Kenmore Apathy vs. Kenmore Pride
Posted by the Kenmore Crow | Filed under Photo/Video, Politics | 2 Comments
Well, the election is over. Congratulations to Laurie Sperry, Alan Van Ness, and Bob Hensel on their elections.
I have to say though, I am disappointed in the apathy of Kenmore voters. According to King County Elections, Kenmore had a voter turnout of 53.4%.
Not only is this a lower turnout than the most recent comparable election in 2005 (56.7% turnout), but it’s even a lower raw number of voters! In 2005 6,831 voted, but in 2009 just 6,823 people voted, despite the fact that every single registered voter was mailed a ballot that they just had to fill out and drop in the mail (or drive down to Lake Forest Park). Pitiful!
But enough about that. Let’s abruptly change the subject.
I spotted this home somewhere up on the hill between 61st and 68th. It intrigued me.
Yes, that’s a City of Kenmore flag flying in front of that home. Where can you even buy a City of Kenmore flag?
Clearly this is someone that has a lot more allegiance to Kenmore than the average bear. I bet they voted.
Don’t Forget to Vote!
Posted by the Kenmore Crow | Filed under Politics | 2 Comments
Don’t forget: Tuesday is “Election Day” (a.k.a. – mail your ballot day).
Here in Kenmore three of our seven city council positions are up for election this year. In the primary, only 29.4% of Kenmore’s registered voters bothered to return their ballots. Flip that around: that means that over 70% of voters in Kenmore did not vote in the primary. I have to say, that is pretty pitiful, especially considering how easy it is to vote now that we have been forcibly switched to an all-mail system.
I’m not interested in making “recommendations” that allow you to abdicate your civic responsibility to make your own informed decision, but I will do what I can to help you get to that point for yourself. In order to help you make an informed decision on the two contested races for Kenmore City Council, here is a collection of relevant links.
- Previous posts on Eyes on Kenmore:
- Diane Brennan Responds to Our Questions
- Allan Van Ness Responds to Our Questions
- Bob Hensel Responds to Our Questions
- Laurie Sperry Responds to Our Questions
- Reflections on the City Council Candidate Forum
- Voter’s Pamphlet:
- Position 2 (Sperry vs. Brennan)
- Position 4 (Hensel)
- Position 6 (O’Brien vs. Van Ness)
- Campaign Websites:
- Laurie Sperry
- Diane Brennan
- Allan Van Ness
- Other Links:
- KBIN Election Links
- Bothell Reporter July 28 Article
- Bothell Reporter August 10 Article
- Bothell Reporter October 19 Article
- Bothell Reporter October 26 Article
- Patrick O’Brien on Kenmore Undressed
- Candidate Forum impressions on Kenmore Undressed
- O’Brien RE: New City Hall on Kenmore Undressed
Don’t forget that there is also a convenient King County ballot drop box located outside the lower entrance to Third Place Books just down the street in Lake Forest Park.
You have no excuse not to vote other than sheer laziness.
Tags: Allan Van Ness, Bob Hensel, city council, Diane Brennan, election, Laurie Sperry, Patrick O'Brien
An Impending Traffic and Parking Nightmare Brewing “Downtown”
Posted by the Kenmore Crow | Filed under Business | 5 Comments
On Saturday I noticed an interesting issue that I haven’t really heard anyone talking about in Kenmore, that is a bit of a problem right now and seems to be guaranteed to be a serious problem sometime in the future.
I’m reffering to the issue of parking for the James G. Murphy Co. auction house located on 68th Ave NE, just north of NE 182nd St.
Roughly once every three months or so James G. Murphy puts on a big auction at their Kenmore headquarters, complete with a major advertising push across the Seattle area. These auctions seem to usually primarily feature lots of cars, trucks, utility vehicles, boats, etc, which take up their entire fenced lot. Their advertising push always seems to be a success, with these quarterly auction events generating a large amount of interest from the deal-hungry buying public and drawing in hundreds of people from all across the Seattle area.
At around 11:00 in the morning yesterday I happened to pass down 68th avenue and 182nd street, and the scene was pretty chaotic. Cars and trucks stuffed into every possible spot (and then some) up and down both streets, lining the entirety of 182nd street and 68th avenue at least up to The Timbers apartment complex a quarter mile up the hill.
The following photos were taken at around 3:00, when—if you can believe it—much of the heavy traffic and parking overflow had actually died down.
Note that this overflow lining the streets is in addition to the completely packed former park & ride parking lot southwest of 68th and 182nd, which had the above-pictured sign indicating that it was the official parking area.
