The Urbanist

The Urbanist newsroom discusses the April headlines, including Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson announcing a greatly expanded Bicycle Weekend schedule on Lake Washington Boulevard, hundreds of transit advocates marching to save Ballard light rail from the chopping block, and behind-the-scenes pushback against a Capitol Hill crisis case center from prominent landlords and business owners.

The Urbanist newsroom (Ryan Packer, Amy Sundberg, and Doug Trumm) discusses the big opening day for Sound Transit's crosslake 2 Line and what it means for the future of light rail expansion in the Seattle region. In a series of speeches from Sound Transit leaders, officials waxed poetic on the significance of the day and some argued it provided momentum as the agency heads into the next round...

The Urbanist's Ryan Packer, Amy Sundberg, and Doug Trumm discuss recent news out of Olympia, candidate campaign rollouts, and King County transportation funding woes. The crew also gives their recommendations for favorite outdoor festivals or seasonal events. Our latest dispatches on the Washington State Legislature include: Mosquito Fleet Act Runs Into Choppy Seas in the State Senate Sound T...

The Urbanist’s newsroom — Doug Trumm, Ryan Packer, and Amy Sundberg — dive into recent headlines in a podcast episode covering: Katie Wilson's State of the City speech. ( Read our story ) An update on which bills are moving and which are dying at the Washington State Legislation. The Seattle Social Housing Developer's big moves, including huge proceeds in its first year with a dedicated...

In this episode of The Urbanist Podcast, our newsroom discusses what the 2 Line opening scheduled for March 28 means for the region, and what removing former committee chair Claudia Balducci from Systems Expansions Committee and Executive Committee means for Sound Transit. Hosts Ryan Packer, Amy Sundberg, and Doug Trumm also discuss the constitutional crisis created by a Department of Homeland Sec...

Ryan Packer, Amy Sundberg, and Doug Trumm of The Urbanist newsroom preview the session now underway at the Washington State Legislature in Olympia and break down the huge setback that the I-5 Interstate Bridge Replacement project was just dealt, via a massive cost jump pushing the budget near $20 billion.   Ryan recently covered a myriad of housing bills working their way through Olympia. Bills al...

The Urbanist’s Ryan Packer, Amy Sundberg, and Doug Trumm kick off the new year by breaking down Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson's inauguration ceremony and Washington Governor Bob Ferguson's supplemental budget proposal , which included deep cuts to public education, while also queuing up a millionaires income tax for 2029. The trio also make a few new year predictions and flag some big stori...

The Urbanist's newsroom dissects the biggest headlines of the last few weeks. Ryan Packer, Amy Sundberg, and Doug Trumm discuss the Federal Way Link light rail opening in early December, Katie Wilson's transition team and early hires, and the Seattle City Council's vote to approve a controversial labor contract with the Seattle Police Officers Guild. The contract again punts on long...

The Urbanist Podcast is back after a hiatus, just in time to break down 2025 election results. Urbanist-endorsed Katie Wilson pulled off a comeback in late returns to win the Seattle Mayor race. In this episode, Urbanist publisher Doug Trumm and reporter Amy Sundberg discuss results in Seattle and other interesting races across the region, including Tacoma, Bellevue, Kirkland, and a progressive sw...

The Urbanist hosted a “ Future of Seattle Housing” panel discussion on April 23rd, alongside Seattle YIMBY , at El Centro de la Raza in Beacon Hill. The panel was moderated by Doug Trumm, The Urbanist’s publisher, and our panelists are housing leaders in the private, non-profit, and public sectors: Patrick Cobb, developer, architect, and a founding partner of Stack , a firm specializing in urban i...

It's time to vote for Seattle City Council, a housing levy, and elected positions all over King County. The Urbanist has published its general election endorsements . Get out your ballots, use the endorsements to pick the best candidates, and make sure they're returned by November 7. In this episode, co-hosts Natalie Argerious and Ray Dubicki break down the issues facing Seattle in this...

Primary election ballots are arriving in the mail and due by August 1st. In the run up The Urbanist Elections Committee has been hard at work prepping endorsements for what is shaping to be an exciting (and consequential) primary election. In this podcast episode, host and reporter Ray Dubicki chats with Election Committee members Rian Watt, Urbanist executive director, and Maya Ramakrishnan, evic...

