Welcome back Ice Caves!

The Herald recently reported that the trail to the ice caves has re-opened with a brand-new bridge (The old-one had been washed out by flooding) (click here).

When someone says to me, “Where’s a good place to take a nice hike in the mountains?”
I immediately answer, “The ice caves, of course.”

The ice caves are located off of Granite Falls on the Mountain Loop Highway. It is a very short 1 mile trail with very modest elevation gains, so you can take anybody, including kids and folks who are in their 80’s like my mother and father-in-law, who went with me on August 2006, when I took these photos.

The ice caves are at the base of a mini-glacier that is formed from the snow that sloughs off huge granite cliffs. If you like pictures of beautiful waterfalls, this is the place to go, because they are everywhere.

The trip up to the view point is spectacular too. You are first treated to a forest where artists have carved faces into some of the fallen lumber. Then you cross a bridge over a large flowing creek, and then you are treated to beautiful meadows full of flowers, that would cause envy in the most seasoned gardener.

I would definitely recommend this hike to anyone. Go. You won’t regret it.

Priya Cloutier: Speaking of Casinos...

It’s been a week since I challenged Priya Cloutier to clarify her position on casinos in Edmonds.

So far, no answer. Priya has posted comments on this blog, so I know she monitors it.

Is Priya Cloutier refusing to side with the clear majority of citizens who oppose casinos in Edmonds?

Ron Wambolt joins the ESCA $1000 club.

Edmonds Shopping Center Associates (ESCA) just recently contributed $1000 to the re-election campaign of Edmonds City Councilman Ron Wambolt.

For those who forget, ESCA owns the Antique Mall Site, otherwise known as the “Old-Safeway Shopping Center” Site. They actively lobby for taller buildings on the waterfront. In one proposal, they wanted to build towers up to 10 stories tall.
In the past, Al Dykes (the head of ESCA) has tried to put a casino on that property. When the citizens of Edmonds signed an initiative petition banning casinos, his lawyers lobbied the city to take legal action to stop it. When the casino ban passed anyway, ESCA sued the city to have the ban tossed. Fortunately, the city won, and ESCA lost. (see State Court of Appeals Upholds Mini-Casino Ban)

It’s sad to see council members accept large contributions from a developer who is likely to come before them asking for zoning code changes that will likely improve the profitability of their development. It looks like a buy off.

Ron Wambolt becomes the third council member, along with Strom Peterson and DJ Wilson, to join the ESCA thousand dollar club. If these three council members vote to change ordinances on that site, how will the public ever believe those changes were done for the good of the city?

The Off Leash Area of Edmonds (O.L.A.E)

Imagine a park full of dog poop. Would you want to go there?

There was time that the Edmonds Off-leash area for dogs (located at the south end of Marina Beach) was like that. Citizens were growing tired of it.

But instead of pounding fists at the podium during the council meeting, this group of citizens decided to take matters into their own hands. They formed a non-profit organization called O.L.A.E, and began volunteering their own time to clean up the park for the benefit of the citizens. They also raised money to help support the park and educate dog owners on how to keep the park clean.

Now dogs and their owners have a better park to play in. Thanks to citizens who volunteered their own time to solve a community problem.

Their group has many active participants including council candidate Diane Buckshnis, who is one of their founding members and their current treasurer.

You can find their website at http://www.olae.org/.

Edmonds Beacon: Ron Wambolt defends shutting out the public

The Edmonds Beacon has given excellent coverage to a recent council decision to exclude the council and the public from land-use appeals.

George Murray criticizes the decision (click here).

Betty Larman rants over the decision (click here).

Diane Buckshnis points out the realities of the decision (click here).

Council member Ron Wambolt defends the decision (click here).

I debate Ron Wambolt over the decision (click here).

Rich Senderoff takes offense over the decision (click here).

Diane Buckshnis sums the effects of this decision up the best:

"City bureaucrats can now allow developers to waive shoreline environmental regulation, reduce setbacks, or even allow taller buildings and these issues would not be able to go to appeal to our elected officials. "

Senior Center Italian Dinner

My wife and I enjoyed a great Italian dinner at last Saturday’s fundraiser for the Senior Center. I wanted to give my complements to the chef’s and thank all the volunteers who put in their time. They also had a silent auction. I hope they raised a lot of money.

I couldn’t help but notice two of the volunteers: Adrienne Fraley-Monillas and Diane Buckshnis, who are both running for city council. I also noticed Councilman Michael Plunkett. Michael and I were amongst the diners giving Adrienne and Diane a good reason to volunteer. :-)

Priya Cloutier: Does Transit Oriented Development Mean Casino?

In her essay, “What Priya Cloutier Wants for Edmonds”, Priya Cloutier puts an emphasis on Transit Oriented Development.

When I hear “Transit Oriented Development” I think “Tall, Onerous, and Dense”, but I then decided to do some research. I scanned the web for some examples of Tall, Onerous and Dense developments, whoops, I mean Transit Oriented Developments. Here's what I found:

You can find the EAST 4TH STREET TRANSIT ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT CORRIDOR PLAN, complete with a casino (here)

The City of St. Louis is also considering T.O.D at http://www.cmt-stl.org/ISSUES/stltod.html
It not only has a Hotel-Casino, but it also has an RV Park!

Camden, New Jersey is considering a Transit Oriented Development at http://www.cherryhill-nj.com/economic/GoldenTriangle.asp. It has a Latin Casino and a race track.

