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For the first time (at least in recent history), less than half of all housing units in Seattle are detached single family dwellings. That’s what I found yesterday, squirreled away in the depths of recently-released census data for 2005. Just 49.3 percent of the city’s units are of the traditional house-and-yard variety. And as far as I can tell, Seattle is the only city in the US Northwest where this...

National Geographic has a fairly awesome new web feature. It’s an interactive look at smart growth that does a good job of spelling out—with pictures!—some of the key differences between low density sprawl and healthier compact communities. There’s more in the magazine. Unfortunately, NG’s representation of healthy urban development seems to make a puzzling omission. I was unable to find the multibillion dollar giantnew elevated freeway through the heart of...

Yesterday,Sightline released a new, expanded report telling the stories of seven communities affected by Measure 37. Here is another of the stories… Protection. Farmer Ted Warrick knows that his wine grapes need protection to be good enough to craft the pinot noir, chardonnay, zinfandel, syrah, and eight other varietals he makes at Wooldridge Creek Winery and Vineyards. Proud of southern Oregon’s fertile Applegate Valley, Warrick insists that this area rivals California...

Two years after Oregonians voted for Measure 37, survey data and case studies reveal that many Oregonians would vote against the measure if it were on the ballot today. Sightline’s report documents how Measure 37 has affected residents of seven communities–farmers, foresters, business owners, and suburbanites–and examines whether the initiative is undermining the very rights it claimed to protect.

After two years of Measure 37, survey data and case studies reveal that many Oregonians oppose the measure. Sightline’s new, expanded report tells the stories of seven communities affected by Measure 37. Here is one of the stories… Gorham Blaine is not your typical fourth-generation Oregon pear farmer. As a young man he left the Hood River Valley for an education in Europe and on the East Coast, and for a...

I’m a day or two late on this, but there’s promising news from Oregon on Measure 37. Governor Kulongoski has proposed legislation that essentially puts a temporary moratorium on the most obnoxious results of the law. (See here and here (pdf) for the details.) Kulongoski’s bill will still allow rural landowners to continue with small scale claims. In fact, it should actually speed up the processing of these claims. So legitimate claimants who want to...

Who stands to benefit most from living in “walkable” neighborhoods? Possibly kids, new research suggests. As Science News reports this week, researchers including UBC’s Lawrence Frank (whose work we covered in Cascadia Scorecard 2006) are finding that children are disproportionately affected by how their neighborhood is designed. In one study of what determines whether kids are active, scientists found that: Girls who live near parks and recreational facilities are more...

Here’s a potentially good idea about which I’m rather ambivalent: rules requiring in-city developers to include robust landscaping features such as green roofs and vegetation-covered walls. It’s easy on the eyes, but it may not be smart public policy. To begin with, it’s unclear how much burden Seattle’s cutting-edge new rules would impose; and it’s unclear how much benefit they’d achieve. But if most developers are skeptical—and they are, at...

I just returned from Christmas in a surprisingly balmy Minneapolis where I learned about a neat little tax shifting trick that could be a powerful technique for constraining sprawl. The best part is that it’s actually fairer than the current system. Here’s the scoop. In most places, homeowners pay a simple sewage or drainage rate (it’s often calculated as a percentage of water consumed). Minneapolis decided to break apart the sewage charge into two separate...

An intriguing new study argues that social interactions actually diminish in higher density settings. (Media coverage here, full pdf of study here.) What’s odd about this finding is that it’s in marked contrast to most other empircal studies of the relationship between density and social capital. The literature on the subject (summary fact sheet) is certainly not uniform. But in general the research suggests that people tend to forge more...