“Leapfrog” Development Meets Washington's New Climate Planning Law
by Ronda Larson Kramer
A first-of-its-kind lawsuit by growth management watchdog Futurewise against Thurston County is set to become one of the initial tests of Washington’s pioneering climate planning law.
The 2023 law builds on decades of planning research showing that development patterns influence how far people drive and how much money local governments spend extending water, sewer, and other infrastructure. The climate planning law requires many local governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and vehicle miles traveled through land-use planning.
Under Washington’s pre-existing Growth Management Act, most future urban growth must occur within designated Urban Growth Areas, or UGAs. UGAs include existing cities as well as adjacent unincorporated land intended to accommodate future urban growth. One of the main aims of a UGA, according to the Thurston GeoData Center, “is to provide a limit for the extension of urban utilities, especially sewer service.”
US vs. Iran, Live Coverage on Every Channel
by Carl Eugene Stroud
If you follow the news at all, you’ve definitely encountered their extra easy-to-understand theory of war, a theory that presents armed conflict like a soccer match. The pervasiveness of this theory has created a situation where the dominant narrative about American-Iranian relations might be true, but it’s not the whole truth. Billing it as two sides facing off against each other increases the number of spectators watching from home, but it doesn’t help us see where, how, or why various forces are behaving the way they are.
The Jungle's Planned Closure Falls Short on the Issue of Cats
by Whitney Bowerman
In May, the City of Olympia announced the beginning of a multi-year process to close The Jungle. It is the right thing to do. The site is unsafe and lacks the infrastructure to support human life with dignity.
However, conversations about encampment closures almost never cover the fact that the residents have animals, and lots of them! Almost all housing has strict rules about animals.
Most housing options permit a maximum of two animals. Encampment residents frequently have more. Additionally, animals must be spayed, neutered, and vaccinated to be accepted by most housing options — services that are genuinely difficult to access without transportation, funds, or the ability to keep appointments. So residents face an impossible calculus: which animals do I give up to get into housing? For many, the honest answer is none. They will not leave their cats behind. What looks from the outside like resistance to housing, is often something much simpler and more human. It is loyalty. It is love.
Mesh: Not Just for Your Home Network
by Rob Ott
For months, I’d been hearing about mesh networks as various friends started getting into learning about them and attending educational events (often held at DECAY, which, along with so many other good things can be found on the DECAY community events calendar).
I had a long career in tech at the State, during which I studiously avoided becoming a supervisor and also, despite knowing many good humans who worked in this field, also avoided hardware or network setup. My brain is great at a lot of things. Understanding how physical things are built, configured, or operate is not one of them. Mesh falls into this category and therefore not intuitive to me. So, I kept asking people in mesh-land for a simple, easy intro document but none were offered. And as you know when you repeatedly ask for things like that, sometimes it is suggested that you create what it is that you are looking for. This is my bare bones attempt. With the research I have done so far, it is clear that I could spend many hours diving into this rabbit hole because there is so much more to learn. Here’s what I’ve got.
🗞️ Watch this space! We are going to be announcing some really exciting news soon! The Works in Progress team has been working hard to make our dream of bringing back a print issue a reality!
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