The Northwest Urbanist

Atlanta Conference Recap

Posted on May 9, 2014 by Scott Bonjukian

In April I had the good fortune to attend the 2014 National APA (American Planning Association) Conference in Atlanta, Georgia with 5,000 fellow planners. Session topics ranged from autonomous cars and the Millennials to citizen participation and affordable housing. I’m still digesting all of the enlightening presentations and thought-provoking discussion, and here I’ve provided summaries that offer just a small glimpse into the challenges and opportunities planners will continue to face in the decades ahead. Feel free to scroll to topics, in bold, that interest you, because there’s a lot here. The conversations will be continued as the national conference is hosted in Seattle next year.

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Posted in Climate, Demographics, Editorial, Event Writeup, Government, Housing, Land Use, Landscape, Megaprojects, Policy, Public Space, Resources, Sustainability, Transportation | Tagged 2014, APA, Atlanta, Boston, cap parks, climate change, complete streets, conference, creative class, cycle tracks, Dallas, downtown, freeways, freight, infrastructure, lid, millenials, mixed use, national, natural disasters, Philadelphia, resiliency, Seattle, sustainability, transit, transit oriented development, transportation, urban design | 1 Comment

Lessons from the Oso Landslide

Posted on April 22, 2014 by Scott Bonjukian

On March 22nd, a forested hillside northeast of Seattle broke away and sent a mile of mud towards the rural community of Oso. The results were utterly devastating. 41 are confirmed dead and two remain missing, 49 homes were completely destroyed, and the town of Darrington was cutoff as Highway 530 became impassible and the Stillaguamush River backed up. It is the second-worst natural disaster in Washington state history (the worst being a volcanic eruption in 1980). The recovery effort has been massive, with volunteer and professional response teams from local, state, and federal agencies working around the clock for a month. At the same time, investigative reporting has revealed that this disaster may have been preventable with proper planning.

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Posted in Government, Land Use, Landscape | Tagged 2014, Arlington, buy out, critical areas, Darrington, deaths, emergency, first responders, geology, government, hazard, homes, injuries, landslide, mud, mudslide, natural disaster, oso, Planning, slope, Snohomish County, Stillaguamish River, Washington, water | 1 Comment

Vote Yes on Proposition 1

Posted on April 8, 2014 by Scott Bonjukian

King County voters are receiving ballots in the mail for a special election on April 22. The only measure up for vote, Proposition 1, will maintain funding for transit and increase maintenance funding for county roads if it passes with a simple majority. For the sake of the region’s growing economy and related congestion problems, The Northwest Urbanist supports a “Yes” vote on Proposition 1.

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Posted in Buses, Editorial, Government, Policy, Roads, Transportation | Tagged buses, car tab, cuts, election, fee, funding, King County, metro, motor vehicle excise tax, MVET, Proposition 1, sales tax, Seattle, vote | 1 Comment

Seattle Hopes to Restart Neighborhood Relations

Posted on April 5, 2014 by Scott Bonjukian

The Mayor’s Office hosted a “Neighborhood Summit” at the Seattle Center on Saturday for the purpose of connecting city government with citizens. In addition to over 20 city departments and offices, 600 people of all ages and walks of life attended. I had the opportunity to speak with employees from several departments and hear from civic leaders on the current issues plaguing the relationship between neighborhoods and local governance. Video coverage can be viewed here.

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Posted in Editorial, Energy, Event Writeup, Government, Housing, Land Use, Public Space, Resources, Sustainability, Transportation | Tagged City Council, conflict, controversey, Department, development, districts, Ed Murray, elections, event, growth, mayor, Neighborhood Summit, neighborhoods, office, open house, Planning, politics, Seattle, Seattle Center, transportation, voting, waterfront | 2 Comments

Redesigning 15th Avenue NE

Posted on March 29, 2014 by Scott Bonjukian

The “complete street” movement has picked up steam as urban planners and city leaders have relearned that public rights-of-way need to accommodate all modes of transportation. With the growing interest in this urban design strategy I tried my hand at it. This proposal reconfigures 2.4 miles of 15th Avenue NE in northeast Seattle in order to accommodate travel by pedestrians, bicyclists, transit, and cars. The result is a practical multi-modal corridor that can be replicated across the rest of the city.

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Posted in Biking, Buses, Editorial, Parking, Public Space, Roads, Sustainability, Transportation, Walking | Tagged 15th Ave, 15th Avenue, bike path, complete street, corridor, department of transportation, design, drawings, efficiency, Lake City, mode, multi-modal, NE, on-street parking, Pacific Street, parking, plantings, project, proposal, renderings, Roosevelt, route, safety, Seattle, speed limit, traffic, transit, U-District, university of washington, walking | 17 Comments

Vision Port Orchard: Planning for a Small Town

Posted on March 12, 2014 by Scott Bonjukian

On Saturday morning, months of preparation were finally put into action. A team of graduate planning students, including myself, hosted a public meeting at Port Orchard City Hall to kick off the city’s yearlong comprehensive plan update process. The purpose of the meeting was to present our initial research on the state of the city and gather citizen input on what the future of Port Orchard should look like. And while not nearly on the scale of other public events I’ve been to recently, the occasion offered lessons on becoming a city planner.

