Current Stories
Editor's Top Picks
Vancouver redevelopment as social experiment
New York Times
11/24/2009
Downtown Eastside, a notorious high-poverty neighborhood in Vancouver, BC, known for its concentration of homeless people and drug and crime problems is getting a massive makeover that some view as a panacea for the city's social problems.
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Swift buses ready for fast lane
Everett Herald
11/25/2009
A new $29.6 million fast bus system, four years in the making, begins service Monday between Everett and Shoreline, just north of Seattle. It will be the first of its kind in Washington.
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Walking, biking good for you and the planet
Vancouver Sun
11/25/2009
Pedestrians and cyclists should be made king of the urban jungle, according to an international study showing the big benefits of "mass active travel."
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Tacoma brownfield project a US model
Tacoma News Tribune
11/24/2009
HUD is expanding its formerly narrow focus on housing to encompass a larger mandate: developing better communities through better transportation, schools, and environment. These principals are exemplified by the new housing being constructed on a Tacoma brownfield.
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Views: Vanc. Island flooding has manmade roots
Victoria Times Colonist
11/24/2009
I have followed the stories of flooding in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island and heard about the heavy rains, the high tides, and the dikes. What I have not heard about is the underlying reasons for this flooding: urbanization and forest clearing.
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Whatcom growth plan allows farmland development
Bellingham Herald
11/25/2009
A controversial update of growth areas in Whatcom County was approved by the county council last night, allowing for growth into areas some wanted protected for farming.
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Study sees transit saving CA's energy, cutting greenhouse gas
Sacramento Bee
11/24/2009
A new study says Californians could save billions each year and cut greenhouse gas emissions by developing neighborhoods within easy access of public transportation.
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Life in the slow city
Living on Earth
11/22/2009
With no fast food restaurants or big box stores, the bicycle and pedestrian friendly Cowichan Bay in British Columbia has become North America's first Slow City. An offshoot of the Slow Food movement, it's a quiet resistance to drive-thru homogenization.
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Sewer pollution spills into waterways
New York Times
11/23/2009
More than 9,400 of the nation's 25,000 sewage systems have reported dumping untreated or partly treated human waste, chemicals and other hazardous materials into rivers and lakes and elsewhere. As cities have grown rapidly across the nation, many have neglected infrastructure projects and paved over green spaces that once absorbed rainwater.
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KC Metro won't cut bus service after all
Seattle Times
11/23/2009
Metropolitan King County Council members say they've figured out how to maintain existing bus service for two more years - instead of cutting service 9 percent as earlier proposed.
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The changing SF skyline
San Francisco Chronicle
11/22/2009
For more than 20 years, San Francisco planners have nudged the city's burgeoning financial center towards these principles: don't drive cars, make street-level life more appealing, and let the skyline rip with ultra-tall high-rises. Now they've tweaked that thinking with intriguing specifics, including a "crown" of 1000-foot-tall towers.
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Vancouver choosing density over open space
Vancouver Sun
11/19/2009
Vancouver, BC, is opting for denser communities at the expense of open public spaces in its bid to become the world's greenest city by 2020.
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Vancouver endorses plan light on parks
Vancouver Sun
11/18/2009
Vancouver's city council has unanimously endorsed a plan to create a high-density neighbourhood with a civic plaza, residential and office space on the final undeveloped section of the former Expo lands. What it doesn't include is the 2.75 acres of park space per 1,000 people that city council holds as a goal.
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Paying more for flights eases guilt, not emissions
New York Times
11/17/2009
One of the first travel companies to offer airline customers the option of buying so-called carbon offsets to counter theit planet-warming emissions has canceled the program. While it might help travelers feel virtuous, the offsets were not helping to reduce global emissions and might even encourage people to travel more.
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520 plan would add second Montlake drawbridge
KPLU
11/17/2009
There's a potential milestone in the decades-long search for a replacement for the SR-520 bridge over Lake Washington, but a coalition of Seattle neighborhoods is vowing to torpedo it. A proposal approved Tuesday calls for widening the freeway and adding a second drawbridge in Montlake.
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Failing septic systems vs. OR planning laws
Ashland Daily Tidings
11/17/2009
A smelly and potentially dangerous problem with failing septic systems in Jackson County, OR, soon could be resolved for up to 1,603 rural property owners, with a blanket exception to state planning goals that make it difficult to provide sewer service outside urban areas.
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New light-rail plan avoids Bellevue downtown core
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
11/17/2009
Newly-elected Bellevue City Council member Kevin Wallace has released plans for a light-rail route that would utilize the BNSF rail corridor and keep trains out of the city's central business district.
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Where can I juice up my ride?
Washington Post
11/18/2009
As their manufacturers see it, the electric cars entering U.S. showrooms as early as next year will be engineering marvels: stylish, battery-operated, zero-emission wonders. Yet for all their technological prowess, there's one practical question that unsettles the green dreamers and entrepreneurs alike: Where, oh, where, can you plug them in?
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Boise company's solar charger may save gas
Boise Idaho Statesman
11/17/2009
Treasure Valley Solar is marketing a way to keep electronic devices revved up in the car without turning on the engine.
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San Francisco cyclists get techie
San Francisco Chronicle
11/17/2009
If you see bicyclists wobbling through the city streets with an iPhone in hand, don't assume they're playing Bejeweled or IMing their virtual pals while they pedal.
They may be using Cycle Tracks, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority's new - and first - application for the Apple iPhone.
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Seattle's other mega-project: 520 bridge
KPLU
11/17/2009
A replacement for downtown Seattle's viaduct has been getting a lot of attention - but there's an equally challenging state highway project that crosses Lake Washington. The question is how to replace the aging Route-520 bridge. A committee is supposed to vote today on which option to recommend to the legislature.
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Preparing Oregon for earthquakes
Oregonian
11/17/2009
Using information gained from an April simulation of quakes ranging up to 9.0 magnitude, engineers can now prioritize which of the 2,671 bridges in the state highway system should get seismic upgrades. That's a $3 billion job, Oregon Department of Transportation spokesman Dave Thompson said.
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To serve (food) and protect (the soil)
Missoulian
11/15/2009
The call for local food is loud and growing. At the same time in Missoula, some of the land that produces those vegetables, that meat, is more valuable once it's been developed. Now three local forces are at work on that problem that's led to the incremental loss of agricultural lands.
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Riding out the recession
Spokesman Review
11/15/2009
It wasn't long ago that the Spokane Transit Authority was riding high, but the worst economic recession in generations has brought a new reality. Cuts in service are likely over the next several years, though some urge the agency to look beyond the recession and get ready for conversion to a "green" economy.
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Views: No such thing as free parking
Salem Statesman Journal
11/16/2009
Parking vexes more people than practically any other common issue. That's true around schools, businesses, neighborhoods and downtowns, evidenced by dozens of readers who weighed in on whehter Salem, OR should install parking meters downtown.
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