Some bits of business…
Future Agendas
Future Agendas is the closest thing the City currently has to a calendar of upcoming City Council topics. It’s not dynamic, ie. you have to click it every time you want to see a new version. And it’s not always accurate. But until we develop a genuine calendar, this can be very useful if there is a particular issue you don’t want to miss.
And so it begins…
The airport has begun a new Part 150 Noise Study. ‘Part 150’ refers to a section of FAA regulations whereby airports analyse their noise impact on the surrounding community. Ho hum, you say? Well, for one thing a Part 150 Study sets the official noise boundary around the airport. If yer hous is inside it, you get sound insulation (aka a Port Package). If not, you don’t. It does a lot of other stuff which I won’t get into here. But for that reason alone, you should show up to these public workshops hosted by the Port of Seattle on June 5 and June 6. https://www.portseattle.org/page/sea-part-150-noise-study
This Part 150 Study, is the beginning of an environmental review of the entire airport called the Sustainable Airport Master Plan (SAMP). And it is a very big deal. In fact, think of it this way: The 2024 SAMP is to the 1996 Third Runway what 2020 COVID was to the Spanish Flu of 1918. Really bad. But far enough inthe past that it’s possible we won’t take it seriously enough–until it’s too late.
Marina Paid Parking
This time it’s for realz. 🙂 Free 2-week ‘gates down’ test run begins May 20. Then? Cha-ching! 😀
City Manager Stuff
City Manager’s Report May 10, 2024
Bombshell! 😀
As always, some great stuff. Although one thing is not in there: Current Parks Director Nicole Nordholm has been re-assigned to the position of Communications Director. Congratulations.
Of course, my first question: Who is taking over her duties? And my next question: what will her mission be? Stay tuned.
ADU RFI
I need your help. As you may know, we are updating our Comprehensive Plan, which will change City zoning rules for a generation. So far the City has reviewed re-zone opportunities in a couple of neighbourhoods, but not everywhere. I strongly believe in providing more housing flexibility for our residents. A lot more. So: if you’ve been considering putting on an accessory dwelling unit (ADU), or building something like a duplex or any other type of multi-family housing? I want to hear from you. What you’ve done. What you’d like to do. Challenges?
This Week
Tuesday: Port of Seattle Commission Meeting Highlight: a review of Sea-Tac Airport Round Table (StART) 2023. StART consists of community members from the six airport communities.
Other than that? Darkness. A black hole of civic emptiness. Instead of obsessing on Solar Storms and national politics, how about obsessing on local politics? 😀 (206) 878-0578
Last Week
Thursday 4:00pm: Transportation Committee Meeting Transportation Committee Agenda
Thursday 5:00pm: Environment Committee Meeting Environment Agenda
We had a review of our various assets and inspections, ie. storm drains, catch basins, retention ponds, ditch lines, etc. I often get tongue tied at these things because, rather than saying, “That’s great!”, my mind goes into ‘STEM Mode’ with a bunch of questions, which I have to fight not to ask about. For example:
A large number of building materials have surprisingly short life spans. For example, the ditch lines for storm water, made of corrugated metal, often fail after fifteen (15) years. WTF? I can never get over this sort of thing because it is so contradictory of human intuition. Most of us can’t imagine having to replace seemingly ‘permanent’ things like a storm pipe (let alone a fishing pier 😀 ) after only a couple of decades.
If you notice a problem with your catch basin or drainage ditch, use the Fix-It Form to contact the City.
There was a follow-up memo on questions from the committee regarding our Comp. Plan, which provoked a conversation re. updates to zoning. In a nutshell, a lot of people now want to build small, ADUs, middle housing. But most of our building and zoning is based on decades of large. Can you build a $200k small house? Sure. But if it’s another $200k to hook up to the traditional road/electric/water grids, why would you? We have to find ways to build small. I live in a smaller house. Many people love smaller houses. One main reason builders built so many large houses for so long was because smaller homes were not profitable.
