PSA for Seattle procrastinators: If you're voting today or tomorrow, USE A DROP BOX, NOT THE MAIL! The USPS won't guarantee your timely ballot is postmarked on time. Locations of ballot boxes: cd.kingcounty.gov/en/dept/elec... More details: publicola.com/2025/10/03/p...

This applies to Seattle as well as Vancouver BC. Vote for @wilsonforseattle.bsky.social!

I don’t care how much experience Bruce Harrell has—bad policy is still bad policy. #votekatiewilson

Awesome! I proposed this idea for increasing tree canopy and improving pedestrian safety by replacing parking with trees in 2018. harrisonarchitects.com/intersection...

@govjayinslee.bsky.social is on it. The linked article from the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions includes changing zoning and building codes, in addition to climate mitigation, as necessary steps. Zoning and building codes are easier to implement and faster to change.

The flash flood news out of Kerr County, TX is tragic. We all want to prevent it from happening again and elsewhere. Lots of talk about better warning systems, better communication between local and NWS, etc. No one however has mentioned the idea of just not building in areas vulnerable to flooding.

And Seattle just spent, what, ten years? discussing whether to close Pike Place to cars. #seattleprocess

“This spring, Vienna passed a historic climate law, outlining a plan to get its climate pollution down to zero by 2040. Leaders see the city's vast social housing program as a critical tool. Vienna has two types of social housing: city-owned & city-subsidized.” @npr.org www.npr.org/2025/06/15/n...

All the pro-housing legislation and zoning in the world mean nothing without the financial means to build housing. We need neighborhood-based crowd-funding for four-plexes, so people can develop their own lots.

Glad to have played a role in one of Washington’s bills (HB 1183) that—along with major breakthrough legislation on TOD, parking reform, lot-splitting, middle housing and more—will make housing in our state more affordable and abundant. Thanks @sightline.org!

Perfect! Pierre Poilievre, for my American followers not tuned in to Canadian politics amidst all of our chaos, was the Trump-lite Conservative running against Mark Carney. Poilievre not only lost his bid for the PM role, but lost his seat in Parliament as well.

I’m so proud of my Canadian friends for electing this remarkable man. Watch this speech. It brought tears to my eyes. 🇨🇦❤️🇨🇦

(Reposting to have on my feed for the next time saving a tree in an urban area is used as a justification for opposing new housing.)

Protecting one’s house from wildfires is just wise and prudent financial planning, considering insurance payouts after a fire, if they are available at all, will never cover the cost of rebuilding. Build firewise, build Passivhaus.

“The United States, with its enormous highways, sprawling suburbs and neglected public transport systems, is one of the most car-dependent countries in the world. But this arrangement of obligatory driving is making many Americans actively unhappy, new research has found.” Via @theguardian.com

Representative Davina Duerr deserves massive, national props for writing this groundbreaking first-in-the-US bill and sticking with the ideas through two sessions. (Last year her HB 2071 got the ball rolling.) Thank you!

This is fantastic news for affordable housing, Passive House and mass timber. I’ve been working on this idea since 2019!

Just because parts of the US are going backwards doesn’t mean WA State has to. More freeways are not the future. Vibrant cities are the future, where people move around by walking, riding bikes and taking buses.

NEW STORY // Op-Ed: Harrell’s Growth Plan Fails to Add Enough Housing or Tree Canopy www.theurbanist.org/2025/03/29/h...

This is a self-own by Democrats from whom I expect more. What did we get in return, for making transit service harder to provide and e-bikes (the best last-mile solution we have) more expensive?

A bipartisan transportation package makes sense in so far as it delivers transportation projects for every part of the state — even ruby red districts. What doesn’t make sense is including an “own the libs in cities” bus and bike tax to appease a handful of Republicans.

Cool, but two notes: 1) Electric cars also have tires. 2) Zoning and road design that promote walking and riding bikes also reduces VMT and therefore incidence of another “urban killer,” cars.

