Introducing the Seattle Institute for Better Building
Cities and states have failed to build what we need. Books like Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s Abundance ignited a debate about why bathrooms cost millions or voter-approved light rail projects are so delayed and expensive they may never be built.
As affordability becomes a central message in campaigns, leaders have begun to focus on how difficult it has become to build. Expensive, complex, and opaque processes increase the cost or outright prevent construction of new housing and energy infrastructure.
The Seattle Institute for Better Building (SIBB) will focus on why we have failed to build what we need. It will look at broader market forces as well as at Seattle-specific statutes and regulations inhibiting building. It will examine effective policies used elsewhere and analyze which policies would be most impactful here. The goal: accelerate and streamline building in Seattle to address the affordability and climate crises and help our city thrive.
We will begin by looking at the incentives commercial landlords have to keep their units vacant. Then, we will look at policies other cities and states have used to address vacancies. Next, we will analyze Seattle’s vacancies, policies suited to the Emerald City, and how they could be enacted.
Future topics include standing up temporary shelter and building middle housing.
I’m Jack Nash. My work focuses on eliminating bottlenecks to construction. I’m also a Seattle Arts Commissioner, leader of NE Safe Streets, and board member of the Roosevelt Neighborhood Association. I created SIBB because I believe Seattle can do better.