The building code rule that lets Seattle turn forgotten lots into housing

Fire officials and pro-density urbanists are often at loggerheads. This is especially evident in notoriously car-centric Los Angeles, where a firefighters’ union spent six figures opposing active mobility measures. The two camps can have different ideas of acceptable risks and priorities. But Matthew Flaherty, a firefighter who has lived in L.A. his whole life, bridges the two worlds. He’s an advocate for affordable, transit-friendly housing. His struggle to find an apartment in a walkable neighborhood led him to become a member of the Livable Communities Initiative, a nonprofit group advocating for more walkable neighborhoods in L.A. “Cities shouldn’t be designed around the fire department,” Flaherty argues. “The fire department should be designed to deal with the infrastructure as it is. If you have a plumber design a house, the whole house is going to be a toilet.” One area of tension for fire safety advocates and density advocates is the requirement that most new apartment bui