Tag: Smart Growth & Density

Posted inPolicy Topics

An ethnolinguistic view of King County’s evolution over the last two hundred years

by Subhadra Vadlamannati

King Coun­ty is a place that encom­pass­es not just land but the sto­ries of diverse lives that have shaped its past and con­tin­ue to shape its present and future. Nes­tled in the heart of Wash­ing­ton state, King Coun­ty holds with­in its bound­aries the bustling metrop­o­lis of Seat­tle, a city known not only for the icon­ic Space Nee­dle but also for its role as a melt­ing pot of cul­tures, ideas, and histories.

Posted inPolicy Topics

Washington’s DNR teams up with American Forests, City of Seattle to advance tree equity

by Andrew Villeneuve

The part­ner­ship, which will be known as the Wash­ing­ton Tree Equi­ty Col­lab­o­ra­tive, “will engage cities, com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tions and stake­hold­ers dur­ing the next three years to build rig­or­ous and inclu­sive urban forestry pro­grams,” the Depart­ment says. It will make use of Amer­i­can Forests’ Tree Equi­ty Score, a tool freely avail­able to the pub­lic that mea­sures tree canopy cov­er in an increas­ing num­ber of cities and towns along socioe­co­nom­ic lines.

Posted inPolicy Topics

Bellevue residents want more policies that encourage transit oriented development

by Andrew Villeneuve

Four promis­ing ideas for cat­alyz­ing tran­sit ori­ent­ed devel­op­ment in the City of Belle­vue enjoy broad and deep sup­port among res­i­dents of Wash­ing­ton’s fifth largest city, a sur­vey con­duct­ed a few weeks ago for the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute and the Belle­vue Hous­ing Research Coali­tion has found.

Posted inOur Environment, Policy Topics, Public Planning

Revised transportation package clears Washington State Senate on bipartisan vote

by Andrew Villeneuve

Moments ago, the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate took yet anoth­er sig­nif­i­cant vote, this time con­cern­ing trans­porta­tion rev­enue. By an over­whelm­ing four-to-one mar­gin, the Sen­ate vot­ed to approve SB 5987, which would raise the gas tax and vehi­cle weight fees to pay for a long list of high­way projects, a short­er list of rail, bike, and pedestrian […]

Posted inPolicy Topics, Public Planning

Bellevue City Council votes to approve East Link agreement with Sound Transit

by Andrew Villeneuve

Sound Tran­sit’s East Link project has just moved one major step clos­er to becom­ing a real­i­ty. After many months of dis­cus­sion and nego­ti­a­tion, Belle­vue’s City Coun­cil has vot­ed unan­i­mous­ly to autho­rize the city to enter into a Mem­o­ran­dum of Under­stand­ing (MOU) with Sound Tran­sit regard­ing the project, one of sev­er­al major expan­sions of the Link […]

Posted inEvents, Policy Topics, Public Planning

Peter Steinbrueck: Our fractured metropolis (Text of the keynote from NPI’s 2011 gala)

by Peter Steinbrueck

Edi­tor’s Note: Fol­low­ing the con­clu­sion of our Spring Fundrais­ing Gala a few days ago, we have been asked if we could make the text of Peter Stein­brueck­’s keynote speech avail­able. He has kind­ly agreed to do so; what fol­lows are a pol­ished ver­sion of his pre­pared remarks, deliv­ered on April 28th at the Com­mu­ni­ty Center […]