Weekly Update 06/16/2025

Some bits of business…

Tardiness

Over the past six years of doing whatever ‘this’ is, I’ve been late several times. But I’ve only missed two Weekly Updates. Last week was a first. I actually wrote the thing and got so totally busy I forgot to send it out to the mailing list. For personal reasons (nothing to do with City), I’ve driven more miles in the past two weeks than I usually do in most years! And I’m late again this week because of Sunday’s Club World Cup where the Sounders got whomped by Brazil’s best: Botafogo. And since the best teams on the planet are in town for the rest of the week, I may be late again next week. 🙂 GOOOOOOALLLLLL!

However, I did publish last week’s Weekly Update and it’s worth reading because the Council is, if anything, even more active than last year.

UW AAA study for kids with asthma – free indoor air filters!

The University of Washington is conducting an Asthma, air quality & airports fon children living near Sea-Tac Airport. This is a great opportunity to help improve the air quality for your child and help with important research! Learn more and sign up here.

City Manager Stuff

This the second run of the City Manager’s new weekly report format. It’s more of a traditional email sign up rather than a cookbook with events. 😀

City Manager Report – June 13, 2025

• Redondo Paid Parking is coming. Free now. Paid next month. You can get a Marina-only pass, a Redondo-only pass, or a combo-pass. No, I don’t know the rates. But here is who to ask: the Marina Office at 206-824-5700.
• SR99 repaving – from 200th to KDM. Details… SR99/SR 516 to S 200th St – Paving & ADA Compliance

Restaurants!

There have been more restaurant changes in town. So this is a good time to remind you of the local restaurant guide TakeOutDM.Com or TakeOutDesMoines.Com. There is a sign-up form which emails signees when various establishments are offering specials! If you are a new restaurant owner, you should also let them know when you are having said specials so they can spread the woid.

News Flash! After five years of being only ‘98198’, TakeOutDM is expanding its list to include establishments people think are in Des Moines, but (due to the insane border) are actually in Kent, WA! 🙂 For example, I really like Moe Vegan, tucked away from where Harbor Freight is now located. Whether you’re vegan or not, very tasty sandwiches.

The Slide of Certain Doom Unchained!

And last but not least, the incredibly safe, completely not dangerous, but totally awesome slide at the Field House is now open. Unlike a lot of playground equipment these days, which are fine but fairly generic, this thing has character – something I was concerned might be a lost art in public design. It looks like it was tailor-made for the hill ¹I used to send my kids down on lunch trays. I love engineering like this. Well done!

This Week

There is no City Council meeting this week. However, pour moi? Still action packed. 🙂

Tuesday

Port of Seattle Commission planning meeting. I attend these because, well, because they’re meetings. And, said it before say it again, they are highly civilised, and this is how one learns what is going on.

6:00PM Burien Airport Committee the BAC has been in business since 2018. Since we just created our own airport committee I sure hope our new members will attend. Frankly, there is nothing they haven’t studied.

Wednesday

Flood Control District Advisory Committee

Thursday

Juneteenth: Not Des Moines, but as has become traditional for me, we’ll be attending an event sponsored by the Northwest African American Museum

Last Week

Tuesday: Duwamish River Community Coalition Air Quality Summit. The group represents residents who live near South Park and KCIA. They handed out 30 HEPA filters for residents using the same program that Senator Orwall drew from at the Des Moines Activity Center last month. The hope is for both airport groups can work together so that everyone under the flight path can obtain proper indoor air quality.

Wednesday: Emergency Management Advisory Committee Meeting. We’re doing these tabletop exercises to figure out how to deal with disasters worthy of Hollywood movies. I have one point to make: I am 100% each agency will do their job great. Medical, Police, Fire, EMT. What I’m not so sure about? Communication.

Thursday

Environment Committee Agenda Highlights:

Thursday: 6:00pm  Regular Meeting – 12 Jun 2025 Agenda

City Council Meeting Recap

Regular Meeting – 12 Jun 2025 – Agenda – Updated

Because I’m pooped. Lightning Round!

