Campaigning
Signs?
I’ve got at least a dozen messages along the lines of OMG, your opponent has signs up. Where are yoouuuuuurs? To which I reply: Today I walked 4.5 miles doorbelling. I drop signs in neighbourhoods as I go,. But I also made a commitment to (again) walk every street in DM and continue actually talking to the entire community. It takes a surprising amount of time for anyone, let alone an AARP member, to hit 6,000 doors. If you care about the election and want to help, the best thing you can do is not worry about anyone else’s signs. The best thing you could do would be to honour me by placing one of my signs on your lawn/balcony. 🙂
Videos
My first video in years. Have the production values improved? Absolutely not! Watch it anyways.
Important: Look out for traffic closures on Kent Des Moines Road at 10th Ave starting 9-15.This Week
Monday: I’m doing a private candidate forum. Can’t tell ya when. Can’t tell ya where. 😀 But it’s important to tell you that they exist because with less then sixty days until the election there are no genuinely City-wide candidate fora. And there should be. There is always one at Wesley, but that too is private to their community. This means that, at the moment, 90% of registered voters will have zero opportunity to see all the candidates on a stage, taking questions from the general public, getting specific with their positions. There was exactly one such forum when I ran in 2019. So opportunities to see what candidates are really about (and test them even a little bit) keeps getting dimmer and dimmer with each election cycle. That is why I doorbell.
A one other thing: I’ve heard from organisers saying, “Don’t worry. It’s not a debate. Every just gives their speech. Maybe answer a few audience questions.” And I’m like, Sir/Madame you are avoiding the heart of the matter. You should want the debate. The absolute worst part of our current government is that there is no genuine debate. Zero. Electeds can say whatever they want and because there is no dialogue between the Council or the public, nothing is ever tested.
Call To Action: The best thing you could do for Des Moines would be to offer to host a public candidate forum. You can do this. It’s as easy as sending an email to the five candidates, inviting them to a Zoom meeting. And I would encourage everyone who reads this to get on that.
Tuesday: Des Moines Activities Center Presentation at Wesley.
Wednesday: 5:00PM Ad Hoc Franchise Committee Meeting. (North Conference Room, No Agenda.) I usually don’t announce these, but the Franchise Committee is becoming more and more important because it covers agreements with all our providers like Comcast. The fees they provide in exchange for use of poles, cables, etc. is significant. Membership includes Mahoney, Nutting, Steinmetz.
Thursday 11:00AM: I’ll be showing a Trailer for the SeaTacNoise.Info movie Under The Flight Path at the Federal Way Historical Society. If you believe only one thing I ever tell ya: This is the reason I ran for City Council. The City Council has consistently dissembled on this issue since the late 90’s, shifting to a pro-Port of Seattle stance where we decry the noise and pollution in public, but in reality do everything possible to promote expansion. It’s been shameless and ruinous for the long term health (in all its meanings) for Des Moines. Please sign up for the mailing list here
Thursday 4:00PM: Environment Committee Meeting (Agenda)
Thursday 5:00PM: Transportation Committee Meeting (Agenda)
Thursday 6:00PM: City Council Meeting (Agenda) There are some pro forma things (like acceptance of grants for Redondo fishing pier.) I often skip over these even though they may read as important. But trust me, they’re not. A lot of these things are like that final vote at the end of the meeting to… er… end the meeting. 😀 But two items of interest for me:
- A presentation on South King County Housing and Homelessness Partners program.
- Annual Budget Retreat–which kicks off one of the two basic tasks our City Council is explicitly charged with under State law. Passing a budget and zoning.
A new feature at the start of the meeting will be reports from the Transportation and Environment Committee chairs–one of the changes to the new Protocol Manual I supported.
Last Week
Thursday 6:00PM: City Council Meeting (Agenda) (Video) Some highlights below.
9/7 City Council Meeting Recap
For some reason, many meetings seem to have a recurring ‘theme’ of some sort. This one was all about zoning, meaning planning how land will be use for the long term benefit of the entire community.
Mayor’s Statement on Bartells Closing
I have no great quibbles with much of the Mayor’s statement on the closure of our Bartells Store at the end of the month. When corporations merge they do close stores and lay off employees in order to maximise efficiencies. But his statement felt to my ear a like explaining to a patient that amputating a limb is just what happens sometimes. This rhetoric reminded me of the City’s response a decade ago when the QFC closed on Marine View Drive. It’s just the natural business cycle.
