Spotted Owls Don't Live in Mukilteo, Silly

So it's T-13 days until I donate all this hair. It took about 2 years to grow out all of the sun, color, and swimming damage, and I decided my birthday would be the best day to give it away. Some lucky little girl is going to get a wig full of thick, curls, and I'll quit accidentally pulling my hair in random ways.

In sad community news, the Everett Symphony played its last concert at the Everett Civic Auditorium last night, and said goodbye to Dr. Cobbs after over 30 years. I thought I was a good trumpet player until Dr. Cobbs placed me at 2nd trumpet in the Youth Symphony, but he turned us all into musicians. Unfortunately, I had to work last night and missed the concert.

The Symphony said they are going to restructure, and come back in the next 2 years at a different venue, and with new musician contracts. That just means it will be in a smaller venue, and a lot of the good musicians who expect to be paid well will leave. And, of course, no Dr. Cobbs to lead. They didn't mention the fate of the Youth Symphony either.

Speaking of the Youth Symphony, my visit to Kamiak HS (where we used to practice) last week was very entertaining. Aside from the many times I was hushed in the visitor's balcony during a US Senate session, I had only gone to one public meeting in my life. The Paine Field Public Hearing was an absolute hoot, and not boring at all, like I expected.

Over 500 people showed up, and the mediator actually threatened to kick all of us out 6 times while I was there. Of course, I was absolutely silent after the old fellow sitting next to me told me not to mention to anyone else that I was from Arlington. Apparently, the Mukilteo residents think that commercial service should be added to the rinky-dink Arlington airport instead of Paine Field where they already have a full 747 capable runway. I was polite though, and didn't laugh everytime I heard someone say the service should be added to Arlington, but NIMBY's don't think with common sense.

I do have to say that the way the FAA and the airport ran the process was very arcaeic. First of all, they hired a firm from Oklahoma to do the EIS, which even the thought of an Okie pisses off PNW yuppies. They sat on the stage and looked down at the public commenters, and at times, I swear some of them were texting instead of listening. The firm's presentation was very one-sided, and even though I understand they are trying to move the process along quickly, I'm afraid that having every conclusion as, "no significant impact," when there are obvious schools, parks and stores in the airport vacintity, is just asking for a fight.

One guy did crack me up, though. He tried to claim that he recorded the hoot of a spotted owl in the half-acre wooded plot behind his home. In Mukilteo? On a half-acre without old growth? Hahahahahahahahahaha. Sorry, that's what I felt like doing in the middle of his 3 minute comment. Some people don't realize how much they can hurt their cause when they try to use science they don't understand.

After his endangered species claim, the crowd erupted in applause and shouts, and was one of the many times the moderator threatened to clear the room. What I don't understand is why they are fighting the wrong battle. Everyone knows that the county can't stop the service because it's against Federal Law to ban commercial flights from an airport deemed essential by the FAA. Why aren't these residents demanding pollution fees from Horizon and Allegient? Why are they not fighting for quieter jet technology, and cleaner fuels? Don't stall growth - demand smart growth, and we just may get somewhere.

Flying High on NIMBY Drama

Tonight I am headed to Kamiak High School in Mukilteo for research on my term project in Planning. The FAA and SnoCo are holding their 3rd and final public comments hearing regarding commercial service at Paine Field. The last two meetings have been heated with dozens of NIMBY's booing those who support adding commercial flights to the airport.

In the Environmental Planning world, a NIMBY is someone who opposes a public project on the Not In My Back Yard argument. During some of my research today, I scrolled down the HeraldNet airport story to read some of the comments and found a gem:

N(aive)
I(nsular)
M(ukilteo)
B(ombastic)
Y(uppies)

Tonight's going to be a dramatic showdown. I can't wait.

Planning on Networking

I have officially hit this quarter full speed ahead. I've decided to use the Paine Field dispute in Mukilteo as my term project in both my Environmental Dispute Resolution class and my Intro to Planning class. That means, I have to attend the public hearing on the 21st, which fits into another Planning assignment which is to attend a Planning meeting or public hearing.

Basically, the FAA wants to extend limited commercial flights into and out of Paine Field which is currently charter and Boeing test flights only. Of course, the county officials and Mukilteo citizens are steaming mad. I'm most interested in how they think they are going to control both commercial air and ferry service off of SR527 and Mukilteo Blvd. more than the environmental impact of extended service.

Tomorrow morning, I'm driving to Willis Tucker Park in Snohomish to interview Chris Mueller, one of the Senior Park Planners for SnoCo Parks. I've got 16 questions ready to go, and 4 more follow-up questions for yet another Planning assignment. And on the 26th, I have an interview with the US Forest Service for an internship to job program. If it requires regional transfer, though, I won't be able to take a job with them. I'm excited to make all the new contacts though!

Feeling Better and Planning Plans

It's been a while since I've posted, but I had to kick an amazingly awful sinus infection, while somehow making it through all my shifts at work. This also resulted in the worst headache and lamest New Years Eve ever, but I feel much better now that I've finished my second antibiotic. I took the youngest to the clinic yesterday, and requested a z-pack for him, too. He seems to be kicking it now as well. The one good thing about being sick is that I was able to get through 300+ pages of my new Steven King novel, "Under the Dome," and it is turning out to be a classic King page-turner. I'm sad I have to put it aside for school now.

I've been to two of my three classes this quarter, and am going to the third tonight. On Mondays I have Environmental Dispute Resolution, which looks interesting, if he can keep us on topic. Monday night's class continued the complaints from certain Poulsbo students (who are in their 50's and going for their second Bachelor's mind you) about the Discussion Board on Blackboard from last quarter. Our class is in a much smaller teleconference room this quarter, so we had some complaints of our own about those students with our mute button on. Hopefully the park ranger can reign things in next week.

Last night I attended my Environmental Economics class with the great surprise of an on-campus professor! Dr. Burke lives in Bellingham, so she'll be at our campus most of the quarter. And while we silently deal with the technology snafus with the professors on the other campuses, those campuses had nothing but complaints last night about our technology issues. Other than that, we had a great review of Microeconomics, which I remembered all of thanks to the most awesome Professor Hu.

I'm really interested in learning how to place dollar value on non-market items such as clean air and water, so I can help the Darrington town council clean up our dirty air reputation. It's too beautiful around here to have the status of the dirtiest air in the state! I think Dr. Burke will do a great job getting us to that point. She reminds me of Dr. Pape, my Biology professor and advisor at EvCC.

A lot of younger people didn't like her, and didn't do well in her class, but if you already had a good work ethic, you could learn a lot from her and the class. She inspired me to continue my original Environmental Science degree and scrap pharmacy. I am so happy that I did, because that led me to Environmental Planning and Policy. Tonight is Intro to Planning with another one of my first quarter professors, Gail, and once again she has blessed us with not requiring a text book and posting all of her lecture power points. We love you Gail!

The Great Cat Wars seem to be easing up at our house, and both new cats are easing into their new homes, while our three other cats seem to be comfortable around them, at times. The youngest's cat, which he has named Meg, seems to be growing her fur back. She had shed a lot at the shelter. And the old grandma cat we adopted (which already had the boy name of Teddie), no longer primarily dwells under our bed. She can use her front legs to climb up to many places, and seems to be able to get away from the little devil-dog just fine.

Juggling our schedules should be interesting for this month as all three kids are playing basketball, and I'm back at school. So forgive me beforehand if I forget something, the calendar looks like a clusterbomb hit it.