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Making Sustainability Tasty
I’ve spilled my fair share of ink here singing food carts’ praises. It hasn’t just been idle chatter; right now the City of Seattle has the opportunity to take one more small step toward making sustainability legal with one giant leap for street food. First, let’s review why food carts help to make a sustainable city:Read more » -
Lisa Stiffler on KEXP
Tune in tomorrow (July 9) at 7am to hear Sightline fellow Lisa Stiffler on KEXP’s sustainability segment of Mind Over Matters. She’ll be talking about stormwater, sprawl, and low-impact development. If you’re in Seattle, tune in at 90.3 FM. If you’re not, you can tune in at www.kexp.org. And if you miss it, you can go here and find the show in their archives.Read more » -
Wendell's Whacky Urban Analysis
Wendell Cox recently wrote a very odd piece on urban growth in Seattle. I was planning a detailed rebuttal but I have better things to do with my life, so I'm just going to make fun of it instead. What's wrong with it? Let's start with the first two paragraphs. They're about the population density of western US cities, and they're interesting enough until you get to the last sentence: "Updated urban area density data from the 2010 census will not be available for at least a year." In other words, the stats he's using are from 2000, now more than a decade out of date.
Wendell Cox recently wrote a very odd piece on urban growth in Seattle. I was planning a detailed rebuttal but I have better things to do with my life, so I’m just going to make fun of it instead. What’s wrong with it? Let’s start with the first two paragraphs. They’re about the population density of western US cities, and they’re interesting enough until you get to the last sentence:...Read more » -
Steps Toward Stormwater Solutions
For years Washington’s leaders have fingered stormwater runoff as Puget Sound enemy No. 1. Now the state has real data to back the charges, and decision makers will be able to use this information to better inform regulatory and policy decisions. Right now the state Department of Ecology is working on a draft plan for new stormwater rules, and the Puget Sound Partnership, the agency spearheading the restoration of Washington’s...Read more » -
The Locavore's Non-Dilemma
Over at the Boston Globe in a piece titled “The Localvore’s Dilemma”, Harvard professor and author Edward Glaeser makes the argument against urban agriculture. He’s a smart guy—and makes some good points. There are good reasons to keep large-scale farming farther out from population centers: transporting food isn’t that big of an energy cost, and not every locality is equipped to produce the variety of fruits and vegetables that consumers...Read more » -
Americans (Red and Blue) Ready for Climate Action
Today George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication and Yale Project on Climate Change Communication have released the second report from their latest national survey of the American public. The big takeaway: "Despite political polarization in Washington D.C., public support for a variety of climate change and energy policies remains high, across party lines."
Today George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication and Yale Project on Climate Change Communication have released the second report from their latest national survey of the American public. The big takeaway: “Despite political polarization in Washington D.C., public support for a variety of climate change and energy policies remains high, across party lines.”Read more » -
Working Bikes
We’ve written before about the wonders of bike technology. So, you may already know that the bicycle is the most energy-efficient form of travel ever devised. Bikes are pretty good work horses too, though we don’t use them as such in North America to the extent others do around the world. Or at least not yet!Read more » -
Seattle Congestion Declined by One-Third?
A nationwide traffic study just released by traffic data firm INRIX found that Seattle has the 10th worst congestion in the nation. That’s the second time in the last few months that Seattle has ranked in the top 10 in a national congestion ranking. But more interesting than the city vs. city rankings is this: if you believe INRIX’s national ranking tables, Seattle-area congestion fell by nearly one-third between 2006...Read more » -
Turning the Corner
Imagine a time, years ago, when Johnny and Billie Sue could take a break from jumprope, hopscotch, and tree climbing to ride their bikes down to the corner store, sit at the soda fountain, buy shoelaces, and trade comic books. Sounds like an idyllic bygone era doesn’t it? But I’m not that old and I grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and I lived it. Even we had a corner store....Read more » -
EU Carbon Fraud: Could It Happen Here?
Europe’s ETS cap-and-trade system has taken a somewhat undeserved drubbing in the press. Overall, it has functioned reliably and reasonably efficiently. Most of the alleged “Carbon Fraud!” you hear about in some quarters was really just easily fixable design flaws (like an initial over-allocation of allowances); tax payment scams that were wholly unrelated to the integrity of the carbon-reduction program (like the recent VAT scam); or a lousy offset program...Read more »
