Mayor Ed Murray today said he will not support ordinance changes that would have allowed for greater density in almost all of Seattle's single-family zones. "Instead, we will refocus the discussion on designing denser Urban Centers, Urban Villages and along transit corridors that include more affordable housing," he said. He blamed "sensationalized reporting by a few media outlets" for derailing a needed conversation about affordability and equity. (Take that, Danny Westneat!)
In a pretty clear summing up of the equity issue, Murray said, "We can move beyond the legacy of the old boundaries of exclusion that have remained largely unchanged since nearly a century ago when neighborhood covenants were used to keep people of color south of Madison Street." Perhaps he should have been the one to write the Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda report that stumbled -- as Crosscut's Eric Scigliano showed so well -- into confusing zoning with racial exclusion. Crosscut's David Kroman has a full report here.
