Self-sufficiency further out of reach: Gap grows between wages and cost of basic needs. Plus: Why the public health option matters; and where is Pugetopolis growing?

Basic needs of families in state costing more: A new report confirms what most Washington families already know — it’s getting more costly to meet basic needs such as housing, food and child care. But a University of Washington report — “The Self-Sufficiency Standard for Washington State 2009” — underlines the growing gap between wages and the costs of basic needs by calculating those needs on a per county basis and a more detailed level. More: Seattle Times

Opinion: Health Reform Without a Public Option Isn’t Real Health Reform: The idea that some kind of new co-op could serve as any kind of real proxy for a public option seems unrealistic to me. A public option has many advantages over a private, non profit organization–not the least of which is accountability–a public option would be both publically accountable and legally transparent. More: Seattle P-I Blog

Neighborhood, city, region, sprawl…who is the densest of them all? Two articles in Crosscut highlight the latest growth and density trends. Douglas McDonald examines new figures showing people are not moving to  regional growth centers at anywhere near the rate that the region’s 40-year growth plan predicts. Knute Berger takes a look at Seattle’s densest and most intensely developed neighborhoods, the least dense, and Pugetopolis’ fastest growing towns.