Finally, I asked my colleagues if we could invite our StART Community members to talk to us. That Part 150 Study means that the SAMP is about to go into full swing. It is essential that our City has a good sense of what we want to accomplish .
If you are interested in providing public comment on environmental issues, I try to set aside a few minutes for that. 🙂
Thursday 6:00pm: City Council Meeting (Agenda) Recap below
Saturday: I did not attend the Yacht Club opening. I did however, successfully replace an alternator. And once that little obstacle was overcome, I took a test drive over to look at progress on the Theatre, including a preview of a new florist shop that will be relocating here soon from Burien called Iris & Peony. Many of you know we used to have several florists in town and they will be a most welcome addition.
May 9, 2024 City Council Meeting
Public Comment
There was a whole squad of people wearing green who commented on the Masonic Home. See my closing comments below.
As an aside, former Mayor and Des Moines Historical Society President Richard Kennedy showed up to ask a very reasonable question: What happened to the Wheel? If you look behind the dais, it’s a void. That thing used to be filled with both the national and City flags, and a great Ship’s Wheel–befitting a city that Sails With Pride. 🙂 For reasons passing understanding, in 2023, both flags were moved over to the public comment podium and the wheel got transferred to the Harbor Master’s Office–leaving the copier machine and some sort of light fixture bracket?
Consent Agenda
Pride Month Proclamation
This was something I proposed (or rather re-proposed) back in 2021. We’d had a number of proclamations like this in the past, but they would be sort of ‘one and dones’. The City now puts these sorts of things on the calendar every year. This was the first year it was ahead of schedule– I’d kinda hoped there would be one or two events announced for June but there is still time. Usually, celebrations are the first week of June.
Senior Services Contract
We renewed our two-year contract with Wesley to manage Senior Services programs–and add a possible second employee. That sounds fine, but I had hoped there would be some sort of review of the program’s performance since we established the contract in 2018. This is one of those fights I used to get into with our former Mayor. He would say, “the results speak for themselves.” And I would say, “If I were an expert in domain(x) they sure would. But since I’m not an expert in Senior Services program management, they aren’t even whisperin’ to me, pal. Can we please get some comparative data or do some kind of survey? That went over real big. 🙂
New Business: Animal Code Revisions
This was a bit embarrassing for me. As it read, the ordinance changes are to make it easier to go to court on an aggressive animal issue. Which is fine.
I took a liberty, which may not have seemed fair in the moment, to inject one of the most frequent animal control complaints I’ve heard over the years: “Too many warnings!” As I said from the dais, one of my dogs was attacked and killed by a neighbour’s dog who had received three warnings. While that was going on, what I wanted was to not go to court. What I wanted was to get that dog off the street without all the warnings.
In policing this is often referred to as a “quality of life” issue, which understandably get relegated to second and third tier with all the other stuff the police have to deal with. I get that it’s challenging, but every once in a while, I want the City to know, that this is not a third tier deal.
At the time, my attorney encouraged me to sue the City. Repeated failure to comply. Graphic piccies of a gaping chest wound in a cute little dog. I did not sue because my thought was “It won’t bring the dog back.” I ran for office, partly because I wanted to address quality of life issues.
But frankly? The City Council can create an ordinance, but sometimes it takes a lot more to nudge a city towards changing how it interprets that ordinance. ‘The letter of the law’ was already on my side ten years ago.
Closing Comments
I made a comment on that Regional Transit Committee briefing I attended last week because it tied into the Transportation Committee. All of us agree that the City desperately needs a ‘last mile service’ in the south end of town. County planners are basically saying, “No”. I don’t know what to do about it, but we need to do something about it.
I then went on to yack about the Masonic Home and the SAMP–and that long-game stuff.
