Deciding to See: The View from Nathan's Bus, a collection of short stories, many of which were published at The Urbanist over the last decade, recently earned the distinction of being a finalist for the Washington State Book Awards.

Bellevue should reconsider plans to extend NE Spring Boulevard. An alternative bike and pedestrian trail would be much cheaper and complementary to the future BelRed park the boulevard would cut through.

Due to the location of water mains and sidewalk gaps, Seattle often heaps more fees on homebuilders in formerly redlined communities, echoing racial discrimination of the past.

Throngs of transit fans packed onto the station plaza near I-5 and NE 130th Street Wednesday to check out the new station, which had initially been scheduled to open in 2031. Criticized for a high price tag and bad adjacent land use, Pinehurst is a catalyst for future improvements.

A 10.7% bump in building permit fees comes just a year after an 18% increase. The hike is intended to maintain SDCI's staffing reserves, even as the department prepares to cut 34 positions. Despite some streamlining initiatives in progress, a light at the end of the tunnel isn't yet clear.

On October 6, Kirkland will be the first Eastside city to consider raising its minimum wage. Here's why Kirkland should take the leap.

The Office of Housing would lose out to Seattle Police Department in Katie Wilson’s budget proposal, but councilmembers want to go even further to divert housing funds to boost police and restore pet projects previously funded with one-time funds.

Pinehurst Station opened today as a new light rail stop between Northgate and South Shoreline. While a new crosstown bus and street upgrades preceded the station, neighborhood upzones are tied up in legal appeals, stunting housing and business growth in the vicinity.

Seattle earned the fourth-highest ranking in a new Oxford Economics 2026 Global Cities Index, trailing only New York, London and Paris. Here's how the Emerald City pulled off the feat.

Without major action, the Seattle Department of Transportation would have been looking at a $113 million deficit in its transportation fund by 2028, department leaders said Monday. Cuts that are already underway will impact road and bridge maintenance but not Vision Zero work.

Mayor Katie Wilson joined bestselling authors Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor to lay out an antidote to fascism at a book talk at Town Hall Seattle last week.

To avoid a state growth board hearing that could unravel Clyde Hill's Comprehensive Plan even further, City officials are advancing a plan to allow additional building rights in exchange for an on-site affordable unit or a hefty fee. The change is being prompted by a legal appeal by Futurewise.

The new Airo trains, which will be running on every trip on Amtrak Cascades by next spring, bring a bevy of new passenger features from upgraded seats to overhauled restrooms. The first trips are scheduled to start rolling out of King Street Station on September 30.

Ray Delahanty of CityNerd did a video on the 2 Line, now that the light rail corridor spans Lake Washington connecting Seattle, Bellevue, and Redmond. Watch to see how the Eastside stations rank and hear some tidbits from our recent Town Hall Seattle event with Ray.

We're hosting a Pinehurst station area tour on September 30, the grand opening of the light rail stop.

Pierce County transit advocates are confident that this is the year they can overcome the history of voters not getting on board with adding bus service funding in the South Sound. If Prop 1 is successful, Pierce Transit plans to ramp up service by 49% in the coming years.

Community organizer Renee Staton recounts how Pinehurst Station went from a distant dream to reality delivered ahead of schedule due to more than a decade of advocacy.

Sound Transit is set to have Dow Constantine at the helm into 2030s after the agency approved a three-year contract extension with two additional one-year options on Thursday.

If approved in early November, Community Transit would take over Everett Transit operations on April 1, 2027, with the existing Everett Transit network as its service baseline. A 50% increase in bus service would follow, to be fully implemented by 2030.

Elevating the next light rail line through Downtown Seattle could save $10 billion, more than enough to close Sound Transit’s systemwide budget hole and get rail to Ballard much sooner. There’s just one problem: The agency has never officially studied the idea. It’s high time.

Seattle School Boardmember Joe Mizrahi makes the case against the three statewide initiatives put forward by MAGA hedge fund manager Brian Heywood that will starve government of resources and force school to discriminate against trans students.

After a new 0.1% sales tax for county roads was approved in June, County Executive Girmay Zahilay has proposed to fold the independent transportation benefit district fully into county government. But questions remain about whether the county council would be trading away oversight.

Last week, Mayor Katie Wilson introduced a multi-faceted plan to reduce gun violence in Seattle based on City auditor findings, including a larger role for the CARE Department. Councilmembers Maritza Rivera and Debora Juarez sharply criticized the plan.

Faced with a $175 million deficit, Mayor Katie Wilson chose to balance her 2027 budget primarily through cuts and streamlining City operations, but no new revenue. Police and homelessness response spending continued to grow amid other cuts.

The housing funds, proposed in King County Executive Girmay Zahilay's budget update, include nearly $15 million for affordable housing projects that were already in development, and another $5 million for a new tiny home village on county-owned land in the Central District.

