The good news? Washington State has drastically cut back on its consumption of fuel, returning to consumption rates last seen when LBJ was in the White House. The bad news? The gas we do use costs a hell of a lot, and that's not going to change any time soon. more ›

The Sightline Institute's Cascadia Scorecard was released last week and while British Columbia continues to show us how it's done on almost every environmental front (live longer, less energy use, less sprawl, more Canadian), the news ain't all bad for Washington. Gasoline consumption in our state declined again to 15.3 gallons a person a week, the lowest usage we've seen since 1967. Hybrids haven't really been in wide enough circulation to account for this, particularly since our downward trend stretches back to the late Eighties, but more fuel efficient vehicles have got to factor in there somewhere. Sightline is also reporting that we are actually driving less. more ›

--Are we dense yet? The Sightline Institute's Eric de Place has realized that more than half of the people that live in Seattle don't live in traditional house-and-yard setups. more ›

Monte Cristo: Baker's Restaurant and Sweet Parlor. more ›

BOOKS: Dave "Mr. McSweeney's" Eggers' latest is titled What is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng. Mr. Deng himself--a survivor of the Darfur shitstorm--discusses his life tonight. Bring tissue. 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 ›

-Starbucks investors are disappointed for some reason. 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 ›

NEW is history, say the policy pundits at Cascadia Scorecard. Call us the Sightline Institute instead. (Someone's been busy in the art department turning wonky into wowzers! Ha ha! No, seriously, the site looks hot.) more ›