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.
September 12: The Council will vote to extend the contract for ferry consultant Peter Phillips; currently $5,500/mo.
September 26: Future passenger ferry service and conditions necessary to make this feasible; partnerships, and other sources of funding.
So… we’re voting to extend the consultant’s contract two weeks before we find out the status of future ferry stuff? This after being blind sided about a ferry battery grant app last month which we’re paying an extra $3,500 a month for.
Said it before, say it again: nothing is ‘free’. We’ve already (cough) ‘invested’ over half a million dollars in this ferry nonsense. We’ll spend almost $100,000 this year in lobbying, grant writing and staff time, ostensibly to obtain a ‘free’ electric ferry at some point in the future. Which we will need to maintain.
Like the Des Moines Creek Business Park, which is tax exempt, this will supposedly be the ‘economic driver’ that brings ‘thousands of people into Des Moines’ at some point in the distant future. We’re doubling down on a totally aspirational program. During a budget down turn.
October 24: The Economic Development Committee will look at Middle Housing and ADUs. Home ownership, ie. property taxes, are still the biggest source of revenue for Des Moines. The fact that we are looking that this at the end of the year, again, after the important budget discussions, shows where our priorities really are. It’s unconscionable given housing prices. If you like low taxes and giving the next generation the same chance to enjoy Des Moines you’ve had, increasing housing options should be Job #1.
Taken together, these two items were Reasons #327 and #328 I did not support the August tax increases. The City Council has not gotten serious about economic development. Cities have three ways to balance the budget. Cut spending, raise taxes or get out there and make mo’ money! And I feel like the City Council has sorta raised the white flag on that last piece. I know how cliché it sounds, but I think you have to really believe you can make money in order to actually make more money
History Factlet of the week…
Since we now have a Communications Director, I was reminded of a bit of PR the City did on its original (1996) web site, where they felt it necessary to finally put to rest the burning issue of the day. How to pronounce the name of the City!
There’s something adorable about the dawn of the Interwebs. This notion that you could settle this sort of thing simply by putting a recording on the web site. 😀
The correct way is: Deh Moinz. Just as St. Louis is not pronounced ‘correctly’ (Loo-ee for you Frenchy-files). Just as East Palestine, OH is mis-pronounced like ‘teenager’ and not like the land north of Egypt. A bajillion borrowed city names got butchered on their way across the ocean. Suck it up. It’s part of the charm of America. 🙂
Free Steering Wheel Locks!
I still have some free steering wheel locks. If you send me a note which demonstrates that you a) live in Des Moines and b) have a make/model of vehicle that is highly susceptible to theft (eg. in my case it’s been a Honda CRV and a Ford F150 😮 ) I’ll happily deliver one to you.
Free Trees!
There are also free trees. Yes, I’ve posted this before. And I’m gonna keep posting it until you sign up to get yourself a damned tree! 😀
Residents anywhere in the City of Des Moines are entitled to FREE TREES from Sound Transit as part of the new Light Rail. What is new this year is that Sound Transit has created a more convenient pick up system. So… sign up now and get your trees in the fall when it’s planting time. The sign up form has more information, but here are your choices…
–Bitter Cherry (~30’ at maturity)
–Cascara (~30’ at maturity)
–Douglas Fir (~120’ at maturity)
–Pacific Crab Apple (~35’ at maturity)
–Vine Maple (~25’ at maturity)
–Western Red Cedar (~150’ at maturity)
https://bit.ly/treegiveaway2024
City Manager Stuff
City Manager’s Report August 16, 2024
Always good info, especially…
- Tuesday August 27 6:30pm City Manager Candidates Meet and Greet Beach Park Auditorium!
SR-509 Web Site
WSDOT has a new web site for SR-509. Oy, this gets complicated. It some of the first piccies that show the path of Stage 2, which is what most of Des Moines cares about since that is the path along 200th east to I-5. You should mos def check this out.