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Posted in Editorial, Government, Housing, Land Use, Transportation | Tagged 2015, 2016, city hall, civic, comprehensive plan, event, graduate, involvement, meeting, Nick Bond, participation, Port Orchard, process, public, students, Tim Matthes, university of washington, update, urban design, urban planning, uw, Vision Port Orchard | 1 Comment

The Vision for Seattle’s Waterfront

Posted on March 5, 2014 by Scott Bonjukian

Overview of the redesigned waterfront. (Waterfront Seattle)

On Tuesday night Friends of Waterfront Seattle hosted an event with landscape architect James Corner, of High Line and Fresh Kills fame, on the continuing redesign of Seattle’s downtown waterfront. With replacement of the viaduct at a standstill and a new proposal for a hill-climbing gondola, the conversation is rapidly becoming more dynamic and exciting. The city should capitalize on this momentum to make its urban shoreline a world class attraction.

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Posted in Biking, Buses, Ferries, Government, Land Use, Landscape, Megaprojects, Parking, Parks, Public Art, Public Space, Rail, Roads, Sustainability, Transportation, Walking | Tagged Alaskan Way, Bertha, Colman Dock, construction, cycle track, downtown, Elliot Bay, features, Field Operations, Friends of Waterfront Seattle, funding, gondola, High Line, Highway 99, James Corner, landscape, park, pedestrian, Pike Place, Pike-Pine, redesign, replacement, revitalize, Seattle, Seattle Aquarium, seawall, shoreline, streetcar, transit, tunnel, urban, viaduct, waterfront, Waterfront Seattle, Waterfront Streetcar, WSDOT | 6 Comments

The Case for Cities and Saving the World

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Scott Bonjukian

(Adimono)

The Urbanist, a new Seattle-based website, offers compelling reasons for channeling human activities and development into cities. I’d like to add to their argument: cities are how we’re going to save the world. As developing countries rapidly catch up with industrialized standards of living we have an opportunity to simultaneously improve quality of life while combating climate change, and skip the dirty, ugly stages of development that have been characteristic in much of history. We can’t wait any longer to change for the better.

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Posted in Editorial, Government, Housing, Land Use, Resources, Sustainability, Transportation | Tagged alternatives, cities, colonization, densification, density, elon musk, energy, environment, future, humanity, humankind, life, living, population, space, spacex, sprawl, suburbs, sustainability, world | 1 Comment

Murray Sees Progress Ahead for Seattle

Posted on February 18, 2014 by Scott Bonjukian

Newly elected Seattle Mayor Ed Murray delivered his first State of the City address Tuesday afternoon in a packed chamber at City Hall. He highlighted the pride and spirit of community that is embodied in Seattlites, and also went over the significant challenges he and the Council will face over the next four years. He covered a variety of topics, from transportation to income inequality, and offered a few jabs at opponents. Click here for a full video of the occasion.

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Posted in Biking, Buses, Climate, Demographics, Government, Housing, Policy, Rail, Roads, Schools, Sustainability, Transportation, Walking | Tagged 2014, bike share, bus, city hall, climate change, Council, economic justice, Ed Murray, elections, income inequality, internet, levy, mayor, metro, minimum wage, municipal broadband, parks, SDOT, sea level rise, Seattle, seawall, social justice, state, State of the City, streets, univerisal pre-school, utility, video, Washington, waterfront, WSDOT | 2 Comments

Let’s Bury I-5

Posted on February 17, 2014 by Scott Bonjukian

Conceptual lid proposal viewed from Columbia Center. Click for a comparative view.

Author’s Note: This post has been superseded by an updated proposal in another post, “Let’s Bury I-5: Redux”, dated July 5, 2014.

Author’s Note 2: The latest and most detailed proposal is in a third post, “The Case for Lidding I-5 in Downtown Seattle”, dated December 4, 2015.

When President Eisenhower envisioned a great road system connecting the far-flung cities of the U.S. he didn’t quite expect the engineers to plow through whole neighborhoods. But that’s what happened, and the legacy is the concrete ribbons that divide our cities to this day. An example is right here in Seattle with Interstate 5 running north to Shoreline and south to Tukwila for about 16 miles, dividing Downtown from First Hill, Capitol Hill from South Lake Union, and the U-District from Wallingford. Amid population growth and demand for residential and commercial development, now is the time to reclaim valuable land while mitigating a significant disturbance to urban life.

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Posted in Editorial, Government, Housing, Land Use, Landscape, Megaprojects, Public Space, Transportation | Tagged bicycling, bore, buildings, bury, cars, concrete, construction, cost, cover, Dallas, department of transportation, Eisenhower, engineering, freeway, highway, Hudson Yards, I-5, Interstate 5, land, land value, lid, megaproject, Millenium Park, neighborhoods, noise, park, paths, pollution, project, proposal, reconnect, Seattle, soil, tunnel, urban design, vegetation, walking, Washington | 31 Comments

The Northwest Urbanist

Atlanta Conference Recap

Lessons from the Oso Landslide

Vote Yes on Proposition 1

Seattle Hopes to Restart Neighborhood Relations

Vision Port Orchard: Planning for a Small Town

The Vision for Seattle’s Waterfront

The Case for Cities and Saving the World

Let’s Bury I-5

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