Tim Burgess' City View

Tracking Building Energy Use

Yesterday the City’s Office of Sustainability and Environment released a report detailing the energy usage of City-owned buildings. In our efforts to achieve carbon neutrality, it is important that we focus on the built environment. Roughly one-fifth of Seattle’s carbon footprint comes from building energy.

Starting April 1, owners of commercial and multifamily residential buildings of at least 20,000 square feet must report energy usage to the City on an annual basis. As the owner of more than 650 buildings, the city government is leading by example and disclosing even more than what is required.

The full report contains some interesting data benchmarked to national standards, if you want to take a look.

Moving Beyond the Status Quo to Provide More Workforce Housing

The following article was sent out in my City View Newsletter, which you can sign up to receive here.

Today the City Council approved bold amendments to the zoning legislation that will positively impact South Lake Union for a generation. In February, I articulated my three guiding principles focused on fairness as the City Council considered a major increase in housing and office density for the neighborhood:

1. Increase benefits to the public in exchange for value given to the private sector.
2. Build homes for our workforce.
3. Support our public school system.

I am pleased to report that, after collaborating with economists, local businesses and affordable housing advocates, we are on a path to achieve all of these goals.

Together we passed in committee a sensible solution that brings affordable workforce housing to the City’s hottest real estate market far above the level called for in the Mayor’s original proposal. Now many more nurses, school teachers, construction workers and other working families can call this booming neighborhood home.

My First Car2Go Experience: Wow!

I was in Washington D.C. last week for a quick discussion on early childhood education opportunities and to visit one of my daughters and granddaughter.

The cherry blossoms weren't fully out yet, but I did get to use my Car2Go membership for the first time. I used the service three separate times on Friday and Saturday for a total cost of $28.42, far less than a rental car or a taxi.

Each time I needed a car I opened the Car2Go app on my iPhone, located the closest available vehicle and reserved it. A handy walking map guided me to the car—they’re all Smart Cars—where I placed my membership card against the front windshield sensor. Presto! I was verified as the member who reserved the car and the doors unlocked. Once inside, I entered my PIN using the navigation touch screen and withdrew the ignition key from its dashboard holder. Done. I pulled away from the curb and was on my way.

Density Done Well

At the State of Downtown 2013 Economic Forum yesterday morning, the keynote speaker was an urban planner from Vancouver, B.C. who shared that city’s experience with density downtown. He described the efforts to convince the public of the environmental benefits of "density done well" or "ecoDensity" and then the evidence Vancouver sees now of successful urban planning. It was fascinating.

He listed three components of density done well:

1) Make sure that land use and transportation planning efforts are aligned.
2) Require consistently high quality design, especially at the ground level.
3) Provide the amenities and diversity that make density enjoyable.

Watch the full talk below.

Turning Waste into Energy

Seattle City Light, the folks who send you your electricity bill, offers numerous incentives for residents and businesses to become more energy efficient. Did you know City Light will give you a $50 rebate if you buy an energy-efficient refrigerator? In Councilmember Mike O’Brien’s Energy and Environment Committee today, we voted to move forward a unique project that replicates this conservation model on a much larger scale.

Nucor Steel sits on the southwest corner of Harbor Island and is City Light’s largest electricity customer. In 2009, the company proposed investing $3.5 million into a cost-effective system that would turn the waste heat generated at its plant back into electricity, recovering enough to power 2% of its electricity needs. (If this doesn’t sound like a lot, I’ll point out that 2% of Nucor’s electricity usage is equivalent to that of roughly 590 residential households!) Similar to household appliance rebates, City Light would provide an energy efficiency incentive payment in return, in this case spread out over the first three years to mitigate risk.

Seattle City Light Strategic Plan

Seattle City Light, our city's electric utility created in 1902, is in the final stages of drafting its five-year strategic plan. This plan will affect the priorities of the utility and your electricity rates. There are many ways you can weigh in online or at public forums next week. More information is available at www.seattle.gov/light/strategic-plan.

Health, Crime and Growth in Southeast Seattle

Two events Saturday afternoon in southeast Seattle—one in the far south, the other up north at Franklin High School—highlighted the challenges and opportunities this culturally rich, growing and important area of our city faces.

We kicked off the afternoon with the grand opening of Neighborcare's sparkling, high quality medical and dental clinic in Rainier Beach.  Neighborcare is the city's largest provider of health services to our low-income and uninsured residents.  They also operate several of our school-based health clinics.

The new Rainier Beach clinic is the first of Neighborcare's facilities to combine dental and medical care at the same location. 

