On the Mayor's Mind
Sunday, October 19, 2014
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| Shoreline Mayor Shari Winstead |
October 20, 2014
Shoreline has come a long way in almost 20 years of being a City. While I didn’t grow up here like many of my friends, I’ve lived here for most of my life. It’s fun to unintentionally explore the City sometimes, and just notice the difference in our neighborhoods and our city.
After a week of fighting a bad cold in our home, we decided to treat ourselves to Grinders’ sandwiches on Friday night. We all know that means navigating the Aurora Avenue construction, but I took a minute to plan the easiest, safest route, and it wasn’t too bad.
In fact it was fun to see the progress on Aurora. Before we know it, construction will move to the east side. When I went into Grinders, I noticed their sign indicating they had opened in “2004”. Grinders has been open for 10 years? Wow. That was a fast 10 years.
As I waited for our sandwiches, I thought about businesses in Shoreline that had come or gone, or still around after many years. We really have a lot of great, handy businesses in Shoreline. Not just Costco and Home Depot, but Aurora Rents, Highland Ice Arena (that we frequented more often when our kids were young), Jersey’s (another great Shoreline secret, with the best weekend breakfast in town) and of course the former Top Foods property, soon to be home to a Trader Joe’s.
Most of us remember what that site looked like before Top Foods bought and renovated it - a dilapidated, graffiti covered old building. It was quite a (wonderful) transformation when the building changed ownership, and just as much of a disappointment when it closed. But now, we are looking forward to a new business, new life in the building and neighborhood.
Hopefully some smart businessperson will take advantage of having Trader Joe’s as an anchor tenant, and jump on the possibility of success by opening a cafe, coffee house or some other great store in the same building.
We spent the second part of Sunday walking off a disappointing Seahawks game but enjoying the glorious weather down at Richmond Beach. We even saw a kite-boarder take off and surf the beautiful shoreline, with the sun sparkling on the water. 71 degrees on October 19, a brisk wind in the air.
You can’t help but love the Pacific Northwest, and for me, the city I moved to for the school district, some 23 years ago, that wasn’t just home to me, but a place I was proud of.
Shoreline has challenges, most of them involving change of some kind, most of them uncomfortable, and, without a doubt, to some degree, scary. The only comfort in facing all the changes is knowing that the only constant in life is change. We’ve certainly seen our share of it over 20 years, and the next 20 years will bring even more change. I hope you will join me in being a positive part of change. Check out the city’s homepage, read the Shoreline Area News, attend your neighborhood association meetings. Knowledge is, after all, power.
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16 comments:
OMG, not another "We'll hold your hand for the change" speech.
"One of the strongest factors of social stability is the inertness, nay, rather active hostility, with which human societies receive all new ideas. It is the crucible in which the dross is separated from the genuine metal, and which saves the body-social from a succession of unprofitable and possibly injurious experimental variations." --Karl Pearson, The Grammar of Science.
So what does that mean? It means walk softly and carry a big eraser.
@2:13 am “Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play.” ------ Joseph Goebbels (you-know-who's you-know-what)
Jersey's has the best weekend breakfast in town? I guess you never go to Lena's then.
But you should rewrite your sentence - Jersey's has a great weekend breakfast FOR NOW. And why is that? Because Shoreline is NOT open for business, the City plans on tearing down Jersey's and the oil change business for a fortress-like garage for the police department that will cost at least $5 million. When is the City PR machine going to start braying about that?
Wow... had no idea about Jersey's but I had heard about Grease Monkey being eminent domained. Doesn't it make more sense to build the police department in one of the run down lots on Aurora on a higher crime block? Kill two birds with one stone, instead of ruining existing businesses and causing the loss of jobs. Shame on you, Shoreline.
Does Trader Joes know?
I don't know where you were coming from, but for those of us from the south, getting into Grinders is a frustrating experience. Did you notice that, if you are driving northbound on Aurora, you can no longer turn left into Grinders or Bucky's, as the two way left turn lane has been eliminated? There is no way to turn left on 199th, and enter Grinders from that street, because the entrance on 199th has been eliminated. U-turns, though plentiful on Aurora, are not allowed at 199th or 200th, so one must drive all the way to 205th, make a U-turn and go back down Aurora to access Grinders, which now has two entrances on Aurora, neither accessible from the south. This is far from the easy entrance you speak of. Places on Aurora, like Grinders, do not get walk in traffic. There is nowhere TO walk on that section of Aurora, in fact. Grinders gets traffic from the surrounding neighborhoods and cities. Many people come from Seattle, and even farther south to Grinders. It's the star of Shoreline, with reviews in many magazines, including Sunset. And yet, it's being driven out of business by the poor decisions of whoever is responsible for the Aurora construction debacle. Not only is there no northbound access, the heavy machinery and portajohns parked out front make it look closed, even though it's not. I would think that Shoreline would be doing more (read anything) to help businesses like Grinders stay afloat during this construction, instead of wanting to charge them for additional access signs. Until some kind of effort is made at mitigation for the businesses suffering, any attempt at painting a rosy picture of the construction is, at the very least, sadly misinformed and misleading.
