Weekly Update 04/26/2026

Some bits of business…

About the cover

This is the new ‘SeaTac-Des Moines Creek Trail Park, just south of 200th St. on 18th Ave. A cover featuring SeaTac? Blasphemy! 😀 It’s worth noting for a several reasons.

• First, it’s got some neato playground stuff and is near to residents in North Hill and Blueberry Lane.
• Second, it has a bike/walking trail that connects into the Des Moines Creek Trail!
• Since I’m all about them politics, this was an opportunity I’ve talked about many times. SeaTac and Des Moines have been offered properties like this over time and we have repeatedly chosen to give hand them over to the Port of Seattle for private development (Des Moines Creek West.) SeaTac chose to figure out grant funding to purchase the lands at low cost and extend the open space. Obviously, I feel this was the better choice. The entire area is one of the last bits of forested lands we have–and they are in rough shape. My fear is that if we don’t do projects like these they will continue to deteriorate.

My only grouse (I always have a grouse). The bike trail along 200th St. ends and does not connect into the park at 18th Ave. FAILURE! 😀 Any time we build any park, it has to have proper bike trails. I don’t get how SeaTac could do so much work along 200th and not finish the job.

PS. Follow my forays into biking through Des Moines here at Lake To Sound Trail 101.

Marina Mercantile

By now you may have heard that Marina Mercantile is closing on May 9th. A couple of things: First, if you haven’t used the gift cards you won in my contests? Get a move on! 😀 Second, I honestly do not think the owners of MM recognise just how much they meant to Des Moines.

One reason I kept Take Out Des Moines going was data. It has been a way to monitor the actual health of our retail sector and here is one very simple stat. There has not been one twelve month period since TODM began in 2020 where that list did not change. Say it another way: the list has never been stable for even a year.

I cannot find a single person who engaged with MM who was not thrilled to have it in Des Moines. It’s exactly the kind of place we need. I could also say that about a dozen previous restaurants and shops that have not been persisted. There is this notion of ‘free market’ and ‘hard work’ and ‘great product’ so on. But it takes more.

I am sure there will be another shop owner to fill the space and they will be fine. 🙂 We are also awaiting a new spot down the street (and in Redondo.) Still, the number of places has never increased. The options have changed but never increased in diversity. And the churn has never slowed down.

In short, places like MM should be able to thrive. And if not, this should be a wake up call to our City (and City Council.)

City Manager Stuff

City Manager Reports! April 24, 2026

The highlight for moi is the updated Construction list. I know a lot of you are upset about various construction projects. But on the other hand, as dark as this sounds, if you’ve been following on about our finances, I’m going to channel my Jewish Grandmother here for a sec:

You should be glad we’re doing something for you to complain… 😀

It’s just a fact that there have been years where there was no construction, if you know what I’m saying.

That said, by all means, if there are issues? Please let the City know. (and cc me.)

This Week

Tuesday

Port of Seattle Commission: The Commission will vote to put a ton of money into  Grand Crossing project in Bellevue and it’s worth a few sentences.

Last Week

I attended a celebration of Earth Day with various and sundry fellow tree-huggers. I also met with Adam Smith’s team to discuss what he might be able to do for us airport-wise next year. And…

Wednesday

Regional Transit Advisory Committee! We had a combo meeting of the electeds advisory committee and the King County Council. The discussion was to do with FIFA and wayfinding. Wayfinding not only means anything that helps people… er… find their way… it also means encouraging people to go certain ways. I think Seattle expected FIFA to do more to coach us all on how to put on a FIFA show. Which means you do not know FIFA. 😀

Friday

Flood Control District Advisory Committee I was elected vice-chair of the SCA subcommittee. What was my campaign platform? “I have a good attendance record.” 😀

Occasionally people ask why I’m on this thing–since Des Moines doesn’t seem to ‘flood’ like so many big rivers in the area. I got involved to help protect and support funding for urban flooding–which is very useful for projects like the Beach Park and homes along creeks like McSorley.

Our main job is to read a ton of technical material throughout the year and then deliver a set of funding recommendations. Last year was 168 projects and almost a billion dollars. I like reading, but even for moi it was a lot.

