Search Results
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UPDATED: Fifteen Thoughts on the Coronavirus and Cities
UPDATE 4/17/20: Since publishing this I’ve been trying to keep up with the ongoing firehose of related stories and happenings in a big bad Twitter thread (click “show this thread” once it opens on Twitter): What did I get right? What did I get wrong? What did I miss? Threading through the 15 things…https://t.co/0ht4s9x14H — Dan Bertolet (@danbertolet) April 9, 2020 Here’s a cheat sheet to navigate the thread: 1....Read more » -
One of North America’s Boldest Housing Initiatives Has Reached Its End: Did It Work?
Last time, I mapped the political battleground of metropolitan housing shortages. This time, I draw lessons from an attempt to unleash abundant housing by assembling a different coalition. In the summer of 2015, long before the US national media noticed that something called the YIMBY movement had been born, before Minneapolis’s bold move allowing triplexes in its tree-lined neighborhoods of detached houses with yards and driveways, and before US presidential...Read more » -
Housing Policy Is… Salmon Policy?
Across the Pacific Northwest, urban sprawl is decimating salmon habitat. Fish scientists who study the effects of urbanization on salmon, steelhead and orcas are unanimous: To save these iconic and vital species we must prevent sprawling development from ruining the sensitive watersheds they depend on. And this realization leads to an inescapable conclusion: Limiting further sprawl means we must provide more homes for more people in already-developed parts of our...Read more » -
Know Thine NIMBY
Last time, I documented the consistent US pattern of housing lockdown—the cessation of homebuilding in most metropolitan areas’ residential zones, especially single-detached ones, which yields both auto-dependent, climate-polluting sprawl and expensive housing. This time, I dissect the political reasons for lockdown. Residential lockdown—the near absence of new homebuilding in existing neighborhoods—is the norm across most of the metropolitan landscape of North America. It’s the norm even though control over homebuilding...Read more » -
Residential Lockdown
Last time, I detailed the challenges of abundant housing in post-carbon cities and illustrated what such cities might look like. This time, I document the ubiquity of housing shortages, as a precursor to articles that will discuss grand political strategies for housing. Across North America (unlike in Japan) control over homebuilding has historically been in the hands of local governments. Consequently, most pro-housing advocacy focuses on city hall. But a...Read more » -
State-Wide Housing Solutions Matter: Talking Points
The severe housing shortage in Washington is hurting families and communities in every corner of the state. And the fact is, even with many cities stepping up and doing everything they can, local jurisdictions still struggle to enact solutions that will make a dent in the problem. The answer is state-level leadership. Washington households need state-wide housing solutions. States set standards all the time to protect their residents’ health, safety, and...Read more » -
The Climate Clock Is Running Out
Last time, I asked what political strategies can circumvent the trench warfare of local upzoning and unleash abundant home building in low-carbon neighborhoods. In this article, I lay out the scale of the housing challenge in more detail. To grasp the daunting scale of the challenge of abundant housing in low-carbon cities, we could start various places, but let’s start with the clock. Because it is running out. The Intergovernmental...Read more » -
Yes, We Can Make Cities Affordable and Low-Carbon. It Requires Smart Strategy
Since December 2018, Seattle and Minneapolis have passed laws allowing more people to live in their previously sacrosanct single-family neighborhoods, tripling the number of homes allowed on each lot. Sightline and others have trumpeted these reforms as wins for housing abundance, economic opportunity, and the climate. Breakthroughs! And they are breakthroughs. They have few precedents in recent decades of local housing law on this continent: the sanctum of single-family zoning...Read more » -
Updated: Housing Bill Tracker for 2020 Washington Legislative Session
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Washington to Consider Re-legalizing Duplexes and Rowhouses Statewide
UPDATE 2/19/20: WA’s middle housing bill is dead. The Senate version passed out of committee but never got a floor vote, while the House version failed to move out of committee. Modest homes such as triplexes and townhouses are grandfathered into the mixed-income neighborhoods of every city throughout North America. But in most of those neighborhoods across most of those cities, they’re illegal now. These kinds of mid-size homes can...Read more »