Renton’s latest official survey results are in, and concerns about crime are the highest I’ve ever seen– after decades of reviewing Renton survey results.  The results were officially presented to Renton Council’s Committee of the Whole at their August 7 meeting.

Only one out of ten residents feels safe in downtown Renton after dark.  Only four out of ten feel safe in their own neighborhood after dark.  This is completely unacceptable, especially for our northwest city where wintertime sunsets happen as early as 4:25 PM.

When residents were asked to rate the MOST important thing the city should be working on out of fifteen choices,  “safe and secure community” far-and-away  topped the list, with 70% saying it was most important.  The next highest category came in only one-tenth as high, with 7% saying “quality housing choices” was the most important.

As I covered in  a May blog entry,  Renton needs to refocus on Priority 1 police response times (for the most urgent threats), and add the officers needed to get these response times back to 60-90 seconds.  We must not go the way of Seattle, which now has ten-minute priority one response times.  We also must insist the legislature give more authority back to our police officers, so they may once again reasonably pursue burglars, drug dealers, stolen cars, and dangerous reckless drivers when conditions allow for it.

We also need additional detectives to help work down the backlog of unsolved crimes.  We can’t let some council members’ fears of police,  and fear of “over-policing,” prevent us from hiring the officers and detectives needed to make residents feel safe again in their neighborhoods. And we need to have a safe downtown, that generates commerce in the evening and makes us feel like visiting our businesses there.  Our downtown not only entertains and serves us, but it also generates the tax revenues needed to fund vital city services.  Downtown is like our living room, and  9 out of 10 of us are afraid to go there.

Beyond adding the officers needed to maintain lightning fast response times, there’s other steps we need to take as a community; I’ll cover them in future blog entries.

Survey results showed that Renton residents still find much to love about Renton, so the results are not all bad. Many of the positives, like our parks, amenities, and overall sense of community, have been an important focus for our city for decades.  But the crime trends must be brought under control to preserve those qualities we like so much about our city.  The full survey results can be found here.

My opponent’s contributions come primarily from outside Renton (addresses reported to PDC.)

My opponent has been falsely implying on her campaign websites that I am receiving more money from donors outside of Renton than she is.  In a recent video she says “It’s very unfortunate that outside money is being spent in our local election here.”  In a related post she says “Renton needs a Renton solution,” and claims she’s the one running a “Renton community centered campaign.”

Her claim is ridiculous, as the majority of her own campaign contributions, $32,030, have come from sources outside of Renton (like the Puppyland lobbyist in Issaquah that gave her $500).  In contrast, my campaign has accepted only $7,540 from outside of Renton, generally from people who work or own a business in Renton.  The data is publicly available on the PDC website, and I’ve summarized it in the charts above and below.

My views are very closely aligned with Renton residents, 77 percent of who have put either crime and safety or affordable housing at the top of the priority list in a recent city survey. Many of those engaged in trying to build affordable housing have been plagued by theft and vandalism at job sites, like a local contractor I know who has had his work truck and tools stolen three times in the past two years, once from Valley Hospital.  Not surprisingly, those who are working to build affordable housing have made it clear they support my agenda for a properly-staffed police department and sensible laws that protect businesses, over my opponent’s agenda which reflects her own “fear of law enforcement” and concerns about “over-policing” that she detailed in the Renton Reporter on April 27th.

These builders have independently informed Renton’s residents of their support of my agenda through mailers, expressing a strong desire for me to come back to Renton City Council and help put the city back on a healthy, thriving course. I knew nothing about these planned expenditures, and by law they are separate from my campaign.  But even if hypothetically this “outside money” was part of my campaign, the money I received from outside Renton in my campaign would STILL BE LESS THAN THE MONEY MY OPPONENT HAS RECEIVED FROM OUTSIDE RENTON.

In summary, my opponent is once again intentionally misleading the public about basic, easily-discoverable facts.  This calls into question both her basic fairness and her effectiveness at representing Renton regionally– if she can’t be trusted to be open and honest, how can she put Renton’s best case forward?

I’m honored to have a majority of our Renton City Council and our Renton Mayor supporting me in this campaign, while my opponent has no Renton city elected officials supporting her reelection bid.  Our relative capacities for sticking to the truth are part of the reason for my broad support from Renton’s leaders.

My contributions come primarily from inside Renton (addresses reported to PDC)

The above map is a snapshot from cityprotect.com for the past three days, Feb 5 to Feb 7, showing five car thefts in the Renton Highlands Sunset neighborhood.  If this rate of theft somehow continued in this neighborhood, 608 cars would be stolen from this small area in a year; about one car theft for every two homes.

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The Sunset Terrace Redevelopment Concept Master Plan is one of several projects that could improve Renton Highlands. This concept and other projects were discussed at Renton City Council Committee of the Whole on Monday night

On Monday night our Senior Planner Erica Conkling gave us an update on Renton Highlands Revitalization Planning efforts. She and her colleagues have been working on a district-wide Environmental Impact Statement for the Sunset Corridor in the vicinity of Harrington Avenue, which will facilitate some attractive and much-desired redevelopment. There are some promising projects already being sketched-out by property owners in this area, and others are more likely to come forward once the EIS is complete. Furthermore, the competed EIS will make it easier for us to obtain grants for public infrastructure improvement in the area and/or make the area eligible for other state-sponsored economic incentives. Ms. Conkling and the team have done excellent work, and the presentation was great. Her Department Director, Alex Pietsch, also assisted in the discussion Monday night. It’s clear that Highlands revitalization remains an Economic Development/Planning Department priority in sync with the City Council.

Here is Ms. Conkling’s presentation from our Monday Committee of the Whole meeting. (It’s a large file, so it may take 30 to 60 seconds to load on your computer)