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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...

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...

Facebook announced earlier in January that it would overhaul users’ feeds, placing more of an emphasis on posts from family and friends and less on posts from businesses, brands, and media. An organization like ours falls squarely in the latter group by Facebook’s definition. And with nearly 12,500 of you following us on this platform (thank you!), we’d like to make sure you don’t miss any of the research our...

Designed to meet the rigorous Living Building Challenge, Seattle’s Bullitt Center is one of the greenest office buildings on the planet. But that didn’t stop antagonists from hijacking Washington’s State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) to stall its construction. Why? Because they didn’t like that it would provide no off-street parking and that its rooftop solar panels would block views and cast shadows. Washington enacted SEPA—a sweeping package of environmental rules—in...

In my previous article, I illustrated how Portland’s city council does not represent the city’s people in terms of geography, race and ethnicity, gender, wealth, and life experience. Only two people of color have ever served on the council. In 2016, the city elected Chloe Eudaly, the eighth woman ever and possibly the first renter to hold a seat on the council. Most councilors come from central North-East or Westside...

UPDATE, June 2, 2017: Illinois became the first state to pass Automatic Voter Registration using agencies other than the Department of Motor Vehicles. Designated agencies in Ilinois include the Department of Healthcare and Family Services and the Department of Employment Security. The bill, passed with strong bipartisan support, could serve as a model for Washington to take a similar multi-agency approach.  Oregon’s New Motor Voter law empowered more than a...

When it comes to urban homes, it’s hard to imagine anything less threatening than granny flats. But surprisingly, in Seattle last year instill fear they did, provoking a handful of anti-housing activists to appeal proposed rule changes intended to spark construction of in-law apartments and backyard cottages. And in an exasperating turn of events, the appeal was upheld. Of all the 65 recommendations in Seattle’s Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda...

Imagine two towns, both committed to helping their low-income residents but short on funding for social services. Both decide to require retailers to sell 5 or 10 percent of their wares at steeply discounted prices to families who qualify for benefits: milk, jeans, refrigerators, whatever. But they do it two different ways. The first town flat-out forces stores to do it, giving them nothing back in exchange. The place gets...