Weekly Update: 09/05/2023

Some notes: I may have picked the wrong week to…

This article is not only late, but also abridged. Basically that comes down to the fact that I’m trying to walk the City (twice) in my re-election campaign and finish a trailer for the SeaTacNoise.Info documentary history of Sea-Tac Airport.

With regard to the campaign…

I can always use some help. 🙂

• It’s time to get some yard signs out there. If you would like a yard sign so yellow one resident quipped that you could probably see it from outer space, please call or write. 🙂
• If you’re interested in hosting a coffee/open house of some sort and save me some door knocking? Same. 🙂

Either way: (206) 878-0578, mail@jcharrisfordesmoines.com

With regard to the Movie

The reason to put so much effort into this is ultimately to benefit Des Moines. Frankly, so much of local politics is about now. Over 2/3 of our residents have moved here since 2008 (when the Third Runway opened) and even people still around would struggle to understand how we got to where we are. But, spoiler alert: there were a lot of promises made by the Port that were not kept, and tens of millions of dollars either misspent or left on the table here in Des Moines due to political in-fighting (so what else is new?) As far as Des Moines was concerned, the ‘fight’ against airport expansion began in 1991 and lasted until 2008. Ish. But what the public never really understood was that after 1996 that ‘fight’ was not about stopping construction. Really, it was about how we were supposed to be compensated (or not) for what the increase in flights would do to the City long term.

The upcoming SAMP will  increase flight operations in the next eight years as much as the opening of that Third Runway. But this time, there’s no ‘runway’. That increase in flights will happen simply by improving existing operations.  And that is why it’s been so hard to get the public’s attention.

In fact, our City was first notified it was being planned back in 2012.

Our hope is that by educating residents we can (finally) get at least some of the relief we’ve been promised for decades. Because as it stands, most people just assume there’s nothing we can do–which was never true.

Please sign up for the mailing list here

This Week

Important: Look out for more traffic closures on Kent Des Moines Road starting next weekend.

Thursday 6:00PM: City Council Meeting (Agenda)

Highlights include:

• A Proclamation on Emergency Preparedness Month. I’ve made my feelings about ‘proclamations’ fairly clear, but in this case, it’s a chance to urge all Des Moines residents to make sure that their families are prepared for an emergency by
  • preparing a Disaster Supply Kit and
  • creating a Family Emergency Plan.
  • And (this is not in the proclamation (grrrrr) remind people to sign up for Code Red to get alerts in case of emergencies.
• A second quarter financial report
• But the big event is the Public Hearing on re-zoning an area around 216th. (Go to page #69) Because it’s a public hearing one is not supposed to comment ahead of time, but let’s just say YOU REALLY SHOULD SHOW UP FOR THIS! 😀

This is not just a re-zone. There’s a proposed ‘Innovation District’ and an all new 50+ page DMCBP Market Analysis. It’s a lot to review and the first question I had for the City Manager this week was why this hasn’t been taken up first by the Economic Development Committee? The EDC is usually tasked with studying this kind of thing in depth before it goes before the full Council. For example, one of the footnotes describing the Innovation District is behind a paywall so I can’t read it. The other is an article by consulting giant McKinsey: A playbook for innovation hubs and ecosystems. As I said, it’s a lot. 🙂

And without commenting on any specific potential ordinance, I believe that every home in Des Moines should have sound insulation and we should immediately re-instate our sound code (like Burien and SeaTac already have.) For background: Sound insulation should be standard equipment