Summer is (finally) here for families with kids in Seattle Public Schools! In this mini episode, hosts Ray Dubicki and Natalie Argerious reflect on how we got to this late start to summer and look forward to what's ahead. A great companion piece to this episode is Ray's recent op-ed on Mayor Harrell's vision for Downtown Seattle. Be sure to check it out.  This is the last episode of...

Summertime gets us thinking about whole bunch of stuff, including grass. In cities across North America, grass yards are often a symbol of wealth and success and in many areas have a cult status. But what are some of the pros and cons of covering land in a plant monoculture? What happens when deadly grasses like foxtail invade? And is it true that in the right conditions synthetic turf can melt? W...

Cascadia is uniquely set up as a region that would support high-speed rail. Between the linear arrangement of Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver, BC, and the just-over-100 mile distance between each one, the super region could be tied together by a fast. It's an idea being pushed by a number of actors, including the Cascadia Innovation Corridor, Microsoft, and anyone who REALLY needs to get bac...

The Urbanist recently reported on Seattle snagging the 8th slot in the Trust for Public Land's 2023 national ParkScore index. In this episode, Natalie Argerious speaks with the Trust for Public Land's (TPL) Linda Hwang, Senior Director, Strategy and Innovation of the Land and People Lab, and Ronda Lee Chapman, Equity Director, about their organization's work to create more quality p...

Last week, we published an oral history of Washington State's missing middle housing bill. Creating this episode involved interviewing several of the lawmakers and advocates, like Representative Jessica Bateman (D- Olympia) and Bryce Yadon, lobbyist for Futurewise, who were involved in the legislation's path to success. There were so many good insights in the interviews that we decided t...

In this year’s legislative session, the Washington State Legislature passed extensive housing reform. House Bill 1110 compelled many cities in Washington to open up single-housing residential zones to long-banned duplexes, cottage courts, and small apartments. Such middle housing has been missing from the calculation for years, and it’s no wonder that housing has become unaffordable in that time....

In this episode, civil engineer and Urbanist contributing writer Donna Breske discusses her experience with the frustrating hurdles posed by the permitting process in Seattle with podcast host Ray Dubicki. Breske works on the kind of urban infill projects that the City of Seattle purports to want to see built, but in her experience, impediments in permit process, particularly for utilities, end up...

Sound Transit CEO Julie Timm was our guest for The Urbanist's monthly talk series. Timm took the reins in September after coming out on top in a national CEO search to replace Peter Rogoff. She left her post as CEO of Greater Richmond Transit Company in Virginia to take the top job at Sound Transit. The discussion features a wide range of topics facing Seattle's light rail, from the issu...

We get a lot of news-ish emails about ranking cities in lists. Whether it's the best cities for strange hats or the metros one can find the most left handed plumbers, there's a list for everything.  The proliferation of lists begs the question of their quality. Who is making them, are they trustworthy, and are the lists even useful at all? In this episode, Natalie and Ray look at what ma...

This week Ray Dubicki and I chat about the policy changes that have been proposed for Seattle's industrial zones. These policies have been in the works for a long time and are finally coming up for consideration by the Seattle City Council in May and June.  While we may associate industrial lands with factories, these days in Seattle they are more likely to be the location of big box stores o...

In this week's episode, podcast host Ray Dubicki discusses the Heroes and Zeroes of the recent state legislative session with Urbanist Executive Director Doug Trumm. Heroes and Zeroes is a standing tradition at The Urbanist, and this year's session concluded on some high notes as missing middle housing and climate action achieved victories. But there were some disappointments along the w...

Sometimes we feel a modicum of shame that we're not reading enough books. As the pile on the nightstand gets taller, the guilt grows. There's absolutely no reason for that to be the case. Many of us spend all day, every day reading something. Literally, you're reading this right now. Good job. In this episode, Ray and Natalie talk about the varied things we're reading. And it&a...

Every one knows there are two things you can't escape in life, death and taxes. While I'd add a few more items to that list, it seems that with Washington State having such an, ahem, unique tax system, the time had come for us to tackle the topic of taxes on The Urbanist podcast. So in this episode, Ray and I talk about Washington State's tax system -- the agrarian origins of how we...