Stories

Project funding shows one way to fairer outcomes Summary: The recent Miller Creek Restoration ribbon cutting was framed as a win for regional partnerships. Agreed. But a funding review shows that Burien and SeaTac ratepayers covered the majority of the cost—while the Port of Seattle used airport revenues and thus zero out of pocket. Background

Analysis As reported in Part I: Between November 3rd and November 13th, city councils in Burien, SeaTac, and Des Moines each voted unanimously to enter into an Interlocal Agreement (ILA). The agreement retains outside legal counsel to challenge the Federal Aviation Administration’s Record of Decision (ROD) Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for the Sustainable

Piecemeal rollout suggests lack of shared commitment Between November 3rd and November 13th, Burien, SeaTac, and Des Moines each voted unanimously to enter into an Interlocal Agreement (ILA) to retain outside legal counsel to challenge the Federal Aviation Administration’s Record of Decision (ROD) Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for the Sustainable Airport Master Plan

Partnerships. Competing and conflicting interests This Thursday, the Des Moines City Council will vote to continue forward with an amended version of their SAMP Interlocal Agreement (ILA) — a joint legal/consulting framework for NEPA/SEPA review of the Port of Seattle’s Sustainable Airport Master Plan (SAMP). The arrangement began in 2018 with four cities: Burien, Des

Council votes on ‘four city’ ILA. Four days later it’s, three? Burien City Council: November 3, 2025 Item 13.h (SAMP ILA) On Monday, the Burien City Council voted unanimously to move towards final consideration in renewing the SAMP ILA with Des Moines, Normandy Park and SeaTac. This agreement concerns a legal appeal process on the

The Airport Communities Podcast Last week told the crazy story of Tagamet to describe something economists call perverse incentives–how people can waste so much money addressing a problem in the wrong way, you can’t even get research money to figure out how to address it in the right way. In another episode, we described No

The October 22nd candidate forum was organized by STACC4J/Fix The Harm and featured Port Commission candidates (Toshiko Hasegawa, Ryan Calkins, Hamdi Mohamed), 33rd LD Senator Tina Orwall, and House candidates (Rep. Edwin Obras and Kevin Schilling). About 50 people attended. Here is the complete video and a machine-generated transcript. All three Port Commissioners are running unopposed, as is Senator Orwall. The House race is hotly contested and there are clear choices.

“Noise is not just annoying. It’s a matter of public health” It is with the greatest sadness that we report the passing of Dr. Arline Bronzaft, long time environmental psychologist at City University of New York, and the person who can rightly be called the founding mother of research into the public health effects of

The Airport Communities Podcast We open this week’s episode by talking about how little information sharing there ever really is among any airport community. Even candidate forums on airport issues here are now semi-private! More broadly, we at Sea-Tac are not alone with airport expansions. But on the plus side, more and more, we’re noticing