I’ve actually told people that housing doesn’t want to be solved by politicians because it’s an endless political campaign and busy work for policy. When housing wasn’t a political issue it was solved so boringly (fewer regulations, private sector just built). Now it’ll never get resolved
Makes for amazing LinkedIn posts for high ranking planning officials though. Live blog. Daily reports. So stunning! Yeah and you can allow it in your city, you’re in charge
The US is all academic. We don’t actually want any of this because we may have to change a code or watch an area change. So we just write about it, talk about it, visit it, but never do any of it.
kroyers plads hits 10 years old this year
stunning project.
i've seen lots of US planners and architects reference it
but it's 100% illegal to build in every part of the US
www.detail.de/de_en/succes...
And Copenhagen and Milan and. And. And.
We may figure it out one day
I agree. It’s too experimental. I guess only Vancouver can have it
The proposal is not aspirational, it’s possible. The tunnel will still get built but it’ll be shallower and will drop costs by 15B and save the system (while improving it).
It’s called VE. Every design firm on the planet has done it
Have you seen the drawings for Ballard? They’re single line no grids or structural. They are completely conceptual. I have changed entire building designs at later stages
What is with the Urbanist community suddenly coming out in unison against this idea while defending the status quo?
every urbanist who shared this is tacitly acknowledging they get horny about bollards and people who care about bollards, perhaps it even emboldened them to have some frank talks
And get to board walking over that little carpet thing they have for first class at the gate
Exactly. Nothing is lost from the concept Scott Kubly put out, if anything it’s only gains
-$15B cheaper
-more frequency
-moves more people
-saves the whole program
-expandable for future lines
-can be used for Line 4
No brainer
And make no mistake, I know plenty of developers who liked my Aurora ideas and would like to help spark change there but MHA fees told them it was more worth it to build that stuff north of 145th and Aurora (and they did)
So we lost all their $ not just MHA fees
When MHA started it doubled what the Office of Housing got for affordable housing. Since then OH has gotten a lot more $ and this program is declining anyways and only funds 6%. We can get rid of it. If it generates thousands of new market rate homes it’s worth the loss of revenue
It’s a risk to cut half the Ballard line too
This program has cost more than all of that
This program no longer works. It doesn’t deliver enough affordable housing to justify keeping the program that’s very much part of the cause of a 90% drop in housing starts in Seattle.
The fact it had support from NIMBYs was the red flag we never recognized. They knew it would kill development and it has
It’s the 3rd highest cost for developers after soft and hard costs. It kills housing. Period. The drop is more severe here than surrounding areas of the metro. It was a noble concept but failed in practice. Baltimore has cheap land. We don’t.
Yep and nobody wants to hear that (since like 1/3rd of the board lives in WS along with every other powerful current or former politician)
I’d make the argument that every historic building they try to prop up to stop development is unsafe because it’s out of seismic and fire safety code.
If we build Ballard to WS as a separate automated system it may not even need to be buried at all. Not even downtown. But let’s cross that under design decisions after taking a tiny bit of time confirming the ROM savings first. If we can’t have that convo now we are just Bruce Harrell status quo
I’m actually baffled this is even an argument anymore. Why do the trains from Ballard have to be 4 long on 6 min frequency? Just so they can go down to Federal Way and Tacoma for some reason? Same for W Seattle. These people are going downtown and we can achieve that for less with better service
Yes, it will lower costs. The stations are smaller and shallower. It won’t have to go under the existing DSTT
That alone is enormous savings. It’s undeniable.
Glad to see the new SDCI Director Sam Steele put this historic preservation board in their place for trying to block this
“We’re the authority having jurisdiction on this,” Steele said.”
www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...
We are under attack
bsky.app/profile/bret...
Correct. And this automated train system delivers a 2nd tunnel and saves $15B. Why isn’t everyone on board?
The fact this came out after I posted car free pike place and many others soon followed (weather was nice!) I know I’m part of the inspiration and I am flattered actually!