crosscut.com : Neighborhoods / Communities

Turning foreclosures into affordable housing

Crosscut — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:00:01 PDT

Several American cities have been buying up foreclosed and abandoned homes, refurbishing them, and selling them quickly to developers and homeowners. Boston, San Diego, and Minneapolis are using the idea, which both helps prevent troubled neighborhoods from deteriorating further and addresses the shortage of affordable homes for the local workforce.

Nickels peeks under the Cascade Curtain and gets pissed off

Crosscut — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:06:01 PDT

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Joel Connelly, blogging from the Democratic National Convention in Denver, had a nugget from Seattle's strongman mayor, Greg Nickels.

The mayor's block party weekend

Crosscut — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 03:00:01 PDT

Greg Nickels is putting on a series of car-less Sundays in Seattle. The first one on Capitol Hill was rained out, and many cars were ticketed and towed. Infuriating? Yes, but you know what you can do ...

A suburban sucker's bet

Crosscut — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:46:01 PDT

An interesting follow-up to my story last week on the future of suburbia is a profile of Merced, Calif., in the Aug. 24 issue of The New York Times. Skeptical that some burbs might become the new ghost towns? Check out the picture of the Riverstone housing development that accompanies this story, of an unfinished project baking in the sun and dirty air of a boomtown gone bust.

Death by a thousand (paper) cuts

Crosscut — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 04:00:01 PDT

A magazine distributor is doing what the Bellingham police and a prosecutor tried to do and couldn't.

A cure for congestion that's simple and cheap (and doomed)

Crosscut — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:00:01 PDT

Most cures for congestion come in billion-dollar packages, since it's easier for politicians to evade hard choices by instead throwing lots of money at the problem. An example of a simple, cheap (but politically radioactive) cure for congestion is to start replacing curbside parking with lanes for buses, bikes, and pedestrians. A pithy case for doing just that, as New York is trying to do, is "No Parking, Ever'" by Hope Cohen, deputy director of Manahattan Institute's Center for Rethinking Development. It's full of common sense.

The future of 'nowhere'

Crosscut — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 05:00:01 PDT

Urban planners love to hate the suburbs, but what's going to become of them? Will Bellevue eventually become a post-carbon ghost town or a new urban hybrid? Some reflections on the urban/suburban debate.

The best-laid plans: How neighborhoods have fared

Crosscut — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 05:00:01 PDT

Chapter 5: Few citizens will read a 170-page auditor's report on how well decade-old neighborhood plans have been implemented. But it should be required reading for the mayor and City Council. Bottom line: The plans have had some good consequences, but City Hall has lost interest.

Is Big Nanny running your town?

Crosscut — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:43:01 PDT

The libertarian magazine Reason has published a list of the biggest nanny cities in the country. The results for the big cities on the Pacific Coast are interesting. Portland is caught in a kind of "nanny sandwich" between Seattle and San Francisco. Apparently, the most ecotopian town in the Pacific Northwest has escaped the worst excess of politically correct fussiness.

Sausage Links, plastic bag identification edition

Crosscut — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:56:01 PDT

Democratic congressional candidate Darcy Burner is sitting on a boatload of cash. So far she's raised $1.2 million, while her opponent, Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Auburn, has only received $916,000 from donors. David Goldstein at Horse's Ass has more coverage. ...

You can fight City Hall

Crosscut — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 00:00:01 PDT

Of course, you might not win. Dennis Saxman, a self-described thorn in the side of Seattle officials, has just lost one battle involving the design review process — and he's launched another.

Sausage Links, transit migraine edition —Â part deux

Crosscut — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:00:01 PDT

Want to know if the new light rail line will stop in your neck of the woods? Any minute now, the Sound Transit board is expected to approve this map of proposed transit routes to be placed on the ballot. For now, here's the buzz:

How art reflects nature: an interview with David Guterson

Crosscut — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 02:00:01 PDT

The stories of 52-year-old Bainbridge Island author David Guterson have much to owe Washington state, which serves as a powerful setting for everything he writes.

Presto! A Seattle parks levy!

Crosscut — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:00:01 PDT

In the man-bites-dog department, we have a City Council deciding to defy Mayor Greg Nickels and put a parks levy on the fall ballot. Here's how something that "never happens" actually happened.

My Starbucks is closing!

Crosscut — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:17:01 PDT

I learned the news just this morning. My favorite barista let me know. She, of course, is worried about her job. I, of course, am worried about her job. But I'm even more worried about my java.

More fun than Deliverance!

Crosscut — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 05:00:01 PDT

Spend your summer vacation in Eastern Washington, an exotic locale where lakes are slippery, the Scablands surprising, and wheat farmers are smashing stuff for fun.

Fishing for a family's food

Crosscut — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 05:00:01 PDT

An Alaskan whose family holds a subsistence fishing permit chronicles their annual trip to the Kasilof River, where they fish for sockeye salmon using set-nets.

Sausage Links, cougar-hunting edition

Crosscut — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:28:01 PDT

Praise the Lord and release the hounds — because our good state Legislature has enacted a law which makes it legal once again to use dogs to hunt cougars. Now, I didn't even know cougar hunting was legal in Washington — minus Cougars wearing crimson — but apparently, it is. While the bill was actually passed by the Legislature in February, the Department of Fish and Wildlife will hold a public meeting on Friday to discuss whether the pilot program should continue for another three years.

Meanwhile, Micheal Reitz of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation has compiled a list of some other curious laws enacted by the Washington Legislature this year. My personal favorite: Violators may face up to $1,000 or up to a year in jail for selling raw or unprocessed huckleberries without a permit.

Nick Licata reprises his role as City Council menace

Crosscut — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 05:00:01 PDT

Being council president cramped his activist style. Now he's relishing a return to "Licata non grata." He's energized enough to be thinking about running again, maybe for mayor.

Sausage Links, tree-cutting edition

Crosscut — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:09:01 PDT

Timber! The Seattle Times has a series of special reports about the lack of oversight in the logging industry and the cost to state taxpayers. According to the report, no one checked when Weyerhaeuser started clear-cutting unstable slopes, some of which eventually slid and cost millions of dollars to clean up. Naturally, David Goldstein at Horse's Ass blames Republican-led deregulation. ...