A great event is coming to Seattle’s Town Hall on June 2: Conservation Remix. A dozen speakers will present on a variety of topics, from smart building to GMO crops. Sightline fellow and funny-guy Yoram Bauman will be presenting on a perennial favorite: tax shifting.
It’s an all-day event that promises to be highly engaging.
You can get more information or buy tickets here.
See you there!
2 Comments
Joel Connelly deserves many kudos for being the first to draw attention to the fact that Tim Eyman’s proposed latest “two-third majority” anti-tax ballot measure is really just a stalking horse for Big Oil. You can tell, as Connelly points out, because oil refiners have already thrown a staggering $350,000 behind his initiative.
I really think it’s worth being clear about this: tax policy in Washington State is now being written by oil companies with headquarters elsewhere.
Amidst all the hullabaloo in Seattle about a possible new NBA arena, I enjoyed reading Brian Phillips’ open letter to Seattle SuperSonics fans from an OKC Thunder supporter.
Finally, I loved this time-lapse photography of a crane being assembled in my neighborhood. I’ve always wondered how they did that.
How to dry your hands with just one paper towel.
Be the first to comment.
Why don’t women bike to work more often? You hear many theories: we’re less willing to ride in traffic, we can’t arrive at a showerless office all sweaty, we never bothered to learn how to fix a flat, our schedules are over-extended, we work longer hours to make the same money as men, those of us with kids spend twice as much time on average caring for them, and many of us squeeze in shopping and errands on the way to and from work.
There’s no single satisfying answer, although convenience is a recurring theme. Sometimes,though, the reason can be as stupid as a garage door. When I evaluated all the things in my life that keep me from hopping on my bike more often, that’s what it boiled down to. I used to keep my bike in the back yard, but after I bought a trailer to haul around our 3-year-old, it was too cumbersome to hoist all of that up the steep stairs to our house and then squeeze through bushes and trees to get to our covered back deck. The other option was our garage, which has an old wooden door that’s falling apart. After some reflection, I realized that I hate to open it because every time I do I’m afraid that I’m going to do irreparable damage and then I’ll have to pay a lot of money to replace it. So there my bike sits, held hostage by a lack of handiness and disposable income.
According to new 5-year estimates from the commute section of the American Community Survey (2006-2010), I’m not alone. Even among Northwest cities with significant numbers of female bike commuters, the percentage of women who primarily biked to work in the week before they were surveyed ranged from a low estimate of 1.8 percent for Seattle to 7 percent in Corvallis, Oregon.
Women bike commuters chart in NW
For a larger version of this chart, click here.
11 Comments
Earlier this year, I shared my stroller-on-the-bus hell story. The villain in the tale was surprising: King County Metro, otherwise a hero in my book. Like many transit agencies across North America, Metro says kids cannot stay in their strollers on board buses—and that policy is a giant problem for families with babies and toddlers. Unpacking a stroller, folding it, and hauling everything onto a transit vehicle even one time is enough to convince many parents never to attempt a bus ride again.
Well, guess what? Dozens of Metro drivers on dozens of Metro buses already welcome aboard moms and other caregivers pushing their kids in prams: no stroller folding necessary. No rogue pram guerrillas, these drivers do so in accordance with their orders from above. So do certain drivers at the county transit agency in neighboring Pierce County, which also bans loaded strollers.
Contradiction? No. Sound Transit, the Puget Sound regional express bus service provider, has strong pro-stroller policies on most of its vehicles, including not only its light-rail cars but also most of its buses. (Exceptions are the tall, narrow-aisled, Greyhound-like vehicles it sends up and down I-5.) And Sound Transit contracts with King County Metro and Pierce Transit to operate its buses.
All that Metro and Pierce Transit need to do to catch up with North America’s stroller-friendly leaders is to tell all of its drivers to do what some of its drivers already do: follow Sound Transit’s stroller rules.
1 Comment
We’ve been cleaning out the fridge for nearly a year now, and we’ve compiled our list of moldy, past-their-prime laws into a handy new report.
