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Pop quiz:  What share of personal trips in the U.S. are to or from work? Answer:  just 15 percent, or about one out of seven trips.  And according to this (somewhat dated) study by the Puget Sound Regional Council, even during the peak afternoon rush hour, only a minority of trips actually take us from work to home. We make lots of different kinds of trips during that time—shopping, school,...

Eat Here, a new book by Worldwatch Institute’s Brian Halweil, takes a close look at a topic that is close to many northwesterners’ hearts and taste buds: the burgeoning local food movement. The book is a bit too data-packed-not quite accessible enough for a general audience-but it does have some gems in it, including a series of case studies of communities, businesses, and consumers around the world who are working...

A development to watch: the supporters of Oregon’s Measure 37 (which we discussed earlier) are considering moving north, by introducing a similar ballot initiative in Washington. In a nutshell, Measure 37 requires the government to compensate long-time landowners when regulations significantly reduce the value of a particular parcel of land. (Of course, no property owner has to refund money when a government action increases the value of land—but that’s a...

Oregon and Washington have done a better job of protecting rural land from sprawl than they have at encouraging growth inside city limits. If you want to build a cutting-edge, smart growth development in a designated growth center in Washington, for example, you should expect an arduous process of jumping through bureaucratic hoops. (We posted on this problem here.) Now, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is quietly moving to clear away...

"Not long ago skyscrapers were so distasteful we banned them. Now we want to live in them." That’s the kicker of a great column by Danny Westneat in today’s Seattle Times. He shows how Seattle’s attitude toward downtown has changed for the better in fifteen years.

Former Vancouver city councillor (and Sightline board member) Gordon Price welcomed Seattle to the tall, skinny club with an op-ed in the P-Iabout what Vancouver’s learned in its pursuit of a compact and livable downtown. (See news about Seattle’s zoning changes here.) – High-rises, for example, should be not just tall but thin, since thin towers offer more privacy and light to residents. And stagger building heights for variety and...

As the Seattle Timesreports, the mayor of Seattle has proposed increased density in downtown, by changing zoning codes to allow taller, skinnier buildings. This step is welcome and long overdue. Pop a cork! Two observations: Seattle’s vision for downtown is still modest compared with Vancouver’s, as I noted here. And Seattle’s problem isn’t in vision but in implementation, as Parke argued here. The city says it wants downtown development but...

Real estate prices are rising quickly all across British Columbia (as this Vancouver Sun article mentions).  In the past year alone, the total value of assessed property in the province grew by 17 percent.  Demand has been fueled by a hot economy and low interest rates. Not surprisingly, luxury real estate—waterfront property and the like—appreciated fastest, with rises in some areas of 50 percent in a single year.  But perhaps...

Jared Diamond, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel—which described how quirks of geography and environment (rather than, say, racial or cultural superiority) helped some cultures succeed—has a new book out.  This one analyzes why some cultures fail; it’s titled, appropriately enough, Collapse.  In this week’s New Yorker Malcolm Gladwell’s reviews the book, giving an interesting twist that’s very relevant to the Northwest. As a caveat:  I haven’t...

Here’s a neat idea:  NuRide, a web-based service that makes it easier to find carpool matches—and actually gives incentives (such as gift cards) for people to use the service.  It hasn’t reached the Northwest yet, but you can sign up to be notified when it does. According to Earth Share Washington’s Dave Manelski, who tipped us off about this, NuRide may get funding from state transportation agencies or other entities...