Some bits of business…
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.
Update: We just deep-sixed our standing committees. But for what it’s worth, each committee’s planning calendar here. 🙂
Pope Francis
I want to acknowledge the passing of Pope Francis, not just as a practicing Roman Catholic and a member of St. Philomena since before the 1Reformation. Since you are statistically not Catholic, my observation is the church is extremely misunderstood. It is 1.4 billion (with a ‘b’) people and a massive bureaucracy that does not respond to ‘executive orders’. He was routinely referred to as a ‘heretic’ and ‘apostate’ – by his own Cardinals. In short, the church is like American politics, except many times larger – a super-tanker that changes direction on a time scale measured in generations. That’s not a cop out.
However, there are also large factions – millions of people in fact – that argue and protest and take risks for positive change with a courage unthinkable in modern American politics. Whenever I lose patience, which happens, oh… every couple of hours or so… I try to bear in mind the level of commitment it takes to effect real change in a system so massive and ancient.
And I believe Pope Francis worked very hard to move that super-tanker, a bit faster, towards a better direction.
Traffic Calming Web Site Launched
As part of his update, DPW Slevin announced that the City’ Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program web site was now on line. Not to oversell this, we already have five projects booked this year and there are limits to capacity. But you should definitely put your street on the list and get your concern evaluated. Making this process more transparent is a very good step forward.
Puget Sound Gateway Toll-Rate Setting Online Open House
Yes, tolling is coming to SR-509. I keep posting this because it’s only taken 50 years, so you can be forgiven for being a bit skeptical. But as you drive down 24th Ave you’ll notice that the exit onto I-5 is nearing completion. This is happening. Learn more here:
City Manager Stuff
City Manager’s Report April 25, 2025
No recipe? Scandoloso! But a good essay on the challenges we’re facing with Animal Control. Also a Des Moines Youth Summit at Why Not You Academy on Saturday May 3rd, I need to get more details on. But if you have a middle or high school student, hope you can attend.
The City is now offering an e-mail sign up for City Manager Reports – which I strongly encourage.
Run for City Council
These four seats up for election on our Council. And at least two incumbents have already decided not to run again.
Regardless, you should run. Don’t be the person who only runs when a seat seems uncontested. All four seats are totally winnable. And frankly, with a few notable exceptions, seats that are unopposed tend to yield poor outcomes.
A campaign is part of the practice that helps candidates be good at the job.
But first, you should find out what yer getting yerself into. Start by going to King County Elections and look at the Candidate Manual. Above all? Do. Not. Be. Intimidated. But please do study. 🙂 And let me know if you have questions.
Currently Registered Candidates | Washington State Public Disclosure Commission (PDC)
Airport Committee
Sign up for the 
Airport Advisory Committee. We keep putting this off and the clock is ticking on important aspects of airport expansion. For example, there is a pivotal StART meeting going on this Wednesday and we have only one community member there.
Dueling Taxes
I have to hand it to the new Governor, apparently new property tax increases are off the table this year. However, a couple of other bills are in play – including one to raise the sales tax by .01 in order to fund public safety.
Restaurants!
There have been more restaurant 3changes 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.
This Week
Thursday
Committee of the Whole/Study Session – 01 May 2025 – Agenda – Pdf
This is our second Committee of the Whole/Study Session combo-platter. I’m starting to have a tiny twinge about doing too much decision making during too-long meetings – without real votes (only ‘head nods’.
City Council Committee of the Whole
- False Alarm costs. This is a necessary adjustment as we have not been recovering our full costs when officers have to make a call.
- Middle Housing. The City seems to be recommending a simplified model for everything from 1,200 sq ft. ADUs up to a quadplex.
- If I had to re-do my original choice, I would’ve probably gone for up to 1,500 sq ft. Why authorise an ADU as big as many single-family homes? Not sure. I want to check on the viability of splits. As I wrote, I took a SFH to duplex and then, years later, back to SFH. My guess is that, in the future, owners will want flexibility in subdividing their ADUs. So many questions. 🙂
- We will likely greatly reduce parking requirements now in advance of a state law that will take effect in 2027 and do it for us anyhoo. I generally support this, however, the risk of moving more cars on-street is very real.
- I’m also interested that we maintain or even improve environmental standards (eg. trees).
City Council Study Session
- City Logo. I. Do. Not. Care. 😀
- Comprehensive Plan Chapter. Discussions for Economic Development and three neighbourhoods:
- North Central
- Marina District
- Pacific Ridge
Yes, it sounds callous, but I’m not sure how much I care about this either. Keep saying it, but comp plans are soooooooooo much work. And I am never sure what difference they make. Not being snippy. But this is one of those (cough) 2‘DOGE’ things. The process should be much easier for cities.