The impending closure of Bartell’s is only the latest in a series of wake up calls that we aren’t hearing, perhaps because the airplane noise drowns it out. Or perhaps because we’re so wedded to a certain notion of economics that say (among other things) that these are just the natural cycles of business.
When Bartells closes we’ll not only lose a valuable and trusted friend for hundreds of residents, we’ll also be losing a lot more.
Think of it like this: Des Moines is blessed with not one but two Safeways. A dinky little city like ours has two major grocery stores within 60 blocks! And yet, one of the most common complaints I hear from residents is that they won’t go near them.
Frankly, we are slowly surrendering large portions of our City. Even if you can transfer yer scripts somewhere else or drive somewheres else to shop you should care because when these areas aren’t generating tax revenue, they’re making the city even smaller.
I’m gonna keep hammering on this as long as I have a public voice. When businesses don’t thrive everyone suffers. Wanna know why you don’t have that park/community center/road improvement/whatever? It’s because the land we’ve got isn’t producing.
We must make Pacific Highway safe. Now.
I’m not telling you I have the magic bullet. But I’m also not just grandstanding or posturing. In the past year we’ve had an emergency zoning moratorium on an area far less critical but only a few blocks away. And last month we had an emergency response to a Water District 54 issue over which we had no control. Well, this is an issue we do have some control over.
As the Mayor said, we cannot stop Bartells closing. However, the City should be taking steps now to clean up the corner and make sure that the next business that goes in provides the same long term value to our residents.
Because when QFC left, we just left it to ‘the free market’. And as anyone who watched last week’s City Council Meeting could see, we do have tools to make different policy choices. When we so choose.
And in this we should choose to make that corner (the one behind the City of Des Moines gateway) something really good.
Public Comment
Several comments from people in the Marina District regarding crime and noise. One account of bullets nearly missing a condo resident was particularly harrowing.
Some of this will be helped by restoring the gates. (People who get on my case about this sort of thing either have short memories or I dunno what, but the gates have been a problem now, both at the Marina and in Redondo for six, yes six years–and still not fixed. It may be easier for you to be ‘patient’ if you haven’t lived here long enough.)
But some of it won’t. Some of it will come down to the decision we made many decades ago to build condominiums along the back wall of the Marina. Back then, the idea was that the Marina would remain a working Marina. That made the two land uses compatible.
But the moment we started talking about making the Marina some sort of ‘entertainment hub’, we began heading down the wrong path.
The reason I worked so hard against the hotel is that there is no reality in which you can have (mostly) retiree condo dwellers living in harmony with ‘night life’. That’s not nimbyism. It simply means that the City should work as aggressively to find revenue opportunities on the MVD and Seventh Ave–where the businesses are.
Q2 Financial Report
This thing is going on too long already but one small detail caught my eye. Natural gas usage is up 20%. The Finance Director’s answer was that this is seasonal. OK, but despite all the tragic stuff going on everywhere else it wasn’t hotter here this year. What I’m saying is that, by now, some of these fossil fuel numbers should start heading down. And they’re not. We keep doing these small ball things (drone shows, coastal cleanups, bioswales, etc.) They’re not nothing, but they’re basically distractions from the real moves we need to make–yes even as a dinky little city.
Consent Agenda
- A Proclamation on Emergency Preparedness Month. 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.
I asked for an amendment to remind people to sign up for Code Red to get alerts in case of emergencies. It did not get a second. Seriously? This is another reason I struggle with proclamations. If even this can be politicised, I dunno what to say. Except to tell you (again) to sign up for Code Red to get alerts in case of emergencies. Until there is an automated emergency alert system, statistically speaking, knowing that an emergency is happening is probably the best thing you can do to in the domain of emergency preparedness.
Public Hearing on 216th Re-zone (Draft Ordinance)
To be clear, I agreed, in principal, with the broad goals presented: More town homes, modifying some of the business park zoning to encourage less low-density warehouses and more actual businesses.
