YIMBY News for 7/18

[Eric Budd]

2024 Primary Election Endorsements

The Urbanist

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KEYWORD SCORE: 65.36. affordable, affordable housing, apartment, bus rapid transit, comprehensive plan, development, growth, homeowner, house, housing, income, multi-modal, multimodal, parking, preservation, project, real estate, rent, renter, supply, transit-oriented, transportation, urban, walk, zoning

The Urbanist Elections Committee expanded our scope in Pierce County this year, just in time for an exciting race for Pierce County Executive featuring urbanist Ryan Mello. Spoiler: We endorsed Mello. His leadership on a whole host of issues that touch not just Pierce County, but the whole region is truly exciting. County executives in Pierce, King, and Snohomish counties are guaranteed a seat on the Sound Transit Board of Directors and get to appoint replacements to their respective county delegations on the board. All indications are Mello would be a great leader on the Sound Transit board,

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It’s been one year since Mike Johnston became Mayor. What has he done?

Denverite

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KEYWORD SCORE: 55.67. affordable, affordable housing, apartment, construction, cost of housing, development, downtown, gentrification, house, housing, housing price, income, market-rate, parking, preservation, project, public space, real estate, rent, transportation, walk, zoning

Before last year’s inauguration day, Denverite documented 20 goals Mayor Mike Johnston committed to during his campaign. Among them, he promised to end homelessness, improve transportation, speed up permitting and hire more law enforcement in his first term. His ultimate challenge: make Denver the best and most vibrant city in the nation. The Mayor’s Office took time to get going on hiring administrative heads and understanding the basic functions of a sprawling city and county government, often citing that a new administration had to learn the ropes. On his first full day in office, he declar

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Colorado is steering affordable housing money to the middle class — and away from the working poor

Colorado Sun

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KEYWORD SCORE: 41.78. affordable, affordable housing, apartment, construction, development, house, housing, housing authority, housing cost, housing crisis, housing price, income, project, rent, renter

[image: Newly constructed buildings stand behind a wooden fence with a "City of Lafayette Open Space" sign, surrounded by a dry grassy area.] In 2022, the state of Colorado loaned a housing developer $640,000 to buy the Parachute Inn — a condemned hotel on the Western Slope that the buyer planned to convert into low-income apartments. Local governments are chipping in too, with property tax breaks and fee waivers. And last week, the state Housing Board gave the development another boost — a $5 million grant to help build 50 affordable units with construction starting as soon as this year. But

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Parking Mandate Reform Brings a Little Bit of Good for Everyone

Strong Towns

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KEYWORD SCORE: 40.03. affordable, affordable housing, apartment, condo, construction, development, downtown, housing, income, infill, parking, parking lot, project, real estate, rent, urban

*This article was originally published, in slightly different form, on **Parking Reform Network**. It is shared here with permission. All pictures were supplied by the writer.* *Anchorage. (Photo by Luke Jones.)* *The day after a city repeals its mandatory parking minimums, it’s still the exact same city.* Not a single parking space need be added or removed as a direct consequence of that simple policy change. For that reason, it’s vitally important for parking reformers to go back and actually document what happens in the months and years after mandates are removed. To observe what possibilit

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Colorado tees up nearly $40M in affordable housing funding to help pay for more than 600 units

Denver Post Politics

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KEYWORD SCORE: 39.80. affordable, affordable housing, apartment, construction, density, development, house, housing, housing crisis, hud, income, project, rent, supply, transportation, urban, walk, zone

State officials announced nearly $40 million in preliminary awards to build more than 600 subsidized housing units for lower- and middle-income Coloradans on Wednesday, using some of the first full year of funding from a new statewide affordable housing program. The money is set to help finance developments in Denver, Lone Tree, Fort Collins, Montrose and Craig. The apartment and housing projects will include rent protections to ensure they remain affordable to tenants who meet income thresholds. The developments would be first recipients of a specific equity funding program through Propositio

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Transit Planning Guru Jarrett Walker Discusses Chicago’s Transit Challenges

Streetsblog Net

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KEYWORD SCORE: 30.38. bus route, density, development, downtown, growth, income, project, real estate, rent, transit center, transportation, urban, walk

