# Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell teased a few urbanist-minded initiatives as he delivered his annual state of the city speech on Tuesday, putting support behind a push to pedestrianize Pike Place and launched a new "Northern Lights" vision to remake Aurora Avenue. Exactly when either change would occur remains unclear.| The Urbanist - Examining urban policy to improve cities and quality of life.
# Seattle's land use code is ill-equipped to handle the scale of permits that will be required to approve the city's next light rail lines. This proposed overhaul is intended to ensure transit remains on schedule.| The Urbanist - Examining urban policy to improve cities and quality of life.
# A quiet change to the spending categories in Seattle's dedicated transit funding measure mean that the City of Seattle will be able to hire dozens of staff to work on different aspects of Sound Transit planning.| The Urbanist - Examining urban policy to improve cities and quality of life.
# Today, Sound Transit ruled out late-breaking South Lake Union station alternatives for Ballard Link. Major business lobbied hard for the late "shifted west" additions, but it wasn't enough to win over the board.| The Urbanist - Examining urban policy to improve cities and quality of life.
# A new aquarium and "Overlook Walk" to Pike Place Market headline a revamped Seattle Waterfront just one year away from its grand opening, all made possible by tearing down the Alaskan Way Viaduct.| The Urbanist - Examining urban policy to improve cities and quality of life.
# Seattle's largest civic campus and most centrally located swath of public open space has a new leader, following city council's unanimous approval for Marshall Foster to become the head of the City department that oversees the Seattle Center. Foster had been selected by a City search team after serving for nearly a decade as the| The Urbanist - Examining urban policy to improve cities and quality of life.
# Late changes to add curving nine-foot-wide bottlenecks and remove bollards will hinder the new bike path. On Seattle's waterfront, visitors are now able to get a fairly good idea of the final form the long-planned redevelopment will take even though a final ribbon-cutting is still close to two years away. The Overlook Walk and the| The Urbanist - Examining urban policy to improve cities and quality of life.
# Despite significantly increased costs, the Sound Transit board is full steam ahead on advancing West Seattle Link to full design. What could that mean for the entire Sound Transit 3 plan?| The Urbanist » Advocacy journalism for better cities.
# The Sound Transit board approved the route for West Seattle Link Thursday, clearing the way for engineering work that will advance the project to 80% design by 2027. Opponents cited worries that rising project costs would jeopardize light rail extensions to Tacoma and to Everett.| The Urbanist » Advocacy journalism for better cities.
Constantine Defends Bus Electrification Focus as King County Metro Service Lags| The Urbanist