However, I voted ‘no’ because, as so often happens, the devil is in the details. (Go to page #69) 
About all those targets
If you slogged through the discussion you heard all manner of talk about Growth Management Act and ‘PSRC‘ and ‘Vision 2050‘ and their various targets for jobs and housing. All I tried to get across is this: those are Seattle’s targets, those are King County’s targets, those are State targets. They are not necessarily our targets. In fact, many of those targets may not even be good for Des Moines. Want an example of a regional target?
- Building a Third Runway at Sea-Tac in 1996
- Expanding flights at Sea-Tac Airport. Now.
Those were (and are) also some of the targets of those governments, not Des Moines. Do you feel a particular obligation to help increase the number of flights over your head? As your representative, I do not. And in fact, there are zero penalities for not hitting those targets. You simply have to make a good faith effort.
I am all in favour of the broader goals: especially more middle housing. But I will not accept PSRC or GMA ‘targets’ as reasons to support this specific proposal.
In fact, many of the State’s goals are absolutely essential. Remember that Natural Gas number is +20% Frankly, without at least some prodding, small cities simply would not make real progress on things like climate, pollution or housing.
Innovation Districts
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? He replied that the Council had been fully updated.
FYI, I did a search of every meeting this year and found zero references to ‘innovation district’. As is often the case, all the details were presented first time at the meetings–including links to some examples of innovation districts we could review after we vote.
Here they are.
I was chided by my colleagues because they were able to Google innovation district’ and thus felt no need for more information. Really? According to Wikipedia, I have already visited several innovation districts (maybe you have too!), including two of the ones in the packet, but also:
- Cambridge, MA
- Detroit, MI
- South Lake Union (Amazon)
I fail to see how any of these much larger projects correlate clearly to the single block of land we’re talking about here at the corner of 24th and 216th.
There are no stupid questions
I’m just gonna be blunter than usual because there are basically two things one needs to do as a member of the Council: understand the budget and understand zoning. They’re both hard. And I am telling you straight up, some of the people at that meeting did not appear to know the difference between zoning codes RM2400 and RM1800. This information is tedious but unlike an Innovation District, these specifics are in the City’s Code.
Asking the planner to describe a zoning code in twenty five words or less is unfair both to her, but more importantly to the topic. Click the links– the rules defining these different land uses take pages. Each code has very specific uses.
The motion should not have gone forward for this reason alone. Everyone should know what they’re voting for because this is the long game.
With regard to Sound Code
Despite what you may have heard, the Council has not agreed to re-instate the Sound Code in 2024. (After all, this was my idea so I oughta know, right? 🙂 ) All that was agreed to last June was that the Economic Development Committee would discuss the issue. Councilmember Nutting is chair of the EDC and being a contractor he has expressed skepticism as to the cost. Also, there was talk of finding way to help offset the cost for developers. All this is completely specious. Because again, neither the City of Burien or the City of SeaTac has ever rescinded their sound codes and neither has ever felt a need to create added incentives for builders.
This comes down to trust. Our City violated the trust of residents by rescinding our sound code in 2012 when Burien and SeaTac did not. So to be so blithe about this is shameless. Sound insulation should be standard equipment.
Just. One. Week.
I proposed to vote no on the item and bring it back at our next meeting (which is only seven days.) Give everyone a chance to study up and get a fresh start. My colleagues felt that they already had ‘plenty of information’. I would suggest to readers, especially those in the Marina District, that this is exactly the rhetoric used during years of nonsense regarding Marina Redevelopment. And also in decades past with regard to previous things like the original Des Moines Creek Business Park.
New Items For Consideration
Councilmember Nutting asked to prepare another proclamation in support of National Suicide Prevention Week In Construction. After the silliness with the Emergency Preparedness Proclamation, I’m not sure I will ever vote for another proclamation. That moment of personal pettiness aside…
A quick perusal of Google indicates the issue is no joke.
I would suggest that the same factors in construction are probably also at play in many industries, including commercial fishing (my family). It’s culture in a rapidly changing world. But it’s especially worrying for us because, remember all those ‘targets’ I mentioned above? Another of our regional goals involves going all in on construction jobs–one of the last bastions of high wage jobs for people without post-high school education. Which mean we’re actively encouraging kids to take up a profession with great pay, but also extremely high risk.
So beyond the fine words, perhaps next time the City engages with developers, apprenticeships, labour, we not only applaud the jobs, but also ask what tangible things everyone is doing to make the career healthier.
At every meeting there are all kinds of choices about the long game.