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You’re invited for an evening with Mayor McGinn and special guests

By emilykathrein from "Environmental News from our Community" via Environmental in Google Reader. Published on Jun 18, 2013.

This Friday, join Cascade Bicycle Club and the McGinn for Mayor campaign for an evening  with leading bike advocates from around the world.

The event, in support of the Mayor Mike McGinn for Re-Election campaign, will feature America’s preeminent experts on biking and walking, John Pucher, and Julie Anne Genter, Transportation Planner and Member of New Zealand’s Parliament.

Come meet some of the leading bike advocates from around the world and support a mayor who is a true bike champion.

Mayor McGinn has shown bold leadership in making our streets safer for everybody, whether they drive, haul freight, ride transit, bike or walk. He recognizes that 60 percent of people in Seattle want to bicycle more, but they are not doing it because they don’t feel safe. So he has shifted our bicycling investments toward physically protecting bike lanes from speeding car traffic and building more neighborhood greenways – low-speed, low-traffic streets that are safer for families.

Mayor McGinn has also been a tireless advocate for completing the Missing Link of the Burke-Gilman Trail, in the face of lawsuits from those who don’t want it completed.

Event details:

Friday, June 21
6-7  p.m. (VIP Event)
7-8 p.m. (General Event)

The Production Network
1000 N. Northlake Way
Seattle, WA 98103
(Just past Stone Way directly off the Burke Gilman Trail)

Special VIP Tickets: $350
Tickets: $35

Beer from Ballard’s Peddler Brewing Company and small bites will  be provided.

Sound like fun?  Click here to RSVP >>

 

 

BC Should Examine Its Carbon Ledger

By Eric de Place from "Environmental News from our Community" via Environmental in Google Reader. Published on Jun 18, 2013.

Following British Columbia’s recent election, climate activist Kevin Washbrook and I have an op-ed in the latest edition of Business In Vancouver magazine. We make the case that fossil fuel export projects represent a clear danger to the Northwest—and that the threat transcends the border:

At a time when scientists report atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations are breaking dangerous new records, the Pacific Northwest is considering a raft of ill-advised proposals to expand its carbon-intensive fuel exports. To date, the region has considered these fossil fuel projects each in isolation, an approach that makes sense no longer.

The election helped make British Columbians more aware of the controversies surrounding new oil and gas pipelines in the province. But they may be less aware of the furious debate raging south of the border, where proposals to build huge new coal export terminals in the U.S. Northwest are generating unprecedented levels of opposition.

In recent months, however, the arguments have crossed the 49th parallel.

Increasingly, Americans are worried about Canadian oilsands, as seen in national protests against the Keystone XL Pipeline and the growing unease over new tanker traffic in the Salish Sea. Just so, residents of the Lower Mainland are growing alarmed about stealthy plans to ship more U.S. thermal coal from Delta and from new facilities on the Fraser River at Surrey.

The truth is, whether we’re talking about coal trains, tankers or pipelines, all of us in the Northwest are in this together. And the stakes could not be higher.

Our piece springs from a report that Sightline released in Canada last month, Northwest Fossil Fuel Exports. We found that active fossil fuel export plans in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia would be capable of moving fuel loaded with 761 million metric tons of carbon dioxide—roughly the equivalent of seven Keystone XL Pipelines.

In our Business In Vancouver piece, Kevin and I argue that new spending on pipelines and export terminals will undermine the region’s economic security, even as it transforms the region from a clean energy leader to a carbon export hub of global consequence.

 

Post-script: While I’m doing the shameless self promotion thing, I’ll note that our report has earned some exceptionally thoughtful coverage in BC, including:

• A first-rate piece by Vancouver Sun columnist Pete McMartin.
• An in-depth look at the research from Amy Huva at the Vancouver Observer.
• A post-election take by The Tyee.
• A second column at the Vancouver Sun, this one by Craig McInnes and one that is considerably less productive than McMartin’s. McInnes seems to think that there’s nothing much to be done about climate change, so BC should at least get rich by making the problem worse.

American readers should stay tuned for a US-version of Sightline’s report this summer.