The city doesn't have to use eminent domain on Jersey's, it already owns the real estate. People need to pay more attention to the less than fully disclosed plans the city staff slides across to the city council for approval, if you look at the site plan superimposed onto the aerial GIS, there are four houses to the east that are also identified for eminent domain acquisition for the police garage but never mentioned in the oral and written reports from the city staff.
are you serious about the impact on the businesses on Aurora like Grinders??? Just because you named them in you 'speech' doesn't make their business any better!!!I was actually driving to, or should I say attempting to, drive to Costco on what used to be 'easier' access. I looked over at grinders and noticed that their parking is even more limited than before? are you TRYING to kill the business you say support??? Really?? I mean as a disabled driver when they close the streets between Aurora and the ones directly behind them you have no way to get there if you are coming from the south OR the west!!! I had to take a 10 min detour two weeks ago to get to Costco's gas station!!! Seriously!!! That's not the only area of issue in our city. You spoke of Richmond Beach. have you walked the sidewalks we paid for there? oh wait that's right there isn't any south of The Little store.. or at lest only bits and pieces. that were paid for twice by home owners that either put up new homes after older ones were razzed or remodeled. Then there is the intersection by the nursing home. you ever try to cross that with a disabled person?? you're lucky if you don't get run over. There isn't enough room to get between the light post and the bus stop if you are in a wheelchair or power wheelchair, and barely enough room if you use a walker (if you are on the south sidewalk as you are headed up the east side of the street.) I have a client that crosses the middle of the street by our second driveway to a neibouring driveway because she feels safer than in the cross walk!! what the what? ON and the other side (north side going east) there is the same problem with light pols in the middle of the sidewalk making it difficult for folks in power or manual wheelchair to navigate and those with walkers too. God forbid it snows and you use a cane like I do!!! almost killed myself trying to get down the hill when busses, even Access, stopped going down the hill and I had to walk. At least the first half had sidewalks, the rest in RB nope! it was a hope and pray I make it down safely walk!
I really don't know where you are coming from. making 99 'look good' is more important that safety of those clients in wheelchairs and walkers. Sad. Same with no financial reimbursement for the bushiness you have impacted on 99 for a project that should have been long done by now. Shame on the city! Truly. Shame.
The change of the city of Shoreline gets worse every single day. Even a good 9 years before finally becoming an official city the Shoreline High School closed it's doors and the troubles began.
City renevates Shorecrest High School twice....before even going to think about renovating Shorewood HIgh School or any other middle or grade school that seriously needed upgrades.
The Shoreline Stadium was renovated, again...twice-the second time to the tune of $5+million dollars that the Shoreline Residents were stuck paying for. Why do high school athletes need Olympic track and college or pro professional sports astroturf to compete on? Really?
This city tears down family business trying to make an honest buck with TRUE and honest people who work 12-18 hours per day, just to feed their families. City workers push paperwork and make our neighborhoods unsafe to live in. They don't pay attention to anything anymore. i grew up in this city before it became Shoreline. Now all I see are cops constantly racing down 185th, aurora, and other side streets at 50-60 MPH with no lights or sirens on, just trying to get stop lights to change so they can go to 7-11 and get coffee and a donut. I hope the current mayor takes some notes on a lot of former people on city council who ran this city into the ground. Mainly Connie King!
The path to tomorrow starts here, today. Instead of being a "positive part of change," be a part of positive change. Dump the one with the Pollyanna façade and here little cohorts, too. Let your voice be heard,
"The only comfort in facing all the changes is knowing that the only constant in life is change. We’ve certainly seen our share of it over 20 years, and the next 20 years will bring even more change. I hope you will join me in being a positive part of change."
This mantra sure will be comforting to those who's businesses are being run into the ground. Don't get mad, angry or frustrated, just close your eyes, take deep breaths, repeat this 10 times, click your heels together, and everything will be okay!
Same to all of you negative nancys in the station areas! Memorize these wise words now for when you're woken up at 7am with revelopment destruction and construction noise 7 days a week, for when you're sitting in worsening traffic around Shoreline, for when you're a victim of crime, for when the tall trees in your neighborhood are replaced by tall buildings.
Grinders?! What happened to your Healthy City Strategy? Or does one side chow down comfort food while the other side pontificates?
Democrats control every major city and are ruining the country. In 1961 Detroit was the richest city per capita in the United States. Then they elected a Democrat mayor, and ushered in 50 years of Democrat anti-business rule. With their market paralyzing policies, they chased all business out of Detroit, culminating in the city's bankruptcy last year with $18 billion in debt.
The City of Shoreline is headed down the exact same path with its all-Democrat City Council, backed by an all-Democrat district in Olympia. The Democrats have had the helm long enough. They aren't helping. They are hindering. Grinders is just the latest victim.
@7:06 PM You nailed it. The City of Shoreline (all government for that matter) has never made a dime, but they have perfected how to take them.
Thank you, Mayor Winstead, for helping our cause. Though unintentional on your part, your words and demeanor, as you can see, have only served to rub raw the community's sores of discontent. And through that rawness will come an eventual end to that regime to which you play a small, self-important, supporting role. Keep up the good work!
No matter what someone's political leanings may be, the poor decisions being made by the City concern everyone. I lean more toward the liberal end of the spectrum, but hate to see these ideals abused to screw over regular folks like the small business owners of Grinders, who have become a community asset through hard work, bringing patrons in from outside Shoreline (hello!), and who also support local musicians.
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