2009 hasn’t been the kindest of years to FederalWayan.

One upshot was the passage of Proposition 1, the bitterly contested power-struggle between the entrenched, corporatist city council and a new paradigm of strong leadership. We have yet another year, however, to wait for that to come to fruition. The City Council is not interested in using the people’s money to reduce their own power by spending it on something that 52% of the people want. Curious, too, is the council’s camp’s insistence that they canceled a search for a new city manager because the switch to a new form of government would obviate the need for one, despite their insistence during the campaign that one would still be necessary even with a strong mayor, and even more confusing in light of the year they have now added to that transition.

One big downshot in our opinion is the city’s impending loss of Metropolitan Market, which will close their doors for the last time on January 6. The store has been named Federal Way’s Best Grocery Store by the Mirror’s polls for five years in a row, which is also the entire time the Dash Point branch has been open. Apparently, being Federal Way’s best is not good enough for Metropolitan, which has been packed on a daily basis ever since the word of its closure went out. Given that the city government and business community has said or done nothing about this, perhaps they are right. Locals fear that the Metro location will be snatched up by a jilted LA Fitness which was denied permission to open in Twin Lakes by the city government, who apparently thinks that it’s better to have a huge vacant building than a new business — as evidenced by the growing number of large vacant buildings in town. For FederalWayan’s part, we’ll be writing to the regional manager of Whole Foods telling them about a great newly available location with an existing customer base.

The esteemed city government also denied Federal Way commuters and visitors a better driving experience in and out of Federal Way from the interstate when it killed the City Center Access Project, deciding that it’s best to kowtow to two tiny neighborhoods rather than work towards the benefit of the city at large. Lakewood, population 58,000, has 6 exits on I-5; Federal Way, population 89,000, has half that. The preferred solution for the City Council is to tear up the downtown sidewalks to expand busy 320th; yet another example of the failed, nice-to-look-at-but-wouldn’t-want-to-live 50s-era suburban folly which guides every decision of the city government.

A confusing series of events occurred in the realm of the city municipal court this past election. Embattled presiding judge Michael Morgan lost his position to Rebecca Walls, who overcame a serious lack of experience by challenging Morgan’s unpopular management style. But Walls won’t be taking over the reins — that will go to former school board president Dave Larson, who had dismissed the attacks on Morgan when they were first challenged and continued to support his fellow judge all along. Those who voted to clear out the Morgan administration by replacing him with Walls will likely end up not getting what they expected.

In February the Regional Library closed for remodeling, cutting off the city’s largest public research and study center in an age when libraries are falling out of fashion via competition from a growing wealth of easily available online material. The KCLS placed a small library in the Commons Mall, adding a small spot of quiet and studiousness to one of the city’s biggest youth attractions. FederalWayan’s only complaint about this location is the word “Temporary” on it’s signage. We think the Commons Library location should join similar locations at Southcenter and Crossroads and become a permanent LibraryConnection location.

The recent month’s distraction from the city’s ills, post-election, has been the much ado about nothing regarding the Twin Lakes Country Club. Few Federal Wayans have likely ever set foot on Twin Lakes’ property, outside of perhaps a wedding reception or office party; but the fear of losing the elite status symbol has sent the Twin Lakes neighborhood, as well as the Mirror, into a frantic tizzy — which fizzled predictably when the big meeting to Do Something About It failed to attract a sufficient number of actually concerned residents.

On the topic of local politics, both local political parties showed themselves to be out of touch with the city’s residents when they both chose to oppose Proposition 1. Whether this was the result of the influence that the backwards-looking city boosters has on these groups, or whether it was the work of a well orchestrated and ferocious pro-council coffee klatch, the upswing is that both parties ended up on the side of the minority of Federal Way’s voters.

In 2010, we look forward to RapidRide Line A, which will run from Federal Way to Tukwila to link our city up to the Central Link Light Rail line. We look forward, hopefully, to the beginning of construction at Symphony. We look forward to the opening of a presumably improved Regional Library. But most importantly, we look forward to a popularly elected strong mayor who will provide a coherent face, voice, and vision for Federal Way, and an end to the lagging, stagnant, living-in-the-past city government our city has endured for far too long.

The only Circuit City in Washington to close as part of the company’s downsizing is the “Outlet store” in Campus Square (348th and 16th S).

