Written by Several citizens have recently asked about about the expected process we will use for filling the newly-identified council vacancy. These emails, from our Chief administrative officer and city attorney, will answer most of your questions. Read the emails by clicking here!
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New contibuter Rose McMayhem: “me and my little army of proud Rentonites would like to talk to you.”
I’m enthusiastically introducing a new contributer tonight. Rose McMayhem grew up in our city, attended out local schools, graduated from University of Washington, and she writes some of the most creative, funniest journal entries I have read. She has generously agreed to share her writing talent with readers of this blog. Her perspective is younger than mine, which is a good thing, and far less city hall oriented…which is also a good thing. Please let her know what you think about her writing…help me encourage Rose and Keri Kopnick to keep sharing their talents with us by leaving them some comments.
Thanks!
Randy
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Welcome to the South shore of Lake Washington. It’s maligned by many, is home to tens of thousands, and relatively speaking, has a pretty impressive history. In my 3rd grade class at Maplewood Heights, we did a unit on the history of the city, and I, for one, was impressed with how far back we’d been around and what a stake we had in driving the industrialization of the area- between mining, Paccar and Boeing, we were contributing quite a bit to the region as far as jobs and products at the beginning of the 20th century.
All history aside, though, the place is clearly not the pinnacle of white-trash-dom that John Keister would have the greater Seattle Metropolitan area believe (no disrespect, John- I know you have to make a living). Time and time again, when asked where I live, my response is met with a grimace and look of pity- much like the reaction one gets when they own up to a lifestyle so foreign to others that they assume couldn’t possibly have been a conscious choice, but must have happened by accident or coersion. To wit: I’m an atheist (cringe!). I have 10 stepchildren (gasp!). I bought a Ford (you poor thing!).
I had a city-dwelling friend who always made a point to tell others in my presence, apologetically: “She lives in Renton.” And so on; you all know what I mean. They assume there’s something wrong with us.
Don’t feel sorry for me; your pity is unnecessary. In fact, it’s insulting- while some extraneous circumstances may be assumed to exist, in general it’s safe to say that if I hated the place, I wouldn’t live here. On the contrary, 25 of my 27 ½ years have been spent in the little city that’s “ahead of the curve,” and let’s be clear on one thing: it hasn’t been against my will. Yeah, I got out for a little while. Left home after college and spread my wings all the way up in the Central District. Turned out that city life wasn’t for me, though- despite the crowding, everyone kept to themselves a little too much, and everyone had something to prove. So when I was looking to get out, I looked back from where I’d come and bought a little place not far from where I’d grown up- on familiar terrain, and near my dad’s shop (critical to those of us who drive older vehicles).
Did I find it to be a concession; the only feasible location for someone who had to keep her mortgage payments low? Nah, it was exactly what I wanted, and in the 3 years I’ve spent in my chosen neighborhood, I haven’t regretted it.
Well, save for the hoodlum neighbors on one side of me…but every town’s got those; there are jerks everywhere. Same as there are pleasant people everywhere, and we’ve got a surplus of those as well.
No…really. You just have to shake off the patina of prejudice you’ve been burdened with to see that Renton is just another suburb: in reality, it’s no more of a ghetto than the older parts of Bellevue, although people tend to miss that detail because we’re not all upper-middle-class whites here. But yes, it is a suburb, so if that’s the issue people have with it, I can’t defend it. However, if it’s a matter of it being any more or less livable than the surrounding environs, well then, me and my little army of proud Rentonites would like to talk to you.
Suffice it to say it annoys me when people put Renton down: I’ve chosen to live here, I like living here, no amount of good-natured chiding is going to change my mind about that- so take your pity and shove it. Myself and an army of perfectly normal people are happy with this place.
Rose McMayhem
Email compliment to Renton’s finest, care of Police Chief Kevin Milosevich
Mr. Milosevich,
I have lived in Renton for only two years. In that time however, I have developed an appreciation for the department you run. READ MORE »
Laundry day in King County, by guest columnist Kari Kopnick
(Kari Kopnick is doing a series of articles about life on Benson Hill, and how things are changing with annexation to Renton)
I was thinking about laundry on a trip through my neighborhood the other day. I mean, laundry, boring, drudgery, right? Yep. I mean, OK, it’s not like my great grandmother’s day when you really had to DO the laundry with a fire to heat the water, and the lye soap you made yourself, and the scrubbing done by hand. That’s true. But it’s still a pain. My laundry room isn’t one of those cute ones like you’d see on the TV network. It’s a dark little space with, well, lots of laundry in it!
Over the years of raising kids I’ve had different systems to get our clothes from yucky and dirty to clean and organized. There was a period of denial that there even was laundry. That led to monstrous piles of laundry—I used to even joke we’d become a new religion that involved worshipping the laundry gods and those piles were our offerings.
