The things you can discover about government and politics while heading somewhere else. It all began, as perhaps most fairytales do – and dreams of quick riches for that matter – with a ‘once upon a time’ opening line.
To Know
Letter: Rental inspection referendum – death by delay?
Just hours ago, December 2, 2016, the deadline passed by which the City of Lakewood promised to provide answers to a Public Disclosure Request concerning possible communication goings-on behind closed doors pertaining to the controversial Rental Housing Safety Program.
Letter: Mr. Yuk no more, marijuana gets a new look
Now that recreational marijuana has been legal in the State of Washington since 2012, four years later there’s a “Not for Kids Warning Symbol” that will be available in a couple months. Why it took so long to create a sticker “three-quarters of an inch in height by one-half of an inch in width” would […]
Letter: Rental Inspection update – mandatory cooking classes?
Faulty circuits appear to be far less the cause of fires in Lakewood apartments as faulty cooks. Perhaps mandatory cooking classes would be in order?
Westside Story – Help Wanted
Last evening, needing a can of spray texture for some sheetrock repairs, I headed over to my favorite locally owned, Lakewood Hardware. Originally I wrote this first sentence as “I headed on down”. That made no sense because my house and Lakewood Hardware are both 262 feet above sea level. Really. I checked it out. […]
Letter: In lieu of Rental Inspection, what might have been
Lakewood had opportunity to institute a “robust tenant/landlord outreach educational program” in lieu of the onerous Ordinance No. 644 that mandates inspections on-and-in rental properties. Ironically, ‘robust’ means “straightforward and imbued with common sense.”
Letter: Two extremes – the haves and the homeless have-nots
As we enter this season of Thanksgiving baskets and Christmas presents; bell-ringers and heart-string pullers; card-board sign displayers and more rain and cold nights under a tarp or park bench, what does true help to the homeless look like?
Letter: Marijuana – coming to a city near you
Buckley buckled; Bonny Lake has sprung a leak; UP wants MJ, Tacoma is already in the tank so any bets Lakewood will for long lag behind? “Lured,” is the word John Gillie used in his November 6, 2016 headline in the Tacoma News Tribune: “Bonney Lake joins Pierce cities lured by marijuana tax revenue.”
Letter: Beating the living daylights (Daylight Saving Time, and rental inspection in contrast)
“Reducing demand for expensive wax candles,” wrote Ben Franklin in an April 26, 1784 essay entitled“An Economical Project”, was reason enough to save daylight by simply moving the hands of the clock. And it was with that pronouncement, upon which the American delegate to Paris pontificated whimsically at length, that over two centuries later nations […]