Lemmon's Vision: 1910

(updated at 6:10 P.M.)

City of Newcastle, WA -- Planning Commission meeting of January 16th, 2013

 

Planning Commission Leadership: "We Like the Bedroom Community Aspect, But We're Not Going There."

 

As the Planning Commission works on the new Comprehensive Plan for Newcastle, a state obligatory vision of the physical and economic development of a municipality that is set every 8 years, the commissioners discussed various aspects of their vision for Newcastle.  Former Planning Commission Chairman (but now just in the rank-and-file), Rob Lemmon, just about bowled over at least one other commissioner and N.P.R. with the astounding admission that he thought Newcastle was too urbanized and he firmly placed himself on the side of those in the community who thought Newcastle should go back to its bedroom community roots, as if the city was no longer a bedroom suburb.  Lemmon suggested that the small-town community aspect of Newcastle is what attracted a lot of Newcastlers to the city in the first place, and implied that he wasn't fond of all the apartments in the downtown core -- and one would have gotten the impression anyplace else in Newcastle.  Commissioner Tom Magers apparently disagreed with Lemmon as he didn't deny that he rolled his eyes at Lemmon's comments when Chairman John Drescher made this observation of Magers.  Drescher, himself, nonetheless, concurred with Lemmon's points, at least generally, as did Vice-Chairman, Allen Dauterman, but both suggested that reminiscing about a bedroom community was off-point, or as Dauterman put it, "diverges from the master plan."

 

Lemmon had earlier in the meeting gave his "vision" for Newcastle and questioned, in so many words, whether the vision of the founding fathers of incorporated Newcastle worked, and would people still want to live here had they been able to foresee what the future had wrought.  After Commissioner Karin Blakley pressed Lemmon to be more specific about what he was talking about, Lemmon seemed to suggest that apartments cast the biggest pall over Newcastle.  Lemmon's version of "1910" (more about the year 1910 a little later) seemed inconsistent with his statement that Newcastle needed more economic development for revenue purposes, but N.P.R. is not certain whether that was more a question than a statement, or perhaps both.  Magers counteracted Lemmon's comments in a jovial way by saying this isn't 1910.  Magers also said that Newcastle didn't really have a wide variety of small businesses, but is seeking a wide variety.  N.P.R. chuckled at Mager's reference to 1910, not the least because that's the year that the editor's late maternal grandmother was born.

Blakley asked, generally, whether we (Newcastle) wanted to attract more businesses or be more of a bedroom community, apparently not convinced that the bedroom community era was already a part of a bygone era, but there seemed to be no concensus among the commissioners of what the definition of "bedroom community" was, not that anybody attempted to give a flat-out definition.  If there was the slightest hint of a definition, it was that "bedroom community" meant low density and the fewer the apartments the better as opposed to high density and more economic development.  However, there seemed to be some tension as to whether low density and economic development could go hand-in-hand, and the indications at the meeting, especially by the leadership (Drescher and Dauterman), were that they could not, even though they seemed to wish that they could.

The comments by the Community Development Director, Tim McHarg, were about the development of a new school and the redevelopment of Mutual Materials (a brick plant), among other things.  McHarg seemed to think that both were coming along as planned -- no hitches.  Associate Planner, David Lee, spoke about the Comprehensive Plan Periodic Update.

Mayor Rich Crispo, who was in the audience, spoke from the public podium, and noted the difficult job that the Planning Commission had in relation to setting the Comprehensive Plan, but he cautioned the Commission to be ambiguous enough so that the Plan could adapt with the times, including the possibility that there could be a different Council than the present one in a couple of years.

Councilman Gordon Bissett, also speaking from the public podium, gave his "2 cents" about the bedroom community business, adding that Newcastle couldn't just do whatever they wanted in regards to housing, reminding the Commission that the city was once sued by the City of Renton for not providing enough affordable housing.

Council candidate, Mark Greene, also spoke, and said that he was dismayed by some of the comments at the meeting (referring to the bias against apartments expressed by Lemmon, and implied by others) and emphasized the word "city" in the City of Newcastle as opposed to a village.  Greene also expressed his vision of Newcastle as that of the city one day becoming a green energy center.

 

 

 

Tolling Pains

City of Newcastle, WA -- Council Meeting of January 15th, 2013

Mayor Rich Crispo said that tolling (charging drivers a fee for the use of a road) on major thoroughfares (like I-90) will be coming to pass and that this will be the wave of the future in paying for public transportation costs, and implying, especially so in states with no income tax, like Washington.  The mayor noted that the State of New York has a lot of tolling, but also has an income tax, and neither, acccording to him, brought much improvement of road infrastructure there, but the implication was that things could be worst.  Councilman Steve Buri started out the discussion on tolling by acknowledging that I-90 will probably be tolled in 2015 through the likely approval of the state and federal governments.  Highway 405 was also brought up in the overall discussion about roads and tolling, but it seemed that the Council believed there would be so-called HOT lanes on 405 rather than conventional tolling.  HOT lanes stands for high-occupancy tolls; an acronym for road fees that give single occupant vehicles access to high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes.