But it also has piccies of an upcoming Barnes Creek Trail. And for the umteenth time, every mega-project like SR-509 always comes with at least some ‘mitigation’. but, But, BUT… that mitigitation does not have to be where the mega-project is actually located. The uber-case in our area is that all the wetlands destroyed by building the Third Runway were ‘mitigated’ by building a completely new wetland. In Auburn. I reflexively vote against anything to do with these mitigations, not because I hate the environment, but because it shouldn’t be an either/or. We deserve both.
For example, the area I’m nervous about is the elevated bit swooping over the entrance to Des Moines Creek Trail. See that aqua wavy bit east of the trail? That’s the wetland gem of the entire trail. If there was one area I want protected from the impacts of a four lane elevated highway? It’s that.
SCORE Deaths
Well, this is a bit dark. According to this story in the Seattle Times, SCORE Jail has registered seven deaths since 2023. Which is about seven more deaths than the jail used to get. I’m a big supporter of SCORE. I believe in its mission and I think it’s been as good a neighbour as it can be. But this is troubling to me, and I hope it is to you as well.
I’ve received some, what seem to me to be, fairly insensitive remarks as to why I care about people in jail. Look, these are people. Maybe each circumstance was totally unavoidable. Every once in a while, statistics will create ‘bundles’ of incidents. But most of these are misdemeanor offenders. And more importantly all are human beings. When they come into our custody and something happens to them, we (and they) deserve to understand what happened to each of them. What bugs me is that SCORE has stopped issuing press releases when these deaths occur.
This Week
Wednesday: King County Flood District Advisory Committee. Yes, yet another meeting to make up a fairly ginormous budget shortfall. (See below.)
Friday: Duwamish Community Hub Listening Session The Duwamish River is connected with the Port of Seattle and King County International Airport and the Port of Seattle. The Port’s approach to environmental management policies and practices often inform what is possible here at Sea-Tac Airport so…
Last Week
Tuesday: Port of Seattle Commission meeting. (Agenda) The Port published its Q2 Financials and unlike us, they are rolling in it. The airport continues to achieve record-breaking year on year revenues and operations.
Wednesday: King County Flood District Advisory Committee. We’re havin’ a whirlwind set o’ meetings to make up a $900 million budget shortfall which I explained in detail last week.
Wednesday: I attended the Des Moines/Normandy Park Rotary Club to hear a presentation from Key To Change Studios, who will soon be opening a violin/viola instruction studio here in Des Moines! I cannot stress how important traditional (yes ‘classical’) music education generally is for childhood development. It made me the man I am. 😮 Seriously, no value judgment here, but playing rock guitar, rapping with a computer are not the same as traditional music instruction. Even if you quit after just a couple of years, the benefits last a lifetime. There’s something about learning to work yer fingers, look at notes, play in a group, follow a conductor, that improves all sorts of childhood outcomes.
The City didn’t even TRY and change anything about tax increase going AGAIN on November ballot even though the voters said NO. Wasted money on a passenger ferry which Des Moines could never support in the first place. Thanks for your voice about reality on these things.
Susan I completely agree with you. Spending money on a ferry is wasteful. The council again puts the levy back on the ballot which by the way should be illegal!. As a property owner you are impacting me with higher taxes, home insurance and the levy increasing @700 a year. All in time when we can barely buy groceries and gas. If the council would spend money properly perhaps they would not be after property owners to finance someone’s dream. Considering retirement homes are exempt it seems like you are trying to price homeowners out of this community!
Hi Julie . . . my email address is: susanrdo@aol.com. Can you send me your’s? Would like to talk to you. Or call me. . . my phone number is 253-670-6096. Thanks!
Susan
WOW…this city is like an aggressive beggar…we said NO to the levy lift!
How about finishing some maintenance in this city. My alley is my driveway (the ONLY access to my house and garage…) and after living here almost 40 years, and putting up with entitled neighbors usurping the alley, I get a phone call in answer to my request for no parking signage…”We are not spending the money for signage…you don’t have a problem”
“What they should have said is “You don’t live in the ex mayor’s neighborhood or Redondo, so screw you!”