Sightline's Alan Durning has a good post on the connection between spikes in gas prices and recessions. It's very topical on a day that the Dow exhibited tremendous volatility, gaining 936 points. Our economic pulse is shocky, and Durning argues that at least in part its because high oil prices "sucked hundreds of billions of dollars out of the US economy" the last five years. It's this economic suffocation--not just from gas at the pump, but from jumps in manufacturing and shipping costs--that's led people to fail to pay all those mortgages they could barely afford. Meet the pit bull of vicious circles. more ›

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We got our first link to WalkScore in the email a week ago and the idea of a mapping site that scored the walkability of neighborhoods sounded interesting, but when we tried to visit the site we found that it didn't work in Firefox. more ›

Last night Sightline, the Seattle-based enviro-wonks, were hosting GreenDrinks, the networking event for the environmentally minded [more ›

Actually, your cellphone probably looks like an electronic thumb already. We mention the cellphone, because you'll need it to text your way into your new carpooler's lifestyle. more ›

Earlier this weeek we mentioned a cool map mashup that our sister site Gothamist has. They have feeds for both the police and fire departments in New York City and it makes for a really cool and really useful little application, and it's something that we'd love to have on our site here. However, we've never had a police feed in Seattle and now we don't have access to the fire department's data either. The Seattle Fire Department has decided that it's too dangerous to give the public data on 911 calls in a usable format. more ›

-Every 24-yr-old who's ever been frustrated at their inability to rent a car should rejoice - Seattle-based Flexcar is going for the campus market. more ›

Alan Durning's experiment of severing his family from their car has gotten a good deal of ink from Seattlest, other places, and Seattlest again, not to mention his own experiences recollected at the Sightline blog. Heart-throb news stud Anderson Cooper has jumped in the mix, though, with a segment on his CNN show devoted to "low-car diets." more ›

Here's the set-up: Alan Durning of the Sightline Institute, the Real Change Bus Chick, and the Petersons over on the Eastside have riled up the Seattle Weekly's Knute Berger. According to Berger (and if you're used to any semblance of logical consistency, grab a handrail and hold on), the problem with not having a car, or using one less, is that you become a moocher. more ›

Seattlest spent a couple years in Seattle without a car and it wasn't really that bad. Buying liquids at the store was the #1 problem. When you go to QFC and buy OJ and a half rack plus a few other odds and ends it doesn't sound like much, but it's a bitch to get home. We were the sole member of our household at that point, though, so not having a car shouldn't have been much of a problem. Alan Durning of Northwest Environment Watch is a family man with three kids so when he says he's going car-free it actually means something. more ›