In other Council meeting news, a City of Bellevue official, Bruce Jensen, made a 20-minute-or-so presentation about the Coal Creek Culvert Replacement Project.  This and various Coal Creek Parkway road repairs are expected to slow down traffic on Coal Creek to some degree later this year, particularly when both projects are being done at the same time.  The culvert replacement project is expected to last from April to November.

The Council voted unanimously 5 - 0 (Deputy Mayor Lisa Jensen and Councilman Bill Erxleben were absent) to approve a Proclamation (of achievement) for Mandy Schendel of Newcastle, Miss Washington of 2012, and a 2013 Miss America contestant who was one of the Top 10 finalists.  Schendel won the Lifestyle and Fitness Award at the traditional event.

Council candidate, Mark Greene, spoke from the public podium twice:  firstly, he noted global warming and climate change as being one of the central crises of our era, and that the world community must take decisive steps to confront it.  Greene proposed a 3-person "Global Warming" committee to be appointed by the Council that would make suggestions on what Newcastle could do to tackle the problem.  The committee, which Greene said he would volunteer for if enacted, would make suggestions to the Council, which in turn would act on its own or submit plans to Governor-elect Inslee and the State Legislature.  Greene pointed out that the power of incrementalism could do a lot and implied that every community in the world had a part to play.  In his second trip to the public podium, Greene said that public officials had an obligation to study the health effects of wireless electronic (communications) infrastructure before implementing it willy-nilly, particularly in light of the Council's earlier discussion about a pending franchise agreement between the City of Newcastle and Zayo Group, LLC which relates to the installation of a fiber optic/telecommunications system.

Note:  Mark Greene is less concerned about health concerns regarding fiber optic installation than other types of wireless electronic communications infrastructure for various reasons which N.P.R. will discuss later.

[revised on 1/18/2013]

Update

N.P.R. mistakenly put an anti-environmental site in one of the links to the right side a few days ago, wrongly thinking that it was a pro-environmental site discussing global warming and climate change issues.  It was immediately removed when I realized the mistake.  A respectable site about global warming will be in its place, soon.  Human-induced climate change is real and one of the most important issues of the 21st century  -- somewhere in the Top 3.

Regarding outside links, in general, N.P.R. does not necessarily agree with the opinions in their content.

- by Mark Greene, Editor of N.P.R.

Long-Time Parks Commissioner Resigning

City of Newcastle, WA -- Parks Commission Meeting of January 9th, 2013:

(Updated:  Editor corrected spelling of the word "unanimous," among other grammatical changes or re-phrasing of sentences.)

Andrew Shelton, who has been on the Newcastle Parks Commission for 9 years, since the era that Newcastle was first incorporated, will be resigning (N.P.R. does not know when the resignation will take effect).  After Parks Chairwoman Diane Lewis announced his intended resignation, there was a round of applause in appreciation for Shelton's long years of service to the city from other commissioners and the sparsely attended audience.

Parks Manager Michael Holly discussed plans for a major and apparently county-managed pedestrian trail on the south side of I-90, among a number of other Parks issues mentioned in his initial comments, including a project by an Eagle Scout who is working on a more accessible pathway for Newcastle's historic cemetery (N.P.R. did not hear the name of the Scout who is doing this commendable work, if mentioned, but will seek to get his name at the next Parks meeting).

The main business of the Commission was discussing a work plan for 2013 that will eventually be presented to the Newcastle City Council.  The Commission, by a unanimous vote, approved a name change to a section of Highland Trails, as one of the two loops of Highland will be named Heritage in order to make a distinction between the two, and thus less confusion for travelers.  N.P.R. believes that the overall trail will still be named Highland, with two separate sub-names for the two loops, but will seek clarification of that change at the next Parks meeting.  They also approved a name change for Silven Creek Trail, to just Silven Trail, since there is not actually a "Silven Creek" in existence, although this trail is close to a creek that, presumably, goes by another name.  The vote to change that name was also unanimous.

The Parks Commission also voted, 6 - 1 (Craig Belcher dissenting), to change their start time for meetings to 6:15 P.M. (it had been 6:00 P.M.).  The change was made to give some commissioners a better chance to get from their day jobs to meetings during peak-time traffic.

