Helpful policy tips for Dino Rossi

So far, not a lot of policy is coming out of the Dino Rossi campaign, but it may be very interesting when it does. That's because the Republicans are getting pretty desperate for bold new ideas to turn around their national tailspin. I'll give some examples below.

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Sausage Links, blame-game edition

David Goldstein at Horse's Ass says everyone has missed the boat about the latest mess surrounding the "top-two" primary. The Seattle Times blamed the parties. The parties blamed the state. Others blamed the lawyers. Goldstein, however, says the person to blame for what could be the "most monumental legal fuck up in state history — one which puts the legitimacy of our entire 2008 election in jeopardy" — is state Attorney General Rob McKenna.

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Sausage Links, "freedom to get drunk and blow stuff up" edition

Chris Mulick at the Tri-City Herald has today's top story, reporting this morning that Tim Eyman's Initiative 985 and the Service Employees International Union-backed Initiative 1029 would — if passed by voters in November — increase the state's budget deficit by an estimated $300 million.

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The 100-year gamble to save our quality of life

A close look at the ambitious "Cascade Agenda," which hopes to preserve the central Puget Sound region's natural systems from a Pugetopolis that sprawls all the way to the Cascades. The mechanisms are known, but it's not clear they can work well enough or soon enough.

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Polimedia lunch links, 'let's party' edition

Eric Earling at Sound Politics responds to Gov. Chris Gregoire's recent assertion that the Building Industry Association of Washington "is the most powerful special interest lobby" in the state, pointing to the Dem's own PACs as evidence. In case you missed the Top of The News, Gov. Christine Gregoire's donors won big-time after they helped her squeak out a victory in 2004. ...

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Transit train wreck: The case against more light rail

The recent former state secretary of transportation has been riding buses a lot lately and crunching numbers, and he's convinced light rail to the Eastside and more Sounder service has no place in a big new transit plan. He thinks an advanced bus rapid transit system is the best way to serve millions of people and smartly manage urban growth. Part 1 of 3

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Social progress in White Center

The neighborhood is the focus of several programs designed to boost test scores, encourage early learning, improve living conditions, and provide a positive example of community pride and success that can be applied elsewhere. Part 2

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Gentrifying White Center

White Center is an unincorporated neighborhood and cultural melting pot, sandwiched between Seattle proper and the suburb of Highline. Despite grappling with urban crime and the difficulties of providing subsidized housing for low income residents, both Seattle and Burien believe there is hope. Part 1

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Mods versus snobs

Modernist architecture is for the elite, right? Not any more. The movement to preserve modern structures is finding new energy in populist appeal and as a counterbalance to today's McMansions and Viagra villas. The debate over a Ballard Denny's is just one squabble in a growing national discussion about preservation, proportion, and pedigree.

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A big, new growth management plan is already outgrown

The Puget Sound Regional Council's Vision 2040, to be adopted tomorrow, has been outrun by seven years of population growth in the very outlying areas the plan is intended to protect, says the recent former Washington secretary of transportation. He explains what's happened and argues for a recalibration of strategy.

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11-7: Northwesterners cut gasoline consumption 11 percent in seven years

A report released today by Sightline Institute shows that per-capita gasoline consumption in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho decreased for the seventh consecutive year in 2007. That's an 11 percent decrease since 1999.

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The Seattle Times' suburban retreat

First of a series: Publisher Frank Blethen sought to conquer the Eastside but helped turn the suburbs into a daily newspaper desert.

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Conspicuous Seattle

A town of modest pleasures has become a city of cringe-inducing excess, even in the little things like coffee, booze, and movie tickets.

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Does inclusionary zoning build more affordable housing?

The cure-du-jour for skyrocketing housing prices, at least in Seattle City Hall, is something called inclusionary zoning, or IZ. It's in effect in more than 300 urban areas in the country. Typically IZ requires residential developers to include a percentage of affordable housing in new projects. Does it work?

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Bellevue ranks at top for places to live and launch a company

Bellevue is the top city in a new ranking of best American cities to live and launch a new business by CNN Money.com. Seattle doesn't even make the list of the top 100 such places. The survey rates Bellevue high for its low crime rate, great schools, excellent health care, and diverse population (40 percent nonwhite or foreign-born). It describes the town as having "grown with unusual grace" into a place that is sophisticated and metropolitan but not yet crowded or expensive. Apparently the survey is not aware of the traffic problems on the Eastside, though some of the comments on the site point that out, along with the high cost of housing. One Seattleite protests: "Boring!"

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New figures confirm Seattle's housing affordability woes

The pattern is very strong: In Seattle you have affluent, largely single people chasing a small supply of urban housing. The result is small household size, an exodus of families to the suburbs, and very high housing prices in the city.

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Traffic's so bad, we might actually be willing to pay a toll

Puget Sound policy-makers have been taking the public pulse. Their surveys reveal that people are generally pessimistic about the future, frustrated with traffic, and willing to pay to cross Lake Washington in a car — as long as it's really cheap.

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Cities are shaped by choice

A historian of suburban sprawl reminds us that individual decisions play a huge role in shaping modern cities. They can have more impact than the pocketbook of a Paul Allen.

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Do growth curbs drive up housing prices?

There's a fascinating story in The Seattle Times about a new study by UW economics professor Theo Eicher, purporting to show that the bulk of increases in housing prices in Seattle stem from the large overlay of regulations that slow down building, restrict available land, and keep adding up costs. The estimate is that these factors have added $200,000 to median price of a Seattle house from 1989 to 2006. That would be twice the impact of such factors compared to other U.S. cities, according to Eicher.

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When high rents squeeze arts spaces, it's time to get creative

Seattle's real estate boom is pushing out performance spaces. A recent panel discussion on Capitol Hill showed there's lots more to do besides whining. Here are some other ideas.

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