William Yardley writes for The New York Times and had a piece from Seattle in last Sunday's edition that captured the striving ambivalence of Seattle's growth boom. The article was about Edith Macefield, the recently deceased woman who held out against the forces of redevelopment in Ballard by refusing to sell when all around her had. Her house sits wrapped on three sides by a multi-story commercial building. You see it on your right if you look while driving north at the end of the Ballard Bridge. The article was actually about the self-published novel she left behind, but her house provides Yardley with great opportunity to describe the tension many of us feel between inevitable change and the desire for character-driven neighborhoods.

"The project, in faux industrial concrete and steel, is more evidence of change in a city whose growth and economic success over the past two decades have put its modest neighborhoods like Ballard under perpetual renovation.

"Mrs. Macefield's refusal to sell her house made the news more than once. In a city knotted over its shifting identity, she seemed a familiar face, old Seattle, vulnerable but resistant to the march of gentrification and blandness."

On a somewhat related note, Knute Berger has a piece on Crosscut about "slow cities," cities taking a purposefully slow approach to growth. It's a thought-provoking piece that again dives into the tension between economic development that feeds job creation and wealth (hopefully for all) and the idea that we should perhaps slow growth intentionally in order to somehow control its affects on Seattle. The comments from readers of Berger's piece are interesting. Some hail the return of "Lesser Seattle" while others note that plenty of other cities would be all too happy to pick up Seattle's growth (our high tech, bio tech, global health, research, education and other great jobs) and leave us to struggle. At least one poster noted that if by slow city we mean a city where people walk and interact more, we need to become a denser city, thereby requiring more growth and change in targeted ways.

This shouldn't make anyone feel better (because that would be spiteful and weird), but my garbage hasn't been picked up yet either. This is three households worth and it's been out there since December 18. We're Thursday people, so the holidays mess with our pick up schedule this year anyway. I have hope for tomorrow.

I have nothing but praise for the Seattle Department of Transportation workers who have worked non-stop to clear streets as much as they have over the past week. Same for the Metro drivers who have struggled with ice, over-packed coaches, mysterious route orders from central command, and angry, cold riders. Transportation system workers have pulled tough duty at a time when many probably would have liked to forego the extra hours for some time with family.

In the wake of this unusual cold snap (and the highly unusual foot of snow in my backyard), we have some evaluating to do. How did agencies work together? How well were crews deployed? How well were they relieved? How much plowing got done and where? And, the question many are throwing into my InBox or at me in the grocery store, after a couple of days couldn't we have brought out some salt?

Personally, I think a little salt might have been a better strategy than the "hard-pack surface" strategy SDOT described in yesterday's newspaper. The hard-pack surface just seems slippery and dangerous to me. It certainly didn't seem to help out Metro at all. I'm one of the hordes of people that watched coach after coach go by, packed to the doors, trying to get home from Downtown Saturday evening. Metro reduced to 50 percent of its service in Seattle for multiple days seems like an indicator that the street clearing strategy needs to be reviewed for these odd, every-decade storms.

I'm looking forward to the post-event report from SDOT when Council picks up the meeting schedule again in January.

With last Monday's 6-3 vote to spread "incentive zoning" beyond the downtown area we wrapped up a year of work and came to the end of a long ride. The program, which allows the city to trade new development area (usually height) for a little bit of moderately affordable housing, asks way too little in the view of some advocates for low-income people and way too much in the view of some business, big-development advocates. I believe we hatched a sound program that provides an incentive and will result in more housing affordable to people who make a decent living, but still have a tough time finding a way to live in Seattle. We'll get to test out the program when we consider major upzones and after the lending markets recover. "Recover" is an interesting idea since any recovery will look, must look different from the credit system we've had for the past 10 years.

One of my colleagues asked a difficult rhetorical question during one of the committee debates on incentive zoning. With regard to the opposition arguments about incentive zoning and the assertion that it simply won't work, he ask, "Do we just not believe them?" It's a great question to ask out loud. I think it was followed by an awkward silence at the committee table. It signals openly that councilmembers are always wrestling with how to evaluate the arguments for and against proposals. How much of an advocate's argument is based in fact? How much in passion? How much in self-interest? How much in dogma? Advocacy is about all of those elements. Public policy gets flavored by all of it.

In the case of incentive zoning, I heard some advocates speak from self-interest and a few from dogma, but I mostly heard well-researched positions and well-reasoned opinions. They just happened to totally disagree.

Next up for the exciting Planning, Land Use & neighborhood Committee? The Dearborn/Goodwill rezone request in January.

I know I should blog something serious about the Workforce Housing Incentive Program that passed Council yesterday (and I will soon), but first I need to blog briefly about Skillet. For quite a while I've been meaning to get out of the Government Zone and check out Skillet, the roving Airstream trailer that serves up great lunch. I try to bring my lunch a few days a week. Other days maybe I have a lunch appointment or I head over to Specialties across the street for a salad or sandwich.

Today, we hit Skillet as an end-of-year treat. I think we may have to go back for a beginning-of-year treat.

Today the trailer was in SODO like it is every Tuesday. Check out the website and you'll see which days you can find the Airstream on Capitol Hill, in south Downtown, up by Cornish and out in Fremont. You can also place your order online for quicker pickup. I recommend this especially if the trailer is positioned in the shade and it's 31 degrees outside. I had the white bean soup and the barley/feta/arugula salad. So did David. Dan and Michael had burgers and Ketil the poutine, also known as fries with gravy.

I have no idea if Skillet has the right permits. As a member of the Board of Health and the chair of the Council's land use committee, I should probably care more about that. I do know that they make terrific food and, one day a week, bring something a little out of the ordinary to a few neighborhoods.

Thank you, Skillet.

I bought a new phone last month, a slick new iPhone, and slowly have been figuring out the bells and whistles. I'm not sure I really need an iPhone (in fact, I'm sure I don't), but my partner was buying one and I succumbed to the seductive packaging.

Anyway, last night this photo appeared in my InBox at home -- two weeks after I emailed it to myself from my iPhone. It's from the November 15 march and protest against passage of Prop 8 in California and a handful of anti-gay discriminatory measures in others states. It's ironic that web technology -- Twitter, Facebook and the like -- made possible the best Seattle protest in years, yet I can't figure out why it took two weeks for my phone to finally pull the trigger on sending the photo.

The march and rallies at Volunteer Park and Westlake were powerful. People I've never seen before and people I haven't seen in years. I was worried no one would care enough to show up, but I was totally wrong. It's a good sign for civic involvement. So many people were activated by the presidential campaign. I hope they/we/us all find community involvement in school, politics, church, P-Patches or whatever to keep it going. There's a lot of work to do.

The most important first step in updating Seattle's Neighborhood Plans took place last night at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center. It was the inaugural meeting of the Neighborhood Planning Advisory Committee, the citizens group tasked with keeping the process true, transparent and on track. I was excited and told attendees I wished there was a balloon drop or a confetti explosion. People seemed a little perplexed by that, but I do think it's amazing to have the couple of dozen people who have stepped forward from all over the city finally gathered and under way. Members come from the Seattle Planning Commission, the 13 District Councils, and at-large members representing pedestrian interests, affordability, open space and overall smart planning. Looking around the table Tuesday night I saw wisdom, passion, skill and tremendous care for what it means to live and work in Seattle. I also saw some large-size personalities.

The group has a lot of work to do. The Council has high expectations for feedback from the group and real recommendations that will make the neighborhood plan updates truly community driven and effective tools for guiding neighborhood change. Check out the website to learn more.