Has anyone shopped there since it became an “Outlet”? Seemed like they had pared down to a very small display focusing on status-symbol audio-video appliances (plasma TVs, etc). Not surprised such a store would close now.

Heh. Circuit City. Outlet. I get it.

As everyone’s well aware, the Symphony project, which I drive past every morning, is on hold for up to a year.

Yeah, sure.

We’ve heard this one before, Federal Way. How long did it take for Federal Way to get a long-awaited modern movie theater? The original plan for the Century was to be done by Fall 2004. For the record, it opened July 2007. Construction didn’t even start until early 2007 if memory serves.

Ironically, the Symphony is on the site of the theater whose closure left the gap that Century filled. And it fills it adequately (well, now that it’s gotten the kinks worked out; they seem to play the right movies in the right theater and completely right-side up and forwards these days). But it sure took its time in doing so (the AMC 6 closed in 2002).

At least other city projects have been on time — the Community Center opened in March 2007, roughly on schedule — but it’s apparently not able to stay in the black. Oh, and its construction ran 27% over budget.

Engineers of all stripes know of the Designer’s Holy Triangle, which goes “Good, Fast, or Cheap.” In Federal Way, that seems to be “Remotely On Time, Remotely On Budget, or Not Completely Falling Apart”. At least we’ve been mostly on track for the latter — so far.

As for what to do about Symphony, and United Properties’ falling through, does the City really think that this is the last word? Come a year from now, will we see UP come back and ask for yet another year? With construction projects “on hold” all over the country, and even on the decline in the supposedly resilient Northwest, can we really count on them to come through on a second chance? And can the growth of our city wait that long?

I hope the Council is considering other options, instead of just rolling over for UP’s extension request.

(PS: Does anyone know what the Council’s decision is? The minutes for the July 15 Council meeting, where the request was to be considered, are still not posted.)

Unless you’re talking about snowballs, motion does not equal growth. A moving object doesn’t grow from moving; in fact it’s more likely to actually shrink as forces act upon it.

This strongly occurs to me in light of the new developments at the Commons, which has added 5 “pad” spots abutting 320th. Aside from the fact that these pads have seriously reduced front-lot parking at the Commons, I have doubts about whether they are actually attracting growth, or just movement.

Case in point, #1: Applebees, which moved from an exterior space at the core Commons building to one of the pads. Case #2: Azteca, which according to the new directory maps at the mall, will move into the space formerly occupied by the short-lived Filling Station next to Red Robin; presumably moving out of its Gateway Center location, and presumably becoming a bigger competitor to Torero’s.

Meanwhile, Round Table Pizza has moved from its Ross Plaza location to a spot at the new WalMart superdevelopment on Pac Hwy. Earlier this year Lowe’s moved to a larger building in a lot immediately next to its old one, and last year Borders moved from it’s Seatac Village location on the north side of 320th to a new exterior-entry spot at the Commons. And of course well before that, Target moved from it’s 314th location to an anchor spot at the Commons, replacing Mervyn’s.

I’m sure there’s plenty more examples of the retail shuffle going on in Federal Way. My point in bringing this up is sure, business are moving, often to larger locations, but this to me doesn’t equate to growth in any useful sense. In many cases, these movements unseated existing businesses, and left empty abandoned lots in their wake. Cucina Cucina got turned into the Transit Center, and the AMC will be turned into a four-tower mixed-use development, which will have excellent views of the Deseret thrift store donations lot, and the abandoned storefronts above the wall north of 316th (former Toys R Us and Target locations). Nearby, my guess is that the 312th WalMart is not long for this earth as the Pac Hwy super-box version succeeds.

For some reason, the City Council insists that we need lots more retail space in Federal Way. Do they not get around town much? The city is literally littered with vacant retail space. Off the top of my head, there’s:

• the former Borders and Old Navy locations at Seatac Village
• the former Target and Toys R Us locations above the 316th wall
• the former Round Table location
• a large pad at Gateway (and presumably soon the current Azteca location)
• the former Albertsons in Twin Lakes
• a handful of empty spaces at the Commons

There’s roughly a dozen prime retail locations for you, some which have lain unused for over a year and then some. The Commons empty units are particularly telling, with the mall’s lightboard practically begging for people to start businesses to fill them.

When prime retail locations and a handful of mall locations can lay empty for as long as some of them have (the AMC closed in 2002 and only just this year has been repurposed), is it really sane to argue that we are in dire need of more retail units?