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Old Voting Systems Run the Risk of Electing a Hitler
As proportional representation attracts more interest—like in British Columbia, where voters will soon decide by referendum whether to adopt proportional representation (PR) for provincial elections—commentators like David Brooks trot out the false belief that proportional representation “allowed an extremist named Adolf Hitler to rise to power with the initial support of a tiny fraction of Germany’s voters.” But contrary to Brooks’ claim, Germany’s PR system actually kept Hitler out of...Read more » -
Pipe Dreams: Canadian Government Bails Out Houston Billionaire
In his continuing bid to earn his country the title of most corrupt petro-state, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau just committed his government—or, rather, all of the country’s citizens—to a Can$4.5 billion bailout for the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project. Trudeau’s government has agreed to buy the existing Trans Mountain Pipeline, along with associated assets, from the current owner, a subsidiary of Houston-based Kinder Morgan, Inc. And despite fierce opposition...Read more » -
Weekend Reading 5/25/2018
Kristin Remote workers tend to be more satisfied with their jobs; feel less time pressure, exhaustion, and stress from meetings; and experience less work-life conflict. But they also have a lower sense of inclusion and get less feedback and social support. Here are three ways that workplaces can use technology to help minimize the disadvantages of working outside an office. Gen X’ers—America’s neglected middle children—are digitally savvy, collaborative leaders. But they are getting promoted significantly more slowly than millennials...Read more » -
Seattle’s New Environmental Study on Accessory Dwellings Obliterates Obstructionists’ Claims
UPDATE: Here’s Sightline’s comment letter on the ADU EIS describing our recommended options for the final policy proposal. In the summer of 2016, anti-housing activists from a wealthy Seattle neighborhood appealed proposed liberalization of rules governing accessory dwellings—commonly known as mother-in-law apartments and backyard cottages. Six months later a city hearing examiner upheld the appeal, forcing Seattle planners to spend the next year and a half slogging through a voluminous...Read more » -
The Narrowing of a Neighborhood: Wallingford
This article is a sequel to my previous publication about Seattle’s zoning history. In my previous article I provided a guided tour through Seattle’s last 120 years of city planning decisions, culminating in its current housing shortage. It’s a story of a myriad of seemingly tiny, innocuous choices—downzones, height restrictions, larger setback requirements, and escalating parking regulations—that together have strangled housing choice in the city, and inflamed prices to unprecedented...Read more » -
This Is How You Slow-Walk into a Housing Shortage
This article is Part 1 in my two-part series about Seattle’s zoning history and its impact on the city’s housing shortage today. Picture yourself, nearly one hundred years ago, on a street in Seattle’s Wallingford neighborhood, years before Harland Bartholomew’s zoning ordinances began to change the landscape. Looking around and strolling through the area, you might see an abundant mix of residential building types within steps of each other: small...Read more » -
Almost 1 Percent of Washington Newborns Go through Withdrawal from Opioids
The scale of North America’s epidemic of heroin, oxy, and other opioids is staggering. Some 2.5 million people in the United States live with addiction or related drug problems that together are called opioid use disorder. The total costs to society may be as high as $500 billion annually. Tragic overdose deaths get media attention, but much of the harm is more ordinary and preventable. It includes suffering caused by...Read more » -
Two Cascadian Cities Extend Greater Welcome to ADUs
May has been a big month for small housing in Cascadia. Two cities—Bellingham and Portland—reaffirmed the region’s growing welcome to accessory dwelling units (ADUs), small homes that sit on the same lot as a larger single-family home, commonly referred to as mother-in-law apartments, garden flats, basement suites, and the like. Bellingham’s city council voted on May 7 to expand its existing ADU regulations by permitting detached accessory dwelling units (DADUs)—stand-alone...Read more » -
Natural Gas Has a Dirty Secret
Coverage of natural gas, even in the most serious mainstream press, too often reads like it’s lifted from the fossil fuel industry playbook. “Natural gas burns cleaner than coal or oil.” You’ve heard this so many times that it honestly just seems, well, natural. The point is, an industry with profit on the line has effectively marketed natural gas as a clean, affordable fuel—even warm and fuzzy, forward-thinking, and environmentally...Read more » -
What Is the Necessity Defense, and What Are Its Limits?
Editor’s note: Late last month, the necessity defense appeared to have reached a milestone when a judge in Massachusetts found 13 pipeline protesters not guilty after they testified that civil disobedience was the only reasonable alternative to prevent imminent harm, locally and globally. The 13 activists were arrested, along with close to 200 other participants, in response to a year-long campaign that began in 2015 to halt a pipeline extension that...Read more »