Already today the “downtown” Kenmore region is turned into a bit of a mess when James G. Murphy Co. has one of these big heavily-advertised auction events. But here’s a question that I can’t help wondering…
Where are all these James G. Murphy Co. auction attendees going to park once the Kenmore Village project finally gets off the ground and the ~350-spot former park & ride lot is no longer available?
I have a hard time imagining how the blocks surrounding James G. Murphy Co. will avoid degrading to complete mayhem once this occurs. Picture a traffic backup extending out onto SR-522 in both directions for the better part of the day and parked cars lining every street within a mile radius, crammed right up against residential and business entrances to the streets such that motorist visibility entering the road is virtually destroyed.
Does James G. Murphy Co. have a plan for this eventuality? Is the city working with James G. Murphy Co. to develop a workable plan for this situation before it completely cripples the city some Saturday in the future?
It seems like this is something more people should be talking about now, before the inevitable day of reckoning arrives.
Tags: central-kenmore, Kenmore Village, Murphy-Auction, parking, traffic
Repeated Flooding & Buck-Passing Screws Kenmore Condo Complex
Posted by the Kenmore Crow | Filed under News | 2 Comments
Goodness, what a mess. This is one crow that is glad not to live too close to a stream or creek in Kenmore. Look at what one group of local residents have been going through with a city-owned culvert that has been flooding their homes for years. Here’s a sampling of articles on the problem:
- KOMO News, December 2007: Failed culvert pumps mud into Kenmore homes
- KOMO News, September 2009: Kenmore residents: Battle flooding culvert with no help, sandbags?
- Kenmore Undressed, September 2009: Kenmore Homeowners Are Getting Stiffed – A $50,000 Flooding Problem
- Kenmore Reporter, October 2009: Kenmore residents, city dealing with another potential Wild Cliff Shores flooding problem
- Kenmore Undressed, October 2009: Flooding at Wild Cliff Shores – Three Years Later and Still No Answers
Here’s an excerpt from the Kenmore Reporter story:
Arroyo has video showing water flowing throughout his back yard, reaching roughly up to his knees. In this instance, the Northshore Fire Department came to the rescue, he said, showing up at 2 a.m. to help put sandbags along the creek.
Those sandbags are still in place and Arroyo said residents have come to look on them as sort of an insurance policy against the creek. But Arroyo said the subdivision now faces a new problem. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has stated the bags represent an illegal altering of a fish-bearing stream, and as such, they have to go.
Arroyo added, to further complicate things, the state has said that while the subdivision needs a permit to put up the sandbags, they also need one to take them down. Both permits cost money and, reportedly, neither is easily obtained.
In the long run, in order to keep the sandbags in place and possibly make other alterations to the creek such as removing silt build-up, Wild Cliff might have to do an environmental study with a price tag of $50,000 to $70,000, money Arroyo said the homeowners just don’t have.
UM… WHAT?
Welcome to Kenmore, Washington – a.k.a. Bizarro World.
Here’s a Bizarro World pop quiz.
Q: What do you get when you bring the City of Kenmore and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife together to solve a flooding problem that has been affecting homeowners for three years?
A: This:
“In an ideal world, with these studies, in the next year or two, there will be some solutions to the problems that affect us all.”
That’s a quote from Kenmore City Manager Frederick Stouder. In Stouder’s “ideal world” it takes four or five years to solve a repeated flooding issue that is causing significant property damage and costing people money over and over again.
I’m speechless.
Tags: central-kenmore, flooding, Kenmore-Undressed, KOMO, Real Estate, Stouder, weather
Kenmore Village Exodus Continues
Posted by the Kenmore Crow | Filed under Business | 2 Comments
As noted a few days ago over on Kenmore Blog.net, Kenmore’s branch of The Little Gym, currently located between the old Ostrom’s location and the Liquor Store in Kenmore Village, is leaving Kenmore for apparently greener pastures up in Lynnwood.
For those of you keeping score at home, the departure of The Little Gym in the next month or so will leave the commercial space (i.e. – not counting City Hall) in the city-owned Kenmore Village property over half empty, with five of nine storefronts vacant. By square footage, the commercial space will be just under half empty.
Businesses that have moved or gone out of business, leaving Kenmore Village in the last year or so include:
- Ostrom’s Drugs – drugstore – moved to 6414 NE Bothell Way
- The Little Gym – children’s gym – moving to Lynnwood
- Hidden Treasures – thrift store – closed
- Reign’s Realm – children’s clothing & supplies consignment store – closed
- Taco Guyamas – fast food mexican restaurant – closed
Here’s a map of Kenmore Village in its current state (click to enlarge):
Eventually as I have the time, I will be expanding this map to include all of Kenmore’s business zones. Your input is welcome.
Tags: Business, Kenmore Village, map