We moved to Franklin High School for a Great Cities event focused on the relationship between health, transportation, growth, and public safety. (Much more after the jump.)

Benefit for All: Market-Driven Parking Costs

Two proposals in this year's budget recommendations from Mayor Mike McGinn have generated the most controversy—reducing hours at neighborhood community centers and higher fees for on-street parking. With the city's annual budget approaching $4 billion these two items represent a tiny fraction of total spending, but they prove Tip O'Neill's famous quip, "All politics is local." 

Municipal government is closest to the people.  It's the form of government people see every day and use the most.  So when local government proposes a change, reaction can be quick and sometimes fierce.

The outcry over increased parking rates has indeed been quick and fierce.  My office has heard it loud and clear—you're just grabbing for more money, you'll hurt local businesses, you'll drive shoppers to Bellevue or the malls, don't you realize we're hurting out here.

But, what if the higher on-street parking rates are actually a benefit, a change that will help retail businesses, improve the flow of traffic, lower carbon emissions and help pay for pedestrian improvements, better lighting and more frequent cleaning?

A Pro Business Parking Strategy

Mayor McGinn's proposed 2011 budget calls for raising on-street parking prices to as much as $4 per hour in the downtown core and smaller increases in other city neighborhoods. (The Mayor's budget legislation actually sets a $5 top limit per hour on meter rates.) The Mayor is on the right track, but we should go even further and introduce demand-sensitive variable pricing as quickly as possible.

Demand-sensitive or performance-based on-street parking rates are pro business.  Here's why as explained by Donald Shoup, professor of urban planning at UCLA and the author of The High Cost of Free Parking.

"Prices that produce an occupancy rate of about 85% can be called 'performance-based' for three reasons.  First, curb parking will perform efficiently.  The spaces will be well used but readily available.  Second, the transportation system will perform efficiently.  Cruising for underpriced curb parking will not congest traffic, waste fuel, and pollute the air.  Third, the economy will perform efficiently.  The price of parking will be higher when demand is higher, and this higher price will encourage rapid parking turnover.  Drivers will park, buy something, and leave quickly so that other drivers can use the spaces.  Cities can achieve all these goals by setting curb parking prices to yield about an 85% occupancy rate." ("The Price of Parking on a Great Street," Parking Today magazine, February 2009.)

Shoup also recommends that parking meter revenue above the current base rate be dedicated to neighborhood-specific street improvement projects, including more frequent street and sidewalk cleaning, enhanced lighting, more police, litter and grafitti cleanup, and pedestrian improvements.  Shoup calls this revenue dedication "parking increment financing." 

San Francisco will soon launch a very sophisticated experiment in on-street parking management.  This three-minute video provides the essence of their program. Many of the core elements of the San Francisco program could be introduced here fairly quickly.  For example, we could adjust meter parking rates electronically by neighborhood on a quarterly or monthly basis to achieve the desired 85% occupancy rate.

And here's a New York Times opinion piece by Shoup that explains the most effective pricing model for on-street parking. 

The Council should adopt specific outcomes related to on-street parking, such as the 85% occupancy standard and then allow variable demand-sensitive meter rates.  When demand is low, for example on weekends and late at night, meter rates would be low or free.  When demand is high, primarily during the day or early evening hours, meter rates would also be high.  This approach to public policy is objective, is outcome-driven, and removes the political squabbles and conflicts of the traditional approach to setting meter rates.

 

Walk, Bike, Ride: I Scoot

UPDATE: Sunday, July 25, 2010
I haven't driven a car to work for nearly two weeks; I'm still alive, the sky hasn't fallen, and Joleen is very happy. 

Last week, I participated in the Mayor's Walk-Bike-Ride Challenge along with six of my colleagues on the Council.  We pledge to either walk, bike or ride to and from work.  I met the challenge every day!  Do I get a prize?

Previous Post: Yup, that's me on my scooter leaving my backyard and heading off to the office.  I scoot most days as long as it's not raining, not dark, and not too cold.  Otherwise, I take the bus.  Occasionally, I'll persuade Joleen to let me take the car, especially if I have lots of meetings and events away from City Hall. (We downsized to just one car and my scooter last year.)

This week is Mayor McGinn's Walk-Bike-Ride Challenge.  Seven council members, plus other city leaders, are participating.  We have all pledged to either walk, bike, ride (a category that includes scooting, transit and carpooling) to work. I've used my scooter every day this week.

My scooter journey is precisely 3.1 miles one-way.  It takes me 10-15 minutes in the morning and 20-25 minutes in the afternoon.  The primary rule is watch out! A scooter rider needs to be defensively careful in traffic.  Drivers don't see me!