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As Parke’s post mentioned, the Seattle P-I had another interesting article on the lessons Vancouver has to offer on urban development—making the city both an exciting and a family-friendly place to live. Tips include requiring developers to: create multi-bedroom apartments designed for families provide community centers, playgrounds, neighborhood schools, landscaping, and other public amenities design buildings that create a pedestrian-friendly and visually appealing streetscape—not just a barren street canyon. (Buildings...

If you want an example of what sets greater Vancouver apart from the cities south of the US-Canadian border, look no farther than this Vancouver Sun headline: Council votes to turn two of six lanes on Burrard Bridge into dedicated bike lanes. Just for context—the Burrard Bridge is one of just a few main access points to downtown Vancouver, and carries a significant amount of car traffic into downtown from...

This would make a great reality TV show: As chronicled in online magazine the Tyee, a couple in British Columbia decides that for one year they will only eat food that is grown or raised within a 100-mile radius of where they live—with a few exceptions. Why? The short answer is "fossil fuels bad." The average American (and probably Canadian) meal, they point out, uses 17 times more petroleum products...

Ok, so this isn’t exactly a trend, and it has little bearing (yet) on the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia. But I thought I’d point it out anyway: Smart cars—the product of a joint venture between Mercedes-Benz and Swiss watchmaker Swatch—are now available for sale in the US. Just two have been sold so far, but there are plans for more. They had to do a little tweaking to the...

Here’s a clear example of "perverse incentives," a phrase Sightline employs to describe counterproductive policies… The Oregon senate just moved to aggressively increase logging on state forestlands. The senators aren’t just cut-and-run profiteers, they want to raise money for the common school fund. In Oregon, as in Washington, revenue from timber harvests on state land is constitutionally reserved for schools and a few other public goods. The unfortunate result is...

Todd Litman of Victoria Transport Policy Institute has just posted a two-pager on pay-as-you-drive car insurance (PAYD) that does a nice job of briefly summarizing its benefits, such as making insurance more affordable for low-income residents and giving consumers more control over their driving expenses. It also responds to some of the myths about PAYD, such as that suburban and rural residents would pay more if insurance was priced by...

In recent months, the Bush administration’s undoing of roadless area protection—by devolving the authority for them to the states—has generated a renewed burst of concern over the fate of the last unprotected wilderness-quality lands in the US. Wilderness protection is, at least arguably, no longer center stage for most environmental organizations. Nevertheless, land (and water) protection remains critically important for the continued existence of countless species and, I’d argue, for...

I’m a little late on this, but Shared Strategy’s new salmon recovery plan for Puget Sound deserves a bit more attention. Written by some of the heaviest hitters on the local conservation scene, including Bill Ruckelshaus and Billy Frank Jr., the plan is a carefully crafted and astonishingly inclusive design to restore Puget Sound Chinook salmon to sustainable and abundant levels. One thing I particularly like about the plan is...

From The Oregonian comes an article decrying the “baby bust” in downtown Portland, OR, and contrasting it with the baby boom in Vancouver, BC. Now, as much as I like a good pun in a headline (and ‘No Kids on The Block’ counts, in my book) I found the article both annoyingly alarmist and factually misleading. First, the article seems to suggest that the low number of kids in Portland’s...

Here’s a bad idea. The state wants to widen Interstate-90 over Snoqualmie Pass. While they’re at it, they’re considering building a series of passageways for animals—maybe as many as 14—that would help wildlife move safely across the expanded freeway. It will cost $113 million. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s important to design our cities and roads to accommodate the natural systems around us. Indeed, I think we have...