Sightline Institute

Since Alaska adopted top-four primaries and #RankedChoiceVoting: - State legislative general elections have seen tighter margins of victory on average - The % of legislative contests featuring 3+ candidates has more than doubled - Voters have replaced incumbent legislators more often

Apply by November 15!

“While renters and buyers have seen some relief, it is short-term. The underlying problem of a structural shortage of supply remains, and it is getting worse because we have largely stopped building."

DO i love the center for land economics' new site, esp this quick graphic explainer pointing to land value tax solutions? yes. yes i do

Fight #climate change -- with more apartments! #affordability #morehomes usa.streetsblog.org/2026/10/22/o...

Our friends @sightline.org are hiring for a new Principal Director of Program Development! Application deadline is November 15, so apply today on the Fuse Progressive Jobs Bank: www.fuseinnovation.org/jobs/princip...

Love this one we just pubbed from Alan Durning of @sightline.org about why building apartments(particularly in transit rich/walkable neighborhoods) is an under-appreciated climate strategy, and the rare tactic that can still work at scale in an era of climate denial.

Our cities and towns need more homes people actually want to downsize into.

Vancouver's city council election delivered the progressive majority voters wanted, but the lopsided 9-1 outcome is a symptom of the city's clunky old block voting system. @rcampbell.bsky.social and I wrote about the importance of proportionality for Sitka Media: www.sitkamedia.ca/vanderklipp-...

Portland voters have used the ranked choice system before to elect new city council members, but this is the first time people outside city limits will use ranked choice voting for county positions.

“It’s like having car exhaust in a home.” Pollution from gas stoves can have serious health effects—but they continue to pollute the air inside Northwest homes, while gas furnaces and water heaters also release pollution outdoors. www.sightline.org/2026/10/15/t...

It's spooky season and @rpelai.bsky.social has the run down on one ghost haunting millions of Northwest homes...air pollution from gas appliances. @rpelai.bsky.social

🚨 Dream job alert! 🚨

Since Alaskans adopted top-four primaries and ranked choice voting, legislative elections feature closer margins, more viable candidates, and more challengers unseating incumbents. @alvanderklipp.bsky.social

This job is sort of a big deal

Happy double-job-drop Friday!

Sightline runs housing, democracy, and climate programs. What would you add? We’re hiring a new role to build our next research program (and then the next). - Scout, launch, and hand off new programs - $166-185k, plus 10% retirement - Remote anywhere in Cascadia

We’re hiring a messaging strategy manager! -Research, test, and refine pro-housing, democracy, and clean energy messages - $70-85k, plus 10% retirement - Work with @trufahey.bsky.social and Sightline’s communications team

In a thoroughly reported piece, food writer Meghna Jaradi shows how the wine industry — a relatively deep-pocketed, well-researched agricultural sector — offers early signs of where Washington’s food systems might head in response to more wildfire smoke: www.chum.news/wine-and-wil...

The pollution is coming from inside the house. @rpelai.bsky.social

Replace your gas line, or get an incentive and go electric? A new law in California will offer residents the choice.

If Cascadia were its own country, it would be around the 60th biggest in the world—somewhere between Australia and Chile.

In @nytopinion.nytimes.com Fast-moving, virtually irrepressible wildfire events “are not the seasonal burns of decades past; they are the hazard lights of a heating climate, and they are flashing furiously,” John Vaillant writes.

What if a small elevator could help more people stay in the neighborhoods they love? 🛗 @sightline.org explores how making elevators easier to install in smaller apartment buildings could give more older adults the freedom to age in their communities.

”This municipal election, candidates in our biggest cities should be judged on whether they will finally remove the barriers that keep homes scarce and expensive,“ says @1alexhemingway.bsky.social in his latest piece. Read it here: bcpolicy.ca/big-cities/

No one's forcing Washingtonians to spend $$ to buy a heat pump (as much as I'd love my landlord to replace my gas furnace...). You wouldn't know that by reading @seattletimes-rss.bsky.social Sunday article about Initiative 2066. Correcting the record ⬇️.

Such a cool study of population in the #Cascadia bioregion. If we were an independent nation, we'd be on par with Chile.

For #WeekWithoutDriving, we published a report showing that car dependence is a burden for people across the US, draining household budgets and leaving drivers feeling trapped. A few key findings with @dataforprogress.org:

Since Alaskans adopted top-four primaries and ranked choice voting, legislative elections feature closer margins, more viable candidates, and more challengers unseating incumbents. @alvanderklipp.bsky.social

Hear from Sightline's former AK Research Director Jeanette Lee at this @columbiasipa.bsky.social panel (alongside @jhenson.bsky.social and Robert Shapiro) on midterm election dynamics this Thursday, Oct. 8.

Oregon is getting older. Its cities need to catch up. www.sightline.org/age-friendly... @andersem.bsky.social

The Trump administration’s interpretation of “harm” under the ESA could devastate the recovery of imperiled species, many which have cultural,spiritual and relational meaning and importance for tribal citizens.

I have a confession to make. The townhomes I & others spent most of a decade trying to legalize are popping up all over Oregon & elsewhere...and I love that...but they're a problem in one big way. (get ready for a twisty thread about the housing report @sightline.org just published)

How did Portland's electoral changes affect voter behavior, candidate strategy, and electoral outcomes in 2024? Q+A with Lewis and Clark's Dr. Ellen Seljan:

Oregon is getting older. Its cities need to catch up. www.sightline.org/age-friendly... @andersem.bsky.social

Oregon’s second largest investor-owned electric utility could soon directly assign the costs of new energy projects and infrastructure needed for data centers to data center operators. buff.ly/okb6kd0

@andersem.bsky.social's report about age-friendly housing in Oregon is out! The bottom line: Oregon needs denser housing and cheaper elevators www.sightline.org/age-friendly...

How did Portland's electoral changes affect voter behavior, candidate strategy, and electoral outcomes in 2024? Q+A with Lewis and Clark's Dr. Ellen Seljan:

Monday's Most Read # 2 - British Columbia’s Transit-Oriented Housing Law: A Progress Report link.theoverheadwire.com/jpu8f Sightline Institute @sightline.org