The Urban Dictionary defines the political silly season as:
In politics, the time, especially just before the election, when undeliverable promises and wild accusations are the order of the day.
We just endured months of obnoxious blogs, letters, signs, and grandstanding with the Metropolitan Park District. Get ready for months of more of the same. Yes, all the way to November. Last week candidates for mayor and council tossed their hats into the ring. Bitter, angry people will write rambling rants with no offers of solutions. The park board will get missives. Innocent citizens who are no longer officials, board members or commissioners will be attacked without muttering a word about an issue or candidate. Those wearing rose colored glasses will come along thinking they are going to turn the city upside down with their ideas. Those currently sitting officials will run again for some unknown reason. It’s kind of like walking under a flock of seagulls. Somebody is going to get should on. You know, you should have done this or you should do that.
According to Wikipedia, the term silly season was coined in an 1861 Saturday Review article, and was listed in the second edition of Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1894) and remains in use at the start of the 21st century.
So you see this is not a phenomenon unique to Bonney Lake. Like the gnomes, it happens other places and in other times.
My predictions:
1. Bonney Lake will not have a community center or a YMCA. Two days after the MPD was soundly defeated, Sumner and the YMCA announced moving away from the Orton Junction location and building on a number of parcels, one of which is property owned by a Bonney Lake resident, in Sumner. Instead of the two smaller complimentary facilities in Sumner and Bonney Lake, Sumner is looking to build a full size facility. Now, Monday is usually council meeting day in Sumner, but they held a special meeting on Friday, April 26, to approve the new deal with the YMCA. Mayor (Dave) Enslow told me at the March Community Summit, Sumner is a community willing to fund projects like the Y, and Bonney Lake isn’t. And he is right. However, the developer of Orton Junction has sued the city of Sumner to block its efforts to sell the golf course that will fund the Y and the new Y location.
2. The city will continue to be known for its explosive growth that took place over the last 20 years at the expense of parks and open space. And the population will continue to increase with multi-family developments and dense residential projects starting up. Yes, the Great Recession is over. Take a look at permits, housing starts and home sales. It is a seller’s market. Thought you were underwater? Better check again. And then there is the CUGA south of the city. We are a city of about 17,000 now; when the CUGA annexes into the city, the population will double by 2025.
3. Pro-development candidates and incumbents have no desire for parks and will not lobby for them as part of development. A pocket or mini or neighborhood park cannot meet the needs of a community center, sports complex or trail, all of which are lacking in the city. How about developers banking fees to pay for projects on or off their parcels in lieu of a small HOA park? Instead of requesting an HOA park of ½ acre to 10 acres, how about paying into a park “bank” to pay for a sports complex or trail? How about the developer dropping the HOA park and giving land or money in an equal Park Impact Fee to the City to bank for a sports complex? Developers building parts of the trail? If there is already city park land adjacent to a development, how about having the developer forego the HOA park and deed their proposed HOA park land to the city to combine with the adjacent city park land, having the city maintain it and allowing a larger park footprint? When the land is gone, the land is gone. Opposition to the MPD expressed their distaste for condemnation. Then you have to plan and set aside some land now. And that takes money. And parks annexed into the city will not be refurbished without funding. The Ponderosa Park comes to mind.
4. It will be another 10 years or so before a park initiative will be put on the ballot again. That will be too late. Vision is needed, not blinders.
Basically, 18 percent of the residents of the city have decided the city should not put money into the parks. This decision will affect all 17,000 plus residents and every park, sooner and later.
Thanks to all who did take the time to vote, whether it was a yes or no. With an apathetic 25.2 percent voter turnout in Pierce County, the Metropolitan Park District was soundly defeated by a highly organized and well-funded committee saying no new taxes and no to any new parks, sports complex, trails, a community center or updated and maintained facilities in Bonney Lake.
The citizens have spoken. The MPD election was over April 23. The election was certified by Pierce County May 7. Neither the Park Board nor City Council has discussed jointly any further ideas or actions to provided adequate parks for our growing population. It is not on the projected council agenda to discuss parks. As of this writing, parks are status quo. It is what it is. And now we move on to a new silly season.