Mark Greene, a council candidate, took to the public podium twice, and sought information about the restructuring plans announced by Mayor Rich Crispo at the last City Council meeting.  Chairwoman Lewis said that the restructuring concerned the inner workings of the Commission itself, including the possible admittance of some private organizations, including the Newcastle Historical Society, on the Commission through presumably their own representative or commissioner.  Lewis gave a short summary of what the restructuring may entail, but it appears that the details will be sketchy until the Newcastle City Council works out a plan (Mayor Rich Crispo, who was in the audience, had earlier said there would be a retreat of some kind.  Presumably, this retreat would be the foundation for the planned restructuring).  The Commission didn't appear to think that the restructuring -- largely to be implemented by the Council -- would entail any sort of privatization plans, although Lewis did say there had been discussions in the past about some homeowners' associations taking over some little parks, among other apparently minor privatization discussions. 

Park Commissioners in Attendance:  Chair Diane Lewis, Vice-Chair Angela Ursino, Craig Belcher, Koleen Morris, Peggy Price, Jesse Tam, and Andrew Shelton.

Mayor Reiterates Parks Restructuring Goal

City of Newcastle, WA -- Council Meeting of 1/2/13

COUNCIL'S PARKS PLANS SHROUDED IN MYSTERY

In yesterday's short Council Meeting, Mayor Rich Crispo discussed restructuring Newcastle's city parks, again, but similar to a previous meeting (11/7/12) in which this subject was brought up, there wasn't much specificity for the sparse audience at yesterday's meeting to grasp on to.  Apparently, the Council has some major plans in mind for the city's parks system, but they seem to be keeping them pretty close to the vest.  Going by the little that was said in the Nov. 7th meeting, this may have something to do with a plan for joint city and private management of one or more parks, if not outright disinvestiture of some parks by the city, but the plans are unclear at this stage.  The next Parks Commission meeting might shed some light.

In other Meeting news, Council candidate Mark Greene took to the public podium and proposed a 6:30 P.M. starting time for Council Meetings (currently they start at 7:00 P.M.) to make it more convenient for working people and the elderly to attend meetings, making the correlation between an earlier start time and getting home at a more suitable time at night. Also, Greene said that council meetings should not be held on election days, suggesting the preceding or succeeding day.  Additionally, Greene took differing views regarding Newcastle's new congressman, Adam Smith, who became the city's federal representative in the U.S. House of Representatives, today, as a result of re-districting and winning last year's not-very-close election (Newcastle is now in the 9th Congressional District, though previously in the 8th).  Smith has actually been in Congress since 1997 and has made some very bad votes (see a previous post in N.P.R. entitled "This Isn't Jimmy Stewart's 'Mr. Smith' ").  Greene pointed out some of Smith's worst votes at the Meeting.

The mayor adjourned this Meeting quickly and moved the entire Council to Executive Session to consider a litagatory matter.

[Revised on 1/5/13; initially, N.P.R. had mistakenly shown the wrong date of the Council Meeting in the subtitle, among other changes.]

Happy New Year

I wish the State of Washington and America, in general, a Happy New Year as we wind up the last few days of 2012!  A few words about my Council candidacy which officially started earlier this December: firstly, my main plank will be to keep Newcastle as Newcastle, and promising never to vote for merging Newcastle with another city as was practically proposed by Councilman Bill Erxleben at a September of '12 Council meeting.  Secondly, I am fairly sure that I will be the hardest campaigner of all the candidates this year, and my real campaign will start sometime in March (maybe in February if the weather cooperates), but I have already been getting signatures for my Council candidacy petition.  If you would like to sign my petition, please, send me an e-mail (address listed below). Thanks!

E-mail: Mark@partyofcommons.com

DONATIONS:  if you would like to take the poll to your right about making a pledge to Northern Pacific Report, remember to make your check out to "Mark Greene, N.P.R. Editor" and send to P.O. Box 612, Bellevue, WA 98009.

Copyright 2009 - 2012, Party of Commons TM

Oxymoron

Although, we take a lot of positions on "Commoner" that could be regarded as liberal (as well as conservative), we noticed that if anybody goes against the grain, as we often do, of one or more tenants of the liberal orthodoxy, then liberals can be very quick to assign a disreputable tag on someone or some idea, pretty much reflexively and without nuance.  Although, we are quite sure that they are quite aware of the anti-intellectualism involved with much of their intolerance to people who don't agree with them on everything, they will distort anyway, because they think it's good politics.  Not that conservatives don't do the same thing in regards to outliers from their philosophy, but it just seems like liberal intolerance and "know-nothingism" seems to be more noticeable, because liberals are suppose to be, well, liberal.  After all, the phrase "liberal intolerance" is kind of an oxymoron.

Originally published on Commoner under the title, "A Strictly Political Oxymoron," on Dec. 16th, 2012; revised on 12/29/12.