Category: Public Planning

Posted inBreaking News, Policy Topics, Public Planning

The morning after Sandy: Rescue, recovery efforts underway in New York, New Jersey

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Last night, Hur­ri­cane Sandy — which is now being called Super­storm Sandy — made land­fall in New Jer­sey, near Atlantic City. The worst hours have now passed, but as news broad­casts show, Sandy’s arrival was every bit as destruc­tive as mete­o­rol­o­gists and local offi­cials had warned it could be. Schools, air­ports, the New York Stock Exchange, […]

Posted inBreaking News, Policy Topics, Public Planning

Hurricane Sandy barrels towards East Coast, bringing commerce and travel to a halt

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

One of the most destruc­tive storms ever to threat­en the Unit­ed States is hours away from slam­ming into the Atlantic seaboard, mete­o­rol­o­gists are warn­ing. Hur­ri­cane Sandy, which has already killed dozens of peo­ple in the Car­ribbean, is pro­ject­ed to make land­fall some­time tomor­row evening between the Chesa­peake and the mouth of the Hud­son Riv­er. The […]

Posted inBreaking News, Policy Topics, Public Planning

Tsunami warning issued for Pacific Northwest as East Coast prepares for “Frankenstorm”

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

It’s turn­ing out to be a busy week­end for sci­en­tists at NOAA’s Nation­al Weath­er Ser­vice (NWS) and the U.S. Geo­log­i­cal Sur­vey (USGS). The Nation­al Weath­er Ser­vice has spent the last few days track­ing Hur­ri­cane Sandy, which is now pro­ject­ed to make land­fall some­where along the mid-Atlantic, per­haps off the coast of Vir­ginia or Delaware. Hurricane […]

Posted inPolicy Topics, Public Planning

Intercity Transit to Thurston County commuters: Let us help you get to Sounder

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Twelve years and three weeks after launch­ing com­muter rail ser­vice between King and Pierce coun­ties, Sound Tran­sit’s Sounder is final­ly serv­ing Lake­wood via South Taco­ma instead of ter­mi­nat­ing at Freight­house Square near down­town Taco­ma. For the time being, five trains run north­bound from Lake­wood in the morn­ing, and five trains arrive south­bound from Seat­tle in […]

Posted inPolicy Topics, Public Planning

Sound Transit selects contractor to extend Link light rail into south SeaTac

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Sound Tran­sit’s board of direc­tors have select­ed a con­trac­tor to expand Link light rail south from Seat­­tle-Taco­­ma Inter­na­tion­al Air­port to the inter­sec­tion of South 200th St and 28th Avenue South, the agency announced today. PCL Civ­il Con­struc­tors, Inc. has been award­ed a con­tract to bring Link’s south­ern ter­mi­nus into the south­ern part of SeaT­ac, with […]

Posted inPolicy Topics, Public Planning

United States Postal Service closing Redmond’s downtown post office in July

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Red­mond’s down­town post office will be closed and its oper­a­tions relo­cat­ed to a mail pro­cess­ing facil­i­ty in the east­ern part of town, the Unit­ed States Postal Ser­vice con­firmed this week. As of a month from this Sat­ur­day — July 30th — the cur­rent loca­tion will no longer be open for busi­ness. In a let­ter dated […]

Posted inCivil Liberties, Policy Topics, Public Planning

Latest tragedy in Seattle a sad reminder: Guns don’t kill people, people with guns kill people

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Anoth­er late spring day has come and gone, and with it, the lives of more inno­cent Wash­ing­to­ni­ans have been blot­ted out, cru­el­ly cut short by gun­fire: A man who killed four peo­ple in a bloody shoot­ing spree at two Seat­tle loca­tions end­ed an intense man­hunt by turn­ing the gun on him­self as offi­cers closed in […]

Posted inPolicy Topics, Public Planning

Conne family’s ordeal should serve as a reminder to all of us to be prepared

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Some hap­py news this week­end: A fam­i­ly that had got­ten lost on the Ore­gon coast while out pick­ing mush­rooms were found alive (though hun­gry and with minor injuries) by search and res­cue teams, who pin­point­ed the fam­i­ly’s where­abouts after they were spot­ted from a heli­copter pilot­ed by Jack­son Coun­ty Com­mis­sion­er John Rachor, who was flying […]

Posted inPolicy Topics, Public Planning, Technology

Leaders of opposition to SOPA and PIPA in Congress congratulate Net strike organizers

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

As we report­ed ear­li­er today, Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader Har­ry Reid has scrapped plans to hold a vote on the “Pro­tect IP Act”, also known as PIPA, next Tues­day. PIPA is one of the two MPAA and RIAA-backed bills that would per­mit major media con­glom­er­ates to indi­rect­ly cen­sor the Inter­net, using the long arm of the […]

Posted inPolicy Topics, Public Planning, Unscheduled Programming

Governor Gregoire declares state of emergency in response to winter storms

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Gov­er­nor Chris Gre­goire pro­claimed a win­ter storm emer­gency this morn­ing, fol­low­ing a series of events that have forced schools and offices to shut their doors and made many roads impass­able. “This is pure­ly a pre­cau­tion­ary mea­sure,” Gre­goire said in a news release. “So far, we haven’t received any requests for state assis­tance – but we […]

Posted inPolicy Topics, Public Planning

Let’s build a constructive future for our region in the Port of Seattle’s second century

by Gael Tarleton

Edi­tor’s Note: The fol­low­ing are the remarks that NPI’s Pres­i­dent, Gael Tar­leton, deliv­ered at the first reg­u­lar meet­ing of the Seat­tle Port Com­mis­sion for 2012, fol­low­ing her elec­tion as Pres­i­dent of the Com­mis­sion for the remain­der of the year.  Thank you, fel­low Com­mis­sion­ers, for the oppor­tu­ni­ty to serve this com­ing year as Pres­i­dent of the Port […]

Posted inPolicy Topics, Public Planning

NPI’s Gael Tarleton elected to serve as President of Seattle Port Commission

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Ear­li­er this evening, the Seat­tle Port Com­mis­sion con­clud­ed its first meet­ing for the year 2012, at which Com­mis­sion­ers Bill Bryant and Gael Tar­leton (one of NPI’s found­ing board mem­bers) were sworn in for their sec­ond terms in office, fol­low­ing the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of the Novem­ber gen­er­al elec­tion a few weeks ago. The Com­mis­sion also elect­ed its officers […]

Posted inPolicy Topics, Public Planning

Will State Route 520 toll make bridge backups mostly a thing of the past?

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Last Thurs­day, after months of delays, the Wash­ing­ton State Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion (WSDOT) final­ly began tolling the Ever­green Point Float­ing Bridge over Lake Wash­ing­ton. Col­lec­tion of the toll (which is vari­able) began in the ear­ly morn­ing with no fan­fare or cer­e­mo­ny. Since that hour, there has been a cost to use the Ever­green Point Floating […]

Posted inPolicy Topics, Public Planning

Tolling on SR 520’s Evergreen Point Floating Bridge to begin on December 29th

Andrew Villeneuveby Andrew Villeneuve

Tolling on the heav­i­­ly-trav­eled Ever­green Point Float­ing Bridge, which car­ries State Route 520 across Lake Wash­ing­ton, is final­ly set to begin for real lat­er this month after months of delays, the Wash­ing­ton State Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion announced this morn­ing, mak­ing good on a promise to set a start date. “Tolling is help­ing Wash­ing­ton move for­ward with […]