Sightline Institute researches the best practices in public policy for a sustainable Pacific Northwest. Read more at daily.sightline.org.

Brazil releases Flight Path for Aviation Biofuels – some thoughts from 30,000 Feet

By bobby from "Environmental News from our Community" via Environmental in Google Reader. Published on Jun 18, 2013.

I can see a path to lower carbon flight, in Brazil and around the world. And Climate Solutions is proud to be playing a significant role in developing a flight path to sustainable aviation fuels.

Brazil releases Flight Path for Aviation Biofuels – some thoughts from 30,000 Feet

By bobby from "Environmental News from our Community" via Environmental in Google Reader. Published on Jun 18, 2013.

I can see a path to lower carbon flight, in Brazil and around the world. And Climate Solutions is proud to be playing a significant role in developing a flight path to sustainable aviation fuels.

“It’s my path and it’s always an adventure”

By Anne-Marije Rook from "Environmental News from our Community" via Environmental in Google Reader. Published on Jun 18, 2013.

We came across this adorable young lady on Girl Bike Love and we just had to share it.

Warning! Extreme cuteness ahead:

Seattle taxi drivers stage a protest parade | The Seattle Times

By (author unknown) from "Environmental News from our Community" via Environmental in Google Reader. Published on Jun 18, 2013.

Competition among taxis, for-hire cabs and ride-sharing services became more tense at Seattle City Hall on Monday as the City Council reconsidered how to regulate them all.

Sightline Institute researches the best practices in public policy for a sustainable Pacific Northwest. Read more at daily.sightline.org.

Weyerhaeuser ups its timber holdings by 33% | The Oregonian

By (author unknown) from "Environmental News from our Community" via Environmental in Google Reader. Published on Jun 18, 2013.

In the third-largest forestry acquisition in North American history, timber giant Weyerhaeuser Co. will acquire Longview Timber and its 645,000 acres of timberland holdings in Oregon and Washington for $2.65 billion.

Sightline Institute researches the best practices in public policy for a sustainable Pacific Northwest. Read more at daily.sightline.org.

Obama considers sweeping climate plan | Los Angeles Times

By (author unknown) from "Environmental News from our Community" via Environmental in Google Reader. Published on Jun 18, 2013.

The Obama administration is considering a sweeping initiative to address climate change, including the first-ever limits on carbon dioxide from power plants, the country’s biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions.

Sightline Institute researches the best practices in public policy for a sustainable Pacific Northwest. Read more at daily.sightline.org.

For people of color, a hidden housing market | NPR

By (author unknown) from "Environmental News from our Community" via Environmental in Google Reader. Published on Jun 18, 2013.

A new study has found that blacks, Latinos and Asians looking for homes were shown fewer housing options than whites who were equally qualified. And fewer options meant higher housing costs.

Sightline Institute researches the best practices in public policy for a sustainable Pacific Northwest. Read more at daily.sightline.org.

Preempting your activism | Grist

By (author unknown) from "Environmental News from our Community" via Environmental in Google Reader. Published on Jun 18, 2013.

This summer, the 9th Circuit Court in California is weighing the question of whether companies have the right to take preemptive legal action against peaceful protesters for hypothetical future protests.

Sightline Institute researches the best practices in public policy for a sustainable Pacific Northwest. Read more at daily.sightline.org.

Ecopreneurs take on marine pollution | Vancouver Observer

By (author unknown) from "Environmental News from our Community" via Environmental in Google Reader. Published on Jun 18, 2013.

A new Victoria venture, PlasticShore, wants to transform the problem of marine plastic into a resource for use in consumer products.

Sightline Institute researches the best practices in public policy for a sustainable Pacific Northwest. Read more at daily.sightline.org.

PHOTOS: Your local landscaping goats | The Seattle Post-Intelligencer

By (author unknown) from "Environmental News from our Community" via Environmental in Google Reader. Published on Jun 18, 2013.

Once again the rescue goats of Rent a Ruminant are hitting the slopes under the Seattle viaduct at Lenora and Pine, munching away the weeds by order of the city’s Department of Transportation.

