Weekly Update 02/22/2026

Some bits of business…

About the cover

This image is the second word cloud from the Strategic Plan Survey. This is “what’s the first thing you think of when you think of Des Moines?” kind of deal. Tune in Thursday and Friday to see how we put that survey into action.

City Manager Stuff

City Manager Reports! February 20, 2026

This Week

Monday

Police not-ride-along with GPS Monica. I’ve been wanting to get a sense of some of the work our dedicated ‘Getting People Services’ officer does. You can’t really do a traditional ‘ride-along’ for this but I’ve been a big supporter of Behavioural Health in public safety and this is a chance to learn more.

Tuesday

Port of Seattle Commission (agenda)

UWDEOHS/Governor’s Council in Tumwater. Dr. Elena Austin, who is supervising our upcoming Air Quality Monitoring Station, will be presenting on aviation fuel pollution.

Wednesday

10am – 2pm CAWG: This is the ‘second airport committee’. They’re meeting in SeaTac so if you have time, come speak on behalf of airport communities. 🙂 People who are not airport specialists (OK, even people who are airport specialists 😀 ) find them tedious. But the reason we tend to do so poorly with the airport, is that we don’t know how aiports really work.

I got puzzled/angry looks for not wanting to renew our lobbyist’s contract just for this year and this is the reason why. In this year of the SAMP, it would have been faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar better for Des Moines to have someone who attends every Port and CAWG and essentially and ‘airporty’ meeting and develop some sense of ‘strategy’ because for WA, airports, and specifically our airport, are the economy. Truly, they drive everything.

Thursday/Friday

February 26 and February 27, 2026 Strategic Plan Workshop

• Thursday: 5:30 – 8:00pm
• Friday: 9:00am – 3:00pm

8.5 hours with our City Council,  takeaway food, and no drinks? What could possibly go wrong. 😀 I kid because I love. I would note that the previous Council never sat for a group photo, so perhaps these group events evoke progress.

The majority of this event was pre-selected by the Staff. The first day is apparently the Mayor’s idea. The objectives are chosen by Staff. The Values are chosen by Staff. Day two focuses on 5-6 Strategic Focus Areas. But even those are pre-selected by the Staff.

One could wish that they were simply called ‘goals’ and avoid the word ‘strategy’ altogether. This meeting should really be called ‘goal setting’, which I thought we did at our last ‘Mission/Values/Whatever’ things.

The frustrating thing is that these meetings should include hard data. We’re past the vague stuff. The public gave us their survey, great. But the public  wants the same things it has always wanted since I’ve lived here. That’s not being cynical. The essential value proposition of Des Moines is still the same. But the public has no idea what is reasonable to expect. And neither does the City Council.

We gather a bunch of data. But we present it at separate meetings so it never becomes part of something one can do anything with strategically. I object to paying people a ton of money to do another not serious exercise when the City’s future really is at stake.

For example, survey respondents say that ‘Budget’ and ‘Small Town’ are their highest priorities. But at the same time, also want to avoid larger businesses in favour of local business–despite knowing they provide less revenue. If that is what people want, fine. But that also means higher taxes and we should be clear about that.

People grouse endlessly about the gaps in the downtown. Me too. They want more amenities. Me too. But: how many restaurants can Des Moines support atm? We currently have three restaurants downtown one might call fine dining. A family restaurant. Four coffee shops. How many such places can thrive unless we start actively encouraging (wait for it) more traffic–which is something a majority of respondents said they do not want.

Here’s the thing: if you really want a sustainable budget, you’d know what the revenue potential of (a,b,c,d,e) are and then choose based on those. 

That’s for realz planning. Think of any strategy game. You put all the variables, specific numbers and goals, out on a table, make your choices, and then let the team run the play. That’s not what this is.

It’s the airport, stupid

It is disappointing to me that the airport is nowhere in there, when in fact, it’s the 9,000lb gorilla in every room. Some think me ‘obsessed’ by it. But it drives everything here. You just don’t notice it. Like the airplane noise. It sets the ceiling on what will ever be possible here.

People tend to forget a couple of things about COVID in Des Moines:

• It was genuinely quiet. People noticed.
• The City’s budget was literally the best since I’ve lived here.

So, in a very real sense, if you lived here, were not in school, did not get sick, and were not anxious about the million or so people who died, it was fantastic.

In fact, services and staff counts were never better. Sales tax was also never better. Get it? That was the financial high point.

But that ARPA funding was not used for long term stuff. It was used to provide service levels (eg. police) that the public assumes we can always provide.

What people would have noticed if we weren’t so distracted by, you know, a once in a century pandemic, was that the financial challenges we’re having now were already in place before COVID hit. They weren’t caused by COVID, they were delayed and masked by all that juicy ARPA money.

The airport (and the noise) roared back to record levels within a few months of the end of the state of emergency, but our budget did not. Instead, we borrowed $25,000,000 at exactly the wrong time–because we were still on the sugar high of ARPA.

It did not occur to people that the reason we had to borrow to do any Marina Steps project was because we literally received no legit proposals for the private development concept. Why? Same reason we still have all those gaps on MVD.  It’s easy to blame ‘land bankers’. And if nothing else, there is definitely a need to (finally) figure out how to address the aesthetics. But on the other hand, if we were so darned desirable, wouldn’t you think there would be at least a few developers falling all over themselves to build in these spaces at the Marina or along MVD?

It’s the airport, stupid. The airport lowers property values. That makes it less expensive to age in place, or retire here or to obtain a first home. But it has also been punishing to our tax base–the services people say they expect in that survey. It also creates a ton more negative impacts–not just noise and pollution–and that makes it far less desirable for developers. People who can afford to live elsewhere, people with disposable income, live elsewhere. Having used pretty much every marina in WA, I can assure you: the one thing Puget Sound does not lack? Waterfront communities. I didn’t make this up. It was predicted 30 years ago before the Third Runway was built and was used as an argument to stop it. But rather than use that information to obtain relief after it became clear that stopping it was impossible, people moved or simply tried their best to ignore it.

Many people, including our staff, tell me that when they go away on holiday, they come back and have to sort of re-adjust. I’ve lost count of the number of visitors who get distracted by the noise. The look on their face says, “How do you live with this?” No matter how much you love Des Moines, there is no need to be defensive–you know exactly what I’m talking about.

There are outliers (like moi)! who are welded to a church and boating, or who really need to live near the airport. But fewer and fewer as time goes on.

The airport should have been on that Shared Strategy list because it is number one with a bullet. We just can’t see it (hear it?) because if you live here, you likely self-selected. You’re (mostly) OK with this. The question is: can we broaden our appeal, and if not, what kind of compensation can we obtain for the millions in annual hits to revenue we take from the airport.

Last Week

Wednesday

Regional Transit Committee – RTC is, essentially, ‘buses and water taxis’. This was our first full meeting of year with new chair our own new District #5 King County Councilmember Steffanie Fain taking over from Jorge Baron.Agenda/Work Plan-Ideas.

Transportation is a zero-sum game. What most people don’t realise is just how ginormous King County is. Its budget is larger than at least ten states. It’s geography is also huge. I appreciate all my colleagues who really try to see the big picture and not just advocate for their turf. I certainly nudge for more east/west connectivity for Des Moines. Still, here is something to think about: there are still large swaths of KC with no transit. Zero, zilch, nada, bupkis. It’s hard not to feel slightly petty for asking for more service for Des Moines before other areas get any. But…. Well…. 😀