New trip planner: King County Metro has significantly updated its online trip planner system.
Pedestrianize BOS and YYZ: Should Boston move to heavily restrict cars in the city center? And should Toronto pedestrianize its Yonge Street?
Pedestrianizing AUS and SAN: Meanwhile, Austin looks at restricting cars from a popular street on weekends and San Diego explores pedestrianizing its Gaslamp district.
SJC has lessons: San Jose is building out a really great, safe bike network.
Greenest muni building: Santa Monica will build the world’s greenest municipal building using the Living Building Challenge standards.
Robo bus: A robotic bus that has been operating ins Espoo, Finland has won a design award from the Museum of London.
Denied: In Los Angeles, a proposal for nearly 600 multifamily units has died on the vine amid gentrification fears and planning commission opposition.
Model railroader: Sir Rod Stewart is a big fan of urban model railroads, having his own model at home.
Ticket out of town: King County will spend an extra $100,000 next year to give people experiencing homelessness a ticket home to be reunited with family.
Another bikeshare dies: Denver’s public bikeshare system is the latest to fully end service.
Goodbye free parking: Will New York City eliminate free on-street parking ($)?
Vacancy remains: A Detroit proposal for $250 million in bonds to remove vacant buildings in the city failed at the ballot box.
New projects: Tacoma has approved property tax exemptions ($) for two more large, market-rate multifamily projects.
PDX mobility hub: In Portland, the local energy company is looking to construct a mobility hub in the city center.
GND for housing: What does a progressive trillion-dollar national housing plan look like?
Philly: Philadelphia has secured a federal grant that will pave the way to reopen and modernize a downtown subway station.
Shade on I-976: Sound Transit will continue to collect car tab fees for the time being ($). And a judge from King County has temporarily blocked the measure entirely.
Eyman’s victims: But a King County Metro bus driver worries about his job in the aftermath of Tim Eyman’s anti-transit initiative passing. And rural, conservative county is taking on Eyman to save their entire transit system from disappearing.
Sprawling to urban?: Walmart wants to build its new headquarters as a walkable space near Bentonville’s city center.
Equity battleground: CityLab explains why transit is an equity battleground.
Avoiding their duty: Big banks are fighting Washington State so that they can avoid paying taxes.
Ordering parking: Why does Amazon’s HQ2 in Virginia come with so much parking?
New planning effort: Vancouver, British Columbia has kicked off a citywide planning process.
Decarbonize buildings: Architects want politicians to focus on carbon emissions associated with buildings to combat climate change.
Devil’s in the details: The governors of Washington and Oregon have vaguely agreed to rebuild the I-5 bridge over the Columbia River.
Regulating rent: Politicians in Berlin want to freeze residential rents for five years, but can it?