Sightline Institute researches the best practices in public policy for a sustainable Pacific Northwest. Read more at daily.sightline.org.

Study: Heavy pollution linked to autism risk | The Oregonian

By (author unknown) from "Environmental News from our Community" via Environmental in Google Reader. Published on Jun 18, 2013.

Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health released a report yesterday concluding that diesel, mercury, lead, manganese and methylene chloride in the air significantly increased the risk of having a child with autism.

Sightline Institute researches the best practices in public policy for a sustainable Pacific Northwest. Read more at daily.sightline.org.

Airbnb vs hotels: A price comparison | Priceonomics

By (author unknown) from "Environmental News from our Community" via Environmental in Google Reader. Published on Jun 18, 2013.

Is it actually less expensive to stay at an Airbnb than a hotel?

Sightline Institute researches the best practices in public policy for a sustainable Pacific Northwest. Read more at daily.sightline.org.

MAP: Your biking wisdom in 10 words | New York Times

By (author unknown) from "Environmental News from our Community" via Environmental in Google Reader. Published on Jun 18, 2013.

The New York Times is collecting riders’ shared wisdom about biking where they live.

Sightline Institute researches the best practices in public policy for a sustainable Pacific Northwest. Read more at daily.sightline.org.

Ugly by Law

By Alyse Nelson from "Environmental News from our Community" via Environmental in Google Reader. Published on Jun 18, 2013.

Cars have shaped much of the North American West, including Cascadia, where drive-through restaurants, shopping centers, highway strip malls, and single-family neighborhoods miles from commercial services dominate much of the urban and suburban landscape. Less obvious to the casual observer is the impact that parking regulations have had on architectural forms.

Cities have established parking regulations, often called off-street parking minimums, for each possible land use. When you build a new house or shop, or often when you simply remodel a building or change its use, you must provide a minimum number of off-street parking spaces. These regulations are meant to address demand for parking that cannot be met by nearby on-street spaces, but they have also led to increased development costs, less flexibility for adaptive reuse of existing buildings, and some pretty unattractive architecture.

This photo essay looks at some of the ugly architecture in Cascadia that has resulted from parking minimums. Many of the photos were sent in by readers who responded to our request for examples from their communities.

One obvious example is the ubiquitous seas of suburban parking. The commercial building pictured below is set so far back from the street, behind its legally required parking, that it’s hard to figure out what type of business operates there.

In Western Oregon, a mixed-use developed community called Fairview Village (below) has a Target store as its retail anchor. Although the development has won awards for livability and smart planning, this sea of required parking looks pretty standard.

The main entrance of this office building in McMinnville, Oregon, is barely visible from the sidewalk.

Offering a glimmer of hope in an oversized suburban parking lot, a Taco Time in Edmonds, Washington, has reclaimed a couple of parking stalls by creating an outdoor seating area for customers.

Ugly parking areas are not unique to the suburbs, however. There are many urban examples as well.

Before parking minimums, buildings in Cascadia could be built to the property line because parking wasn’t a constraint. Now, developers must contend with building heights, setbacks for buildings, and parking regulations—all of which make it harder to develop affordable housing projects. This is especially true at medium densities and lower building heights because it’s harder to make parking garages or underground parking pencil for these smaller projects. This is easy to see by taking a quick look at a single street in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood.

This classic apartment building in Ballard was built before parking minimums.

It sits just down the road from a cluster of “dingbat buildings”—apartment complexes supported on stilts with open carports on the ground level.

In his book The High Cost of Free Parking, Donald Shoup describes how dingbat buildings proliferated in Los Angeles as a result of a 1930s zoning regulation requiring each unit of a multifamily dwelling to have one covered parking space.

Dingbat buildings are commonplace in Cascadian cities, too, such as this example in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood.

And this one, also in Ballard.

And this one nearby.

And this dingbat fourplex, in Medford, Oregon.

These houses in South Seattle have covered garages instead of carports, but the dingbat form is much the same.

Parking regulations have not only given rise to architectural forms such as dingbats, but they have transformed existing types of housing, including the multifamily courtyard building. Courtyard housing was popular for decades before the advent of modern zoning codes. These buildings, such as the one pictured below in Portland, featured lovely green spaces surrounded by a U- or L-shaped structure.

