A conversation with Seattle
What’s most disruptive about the technology of driverless cars might be the economics of scale they offer, making their use more of a mandate than any legal requirement. It seems rational to spend $30,000 on a car, until it doesn’t. Continue reading Op-Ed: Who Will Own the Driverless Car?
Political fights over new terminals dedicated to coal were the first to crop up. But as people have had the chance to see the mile-plus-long trains click-clacking by, cars uncovered so that coal dust can blow off along the whole route, opposition to the whole prospect has stiffened. Continue reading Coal’s Long Black Trains Are A-Comin’ on Downtown, Seattle
The view above is of the near term–so long, SoDo!–but it gets very exciting around around 2100, when Lake Washington joins once again with Puget Sound. That requires a rise of about nine feet. Hard to credit? Their summary notes that: “Global warming has raised sea level about eight inches since 1880, and the rate of rise is accelerating.” Continue reading Hey, Seattle! Time to Play “Who Drowns First?”
These two findings are not necessarily contradictory. It’s possible that restaurants, lacking volume, have passed on higher prices to fewer customers, and gross receipts are up. It’s possible that the changes have created distinct winners and losers among restaurants. Many things are possible. But what we can be sure of is that gross receipts are up, which you wouldn’t assume was a bad thing, at first glance. Continue reading In Seattle, Parking is the Best of Times & Worst of Times
One clear difference between Portland and Seattle’s street food scenes is the more communal nature of Portland’s street food pods, where, leasing private space, seven or eight street food vendors might set up semi-permanently in a street food caravan. This way, they create street food destinations in neighborhoods throughout Portland. (It’s the same principle that’s activated the Madison & 12th Avenue area, for instance, where Lark, Canon, Cafe Presse, and Stumptown have clustered together.) Continue reading What We Talk About When We Talk About Seattle Street Food
Let’s not let an unhappily-framed Times story set this debate, though, or we’ll be here all week, with precedent set for succeeding weeks. None of us has reason to suspect Chinatown restaurants of crying wolf over declining business–and the question of what’s causing the decline can be considered separately from what’s to be done about it. Blakeney himself mentions the impact from the “incredible amount of construction and loss of parking in South Downtown,” having to do with the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement project. Continue reading Chinatown’s Paid Parking Mystery Continues to Unfold
Someone hit by a car traveling at 40 miles per hour has an over-80-percent chance of being killed. At 30, it’s still 37 to 45 percent. But at 20, it’s just five percent.
The key factors are stopping time and response time–at 20 miles per hour, the driver is in control of their car, and can stop before hitting someone. As you increase speed, you have less time to respond, while stopping distance increases. Continue reading The War on Running People Down in the Street