Well, then when the babies were a little older and I could breathe every other day I decided to do laundry once a week. Wednesday was laundry day. I had to go out and buy more socks and underwear for everyone, and by Tuesday we all were dressed a little oddly, but it worked.
Then when I worked the swing shift for a few years my husband came up with the ultimate system for laundry. He’s an engineer, and I’d highly recommend an engineering degree for anyone planning to run a house; either that or a brain that works like his.
This is what he did: the laundry gets washed and dried all day. Our laundry room is off the kitchen so you always know when the washer and dryer aren’t running because it’s quiet. So in the morning you can get thru two loads. Add one before dinner and one after and even my soccer-playing-dirt-collecting family gets through it all. Then, here’s the brilliance: everyone takes a laundry basket of clean clothes to the biggest bed in the house. You dump it all in the middle of the bed and then sort it as fast as you can—by throwing every sock and shirt and every last thing at the person it belongs to. I have three boys, so it works great. Well, unless one of them lays down in the middle of the bed, then the other kids just pile laundry on top of them!
So this system has worked for a couple of years, but now everyone is busy with, teams, clubs, plays and friends. All that fun is taking up our evenings. So heading through my neighborhood I came up with a new idea. These brilliant folks, neighbors of mine, have their washer and dryer OUTSIDE! Right in the yard! Hey, maybe they even use rainwater, and wind power to run them. I can get behind this. I’d take a nice nature walk, pass through some bushes and trees, walk along next to the other appliances (not sure why they’re out there yet…..I’ll let you know if I figure that one out). And then with June Cleaver-like pep, I could cheerfully wash my family’s clothes. I would be almost like my ancestor women. It would combine fresh air, exercise and clean clothes. Perfect.
But wait? What about when we really, legally, officially become a part of Renton over here on Benson Hill? I wonder what our new city is going to say about a washer and dryer (and freezer and stove) outside in the front yard?
Hmmm, I’ll have to think on this one.
Transitions at tonight’s meeting; Kathy and Toni say good-bye, Dan Clawson resigns effective Jan 1.
There were some warm good-bye messages for our departing mayor and retiring council president tonight, as citizen remembered their combined 44 years of public service (24 for Kathy Keolker, 20 for Toni Nelson). Then, near the end of the evening, Dan Clawson surprised everyone in attendance by announcing he was retiring from council as well, so that he could devote more time to his family and his business. Dan has given 12 years of service as a council member. His resignation is effective as of January 1.
All three retiring officials received standing ovations for their years of service, and they all received kind words from the public for their commitment to the city.
I wish them all the best.
We won’t meet as a council again until January 7. At that time, we will lay out the procedure we will follow for choosing a replacement council member to fill the remaining two years of Dan’s term.
,
Latest Duvall email….
Received today….
Can’t make the council meeting tonite but wanted to put in my two cents worth.
We live just off 95th Way west of Coal Creek Parkway and will be impacted by the
widening re access to Sunset and Coal Creek but closing Duval for one year and
getting the job sooner sure sounds like the right idea. Traffic will be
disrupted no matter what you do but one year vs two years is a no brainer. I
would almost bet the contractor would come in ahead of schedule if there were no
traffic control to worry about. Plus the project will probably dovetail better
with the Newcastle effort.
Duvall Closure Website is on-line!!! Get the latest news!
City staff have created a website just for keeping people notified of the Duvall Closure options and planning.
Click here to see this website.
Click here to see that latest options matrix, which provides a study of each option proposed by he public at the December 3rd meeting.
After thoroughly reviewing all options, including the option of using two one-way streets (sometimes called a one-way couplet), the Transportation Committee is still recommending an option very similar to that discussed at the December 3 hearing, but with even more mitigation. (The one-way streets don’t work for local circulation and they cause pass-through traffic to overwhelm Summerwind), and the working-only-on-certain-days-or-hours causes the impacts to stretch out to two years again.)
In terms of added mitigation, we are adding traffic counting before and after the closure to make sure our modeling is correct. And we are investigating speed bumps on Union….probably not required on the peak hours, when traffic is backed up, but may be very important on the off-peak hours when drivers have an open road. Also, we are looking at increased signage for Summerwind, to try to shut-out any pass-though traffic.
For business owners, we are going to post signs on Sunset directing drivers to impacted Renton Businesses, complete with business names and logos. This should give them some good exposure on highway 900, to hopefully off-set some of the impact of the Duvall closure.
The website linked above has more info, and we will give the public a complete report at tonight’s meeting.
Thanks,
Randy
Renton-Seattle Ferry project plan underway ; Seattle Times
The Seattle Times ran another story on developing Lake Washington Ferry Plan.