This late-1920s courtyard building in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood features a landscaped green.

Since the advent of parking minimums, courtyard-style apartments have continued to be built. But instead of landscaped courtyards, the buildings surround a different type of courtyard: a parking court, as illustrated by the Portland parking court below.

And these two parking courts in Seattle.

Where there could be a front yard, this motel-style apartment building in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood has a parking court, too.

Parking minimums have also partly dictated the look of some of Seattle’s newer townhouses. Unlike more traditional row- or townhouse developments in other cities, which have a welcoming pedestrian entrance off the sidewalk, usually with stairs and a front porch or stoop, like these ones in Brooklyn…

…many of the new Seattle townhouses, like the two pictured below, feature dark parking courts and tall fences built to the sidewalk edge.

Blogger Gregory Wharton explored why the structures look like this. He found that strict zoning rules that set maximum building heights and setbacks and require an off-street parking stall for every unit have limited developers to a very specific design. As Seattle architect David Nieman has explained, the Seattle townhouse “is not a building type at all but, rather, a parking diagram that people happen to live above.” The resulting architecture has not been well received by the community, but, Wharton writes, “these projects are exactly what the Seattle zoning code tells developers to build.”

With parking rules essentially mandating their form, Seattle’s townhouses stand out as a perfect example of what’s known in the design community as “design by zoning.” Fortunately, the City of Seattle fixed this problem by removing parking requirements for multifamily housing in urban centers and villages in its recent multifamily zoning code update, no longer effectively mandating such townhouse design.

For instance, to reach their front doors, residents of this Capitol Hill townhouse development must go through the locked driveway gate…

…to this concrete garden awaiting them inside.

Consider how those townhouse developments differ from recent cottage housing communities, which have historical roots in the early 1900s bungalow court cottages of Southern California and the garden city movement, which envisioned small towns surrounded by green belts. Cottage neighborhoods are designed around people rather than cars. They have smaller homes that are meant to appeal to one- or two-person households, and the parking area is shared among the residents, requiring people to park and then walk to their homes. Below is one such cottage community in White Salmon, Washington.

While townhouses are usually developed in multifamily zones, cottage communities are typically built in single-family zoning districts. Cottage developments usually require greater housing density to be successful. These projects also need less parking because the smaller units appeal to small households. Unfortunately, single-family zoning districts don’t always have the flexibility to allow this additional density or to reduce parking requirements. Where these cottage developments have been allowed, it has often been under a flexible zoning or incentive program.

Danielson Grove (below), a cottage housing development in Kirkland, Washington, was built under Kirkland’s Innovative Housing Demonstration Program, which encouraged creative solutions to meet housing demand. Planners in Kirkland ended up adopting many of the standards used in this community in a citywide ordinance.

Unfortunately, zoning incentives that allow increased density and reduced parking requirements to encourage such people-oriented neighborhoods aren’t found throughout Cascadia. Off-street parking requirements and car culture have too often resulted in communities dominated and designed around cars. Front porches, if they are built at all, have gotten smaller while garages have grown larger in many cities and towns.

Cities usually require off-street parking spaces for single-family homes, but they don’t specify whether they have to be enclosed. That’s not the case in the Seattle suburb of Beaux Arts Village, where new and renovated homes are required to provide parking for at least two cars in a carport or garage of at least 360 square feet. Reader Matt Leber sent in this photo of his garage, which dominates the single-family lot.

In Donald Shoup’s estimation, many neighborhoods “have become garagescapes—appearing to be a place not where people live, but where cars are parked—and the only obvious way to enter a building is with an electronic garage-door opener.”

The following “garagescapes” don’t exactly convey welcome. Garages at the front of these Tigard, OR, apartments serve as the primary entrance to the community.

Rather than front porches, garages dominate the streetscape in the Oregon neighborhood pictured below. The driveway curb cuts also create an undulating sidewalk.

This apartment complex along a busy street in Tukwila, Washington, greets cars first.

