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Pedestrian Safety and the Nirvana Fallacy
Looked at this way, we might see our traffic system not as a failure, but as a remarkable success. Cars and pedestrians share spaces millions of times each day and billions of times each year, with very few fatalities.
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Strike Out. The Decline of Work Stoppage
The most powerful tool in the arsenal of organized labor has always been work stoppage, or strikes. But this tool has declined precipitously in American life.
What Do We Mean When We Talk About Suburbs?
The recent election played out against a backdrop of shifting voting patterns in suburbs. Or at least that is the way pundits characterized it. But what exactly is a suburb?…
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Is Boise Doomed?
Once the world discovers a place like Boise, it is hard to turn back. A critical mass of new, higher incomes tends to foster new amenities like restaurants and cultural…
Office Space: Empty Floors And More On The Way
The world of office work is clearly not going back to pre-pandemic patterns. It is also clear that many workers are anxious to return to people-centered environments. So the question…
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Fighting the Last War. . .Again
Maybe the most overused cliche in the political world: the generals are fighting the last war. But this time it really is true. The most prominent rationale for the new…
Union Representation: Slowing Decline, But Few Signs Of Recovery
Unionization clearly has benefits for many individuals who work for unionized employers, in terms of higher wages. But for the economy as a whole, it is difficult to see where…
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Airbnbs Running Out of Oxygen
The hospitality industry has taken a huge hit during the pandemic. How about the short-term rentals like Airbnb and VRBO? They might be considered a less risky alternative to large…
short takes
Yep, We Saved It All
Congress threw a stimulus party an nobody came: we didn’t spend the money. In the same month that Congress showered us with $138.4 billion, in the form of $600 checks,…
Transit At Year End: Flat But Not Broke
If work-from-home becomes more of the norm, there will be less traffic congestion and likely lower parking costs, taking away transit’s two main competitive advantages. Tax revenues will recover, so…
Retail in 2020: The Big Shift
Total retail sales in 2020 were down about 2 percent from what we might have expected in the absence of the pandemic. Within the overall retailing category, however, there were…
Covid: Recovering From The Holidays
The downward trend in the summer began to reverse itself as people went back indoors, and health authorities feared the impact of holiday travel and gatherings later in the fall.
School Enrollments: Where the Kids Are
Just as overall population growth is unevenly distributed around the region, so is growth in school enrollments. And the two are not as closely related as you might think.
Creeping Up On Normal
2021 is the year when everything goes back to normal, right? So, how close have we gotten? It turns out that in the aggregate, we are not too far off…
On The Move Again
Statewide, driver’s license trade ins were down 38 percent from last year. By later in the year, though, migration activity was picking up.
Paying For Their Ride
Vanpools are the most cost effective and energy efficient of the major forms of public transit.
recent features
Apartment Rents Continue to Fall
Apartment rents have continued their freefall across most of the Seattle area. But even with high vacancies, a lot of apartments are in the pipeline. In 2019, over 14,000 new…
North, to Idaho! From Golden to Gem
No state has grown faster than Idaho in the past five years. The primary source of growth: a big one-way pipeline from California to Idaho.
Grateful Dread: Our San Francisco Connection, Part II
A region that had been flying high for decades suddenly seems to have hit a slump. Is it contagious? Is Seattle’s social distance of 700 miles enough?
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