San Fransisco is considering “Transit Oriented Development for All!” at http://communityinnovation.berkeley.edu/publications/GCCFramingPaper_FINAL.pdf.
Phase 1 includes a casino.

Hmm...

The word “Casino” and “Transit Oriented Development” appear together a lot!

So this begs the question,

Is Priya Cloutier using the phrase “Transit Oriented Development” to hide the fact that she is for casinos in Edmonds?

I have to wonder.

Priya Cloutier and Dave Orvis in the Beacon.

As an example of Al Hooper’s policy of allowing responses to criticisms, take a look at a recent exchange between Ms. Cloutier and I. (click here)

Thumbs up to Al Hooper

Whatever you think about Al Hooper, Al Hooper has guts, and I’m not talking about the kind that hangs over my belt. I am talking about real courage in the world of journalism.

An election is like a jury trial. The candidates are the plaintiffs, the public is the jury, but who’s the judge? Al Hooper tries his best to serve as the judge in his role as the editor for the Edmonds Beacon.

In a jury trial, the judge does not take sides. Instead, he guides the trial. He makes sure that both sides get their say and he also makes sure that both sides get to challenge the other. A good judge sees this adversarial system as the best way to air the truth. It may not be comfortable to watch, but truth trumps comfort.

When folks present their point of view, they tend to cast their view in the best light. When a point-of-view is challenged, one of two things happens: The point-of-view falls under the weight of the challenge, or it survives and becomes a stronger point-of-view. In short, challenge is a great tool to unearth truth.

Al Hooper is the only local editor who promotes challenge in his newspaper. When someone sends in a letter criticizing a candidate, Al Hooper e-mails the letter to that candidate and gives the candidate a chance to respond. By allowing a candidate to challenge his critic, truth has a better chance of getting into the minds of the public.

Critics go unchallenged in the Enterprise and Herald newspapers. When a candidate does respond, the response doesn’t go into the paper for a weak. Therefore, truth cannot come out as effectively.

Like a judge in a jury trial, Al Hooper also does not endorse candidates. He sees his job as getting the truth out. He let’s the public (the jury) make the decision. He also keeps his credibility that way.

The Herald editorial staff likes to play the role of jury not judge. They like to tell us who to vote for. And they put a whole lot of time into thinking about it too, NOT! Basically, they put all the candidates in one room, and then ask us a bunch of general questions. They detest challenge, which they brand as being “negative”, and they don’t investigate whether what is said by the candidate is actually true or not.

Fortunately, the Herald editorial staff has come out looking like fools for doing this. They have not picked a winner in a seriously contested race in the last two Edmonds City Council elections. If I were a candidate for council, I would do whatever I could to get the Herald to endorse my opponent.

Al Hooper has decided to buck the trends in journalism by staying out of the endorsement business and allowing criticism of candidates to be challenged. By playing the role of impartial judge in a jury trial, he makes the Edmonds Beacon truly shine for truth.

Correction: Presidential Primary Participation

In my last entry, I stated several candidates did not cast ballots in the Presidential Primary. Alas, I misread the auditor's data. I called the auditor yesterday and it turns out that ballots where folks did not specify a party preference weren't counted. So in fact, even you submitted a ballot, there would be no record that you voted if you did not specify a party preference on the outside the envelope.

This just goes to show you how screwed up the presidential primary is in Washington. The election is essentially a tax subsidized poll for the parties. I look forward to the day when the party's wake up and allow the voter's to choose all (or most) of their delegates to the conventions.

Fortunately, non of this affects the conclusion of the last entry.

Does Priya Cloutier REALLY "love" Edmonds?

Priya Cloutier emerged this year to challenge incumbent council member Michael Plunkett. Why? She says: "I love Edmonds."

As seasoned voters, we know that any political figure can say "I love Edmonds!" especially during their election. So how do we know Priya REALLY loves Edmonds?

Well, we can look at how she participates in Edmonds elections. The auditor provides a clear public record of when folks cast ballots. In fact, we can compare Priya's participation in local elections to all the other council candidates that are running and presumeably love Edmonds too.

Here are the results:

Priya failed to cast votes in five elections in her three years living in Edmonds.
Priya did not cast a ballot in the Emergency Medical Services Election on May 20, 2008. This ballot also included a school levy.
Priya did not cast a ballot in the Edmonds school levy election on February 7, 2006.
Priya did not cast ballots in two primary elections and one general election.

So how did the other candidates for city council fair during the same period:
Michael Plunkett and Al Rutledge have perfect voting records.
Diane Buckshnis, Ron Wambolt, Lora Petso, and Adrienne Fraley-Monillas missed the presidential primary. No doubt they were protesting how state parties refuse to allow all of their delegates to be selected by the citizens. I fault nobody for missing this so called election.
Strom Peterson and Lora Petso missed the school levy election on February 7, 2006.

As you can see, Priya Cloutier's voting record is the absolute worst. No other candidate for any position missed 5 elections! Priya Cloutier is also the only candidate for any position that blew off the election to fund our emergency medical services.

I believe Priya has decided to love Edmonds because she is running for city council, not because she REALLY loves Edmonds. I mean, how can you say you love "Edmonds" when you can't make the time to check a box for paramedics and EMT's? How can you say you love Edmonds when you won't cast a ballot for the schools that our kids need? How can you say you know what's good for Edmonds, when you blow off a primary to elect Edmonds officials? If this is her idea of love, wait until she gets on the council.