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Seems I’m always late to the party.  A couple days back, NYTimes columnist Paul Krugman, writing from Berlin, had some smart things to say about the meaning of high gas prices for America’s suburbs.  Starting with the obvious: If Europe’s example is any guide, here are the two secrets of coping with expensive oil: own fuel-efficient cars, and don’t drive them too much. Well, duh.  But the problem is that,...

Vancouver Report: Sightline analysis of new Census data finds decline in Vancouver’s smart-growth record. From 2001 through 2006, the share of new urban and suburban growth that went into compact, walkable communities declined and the amount of land developed to accommodate new residents increased, compared with the 1990s.

Yikes!  Rental rates are rising the way housing prices were a few years back: Apartment rents averaged $1,026 in King County and $1,071 in Seattle in March—up 2.5 percent and 1.9 percent, respectively, from September and about 8.5 percent in both cases from March 2007. In my view, rental costs are a far better bellwether of housing affordability than the more commonly cited indexes based on the cost of purchasing...

Ok, this is weird.  Washington’s transportation department thinks that vehicle travel is going to go up up up.  See, for example, this graph… Total Vehicle Miles Traveled 1980 – 2030 (projected)(Miles in billions) The solid red line to the left represents historic traffic volumes—technically, vehicle miles travelled, or “VMT” in planner-speak.  The dashed line to the right is a prediction of future VMT growth. But look:  there’s something awfully suspicious...

UPDATE: This post was originally titled “Measure 21,” but  I was incorrectly referring to the petition number. The actual ballot initiative is Measure 63. *** Surprise! Oregon has a new property rights ballot measure! No, it’s not Groundhog Day. It’s just politics-as-usual in one of my favorite states. This year, it’ll be Measure 21. It’s a bad idea, but it’s fairly small potatoes compared to the big “pay-or-waive” initiatives that toured the West...

Note from Alan: One of the toughest challenges for families with young children living in cities is the lack of safe, accessible outdoor play space for kids—a narrow urban balcony is no substitute for a fenced backyard. But Seattle-area planner (and mother) Alyse Nelson, who spent six months in Copenhagen documenting how to make a city bicycle friendly, discovered the Danish solution to this problem. She discovered it by looking...

Today, March 18, 2008 is the fortieth anniversary of one of Robert F. Kennedy’s most famous speeches, given just months before his assassination. In it, RFK performed a rhetorical evisceration of our national economic report card, Gross National Product. You can watch a great new video of his remarks, prepared by the Glaser Progress Foundation. He said: “Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear...

Earlier this month, two independent studies in the journal Science dropped a bomb into the already controversial world of biofuels. To cop the New York Times‘ lede, the studies found that: Almost all biofuels used today cause more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fuels if the full emissions costs of producing these “green” fuels are taken into account… Yesterday afternoon, when I finally got around to reading the articles, my chin hit the floor....

Price Tags, the urban design newsletter, just released its 100th issue!   In 2003, Gordon Price produced a two-page text document on the Vancouver Style called Price Tags. Since that October, Price Tags has evolved into a well-read and respected online journal, full of intriguing graphics and fascinating articles. In the words of Price: “If there is a repeated theme—the need to pursue more sustainable urban regions—my job was to...

Speaking of tracking the reasons Puget Sound’s roads and transit package failed—here’s a chance for Puget Sound residents to put in your two cents about the Proposition 1 vote and where to go from here. Take Sound Transit’s survey here:http://www.surveymonkey.com/soundtransit You can let Sound Transit hear your voice on transportation solutions in the region, congestion pricing, the taxes we pay for driving (and the costs we don’t pay), and other...