Tag Archives: environment

Time to prepare for 2023 Seattle smoke season

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Canadian wildfires will burn through the summer — this week, the winds could bring smoke to Seattle — You can view this fire and smoke map at ospo.noaa.gov

This summer began with the East Coast getting a taste of smoke season. Forecasters say the Pacific Northwest might also soon experience the haze and smoke from wildfire burning across Canada — mixed with smoke from new wildfires in Washington and lingering from Tuesday’s 4th of July celebrations.

Wildfires burning in Alberta and British Columbia and shifting weather conditions that are expected to bring winds from the north could lead to “smoke impacts in Washington this week. Continue reading →

‘Tree retention evaluation’ — City sorting out how to keep Cal Anderson’s maple trees and fix the sidewalk around the park

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Thanks to the many readers who have alerted us to the signs (Image courtesy a CHS reader)

Ominous “tree retention evaluation” signs that have gone up on the dozens of Red Sunset Maples surrounding Cal Anderson Park have caused a stir as Seattle experiences record May heat.

A city spokesperson’s words about the signs probably won’t do much to cool things down though the representative wanted it made clear the notices do not — necessarily — “indicate that we intend to remove these trees.”

“We value our tree canopy and all the benefits it provides. The purpose of the postings was to share information with the public about an upcoming evaluation and scheduled maintenance activities that have the potential to impact the trees,” the spokesperson tells CHS.

The City of Seattle’s transportation department says that the trees, many decades old, are being evaluated “to consider possible solutions to address sidewalk damage with minimal impact to the trees.”

The Seattle Department of Transportation says it is looking into whether the sidewalk alignment can be adjusted around the trees and is also considering “other possible solutions to preserve the trees in any areas where this is not feasible.” Continue reading →

Broadway banks targeted in ‘climate justice’ demonstrations

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(Image: 350 Seattle)

A couple Broadway banks were targeted Tuesday as part of climate justice demonstrations across Seattle and the country.

Groups including 350 Seattle say they organized the protests to bring attention to “Wall Street’s Continued Financing of Climate Destruction.”

Tuesday’s shutdowns included a joint action from 350 Seattle forced a temporary closure at the Wells Fargo at Broadway E and E Republican, the group says, “dealing with an ‘oil spill caused by corporate greed.” Meanwhile, the GreenFaith was reportedly “disrupting business with an interfaith worship service” at the Bank of America at Broadway E and E Thomas.

CHS isn’t aware of any arrests associated with this week’s Earth Day adjacent protests. Last month, Seattle Police complained of sabotage of one of its officer’s vehicles after “a pebble was found jammed into the stem” causing the car’s tire to deflate.

 

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Council notes: Committees take up Sawant’s late fee limits for renters, new protections for Seattle’s trees

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A flowering plum (Image: CHS)

Seattle City Council committees will have a busy Friday before the coming “spring break” week marked by many of the area’s schools and families with Kshama Sawant’s proposed legislation to limit late rent fees and new protections for the city’s trees on the agenda.

  • Sustainability and Renters’ Rights Committee will take up Sawant’s proposed legislation to limit the amount of fees charged for late payment of rent and for notices issued to tenants. CHS reported on the proposal here. The rules would cap late rent fees at $10 per month. The amount matches a limit put in place for tenants in unincorporated King County in 2021. A council staff report on the legislative proposal concludes the change won’t cost the city but “potential costs of outreach and enforcement” by the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections were not reflected in the analysis. Sawant’s office, meanwhile, says, some Seattle renters “have leases that charge an additional $40 or $50 every day the rent is late” and some landlords hit late paying tenants with additional late fee notice delivery fees. The proposed legislation would also ban those delivery fees. The Stay Housed Stay Healthy coalition of 30 community organizations including Real Change support the proposal. ”All large late fees accomplish is punishing the most vulnerable members of our community even when they’ve gotten caught up on rent,” the coalition wrote in support of the legislation. The committee could vote on the proposal Friday and send it on for a vote at the full council.
  • The councils’ Land Use Committee will debate a raft of proposals to extend new tree protections to the city’s urban canopy as a group of experts has come out against the legislation. The newly formed Seattle Arborist Association representing 200 professional arborists says the proposals will hurt the city’s canopy, not help it:
    The draft ordinance “not only disincentivizes tree ownership,” the letter writes, it “burdens qualified tree professionals” who care for and manage Seattle’s urban forest. Besides calling out “technical errors and lack of industry standards” in the code, SAA also calls out the code for missing its intended impact. Throughout the letter, SAA argues that the City’s tree service restrictions could have an adverse impact on the goal of increasing canopy coverage by 2037.
    Urbanists, meanwhile, say the new regulations could slow much needed housing development. CHS reported here on the proposals that backers say would create incentives and code flexibility to better protect trees, include more trees in the regulations, plant or replace more trees, and establish a payment in-lieu program to provide flexibility for tree replacement and address racial inequities and environmental justice disparities, amongst other changes. The new protections would also create regulations protecting designated “heritage trees” that can’t be removed unless deemed hazardous or in an emergency.
 

