Joan McGilton, the Mayor of Burien, recently wrote an Op-Ed piece for the Seattle P-I, defending Washington’s congressional delegation and how it’s helped B-Town.
Since a lot of our readers have eschewed traditional media for online media, you may not have seen it.
So, as a favor to all BTB readers, here is Mayor Joan’s piece in its entirety, as it appeared in today’s edition:
Recent criticisms of earmarks that the Washington congressional delegation has secured are more than unfortunate — they are unfair. They mask the many positive results that our members of Congress deliver for us. Their efforts in the other Washington help communities throughout our state address many needs of our residents and businesses.
In our case, the city of Burien — with just 31,410 people — is working hard to recover from the loss of taxes caused by Sea-Tac Airport’s new third runway. Since airports are required to buy homes in runway flight paths because of noise and safety concerns, this removes properties from the tax rolls.
Additionally, our city — along with every other local jurisdiction in this state — suffers the effects of tax-cutting initiatives. With less money coming in, cities have less to spend on critical responsibilities such as public safety, streets, economic development, parks and environmental protection.
While our congressional delegation cannot secure funding for the hundreds of requests received, members always carefully weigh the merits of each and try to advance the most worthy ones. Fortunately for Burien and other communities, our delegation often succeeds in helping us, and we sincerely appreciate that.
Thanks to a few modest earmarks secured by Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and the rest of our delegation, Burien obtained funding for critical infrastructure for our Town Square project. In turn, that helped attract more than $100 million in private investment.
Without that help our bold vision of new downtown shops, housing, City Hall, regional library and a wonderful new park, and the hundreds of jobs associated with Burien’s “extreme makeover” would still be just a dream.
Other vital projects progressing thanks to congressional assistance include a new Metro transit center and a future transit-oriented development project in downtown Burien, plus improvements to the hazardous state Route 518/509 interchange in Burien and the widening of eastbound state Route 518 near the airport.
Furthermore, federal funding to save salmon has come to Puget Sound only because our delegation secures it every year, as this is never included in the current administration’s budget. Congressional assistance enabled Burien and our regional, state and federal partners to improve a portion of our city’s shoreline for salmon habitat, and we hope to restore our whole shoreline soon.
By getting projects ready to go, we have been able to work with our delegation to get the federal government to pitch in a bit. While we expect to continue to need their help, especially with our effort to revitalize the area next to the airport, eventually these investments will help us build up our local revenues and rely less on federal assistance.
We cannot imagine our city’s future had we not received the congressional assistance that led to our downtown redevelopment. If executive branch officials in D.C. were the only ones to decide how to spend federal funds, our lovely city — along with many others — would probably not see a dime of our residents’ taxes returned to help the community.
Joan McGilton is mayor of Burien.
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…and we have proof in this photo of our patented B-Town Blog Digital Weather Thingy®, taken at 2:34pm today in Three Tree Point, where it was probably a bit cooler than other ‘hoods:
The high at SeaTac Airport today was 90 degrees, and yes, we’re very proud that it was .3 degrees warmer at our place.
We hope everyone enjoyed this brief taste of summer. Tomorrow should be considerably cooler.
We now return you to your regularly-scheduled Spring…
TUKWILA – Another detective is being added to the Tukwila Police Department’s investigative unit to handle the recent outbreak of shootings, including the most recent one at Foster Golf Links last weekend.
The department plans to reassign a patrol supervisor with broad investigative experience to the 12-member detective unit. To fill that vacancy, Public Information Officer Mike Murphy will be reassigned from administrative duties to a squad car, Murphy said Wednesday.
Three people have been killed and two others wounded in the past three months in a city that generally sees one a homicide a year. The latest happened Sunday when two men were gunned down outside restaurant overlooking a city-owned golf course.
“We’re taking everything we can and throwing it at the problem,” Murphy said.
The sudden spike of violence couldn’t have happened at a worse time. This year, Tukwila has been celebrating its centennial anniversary with events promoting the city as a vibrant community with parks, urban trails, and regional venues beyond the Westfield Mall at Southcenter.
It has been frustrating for city leaders who invested about $500,000 in a yearlong calendar of promotions and public events, including community festivals, a soccer tournament, a culinary fair and a jazz concert by musician and former Tukwila resident Walt Wagner.
“We’re promoting all the positives of Tukwila and all the good things we have to offer and sometimes it seems like you’re treading up a waterfall,” said Mayor Jim Haggerton, who took office this year.
“But we’re not going to let them affect the positive things going on. We’re going full-steam ahead with our centennial plans,” he said.
Some neighborhood block watch groups have been concerned and Haggerton has assured them that recent incidents aren’t happening citywide.
Tukwila, referred to as the “crossroads” between Seattle, Sea-Tac Airport and South King County, boasts a population of about 18,000 that quadruples during the day. It is known for its regional shopping mall at Southcenter, which sits at the convergence of Interstates 5 and 405 just south of Seattle.
Police don’t see a pattern in the shootings, other than they’ve happened in public areas. The department might consider extra patrols or an emphasis detail if officers can isolate a factor in the violence. It’s not surprising that given Tukwila’s geography, rival groups from different areas might wind up confronting each other in the city, Murphy said.
“We’ve just been having chance meeting between rivals who have some sort of beef and it escalates to violence,” Murphy said. “There is no increase in the overall crime, just the severity of the crime that’s occurring.”
The recent cases under investigation include
- Devon Tramaine Guidry, 24, was killed Sunday outside Gordon’s on the Green, a restaurant overlooking Foster Golf Links. Guidry was one of two men shot during an argument after a jazz-style party attended by celebrities that included Gary Payton and Bruce Williams, who co-wrote a book on hip-hop artist and producer Dr. Dre.
- Rogers Jovan Ward, 24, was shot and killed March 15 during an argument in the 5700 block of South 152nd Street. Police have identified the suspect as Carlos W. Ellison III.
- A 21-year-old man was wounded March 12 in gunfire between several people outside the Southcenter mall. Police arrested two suspects who were later released.
- Allen Winston-Stewart, 24, was fatally shot in a car on Feb. 20 at South 116th Street near Tukwila International Boulevard.The recent cases represent the most violent cycle of city crime since Tukwila first annexed areas around the Pacific Highway in the 1990s and inherited the drug dealing and prostitution problems that came with the area, Murphy said.
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