Happy Bike Month to all who observe.

The racist Monaghan statue in downtown Spokane has been removed. A win for human rights and a win for our transportation system, as the statue was preventing a very necessary reconfiguration of the traffic island for peds and bikes.

"Quinn-Hurst says that updates along Longfellow Avenue and at 27th Avenue and Hatch Street will be a focus this year, adding traffic circles and speed humps." I thiiiiiink this means quick-build traffic circles, which would be a first for the city that I know of

Announcing The Starless Expanse Bundle, which pairs the critically acclaimed titles Riven & Outer Wilds - two games featuring puzzling worlds that will linger long after the credits roll. https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/72377/Starless_Expanse_Bundle/

I am begging “environmentalists” to understand that building dense infill housing is one of the most environmentally friendly policies possible

Spokane has two buildings that feature enormous milk bottles. They’re treasured! If these were proposed today, people would flip

Pleasantly surprised by the response to this in r/Spokane www.reddit.com/r/Spokane/s/...

Props to the NY Times editor and reporter who refused to sanewash this www.nytimes.com/2026/04/22/u...

Spokane City Council bans new drive thrus, gas stations, and car washes on most major arterials www.inlander.com/news/spokane...

Jesus didn’t Uber to the last supper. - Your City is Sick by Jeff Siegler

With the help of the Sandy Hook families, The Onion has reached a long-awaited deal to take over InfoWars. We've enlisted the help of @timheidecker.bsky.social, who will be InfoWars' Creative Director. Please stand by for more.

We got a Spokane YIGBY!

Keep the car alternatives coming. electrek.co/2026/04/14/s...

Sooooo can Spokane do this? We’ve waited two years for the state council to copy and paste Seattle’s code and they still aren’t done

Scale of 1-10 how replaceable-by-AI are realtors. *these* are the people who claim to know our market the best

Kudos to Spokane. Neighborhoods can have drive-thrus or walkability—not both.

💥 BOOM 💥 Spokane has passed an emergency ordinance banning new drive-thrus within 1/8-mile of a frequent transit route. The measure is intended to improve pedestrian safety and give the city more time to adopt permanent TOD regulations, which are expected as part of our Comp Plan update this year.

Bonus: removing it allows the city to realign the traffic island where it currently sits to improve the experience for those traveling through the area by bike

Empty-nest baby boomers own nearly 30% of the country’s homes with three or more bedrooms, a previous Redfin study showed, while millennials with kids only own about 14% of them. www.sfgate.com/california/a...

Remember when Cuomo drove like four blocks to vote and had his staffers stand in the street to make sure he had a place to park

"This is what you get when you elect Republicans." Every Dem within 100 feet of a camera needs to be saying this repeatedly. Every time we elect Republicans, we get dumbass wars, tax cuts for rich people, and financial crises. Every time. Fucking say it!

PS this design is post-removal of parking minimums. And look, the developer gets to choose how much parking to build. The parking sky has not fallen, contrary to all the worry expressed when the city was considering the removal of minimums.

After many years of delays, looks like the McKinley School project might finally be kicking off -- it had another Pre-Development Conference. Supposedly $4.5M in construction costs. - 29 housing units and 1 retail unit in the school itself - 64-72 units in new buildings around the school

Must be nice to not hear Slack notifications

Spokane plans to connect the Fish Lake Trail with the Centennial Trail to make the area more enjoyable and safer.

Washington is considering creation of a statewide Department of Housing, and it's absolutely critical that it focus squarely on cutting red tape, increasing construction, and ultimately, ending our housing shortage. Please take a few minutes to take their survey here:

In the small 30-block-zone that makes up the Theater District, there were 486 reported crashes last year. It should be a no-brainer to ban private motor vehicles there, given that it has the best public transit access of any similarly-sized area in the entire US.

Pretty dope to see folks in city hall making these moves. Our mayor/council/some staff ride bikes, take transit and walk, so they actually feel the pain associated with the planning around cars we've been doing for decades.

yikes

Applications are now open for Washington's e-bike rebate program! Unlike in 2025, you have an entire year to apply, with a new lottery held every month. ebikerebate.wsdot-sites.com

The 2025 version causes nearly SEVEN times the road damage than the 1995 one, despite being 1.6x the weight.

A car driver is orders of magnitude more likely to kill a pedestrian than an e-bike rider

“…disabled people are actually less likely to drive than nondisabled people and more likely to get around by walking and rolling and taking transit. Car-heavy cities are also disproportionately dangerous for disabled folks…”— @nondriver.bsky.social Don’t use accessibility “as a political football.”

"According to Edwards’ data, 75% of truck owners use their truck for towing one time a year or less (meaning, never)... And a full 35% of truck owners use their truck for hauling—putting something in the bed, its ostensible raison d’être—once a year or less."

We need a vehicle weight tax. If you can justify buying an $80k, 3,000 kg Wagoneer to haul one bag of groceries, taxpayers shouldn't be subsidizing your pavement wear and tear plus the added danger to our streets. If you can afford the payments, you can afford to stop asking society to subsidize it.

A big part of our housing crisis is that people are demanding three times the living space that they expected in 1950.

Washington's elevator reform bill is getting signed this morning.

Last chance! Community Design Collaborative applications close soon. Join us in shaping the Liberty Park Land Bridge and improving mobility and community connections for East Central Spokane by 3/23: wsdot.wa.gov/construction...

The second round of Washington's e-bike rebate program is opening for applications on March 30. links-1.govdelivery.com/CL0/https:%2...

The befores/afters in this are astounding

Washington just leveled up. Small elevators = more elevators, more homes, and more accessible cities. @danbertolet.bsky.social

Finally someone recognizes the power of my urbanism columns

"Americans prefer a car-dependent lifestyle." I can't tell you how much I hate this glib sentiment. The only way to determine someone's true, enduring preference is to give them full familiarity with their options. Americans have no familiarity with their options! They've only seen sprawl!

Great recap of the legislative session

Have you heard of the Bowdish Bump? Daniel Walters' first story for RANGE, and first story of a new series we're calling Accident By Design, focuses on the infamous intersection in Spokane Valley that was plagued by two problems: a sudden incline and a poorly placed stop sign:

Prospective Car Buyer Takes SUV Out For Test Hit And Run https://theonion.com/prospective-car-buyer-takes-suv-out-for-test-hit-and-run/

American traffic engineering is fundamentally sociopathic and in need of root and branch reform.

Spokane as a haven for those fleeing the southern US climate makes me bullish on the city’s future.

The State Senate just approved Washington's elevator reform bill 41-6 after it was amended in the House, sending it to the Governor's desk. The House's amendments removed language around international harmonization but it still represents a major reform for elevators in smaller buildings.