Weekly Update 06/21/2026

Some bits of business…

About The Cover: We do have Bike Racks

Last week I published this note on Bike Racks. And immediately got a set of piccies from the Harbormaster proving there are bike racks at the Marina. Touché. 😀

However, they are either near the Fishing Pier and thus, in the wrong place IMHO. Pedestrians go mental with anything whizzing by on their promenade. The other one is next to the Kiosk, which is good except that it’s hiding behind some bushes.

The places people generally leave their bicycles are not where the bike racks actually are. Hopefully, we can get that addressed as the Marina takes its new form. Or trim the bushes. 🙂

Porpoise PSA

My unasked for public service announcement of the week. This time of year we’ll see oodles of Dall’s Porpoises or ‘Doll’ Porpoises. From a distance they look like a dolphin with a broken nose. Then you get closer and think they might be really weird looking seal. Or a micro-whale!?! But then why is it swimming faster than a jet ski? 😀

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLUR4ysGdHM

Paul Dorpat, RIP

Good article in Seattle Times on the passing of Paul Dorpat, longtime Seattle historian, dies at 87 | The Seattle Times

If you’ve read the Seattle Times over the past 400 years you know Paul’s work. In addition to authoring some of the best local history ever written, he began the very popular Now and Then columns in every Sunday Pacific Northwest magazine — passed onto Clay Eals and Jean Sherrard several years ago. I was lucky enough to know Paul and I am certain his influence will be felt for decades to come.

I can honestly say that Paul had a lot to do with my starting this goofy web site — for two reasons:

1. Because I needed to be able to track things. The City’s web site was originally very good (which you probably don’t know), and then became so terrible over the decades, you likely also didn’t know what it a Civic website is supposed to be able to do.
2. I wanted to have that before/after. That’s why I take all the piccies of places instead of people.

He did not invent it, but I believe strongly that having that ‘before/after’ view of place is a key to its success. Change is essential. But if you don’t know how things really used to be, you can’t measure how things are really going now. Anyone can sell you anything because you have no objective yardstick. Sometimes ‘now’ is better. Sometimes not.

I encourage everyone to visit PaulDorpat.com Seattle Now & Then.

Website Update/Contest Extension…

I got five responses to my last contest to test the web site. And this is where it gets awkward–it’s probably my fault. The instructions were to test the Agenda Portal portion — because that’s the part that is totally broken, terrible, blech, BARF, DISGUSTING. 😀

How’s that for being subtle? 🙂

No one did that. Everyone tested the front end of the site. Which is fine. But that’s not what I care about. And it was my contest. 😀

So, I’m keeping the contest open for another week. 🙂 To see examples of what to do, look here. The prize is really good. 🙂

SEE THIS: Problems With New Website Agenda Portal

City Manager Stuff

City Manager Reports!  June, 18 2026

Highlights for moi include an update on the Marina Steps , the Barnes Creek construction coming to an end, and a list of summer events — concerts!

This Week

Monday

6:00pm — This begins a series of Port of Seattle open houses on the SAMP. Get all the deets at STNI.

Tuesday

12:00pm Port Commission: Coincidentally, the Port will give its annual StART report. And in example #327 of how tone-deaf we are to airport issues, it never ceases to kill me how nobody else but STNI actually watches this stuff. You could walk into an ‘airport committee’ meeting on Monday and hear people wondering aloud how the Port ‘thinks’ about x,y,z. Or, one could just watch the commission meeting on Tuesday. 😀

That’s a major reason I helped create STNI 10 years ago. The Port watches everything we do. It struck me that there might be value in someone watching them. 😀

Thursday

City Council Meeting Thursday: June 25, 2026 City Council Meeting Agenda Packet. Some Highlights:.

City Manager Report / Presentations / Briefings

• Item 1: Recognition of Sergeant Eddie Ochart for 25 Years of Service (5 Minutes)
• Item 2: 2025 4th Quarter Financial Report (10 Minutes)
• Item 3: 2026 1st Quarter Financial Report (15 Minutes)
• Item 4: Strategic Plan Implementation Update: Economic Vitality (25 Minutes)
• Item 5: Proposed Seattle Times Editorial Regarding Airport Impacts (5 Minutes)

Consent Agenda

• Item 2: NFC Northwest Telecommunications Franchise Agreement – First Reading
• Item 3: 2026 Stormwater CMP Replacement Project
• Item 4: WSDOT SR 509 Right-of-Way Transfer
• Item 5: Approval of the City’s Strategic Plan
• Item 6: Lodging Tax Advisory Committee Appointment

Unfinished Business

• Item 1: Speed Camera Ordinance – First Reading (15 Minutes)

Last Week

Foooooootball For Fathers Day… er… week.

The Weekly Update took the week off so I could OD on Belgium vs. Egypt and USA vs. Australia! Best. Fathers. Day (er… ‘week’). Ever.

Some notes:

• Apparently Lumen Field registered a record-breaking seismic event with all the shaking.
• If you were using Link Light Rail, you were fine. Buses and cars? Oy.
• USA was expected to win their group–but not get much further. The team I saw? Looks like something else. Seriously. They were making passes that looked positively European. 😀
• I also snagged tickets to Egypt/Iran and ya know? Both look pretty good. And that means something: if you don’t like football, think about college basketball. FIFA is like March Madness except it’s the planet. So you see all these powerhouses alongside some teeny weeny island nation. And the players go home to play. So a starter for Real Madrid might be playing for Cape Verde. As with college hoops, the big programs usually win, but there are always surprises–and you get a little geography lesson. 🙂

Wednesday

Regional Transit Committee

Speaking of transit, the committee, which covers the Metro budget, looked at coming funding changes.

As you may have heard, there is yet another .1% sales tax increase coming for roads. That did not kill me, but local governments always go to these kinds of taxes because they don’t require a public vote. Another .1% increase is likely next year–that one will go to Metro funding.

The challenge is that Metro is drastically under-funded. It’s unconstrained budget will only account for 12.5% increase in service. But the expected need will be double that.ced. But the cost is only being able to respond, not do more things to prevent and improve.

Thursday

Since offices were closed on Friday, the Council did a Juneteenth flag raise. Me being me, I’m looking for a bit of hardware so that when we raise multiple flags they don’t droop. 😀

The Black community here (and in Seattle writ large) has never been large. Even in Detroit, Juneteenth did not really take off until the early 90’s. In fact, the for realz Juneteenth celebrations tend to happen in in the Central District or in Renton at the Jimi Hendrix Memorial. But I appreciate the City’s commitment to doing this. It matters. And I am just stunned that surrounding cities (like Federal Way) have backtracked.