I made some good maps a year and a half ago but don't have access to them anymore. This is kinda quick an dirty but gets the point across. When I looked at this before the median NR lot size was 5,600 sf.

Such an obvious no brainer to legalize something that’s legal to build 2 hours north of here but I can’t wait (sarcasm) for all the debate that will be done over it

American urban planning and zoning worked exactly as they planned:

You cant unsee it. Floor plans are so much better when there’s just 1 stair

NEW: This is very interesting — Seattle City Council has allowed 8-unit buildings up to 3 storeys, or 10 apartments up to 4 storeys (they call them “stacked flats”) if they add green features (like bioswales or green roofs) or preserve trees, in all residential zones across the entire city!

I found this street diagram for a project in Las Vegas and damn its perfect for Aurora Avenue here in Seattle

What is the point of having cars on this road? The retail would flourish more with it pedestrianized, the park isn’t fractured, and vehicles have access all around it and don’t need to drive through. My assumption is the fire department but that can be managed with removable bollards

Cities are great and its awesome seeing an Urbanist elected mayor of the best one we have

Seeing other cities building urban housing when nothing like this is in Seattle’s development pipeline nor feasible:

[On Aurora Ave] "I think that it requires that kind of vision from the top to say, “Look, this is the direction we’re moving in and it’s not going to be popular with everyone, but we’re doing it.”" @wilsonforseattle.bsky.social

Year-end round-up at 'Walkable Princeton dot com'... Out of 42 blog posts published in 2025, these got the most clicks. #1, by far, was this one, about the director of the Princeton U. Art Museum calling a proposed inclusionary housing development 'banal'. walkableprinceton.com/2025/10/20/d...

A lot of Blueskiers are going to dismiss this observation because of the source, but it is correct. I'll just add that I don't think there's anything special about single-family homes that means they should never be rentals, any more than there's a rule that multifamily units should never be condos.

Because the US and Canada use building codes as a means to stop urban density

Why does Vancouver BC build high rise condos and Seattle doesn’t? Because their building code allows towers with *half* as much circulation area! Scissor stairs are a big reason why! letsgola.wordpress.com/tag/building...

Let’s. Go. !

The California DMV is in deep need of reform. Enraging stuff, uncovered by a team of reporters at @calmatters.org calmatters.org/investigatio...

i am that low paid architect putting in late nights. it’s so incredibly frustrating to have to jump through these design hoops to satisfy dumb design standards only to get told that we’re bad at our jobs and can’t design good buildings. leave the designing to the professionals!

Jesus Christ 🙄🤬, the stuff they make architects go thru just to get a regular apartment building approved will never not make me scream here in Seattle This meeting is Monday, January 5th at 5:00pm web.seattle.gov/dpd/aboutus/...

Great read. I think Seattle has charted the path to ‘retvrn’ to those 1910s six flats with their new citywide upzone (2.0 FAR and extra height if you build stacked flats). They may not be as charming or detailed (esp on exterior) as before but they will do a lot to address what this piece brings up.

Wow Vancouver is above NYC in transit rides per capita.

Pretty awesome for Seattle but damn what a cliff between NYC and SF

When countless cities are suffering from a massive housing shortage, keeping existing urban golf courses in place is indefensible. Seen here, the hole-in-one is transformed into housing, with the next phase of denser development on the right side set to begin in 2026. Carmel, IN

This article notes Seattle added 20,000 since 2022 but they were mostly in other sectors, diversifying the employment sector which sounds like a good thing to me

Insane but true fact: making US roads as safe as Canadian, Australian, or European roads would save more lives than eliminating murder from the US.

Apologize for what, being honest and cutting to the chase of who is blocking housing growth? Because hes right, it’s those f***ing rich people

A proposed bill every 2 days for his term. Hardly any of them did much. But it is a warning to Wilson & team: the bureaucracy will bog you down. Make sure your time is spent on things valuable to pass

Banning airbnb just helps companies like this

Bud only lanes on the top 10 routes for ridership that doesn’t have them. Don’t need to upgrade them to the overly expensive and long planned “rapidride” program. Just paint the lanes and leave the bus routes as is. Simple as that.

Owning a home is not an investment, the mortgage is defacto rent control

“When a planning or zoning board rejects or reduces the size of an apartment project, or imposes unreasonable and costly conditions, that directly undermines the public good. They should be expected to explain why their actions were truly necessary.” www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/28/o...

Historical landmarking is being repeatedly abused, and this is an excellent example.

If everything is a landmark, nothing is a landmark. Seattle Landmarks has lost all credibility. This pool is only the latest in a long line of designations for no other reason than to impede progress.

Abolish historical preservation.

Seattle loves designating the most unimpressive bullshit as historic just to prevent change....

The city can’t renovate this pool because landmarks got wind of the plan and quickly designated this unremarkable building so now they are plowing over the kids playground to build a new pool building

Good point here. I disagree this is the solution 4 BC, but I agree we need to keep building to meet demand and we need to make it easier to build.

And the car infrastructure is connected, redundant, and extremely well funded

bUt WhaT aBoUt EmerGEncy vEhIcles!?

Imagine posting this

Hey SDOT here's my alternative proposal for 1st Ave

Well I guess that first avenue streetcar is officially dead. Plant those trees and build that median and it’s never going away

Planners are the fun police

The military loses more money

Absolutely insane price to pay for a city in a deficit unless the plan is to add several hundred or a thousand homes.

Anyone who’s ever seen the approval process for an apartment proposal in Seattle knows this

Who needs a village when you can have parking lots?

This is a post about design review

Funny thing about Seattle—we ban large signs downtown on buildings (we are about to legalize them though) and yet our city is defined by an iconic sign

I love that he's explaining the housing crisis from the landlord perspective

According to a recent downtown economic feasibility report this unit would cost $982,000 to build today.