YIMBY News for 5/8

[Eric Budd]

Northgate Mall Owner Goes Big on Housing... And Even Bigger on Parking

The Urbanist

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KEYWORD SCORE: 50.69. affordable, affordable housing, apartment, construction, development, downtown, housing, income, parking, parking garage, parking lot, parking structure, project, rent, transit-oriented, urban, walk, zone

[image: Northgate Mall Owner Goes Big on Housing... And Even Bigger on Parking] Last week, Simon Property Group and Compass Construction invited journalists to tour a major redevelopment happening on the Northgate Mall campus, across the street from the Kraken Community Iceplex. In 2022, Simon secured a permit for a nine-story, 234-unit apartment building with 569 parking stalls, which they christened Everis. Today, that project has topped out and is nearing move-in this summer. Phase 2 of the development is under construction next door and will bring the housing total to 420 apartments, while

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Rents Are Down in Austin. So Why Are Evictions Still Climbing?

Governing

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KEYWORD SCORE: 36.06. affordable, affordable housing, apartment, construction, development, housing, housing cost, income, rent, renter, urban, yimby, zoning

In Brief: The median rent in Austin dropped by 4 percent over the last four years, and even more substantially in older apartment buildings. Housing construction spurred partly by local reforms and public investment in housing has helped ease competition among renters. The city also had a big spike in eviction filings last year, pointing to the enduring vulnerability of the poorest tenants. The story going around about Austin these days is one of YIMBY vindication. The city has exploded in population over the last few decades, growing from fewer than 500,000 people in 1990 to nearly a million

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Seattle Sound Transit Leaders Rally to Avoid Light Rail Delays

The Urbanist

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KEYWORD SCORE: 28.55. affordable, construction, growth, house, infill, mobility, project, rent, transportation, urban

[image: Seattle Sound Transit Leaders Rally to Avoid Light Rail Delays] On Tuesday, more than 200 transit advocates turned out at Seattle City Hall to hear Seattle's delegation on the Sound Transit Board of Directors pitch ideas to avert delays to local light rail projects. The board members from Seattle pushed back against the idea of deferring some stations indefinitely, arguing for keeping the projects moving and looking for additional revenue. Seattle leaders made an overture to regionalism, as some board members like Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin have emphasized deferring Seattle projects

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The Battle over America’s Local Racetracks

Governing

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KEYWORD SCORE: 26.63. development, house, housing, real estate, urban, zone

Across the United States, the local auto racing tracks that have anchored rural and working-class communities for generations are disappearing. Some have lost out to real estate developers when suburban sprawl makes the land beneath them too valuable to ignore. Others are strangled, slowly, by noise complaints and nuisance lawsuits filed by residents who moved to the area long after the track had been built. Now, state legislatures are pushing back. From Georgia to Wisconsin, lawmakers have been introducing so-called “right to race” bills. Over the past year, at least 13 state legislatures hav

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Democratic gubernatorial candidates Bennet and Weiser make their pitches to voters in live debate

Colorado Public Radio

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KEYWORD SCORE: 22.66. affordable, condo, growth, housing, housing crisis, income, project, rent, renter

Democratic gubernatorial candidates U.S Sen. Michael Bennet and Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser faced off in their first televised debate ahead of the June 30 primary election Thursday evening. During the hour-long live broadcast sponsored by CPR News, Denver7 and The Denver Post, the candidates touched on everything from their state policy goals and differences, healthcare costs, the state budget and the fight against the Trump administration as they make their case to voters. The debate painted a contrast between Bennet’s focus on affordability and Weiser’s track record of using the po

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Somers Proposal Keeps Rail to Everett and Tacoma On Track, Stops Short of Ballard

The Urbanist

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KEYWORD SCORE: 22.05. construction, downtown, growth, infill, project, rent, urban

[image: Somers Proposal Keeps Rail to Everett and Tacoma On Track, Stops Short of Ballard] Sound Transit board chair Dave Somers has put forward his proposed path to balancing Sound Transit's system expansion plans in the face of a significant revenue shortfall over the coming decades. Set to be discussed at a board committee meeting tomorrow, Somers' plan would keep Sound Transit focused on building the light rail "spine" to Everett Station and Tacoma Dome, but defer or delay other key projects from the 2016 voter-approved ST3 plan. West Seattle Link, a project touted as "shovel-ready" after

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How Immigrant Organizing Flipped Nixon’s Hometown

BOLTSmag

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KEYWORD SCORE: 20.41. development, housing, planning commission, rent, renter, urban

When residents of Whittier, a majority-Latino suburb of Los Angeles, came out in large numbers last summer to protest a rush of ICE operations, the city’s Republican leaders remained unfazed. Masked federal agents were rounding up people at the Home Depot and hauling workers away from local car washes, a jarring disruption to the usual quiet charm of a city where a lush canopy of ficus trees and Canary Island pines line the streets. To the protesters who saw ICE vans stationed at City Hall and the public library, the city was complicit. They demanded that Whittier officials take action and ban

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Federal Way Councilmember Frames Pedestrian Safety Crisis as Needing 'Darwinian' Solution

The Urbanist

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KEYWORD SCORE: 18.63. downtown, parking, parking lot, rent, transportation, urban, vision zero, walk

[image: Federal Way Councilmember Frames Pedestrian Safety Crisis as Needing 'Darwinian' Solution] Federal Way Councilmember Jack Walsh is drawing the ire of traffic safety advocates from across Puget Sound, in the wake of comments about pedestrian safety he made Monday night at a council committee meeting. Even as local governments continue to tout a move toward a "safe systems" approach that takes into account the fact that road users of all kinds frequently make mistakes, Walsh's comments illustrated how deeply embedded the idea that pedestrians are to blame for being injured or killed is i

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