Here is an excerpt:
“Ferries from Shilshole, Renton and Des Moines would go to Seattle. There is also some interest in creating an Eastside connector route that would parallel Interstate 405, but right now Bellevue lacks a dock site on Meydenbauer Bay, Arkills said.
If the city could secure one, King County could run an Eastside line from Renton to Bellevue to Kirkland, he said.”
Click here for the full story.
Former UW/New Orleans Saints Football star takes over leadership of Renton’s Food Bank
LonZell Hill has retired from his career as a football star, and will now lend his leadership and teaming talents to our Salvation Army Renton Rotoray Food Bank and Service Center. Click here to read the full story in the Seattle Times.
Local artist/historian Crystal Starr ponders old bricks
Crystal was recently featured on this blog and in the Renton Reporter, for studying the history of her Italian ancestry in Renton. She would like your input about these bricks if anyone knows the history on them.
Crystal ( crystalstarr) wrote,@ 2007–12–08 16:00:00 |
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| Entry tags: | bricks, history, renton |
I found these bricks in the Renton Wa area a few weeks back
I’m assuming they come from the Denny Renton clay coal company that used to exist. Nothing unusual about having a Denny-Renton brick if your from that area they can be found anywhere, but these i believe are older from when the company was just named “Renton Clay works” It wasn’t until 1910 it became Denny-Renton. These three do not have the symbol of Denny-Renton.
I’m talking with Rainer Vally Historical Society about the Columbia Brick now as that one is in the best shape and has many unusual markings. Plus it is golden toned not your normal red brick.
“”In 1901 two California entrepreneurs, James Doyle and J. R. Miller, discovered that the shale overlaying the Renton mine’s coal seams produced a high-quality clay. Tests indicated the material would make excellent brick, and with Seattle investor E. J. Mathews, Doyles and Miller organized the Renton Clay Works. They developed a plant on the south bank of the Cedar River that was briefly the largest producer of paving brick in the world. In addition, the Renton plant specialized in fire brick, terra-cotta, and decorative terra-cotta. In 1905 the plant was purchased by Denny Fire Brick Company and the entire company was renamed the Denny-Renton Clay & Coal Company.. “”
Street Hoops
The Transportation Committee met on Wednesday to discuss an issue recently raised concerning basketball hoops in the city right-of-way.
We had this issue on our agenda because a city truck had smashed a citizen-owned hoop and backboard, which was permanently mounted such that it protruded slightly into the street. The street department refused to repair it, arguing that it should not have been there in the first place based on city code, but our insurance carrier went ahead and paid the citizen for the cost of it…not being aware that the street crew was challenging it. So, all the parties affected came to council for some clarification.
After lengthy deliberation, our committee decided that we should not change our city code. If our report is accepted by the full council on Monday night, people will continue to not be allowed to install anything on the city right-of-way without a permit, including a basketball hoop. The code will continue to be enforced on a complaint basis, meaning if someone complains it will be investigated, and a notice-to-correct will be issued.
We also chose not to expressly attack basketball hoops, or single them out with a special section. We feel they fall into the same category as all other possible right-of-way issues.
Some of the discussion focussed on the dilemma posed by our desire to allow freedom for people to recreate and exercise responsibly, but that we in no way wanted there to be confusion about who has the right-of-way in city streets. A basketball hoop permanently mounted over the street may not cause an injury to an adult, for instance, but it might give children the illusion that they have the right of way when they are shooting hoops.
We were silent on the issue of temporary, rolling portable hoops. We assume that people are using these responsibly, that they understand the risk of being hurt or sited if they put them in the street, and that they are using appropriate care with this equipment. I have seen these set up at the back of a cul-de-sac at the end of dead-end street for years, with no complaints generated. The city will generally not patrol for them, but if another resident of the cul-de-sac decided it was a hazard or inconvenience, then the owner could be asked to remove it by the city. My recommendation is to keep them on private property, such as a driveway or a patio, unless you get a right-of-way permit to use them elsewhere.
Again, I’m smart enough to know that people will continue to play in streets once in a while, and the city can not stop this from happening. However, it’s important that people in the street know that vehicles have the right-of-way, and that they are in the street at their own peril. Any other belief on their part sets them up for injury or death, and puts the city in a position of liability.
I used to play kick-ball in my cul-de-sac growing up. But there were only seven homes, and every participant knew we had to clear-out the moment a car turned into the cul-de-sac. I won’t let my kids play anything on the through street in front of my own home.
A couple of colorful fall photos from the transit center
I got these two photos from the transit center, during the fall festival. The first one features the beautiful artwork donated by the Municipal Art’s Commission, and produced by students from Renton Technical College’s English as a Second Language class.
The second picture is my wife and daughter, with some of our close friends, leaving the Piazza Fall Festival.
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