It’s all in there, from freeing taxis and food carts to legalizing car sharing and clotheslines. Plus, we’ve cataloged three success stories, where outdated rules have been brought into the modern age.
Download the full report, or get the two-page summary to take to your next cocktail party.
There’s lots more work to be done. We’ve made it through the crisper and cheese drawers, but there are plenty more shelves to inspect. Know of a regulation that stinks to high-heaven? Sent a note to Eric de Place, eric@sightline.org.
2 Comments
British Columbia prides itself on a commitment to renewable energy. Yet many British Columbians are forbidden from stringing up the simplest of solar devices: the clothesline.
These laundry-drying bans are written into the bylaws of strata corporations, which govern most of British Columbia’s condominiums, apartments, duplexes, and townhomes. Condos are a big and fast-growing housing choice in the province. In just 20 years, the percentage of Vancouverites dwelling in them has nearly doubled from under 25 percent to more than 40 percent. A similar trend is evident across the province where, in 2008, investments in condos and apartments outpaced investments in detached homes for the first time. Moreover, from 2002 to 2008, investments in townhomes and duplexes more than doubled. British Columbia may have more than 1 million residents who are subject to strata bylaws.
6 Comments
Anyone familiar with Seattle’s Rainier Valley knows it’s a place in transition.
Long one of the most racially diverse neighborhoods in the Northwest, it has for many decades struggled economically. In recent years, some areas of the valley such as Columbia City have gentrified rapidly even while nearby neighborhoods were rocked by the economic downturn, experiencing high rates of foreclosure and unemployment.
It was in that complicated geography that the Puget Sound’s first light rail line arrived, bringing with it both the promise of new investment and, for some, the threat of economic dislocation. To evaluate the changes Puget Sound Sage just published a new report: Transit Oriented Development That’s Healthy, Green, and Just.
I highly recommend it, in large part because the report invites a valuable equity perspective into a conversation that has not often focused on social justice. I also recommend it because it’s well-grounded in data and research.
3 Comments
At this point, most serious researchers agree that the average city-dweller produces fewer climate-warming emissions than a typical suburban or rural resident. City-folks tend to drive less, and walk or use transit more, than those of us who live in suburbs or out in the country. And city dwellers also tend to have less living space per capita, and are more likely to share walls or ceilings with their neighbors—all of which tend to reduce energy consumption per person. (And just to be clear: there’s no finger-pointing intended here, since my own neighborhood easily qualifies as suburban!)
The connection between urban form and greenhouse gases is strong enough that many policymakers concerned about climate change are looking for ways to trim back on rural development, in exchange for a little more housing in city and town centers.
3 Comments
Those people at Walk Score just don’t know when to stop: today, they’ve announced new Bike Score rankings.
No surprises with the victors: Minneapolis takes the top spot (Bike Score: 79) while Portland and San Francisco settle for second and third (both have a Bike Score of 70). Seattle comes in at number seven (Bike Score: 64).
The block-by-block algorithm takes four criteria into account: bike lanes (how good is bike infrastructure), hills (how good is the geography), destinations (what can you bike to), and mode share (how many people are actually biking). See the full methodology here.
It seems like a great way to size up a city’s bike-ability: look at the lay of the land and see where good infrastructure takes you.
There’s not much else to say. It’s a great addition to their line up. You should just go check it out yourself.
Be the first to comment.
Jon Stewart gives the best explanation I’ve seen of cognitive dissonance and how it plays out: Two rats in a bag!
And in related cognitive dissonance news: Want partisans to listen to ideas that contradict their views? Give them an ego boost.
Our other big pollution problem: Antibiotics.
The Heartland Institute went too far lumping mass murderers and terrorists with everybody who’s concerned about climate change. A bunch of their backers are pulling away.
Back when I was a wee lad, a more productive economy meant a more prosperous middle class. Whenever technological advances made it possible to squeeze more value out of an hour of labor, employers would pay more for a worker’s time—and everyone saw some benefit from rising productivity.
Be the first to comment.
