Erica Barnett explains why development around Rainier Beach Station is anemic. Seattle Council Candidate Pat Murakami is not going for the STB vote. Pierce Transit now has a pay-by-phone app. It is not <facepalm> integrated with Metro’s pay-by-phone app. Seattle working to rezone Uptown, simplify design review. You may have heard: Amazon is seeking a […]

The Mayoral Primary inspired more discussion between growth advocates and renters’ advocates. Renters’ advocates wonder why market urbanists* didn’t rally to Nikkita Oliver. Market urbanists wonder why Oliver didn’t embrace developers who can address the affordability crisis. There are also some attempts to bridge this gap and form common cause against NIMBYs that oppose both […]

After a long listening process, Metro settled on a flat $2.75 adult fare for all regular bus trips. Riders asked for a simpler system, and they got one. On Saturday Brent lamented the missed opportunity to accelerate ORCA adoption with a slightly more complicated fare system. But that’s only one example of how the fare […]

Last week Sound Transit released its 2nd Quarter ridership numbers. While agency ridership was up 6.8% overall over the same quarter last year, that masked a lot of variance. Link was up 14.5% (over a quarter that had U-Link stations but not Angle Lake), but ST Express actually dropped 0.6%, a setback ST blames on […]

Costs are rising for Lynnwood Link, due to both economic conditions and increasing scope. Sound Transit is choosing to delay its delivery by six months in an effort to limit those increases. Until today’s board meeting, the plan for the line between Northgate and Lynnwood Transit Center cost $2.4 billion, including vehicles and part of […]

Pictures of what’s going in above Capitol Hill Station, but the design review board is not yet satisfied. New contracts for East Link and Northgate Link. Mountlake Terrace approves Link right-of-way, though they are concerned ST will cheap out on the station design. Sound Transit has a new system map including ST3 expansion. The current […]

It’s official: Jenny Durkan will face Cary Moon in general election for Mayor. A dive into the precinct maps. United will join Alaska Air ($) in flying from Paine Field. Confusion about legally binding limitations ($) on flights, beyond the number of gates present. Maybe “congestion free network” is the branding we need. Seattle Council […]

Now that Mercer Island and Sound Transit have reached a settlement, the temperature on this dispute has gone down. Dan reported the key aspects: $4.5m-worth of new park-and-ride spaces (up to 200), plus 100 temporary spaces while South Bellevue is closed; an essentially status-quo level and pattern of bus traffic, aside from city-only buses; About […]

Last week, there were a couple of actions that added to the number of potential housing units in central Seattle. One was more straightforward than the other. First, the Council voted 8-0 to upzone large parts of the International District ($) by up to 30 feet. Utilizing these height bonuses will require construction of, or […]

After the first ballot results drop, it is unclear which two candidates will face off in a variety of races. For the races in which we endorsed (STB Favorites in bold): Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan 27,579 31.60% Cary Moon 13,583 15.56% Nikkita Oliver 12,126 13.90% Jessyn Farrell 10,308 11.81% Bob Hasegawa 7,526 8.62% Mike McGinn 6,247 […]