esexto.bsky.social
106 posts
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wtm?
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Yeah, it's absolutely an urban phenomenon. Though I'd love to see if Sunbelt centers that grew primarily post-WW2 tend to have larger schools.
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Going through the HCC program myself, I am very sympathetic to all of the concerns about the program. But the policies SPS has pursued seem unhelpful.
There is pretty rampant inequity with 504s + IEPs, I don't think that's a good reason to abolish it... www.wsj.com/articles/man...
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This was what happened at my nbd elementary school in Seattle - myself and a couple others were taken physically outside the classroom to do our 'advanced' reading.
There are problems with HCC, but I am unsure that making a show of physically removing the 'advanced' kids daily is much better...
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Seattle schools, especially elementary schools, really are quite small, even relative to our local 'burbs. The buildings date to pre-car times, and really are built to serve their neighborhoods in a reasonable walking distance.
But that does mean lower economies of scale.
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It depends on the context. Spectrum, which was SPS' program for 1-year acceleration, primarily in math, was traditionally done inside neighborhood schools in separate classrooms.
But when you start trying to do that for 2 years ahead, you can no longer actually fill a class at the local school.
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Access is a big issue - a lot of the uptake is really just network effects. Speaking from experience, lots of families don't want to force their kids into HCC (though some will) which means the kid gets input - and that input is often the same as with any other school: "What about my friends?"
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Bit of an unfair comparison - the Seattle network is much larger now than it was prior to the pandemic.
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The ratio out of all the people who showed up was probably at least two thirds YIMBY
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Unsurprisingly, with the sign up sheet opening at 4:30pm (and the line starting at 2:30pm) on a working day, the front of the line was disproportionately made up of retirees...
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One commenter called the YIMBYs "minions" for greedy developers.
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Luckily, YIMBYs are getting better at it. Was 89-75 despite lots of YIMBYs being cut off by weather.
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This is also totally biased towards the NIMBYs because of the early ending + YIMBYs generally signing up later and therefore being more likely to drop out entirely.
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It's also certainly lower than that. These are unique comments per phase of solicitation - but many who commented in the Spring also commented in the Fall, and in 2023, 2022, etc.
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Famously no summer block party in Capitol Hill…
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PBMs have absolutely taken over the pharmacy business and shuttered local pharmacies. But it's also because more and more consumers prefer to get their medicines by mail. It doesn't make sense to orient local land use policy around that.
U Village still even has a pharmacy at QFC!
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Katterman's is a 10 minute walk from the neighborhood center site.
They are literally advertising to former Bartell's customers right now on their website! kattermans.com
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It is true that these are all sort of merged routes, but the bottom line is that there are 7 buses coming in the next 30 minutes, and it's 9:30pm.
That's a bus every four minutes! At 9:30pm!
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At peak the 31/32 are 20 minute headways alternating, so you actually have 10 minute frequency here...
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Last one (these are all in different directions!), it’s another 10 minute walk to PCC and another park.
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I also forgot *another* shopping area, which is also a 10 minute walk in the park (literally through a park) to get you to a drug store, more restaurants, and City People.
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Also all of the places like Burke Gilman brewing, varlamos, etc.
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It is, of course, also a 10 minute uphill walk from an entirely different other commercial district, which has a coffee shop, popular restaurant and barbershop, among others.
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It’s a flat, 20 minute walk on the Burke from a regional shopping center, and a flat 10 minute walk from a local shopping district that has a sports shop, brewery, a hospital and barbershop, among others.
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The amount of people who fundamentally misunderstand HB 1110 is baffling
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It depends on the relative developability of each particular center, but yes maybe one 65ft building and then a couple 4-5 story ones, and then otherwise low rise.
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Some of this is probably recency bias (the commenters who spoke for Alternative 5 two years ago are almost certainly being discounted at this point), and there have been signs of change towards YIMBYs in the last ~three weeks.
But there was a real wave of NIMBY comments from October to January.
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OPCD will give their presentation tomorrow at 11:00am, but what we can see from this document is that comment prior to October was generally in favor of more density, whereas comments since have been more negative.
Unfortunately, there were also ~twice as many comments in the later period.
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This is from OPCD's presentation on public comment for the March Growth Strategy (what is in your screenshot) versus the October 2024 release of zoning maps:
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For states like Mississippi, Texas and Florida, the last decade has represented a massive success for their students. Scores in those states have all increased over the period.
For states like Washington, this is a stark reminder of how quickly a successful educational system can deteriorate.
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COVID resulted in significant declines in scores across the country - the national average dropped from 240 to 237 in those five years. But scores peaked in 2013 at 241.
NAEP data across states and years is available here: www.nationsreportcard.gov/profiles/sta...
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No, but there are areas currently zoned single-family that are proposed to be upzoned for 5-6 stories, which is probably what she means.
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Ah yeah, the number of units in the Mayor's plan is the same as Alternative 5. I feel the need to check where the city is putting those units they lost from cutting the corridors/neighborhood centers...
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It's actually more like 35 now!
Though the median adult (eligible voter) is older, and in 2023, the age gap between the median adult and the median *Mayoral voter* was 9 years...
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Isn't the upper bound the most intense alternative studied in the EIS, i.e., Alternative 5? The Mayor's plan includes a lot of those Alternative 5 elements, but to a lesser extent.
Legally, you could implement the studied-but-not-included Neighborhood Centers and full Corridors, no?
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Yep, refusing to build new housing stock has consequences.
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Not dismissing that single-family homes are inaccessible (most are not one-story stairless bungalows) but part of the picture on condos specifically is that because we've killed production, the existing stock is older and built under less accessible codes. The solution is building new condos!
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It's mostly not a city issue. The way liability law is formulated at the state level, insurance markets have to be priced such that building condos makes little sense in comparison to rental apartments or townhomes.
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Of course the actual housing parcels at SPCC are out. But the golf course, that’s fair game!
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(The page length of the Appendices also lines up with the page length she mentioned on the dais, it's definitely the Appendices)
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Rivera is probably talking about the Appendices - she's mentioned them before and half said it before she cut herself off. They were released on the 6th, and are the major change between the versions (because like you mention, there are otherwise few differences).
www.seattle.gov/documents/De...
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Loving that the Calvary Cemetery is identified here as eligible for stacked flats, as if someone is going to start building flats on burial grounds.
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I believe she is referring to the Appendix sections on things like utilities, not the utilities section in the plan itself.
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There is some of this existing, and of course the new NR code does have a carve out specifically for future developments. This is the example from OPCD’s presentation on the stacked flats bonus.
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One simple reason is that the 2019 condo reform only really came into effect recently because of the statute of limitations.
www.klgates.com/Lay-of-the-L...
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I am not surprised - the Association of Washington Cities has said plenty of nasty things about HB 1110 and all sorts of state-level housing reform. Cities generally don't like being preempted!