Everyone loves a marching band! Hazen Highlanders, 2018 River Days. Photo courtesy of Gary Palmer.

Let’s keep our Renton River Days Parade fun!

In decades past our Renton River Days parade became a magnet for political campaign entries.  And not just local races, but county, and state races as well.  The parade occurs right before the primary, and as soon as one candidate entered, their opponents felt compelled to enter the parade to maintain a level playing field.  While I appreciate the first amendment as much as anyone, the net effect of so many campaign entries is that children (and probably most of their parents) became antsy and bored at the endless groups walking past with campaign signs.

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Believe me. I feel it too. We all pay too much in taxes. Some people have had to sell their homes and move away from our area because of high property taxes.

I’ve worked hard to hold down taxes in many different ways, and City-of-Renton-imposed property tax rates have actually been decreasing for many years under my watch.  Recent hikes in our total property tax bills were mostly voter-approved Sound Transit 3 and State education taxes from the McCleary decision,  along with other growth at state and county levels.

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Cathy in our garden during last year’s tomato season

Raising our food in our own backyard, balcony or in a nearby community garden has many benefits.  Urban farming increases our food security, gives us healthy organic options, makes efficient use of our land, is educational, saves money, creates beautiful urban landscapes, and saves fossil fuel in food production and transportation.  Small farm animals, like chickens, ducks, and bees, can be symbiotic with our gardens to maximize the amount of food coming from our backyards.

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Author’s note 4/8/2024: The Master Plan Update and Runway length extension described in this blog entry were not implemented (as of this update.)  In the months after I wrote this entry, our aviation community and Renton leadership hired and aviation attorney and pushed back on the runway extension proposal.  Then the pandemic began and reduced air traffic world-wide, including in Renton. The lower traffic no longer merited a debate about runway length extension.  There was a seperate update to the Airport Layout Plan (a companion document that does not alter the runway) completed in 2022.

In this blog entry I describe critical issues at Renton Airport that must be resolved carefully to avoid negatively impacting the future of the airport and our city.  6.2 billion dollars a year in revenue, historic homes and neighborhoods, and thousands of jobs could all be impacted in various ways if the current Master Plan process is not sensitive to the needs of our unique airport and our community.   I suggest we carefully re-review the underlying assumptions made by the airport consultants that are causing so much impact, in collaboration with FAA, airport businesses, neighborhoods, and other stakeholders.

In particular, we should focus on the assumption that 737s are the “critical aircraft” for purposes of sizing the airport safety zones, since 737s takeoff from Renton but rarely land here.  (Landings are more hazardous than takeoffs and need greater safety margins.)  Furthermore, when 737s do takeoff from Renton they are brand new, recently tested, and lightly loaded.  We delivered even larger 757s safely and routinely from this airport for two decades, and never had any issues.  Smaller aircraft that are engaged in normal operation at Renton would be more appropriate to size the airport runway and safety zones.  The FAA Advisory Circulars allow for some leeway, and we should utilize it to protect our community and businesses.

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Aviation is the largest sector of Renton’s economy, directly providing over a third of all Renton jobs and indirectly creating many of our other jobs. Along with living-wage paychecks, our aviation businesses pay taxes which keep our city and schools succeeding.

Our 100-year-old downtown and surrounding neighborhoods are equally critical to Renton.  Our downtown represents our identity and our history, and our city has to have livable neighborhoods.

In the early 1990s, open conflicts between airport users and nearby neighborhoods were commonplace.  In my early years as council member, I witnessed hostilities over engine tests, flight schools, helicopters, seaplane noise, jet centers, and  flight patterns.  In 2001 a controversial jet center proposal packed our council chambers with frustrated residents, and we took steps to create sustainable peace.  We created the Renton Airport Advisory Committee (RAAC), appointed with representatives from the airport and neighborhoods, to serve as a sounding board for the airport. The RAAC members worked hard to build bridges, getting neighborhood reps into airplanes and airport reps into backyards, to understand each other’s perspectives.  They also implemented voluntary steps to reduce noise.  While there are still occasional neighborhood complaints about the airport (mostly single-engine planes over neighborhoods), the RAAC deserves enormous credit for establishing peace and understanding among residents and airport stakeholders.