Joshua McNichols

The earthquake is coming. Is old Seattle worth saving? Seattle’s unreinforced brick buildings are a disaster waiting to happen — and the cash to fix them isn’t there.

The Nisqually quake happened almost 25 years ago (February 2001). It was deep underground, where the old seafloor deforms before breaking apart in the hot, sometime molten mantle. A modest quake on the shallow Seattle Fault would do far more damage locally - more than the "Big One" people fear.

In an extraordinary show of support, this community of listeners and local businesses raised $1.4M to support KUOW Public Media in a single day. We’re so lucky to be have so many people committed balanced journalism in Seattle.

+1. Public media plays a critical role in fostering an informed public and all these news orgs need our help to weather this unpredictable period.

KUOW statement: Congress votes to rescind public media funding Today, Congress voted to rescind $1.1 billion in federal funding for public media that had been approved earlier this year. This funding was intended to support public broadcasters through fiscal year...

Congress voted to claw back money already awarded to public media. News orgs like KUOW must now immediately raise money to stabilize.

Supporting transparent/balanced journalism is a choice. We're asking KUOW listeners to consider the value it provides.

www.kuow.org/stories/cong...

Will tariffs bring back the lumberjack? Could President Donald Trump's strategies help revive Washington's diminished timber industry?

We went in with a question: Is the lumber industry one place where tariffs could work as intended?
The answer is more complicated.
It's all on the latest episode of our podcast, Booming.
Here's a version you can read: www.kuow.org/stories/will...

How Seattle could raise more money by lowering most business taxes Seattle leaders want to give the city’s business tax system a makeover. Wealthy companies like Amazon could end up paying more and small businesses, like restaurants, could end up paying nothing.

Federal money go down.
Tax on Amazon go up.

www.kuow.org/stories/how-...

Love it.

Oh, wow. It's the graphic version of my headline.

I wonder if banks begin to see a payoff from dense, walkable communities. Certainly Richard Florida has been saying for years that this is the lifestyle that attracts young workers. I wonder if the smaller neighborhood centers in Seattle's comprehensive plan would provide that evidence for them.

Thank you, Scott

Housing, trees, and parking: In Seattle, you can pick two We can’t have all three. Not in equal measure. Right now, trees are slowly losing. But with sufficient incentives in place, that could change.

KUOW actually ran two stories on trees and housing today. Here's mine: www.kuow.org/stories/seat...

Who is going to be the first developer to submit a permit application under Seattle's new interim zoning rules, which allow more middle housing?

Assuming they pass today.

I guess I didn’t get out of the way of your camera after all 😆

I'm grateful that we have such a strong network of listeners who provide financial support. They help protect the mission of public media. Still, the potential loss of this funding would be a big blow.

Black homeownership program offers hope, but can it help people afford Seattle houses? Today in Seattle's Central District neighborhood, the number of Black homeowners has reached a historic low. And across Seattle, less than half as many Black households own homes as white families.

New episode of KUOW’s economics podcast, Booming

www.kuow.org/stories/prog...

Do townhomes drive down housing costs? Science has an answer Townhomes are cheaper to build than single-family homes. Homebuyers and renters may not see savings though, unless a lot more homes hit the market. In our continuing coverage of Washington State's lan...

This was a key story for me to understand housing supply and demand: www.kuow.org/stories/does...

I see it kind of like stories about technology and retraining. As a whole economy, new technologies generally create more jobs than they destroy. But some populations are less likely to get the retraining necessary to make that transition.

Undoubtedly downzoning is a root cause, and upzoning is critical to reverse that. I've written that story many times, having heard it from academics consistently over years.
That's not the focus of this story though. Here I've been looking into unequal impacts.

Thank you. Working on a story about this topic.

Hey Matt, where’s that stat from?
I’m looking for tree/development-related stats

If you're interested in this topic, I'm working on a longer story about the program to air on KUOW's economics podcast, Booming, next week.

Housing advocates hope other bills passed this legislative session could increase the stock of starter homes like this - at least when interest rates go down and builders feel free to start on new projects again.

The expanded program could unlock the door on pricier markets like Seattle. It won't buy a fancy house, but it can cover the cost of some starter homes, such as the new crop of condos being built through Habitat for Humanity.

In practice, the existing program mostly helps buyers in less expensive parts of King and Pierce Counties. That's because the higher cost of housing in Seattle means families could earn too much to qualify for the program, but not enough to buy a home there.

The expanded program increases the income someone can make, and still qualify for the program, to 120% of the Area Median Income, or AMI. 
It also makes the low interest loans that cover down payment and closing costs forgivable, after awhile - for people earning under 80% of AMI.

Rep. Jamila Taylor said the expansion is both legal and long overdue.
“we're holding true to the promise to those who have been denied for many, many generations.”

  Many Republicans, like Legislator Travis Couture, opposed the bill to expand the program, saying it’s unconstitutional and expensive.
“ We don't have money falling off the trees around here.”
But the program includes its own funding source: fees on certain legal documents.

"We use military records. We use death certificates. We use school records. Their grandparents attended Garfield High School, for example. Seattle Public Schools does an amazing job of record keeping. So, if there's a resource out there, we're gonna find it,” Talton said.

That means a Black home buyer, for example, would need paperwork showing a grandparent or parent lived here then.
Jessica Talton is a real estate lender in Kent, Washington.
She's helped over 70 families prove their qualifications.

Rep. Jamila Taylor's bill expands the Covenant Homeownership Program, which provides down payment assistance to first time home buyers whose parents, grandparents, or great grandparents of people who were shut out of real estate by racist covenants & redlining in Washington State before 1968.