Lauren

Spokane nominated for Strongest Town competition Spokane is a Strong Town (or city?), we all know that but now the nation has a chance to take note as well as Spokane is one of 16 cities ...

www.inlandnwbusiness.com/2026/03/spok...

Neighborhood Cafe and Corner Store Bill Fails for Third Straight Year » The Urbanist # The failure of HB 1175 to make it to the state Senate floor mirrors a similar fate two years ago. Bill sponsor Mark Klicker placed the decision to let the neighborhood cafe bill die squarely on Loca...

NEW STORY // Neighborhood Cafe and Corner Store Bill Fails for Third Straight Year

By Ryan Packer via @theurbanist.org.

www.theurbanist.org/2026/03/02/n...

Strongest Town Contest 2026 Developing a safe, inviting, financially resilient town is hard work. It’s time to recognize the work being done. Nominate your town for the 2026 Strongest Town Contest.

We're in!

Spokane Reimagined entered @spokanecity.org in the Strongest Town competition organized by the national urbanist nonprofit @strongtowns.org.

Towns move through a March Madness-style bracket, with public votes dictating who moves ahead.

Voting begins TODAY!

www.strongesttown.com

Anakin and Padme meme: Safety is our first priority Higher than LOS, right? ... Higher than LOS, right?

Me talking to the city engineer about the new Vision Zero plan.

US-Israeli strike on girls' school kills at least 85 students, Iran's judiciary says At least 85 students have been killed in US-Israeli strikes that hit an Iranian girls' school in Hormozgan province, Iran's judiciary said on Saturday. Washington has not commented on the reported str...

We killed 85 schoolgirls. We are not the good guys.

Sketchy rendering of our next middle housing project in Spokane, by CAST architecture, Heartland and Heritage Housing Company.

It is happening! We're going to build more middle housing in Spokane!

State Senate Signs Onto Billions of New Debt for Highway Upkeep » The Urbanist # The $2 billion in new bonding in the Senate's transportation budget would help bolster the state's highway and bridge maintenance budget, which has lagged due to longstanding prioritization of new h...

After decades of prioritizing new highway projects ahead of basic maintenance, the Washington Senate wants to add $2 billion in new debt to pay for state highway and bridge upkeep.

The state transportation budget is already 11.6% debt service.
www.theurbanist.org/2026/02/24/s...

New meta-analysis of 26 published studies concludes that AVs will lead people to use cars a lot more — which would thicken congestion and worsen pollution (even if AVs are electric).

"AV deployment is anticipated to lead to an overall increase in Vehicle Miles Traveled."

doi.org/10.1016/j.tb...

Washington House majority leader admits to being drunk during budget vote OLYMPIA – House Majority Leader Joe Fitzgibbon has issued an apology after showing up intoxicated during Wednesday evening’s House Appropriations Committee meeting.

Are we confident we’re sending our best and brightest to Olympia? Yikes

www.spokesman.com/stories/2026...

Don’t look now, but this year’s condo reform bill has passed both houses of #waleg! 🎊 🎉

#HB2304 allows builders to provide a simpler 2-10 warranty (the same as offered for new-build oneplexes) for projects of up to 4 stories/12 units. The bill heads to the governor’s desk for signature.

“Oneplexes” 😂😂😂

Police Officer Accused of Tracking Partner Using License Plate Reader The Milwaukee officer used the technology to run searches on his partner’s plate 124 times, officials said, and he also tracked the person’s ex.

A Milwaukee police officer was criminally charged after using license plate recognition technology to surveil a person he was dating and the person’s ex for two months last year, the authorities said.

Preach. Fwiw I attended a panel of state reps and senators at a safety summit last year and literally walked out of the panel because they started blaming native folks for getting hit by drivers while walking along state highways

Disappointments in the WA leg session:

- killed 0.5 BAC
- killed neighborhood cafes
- killed presumed liability laws for drivers who hit folks on foot or bike

What are we even doing. Do we have a dem majority or what

Washington House Approves Neighborhood Cafe Bill in Early Floor Vote » The Urbanist # House Bill 1175 requires local governments to allow corner stores and cafes, but gives them wide latitude to regulate them. A nearly unanimous floor vote early in session signals momentum for the bi...