[image: The transit agency held public meetings in Uptown and Edgewater.]The post is sponsored by the Active Transportation Alliance. Last week Streetsblog Chicago’s Igor Studenkov covered a meeting of the Illinois Senate Transportation Committee to discuss whether Chicagoland’s four transit agencies should be combined into a single unit. This might help simplify the bureaucracy involved in separately running the Regional Transportation Authority (which oversees the other three), CTA, Metra, and Pace. It might also help cut costs, since the four agencies have separate chiefs and a total of 47

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This Heat Wave is a Car Dependency Problem

Streetsblog Net

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KEYWORD SCORE: 26.34. bus stop, house, parking, parking lot, public space, rent, transportation, urban, walk, zoning

A long, sweaty wait at an unsheltered bus stop for a ride that only comes once an hour. A sweltering walk to a grocery store that’s two miles away because the city zoning code doesn’t allow developers to build a closer store in your neighborhood. A brutal bike ride to work on an unshaded street that your local traffic designers have stripped of all street trees in the name of keeping drivers safe if they happened to run off the road. For Americans outside of cars, these aren’t just hypotheticals, but a daily reality. And they’re also a serious health threat. According to the CDC’s new “Heat an

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I’ve Been Homeless In Oregon. I Know the Supreme Court’s Ruling Will Only Worsen Homelessness.

Next City

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KEYWORD SCORE: 21.48. house, housing, housing discrimination, income, rent, urban, walk

(Photo by Levi Meir Clancy / Unsplash+) When community supervision in Benton County, Oregon enforced homelessness on me, I had two choices: Invest in a tent, car, RV, old school bus, etc., or rent a motel room until my money ran out. My options for motels were limited to The Rodeway Inn or the Super 8, both within easy walking distance of parole and probation and in my price range. The Super 8 manager quoted me a decent weekly rate, so for the next 17 months of my “community supervision,” I stayed there primarily until I survived probation and parole. Luckily, I had money and the ability to ge

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We Need to Stop Killing People On Our Roads; a New ‘Bikes Belong’ Campaign Could Help

Streetsblog Net

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KEYWORD SCORE: 20.63. house, mobility, parking, preservation, project, rent, transportation, vision zero, walk

It didn’t surprise safe and sustainable transportation advocates when Hoboken, N.J. won national praise for eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries seven years in a row, thanks in part to its ambitious effort to eliminate blind spots at intersections by preventing drivers from parking near corners. But apparently, it *was *a shock to many others — including right-wing political pundit Jordan Peterson. In March, Peterson took to X to share his outrage at the Associated Press for sharing the good news, stating, “You have become pathetic beyond comprehension @AP and the woke death will so

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How To Build a Biking Culture That Makes Your City Stronger

Strong Towns

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KEYWORD SCORE: 19.58. bike lane, bike to work, public space, rent, transportation, walk

*Did you catch Tiffany Owens Reed’s piece, “**3 Ways National Bike To Work Day Can Miss the Mark**” a few weeks ago?* In it, Tiffany remarks that she loves biking, but in the absence of sufficiently safe infrastructure, she finds that sort of annual event “annoying and ingratiating.” Her main points — that it ignores the reasons people don’t bike, assumes that people want to bike in the first place and lets public officials off the hook — all resonate with me. Tiffany goes on to suggest a few things that would demonstrate real leadership and be more effective, such as installing temporary bike

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On His Way Out, North Carolina Governor Expands Support for People Leaving Prison 

BOLTSmag

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KEYWORD SCORE: 18.88. house, housing, mobility, project, rent, transportation

After serving 14 months in prison for petty crimes, the state of North Carolina released me into homelessness on Dec. 30, 2000 with only the prison clothes on my back, a paper identification card, and $3.36 in my pocket. Rebuilding my life wasn’t my primary focus. I needed food and a warm place to sleep. On my first night of freedom, a friend who still lived with his parents snuck me in to sleep on his bedroom floor. His mother found me the next morning and made me leave. Alone, I trekked miles through the frigid cold wearing a borrowed jacket and boots, desperately seeking another place of re

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