Author archive

Transit-Oriented Communities Event Tonight

Don’t forget about the Futurewise/GGLO/Transportation Choices Coalition Blueprint for Transit-Oriented Communities launch event tonight from 4–6pm at the Pike Brewing Company in Pike Place Market, followed by a gallery opening reception from 6–8pm at AIA Seattle on First Ave between Virginia and Stewart.  More info here.  And at the risk of getting everyone all hot and bothered, […]

A Repsonse To The Viaduct Earthquake Video

Five former members of the Viaduct Stakeholder Advisory Committee just issued the following press release in response the viaduct earthquake scenario video that was made public yesterday by the Washington State Department of Transportation. >>> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: SEATTLE, WA — Oct. 26, 2009 Yesterday the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) released a dramatization […]

Transit-Oriented Communities: A Blueprint for Washington State

What you best be doing next Tuesday, October 27, from 4 to 8pm, is this: Drinking beer and talking the wonk about transit-oriented communities. Because that’s when there’s gonna be a release party and AIA exhibit opening for a new report called Transit-Oriented Communities: A Blueprint for Washington State, written by Futurewise and its partners […]

Regarding The Upcoming Election: One Acronym And A Punctuation Mark: WTF?

In this, the year 2009, can it really be true that so many of the choices on the upcoming Fall ballot are still questions that are the subject of contentious debate; on which our citizenry must vote; that represent such a clear distinction between backward and forward, yet that could go either way? Let us […]

This Blog Will Now Go Slit Its Wrists

Because Mike McGinn said that if elected Mayor he would honor prior agreements made by the City’s elected representatives.  The sun has set on hugeasscity. >>> UPDATE:  Please note that I grew up in the Boston area where sarcasm is well-used. UPDATE 2:  I better spell it out:  Sarcasm is when you say the opposite […]

The Elephant In The Room

(Editor’s note:  The following was excerpted from Jabe Blumenthal’s voter recommendation email, which came my way via facebook, and is republished here with permission.  Much of this will be familiar territory for HAC readers, but nonetheless, it’s good reinforcement from yet another thoughtful voice, and more fodder for the intentionally redundant HAC tunnel blitz.) >>> The […]

Tunnel Memorandum of Agreement Petition

Not that I expect to reach many deep-bore tunnel fans in the hugeasscity echo chamber, but for any of you out there who are still unsure, I hope you will consider the many reasons why the Seattle City Council should not rush to approve an agreement this week.   The many remaining uncertainties and unanswered questions […]

One Issue

[ The deep-bore tunnel would provide no access to the downtown core from SR-99. ] The deep-bore tunnel is the loose cannon of Seattle’s upcoming mayoral election.  In the primary, the tunnel energized Mike McGinn’s supporters while it drove many greens away from the Nickels camp, and was arguably the single most important issue that […]

What The Corner Really Needs

[ How many rockstar reporters can you spot at McGinn’s 23rd and Union press conference? ] For eleven years I have lived two blocks from the notorious intersection of 23rd and Union where Mike McGinn recently held a press conference on public safety. We all know that the crime that has plagued the area around […]

Oy

[ Susan Hutchison and Dow Constantine facing off at the Seattle Aquarium last night. ] Did I forget that I had just taken a hit off the crack pipe, or did I actually hear Susan Hutchison say that Metro’s $100 million plus projected annual budget shortfall should be addressed by cracking down on unpaid fares?  […]

Please Join Me Tonight

Please join fellow sustainability and built environment leaders for a fundraiser in support of Mike McGinn. As a leader at the Sierra Club, he fought against highway expansion and last year Mike lead the successful effort to pass the Parks and Green Spaces Levy. Rather than sinking billions of dollars in auto-dependent infrastructure, Mike wants […]

On The Wretchedness Of A World In Which Susan Hutchison Can Pose A Serious Challenge To Dow Constantine In The Race For King County Executive

That would be the same King County wherein resides a populace that is among the most highly educated, forward-thinking, and environmentally aware in the entire country.   Allegedly. King County:  birthplace of Microsoft and Amazon; one of the nation’s first municipalities to regulate the greenhouse gas emissions associated with development; former stomping grounds of Ron […]

Tunnel Law Suit Filed Today

As has just been reported at Publicola, Elizabeth Campbell and The Citizens Against the Tunnel filed a lawsuit today to stop the deep-bore tunnel. Check out the gory details here (3 MB pdf).  Campbell’s group supports a new elevated solution to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct, but that is irrelevant to the case being made […]

Thank You Sir, May I Have Another

[ 5th & Yesler ] In case you hadn’t heard: Federal Reserve and Treasury officials are scrambling to prevent the commercial-real-estate sector from delivering a roundhouse punch to the U.S. economy just as it struggles to get up off the mat. The next wave of the credit crisis is about to hit — a collapse […]

The Ice Cream Truck People

Whence cometh the ice cream trucks of summer, And whither goest they, When the cold rains of winter fall? No  really.  Do they migrate south?  Seattle’s ten-month-long winter can’t be so good for business. Such an odd, yet remarkably persistent commercial enterprise.  Many of the trucks and jeeps look like the same ones I chased […]

“The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment, not the other way around.”

Gaylord Nelson’s statement is a powerful standard by which to assess politics, and a revealing litmus test to apply to Seattle’s upcoming mayoral election.  I don’t think it’s a stretch to concede that Joe Mallahan is aligning himself with interests that have  it the wrong way around, while Mike McGinn’s core support comes from those who think […]

Field Work

Done did the Puyallup and saw much.  The transition out of the Seattle bubble couldn’t be any more dramatic than when I-5 dumps you out on Federal Way’s Enchanted Parkway—shown above—and yes, that’s a Fatburger right next door to LA Fitness. >>> A few miles further south on S.R. 161 in Milton—when will we stop […]

More Noise Please*

When I saw this headline: Stable temps could chill work on climate treaty on the front page of Wednesday’s Seattle Times I immediately assumed is was  shoddy climate change reporting reflecting that paper’s ideological leanings.  But no, turns out it was originally published by the New York Times and written by their top climate change […]

Not Easy, But Worth It

Sightline has a post up on land use patterns and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that makes my day cause it saves me the trouble of writing the same piece.   Some argue that restructuring our built environment to be more compact and location efficient is not a practical strategy for cutting GHGs because it is […]

Saving Grace

[ The horrors of Snowpocalypse 2008 ] One of the smartest decisions the next mayor of Seattle could make would be to retain Grace Crunican as the director of the Seattle Department of Transportation.  But sadly no, both Mallahan and McGinn have said said they would not.  Given Crunican’s record, it’s hard not to interpret […]