Michael Luis is a public policy consultant who has been wrestling with housing, growth and economic development issues around Washington State for over 30 years. He is author of several books on local history and served as mayor of Medina.
Ignoring the negatives in the economy—or, worse, telling voters they are misperceiving those negatives—and trying to generate excitement about the programs in Bidenomics is a risky messaging strategy.
Under even the most generous assumptions, it is extremely unlikely that any Cascadia HSR system will be built. So why do we keep wasting time, energy and money studying it?
The guidance being provided by the Department of Commerce is coming from architects and planners, and it focuses on design issues. Almost nothing is being said about middle housing as a business.
Within the housing market, middle housing offers the chance to live in a quiet neighborhood setting without the large investment in a traditional single family house.
Suburban cities resist change, but the Growth Management Act created an existential challenge to these cities. Now the Legislature may compound the crisis.
Urban Growth Boundaries (UGBs) have scarcely moved in King County since they were first drawn in the 1990s, so the supply of land that can be subdivided into normal building lots has been steadily shrinking.