Joshua McNichols
"Growing Pains" Reporter
About
Joshua’s “Growing Pains” beat sits at the nexus of housing, transportation, urban planning and the economy. He’s done deep reporting on Amazon. He’s spending the second year of the recession focused on the Puget Sound region’s economic recovery. Public radio is a second career for Joshua, after he spent ten years in the field of architecture. He holds a bachelor's degree in Architecture from the University of Washington. He’s also an avid gardener who co-wrote a book on urban gardening during the Great Recession.
Location: Seattle
Languages Spoken: English
Professional Affiliations: Society of Professional Journalists, Western Washington Chapter
Podcasts
Stories
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Why it’s taking longer to build homes in Seattle
Home builders in the Northwest are working as fast as they can to build housing for all the people coming to the region. Currently, there are 23,000 homes under construction in Seattle or about to break ground. But they’ve hit a snag. Or rather, a whole mess of snags. And those snags are slowing them down.
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KUOW Newsroom
Firecracker Alley: It's about more than fireworks
Every year on Puyallup land near the Port of Tacoma, Puyallup tribal members gather to sell fireworks. It’s an event that draws tribal members together to socialize and make some money. But it’s an annual tradition that may not be around forever.
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KUOW Newsroom
This tiny Washington tourist town found its workforce after all
The town of Coupeville Washington, on Whidbey Island, has solved its labor shortage. That could be a promising sign for other communities with the same problem.
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KUOW Newsroom
Tourists tell Seattle how to handle the heat
The Puget Sound region is getting ready for a heat wave this weekend. A lot of people in the area aren't used to temperatures in the upper 90s. But some of the tourists on Seattle's waterfront - are used to that kind of heat. And they shared some of their advice on how to stay comfortable.
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Seattle’s port is greener than ever. That may not be enough.
The Port of Seattle finished unloading 4 giant white cranes from China late Monday. They’re among the biggest cranes in the world, and part of a major upgrade of Terminal that includes new green infrastucture designed to reduce pollution. But critics say it's hard to be green in an industry that's nowhere close.
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KUOW Newsroom
'Stop taking anything from Israel': Block the Boat movement aims to halt cargo ship at Seattle Port
Demonstrators gathered near the Port of Seattle Thursday afternoon. Their aim – was to block the unloading of a cargo ship owned by the shipping company ZIM, which was founded in Israel. Demonstrators are using the ship’s arrival as a way to protest Israeli actions in Gaza last month.
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KUOW Newsroom
First essential, then 'devalued': Gig workers don't want to return to ebb and flow of wages
Wages ebb and flow in the gig economy, where workers pick up odd jobs on apps like Doordash and TaskRabbit. Sometimes, the money’s good. But with gig work, there’s no minimum wage. This summer, the Seattle City Council will work on ways to remedy that.
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Your order has been canceled: Delivery apps could need consent to list Seattle restaurants
It could soon be illegal for services like DoorDash and Uber Eats to deliver food unless they have the restaurant owner’s consent. That bill passed the Seattle City Council unanimously Monday, and now awaits the mayor’s signature.
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The Main Street Project
What this Washington town learned from a job fair hardly anybody showed up to
In the picturesque town of Coupeville, Wash., job vacancies usually fill by word of mouth. This year is different. Business owners are wondering: Where are all the workers? So they put on a job fair, hoping to conjure applicants out of thin air.
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The Main Street Project
In tiny Coupeville, tourists have returned. Workers have not.
Now that so many people are vaccinated, tourists are flooding into the Pacific Northwest. That’s true in the tiny town of Coupeville Washington, on Whidbey Island. But there’s a problem. Coupeville can’t hire enough people to staff the restaurants and shops where tourists spend their money. And the tourists have picked up on it.