Policy & Regulations
Seattle’s Revenues: Understanding Mayor Jenny Durkan’s Proposed Budget
Take a deep dive into the city's revenue sources.
See what changes Mayor Jenny Durkan is proposing on the spending side here. This story originally ran on SCC Insight. We tend to focus all our attention on the spending side of the city budget, but the revenue side is equally important: you need to know how much money you have to spend before you…
The Game That Saved Baseball in Seattle
On October 8, 1995, the Seattle Mariners played the New York Yankees in the Kingdome
This article appears in print in the September 2018 issue. Click here for a free subscription. It has been called the game that saved baseball in Seattle. On October 8, 1995, in the Kingdome, the Seattle Mariners went to extra innings against the New York Yankees in Game 5 of the American League Division Series….
King County’s New Northgate Development Plans Include Fewer Affordable Housing Units than Councilmembers Are Requesting
The county issued a new request for proposals for a transit-oriented development at the site
This story originally ran on SCC Insight. Last week, King County finally re-issued its RFP for a Transit-Oriented Development project in Northgate, next to the new light rail station. It fails to live up to its most significant promises. You may recall that King County withdrew its earlier RFP at the beginning of the summer…
New Analysis Delivers Bad News For Seattle’s Center City Streetcar Project
Breaking down today's news and looking ahead to Mayor Jenny Durkan's options for what's next.
This story originally ran on SCC Insight. On Friday afternoon, the Mayors Office released a summary report by KPMG on its analysis of the Center City Streetcar project. While it is still working on an analysis of the impact of buying longer, heavier streetcars, theres plenty of other bad news, and no timeline for a…
Mayor Durkan Nominates Debra Smith as New CEO of Seattle City Light
For the past five years, Smith has been the general manager of a utility company on Oregon's central coast
This story originally ran on SCC Insight. Mayor Jenny Durkan nominated Debra Smith to be the new CEO of Seattle City Light. According to Durkans press release, Smith is a 22-year veteran of the Pacific Northwest utility business. For the past five years, she has served as General Manager of Central Lincoln Peoples Utility District,…
What Will Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan Decide on the “Save the Showbox” Ordinance?
Signing the bill passed unanimously by the City Council seems likely, but could a deal with Onni be in the works?
This story originally ran on SCC Insight. On Aug. 13, the City Council voted 8-0 to add the site of the Showbox Theater to the Pike Place Historical District, granting it protection from a a 440-unit apartment redevelopment project proposed by Onni Development. But Mayor Durkan has yet to take action on the bill, despite…
Seattle Council President Launches New Committee on Homelessness and Affordable Housing
Bruce Harrell acknowledged that past work by the council has fallen short
This story originally ran on SCC Insight. Council President Bruce Harrell has announced the newest Council committee: the Select Committee on Homelessness and Housing Affordability. This new Select Committee, comprised of all nine Council members, is intended to be a new and more centralized approach focused on the homelessness issue… a transparent working committee that…
Appeals Court Dismisses Uber Drivers’ Lawsuit Challenging City of Seattle Policy
The latest decision in the ongoing dispute over ride-hail policy in the city of Seattle
This story originally ran on SCC Insight. Kevin Schofield wrote the April 2018 cover story of Seattle Business magazine on the city’s policies on ride-hail businesses like Uber and Lyft. Read the full story here. This year the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has heard two challenges to the City of Seattles ordinance authorizing collective…
What’s Happening With the Effort to Save the Showbox and Why it Should Frighten Seattle Business Owners
The Seattle City Council advanced an ordinance to save the theater, but how they're doing it raises big questions
This story originally ran on SCC Insight. On Wednesday, the Seattle City Council gave a master class in what happens when a land-use bill is rushed through the legislative process. The bill in question, introduced on Monday by Council member Kshama Sawant in an effort to Save the Showbox music venue from a developers proposal…
Breakdown: Safeco Field, a $180 Million Proposal and Seattle’s Lodging Tax
The King County Council is considering a proposal to direct tax revenue to expenditures at Safeco Field, enraging some who think the money should be spent on affordable housing
This story originally ran on SCC Insight. The King County Council is considering a proposal to allocate about $180 million of hotel and lodging tax revenues toward capital expenditures on Safeco Field. This is enraging community members who think that the money should be spent on affordable housing instead and certainly shouldnt be spent on…
What’s Next For KeyArena?
The Seattle City Council got an update on all the details for what's going on with the redevelopment project as construction nears. The cost for the project is now estimated to be north of $700 million.
This story originally ran on SCC Insight. The Seattle City Council was updated Thursday on the current status of negotiations with Oak View Group (OVG) on the renovation of KeyArena. It also advanced legislation to establish historic landmark controls on KeyArena and the adjacent Bressi Garage. As you may recall, after the MOU with Oak…
Making Sense of Seattle’s Center City Streetcar Mess
Will the new streetcar vehicles fit on the tracks? In the city's maintenance barns? What is happening here?
Weve been waiting months for a consultant report on the Center City Streetcar project, since Mayor Durkan put it on hold pending financial review earlier this year. But the end of June deadline for that report has come and gone. In the meantime, Durkan let slip a detail in a KUOW interview that has snowballed…
What’s Next For Seattle’s Downtown Bike Network?
The City Council and SDOT are establishing a new timeline. Here's the latest.
This story originally ran on SCC Insight. Its been a frustrating couple of years for downtown bike commuters. After the city adopted the Center City Bike Network plan in 2016 with a goal of having the network implemented downtown by 2020, later that year it put the plan on hold while it worked on the…