Think there are probably a couple things going on w Seattle.
1) the inner city is built out, there are no major abandoned tracts to just built 4-5 story woodframe en masse on cheap land as is the case in Dallas or Houston.
2) the inner city is healthy with strong pricing; as a result, NIMBYs infest the city's neighborhoods and make redeveloping even the crappiest 2 story building into highrises difficult.
2) vancouver like Honolulu and Miami is a store of value for global rich people, whereas Seattle is not. eg this area (Ballard) would have at least 20 Hong Kong and PRC Chinese-financed 10-20 story condo towers if it were in Vancouver (or Miami):
3) Seattle also does have vastly more freeways than either Portland or Seattle and the result is more patchmark development in the exurbs and surrounding towns
4) the agricultural land reserve sounds like a great idea, the outlying exurbs south and east of seattle in contrast seem to have developed with low-population, low density housing. however, this is land w/ large lot housing accounts for a tiny share of the population of the region so shouldn't really be held against the city too much.
5) Seattle lacks interesting secondary centers/commercial strips, compared to say Portland. Where are the long walkable commercial strips in Seattle? north seattle's only main street seems like big box-lined 10 mile nightmare (see
here). why can't this be redeveloped into something more walkable and urban, given the progressive population? Meanwhile the secondary urban centers beside Bellevue and Tacoma are quite working class and spare.
Vancouver and Portland have a lot more in common from an urban "bones" standpoint, except for the Chinese / global rate estate factor. Most of this (except towers/farms) applies to Portland very well:
Quote:
Transit-orientated, walkable suburban downtowns all connected by heavy rail.
- Agricultural Land Reserve which severely inhibits suburban sprawl
- Tightly packed single family homes
- Towers being built next to farms
- Smaller parking lots in major suburban shopping centres
- Far less land area used than Seattle despite only about 1 million more in the metro
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