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.

This summer, the Federal Way Regional Library will close for renovations. KCLS confirms that the library is one of the most heavily used branch in the system. While the renovation will add 50% more reading space, the branch will close for a whole year.

I like the Regional library though I don’t spend much time there. It’s a shame it will be unavailable for a year. Hopefully, at very least, the books will still be available for inter-library loan. But the library gets plenty of use, not just for checking out books, but also for the public computers (they are increasingly hard to grab), the seating space, and the meeting rooms.

It’s really too bad, and a bit disappointing, that KCLS couldn’t come up with some way to make part of the library’s services available. 320th and Woodmont (a bit far for FW use) aren’t going to take up the slack.

If Fed Way is such a heavy library user, why doesn’t KCLS expand into further branches? We could have a satellite branch in the Commons, just like the one in Southcenter, which seems pretty popular. Or a small, Woodmont-sized branch in the Twin Lakes commercial district.

As for the librarians that will have no place to work for that year, KCLS suggests they can find work at other branches, and/or work with local schools. Hey, that gives me an idea: we can put these librarians to fill in for all the school librarians the FWPS laid off last year.

Update on the FWTC shooter, via FW Graffiti:

FWPD released the name of the Transit Center shooter, William Muhammad, along with what looks like his Juvi mugshot, on Wednesday.

By Thursday, Muhammad turned himself in.

I don’t fully understand why they waited the better part of a week to release this sort of info, and it clearly was very helpful.

Of course, I don’t know what it was about the info being released that caused Muhammad to turn himself in. Maybe he thought the jig was finally up, or maybe his conscience just happened to get the better of him at the same time. Could he possibly not have realized that shooting his gun at the Transit Center and hitting a woman might have some relation to the woman who was shot at the Transit Center that same night, until now?

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.

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.

Talk about having a point proved for you. If anyone needs a reason why we need an elected mayor, look no further than the very first day of the city council’s new session. From the Mirror:

The move to appoint Dovey as mayor was proposed by city council member Linda Kochmar, seconded by Park and unanimously approved by the council. Kochmar nominated Dovey because of his seniority on the city council and his awareness of the business community, she said.

Jack Dovey is FW’s new mayor, and you and I had nothing to do with it. Nor did anything Jack Dovey has done — except repeatedly get reelected to the council. Kochmar admits her reason was, at least in part, based on seniority; not on skill, leadership, or any other attribute. And the rest of the council cheerily agreed. The club just simply decided that it was Jack’s turn to be in the big chair.

One wonders what the result would be if you put a poll to the people of Federal Way and asked them which city council member they would prefer as their city’s mayor. I don’t think it would be Dovey. But the people of Federal Way don’t get to decide. The city’s booster club does.