As does this Portland garagescape.

Garagescapes, dingbat buildings, automobile courtyard apartments, seas of parking—parking minimums have resulted in a variety of ugly architecture in Cascadia’s cities and towns. Zoning codes apply a general parking ratio across the landscape, with little regard for market conditions, transit opportunities, and the demographic makeup of neighborhoods.

As cities work to reduce automobile dependency, provide more affordable housing, and create more people-oriented places, it’s time to address parking regulations. The next time you see an unsightly apartment building or a sea of parking in front of a store, consider how parking rules have contributed to the ugliness. Off-street parking regulations are at the root of what makes Cascadian cities and towns less attractive and livable.

 

This article edited by Ina Chang.

Sightline Institute researches the best practices in public policy for a sustainable Pacific Northwest. Read more at daily.sightline.org.

Get the straight dirt on how Seattle’s bike network stacks up

By M.J. Kelly from "Environmental News from our Community" via Environmental in Google Reader. Published on Jun 18, 2013.

Tonight, you have a golden opportunity to hear renowned cycling researcher and speaker Prof. John Pucher make his first-ever public appearance in Seattle. He’ll be talking about how cities around the world become places where everyone can bike and walk. He’ll also be giving the straight dirt about how Seattle is stacking up relative to other cities around the country and around the world, and how we can do better (sound familiar?)

Tonight, 6:30 – 8:30
Gowen Hall, Room 201
University of Washington
http://uw.edu/maps/?gwn

Details on the University Greenways Facebook

Prof. Pucher spoke in Vancouver on Friday to a full crowd. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear from him for yourself tonight.

The Vancouver Sun caught up with Prof. Pucher as well. Here’s an excerpt:

Rutgers University professor John Pucher’s eyes light up when talking about the increasing popularity of cycling among North American commuters. The 62-year-old authorand civic transportation expert has studied commuting infrastructure in cities around the world and was in Vancouver over the weekend giving a lecture at SFU’s Vancouver campus. Pucher travels the globe, constantly evangelizing the benefits accrued by all citizens when their governments invest in cycling infrastructure.

He sat down Sunday to talk to The Sun before taking the train to Seattle for another lecture. Here is an edited transcript.

Q: How did your crusade for biking start?

A: It started in 1984. There was 20 to 25 years where I did research on mass transit – transit systems around the world.

I was in Münster, Germany. I was a visiting professor at this university for a little bit more than two years. Well in Münster, 40 per cent of all trips are by bike. Stunned isn’t quite the right word. I was incredibly impressed by the fact that there were people in their 80s cycling, little kids cycling, more women then men cycling, people with certain kinds of disabilities cycling.

I thought, ‘Wow, everyone cycles. Even the bishop rides a bike!’

Read the full interview here.

Portland Tribune: Oregon hits 2010 emissions target

By Jesse from "Environmental News from our Community" via Environmental in Google Reader. Published on Jun 18, 2013.

Three years after the fact, Oregon can now boast that the state reached its first official milestone for stemming climate change — halting the growth of greenhouse gas emissions by 2010 and starting to reduce those emissions. But the state is nowhere near where it needs to be to hit its second milestone — ratcheting back greenhouse gas emissions to 10 percent below 1990 baseline levels by 2020... Read the full article at The Portland Tribune.

Headwaters Award presented to Scott Jenkins at Safeco event

By Jesse from "Environmental News from our Community" via Environmental in Google Reader. Published on Jun 18, 2013.

It was a pleasure to have you with us as we presented the Headwaters Award to Scott Jenkins for being the force behind the incredible increase in energy efficiency and dramatic reduction in waste at Safeco Field. We all soaked in the sun at the game, enjoyed good food and great conversation, and felt the wonderful support for clean and affordable energy...

Guest blog: Soil, our secret weapon against climate change

By suzanne from "Environmental News from our Community" via Environmental in Google Reader. Published on Jun 17, 2013.

Soil—humble, lowly, everyday dirt—is an essential, irreplaceable, and strategic resource. Fertile topsoil sustains our food systems and forests and, it turns out, stores a whole lot of carbon in the process.