Different day. Same ol…
We attended the first of the four Port of Seattle open houses on the SAMP-NTP/SEPA-Draft EIS. We want to give a little context for those of you who will attend the next three.
Expect low turnout– a trend over the past decade. Expect very silly posters. We’ve joked that the SAMP has been in process for so long they recycle the same ones every year. But neither should dishearten or dissuade you from commenting on the SAMP.
However, we do not like these open houses for a couple of reasons.
There is no useful way to do this
First, it is easy to blame the Port for this poor format. But frankly, most community members (unless you are following STNI, of course 😉 ) tend to be so low-information, it would be difficult to get much out of them without an entirely different format.
Even so, we see no reason that the average person should be required to learn about terms like ‘Part 150’ or ‘ultrafine particles’. People want improved public health, less noise, more trees, better quality of life, and so on. Most do not want even the most slickly produced video explaining why they cannot have it.
In fact, the only winner is the Port of Seattle. These open houses tick the box for them with the FAA. It really is as simple as that. They have never been required to do better, so do what they are asked to do. Nothing more, nothing less.
Who is your audience?
Second, we think if you go there and you’re upset, you’re yelling at the wrong people and for the wrong reasons. To make that point perfectly clear: at least three of the stations we visited were manned by consultants from out of town — not even Port employees. They fly in to do these — in the unlikely event somebody has a technical question — and then fly out to the next airport. The Port is just one of their clients and airport planning is big business.
Beyond that, we don’t think it’s ever useful to vent your feelings to Port staff, any more than it would be OK to vent at your own city’s employees. They don’t set policy. They show up every day at their desks, or in the public works yard, or at the police department and do a job. In this case, they’re not getting paid overtime to stand in front of those silly poster boards.
If you need to vent…
We know it’s counterintuitive. But the people you should be upset with are every elected official in the area — not just the five Port Commissioners. You should be absolutely furious with every city councilmember you meet.
We try to remind those councilmembers that the SAMP was set in motion in 2012, with the Port’s Century Agenda. Grasping that is rough. But if that seems like a long time ago consider this: the SAMP layout we’re looking at now was arrived at by 2007 — even before the Third Runway opened. That is how far ahead airport planners think.
None of this has ever been any “secret.” It is your city’s failure to be on top of airport expansion — to monitor and understand where this was all heading and then develop a strategy — that is at the heart of so many problems today. What we’ve tended to do is try to stop things and then, when it doesn’t work out, try our best to forget about it until the next big permitting event.
Who to vent at?
Our advice has been, and will continue to be, this: if you want to vent, the people you want to vent at are the five Port Commissioners, and your city council.
Elected officials are the accountability piece that has been missing. If you’re not happy with how things are going — and you definitely should not be happy — tell your elected officials.
The Port Commission has treated their neighbors with callousness. This is especially poor conduct given their constant drumbeat of ‘green’ and ‘equity’. But the same could also be said of so many local electeds who touted the benefits of the Port–even as the evidence of far greater harms became clear.
What every local elected has used as their get out of jail free card? “Wasn’t on my watch! ” Tell your commissioners. Tell your city council. Whether you were in office or not does not matter. You are all responsible. Your governments cannot let this continue.
Going forward
To get to a better place we will have to make airport competency a core function of our city’s planning–not the public. Because — and we want to say this very clearly — after the SAMP is over, any success our cities have in improving our situation will require us all–meaning staff–to work together. We must develop a sense of shared interest and shared vocabulary, not mutual contempt and a never-ending cycle of “I’m new at this!”
The reverse should also be true: those cities that show no sensitivity should pay a cost for not supporting a more equitable relationship with the most affected areas–at a minimum in the court of public opinion. Currently they see no downside in free riding on the externalities fence line communities absorb decade after decade.
But the people you’re talking to at these open houses are not them. They are there to answer your questions in front of some silly posters, tick a box, then go back to their desk the next day. Attend. Don’t attend. But do comment on the SAMP in the only way that will really make a difference: your electeds. All of them.