Public Service Announcements Next Week Tuesday: SMART (Southside Seattle Chamber Of Commerce) I haven’t attended these in a while, but I try to check in to see what SSCOC has going on with Des Moines. My peers in Tukwila and SeaTac speak glowingly of SSCOC. It’s been sort of an ongoing chicken and egg thing. … Continue reading “Weekly Update: 01/30/2022”
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Bloody Sunday 50th Anniversary in Northern Ireland and Black History Month in America
Categories History2 Comments on Bloody Sunday 50th Anniversary in Northern Ireland and Black History Month in AmericaThis is an article about Black History Month, but it will take a while to get there. This photo is one of many annual marches to commemorate Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland (the event the U2 song comes from) where police shot and killed 26 unarmed and peaceful protesters. Today is the 50th anniversary. What … Continue reading “Bloody Sunday 50th Anniversary in Northern Ireland and Black History Month in America”
Weekly Update: 01/23/2022
Categories Airport, Policy, Transparency, Weekly UpdatesLeave a comment on Weekly Update: 01/23/2022Public Service Announcements This Week Tuesday: Port Commission (Agenda) One highlight is a discussion of the WSDOT SR-509 property along 216th that the City Of Des Moines has handed off to the Port for expansion of the Business Park. Thursday: Association Of Washington Cities Action Days. About 100 years ago before COVID, this was a … Continue reading “Weekly Update: 01/23/2022”
Councilmember Martinelli’s resignation
Categories TransparencyTo the residents of Des Moines: I’ve lived here long enough to see several scandals on our City Council. And the thing I’ve learned is that the public has all the tools it needs to handle them; quickly and efficiently. The best thing colleagues can do at those times is to stay out of it. … Continue reading “Councilmember Martinelli’s resignation”
Councilmember Martinelli: Timeline
Categories Transparency1 Comment on Councilmember Martinelli: TimelineTwo years ago… Anthony Martinelli and I were both elected in 2019. We both defeated incumbents (which was almost unheard of over the past three decades) and shared many broad policy positions. But there was a real difference in philosophy. In one sentence: I was interested in the long game; he seemed focused on helping … Continue reading “Councilmember Martinelli: Timeline”
Weekly Update: 01/16/2022
Categories Policy, Weekly UpdatesLeave a comment on Weekly Update: 01/16/2022Public Service Announcements This Week Monday: Destination Des Moines meeting. The group is welcoming a new board member and setting it’s agenda for the year. The hope is that 2022 will (finally) be a return to Wine! Fireworks! You know… normal. 🙂 Wednesday: Reach Out Des Moines. The group’s long-time facilitator Cynthia Ricks-Maccotan will be … Continue reading “Weekly Update: 01/16/2022”
recap-220113
Categories PolicyLast Thursday’s meeting was a triumph of civility. You never saw such civil sons o’ bitches in all your life. 😀 I was looking for ‘signals’ as to whether this was a surface thing or something deeper and my comments reflect on what cues I got. I’ve heard about a dozen times about how the … Continue reading “recap-220113”
Weekly Update: 01/03/2022
Categories Policy, Weekly Updates7 Comments on Weekly Update: 01/03/2022Public Service Announcements This Week Tuesday: Port Of Seattle Commission Meeting (Agenda) This marks the debut of two new Commissioners: Hamdi Mohamed and Toshiko Hasegawa. They represent many firsts, including the first women of colour. Ms. Mohamed is also the first Commissioner from SeaTac. Both have shown a strong interest in issues of equity in … Continue reading “Weekly Update: 01/03/2022”
Year In Review
Categories Policy, Weekly UpdatesTime is a flexible thing. You can watch a thousand sci-fi movies and still that whole ‘relativity’ thing makes no sense. But if you got nothing else out of this pandemic, now you know what it might be like in a space ship approaching the speed of light: where one year can feel like an … Continue reading “Year In Review”
Right of inspection
Categories TransparencyFormer Mayor Pina frequently compared our city to a corporation. Not being nearly as cranky as people say, I never had the heart to mention that one legal title for our city is the Municipal Corporation Of Des Moines, Washington. There’s a point to this (very) gentle dig. It isn’t a metaphor, it’s a fact. We … Continue reading “Right of inspection”