seattleDIRT

In an attempt to make denser town houses blend in with Craftsman bungalows, Seattle codes created a hybrid – half house and half high-rise – that satisfies no one. Architects who see the result as a failed compromise between nostalgia and affordability are pushing for more innovative design rules. Seattle Times 07/12/2009

It’s a fixture in salt-stained parking lots. And it could help Canadian cities exploit the next wave of electric vehicles. The same outlets used to keep car engine blocks warm in the winter can be used to power electric vehicles year-round, avoiding the need for extensive infrastructure in which more temperate cities would have to invest. Vancouver Sun 07/12/2009

For some – particularly those unnerved by the persistent din of modern, motorized civilization – the relative quiet of electric vehicles is a welcome virtue. At the same time, that silence is a potential hazard to blind pedestrians, bicyclists, children and others. New York Times 07/12/2009

In pending legislation and in proposed federal regulations, the push for food safety is butting up against the movement toward biologically diverse farming methods. Scorched-earth strategies – bulldozed ponds, cleared vegetation and poisoned wildlife – are being imposed on hundreds of thousands of acres in the quest for an antiseptic field of greens. San Francisco Chronicle 07/12/2009

When Sherie Brace is in physical therapy, she uses the quiet time to think about things that need to get done. Lately, medical insurance tops that list. As a Washington resident who can’t afford health insurance and gets coverage through the state’s Basic Health Plan, she now faces higher rates, a move that’s expected to cause as many as 17,000 people to drop out of the program. KUOW 07/12/2009

It’s one of the great American summer pastimes: Lathering the car up with soap on a sunny afternoon. Now, officials in Washington and elsewhere are telling residents to either take that old ride to the car wash, or hold the soap and wash the car over gravel or grass to filter the dirty water. Oregonian 07/12/2009

On Saturday, the first passengers will board the Sound Transit trains from Westlake Center through Rainier Valley to Tukwila – putting behind them nearly a century of failed proposals to build a big transit system through Seattle. Seattle Times 07/12/2009

Henry Bierlink’s nightmare scenario is seeing WA’s Whatcom County become like the Puyallup Valley: Rich soils ideal for farming covered in condos instead. County leaders agree farmland is invaluable, but some question their commitment to the hard – and expensive – choices to preserve it. Bellingham Herald 07/13/2009

In a car, you’d cover the hundred miles of the southern third of the Oregon coast in a couple of hours, and you’d think, How gorgeous! But on a bike, you don’t so much view the scenery as absorb it with every sense and muscle. New York Times 07/12/2009