Month: May 2026

Last November I posted a blog entry about the derelict Park Avenue Buildings, and the comments drifted into discussion of the trash train parked next to Gene Coulon Park.  The train is composed of stored trash cars, which Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) has simply parked at the end of the rail line.  The end of the line happens to be next to our city’s flagship park ever since BNSF made a deal with the State DOT to close the Eastside Rail Line– the same deal that ended Renton’s Dinner Train.

For decades Gene Coulon Park has been known for its mile and a half of beautiful public lakefront, which conjures images of sensitive, well-protected shorelines like this.

But since last year, park visitors will be greeted by a trash train a couple hundred feet from Coulon’s shoreline.

 

In addition to being unsightly, trash cars bring rodents and flies unless they are steam-cleaned between uses– which they almost certainly are not.  I’ve heard from Kennydale residents that report more rodents than they’ve seen in past years, and it is likely that these trash cars are contributing.

Below are my comments and reader comments on this topic from my blog post last fall, which still seem relevant today:

• Randy Corman
  November 18, 2025 at 8:34 pm | Permalink

  So frustrating, isn’t it? Just what our premier Renton Park needs… a garbage train stored next to it. Our Mayor and Council need to push back on this. BNSF is storing these garbage cars here using the argument that they are allowed to store cars anywhere they have a dead-end track, as if Renton planned a freight yard next to Coulon Park. But this is only a dead-end track because BNSF sold-out the Eastside Rail Line for a cash-grab of taxpayer money given to them by the State Department of Transportation over Renton objections. The State DOT and BNSF killed our Dinner Train in the process. The garbage train just adds insult to injury.

  

  Reply
  • Ben Johnson
    November 23, 2025 at 11:03 am | Permalink

    Checking the federal presumption situation, as a city we have almost no way of moving these cars directly. We do however have the ability to specify that biologically dangerous situations need to be fixed. If that means the rail cars will be moved, then this is just a happy side effect.

    Reply
• Marcie Palmer
  November 19, 2025 at 10:09 am | Permalink

  Those stinky garbage containers have been there a lot longer than a month! It’s been all summer. Yes, the mayor and council should push back BNSF, do you think they’ve even contacted anyone in all these months? Our city electeds will cry they’re the victims and nothing can be done because of big bad BNSF. At least TRY, let the community know what is going to be done. Or is this our new normal in Renton? sigh… (What do you want to bet they are gone by the time the FIFA soccer fans arrive??? THAT is the priority of our mayor.)

  Reply
  • Maggie
    November 21, 2025 at 1:03 pm | Permalink

    I guess the best we can hope for is that the World Cup doesn’t get rerouted. That might be the catalyst that gets the city to clean up the blight (and the garbage train)! Maybe we can convince the mayor that the FIFA will be here in January!

 

 

 

 

A two-hundred twenty foot closure of Logan Avenue South begins tomorrow.  The closure requires the placement of 21 traffic signs, 7 barricades, and 25 traffic cones that will remain in place for the next four months.

The closure will allow “festival” use of Logan Avenue between the Piazza and Legacy Square.

While this “festival street” concept was proposed in the Downtown Civic Core Action plan, the implementation being used today is different than what was described in the plan.  The downtown core plan called for South Second and Third Streets to be converted to two-way traffic, which would have made the Logan Ave detours much simpler to implement.  In addition, the downtown core plan called for the street to only be closed for “events” like the farmers market, and then reopened when the event was finished.  The plan envisioned hours-long events, not four-month events.

Since South Second Street is still a one-way street, and has a four-block-long center divider, the detour route is complex and has an abrupt 60-foot-long , three-lane crossover for motorists driving from the Landing or Boeing into downtown Renton.  Logan Avenue is the main corridor connecting these commercial zones.  With this closure, southbound motorists who want to go to Legacy square or patronize businesses on South Third Street like Boon Boona or Common Ground Coffee will need to turn right on Second Street and then quickly get left of the divider in order to follow the detour route, or else they must drive all the way to Rainier Avenue.  The lane shifts necessary on Second Street don’t facilitate the multiple checks and typical advanced signalling that we all learned in driver’s training– so drivers will have to be on high-alert to make this maneuver.

These detours will add to traffic congestion in Renton at a time when Renton School District is asking Renton to permanently close the nearby South Tobin Street.  Since traffic is often bad in this area even without these closures, I anticipate traffic jams to form in these detour routes during the summer.

 

 

Renton City Council has discussed the artwork for Legacy Square at several public meetings. In their last meeting on this topic  (May 4th), they still had not agreed on the murals for either the side of the church abuting Legacy Square or for the stage doors.

