Seattle

You want a war on cars? Fine, here's your war on cars

The Stranger, Seattle's alt-weekly, has had it with the nasty attacks from car-loving, carbon-spewing, anti-bike crazies. The city's bike advocates have been accused of waging a "war on cars," and after too many hours trying to defend itself, the Stranger got angry:

For cars we have paved our forests, spanned our lakes, and burrowed under our cities. Yet drivers throw tantrums at the painting of a mere bicycle lane on the street. ... No more! We demand that car drivers pay their own way, bearing the full cost of the automobile-petroleum-industrial complex that has depleted our environment, strangled our cities, and drawn our nation into foreign wars. Reinstate the progressive motor vehicle excise tax, hike the gas tax, and toll every freeway, bridge, and neighborhood street until the true cost of driving lies as heavy and noxious as our smog-laden air.

Other demands: mass transit should serve the masses, and walking and biking should be safe. Maybe it is war.

Zip decoding: Can one Seattle area serve as model of diversity?

A south Seattle zip code once touted as the most diverse in the U.S. exemplifies the challenges and rewards of cultivating multicultural neighborhoods anywhere in the country.

The greenest building on Earth

Workers broke ground this week in Seattle on a six-story building that will generate its own power, collect and reuse rainwater, compost its sewage, and depend on daylight instead of halogen lamps. Its owner, the Bullitt Foundation, which supports work in sustainability, set out to build the greenest building on Earth. We'd say they're earning that title. 

The young and the carless: Ask Umbra on how to get rid of your car

Want to ditch driving for better ways of getting around? Ask Umbra has good ideas for getting rid of that hunk of metal that’s been weighing you down.

How cities can get carbon down to zero

Seattle looks at an ambitious scenario involving changes in travel modes, more energy-efficient buildings, and shifts to alternative energy sources.

Top 10 greenest cities in North America

It seems like we get a new list of greenest, most climate-change-prepared, most bike-friendly etc. cities every week or so. But we never really get tired of looking at these rankings, and checking them against each other to decide where we should fantasize about moving. Today, it's a list of the top greenest cities in North America from Siemens and the Economist Intelligence Unit. This ranking takes into account carbon emissions, land use, transportation, energy usage, buildings, water and air quality, waste, and environmental governance.

Drumroll please for the top 10:

Me, on Seattle public radio, talking cities and climate

On KUOW's "The Conversation," David Roberts talks about the grim prospects for national or international climate policy and the rays of hope coming from cities.

A Seattle development that is greener than green

Cross-posted from the Natural Resources Defense Council. Leave it to a city famous for coffee and rain to produce possibly the best example of transit-oriented urbanism, natural public space, and green stormwater infrastructure I have ever seen. This Seattle redevelopment is green in so many ways that it is hard to know where to start. […]

Tearing down the highways that choke our cities [VIDEO]

The power of an elevated freeway to dominate and degrade a city’s streets is overwhelming. So much so that if you live near one it can be almost impossible to envision what the place might look like if it were gone, and the old patterns of the streets restored. But in places where that has […]