Google’s street-view feature has finally hit Seattle, and their traveling cameras went from Everett to Spanaway (and even a little bit of Bremerton).

Which includes a certain SKC town.

Last week was National Banned Books Week in libraries nationwide. If you missed it, you can still celebrate in spirit by checking out something that has been banned in our own backyard:

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

An Inconvenient Truth

If I asked you what is the most important issue facing Federal Way, what would you say?

If you work for city government, your answer is probably “code compliance”. Signs are too big, woodworkers are too loud, real estate ads are in the wrong place.

Yes, in the lovely fantasy world of city government, Federal Way is a virtual utopia, whose worst problems are signs, scribbles, and saws. A big happy community of upper-middle class Christian homeowners.

Well, that’s not the Federal Way I read about in the papers. Federal Way is a city where in the past year two people have been shot to death in public places before a dozen witnesses. Where teaching established science in schools is threatened by anti-science crusaders. Where major downtown construction has been put on hold for who knows how long. Where dozens of retail spots have lain empty for years. Where we are about to lose 1,000 good non-retail jobs at a major local employer.

What is the city focusing its efforts on?

Cutting down 45-year-old neighborhood signs, because they are too tall. Shutting down home-based, charity-donating craftsmen because they are too loud. Kicking homeless people off street corners because they are too uncomfortable to look at.

Someday, perhaps, we can replace our head-in-the-clouds city government with one that is aware of Federal Way’s real problems, focus city resources towards solving those real problems, and react effectively and quickly to the needs of a growing urban environment. Unfortunately, our city government and laws are not structured or designed to allow that change to happen any time soon. Perhaps the best we can hope for is that our city leaders will wake up and see the city for what it is: a dual-metro satellite city with real urban problems that will only get worse the longer they are ignored; the longer we waste our effort on eradicating minor inconveniences like neighborhood history and identity, instead of fighting the real threats to the city’s viability like violent crime, low quality jobs, troubled schools, and a complete lack of cohesive community. The answer is not to take a saw to old landmarks, or to ban modern science, or to criminalize poverty.

Can our city government spend its resources reasonably? Can it open its eyes and see the real Federal Way of 2008? Can we change it to do so if it won’t?

Big news in Federal Way today, of the sort we don’t want but seem to have more than usual lately. A young man in his mid-20s was shot to death at Lakota Middle School shortly after football and cheerleading practice let out. News is calling it a “drive by shooting” and the attackers appear to have specifically targeted the unidentified victim. No one else was hurt. The vehicle used in the attack was apparently seen scoping out the Lakota lot over the past week. KOMO and KIRO made field reports this morning from Lakota Park.

1. Despite lots of witnesses present at the time of the attack, no one seems to have any helpful information other than it was a bunch of Latinos in a black SUV. No make or model of car. No license plate. No facial descriptions. You’d think someone would have thought to get the license plate at very least, or be able to say what kind of SUV it was, particularly as people are certain that they’ve seen the vehicle there repeatedly this week. So it must have some identifying characteristic, or else how would they be sure it was the same one? How many black SUVs do you think there are? Does
having Latinos on board help narrow it down all that much?

2. I fully expect the City Council will respond to this by passing a city law making it illegal to post yard sale signs on light posts, and the School Board will respond by beefing up its hairstyle dress code enforcement. Because our esteemed city leaders think we can solve our city’s problems by such things as hiding the homeless and forcing kids to wear uniforms.

Story at: Times TNT KOMO KING 5

Following up on my comment in my last post about how Federal Way’s logo focuses exclusively on the fact that you can see Mount Rainier from the city. The problem I have with focusing on this aspect of Federal Way is that, along with evergreen trees and the Puget Sound, it is one of the least special things about the city.

I asserted that practically every other South Sound town uses Rainier in their city logos or seals. I thought I’d better back that statement up with a little quick research. Here’s what I found, confirming my assertion.

Granted, a few of these cities (Rainier, for example) that are actually really close to the mountain have a legitimate excuse for emphasizing the mountain nearby. But the towns whose only relation to the mountain is that you can see it from there? Not so much. It’s a big mountain. Being able to see it is nothing special.

I didn’t see any of the usual Vote Yes To Elect Our Mayor signs on the way to work today. But I did see some new additions: Vote No To Keep Our Council/Manager signs. Nice work, guys. Is this why Federal Way Works — because the entrenched status quo tilts the field against change?

In other news, the Council backpedaled on its anti-homeless proposal to make it illegal for poor people to try and get money. The only councilmember that didn’t vote to postpone the vote while softer options are considered was unelected-Mayor Dovey, who is all for getting the ugly homeless scum off our streets so obscure-niche small businesses like his can exist in a nice-looking city, ASAP. (Dovey backed the unpopular Celebration Park. Maybe his next public works project will be a nice run-down poorhouse in North Lake.)

