Comments for PubliCola

Comment on Obama Hates The Suburbs by Chris Stefan

Chris Stefan — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:28:54 +0000

The statistics tell a very different story. The neighborhoods hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis were almost entirely new developments out on the fringes of their associated metro area. These are also the neighborhoods where the remaining homeowners are likely to be far underwater.

The foreclosure crisis has hit people across all income levels. The mortgage finance industry had a voracious appetite for new loans so the loans were marketed an sold with a very hard sell to anyone who would sign.

At the end of the day though it has tended to be lower income people who've been hit the hardest as they are the most likely to agree to get into a loan with crazy provisions they didn't really understand and they are also the most likely to not really have a financial cushion to fall back on.

Comment on Obama Hates The Suburbs by joshuadf

joshuadf — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:12:42 +0000

sarah68, the study actually looked at similar properties (i.e., comparing single-family houses in two areas). The biggest factor in foreclosure rates was transportation costs. You can't very well ditch a car if it's the only safe way to travel, but if you've got ped/bike/transit options you can. AAA 2009 average cost estimate for a mid-sized sedan is $8095 a year.

Comment on Both Deserve Your Vote by Melissa Westbrook

Melissa Westbrook — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:04:55 +0000

I find it amusing that Publicola wants to taken seriously when they have done very little coverage of the levies. Actually, they wasted a lot of my time having me explain (to an intern yet) why Seattle Public Schools has a $500M maintenance backlog which Prop 1 would barely make a dent in. Why they have underfunded basic maintenance for the last 15 years and yet expect taxpayers to pay more for projects than if they had done them upfront. Why about $68M of the $270M is going to just 6 buildings. Why it's a short term fix for a long-term problem. I guess that's what you would expect from people struggling to get their journalistic legs.

Comment on Obama Hates The Suburbs by Bacon 'n' Eggs

Bacon 'n' Eggs — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:27:20 +0000

Seattle_Steve, you're dead on when you say “most of Seattle is a big suburb.” Hell, I live on Beacon Hill which folks in Medina probably think is the inner city, but I know it's just a classic early 20th-century streetcar suburb. And when presented with a new neighborhood plan, the activists up here just reacted in classic suburban fashion. There are too many people in too many Seattle neighborhoods who give urbanism lip service but don't have a clue what it really is.

Now, back to the 520 discussion…

Comment on McGinn to Meet With Advocates about Future of Housing Office by giffy

giffy — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:08:54 +0000

Did he run out of friends and cronies to hire?

Comment on Dying in the 1970s by schepticrat

schepticrat — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:53:56 +0000

Do yourself a favor and read the book. As a side note, I believe it payed for the “bus” memorialized in “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid test.” It's a wonderfully dark story. It always comes back to me on a dark rainy day on the coast.

Comment on Obama Hates The Suburbs by Seattle_Steve

Seattle_Steve — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:25:12 +0000

Most of Seattle is a big suburb. There's no fight between people who want more compact development and people who don't when it comes to 520. There's a disagreement about the tactics and designs of a neighborhood stocked with single family homes, yards and two yacht clubs and everyone else.

Montlake's PR machine would like to make it a big fight about something larger than the neighborhood and parts, but it's not, for the vast mass of the rest of Seattle and the region.

Now Montlake says it just wants to add transit, but says nothing about more dense development to support transit within Montlake, which drives like a nice suburb.

520 connects major housing and employment centers within an entirely urbanized area. It is rehabilitation of an old structure that a lot of old growth is built around and it comes with an additional carpool and transit lane because everyone wants to make sure that the new bridge serves growth most everyone wants to focus in the urbanized areas around 520, including the huge new urban, transit oriented development – far more dense than Montlake or north Capitol Hill, planned between Bellevue and Redmond along 520.

People who advocating sustainable development should be leery of hitching their wagon to the Montlake bandwagon on 520. The late breaking Montlake proposal is so ill developed it is laughable as a plan. It was clearly conceived as a public relations stunt = part of a 25 year history of Montlake just saying NO to doing anything.

Comment on McGinn to Meet With Advocates about Future of Housing Office by ella

ella — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:15:54 +0000

So when and where is the meeting?

Comment on Obama Hates The Suburbs by Chuck Wolfe

Chuck Wolfe — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:55:37 +0000

@joshmahar, I totally agree and Dan was savvy to get a press pass. The Times included a formula editorial by Donovan/LaHood/Jackson, but I could find next to nothing other than Joel Connelly's interview of Secretary Donovan which was also picked up by Planetizen (other than my City Brights blog entry Friday at seattlepi.com touting Seattle). No mention of the Ron Sims award, etc.–and we all noted the Oregon press and how they owned the issues. Not sure why this was.

Comment on Rule #1: Don’t Put a Light Rail Station Next to a Freeway by earnest thompson

earnest thompson — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:54:07 +0000

All wrong! What you need to do is run the light rail line right through the middle of the freeway! Use those dumb Diamond Lanes. Then when people are sitting in stop and go traffic and see the train speed by they will be VERY tempted to take the light rail next time.I lived in Japan and Europe for years and never ever needed a car.

Comment on Obama Hates The Suburbs by joshmahar

joshmahar — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:50:17 +0000

Can I just say the real travesty here is that we, the city of Seattle, just hosted the New Partners for Smart Growth conference and we got NO LOCAL COVERAGE! What the hell guys come on! Publicola couldn't get a press pass for that one? Where was the Stranger on this? What about the Times…actually that one I didn't expect. But honestly, this is pathetic. The Planetizen article links to a Massachusetts article for god's sake.

And just to rub it in, I'm going to play the Portland card on this. When the Feds showed up in Stumptown to talk about their great new strategy the Oregonian stuck on the front of the BUSINESS section!

Dan I at least credit you for shout out to the conference.