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Mayor’s climate order will create three ‘low-pollution neighborhoods’ in Seattle, transition city fleet to electric vehicles

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(Image: City of Seattle)

Seattle needs new resources to handle climate change including clean air shelters and new rules to protect workers when temperatures soar and wildfire smoke returns. The city also must do more to help reduce its own contributions to global warming. This week, Mayor Bruce Harrell signed an executive order with new requirements hoped to “reduce or eliminate greenhouse gas emissions” in Seattle’s transportation sector.

“We recognize the inherent link between our infrastructure, transportation systems, climate, and community wellbeing – meeting the scale of the climate crisis and fulfilling our commitment to strong and healthy communities requires addressing them together,” Harrell said in the announcement on the order signed Thursday at City Hall.

The new plan includes more than 20 initiatives, including making 20 miles of “Health Street” roadways permanently marked for pedestrians and bicyclists, hosting a youth environment summit in 2023, and eliminating all gasoline vehicles from the city’s fleet by 2030. Continue reading →

Seattle’s new Climate Portal shows neighborhood by neighborhood measurements in battle against climate change

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The light blue dots show 2020 vehicle trips measured in each census tract. The dark dots show the measured emissions — and trace a winding shadow along I-5

The Harrell administration is hoping to use neighborhood information and data to help Seattle prepare for and, hopefully, slow its contributions to climate change with the launch of a new One Seattle Climate Portal.

The new map-based data and visualization site allows users to map measurements including vehicle trips and vehicle emissions, or gas and electricity emissions from buildings measured in each census tract in the city. Continue reading →

Popping up from Capitol Hill, Ethan Stowell ready to hatch ‘pasture raised’ chicken sandwich chain

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(Image: Mt. Joy)

Ethan Stowell moved past being small long ago. His company now operates around 20 Seattle restaurants including Tavolata and Rione XIII outposts on Capitol Hill. Now, he’s ready to go super big, with plans being hatched with Seattle telemedicine tech dude Robbie Cape to create Mt. Joy, a 1,000 or so location “pasture raised” chicken sandwich chain that is also somehow environmentally friendly.

The long march to global super green chicken conquest will start on Capitol Hill — but only temporarily. Of course, with plans for thousands of Mt. Joys, odds are Stowell’s chicken sandwiches will eventually be back on the Hill.

But first, an October pop-up at E Pike’s Tavolata. Take it away, Seattle Met:

Mt. Joy chief marketing officer Pat Snavely says the company hopes to expand rapidly: The more sandwiches you sell, the more pastured chickens are out there improving our soil—and, by extension, our atmosphere. But tastiness is key. “If it’s not the best chicken sandwich people have ever had, they’re not going to care as much.”

Continue reading →

With cash from its ‘Amazon Tax,’ Seattle shaping $6.5 million Green New Deal Opportunity Fund

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Seattle is shaping a $6.5 million “Green New Deal Opportunity Fund” including big chunks of spending earmarked to upgrade a surprising element of the plan — the city’s libraries.

The Seattle City Council’s Finance and Housing Committee weighed in on the plan Wednesday including $1.7M to fund “electrification, heating, cooling, and air quality upgrades at both the Northeast and Southwest Branches of the Seattle Public Library.” Continue reading →

City Council considers resolution to include ‘focus on climate change and resiliency’ in Seattle’s growth plan

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(Image: WSDOT)

Seattle’s efforts to update its growth plans will be shaped with a “focus on climate change and resiliency” under a resolution set to be voted on by is city council Tuesday afternoon.

The resolution will help direct the Seattle City Council’s actions around the process to update the city’s comprehensive plan.

CHS reported here on the start of a two-year process, mandated by state law, to update the city’s comprehensive plan as Seattle faces ongoing high demand for housing but is restricted by its current growth “urban village” strategies with new development concentrated in a handful of areas including Capitol Hill and the Central District, leaving the bulk of the city’s land as low-density, single-family neighborhoods. Continue reading →

Council considering changes to allow more equipment — and restaurants — on city’s rooftops to help make Seattle greener

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(Image: City of Seattle)

Developers say equipment and technologies needed to create cleaner, more efficient buildings in Seattle require an important resource — rooftop space. The Seattle City Council’s land use committee Wednesday will consider proposed legislation to change the city’s rules to allow more of its new development’s roofs to be covered in important equipment.

The proposed legislation will increase rooftop percent coverage allowances for new buildings in most of the city’s zones, for rooftop equipment and enclosed areas between 4 and 15 feet above the roof. “These kinds of features can legally extend above the height limit that is measured at the roof’s surface elevation,” a summary of the proposal reads. Continue reading →