Also dead this week: the neighborhood cafe bill, despite a 94-2 vote in the House on the fourth day of the session.

It didn't even get a hearing in Senate local government.
www.theurbanist.org/2026/01/16/w...

Over 2,000 drunk driver cars seized in Latvia in three years In Latvia, the law allows for the confiscation of drunk drivers' cars for three years. During this time, more than two thousand vehicles have been seized. Some of them end up at auctions, while others...

I keep thinking about drunk driving penalties in Latvia (BA limit .05, .02 for new drivers). As of 2022, if you're caught with a BAC of .15 or refuse a test, your car is confiscated & either auctioned or donated to Ukraine. This new policy has (unsurprisingly) reduced DUIs

Washington state legislators once again standing up for my right to drive a little bit drunk

It’s ok, at least the legislature *checks notes* spent some time thinking about snowmobile registration fees

What a fucking joke

Missing in the middle of WA's middle housing: Elevators A bill still in play in the Washington Legislature would make elevators easier and less expensive to install in "middle housing" developments.

"You might think that our rules about elevators would help wheelchair users, but they can inadvertently achieve the opposite: overkill in elevator code kills elevators."

Thank you @ceceliablack.bsky.social for spelling this out so clearly!

www.seattletimes.com/opinion/miss...

It went well, I think. I had a couple questions but the commission provided generally quite positive feedback on the ordinance language. I’m not sure what the next step is — I hope it’s that it’s brought to council.

So yeah, why should I (urban homeowner) subsidize those who, in this warming climate, choose to buy/build where fire danger is extremely high?

I got so much shit on Reddit once for saying I didn’t want to subsidize the insurance for those living on the urban wildland interface.

“That’s what insurance is; the healthy subsidize the unhealthy.” etc

Important distinction between health insurance and home insurance: YOU CHOOSE WHERE TO LIVE

Pleasantly surprised that our judicial system actually levied justice for a ped killed by a driver.

Feels so rare these days.

That counts!

He is right, things are not looking good for the neighborhood cafe bill.

TC isn’t perfect but it’s a big improvement.

I’m sure there are boards within those 70 that could be consolidated!

The consolidation of 4 (iirc) boards into the Transportation Commission worked pretty well imo.

The boards were struggling to reach quorum, staff would make the same presentation multiple times because remits overlapped — yet some important topics weren’t within any board’s remit.

For those who think it important for the Nation to impose more tariffs, I understand that today's decision will be dis-appointing. All I can offer them is that most major decisions affecting the rights and responsibilities of the American people (including the duty to pay taxes and tariffs) are funneled through the legislative process for a reason. Yes, legislating can be hard and take time. And, yes, it can be tempting to bypass Congress when some pressing problem arises. But the deliberative nature of the legislative process was the whole point of its design. Through that process, the Nation can tap the combined wisdom of the people's elected representatives, not just that of one faction or man. There, deliberation tempers impulse, and compromise hammers disagreements into workable solutions. And because laws must earn such broad support to survive the legislative pro-cess, they tend to endure, allowing ordinary people to plan their lives in ways they cannot when the rules shift from day to day. In all, the legislative process helps ensure each of us has a stake in the laws that govern us and in the Nation's future. For some today, the weight of those virtues is apparent. For others, it may not seem so obvious. But if history is any guide, the tables will turn and the day will come when those disappointed by today's result will appreciate the legislative process for the bulwark of liberty it is.

These words by Supreme Justice Gorsuch should be printed, in full, on tomorrow’s front pages.

Traffic violence is killing Spokanites. We need urgent action from our leaders to stop it.

Or perhaps their trucks don't need to be so large! Like what is unique about america that requires such larger trucks than other countries