Some bits of news…
- Primary Elections:WA State has a ‘top two’ primary system, meaning that the Primary Election is only for campaigns with more than two candidates. That is the purpose of the Primary: the top two vote getters in the August Primary then move forward to the General Election in November.
- In 2023, there are three Council seats up for grabs in Des Moines. One is uncontested, the other two (including mine, please donate here 😀 ) have only two competitors. So… no Primary for Des Moines City Council. 🙂
- However, because one Port Comm seat has 3 candidates, you get to vote on Position #5. And that vote matters. Here is the analysis and recommendation for Todd Curtis from SeaTacNoise.Info
- And… wait for it… even though Highline School District has assigned Districts for each Director, you also get to vote on seats outside our own District #5. So, there are two HSD seats to vote for… Normandy Park and White Center. Study carefully because, as I’ve written many times, test scores in DM–which used to be great, are now terrible, despite having some of the highest funding in the State. If you care about our future, don’t just vote for the levies or labels, vote to turn around a 20 year slide in academic achievement. Here is a Highline School Board Candidate July 12 Forum Recap written by Highline Schools watcher Stuart Jenner.
- I’ve done some updating to the Public Service Announcements page. There are a lot of activities planned for the Marina/Beach Park this summer, including food trucks, bands, theatre, so check ’em out!
This Week
Tuesday: Port of Seattle Commission Meeting (Agenda) The Commission will vote on a proposal to (finally) fund the ‘accelerated sound insulation program’ originally proposed in February 2020. The ‘acceleration’ is getting a number of apartment buildings and houses of worship (finally) completed before 2026.
Wednesday: Highline Forum (Agenda) The main item of interest (for me) will be a discussion of workforce development–apprenticeships and trade education.
Last Week
I spent pretty much all last week meeting with my colleagues at SeaTacNoise.Info to figure out some ‘plan’ to complete our movie on Sea-Tac Airport. I try not to shill for STNI except when there is some sort of legislation in play. And frankly, until last month I was unsure that this project was going to get done any time soon. But we ended up getting not one but two grants, so now we kinda have to finish it. 😀
It’s been difficult getting people here to understand why the airport matters so much to Des Moines, how much more it’s about to grow, and what we can do about it. It’s frustrating because it really is something we can do something about, but like so many longstanding issues here it’s not a ‘give it to me in twenty five words or less!’ kind of deal. We think this movie will help. You can sign up for the mailing list here.
Make some noise
Speaking of which…
At our last meeting, Cm Achziger proposed the City look at ways to improve fireworks enforcement, which provoked a possible solution to be remanded to the Public Safety Committee. From a practical standpoint, that was, by far the highlight of the meeting.
It is hard to overstate how many residents have despised the illegal fireworks since I’ve lived here. And every year for the last decade, the police say, as happened this year, “there’s nothing we can do about it.” Same thing happened this year.
And yet, eighty minutes into the meeting, the City Attorney says that they’ve brainstormed a possible solution! Which is great, btw.
But, given how seemingly intractible this issue has been, the fact that the City Attorney was able to come up with a solution via a Google search can, broadly speaking, be viewed in one of two ways:
- Bolt of inspiration!
- Why on earth didn’t someone think of this ten years ago?
I would suggest that the answer is more like this. People may say how poorly people they respond to ‘pressure’. But a lot of times that’s exactly what provokes problem solving. Sometimes it’s a hard deadline. (Necessity, mothers of invention, etc… 😉 ) Or maybe a bunch of people crowd a City Council Meeting demanding something. Or in this case…
Frankly, ‘illegal fireworks’ have never been a hair on fire priority for the City. Sorry. Not sorry. Homeowners may have been outraged by the fireworks every year–and I’ve been one of them. But every July 5, the outrage would begin to dissipate. I’d show up at Post-4th meetings and there might be a few residents who complained, but all the City and/or the Council had to do to diffuse that energy was to tell them that the City took their concerns seriously and… we’ll work on it. Next year.
The difference this year was the drones. They were controversial and expensive and underwhelming and the contrast between the ‘silent’ whirligigs and the off-the-hook illegality going on all round was just embarrassing. That’s not a judgment. It’s just to say that ‘the drones’ were likely the impetus to both the conversation and that Eureka! moment. The solution was likely available all along. What was ‘impossible’ was getting people to sincerely focus on the problem.
But however ya get there, my conclusion is that problem solving means getting people to focuse We’re all busy. We all have priorities–especially the City, which has a responsibility to 33,000 people. No one likes to admit it, but pretty much every person drawing breath occasionally uses the word ‘impossible’ to mean “We have other priorities atm.”
That’s why I’m always going on about ‘organising’ and ‘showing up’. Not to ‘lean on people’, but rather to get all the talented people in the room to focus on your issue. For the same reason everyone occasionally needs to be encouraged/nudged/cajoled/reminded/inspired to solve problems which are often characterized as ‘impossible’. I call that creative nagging. 😀 You can call it whatever you like. 😀
Maybe you disagree. Maybe you think that all you need to do is vote, pay taxes and maybe write an occasional letter–and that should be enough. Perhaps. I’m just tellin’ ya what I’ve seen work here. Over and over and over again.
So when the issue of improving fireworks enforcement comes up at our Public Safety Committee and the full Council, now you know that more is possible. And if you care about the issue as much as I do, I hope you will show up and–after a decade of getting nowhere–finally get some relief for frustrated residents.
Make some noise.