The City’s “In Case You Missed it” summary of the May 4th Council Meeting says: “Following up from the April COW, the Legacy Square artwork was included in the consent agenda. During the meeting, council pulled the item for discussion; during which Community Economic & Development Administrator Gina Estep provided an overview of the community engagement and Arts Commission process over the past year that led to the proposed design. After discussion, the council did not approve the artwork and requested additional community engagement and council input in the final design.”

I was therefore surprised to see a professional crew painting a mural at Legacy Square on the side of the church today at 1:00. I don’t think the public has been informed what to expect in this mural.  And  since this is a three-day holiday weekend, I presume some type of overtime pay is involved.

I checked Council records for the May 11 and May 18 Council Meetings, and didn’t spot any further votes about this artwork.  I suppose I could have missed them, but I also have not seen any public messaging about this artwork.

It looks like a different design than the one that was officially proposed after the RFP, artist selection, Arts Commission review, and public council debate.

If anyone knows what this artwork will be, or when/how it was approved, I would appreciate your sharing it in a comment.  Thank you!

 

 

Since I retired from Council in 2021, our Renton Public Works Director Martin Pastucha has closed numerous public buildings, typically without replacing them.  And with current temporary closures, Renton has nine fewer public buildings currently in service than we did when I retired.  They didn’t all have to be closed.

We’re currently coping with temporary or permanent closure of the Pavilion Event Center, 200 Mill Avenue, the Don Persson Renton Senior Center, Carco Theater, the Renton History Museum, the former Chamber of Commerce building, Rainier Flight Services airport classrooms, the Landing Gear Works historic tower building, and the Landing Gear Works installation hangar.

While a few of the individual closures are understandable, in the big picture we can’t lose nine public buildings simultaneously without harming the quality of our city services.

In my household we’ve seen city class times changed from one week to the next and kids performances rescheduled or canceled, often with little notice, as our Parks workers do their very best to try to fit everything in with too few facilities.  This evening two of my family members noticed each of them has an event scheduled in the same room of the Community Center at the same time, even though the events are not compatible.  They’ll contact the parks department tomorrow to try to work it out.

Renton leadership should analyze how this happened on one of Renton’s biggest summers ever.  We’re celebrating 125 years as a city, our 40th River Days, our 25th Farmers Market, and hosting a World Cup soccer team– but without our Senior Center, Pavilion, Carco Theater, our History Museum, Mill Avenue Building, or our former Chamber of Commerce building.  And our airport has lost vitality with the abandonment of three key facilities at the same time that it’s being marketed to World Cup fly-in visitors.

Maintaining buildings and keeping them in service is hard. I get that. But past Public Works Directors were able to do it, and we should expect our current Public Works Director to do it to.

The following nine buildings are OUT OF SERVICE:

On Monday I posted that Renton Mayor Pavone cast a controversial tie-breaking vote regarding the Tobin Street vacation; state law says that the votes of four council members are necessary to pass a vacation ordinance, and only three council members gave their support to proceed to the next step of the process.

The “For A Better Renton” organization has formally notified the city that they are challenging the legitimacy of the tie-breaking vote.  They’ve sent a letter to the Renton City Attorney, Renton elected officials, and staff.

They posted the letter on their Facebook page.  I’ve included a screenshot of their letter below.  (For background on this issue please see my Monday night blog post here.)

 

 

As I was walking past the Piazza Park in downtown Renton recently, I came across a friend who asked me about the unusual plastic honeycomb being installed in two locations near South Third Street.  Before I could answer her definitively, I had to come home, search the City website, and check the plans.

These black plastic structures are soil cells, a 25-year-old invention to help trees grow in heavily-paved urban landscapes.

Street trees and other trees surrounded by pavement sometimes struggle to thrive because of compacted soil and shortages of water.  Soil cells can help solve these issue by holding uncompacted garden soil and accepting drip irrigation water.

The downside is that they can cost about $10,000 each installed (which is a lot for one tree), and no one has more than 25 years of experience with them so there is no proof of their long-term life expectancy.

Most of Renton’s street trees still get planted the old fashioned way,  by designing reasonably wide 4-foot or 6-foot planting strips, choosing a species with deep roots that does well in urban street settings, excavating a hole more than three times larger than the root ball and filling it with good planting soil, and using a water bag while it is getting established.  Ideally the adjacent pavement is installed on “structural soil” –a mix of crushed rock and sandy loam– to accommodate mature root growth of the tree.

But the Piazza has recently seen two dozen of it’s significant trees cut down,  and is going to be widely paved over with just small areas of grass and plants here and there. Its two water features have also been removed.  So on hot summer days, visitors will flock to any shade they can find.  Hopefully these soil cells work to grow at least a couple of big replacement trees.

(As I’ve covered before, I would not have chosen to spend $3 million rebuilding our 25-year-old Piazza Park, including taking out trees and water features.  And even if directed to do so, I would not have started the project just ten months before we’ve asked the world to come see our downtown. But we are where we are, and I hope it is successful.)

