly, it will require institutions with strong values,
Less Is More: Why Two Wheels Are Better Than Four
“Can you fix it?” the customer asked, his hand on the bars of an electric scooter. The middle-aged mechanic knelt in oil-stained overalls to examine the torn brake lines of the two small scooters. Each was composed of little more than a standing board, handlebars, and two tiny wheels. “Where
Halloween Exposes the Benefits of Density
Every trick-or-treater is an urbanist on Halloween. Why leg it between spaced out suburban ramblers when you can find a street where the houses are built close together a hop, skip, and a jump from one another? Capitol Hill’s Halloween block parties demonstrates this idea. The 16th, 17th, 18th,
Part One: So You Think You’re An Urbanist?
Readings To Challenge Your Urbanism “Without theory we can scarcely claim to know our own identity.” – David Harvey So you think you’re an urbanist, right? Cities are magnets of diversity. Cities are more sustainable then sprawl. Cities encourage better social capital, democratic participation, and inclusivity. Cities are centers of