Some bits of business…
Future Agendas
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.
Part 150 Study…
The airport has begun a new Part 150 Noise Study. ‘Part 150’ refers to a section of FAA regulations whereby airports analyse their noise impact on the surrounding community. Ho hum, you say? Well, for one thing a Part 150 Study sets the official noise boundary around the airport. If yer house is inside it, you get sound insulation (aka a Port Package). If not, you don’t. It does a lot of other stuff which I won’t get into here. But for that reason alone, you should show up to these public workshops hosted by the Port of Seattle on June 5 and June 6. https://www.portseattle.org/page/sea-part-150-noise-study
This Part 150 Study, is the beginning of an environmental review of the entire airport called the Sustainable Airport Master Plan (SAMP). And it is a very big deal. In fact, think of it this way: The 2024 SAMP is to the 1996 Third Runway what 2020 COVID was to the Spanish Flu of 1918. That’s not hyperbolic. It has the potential to be really bad. But it’s far enough in the past that it’s possible we won’t take it seriously enough–until it’s too late.
Marina Paid Parking
Paid parking has begun. Or rather, there is a two week free test run starting now. Starting June 3, 2024? Cha-ching! 😀
City Manager Stuff
City Manager’s Report May 24, 2024
As usual, some great information. Wanna know what’s not in there?
Bombshell: CHIEF GATELY IS OUT!
Effective immediately Police Chief Tim Gately has left. I’ve already gotten like a billion phone calls. At the request of the City, I avoided mentioning it until they had a press release. Without ratting anyone out, I’ll put it like this… Warning: you won’t find it satisfying. Tough noogies. 😀
3The fault, Dear Brutus is in ourselves, not our stars.
Having lived here a while, and after watching various things happen over and over with a certain degree of regularity, I feel like this:
We have an ongoing tendency to blame someone or something when various ‘stuff’ happens. Great Recession. Landlords. The Port. Seattle. King County. State of Washington. United States Of America. United Nations. Mother Nature. Democratic Party. Republican Party. COVID. Inflation. Person(x). 4Space Lasers.
But I think a reasonable person might start to wonder, what part might we (the City and its electeds) play in having such a streak of bad luck?
So unless he has terminal cancer (he doesn’t) why Mr. Gately lasted only nine months is less important to me than the singular fact that he lasted only nine months.
I don’t need to go into specifics. When something like this happens, it always behooves us to ask, what might we be missing? Did we select the wrong people? If so, that’s at least partly on us. Or, are we attempting to plug the right people into a system that isn’t giving them the tools to succeed? In that case, it’s also at least partly on us. Either way, it’s an opportunity for the Council to doing some soul searching and a lessons learned. And I say that because we have another fairly important hire coming very soon.
Notice how many people now rail about our last City Manager. OK, but we (well, not moi 😀 ), ie. the Council picked him. And as a body the Council supported him. I mean with gusto. And then? With the same suddenness and no explanation, it didn’t.
It’s kinda like all the various problems we’ve had expanding our local businesses–especially restaurants. They come and go with regularity. 1Some of that is inevitable. But not all of it. And after a certain point, maybe it’s time to consider that, regardless of any other factors, including whether or not everyone who opens a restaurant in Des Moines is a born entrepreneur? Maybe that’s just how things are in the restaurant biz. And if that’s the case, unless we’re happy with the current state of play, perhaps we need to work a bit harder to help businesses succeed rather than always wishing they had done something differently. Or blaming those darned ‘landlords’. Or whatever.
But again, when Interim City Manager George took over he encouraged everyone to try to make this a low-key year. And the fact that it’s so not, even when everyone on the Council (and at City Hall) say they are working hard to make it so, triggers my 2Management Spidey Sense.
City Currents
City Currents Summer 2024 is out. I read the PDF because I can magnify it and use it with my screen reader gizmo.
This issue had some really good info on the new options we will have for ADU and increasing middle housing options. Plus, there are the usual calendar items.Â
ADU RFI
I need your help. As you may know, we are updating our Comprehensive Plan, which will change City zoning rules for a generation. So far the City has reviewed re-zone opportunities in a couple of neighbourhoods, but not everywhere. I strongly believe in providing more housing flexibility for our residents. A lot more. So: if you’ve been considering putting on an accessory dwelling unit (ADU), or building something like a duplex or any other type of multi-family housing? I want to hear from you. What you’ve done. What you’d like to do. Challenges?
This Week
Monday 11:00am: Des Moines Memorial Drive Memorial Day Observance Please joing me at Sunnydale Elementary School, corner of 156th Street and Des Moines Memorial Drive, 15631 8th Ave S, Burien, 98148 to honour all our veterans who have given their lives in service of our country.
