The Cascade Agenda works to preserve quality of life in the region and improve the livability of cities, towns and neighborhoods - making them complete, compact and connected.  As The Agenda says, we want our cities to be more alive and interesting than they are today, with neighborhoods where it is possible to live, work and play without needing a car. We will succeed in making our region environmentally sustainable if we find a way to redirect growth from the fringes and into our cities and towns.  That means cities need to be an attractive place for families to live - when families choose to make their home in cities, they help to save the region’s natural and working lands from poorly planned development.
There is another trend developing -- America is starting to rethink growth, and not just to save our natural and working lands. Compact growth goes beyond open space conservation. While the justifications vary, it appears that the rest of the country is catching on to the idea that the post-50s suburban auto-dependent suburbs might not be the smartest way to grow.

Auto-dependent development will be the next phase of the energy debate according to the Wall Street Journal (Feb,4). Driving has continued to increase in the United States - from 1977-2001 it increased by 151%. The WSJ logically argues that more fuel efficient cars will not make a big impact if Americans are driving those fuel-efficient cars twice as far.

It’s not just energy consumption. Compact walkable development also focuses on the health of the community.  The New York Times wrote in September on another consequence linked to auto-dependent development - the growing problem of obesity in this nation. The Times cited studies that link American’s auto dependency to obesity, hypertension, asthma and mental disorders like anxiety and depression.  The Surface Transportation Policy Project, for example, found that while 71 percent of parents with school aged-children once walked to school themselves, 18 percent of their own children walk to school.

Cities are catching on. The Economist wrote about urban parks being back in fashion. Denver opened an 80-acre park last September, New York plans to build a huge park on top of a landfill on Staten Island and Orange County, California, is planning a 1,350-acre park to restore a military base, create a recreation facility and conserve an ecologically important stream.

While cities are catching on, presidential candidates are not. An opinion piece in the New York Times by The Brookings Institution discusses the lack of clear urban policy from presidential candidates. Healthcare, Iraq and education are clearly forefront in debates and position papers, but candidates are negligent in not addressing tough issues like the nation’s lack of investment in infrastructure and transportation funding for cities, even though metropolitan areas, with their concentration of population, employment and innovation drive the economic prosperity of the nation – the 100 largest metro areas generate 75 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product.

Smart Growth America, The Urban Land Institute and the Congress for the New Urbanism have been calling for a new approach to how we build and invest in our communities for years; now it appears the nation is starting to listen.

The City of Kirkland, WA - a Cascade Agenda Member City - earned national recognition  by the Environmental Protection Agency on February 7th, 2008, for its outstanding community planning and strategies that support active aging and smart growth. Kirkland continues to lead in smart growth by offering a walkable neighborhood for its residents. It was the first City in the State of Washington to adopt a Complete Streets Ordinance and will be investing $6 million to improve sidewalk connections between commercial and residential developments over the next six years.

 By Cary Moon,  Director and Co-founder of the People's Waterfront Coalition

The Cascade Agenda’s “big tent” accommodates a wide range of groups, organizations and ideas.  Toward that goal, we invited Carry Moon of the People’s Waterfront Development to share with us where her organization stands on the issue.  The Cascade Agenda has not taken a position on any of the suggested replacements for the viaduct.

The very public brawl over the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement and the future of Seattle’s downtown waterfront has gone strangely quiet in the media. What’s going on?

From the 2001 Nisqually earthquake until a year ago, elected officials were aiming toward a goal imposed by WSDOT: tear down the viaduct and build another bigger highway in its place. As plans took shape, there was much squabbling about what kind of highway and how much to pay for it. In March of 2007, a stubborn political standoff between the City (pushing for the more expensive partial tunnel) and the state (pushing for the slightly cheaper but elevated option) culminated in a public vote. The result: No and Hell No. “There will be no highway on our central waterfront,” Mayor Greg Nickels declared.

Since then, the political log-jam has broken free.  And remarkably, just about everything has changed with this project. The goals have shifted; the solution now must provide mobility and accessibility to people (not cars!) and freight. It must also enhance the economy, help achieve a great civic waterfront, and help meet our shared commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.

Where before planners narrowly focused on expanding one segment of highway, they are now optimizing the network for everyone’s mobility. They’re considering all the tools in the toolbox: boosting transit, improving the efficient use of street capacity, tolling, smart traffic management, improving biking facilities, fixing the problems on I-5, giving freight priority, reducing demand through incentives, fostering more compact development, etc. Consultants are now on the job, led by Nelson Nygaard and Glatting Jackson, national leaders in innovative transportation systems.

Before, WSDOT seemed driven to serve a 1950s suburban dream: bigger highways, more car-dependent development, more driving, still bigger highways -- and on and on. While Seattle’s future vision moved away from that dream in the past 20 years, the state agency and its funding mechanisms didn’t.  This bias toward cars met with a clash – cultural, financial, and practical -- in Seattle in 2007.

Mayor Nickels, Executive Sims and Governor Gregoire are working together now, focused on achieving a solution that works for Seattle’s future vision and a shared commitment to reducing tailpipe emissions.

This transformation bodes well for local transportation decisions – heck, all big civic decisions - in the future. The waterfront is a nexus for many of our generation’s biggest challenges – its future will shape our City’s identity, it will define quality of life for the 40,000 new residents headed downtown, it will represent Seattle’s commitment to stewardship of Puget Sound. The transportation solution we pick will shape growth patterns and lifestyle options for the next few generations.
 
It should serve the City’s future vision, not drive it.

The non-highway solution coming together in the new planning process is perfectly viable. And it offers a much larger package of wins:  it provides excellent alternatives to car-dependence for more citizens, it opens up valuable waterfront public land for civic use, it increases connectivity between neighborhoods, and it’s a lot gentler to construct than a decade-long megaproject. Best, it’s an investment in becoming the kind of place where people can live and work and shop and play without relying on the car for everything. This holistic approach to city-building offers emissions reductions and economic benefits that compound over time as the city grows. Ten years from now, maybe we’ll see the viaduct battle was the tipping point, and the closing of the age of highway expansion. That sounds like a pretty solid legacy.

People's Waterfront Coalition 

Congressman Dave Reichert (R- 8th Congressional District) introduced legislation this fall to expand the Alpine Lakes Wilderness by approximately 22,000 acres and include the Pratt River in the National Wild and Scenic River Systems.  The spectacular mountains and vast forests of the Alpine Lakes region are a part of what makes Snoqualmie Pass such a special destination. Cascade Land Conservancy supports this proposal and the legislation has been given broad praise from local community leaders, politicians and environmental and recreation groups. Reichert’s early outreach to stakeholders including the Summit at Snoqualmie, the Snoqualmie tribe, and local elected officials should be recognized. For more information about this proposal please go to Congressman Reichert’s website.

  Survey Monkey Survey