June 2010

It's kind of difficult to understand the reasons people do what they do when we don't walk in their shoes or see the world through their eyes.

Born in Vietnam, Tran Quoc Tan, better known as "Lee," is a proud American citizen who takes the impact of immigration issues very seriously.

Readers may know Lee better as previous owner/operator of Burien's Sola Nails and his wife, Kim, as owner/operator of Des Moines Nails in QFC plaza. Children Nickolas, age eight, and Nathan, age six, complete their family.

Lee said he dreamed of having "freedom of speech, choice of political and religious preferences, and opportunity for education." Now an American citizen, Lee is pursuing a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Human Services at Highline Community College.

In a class essay he responded to Arizona Governor Jan Brewer's new immigration law.

Defending her new law to demonstrators at Capital Plaza, Governor Brewer said, "The law is another tool for our state to use as we work to solve a crisis we did not create and the federal government has refused to fix."

After fourteen years of cultivation, Barbara Walum's garden is ready for its close up. Walum's is one of five private gardens featured on the Highline Historical Society's June 12th Highline Garden Tour.

Before she began work on her garden, Walum recalled, the yard featured a single tree in a field of grass, but now "It's Shangri-La for us."

Aiming to evoke memories of her family members, she has placed items that remind her of her parents and grandparents in the garden, including ice skates and snow boots for her Norwegian relatives, her mother's washing machine, and her father's work boots, where plants grow.

"I feel, when I go in my yard, that my family is there," she said.

Her desire to live near the water has also influenced her landscaping choices, leading her to include a pond, stream and waterfall in the garden's design.

In addition, Walum has used ground covers to minimize weed growth, rendering her garden attractive and low-maintenance.

"I never get down on my hands and knees to weed," she noted.

As the midday sun shone over Tukwila's Museum of Flight, "Aluminum Overcast" took to the skies once again. A restored B-17 bomber that narrowly missed action in World War II, the plane was in Tukwila last week as part of its "Salute to Veterans" tour.

Aluminum Overcast tours the country with the Experimental Aviation Association (EAA), and the Cascade Warbirds chapter of the EAA.

For "Aluminum Overcast's" first flight from the museum, several World War II Air Corps veterans were on hand to discuss their flight experiences with reporters.

They included Bill Holloman III, a member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen. His training at Tuskegee began in 1942, and he entered combat in 1945.

"I like to say I ended the war," he quipped. Despite the brevity of his stint in Italy, he escorted numerous bombers and performed fighter sweeps and strafe emissions, flying primarily P-51's.

He noted that he had flown all of the fighters used in the area, and said that his favorite aircraft was "whichever I'm going to get to fly next."

Only 19 years old, he was among the youngest pilots serving in Italy at the time.

SeaTac lawmakers acted quickly May 25 to lessen chances that a facility for drug dependent or mentally ill people will be located in the city.

The "crisis diversion facilities" would temporarily treat people who otherwise would be headed for jail. The facility would not be a jail but the residents would be housed in secure rooms, principal planner Jack Dodge told council members.

Planning director Steve Butler said the facilities could be considered "transitional housing" under SeaTac's zoning code and be allowed in four zones.

By consent, lawmakers amended the zoning code to allow the facilities in only two zones-aviation business and industrial.

Butler said the facilities are considered "essential public services," so, by state law, the city cannot ban them. However, by restricting the zones where they can be located, the city can lessen the chances of receiving one.

He added that the facility would have to go through an elaborate permitting process before being approved.

A collective sigh of relief from Burien-area book lovers has mixed with the standard spring breezes of late as the news spreads that Burien Books will continue to operate under the ownership of Allison Lee-Moore.

Following the death of Virginia Pearce, who founded Burien Books and managed it for more than fifty years, Pearce's nephew Joe Wisen decided to place the shop on the market.

At the time, Wisen warned that he would have to close the bookshop if it did not sell quickly, in spite of its good reputation and loyal customer base.

Shortly after this announcement, Lee-Moore heard that Burien Books had been advertised on Craig's List. Lee-Moore had visited Burien Books regularly since the age of six, and its reasonable selling price allowed her to enter the book business.

"It was a dream that I never thought would be fulfilled," she said, noting that before the purchase she had been at loose ends in the poor job market, having just completed her master's degree in history at Western Washington University.

