Well, I have been sitting with this one all week, and I want to start by saying that I am not opposed to parking — I want that on the record — but sixty-two stalls on Inter Ave, including semitruck parking, is a lot of asphalt for a stretch of road that I remember when it was nothing but mud and a fence that nobody could agree on, and what I want to know, what I think the people who actually live here deserve to know, is whether anyone walked that block on a Tuesday afternoon before they drew up the plans — because there is a difference between what a SEPA filing says a neighborhood needs and what a neighborhood actually needs, and I have been saying that since before some of these applicants were born.
And another thing — the Maplewood Springs water work, which, yes, fine, aging infrastructure, I understand, we all understand, pipes do not last forever and I am not going to pretend otherwise — but I will say that I remember when 15th Avenue SW was the kind of street where you knew whose yard was whose and you could tell when something was different just by driving it, and now we have pump station replacements being filed under environmental review with public comments due May 8th, which, I will give them credit, they are at least asking — you have until May 8th, write something down, send it in — and that is more than we got with certain other projects I have covered in this very column, and you know which ones I mean — but here is my grievance, and it connects, so stay with me: the city is replacing water distribution lines and a pump station at the same time they are pouring a brand-new sixty-two-stall parking lot two miles away, and I just think it is worth asking out loud whether the sequencing of these things is something anyone mapped on the same piece of paper, because the people who actually live here are the ones driving through both construction zones.
Now, the one piece of news this week that gave me something close to genuine satisfaction is that the city is looking for volunteers for the Arts & Culture Commission and the Senior Advisory Board — and I want to look directly at you, the person reading this right now, who has been complaining at the school pickup line or the coffee counter about how nobody listens — this is how they listen, this is the mechanism, and if you do not fill out the application then you do not get to complain to me about it, and I say that with full warmth and zero apology — because I have watched both of those boards operate for years and they do real work and they need real people and not just the same four names cycling through, and I will circle back on that when I see how the applications shake out — but for now, go to the city website, find the form, fill it out, and then we can talk.
That's all for this week. You know where to find me.