Tuesday: Port of Seattle Commission Meeting. (Agenda). Of note: The airport just hit the 2019 record of 1,240 average daily operations. To give you a sense of the growth, that is a 33% increase over the past 10 years. And the SAMP will increase that by another 33% in the next 10 years. Only a third of you have lived here since the Third Runway opened. And it’s hard to overstate how different the noise and pollution and economics have been since the Third Runway opened.
Wednesday: Reach Out Des Moines. We’ll be talking about plans for National Night Out. Coming soon!
Thursday 8:00am – Noon Redondo Curbside Chat with Des Moines Police Department. Come talk with our police at the Redondo Square Shopping Center on Pacific Highway and 272nd (on east side facing Pac Hwy.)
Last Week
Wednesday: King County Emergency Management Advisory Committee
Wednesday: Highline Forum This is a group of electeds from the six ‘airport communities’ and Highline Schools that meet four times a year. As I’ve written before, it sprung up in 2005 after the Third Runway. So I think there’s a perception that the discussions have always been a continuation of those negotiations on ‘airport impacts’. But that has never really been the case. It’s mostly about talking about ways that the Port of Seattle can foster economic development or various grant programs. If that sounds like damning with faint praise? Yer not wrong. 😀 The various grants for things like community gardens or apprenticeships are fine. But the net benefit of those efforts for Des Moines has never been very large. It’s actually been something of a distraction away from negotiating.
Wednesday: Citizens Advisory Committee
Frankly, this was more entertaining than a lot of our City Council Meetings! 😀 Most every member made at least one very good contribution.
And there were some very tough questions, especially our budget. They are questions I feel like the Finance Committee should be addressing as a matter of course. However, at the risk of sounding snarky, the irony being that were I to ask them in a Finance meeting, they would undoubtedly be considered ‘micro-management’. 😀
I’m torn because regardless of individual skills, residents simply cannot get to meaningful solutions in that type of venue. For better or worse, you elect us to work with the staff to provide oversight and develop policy. On the other hand, we’re just not there.
So, at the risk of talking out of both sides of my mouth, until we (the Council) decide that issues like salary levels and departmental budgets are not ‘micro-management’? Blast away.
It’s basically the same deal I wrote above. There are any number of longstanding questions I think we really do need to get to the bottom of once and for all. I would only suggest that the long game is to cultivate a City Council that feels empowered to do that work, as part of its ongoing mission.
Thursday: DESC Open House. This Burien building will provide permanent housing for 95 currently homeless people. Thirty spots are guaranteed for Burien residents. I follow this mainly out of curiosity, not out of any desire to build something here. Because regardless of how one feels about the topic, at some point, Des Moines will have to do something along these lines (it’s the law.) So we may as well try to learn from how others are working the issue.
Sunday: A three hour tour of the Everett and Edmonds Marinas with Mayor Buxton, Deputy Mayor Steinmetz and former DMMA board members. We were visiting dry stack facilities.
‘Dry Stack’ refers to storing boats out of the water in racks. This makes sense for boats 30′ or less because most people do not actually use their boat all that often and (irony alert) saltwater is really hard on a boat. 😀 If your boat is in such a facility, you call or text ahead of time, then the staff take your boat out of storage and it’s ready to go at the dock when you show up. When you’re done for the day, you leave your boat at the dock and the staff puts it back to bed all dry and toasty.
The storage sheds in the south end of the Marina are at their end of life and must be replaced. Dry stack is a logical choice. It can serve a much wider variety of boats than those small sheds, and it would be far more profitable for the City. That matters because every dollar the Marina generates is less money the City needs to spend on all the other stuff that needs upgrading at the Marina.
1One of my oldest friends makes a very comfortable living as a restaurant equipment auctioneer. Frankly, because so many people open restaurants as a passion rather than to make money. For that reason alone, they should be given all the help they can.
2To the extent that one can have a Management Spidey Sense. 😀
3Just what every small town politics blog needs… Julius Caesar.
4I may have made that last one up.
Oh My I am feeling sad an frustrated about the Chief of Police leaving !!
Question , do I go to the office at the Marina to buy a Parkin pass?
where can I find a list o resources for what People of Des Moines are eligible for < like Home repairs , damage when trees fall Low income service for home owners etc ? Kaylene moon
Hi.
1. Yes, you can go to the Marina office, OR if you have an existing pass you can call them and purchase an update over the phone.
2. The Home Repair program is here… https://www.desmoineswa.gov/cms/one.aspx?portalId=17385088&pageId=20161725
3. There are -many- low income programs available to the public, but most of them are County (property taxes) or private (energy assistance, internet), not City. If you give me some specifics, I can let you know.