Election Day: Burke, Democracy, and a Vision of the City
It’s difficult on Election Day for me to not get historical and philosophical about the big day. This year there seems to be a lot at stake for people across the country and right here at home. When I consider our democracy I can’t help but think about Edmund Burke, perhaps the most overlooked of […]
Here We Go Again: Opposing Growth and Housing Using Preservation
Last year we managed to face down and avoid former Councilmember Tom Rasmussen’s efforts to create what he called Preservation Districts in neighborhoods. That effort would have allowed neighbors to essentially declare a moratorium on anything changing in their vicinity by requiring what would amount to a vote on any new housing or commercial project. […]
Tale of Two Maps: Seattle Mayor and Council Draw New Redline
National Geographic has a very interesting post called, “Newly Released Maps Show How Housing Discrimination Happened.” The post highlights a project called Mapping Inequality led by Nathan Connolly, an urban historian at Johns Hopkins University and others at the National Archives that digitized maps made by the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation known as HOLC. The HOLC was […]
