Michael Luis

Michael Luis is a public policy consultant who has been wrestling with housing, growth and economic development issues around Washington State for over 30 years. He is author of several books on local history and served as mayor of Medina.

New Data: Rents are going Down

Seattle’s drop in October is even larger than in September and is right up there with the markets feeling the most pain. As with the regional data, it is difficult to see any national pattern.

Gradually, Gradually: New Data On How We’re Growing

The share of the region’s housing stock consisting of stand-alone single family houses fell from 60 to 57 percent.

Washingtonians are Highly Educated. So Why Don’t We Have the Colleges To Match?

The last time Washington added a new university, Evergreen State College, the state’s population was less than half of what it is today.

How Green Is Our Transit?

It will be many years before all-battery buses replace the current diesel and hybrid fleet. Difficult tradeoffs lie ahead.

You’re Right – The Northwest is Loosey Goosey

A tight culture has more strongly enforced rules and less tolerance for deviance, while a loose culture has fewer strongly enforced rules and greater tolerance for deviance.

Where the Military is in Washington State

Washington State is home to a number of large military installations that employ tens of thousands of uniformed and civilian personnel, making it one of the largest concentrations of military activity in the country.

Software is Eating Washington’s Economy

Software and internet industries pay 11 percent of all wages paid in the state. This is larger than all private sector industries and second only to the total of government wages. Software may not be eating the jobs numbers, but it is rapidly eating the income numbers.

Buses to Nowhere: How the Region’s Transit has Shrunk

It is difficult to imagine an easy path forward for transit as long as the coronavirus is a threat.

After COVID Will People Still Move To Seattle?

Every mayor and community development director in the country is trying to figure out how migration and settlement patterns, both national and local, will shake out in the post pandemic world, and there are few solid hints so far.

Shipped: Where the Containers are Going on the West Coast

Transcontinental railroads arrived in Seattle in 1893, and within 20 years Seattle had become the largest port on the West Coast and the third largest port in the U.S. after New York and Philadelphia. For decades, Puget Sound dominated West Coast shipping and the ports, and the ancillary activities of shipbuilding, dominated Seattle’s economy. But the growing markets of California, and the prospect of shipping directly to millions of customers, began to chip away at the Puget Sound ports’ competitive advantage in shipping time to Asia.

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