(The following was also posted as a comment on the Mirror website.)

It’s great that the Federal Way Regional Library will reopen soon. My hope is that libraries are still relevant enough that the expansion will be worthwhile.

The real sad downside of the reopening of the regional library, in my opinion, is that at the end of this month we will lose the temporary location at the Commons. I don’t know why the KCLS feels the Commons is only good for a temporary location while Bellevue Crossings is good enough for a permanent “Library Connection” location. Federal Way has a real shortage of downtown services, and a library location at the mall was a welcome break from that trend. I am very curious what the activity was like at the temporary location, considering the mall is still by far the city’s top attraction for youth. With the return of the Regional Library, no matter how improved, visits to the library — like City Hall and too many other local services — will once again require a tedious car trip through Federal Way’s slow arterials to a semi-hidden wooded grove. What will it take for us to ever see a multi-use, service-rich, unsprawled downtown in Federal Way?

The grass field on the east side of the Federal Way Transit Center, which was once the candidate location to replace the 320th Library, is now dug up for construction. Unfortunately, neither the city nor Sound Transit websites had any information on what’s going there.

An email to Sound Transit’s Capital Projects department revealed that the construction is for Senior City, a low-income senior housing project undertaken by the Korean Women’s Association. According to the KWA’s fall newsletter (pdf), the project will house 122 low-income seniors, plus provide office space for senior services and meeting space.

There’s not a lot more information out there on the project, such as what it will look like, but I did manage to dig up this landscaping chart:

Elsewhere… The Fred Meyer in Twin Lakes is building a gas station, and construction is well underway. (Maybe one of the Safeways in town will get the hint and follow suit. The 320th store has plenty of room.)

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.

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.)

From FWBlog: The city is looking into ways to reduce congestion at the I-5 intersection at 320th. (Good!) The options: an exit at 312th, or an exit at 324th.

We’ve missed the open house on this issue, but FederalWayan thinks the 312th option is the best. If you look at the choices from a standpoint purely related to the commercial city center, mall, and 99 business artery, 324th looks more appealing. But those of us living in the real world know that congestion isn’t being caused by shoppers (well, except on 320th and 348th on Sundays, but that’s in-town traffic), but by people coming home from work; in other words, travel to and from the residential areas.

324th runs behind the mall, crosses 99, and then smacks into Celebration Park at 11th. The result: people trying to cram back up to 320th, or cramming into the slow road around the park. Effect: moving the traffic a half mile west.

Meanwhile, 312th (a city arterial) crosses 99, 1st Ave, and stops at Dash Point Rd and 21st — two other city arterials. In its travels it passes through lots of residential areas (like 320th does up to the same point). Also, this exit would be close and accessible to the 317th HOV exit, making 312 a route with multiple options for exiting. And a short drive up 28th gets you on Military Road.

The only problem is that, as both plans include extending the intersecting road over the highway to the other side, 312th would be brought over and end at a sleepy, pricey-looking neighborhood at 32nd Ave S. The 312th plan should include connecting the dead-end of 312th there to the 312th on the other side of a vacant lot, which would connect it straight to Military.

The 324th plan in this case looks a lot more expensive. It requires overpassing the existing 320th southbound ramps (!), then cutting a road between two Weyerhauser buildings, and (it looks like) relocating a Weyerhauser road about 300 feet.

The FWPD have named an actual suspect in the Transit Center shooting case.

If you see Glenn C. Proctor, call 911.

Unfortunately no official release at the FWPD website yet, but KOMO and the P-I have it.

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.)

The Times reports that bus ridership has shot upwards. This is sort of news that everyone who cares already knows, and those that don’t already know don’t care. My experience lately mirrors that of the people interviewed: often, going home is standing-room only.

On a positive note, in 2010, you’ll be able to take a RapidRide bus to SeaTac, and then take the Link rail to downtown Seattle. I guess that’ll be good enough until they complete (and all you people vote for!) Sound Transit 2.

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.

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?