And then…we had that flooding last autumn and found out that the scoring system–ie. the projects considered most ‘safe’ vs. ‘at risk’ was, well, not 100%. 😀 So the discussion now is a) how to find $32 million to pay for the emergency repairs. b) how does this list need to change.

This is a tough discussion. It irritates electeds who just want to get their projects fixed. And the awkward truth is that there are still a significant number of electeds who simply do not believe in climate change–or rather are not willing to factor it into planning.

And then there is this: staff themselves can be conflicted. Because every time you send structural engineers out to re-evaluate these systems, they find more problems. And if you find things, you then have to figure out how to pay for them.

Tuesday

I watched (but did not attend) the Burien Airport Committee. Call this a cross-over episode. 😀 Our airport committee chair Joe Dusenberry is scheduled to report on shared efforts concerning a ’roundtable of roundtables’, ie. meetings of various FAA airport community roundtables around the nation. Agenda from STNI.

Thursday

6:00pm City Council Meeting April 23, 2026, City Council Agenda Packet

April 23, 2026 City Council meeting recap

Public Comment

City Presentations

• Tonya Seaberry is retiring from DMPD. The City is looking at doing a community needs assessment in 2027. I sure hope someone asks Officer Seaberry to write a detailed memo on that before she leaves the field. I cannot think of anyone who understands the entirety of Des Moines more deeply.
• Assistant Chief Kevin Penney was be honoured for 25 years of service.
• Harbormaster Scott Wilkins for 30!

We voted to approve design of a new soccer pitch at Midway Park. Despite my previous comments, I cannot tell you how much it will mean to the community. I visited the area today and the entire park is soooooooo much better than ten years ago. This has been the result of work by so many people I wouldn’t know where to begin, but Tonya Seaberry would be at the top of any list.

The Q4 Financial Report was, of course, of interest. We have a surprising number of delinquent property taxes and that turned what could have been a modestly OK quarter into essentially a wash. Beyond that, I generally don’t have much to say because (sorry) these reports are a shiny penny trick. They are standard equipment, and I appreciate the effort, but they have almost no management value for electeds.

Our lobbyist gave a somewhat bleak assessment of the 2026 State session and and tried to curb our enthusiasm as to possibilities for 2027. Whether they know it or not, what slowly ruins people in elected government is the focus on now. The fact is, every year, cities like Des Moines get less and less of State dollars than we used to. There are grants, but a ‘grant’ is essentially a gift with strings attached. People don’t even question this dynamic, even though it is a fairly recent change. I can recall our percentage of both property and state taxes were much larger just in the past 30 years.

What infuriates me, is that, every city keeps lobbying for ‘stuff’ every year. We all despise this system. But we all seem to shrug and assume ‘it is what it is’.  What you really want, girlfriend, is your own money. But we’re all on this hamster wheel for this year’s legislation, we never seem to organise to fix the underlying problem

I made a bit of black humour about ‘taking money from kids’ because that is what the State budget has become. Over half the state budget goes for schools and still they continue to struggle. It is a banana pants situation. But again, who wants to be the heartless bastard who asks to move even a fraction of that towards… oh… I dunno… Des Moines. 🙂 I for one, really do believe that education is the paramount duty of the state.

Exec Session regarding real estate

One cannot discuss the specifics of what happens in Executive Session. But this is the second meeting in a row where we have talked about multiple possible opportunities and with absolutely no data to work from because (wait for it) the rules say that you cannot divulge information ahead of the session or leave with any of the materials. It is absolutely the most opaque and terrible way to make land use decisions and the exact opposite of ‘strategic planning’. Other cities at least try to do it a bit better. We don’t. But everything legal.

What burns my toast is that this is legal. All the constant yammering for ‘public engagement’ is rubbish unless the decisions people care about most can be made… er… public. There is simply no mechanism to plan the City’s future in a transparent fashion. And I know this sounds like a rant. But the dirty little secret is that the ability to go into a private room and make ‘big decisions’ feeds something in a lot of people. It’s tough to take that away from electeds because we all ran for office, at least partly, to do exactly this kind of thing.