In Des Moines, we have an economic development person, Marion Yoshino, who works without compensation other than the good feeling that comes from reaching out to others less able to help themselves.

Marion has sent out surveys to each business, asking pertinent questions, which we can only hope that our city council members will show keen interest in. It can only be hoped for, here, that our council will give serious attention to the responses of this survey.

As a citizen of Des Moines, I refuse to believe that our council does not care about the lifeblood of our community; they just need to be told and as kindly as possible, what the business climate in Des Moines needs to be; not just to keep the present businesses, but to attract more investors to open in Des Moines.

Here is an update:

Dear traveler and local residents, please step out of your car and look in our windows, you will see: Two flagship restaurants, Anthony's Home Port, and Salty's at Redondo, a fleet of many smaller ones, such as Wally's Chowder House, Athens Pizza and Pasta, and the old standby, Des Moines Creek Restaurant.

The county government has budget issues that need to be resolved. However, many citizens have budget issues that are even more pressing.

I am in the construction industry and have personal contact with many construction workers, companies and suppliers. Often, these are self-employed people who do not show up in the unemployment numbers or do not qualify for unemployment benefits. They have been severely affected by the current economy. Their family budgets have been slashed and they are living on a fraction of their previous income.

On other hand, government is expanding and continuing to give pay raises to employees. The citizens cannot support a growing and more expensive government while they are forced to live on less.

I ask you to consider the thousands of unemployed and underemployed in our area and to not support any increase in taxation at this time.

We should focus on increasing efficiency in government and limiting government to the highest public priorities. It will take sacrifice from all of us to make it through this difficult period.

Daryl Tapio
City of SeaTac Planning Commissioner

Approximately three years after the first red light camera was installed in SeaTac, the automated red light enforcement system appears to be generating revenue and deterring traffic violations at intersections.

Recent reports that Burien's system of red light cameras has not collected enough revenue from fines to cover the cost the camera
service, provided by Redflex, have raised questions about the financial benefits of intersection monitoring in adjacent cities.

In 2009, SeaTac's three red light cameras cost the city $153,827.18, and the city collected $206,507.18 in fines from violators, producing a net gain of $52,680 according to SeaTac Court Administrator Mary Pederson.

During the first four months of 2010, the city collected $69,245.61 in fines and paid $59,573.52, for a net gain of $9,672.09.

Pederson noted that the city has been taking in "considerably less" in recent months than it was at the start of the program.

"I absolutely believe we've had a lessening of violations," said Police Chief James Graddon.

The online dictionary Wikipedia defines philanthropy as "the effort or inclination to increase the well-being of humankind, as by charitable aid or donations."

In more common language, this usually means contributing to an organization through time, talent or treasure.

The 550 students of Marvista Elementary School in Normandy Park, then, can certainly be called extraordinary philanthropists for their recent donation of $700 to Highline Medical Center's new Emergency Room and Patient Care Unit.

At the beginning of the school year, students began a penny drive. The Totally Awesome Penny People (T.A.P.P.) collected 30 25-pound bags of pennies from students, neighbors, friends and families.

The entire school became involved in deciding which worthy causes should receive the donations, and then a group of 5th and 6th grade students narrowed down the decision and made the final choices.

On May 17 at an all-school assembly, the students presented a $300 check to Union Gospel Mission and a $700 check to Highline Medical Center.

Accepting the check was CEO Mark Benedum, whose own sons are Marvista Elementary alumni and ER physician Dr. Kimberly Yeargin.

Back in 1990, the Food and Drug Administration required major food producers to label their packages with calorie, fat, carbohydrate, and other nutritional information.

For many of us, this changed the way we bought groceries. In fact, studies show that 75 percent of people read these labels and, of them, 61 percent changed their purchases based on the information they read.

Fast forward to 2007. Knowing that nearly 30 percent of meals are now eaten outside the home, public health experts began to ask: "If labeling packages changes food purchases, could people improve their eating habits at restaurants by having access to nutritional information on menus?"

That is what the King County Board of Health intended to find out when, nearly 3 years ago, we became the second governing body in the country to pass legislation that would require chain restaurants to label menus with nutrition information.

Earlier this year, President Obama signed the health care reform legislation into law, which includes the expansion of menu labeling throughout the nation.