“I’ve been struck by a prevalent theme I’ve heard in the community, which I find corrosive. It’s this notion that we’re sympathetic, but if we had genuinely wanted to address the Masonic Home, and I don’t mean just the City Council, but the community, we all would’ve banded together and done something about it a long time ago. So it’s our fault.
Whenever I hear that sort of argument, I find it so ridiculous I suspect it is not made in good faith. In general, people are terrible at planning for the long term. One major reason you’re supposed to have ‘government’ is to protect the future. (Imagine a world without Social Security.)
But frankly, it’s become a feature here, not a bug. Look at all the jokes about ‘the downtown.’ People will scoff, “Well, you know, that’s Des Moines for you!” At a certain point, you have to start seeing this as just another strategy for people who want to convince you that nothing is even possible.
I started thinking about this because there’s this airport expansion coming. It’s gonna be as big a deal as the Third Runway in the 2000s and I’m pretty sure on almost nobody in that room remembers that in 2019 we brought in some very expensive consultants to talk to us about it. That was only 4 years ago!
So, I’m constantly re-educating people (which I’m sure they love) about information that is as basic to the issue as properly shingling a roof would be to a building official. Or why salmon don’t like tire dust would be for a water engineer.
There has to be a baseline of knowledge on a topic this important that carries forward from one generation to the next. Otherwise you walk into a room with the Port or the FAA and you don’t even know what to ask for.
And that is why we’ve gotten screwed by the airport decade after decade. It’s not so much ‘the law’. It’s the fact that we are (literally) re-learning the same material every 3-4 years.
I’m doing what I can and I’m hoping the public will just sort of nudge all of us to put in a bit of effort, along with everything else, because it’s not merely reducing the noise and pollution; it’s millions of dollars every year.
To put this into some context: Decades ago, the City of SeaTac negotiated compensation from the Port of Seattle for things like a new City Hall (no kidding $11,000,000) and annual payments which currently amount to $1.4 million. Can you imagine where our City finances would be if we had a similar payment every year in an interest bearing account? You could buy the Masonic Home, or rebuild the entire Marina–and pay with cash.
Negotiating the SAMP is the single biggest economic opportunity any of us will ever see. And the fact you don’t know this blows my mind.
The reason they didn’t do any of that before is not that people didn’t “care”. It’s that people of that time only cared about stopping the third Runway. They weren’t really interesting in living with it. So when it opened in November, 2008? They just quit. As we say, “Don’t like it? Move.”
So if nothing else, I’m hoping we can (finally) start recognising that we have to live with these things, and do something real, regardless of how any single event turns out.
And if any of those Masonic people had still been in the room, they would’ve heard me say, ‘If you don’t get the outcome you want with the Masonic home SEPA, do not quit. There will be many decisions.’ That may not be what they want to hear.
But what I’ve learned from the airport is this: If you really want to protect the environment, or do historical preservation, or whatever, you cannot have an All Or Nothing approach. The goal is to make the best of things. Part of that means making sure you can pass on your work to the next generation so we don’t keep making the same damned mistakes over and over again.”
Airport expansion again, eh? Do we know what’s being expanded yet?
Thanks much.
It’s more of a ‘virtual expansion. Because of improvements in technology, the airport will be able to increase flights over the next ten years as much as with the Third Runway. I’d like the City and residents to (at the very least) get compensated for that.
Understood. Patricia and I agree with you.
– John H.
Thanks for the coverage of The Senior Center. I do wish they could honor the old Contract. Re the Masonic Home t
Zenith, did a crowd show up? Do we know anything about the new owners Plan ? Kaylene
I’ll keep working on the Senior Center. 🙂 Yes, a lot of people showed up on behalf of the Masonic Home. I wish the camera occasionally would show the audience. Nothing yet from the owner.
Thank you for the insight on the mindset we have to have to get the most we can when decisions are not in our favor for our town. That’s important because if we loose on the flight path but gain momentum on new jobs, more funding and a win on environment then it’s worth sitting at the table and coming up with our best options.