Public Hearing on Coal Creek Pkwy Closure in Renton

The City of Renton will be holding a public hearing on December 3rd, 2007, at 7:00 pm, to discuss closure of Duvall Ave. NE/ Coal Creek Parkway SE, from NE Sunset Blvd. to SE 95th Way, for a 13-month period beginning in February 2008. The proposed closure is not within the City of Newcastle, however the meeting is open to the general public. All interested parties are invited to attend the hearing and present written or oral comments regarding the proposal.

Public Hearing Location
Renton City Hall
1055 S. Grady Way
Renton, WA 98055

For more information about the hearing contact the City of Renton at 425-430-6510.

Welcome New Councilmembers

It looks at this point to be concluded that your City Council will be staffed by the following people this January:

• Ben Varon
• Jean Garber
• Dan Hubbell
• Lisa Jensen
• Carol Simpson
• Steve Buri
• Sonny Putter

First I would like to extend thanks to all of the candidates who ran for office this year as I have an appreciation for the time and dedication it takes to run a campaign. And second, a word of congratulations and welcome to our newest members. Lisa, Carol and Steve may be new to the position but are all involved and knowledgeable of local issues and should be able to quickly fit into their new roles.

I would also like to note that I think it speaks volumes about our community to have such a diverse and young council. I find it very impressive that we will have three women seated on our council of seven.

And lastly I would personally like to thank Pam Lee and John Dulcich who will be leaving their seats in December. Both Pam and John have been members of the Newcastle City Council since the city was incorporated and have spent a good amount of their personal time serving the members of this community. It has been an honor to serve with both of them in my short tenure. John is the person who gave me the opportunity to serve on the planning commission years ago when I first expressed interest. Without his support and mentor ship I would not be involved in the way I am today. And for that I am thankful.

Looking Beyond "Want"

In business we typically don't ask customers what they want, rather we ask them what problems they have and as business leaders we try to find or create a product(s) that meets that need. As an example, if you asked a group of consumers in the 90's about what kind of portable electronic device they "wanted" the answer would have been a CD player that didn't skip. Focus group after focus group proved consumers wanted CD players as their preferred media device. But the real answer was in the fact that they actually wanted something that didn't skip, but most consumers couldn't look past the form factor of the CD so that is what they asked for. Then, Apple introduced the iPod. Consumers hadn't asked for an iPod but all of a sudden a new product solved the issues they had with the old technology. If Apple had really listened to the consumer they would not have been an innovator, and arguably would have never solved the problem consumers really had.

So how does this philosophy relate to being a council member. The answer is simply that I must look at my job as a councilman in a similar way. It is my job to listen beyond the specifics of what residents ask for and to actually figure out what problems they need solved. Presumably I was elected by you because you had faith in my ability to do this. For example, the city is commonly asked to install speed bumps on local streets. But really what is being asked is for the city to slow down traffic. Speed bumps happen to be one way to solve this problem but there are many other more effective solutions that most folks don't even know of. And arguably the most effective and innovative of those ideas probably hasn't even been thought of. Leadership is about finding opportunity (eg. problems) and determining the best course of action to solve those problems. Sometimes this approach requires change, uncertainty, and risk. These of course are all things we as a society are generally trained to be averse to.

Newcastle Library Concept

This is the most recent conceptual drawing of the Newcastle Library. I am told that this represents appox. 90% design, so while some minor changes may happen, this is a fairly close appoximation to what the actually library will look like. The viewpoint is from the opposite sidewalk near the entrance to Apple Physical Therapy.

Windtree Park November Update

Advertisement for Windtree Park construction has been published. Contractor bids are due on Nov. 23rd I believe. After which the council will decide how to proceede, presumably in December.