Now that our President has publicly committed to confronting global climate change, will our School Board do the same and dump it’s Frosty-Hardison-sponsored insistence on “alternative viewpoints“? The District doesn’t seem to mind it’s teachers watching it, at least.

By now everyone knows there was a fatal shooting at the Transit Center. I use the FWTC daily; the shooting occurred just 45 minutes after my bus pulled in.

Initial reports suggested that the victim was a “bystander”, which put people, including one young woman who was afraid to let the suspect see her face, in high-gear paranoia mode. But as it turned out, the 38 year-old White Center victim knew her killer and and apparently owed him money.

Or maybe it was the other way around. The information that the FWPD have given the press is incredibly and disturbingly vague. We know the victim was 38 and from White Center. We know the suspect was a young black male in a black puffy jacket. And we think that money was involved.

That’s it. No names, no descriptions, nothing. Anyone who knows anything is encouraged to call the police. Of course, it’ll be hard for you to know if you know anything about these people since you have no idea who they are. But if you know a 38-year old woman from White Center who you haven’t seen for a few days, maybe ring them up.

I was surprised after the early news stories how little the police seemed to know. My first thought was: Aren’t there cameras littered around that facility literally every fifty feet? And what exactly are the Securitas drones supposed to be doing? As the signs on the booth’s windows make clear, it’s not to help you in any way, shape, or form with the transit system. And after Friday’s incident, it’s pretty clear that it’s not to, say, keep things secure or even notice crimes happening. I suppose their job has more to do with Windows Solitaire.

When all is said and done, though, this was an isolated incident, the people involved knew each other, and no random bystanders were hurt. Now, judging by the sheltered reaction of the young woman (and her mother) on KOMO, there are probably plenty of people in town who now envision tinted-windowed sedans routinely careening down the bus lane, spraying hapless commuters with an AK-47. But that ain’t the case.

There were flowers and balloons attached to the “Watch for bus traffic” sign near the elevators yesterday evening.

Update: It would be nice to think the P-I reads FederalWayan. In any case, more details have been released. The victim’s name was Dar’Rel Miller. The suspect is 24.

Note to the City Council and our unelected Mayor: No one wants to be poor. No one wants to be homeless. No one wants to be unemployed. No one wants to live in a tent. No one wants to spend all day outside in the cold, wet Seattle winter just to make a few bucks with which to buy something for themselves and their families to eat and drink to get through the day.

The Council clearly doesn’t know any of this, because it has already signaled it is prepared to make things even harder for those fallen on hard times, by making it illegal for the poor to solicit cars for money.

Another note to the Council: We do not live in a walkable city. The sidewalks of Federal Way aren’t full of shoppers and sightseers and people out for a walk. Panhandlers can’t stand in front of stores because those places are private property (again, not a walkable city; the majority of the stores are behind private parking lots, not sidewalks). They can’t expect money from pedestrians, because there aren’t hardly any (shall I repeat about the “not a walkable city” again?).

Taking vehicles out of the panhandling market is to decimate the amount a beggar can hope to get. Who will this serve? Not the poor beggars who stand out in the elements in discarded secondhand jackets hoping to get a cup full of change by the end of a day’s effort. No, but perhaps it will serve the demands of those individuals who spread shamefully over-dramatized stories of mean, scary poor people dangerously menacing them in their SUVs at a minute’s wait at a stoplight.

The argument of this ordinance’s proponents is that approaching vehicles for the measly pocket change that makes up a beggar’s income is dangerous and causes accidents. Do they provide any proof? Even anecdotal cases of accidents caused by begging? Can indifferent, superior-feeling people really get laws passed in Federal Way with nothing more than empty straw men?

Will the Council ever learn a new way to deal with the problems of city growth? Or will it always be the same old simple, short-sighted, irresponsible stratagem of trying to make problems disappear instead of solving them? Does the council have a plan to fill the hole that their amendment will leave in the pockets and lives of the people who are reduced to asking for handouts, and the people they support? What plan to they have to undo the damage this amendment will cause?

None. That’s not in the plan. The poor and homeless are clearly not the part of the city’s community that the majority of the Council cares about serving.

You’d better not pout
You’d better not cry
You’d better not shout
I’m tellin’ you why
Accountability’s coming to town

I never thought I’d agree with Frosty Hardison, but I agree with everything he said in his latest letter to the Mirror (well, except for the revolving restaurant bit, which was very strange). Granted, I’m confident my ulterior interest in an elected mayor differs greatly from his. And I don’t expect that an elected mayor will give the Hardisons any new traction on their myriad collection of urgent city issues (like, say, our lack of revolving restaurants). But, it’s telling, I think, that so many diverse interests agree that Federal Way is growing too big for the amorphous, detached twice-monthly booster club known as the City Council.