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.
We’re closing a six month trial without standing committees, instead doing a monthly Committee of the Whole (COW). Unfortunately, as the year goes on, items for consideration are veering away from each committee’s planning calendar. But for what it’s worth, each committee’s planning calendar are here. 🙂
City Manager Stuff
The City Manager’s new weekly report format is viewable here. Before leaving for vacation, she dropped two bombshells! 😀 One on that report and one not.
The Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) on the Masonic Home was released on Thursday, July 31, 2025. The report is posted on the City’s website. “City staff will present the FEIS findings and implications to the City Council at its regular meeting, August 7 at 6 p.m. at City Hall. This is an informational presentation only. A community meeting is scheduled for August 21, 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Beach Park auditorium.” As has always been the case, the City Council is continually admonished not to talk about the issue for fear of violating the Appearance of Fairness Doctrine – one of only a couple of items where an elected can be in violation of state law. But I also think it says something that when the Seattle Times showed up to do a story on the building in 2023 not one of my colleagues showed up –there was no ‘law’ preventing that. And, sorry, I thought then and think now that it says something about our City and our values.- Marina Moorage rates are going up. To be clear, the City Council does not set rates. (We also do not set fuel prices.) I also think it’s important to note that less than 20% of tenants are now Des Moines residents. Still, this is a big change and I’ve asked to see the studies done to support this. When I first started using the Marina in the 90’s, sailing was a solidly middle-class pursuit. Although the Marina needs a serious amount of money to finance its much-needed upgrades, I don’t want boating (and especially sailing) to become a past time that can only be enjoyed by the wealthy.
City Manager Report – July 31, 2025
The 24th Ave Road Project is finally moving along! Repaving began on Monday July 21st. There have been issues with traffic and traffic lights. Probably best to avoid if possible. 🙂
Highline College Survey
The College has asked that everyone take this College Perception Survey survey to help them understand how they can better serve not only the students, but also residents of Des Moines.
Sounders Free Tickets!
If you haven’t been to a Sounders FC soccer game, your first ticket is totally free! The program is sponsored by the Rave Foundation (which has helped fund projects at Midway Park, among other things.)
Can we talk for a minute? Like many of you, I got (re)-interested in football when my kids started playing. In addition to the fun factor, I got hooked on Sounders games because they are just so convenient by transit. For me, I just hop on the 635 Shuttle Bus to the Angle Lake Station, get off at Union, and the Stadiums are two blocks away. That’s how transit is supposed to work.
SR-509 24th Ave and Veteran’s Drive are open and free!
Well, temporarily. 24th Ave and before you get to 200th, on your right (east side of the street) you’ll see a new exit onto the first mile of SR-509, which takes you directly to I-5.
There is also the new Veterans Memorial Drive near Military Road.
They will be tolled – but not yet! So take the next month and stick it to da man! WSDOT has free GoodToGo cards if you sign up, but before paying call 1-866-936-8246.
Metro Survey
As Link light rail gets ready to open here (maybe by end of 2025!) Metro invites you to learn more and take this survey by August 31.
Redondo Parking – get a pass!
However, Redondo Paid Parking is now live. So, get a sensibly priced annual pass by contacting the Marina. 🙂
Restaurants!
There have been more restaurant changes 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.
News Flash! After five years of being only ‘98198’, TakeOutDM is expanding its list to include establishments people think (or wish) were in Des Moines. For example, if you like French casual cuisine (and who wouldn’t?) I really like Peyrassol West in Normandy Park across from the QFC.
This Week
Thursday
City Council Meeting (Agenda). The most ‘notable’ item,the one at the top, is the Masonic Home demolition EIS, something we have no control over.
There will also be a presentation on the Transportation Element of our comprehensive plan.
This stuff does not get a ton of attention and that’s interesting to me. Frankly, I used to think that this was ‘the strategic plan’ for the City. But over time, it’s become clear to me that these deals are somewhat ‘compliance mills’ – sinkholes where staff are required by state law to spend hundreds of hours on big honkin’ documents that aren’t used as intended. They have all the information we need to drive the conversations we need to have. But they’re left so aspirational that we often end up doing something very different, or hiring someone else to get the rest of the way there.
For example, we’ve had a ‘bike plan’ for a very long time. It has all these super nice lines showing where bicyclists could go. But that’s not a plan. It’s just a list of nice-ta-haves. And spending a ton of time creating wonderful information that isn’t translated into action? Drives. Me. Nuts. 😀
So, how would we decide to do a bike lane project? Most likely a City engineer would put something on a Transportation Improvement Plan if they saw a grant opportunity somewhere. In other words, the chance to obtain money on a particular thing would drive ‘the plan’. That’s why I have such a love/hate relationship with grants. Often the Council doesn’t decide when/where to do things so much as the City reacts to something ad hoc. Nobody turns down free money and I get frowny faces when I compare grants to charity rather than having yer own damned money. 😀 But as nice as it is to get any project done, this is the opposite of actually ‘having a plan’ where your City decides to do a,b,c in 2026, 2027, 2028.
You’ll see this with the Marina Steps. The current plan looks almost nothing like it did in 2017. If it happens, the design will be driven by the grants and borrowing we were able to cobble together at the last minute, not by any well-considered long-term plan where all the components were justified by data. Drives. Me. Double. Nuts. 😀
Last Week
Wednesday: King County Flood Control District Advisory Committee. The group has been meeting a lot to try to nail down multiple budgets. The City’s interest is in protecting money for urban flooding, a relatively new concept for the County. Unfortunately, that money is always in competition with more traditional river floods elsewhere. But as I try to point out Des Moines has so many pieces of ‘water’ to defend, they all cost money, and the goal is to keep every dollar available for us. 🙂