Michael Matthias is the City Manager of The City Of Des Moines. He also chairs the City’s Airport Committee, serves as the City’s Economic Development Director, sits on the StART Committee and represents the City on the State Environmental Impact Study. This letter is in regard to public comments I made at the General City
Sea-Tac Communities Plan Chapter 6 Maps (South Reinforcement Area, Program Application)
This is an excerpt from Chapter 6.6.5 of the Sea-Tac Communities Plan (1976). ‘Reinforcement’ was one of three types of planning that were considered. It refers to efforts to strengthen the existing community to be more compatible with the airport through the techniques of property buyouts (to create a noise buffer) and sound insulation.
Well that’s a relief! SB5370
TVW Video (1:45:00) Just a quick note to give followers a bit of the sausage making in those whole boring process of SB5370. One nice thing about State business is that even the Executive Sessions are available on video. Ironically, this is one of their arguments against having full transparency of all documents. At the
The Sea-Tac Communities Plan
Overview The draft Sea-Tac Communities Plan (STCP) (known as “the Redbook” was delivered to the King County Council and Port of Seattle Commissioners in January 1975 after eighteen months of work and a $641,000 grant from the FAA. The authors were the Policy Advisory Committee, a twelve member group of citizens, King County, Port staff,
What’s Not To Like? HB1683
So I was back in Olympia last Thursday, this time at the House Transportation Committee to comment on HB1683, the companion to SB5370 which we talked about last time. TVW Video House Transportation Committee Feb 7 3:30PM (HB1683 begins @ 43:00) I made my feeble comments along with Des Moines City Councilor Traci Buxton and
Second Airport: Arguing about capacity won’t work
I got several objections to my last post on SB5370 and specifically my public comment at the Senate Transportation Committee Hearing: Go to 57:00 But at the risk of sounding demagogic, I have to remind readers that our job is to tell the truth. And the truth is that siting a second airport will have
Our Co-dependent Love Affair SB5370
TVW Video (Discussion & Comments 40:00) Have you ever been in a relationship that you knew was bad for you? And not just you, I mean for both of you? But for any number of reasons, you just keep slugging it out, year after year. You (or they) keep telling yourself all the reasons it’s
…Except For The City Of SeaTac (Mea Culpa)
In my last post I made an error of fact so egregious that it demands not just a quick ‘We regret the error’ but an actual post of its own. Well… sort of. I wrote “Except for Burien, no electeds sit on any of those Airport Committees.” Well of course, that was just plain wrong–as
Sibling Rivalry
Last night the Burien City Council passed the four resolutions created by their Airport Committee. We’ve discussed them a bit before and likely will do so again as they are well-crafted and cover most of the main issues that all the sister-cities will need to address if the region is to successfully confront the Port
A Letter To Port Commission President Stephanie Bowman
Madam President, First off, let me congratulate you on your new office. I’ll just say something you already know: your office carries the ability to make the single greatest impact on the lives of people in our region of any elected. You sit down on a Tuesday, get two of your peers to agree to