A new report by @thedotcity.bsky.social quantifies the economic toll of downtown freeways, and the economic potential of tearing them down.
The 66K acres that downtown freeways occupy could yield more than half a trillion dollars of development and over $5b annually in property taxes.
This war ($1 billion per day) is probably not going to end up costing as much as either California HSR ($128 billion) or Northeast Corridor high-speed rail ($151 billion).
The funny thing is, density isn’t noisy. Go hang out anywhere in dense Capitol Hill in Seattle at any time of day and it’s completely quiet despite being the densest neighborhood in the state. These planners know this too
Just you wait. www.geekwire.com/2026/light-r...
When politics is literally your career you have no incentive to do anything that makes anyone slightly upset even if it’s the right thing
According to her calendar, Katie Wilson will literally be striping this bike lane herself next Friday??
“Sound Transit should have the ability to conduct its own permitting, rather than have to go through the permitting process of every city it serves.”
Kind of a complete shock to me that this isn’t already how this operates. The state needs to do something
“I didn’t like either candidate”
Great. Well you’re getting one of them. You have the power to decide which one that is
I’m sick of these people
Consequences of their vote. I have no problem lecturing people. I don’t give a shit about their feelings. Grow up.
And I can assure you they know this and it was part of the design delivered by whoever studied it
And should remain that way forever after they realize the month long experiment was a success for everyone
2 people in a state of 8 million proposing amendments that the code council considers is the furthest from democratic
That’s actually kind of the problem imo. We need professionals making decisions not letting the crowd make them
"As someone who works in real estate, alongside of investors and developers, the fact that Trump doesn't have to follow the rules and regulations of obtaining proper permits and permissions like the rest of us do, is absurd and unethical," one wrote.”
100+ speakers crashed a planning commission meeting causing this project’s delay. The process is finally being used for good.
www.bbc.com/news/article...
100+ speakers crashed a planning commission meeting causing this project’s delay. The process is finally being used for good.
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Not saying you are being dishonest, but just saying the people debating the issue at the code level need to be more honest about how much safer one is over the other
For midrises that isn’t the case. Both may be safe but the single exit is actually safer. Its time to be honest about this topic
The redundancy is the fire brigade out the window
The elected board is like the US Senate where a majority of decision makers come from areas with less population
I got it opened and read it. Good piece. It doesn’t mention ST found a loophole to get simple majority to pass. Maybe that comes with no state meddling too but we have enough of that within the board of local elected officials from 3 counties.
Great piece overall. Sad about MARTA, but Seattle kinda lucked out that the agency creation removed the 60% super majority requirement needed to build it in 1970 (it actually passed 51-49). ST3 passed with 54% which fails if it took state bonding.
Fascinating. Paywall so unable to read it but I’m sure it mentions they got MARTA because Seattle’s vote fell 9% short of a supermajority back in the 1960s
Because they aren’t scientists
You tell me which one would be safer, the one with 2 total stairs that everyone uses or the one with many stairs that a few units use? Fire fighters are wrong
We need change, not a consensus. Firefighters are not building scientists. To get things changed some people will have to be left mad and the firefighters are one of those groups
Ignore whining of lefty transit anarchists. Harden entries leading to collecting more farebox revenue for system fiscal solvency AND reducing system costs for maintenance & repair from vandalism. Bonus: Increase Clipper card applications. Grown-ass transit policies. www.sfgate.com/local/articl...
“…significantly reduced the rate at which BART service crews have had to clean up vandalism and what the agency internally refers to as ‘very large messes’…cleanup that generally requires staff to pull in larger bins and different types of cleaning products. The data, Trost said, was ‘shocking’.”
She meant to say “I don’t want highrises”
That’s just density in the US because we don’t allow housing growth and instead shove the homes into smaller buildings