• Public Comment
  • The Farmers Market people came by to accept their 20th Anniversary Proclamation – and to announce that they had 7,000 visitors for their opening day. (I was gobsmacked as I seem to recall the average in previous years being around 2,500.) Well done!
• Consent Agenda
  • Water Resource Inventory Area 9 – Interlocal Agreement Renewal
    • Every year I vote for this. Why? We pay a small amount of money into a regional fund which helps with salmon recovery. The long game is simple: by doing so, eventually, a much larger pool of money will become available to lever the absolutely ginormous shore renovations we will need to make at the Beach Park, Saltwater State Park, Redondo, etc. Said it before, say it again: being the Waterland City costs a fortune to protect.
  • 2026 SKHHP Work Plan and Budget
    • Every year I pull this item specifically to vote against it. Why? We pay a small amount of money into a regional fund which is supposed to help us build more housing. And it never does. My predecessor said about the program, ‘too slow’. That was 2020.
  • Amendment to Interagency Agreement between WSDOT and City of Des Moines
    • I shoulda pulled this. Our agreements with WSDOT concerning almost every aspect of SR-509 have been a complete travesty.
      • No noise wall for Blueberry Lane
      • Weak mitigation agreement for Barnes Creek
      • No discussion of impacts re. with Sea-Tac Airport
      • Terrible public outreach

THREE PUBLIC HEARINGS, WHEW!

• • Woodmont Beach Apartments LLC Development Agreement. This is the long-vacant property on Pac Hwy just north of the Safeway. Many members of the public spoke against the project. I was the lone vote against. The problem is the way the City negotiates these things. The City Manager worked up a preliminary agreement. The Council votes up or down. We’re not the negotiators. I asked to put off the vote for two weeks so that the City Manager could see if there were ways to address my concerns. Nope. Those concerns are, as I said:
    • The rough design does not indicate trees or shade. That really concerns me.
    • We still have no sound code. And I will not vote to approve any project here again until we have the common sense to require the same basic sound reduction as other cities under the flight path.

The comments from the public, my colleagues, and the City struck me as decades out of date. Many people still tend to view apartments as ‘make dos’ – a place to live while you’re waiting for a place you actually want to live. That’s ridiculous. For many reasons, every year now, more and more people are living in apartments long term. To that end, we must make them more livable. Ironically, I am the most ‘pro-housing’ person on the Council atm. But to me, that doesn’t mean building just to build. And no matter how nice the countertops are, if you want a place to feel like ‘home’ it needs some shade and some quiet and easy access to transit. This project could (and should) have been brought to the dais with those boxes already checked.

 Accessory Dwelling Units & Middle Housing

• • I’m comboing these together because although they’re separate, they were part of a very long discussion with our new planning director. This may be one of the best things I am a part of on this Council – making it easier to build more affordable living spaces. I applaud Ms. Deming and her team for doing a great job. However, it is notable that these improvements (again) could’ve and should’ve been done many years ago. it took new laws at the state level to make it clear: stop kidding around, make more housing options available. Ironically, the Council kept having little ‘discussions’ almost right until the 9:00PM witching hour. When it comes to housing, we can’t seem to help ourselves.
• Establishment of Airport Advisory Committee: The Council had specified a five person committee. We got four applicants. Fortunately, we had an existing StART member so we were able to finally field a team. I have no idea what will come of it, but I sure hope they subscribe to STNI – and attend Burien Airport Committee meetings. We’re all in this together.

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¹I had wanted the thing opened last year and, not to be that guy, but I’ve been seeing kids (with their parents egging them on!) using that thing on the down low for months. And today I couldn’t see any of the safety upgrades Which is fine by me. I saw kids running back up the hill faster than they were going down. Maybe those smart playground engineers used a type of plastic that is not as slippery as it looks. Or not. I’ll let ya know after the next rainstorm. 😀