Last Week
Tuesday
I gathered soil samples – and you should too – ahead of the free soil testing events hosted by Dept. Of Ecology on Saturday.
Port of Seattle Meeting (Agenda) As expected, the Port is now generating more than $1B a year in revenue. The numbers were a bit softer than they would like – but this is very temporary. I attended to protest the closure of the StART meeting to the public. Full coverage from Sea-Tac Noise.Info here.
When people ask me why I follow the airport so assiduously? Beyond all the various negative impacts, another important answer is the same as Willie Sutton – because that’s where the money is.
Since I’ve lived here, the City has always needed more money, girlfriend. Like a lot of money. What has been frustrating to me as a member of the City Council is how not seriously we’ve taken issues like the airport; and also that lack of moolah.
I am glad the City has recently engaged in some belt-tightening (typical) and is now moving ahead with a better financial analysis (atypical). But it’s just not going to be enough. My fear in doing the Steps, Redondo Fishing Pier and the Ferry Pilot jazz was, as always, it created a false set of expectations. People always assumed we could afford this stuff. ‘Dress for success’ is the phrase, I believe.
The challenge has always been to get the City to look to our very large neighbour to the north – which is actually much easier than hoping and praying for real help from the State of WA. It’s also more just. The Port can well afford to help fix at least some of the problems they caused.
Wednesday
StART Meeting: As I said, this was the first meeting that was closed to the public. And that should not make you happy if you care about all the noise, pollution, etc., etc., etc… The City Manager gave a council summary, however, it did not include the most important answer: Why? Why was the meeting closed.
Thursday, April 24
City Council Meeting Recap
Regular Meeting – 24 Apr 2025 – Agenda – Updated
Spring – when a city’s fancy turns to meetings under 1:30. 😀 City Manager Caffrey was AWOL. Again! Apparently some ‘parenting’ thing involving guitar. In my day kids weren’t allowed to touch a guitar until they became sullen teenagers. Harumph. Fortunately, there were no decisions to be made, and once again Assistant City Manager Johnson-Newton sat in our version of the big chair.
One note: this is the first time in my tenure (or anyone’s recent tenure) where the City delivered some of the ‘last minute’ presentations in advance of the meeting. That alone was worth a hall pass.
Annual State of the Court Address
This was an excellent presentation. The Judge mentioned a lack of interpreters in uncommon languages and I asked her for some examples. I (naively) expected something I had actually heard of. 😀 I thought she might be kidding, so I looked up Marshallese on my computer. Go do that right now. Wow.
My only grouse is that I wish the pie charts came with numbers rather than slices because they are a bit misleading. The 2024 pie is totally overwhelmed by activity with the new parking zone – making it hard to notice that certain issues – like criminal cases are actually up. That doesn’t necessarily mean that ‘crime’ is up. But it does mean that her team’s workload is up.
Public Works
This is also well worth looking at. Director Slevin’s group does much of the nuts and bolts stuff I think of when I think ‘city’. Roads, water, park maintenance, vehicles. I made a joke about it reminded me of a 4clown car. If you walk by the engineering building it always looks super-tiny relative to all the staff and services it provides.
Nominally, we’ve always had an ‘environment committee’ – it’s the one committee that has persisted over the decades. But ‘park maintenance’ ‘trees’ ‘storm water’ were all handled by separate workgroups. This always bugged me because I think of them as one ‘environment‘ thing. I bet you do, too. Slevin was previously Director of Environmental Services in Tacoma. It’s obvious that this is a direction the City wants to head and one I am very excited to see.
Proclamations
There were three proclamations:
Sexual Assault Awareness Month
South Sound Boating Season Opening Day
Laborers LiUNA Local 242 Day Proclamation
I went to trade school; not high school. Back then it was an almost 2totally ‘guy’ thing. By a circuitous route, I ended up going to university. But the hands on learning approach worked for me. Over the decades, many jobs I’ve worked in have achieved gender parity. But it’s been super-lumpy. Some careers have barely moved the needle.
Skilled trades pay. They offer tremendous satisfaction. There are very few I can think of that only ‘a guy’ can do. And I always wonder what we, at the City, in the school districts should be doing to help move that needle.
Saturday, April 26
SR3 Open House. This generally happens only once a year so you should do it. But maybe get there early.
Soil Testing at Burien’s Shark Garden. See above.
1jk
2Well, except for cosmetology
3I call these changes more than new because, for the most part, when a ‘new’ restaurant opens, it’s taking over from an existing place.
4OK, old people. Back when there were actual circuses, an old VW Beetle would drive across the ring and an impossibly large number of clowns would emerge. What can I say? We didn’t have the MCU.