Growth

KUOW Newsroom

Friday politics: Is Seattle's Showbox deal an 'ugly, unfair' mini-victory?

Angela King talks with political analysts C.R. Douglas and Joni Balter about a deal that could keep the music venue in business in downtown Seattle.

KUOW Newsroom

In Rainier Beach, neighbors have a dream, but developers are holding cards close to their chests.

In Rainier Beach, non-profit groups want any development that comes in to help the neighbors who live there now. And development seems likely, as recent upzones raise the height limit on some properties from four stories to twelve. Developers are holding their cards close to their chests. Rainier Beach is prepared to turn to civil disobedience if developers don’t listen.

KUOW Newsroom

In Rainier Beach, home owners hope to survive Seattle upzones

Nowhere more than Rainier Beach is both the promise and the threat of growth so apparent.

Backyard apartments under consideration, again, in Seattle

Rules to allow more backyard cottages and mother-in-law units could get approved in Seattle in the next four weeks.

KUOW Newsroom

These West Seattle businesses need affordable housing to survive

You might think the high cost of housing is mostly a problem for renters. But in the West Seattle Junction neighborhood, it’s also a threat to some small businesses. They’re wondering if affordable housing built under MHA rules will come soon enough to save them.

Seattle’s push for more backyard cottages could get a boost from Olympia

Lawmakers in Olympia support backyard cottages for different reasons, but their goals are the same: To increase density in urban single family neighborhoods where the cost of housing continues to rise. The product of their efforts could be a statewide law that leapfrogs Seattle’s proposed new backyard cottage law, currently delayed by a legal dispute.

The new levy would almost double parks spending.

King County is asking voters to tax themselves to improve parks and trails. We probably will.

Microsoft puts $500M toward housing crisis; says tech partly to blame for homelessness

President Brad Smith connected the tech boom with homelessness and lack of affordable housing.

'I hope we grow tender enough, again.' Seattle's Youth Poet Laureate captures Seattle's growing pains

Azura Tyabji says the city’s rapid growth this last year embodies her own childhood.

SoundQs

So why does Seattle's economy have to grow, exactly? A Seattle question for the ages

Rapid economic growth has been leading to problems in Seattle for a long time. Back 1950s, a satirical group called “Lesser Seattle” was created to combat that by telling the world how crappy (and rainy) life is here in Seattle.