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

Federal Way is….

• the 8th largest city (by population) in Washington state
• the 5th largest city on Puget Sound, and within 100 miles
• the 3rd largest city in King County
• the largest city between Seattle and Tacoma

• the 13th most dense city in Washington
• the 18th largest city (by area) in Washington
• the 6th largest (by area) and densest city in King County

(The densest city in Washington after Seattle is Mattawa, which is 0.5 sq. mi. large and has 2,600 people, for a density of 5,200 ppl. per sq. mi.)
Values taken from Wikipedia and Access Washington.

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 today’s P-I:

Responding to a nearly $70 million estimated budget shortfall in King County, local criminal-justice leaders said Thursday they plan to move thousands of property-crime, forgery and drug cases to lower-level courts…

“After these cuts we won’t be responding to the smaller crimes … [and it] will not discourage criminals; it will only encourage them,” [KC Prosecutor Dan] Satterberg said.

“We will now have two levels of public safety,” [KC Sheriff Sue] Rahr said.

While deputies will be able to investigate property crimes inside the cities it contracts services for, people in unincorporated areas will not get those services, she said.

I’m looking at you, East Federal Way (aka Lakeland North and South, according to some maps). The county can’t help you anymore. The county can’t afford you anymore. The county is going to start rolling up the sidewalks. The longer you hold out, the more you’ll regret it. The days of old semi-rural Federal Way are long since over.
You have two choices. Incorporate or annex.

Luckily, you have some friendly neighbors to the west that would be more than willing to invite you under their umbrella.

Quit looking a gift horse in the mouth, and get on board the Federal Way train.

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.

If sea level were to rise 15 meters, Federal Way would be located on a Puget Sound island running from West Seattle to Edgewood.

What would you call it?

Could someone fix the clock at the Transit Center? It’s stuck in February.

A couple things struck me about the rather presumptuous, self-aggrandizing press release from Federal Way Stagnates in this week’s News. (Yes, that’s me in the comments.)

First, I managed to get Ron Gintz’s name wrong in this post.

Second, there are an awful lot of people on that list that have obvious close ties to the Council — the same Council that would lose the most from a strong mayor — ranging from former Council members and at least one identifiable spouse of a council member.

Third, that Ron Gintz’s name is on the list at all. When it occurred to me that I need to go back to the Council’s archives and double check the name, I also dialed up the minutes from December 21 1993, when outgoing Deputy Mayor Joel Marks proposed a ballot measure for an elected mayor. The motion got two council votes: one from Joel Marks, and one from Ron Gintz.

And I’m curious as to why a strong mayor for Federal Way made more sense to Ron in 1993 than it does in 2008.

As for FWW, I doubt that their high-profile politicking defeated the measure. I chalk it up to the old-school Federal Way mindset that resists growth and change — after all, that’s why the city was first created, right? — and an off-season election date, and on the same ballot as a primary vote that just over half of people knew was (officially) meaningless. FWW (and ACT) needs to acknowledge that 45%, especially under those circumstances, is nothing to sneeze at.