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My wife Cathy playing with two of our grandkids at Meadow Crest Playground
Almost exactly ten years ago, Renton City Council approved a partnership with Renton School District to build an inclusive playground that all children (and the people who love them) could happily enjoy regardless of their abilities or mobility challenges. If you have not seen this playground, it’s wonderful, and my grandchildren love it. It’s won numerous awards since its completion including a Governor’s Smart Community Award.
Generous Renton organizations came together to fund an inclusive playground for children
Building the playground required the City/School partnership, combined with local government funds and generous private donations. Renton Rotary, Lions, Kiwanis and Soroptimists service clubs all raised funds, and the Renton Community Foundation donated a quarter million dollars of Custer Family gift money toward this project. Seahawks, First Financial Northwest Foundation, Renton Technical College, and Renton Housing Authority also helped. And there were private citizens and anonymous donors too. Every dollar was important, and we ran a long campaign to make this happen for the kids.
The money we raised for construction through combining public funds and generous donations from our community, approximately $2.2 million, is the same amount of money that Renton taxpayers give to Sound Transit every three weeks. In other words, for our Sound Transit contribution, we could be building a new park like this every 21 days somewhere in Renton, or doing any number of other important improvements to our infrastructure.
I was Council President when we built this playground, and the impact of how hard we had to work to gather the money for kids in comparison to the enormous funding we give to the transit agency was striking to me. This would be okay if we got return on our Sound Transit Funding, but as I explained here for Sound Move, here for Sound Transit 2 and here for Sound Transit 3 we have so far struck out.
My Son-in-law and I help my grandson Luke practice balancing at Meadow Crest Playground.
If you have not yet found this beautiful park, look for it at Meadow Crest school in the highlands. It is open to only the school during school hours, and then open to the public on non-school hours.
Here is a nice video that describes the playground.
Interlocal agreement approved ten years ago
From council agenda: Cost of playground design and construction was $2.2 Million
The documents above can be found in this link.
We need to give away this money so Mercer Island can have Sound Transit. Marcie Maxwell said so.
If you want some fun, search TikTok for @riveraforrenton . Just saying.
OMG WTF
Recall Rivera
I sent this off to the council:
Dear City Council Members,
I am writing to express my concerns regarding recent events involving Carmen, specifically her email to the chief of police, which granted her access to special treatment that regular citizens do not have.
As a conservative who values fairness and equality, I believe that all citizens should be treated equally under the law, regardless of their background or identity. It is concerning that Carmen was able to receive special treatment simply because she holds a position of power or privilege. This sets a dangerous precedent and undermines the principles of fairness and equality that our society is built upon.
In this particular case, Carmen’s ability to bypass the standard procedure for calling 911 and directly contact the chief of police is unfair to regular citizens who do not have access to such privileges. It is imperative that all individuals are treated equally when it comes to accessing emergency services, regardless of their identity or social status.
As a member of this community, I urge you to take action to ensure that all citizens have equal access to emergency services and are not subject to special treatment based on their background or identity. It’s essential to uphold the principles of fairness and equality in all aspects of our society to ensure that everyone is treated with the dignity and respect they deserve.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Joseph
Its up to 1.4 million views. Thanks for being Renton’s best clown Carmen.
https://www.tiktok.com/@giyohnly1/video/7216154477504531754
We need to organize in order to push back and get this fixed, or if that fails, elect new representatives.
If anybody would like to let the city council know their opinions, feel free to email jsubia@rentonwa.gov
council@rentonwa.gov will send to all council members directly.