Planning for the future means planning to accommodate people who do not yet live in an area—the kids of current residents, people moving toward economic opportunity, people fleeing repressive regimes or changes in climate. Local control of zoning by established residents tends to ignore these needs.

Paris is going to pedestrianize *500 MORE* street. Meanwhile Vancouver is slowly and painfuly suffocating the one great pilot it had in Gastown... Not to mention the rest on the metro area.

Every single Democrat in Congress should be demanding the resignation of Waltz and Hegseth. Every single one. This is a massive scandal. There should be a serious price to pay. AND THERE IS ZERO DOWNSIDE FOR EVEN THE MOST SCAREDY-CAT CONGRESSPERSON.

"[Cities] end up only allowing higher density zoning in a couple of specific neighborhoods... constraining the place where all the people competing to build more homes can build. So, they're bidding up the value of the land where it's legal to build more homes." Good description & discussion!

And now that it passed the House, HB 1183 has to run the same gauntlet in the Senate. Which starts with a hearing on Monday 3/17 at 1:30pm. If you have relevant techical expertise, please consider testifying, it's easy over zoom, sign up here: app.leg.wa.gov/csi/Testifie...

The real question is: Why do most Democratic city council member in the United States align with Trump on transportation and mobility? It's not great folks!!

Fascinating talk tonight at Town Hall!

Negawatts (a.k.a. conservation, per Amory Lovins) is the fastest and cheapest way to increase grid capacity.

At some point I may stop being shocked by the cruelty of this administration, but that’s unlikely, as it keeps getting worse. Could someone explain to me the magalogical reason for not feeding kids?

Experienced this gap today, coming off the Bainbridge ferry. All this waterfront work, and no clear way (that we saw) for bikes to get from the ferry dock to the 2nd Ave bike lane.

The EnergyStar webpage is gone.

Watching this and knowing how different things would be right now, isn’t sad. It’s infuriating.

HB 1183 has passed out of Appropriations! Fantastic news! Please take a moment and write or call your WA State legislators to express your support for HB 1183 leg.wa.gov/legislators/

Just testified before the Washington State Legislature in support of HB 1183, a fantastic bill that will remove barriers to Passive House. 1/ app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?...

This will change housing ownership models drastically. 10-15 years Fed chair says, before mortgages are not available in areas subject to fire or flood…or…earthquake? m.youtube.com/watch?v=j8Sl...

Let’s learn from our friends to the north (while we still can…). #socialhousing #ohcanada

More than two dozen bills in the #WAleg this session take aim at the state’s housing shortage. Here’s @Sightline.org’s list of solutions to bolster homebuilding and curb costs @Sightline.org www.sightline.org/2025/02/13/w...

Great idea for WA!

Have you noticed how many Seattle Comp Plan public commenters preface anti-housing remarks with “I am a long-time Seattle resident…”? That’s great, but: The Comp Plan is also for people who don’t live here yet.

Anti-housing Councilmembers are not helpful in a housing crisis.

With all the concern single-family homeowners are expressing about preserving tree canopy in proposed Neighborhood Centers, it’s time to revisit Intersection Trees. Slower traffic, safer crosswalks, 160,000 more trees! harrisonarchitects.com/intersection...

I’ve followed Dr Steingraber’s work for a couple decades now. She continues to raise important questions.

Harrell’s version of the Comp Plan will lock in high housing prices for decades. Don’t fall for it.

A standalone bill on compact ADA-compliant elevators for small-scale apartments also passed out of the Senate Housing Committee last week. It got bipartisan, unanimous support. app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?...

Endorsement: Vote YES on Prop 1A to fund social housing in Seattle www.seattlebikeblog.com/2025/01/24/e...

Denser housing should be sprinkled broadly throughout cities. American cities’ obsession with putting denser housing only along arterials is a global aberration and missed opportunity for better communities.

American Exceptionalism.