From the Seattle Times, “Sharp-tongued philosopher a provocateur for urban density,” August 8, 2015

Rise of an advocate
Just a few years ago Valdez worked for Sea Mar, a nonprofit that provides health care and housing with an emphasis on serving Latinos. He started a wonky blog called Seattle Land-Use Code. He drafted an “urbanist creed” declaring that density “boosts our best human characteristics: creativity, compassion and conservation.” His writings spread with postings for Seattle Transit Blog, Crosscut and Publicola. He moved into a 220-square-foot “apodment” on Capitol Hill.

From Politico, “Scrunched in Seattle,” October 14, 2014

O’Brien, a cycling enthusiast and longtime Sierra Club volunteer, was determined to find some consensus around the divisive micro-housing issue. He formed a stakeholders’ group of developers, residents and tenants.

Two of the most polarizing figures—the activist Bill Bradburd, chair of the Seattle Neighborhood Coalition and a tenacious critic of micro-housing, and Roger Valdez, a self-described micro “evangelist” and lobbyist for the developers—were barred from the group.

Yet agreement wasn’t within grasp

Seattle Channel, City Inside/Out, January 17, 2018

Price controls . . . it’s like saying we’re going 100 miles per hour down the freeway, lets just lock the speedometer at 60 miles per hour. It doesn’t change anything. Building more housing is what changes that price equation.