In a recent interview, Mayor Katie Wilson told The Urbanist her administration has launched behind-the-scenes work to make city government run better and avoid perennial budget gap crises, including a new executive order.

Developers and tradespeople alike voiced support for a proposed temporary reduction in Mandatory Housing Affordability fees at a committee meeting Friday. The proposal seems to have broad support from Seattle councilmembers.

Former Governors Gary Locke and Christine Gregoire have sought to cut progressive policymakers off at the knees with criticisms about Democrats lacking budget discipline. But their own records show the cost of austerity cuts.

Park access is generally high in Seattle, but as the City plans for significant population growth under the Comprehensive Plan, we should ask a harder question: Is park space equitable, accessible, or equipped to serve kids and families who rely on it?

A contentious change giving SDOT more authority to change streets within Seattle's historic districts was approved Thursday on a 3-2 committee vote. Traffic safety advocates had been pushing for a way to elevate safety-related changes outside the normal approval process.

As Seattle seeks to reduce waste and spur a local circular economy, a big opportunity for impact is found when buildings come down.

The four new camera locations, set to be implemented in 2027, will be Seattle's first 24/7 speed cameras after decades of enforcing speeds in school zones. The locations were chosen based on a prevalence of speeding and serious crashes.

After many housing advocates feared the idea of a temporary break on Mandatory Housing Affordability fees was dead, Foster's proposal could be approved by early next year. It includes an 80% discount for vested projects, and a 60% break for new projects that include more family-sized units.

A RV safe lot between South Park and West Seattle is expected to serve 140 currently people currently living on the street once it opens in November. Councilmember Bob Kettle and other officials spoke to the importance of the project at a recent ceremony.

While Bellevue leaders are clearly not ready to fully ditch parking mandates, as many Washington cities have done, there is a push to consider going further than a new state-mandated baseline. But ahead of an October 20 vote, that is far from a sure thing.

Get your ticket to our September 15th Town Hall Seattle talk featuring CityNerd's Ray Delahanty and The Urbanist’s Ryan Packer. We're also hosting a Pinehurst station area tour on September 30, the grand opening of the light rail stop.

The package would add authority for SDOT officials to address traffic safety, and ask for recommendations on faster post-crash review and potential safety upgrades for City contractors. But a mad dash to pass the legislation before fall budget season is leading Saka to cut some corners.

Housing growth and tree canopy growth can go hand in hand. In fact, a closer look at Seattle's recent history shows they often do. Here's how to build on that trend.

The Growth Management Hearings Board did find Seattle's environmental review inadequate in its scope, giving the City a year to study additional units initially left out of analysis. But the board tossed out arguments that the impacts on tree canopy and marine habitat weren't adequately studied.

A 2 Line train stall on Sunday likely stemmed from a misaligned pantograph, the metal arm connecting the overhead wire and the train. Sound Transit is pledging a full investigation and potential refinements to rider communications during service outages.

The new trains feature ergonomic seats, upgraded WiFi, and a sleek new cafe car. They'll go into service on both the Seattle to Eugene and Seattle to Vancouver, B.C. routes. More trains are set to arrive by the end of the year, dramatically increasing Amtrak Cascades capacity.

U.S. Congress passed a major update to federal housing policy in July that builders say could provide a major boost to production. But much rides on implementation and additional funding, as industry experts laid out at a recent panel.

Bus travel times are up to three times faster along a troublesome stretch of Denny Way after SDOT installed red bus lanes all the way to I-5. On Tuesday, Mayor Katie Wilson joined transit fans for a reprise of last year's 'Race the L8'... with very different results this time.

New requirements taking effect in January will add a new $15 per-square-foot fee to housing units over 2,000 square feet. A move to raise that threshold to 2,500, intended to encourage more development, failed 3-4 last week in a vote that could signal deeper divisions on Kirkland's Council.

Help us hit our goal of 100 new members in our annual fall member drive. We rely on reader donations to fund our work!

Resilience describes the ability of a transportation system to prepare for disruptions, withstand their effects, continue providing essential mobility, recover quickly, and adapt to changing conditions. It asks whether people can still meet their needs when part of the system fails.

Minneapolis's urban infrastructure continued to impress CityNerd in his latest visit. Check out his interesting video tour across the city.

A 2.75-mile repaving project will only see around 0.8 miles of new bike facilities, despite a new requirement to repair gaps along the state highway network along with maintenance work. The project illustrates the limitations of that 2022 law.

Two 2026 charter amendments are at the heart of a Republican megadonor's plan to take over Snohomish County. If they pass, it would have rippling impacts on transit expansion, housing growth, and safe streets investments, making it easier for Republicans to block progress.

Pinehurst Station now has a launch date: September 30. The infill light rail stop will serve a projected 3,400 daily riders between Northgate and South Shoreline and provide a new location for bus-rail transfers.