“T” Sans “D” (UPDATED)
WHEN SOUND TRANSIT Light Link Rail makes its debut this July, outside of downtown Seattle, not a single significant new private development will be there to greet it. Transit-oriented development (TOD) is widely recognized to be an ideal land-use pattern for achieving sustainable growth. But while our “T†is finally arriving, so far the “D†is a no-show. What happened, and what might the future hold for development?
That’s the opening paragraph of my piece on TOD in SE Seattle that ran in the Daily Journal of Commerce yesterday. And sorry but that’s all you get to see unless you’re a paid subscriber. An unbearable tease, no? Though if you read this, you already know the gist of it.
UPDATE: The DJC was kind enough to unlock the piece, so you can now read the whole thing.
Apparently the DJC still clings to that so-last-century notion that if information has value then people should pay for it. How quaint.  In this century, journalists like Josh Feit — who is currently producing the most dynamic political reporting in Seattle — subsist on Ramen noodles.
It’s totally understandable that the DJC charges for content, and because they have a well established niche of readers they can get away with it. But at the same time it’s unfortunate that, with their content inaccessible to most, they are missing out on being a part of vibrant local discussions on urbanism at sites like this, this, and even this, not to mention this.