Search Results
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Why’s the Rent So High for New Apartments in Seattle?
The notion of the “greedy developer” is alive and well in North America. A recent UCLA study found that the most powerful catalyst of opposition to the construction of new homes is the conviction that developers pocket too much profit. And in booming Cascadian cities such as Seattle, that belief creates a political environment hostile to homebuilding, which worsens an affordability crisis caused by a shortage of homes. When people...Read more » -
Bypass Gerrymandering with a Better Voting System
Americans of all stripes dislike partisan gerrymandering. But they may not realize the usual solutions—independent redistricting and court challenges—can’t fix it. There is a sure-fire solution. Replacing single-winner districts with larger, multi-winner districts with candidates elected proportionally would bypass the gerrymandering mess altogether. That switch would eliminate safe seats, diminish the power of cracking and packing, and render partisan districting battles irrelevant. As Vox’s Matthew Yglesias sums it up, proportional...Read more » -
Could State-Led Upzones Happen Here? 7 Lessons from Modern Cascadia
For housing advocates, could there be a better way? As urban housing shortages drive poor people out of job-rich cities, as middle-class families risk their life savings on exurban tract housing because it’s what they can afford, and as the planet keeps ticking toward deeper climate-driven disasters, is there some path to fair, abundant, transit-friendly housing that doesn’t require battling the forces of stasis up an endless staircase of 2...Read more » -
The Brief and Frustrating Story of the 2001 Election in British Columbia
Hey voters of British Columbia, remember 2001? The BC Liberals got 58 percent of the vote and won all but two seats in the Legislative Assembly. Sure, their votes should have given the party a comfortable majority control—but not near-total domination. The BC New Democratic Party (NDP) and BC Greens won more than 40 percent of the votes but together held just two seats. Most people think all voters should...Read more » -
What Could I-1631 Do for Washington’s Suburbs and Cities?
When a ballot initiative touts raising a whopping $1 billion per year for the foreseeable future, voters understandably want to know how the money will be spent. In a previous article, we showed what Initiative 1631 could provide for rural areas of Washington. But what about cities and suburbs? In the coming decade, I-1631 could direct billions of dollars into building energy efficiency retrofits, solar rooftop installations, electric vehicles and...Read more » -
Coal Exports: Still a Risky Business
A few years back, coal exports were a hot topic up and down the Northwest coast. The coal industry had proposed no fewer than nine export projects from Oakland, California, through Vancouver, British Columbia, all designed to ship coal to Asia. One by one, each proposal died, falling victim to a potent cocktail of political opposition and dismal economics. And the economics were really, truly terrible. By 2015, a multi-year...Read more » -
Call ‘Natural Gas’ What It Is: Fracked
If you live in Cascadia—Washington State, Oregon, or British Columbia—you might think fracking is not really your problem. You might also be under the impression natural gas isn’t all that bad compared to oil and coal. But think again. “Natural gas” is slick industry branding for methane gas, more and more of which is extracted by fracking. And don’t be fooled by the mantra that it “burns cleaner” either. Even...Read more » -
Take It from an American: The Far Right Can Still Rise under Outdated Voting System
Here in the Pacific Northwest, British Columbian voters will soon choose between two voting systems. Proportional Representation (ProRep), is a common form of voting in prosperous countries around the world. The main tenet is to give each group of voters fair representation in the legislature—the party balance in the legislature ends up looking like the party balance among voters. First-Past-the-Post (FPTP), is a form of voting used almost exclusively in...Read more » -
The Democracy Solution You Didn’t Know You Wanted
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It’s Been a Rough Year for Climate Change Warriors — but It’s Not All Bad
It was a tough summer for climate change advocates, and not just because of blistering temperatures and terrifyingly large wildfires in the U.S. and around the globe. And not only due to the shamefully short-sighted decision-making from the US executive branch. (Hello, coal-fired power! Goodbye, improved vehicle mileage standards!) Why, after all, would we want to avoid the punishing heatwaves and never-ending fire seasons that climate change promises to bring? Or,...Read more »