This Week
Tuesday: 12:00PM Port of Seattle Commission (Agenda) From the City perspective, the Port will fund a $1MM grant to keep Maritime High School going.
Thursday: 4:00PM Economic Development Committee (Agenda) This should be a biggee. Highlights:
- City Manager will provide details on our upcoming Bond Sales
- Staff will walk through the Draft Housing Action Plan and Strategic
Recommendations - Review of Building Height Limits in Downtown
Last Week
A couple of non-specific things…
- Politics: In addition to filing as a candidate, as I said, I spent a certain amount of time this week on campaigny stuff. There’s a certain amount to say, but for now, I have one comment: the campaign is literally the only time you get to hold anyone to account. And to set up that future discussion, here is a wonky article I wrote on the history of our City Council and various elections.
- Airport-Trees: I had several meetings involving one of those un-discussed issues in Des Moines.
Between the airport and various airport-related projects like the Des Moines Creek Business Park and SR-509, the tree cover here has diminished significantly. (One Port official has estimated that loss at 23,000! And if the airport expansions continue, it will only get worse. The problem is that the remaining (cough) ‘forests’ such as the Port properties between 216th and 200th, are in very poor condition.
To make a long story short, currently the single biggest “carbon remover” in existence is… wait for it… a Douglas Fir! 😀 Seriously. A healthy conifer tree sucks more C02 out of the air than any ‘tech’ that is likely to be available in the near future.
Give the urgency of climate change and the shortage of land, we need to be efficient. Every square foot of land needs to be reclaimed as a healthy forest. Now. The job is getting people to realise that property that looks ‘foresty’ is not necessarily doing its job. We need healthy forests and every inch we can get.
Read the report created in partnership with the City, the Port of Seattle and Forterra
Wednesday: Reach Out Des Moines. The grant program that funded RODM is coming to an end. It has done magnifi cent work in reducing teen crime in Pacific Ridge., but its future is currently uncertain. Rather than having to worry about funding, we should be expanding its simple mission (providing after school activities for teens) throughout the City.
Friday: South King County Housing & Homelessness Partnership (SKHHP).
Two leftovers from May 11
I want to return briefly to two issues from the last meeting. Frankly, I’ve become concerned that some of you may not be reading every word of every post. (Not you of course. 😀 ) But regardless…
Downtown Storefront Vandalism Fund
Staff unveiled a Downtown Storefront fund, which had been proposed under New Items For Consideration at the May 4 meeting. I had several issues with the item, but apart from anything else, I objected to it being confined to ‘the downtown’ and for it not including my motion to include public safety improvements–ie. money for prevention.
Almost on cue, KIRO7 News ran this story: Des Moines business broken into multiple times. But then failed to note that the program the City Council voted for would not apply to that business–not to mention any number of businesses that have been hit in the past year on Pacific Highway.
Now the police statement says that crime is down on the highway. Fine. (It would’ve been nice if the City Council had seen those stats before voting, by the way.) But regardless, that reassurance does nothing for the business owners who have been hit. Quite the contrary, it was meant to reassure residents that things really aren’t that bad for them.
I’ve heard over and over from businesses on Pac Hwy that they feel marginalised. They contribute as much business money to the City as the downtown. And said it before, say it again: As a business owner, I’ve written that check after a break-ins. And depending on yer door and alarm system it can be a number with four zeros. But even so? I wrote that check out of pocket. Real talk: The last thing a retail business in an exposed spot wants to do is to take this kinda thing to their insurance company more than once. If we want businesses to stick around, if we want to improve Pacific Highway, we must do more to help every business feel safe.
Des Moines Creek Estuary
I pulled Consent Agenda Item #3, which concerned the “Des Moines Creek Estuary” in order to make two amendments. This item will be a re-design of the mouth of the creek, including removal of 500 ft. of armouring. Long story, short, this could dramatically change the look of, you know, the spot that has created a thousand totally epic snapshots?
See all that red? De-armoring means “getting rid of man-made retaining walls”, ie. all those rocks that look ‘natural’ but which are totally not and which you take for granted. I’m not sure exactly which bits of retaining wall would be removed. But again, again, that’s why we need the images. 🙂 🙂
The first amendment was to insist that the Council (and the public be given images of the design alternatives as soon as they’re available, which is at 10% Design. (Regular readers will note that each ‘percentage’ on capital projects has a specific meaning.)
We need a Public. Planning. Commission.
The second amendment was to include “sea level rise” in the approval process at some point. And my colleagues kept saying that the packet item only covered “10% Design”, obfuscated my first amendment with this issue.
This is why process matters. Because we did not have the language of the agenda item available it made it impossible to make this very necessary amendment.
But if you live anywhere near the Marina floor and plan on sticking around for more than a few years (or just care about the future) I’d be slightly concerned about this stuff.