Sightline Institute

Takeaways Cascadia is home to more than 21 million residents—and it’s growing! While a bioregion describes an area based on its ecological characteristics, defining its people presents more of a challenge. The bioregion is split between two countries, nine states, a province, and a territory, plus the more than 1,500 First Nations reserves and Indian reservations that overlay these divisions.

Since Alaskans adopted top-four primaries and ranked choice voting… State legislative general elections have seen tighter margins of victory on average. The percentage of legislative contests featuring three or more candidates has more than doubled. Alaska voters have replaced incumbent legislators more often.

Voters in Portland, Oregon overhauled their city government and elections in 2022. They chose to increase their City Council to 12 seats, with 3 members elected in each of 4 districts using multi-winner ranked choice voting. Voters also opted for single-winner ranked choice voting for mayor and a new professional city administrator to manage day-to-day operations. Portland first implemented the new election model in November 2024, with council and the mayor taking office in January 2025.

The Fitzgerald Condominiums, Queen Anne neighborhood, Seattle—a rare example of a small apartment building with an elevator. Photo by Mike Hipple for Sightline. Like everywhere in the world, Oregon’s senior population is growing. This is mostly good news: today’s Oregonians are living longer, healthier lives than their great-grandparents did. But it does create some new problems Oregon communities need to adapt to. Public money in Oregon is tight.

Vancouver, BC’s zoning code forces apartments onto noisy, polluted arterial roads, effectively treating renters as noise and pollution buffers for low-density detached house neighborhoods. The city’s proposed Villages Plan promised to legalize four- to six-story off-arterial apartments, but Mayor Ken Sim defeated the policy following vocal neighborhood pushback.

British Columbia’s Bill 47, to spur transit-oriented development (TOD) provincewide, is about two years out from its June 2024 compliance deadline. The law was an important step toward spreading Metro Vancouver’s TOD success to other housing-strapped cities and towns in BC. Cities have been uneven in their uptake of Bill 47’s measures, and while it’s too early to judge the law’s overall success, it has made progress, especially in reducing costly excess parking in new buildings.

Ballot Measure 2 would repeal not only Alaska’s ranked choice voting and open primaries election system but also its anti-dark money provisions. Alaska is uniquely vulnerable to moneyed interests. In early August, Alaskans woke to the news that Elon Musk had donated $1.5 million in support of one of the state’s ballot measures. The sum is negligible for the world’s richest man, but for a ballot measure campaign where the median donation was $100, the figure was striking.

Robyn Sundlee is a Senior Researcher with Sightline Institute’s Democracy and Elections team, focusing on Alaska and its ranked choice voting and open primary system. Robyn comes from the field of information integrity and nonprofit news, and she holds a BA and MPA from Brown University. Outside of work, Robyn enjoys painting, skate skiing, and backcountry snowboarding with her dog. She lives in Juneau, Alaska, with her husband and daughter.

Portland’s voter-supported new system of government—with a larger council elected by proportional ranked choice voting and a professional city administrator now handling day-to-day city business so council can focus on policy—has been in place for nearly two years now.

A new survey of Portland’s Cully neighborhood found that backyard tiny homes on wheels and RVs, together known as mobile dwelling units (MDUs), have increased 1.8x since 2020. MDUs have recently outpaced standard accessory dwelling units (ADUs, with in-ground foundations) as the preferred way for homeowners to add more living space to their property.