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?

Everyone from the Times to the Stranger to the FWBlog are abuzz over Proposition 1, the RTID Roads and Transit Initiative. Even the City Council has thrown in their fourteen cents.

The Times and Stranger are against the plan. But don’t think that these two antitheses are on the same side — the Stranger is against the roads, while the Times is against the light rail. Meanwhile, the City is for the plan, but for the roads, not so much for the light rail, though they’d like that too.

If there’s anything that everyone can agree on, it’s that really no one likes the whole thing. Either you like the light rail or the road expansion, never both.

Most Metro Seattleites probably have not had a lot of experience with light rail. (Most KC suburbanites probably don’t have much experience with the bus system, either.) But, here’s one for the opponents: Find me a place where light rail or other non-roadway-bus mass transit system has been introduced and *not* been popular. Even the little pilot-project Tacoma Link blew out its ridership numbers in its first month. Where such projects have failed, it’s been due to bad management, underfunding, and cultural shifts like the increased popularity of private automobiles starting in the late 1920s.

Light rail is superior to express bus service, because (if elevated [as Link will largely be] or underground) you don’t have to worry about highway or other traffic, no crazy reroutes due to construction, and no getting on the wrong one and accidentally going 20 miles beyond where you wanted to go (as I’ve seen some poor saps do on the various Seattle-FW express buses).

I welcome the light rail. I can’t wait until a proud elevated rail track starts bringing its trains full of people (this includes shoppers and visitors, not just northbound commuters!) to and from Federal Way on an easy, low-hassle, rapid transit dedicated causeway. It’ll mean that Federal Way is truly connected to the Seattle area and has entered a new age.

According to the Mirror, the Federal Way Community Center is running short of expectations.

It’s too bad, because I sort of like the Center, and go there fairly regularly. The locker rooms are modern and fairly well thought out (divided showers in the men’s is a nice rarity), with a family locker area with 5 self-contained bath/dressing/shower rooms, a dry sauna and steam room. The leisure pool looks like a lot of fun for the kids, with the playset, water slide, and lazy river. I’ve also enjoyed the 20-foot climbing rock a few times, and shot some hoops in the gymnasium (you can check out sports equipment like basketballs from the front desk).

The Center’s been plagued with a few problems of course — both the sauna and steam room have undergone prolonged maintenance, and the elevator was out of service for months — and there’s a few things that could use improving, like the game room (just a pool table), the fitness area cooling. Vending machines would also be nice, although the front desk sells water, soda, and snacks at a likely cheaper rate to make up for it.

I think the final problem with the Community Center is that it speaks to the City Council’s image of the city as one big happy community, which it simply is not. It could be, if the city could be bothered to acknowledge all of its residents instead of a subset consisting of homey old-schoolers and businesspeople. The Community Center won’t build a community for you, but if you do build one, they might come.

The Center’s webpage appears to be more reliably updated these days, and easily available from the city website.