 

 

 

 

Dick’s Drive-in, the most popular local hamburger chain in the Seattle area, is formally exploring opening a restaurant in Renton.  They’ve come in for a pre-application conference, including making a formal submission to the City of Renton.  They are exploring potentially locating a restaurant in the Home Depot lot, near Renton City Hall.  This would be a great location. They have considered it in the past, even back when the Home Depot was a Sam’s Club.  The pre-application files have been posted to the City’s public website.

I’m very happy they are looking at Renton again. In addition to providing excellent working conditions for their employees and providing great food at a low price, there’s something uniquely comforting about a late-night stop at Dick’s Drive-In.

Dick’s isn’t just another hamburger stand; it’s become an integral part of the  the northwest itself.  Generations of local residents have enjoyed Dick’s burgers and fries after football games, concerts, first dates, and long shifts at work. In a region obsessed with reinvention, Dick’s remains largely unchanged from how I remember it on my first visit in the early 1980s.  It’s affordable, unpretentious, delicious, and woven into our everyday lives in the Northwest.

In recent years I’ve visited Dick’s Drive-in Seattle and other nearby cities.  And I’ve enjoyed visits from Dick’s food truck at special events in Renton.  I always advocated for encouraging the company to open a store in Renton while I was on Council.  This pre-application does not necessarily mean it will happen, but it is as close as we’ve come.

I wish them success as they go through the process, and hope to enjoy a new Renton Dick’s restaurant soon.

The pre-application submittal and the City’s report on the meeting can be found on the City’s public website here.

One of the many bright suggestions from residents at last night’s hearing on South Tobin Street was to at least keep the street open until South Second Street gets its two-way conversion that the City has been planning for over a decade.

The South Second Street conversion has been part of Renton’s Downtown Civic Core Vision and Action Plan for years, and it has received over a million dollars in grant funding.  It has appeared in Renton’s Six Year Transportation plan since at least 2018, and maybe earlier.

South Second Street has been one-way westbound since the 1960s.  When the street is converted to two-way, it could carry some of the eastbound traffic currently carried by Tobin, which would be especially important when Airport Way gets blocked from accidents.

Furthermore, the conversion of South Second Street will require that every intersection on the South Second street be reworked, requiring significant lengthy closures of South Second Street.  These closures would be much more painful to motorists without South Tobin Street.  South Third Street is a one-way westbound street, and can not relieve South Second’s eastbound traffic during construction.

At least two Councilmembers at last night’s Council Meeting wanted to explore this idea further, and they made a motion to delay consideration of vacating Tobin Street until after the Second Street conversion was complete.   During the debate on their motion, both Renton’s Mayor and Public Works Director indicated that they had no knowledge of the Renton High School rebuild schedule; this was surprising to many of us, since the schedule has been widely publicized for at least a year and shows the School’s construction continuing until mid-2030.

Renton’s Public Work’s director did say that South Second Street could potentially be converted within the next five years.  These timelines give even more credibility to the residents’ suggestion that Tobin remain open, at least through completion of South Second Street.  At that time a new transportation study could be completed with the new street patterns, and a better assessment made regarding whether Tobin could be closed.

As a side note, the additional five years of keeping South Tobin Street open would make it more clear whether a potential mandatory airport runway extension would permanently close Airport Way, shifting traffic to Tobin.  I’ve described this concern in this comment on one of my earlier blog entries on this topic.

Delaying the vacation of South Tobin Street at least until after South Second Street is converted would not prevent completion of the new Renton High School, and it seems like the preferred, rational solution that prevents any irreversible errors in Renton’s transportation planning.  I thank the three Councilmembers that appear to support this plan, Councilmembers Rivera, Van, and O’Hallaron.  I also thank downtown resident Sarah Becker, who was the first person I know to point out that South Second should be converted to two-way before there is any talk of closing Tobin.  (Ms Becker had also been an outspoken advocate of saving the Tobin neighborhood from destruction.)

As I covered in my previous blog post, the School District and Mayor do not currently have enough Council votes to pass an ordinance immediately vacating South Tobin Street.  The idea to table the vacation request until after the South Second Street conversion, and ideally a subsequent traffic study following conversion, could be a the sensible and necessary compromise on this issue.

 

Tonight’s Public Hearing on whether Renton should give up South Tobin Street raised numerous questions and appears to not have resolved whether South Tobin Street will in fact be vacated. (See background on this issue here).

The hearing began with Councilmember Ryan McIrvin recusing himself because he is married to a school board member, which seemed to me and many others in attendance an appropriate choice.

Of the remaining six councilmembers, three Council members voted against advancing the vacation request, and three voted for advancing it.

The Mayor then stepped in to break the tie, voting to advance the vacation request to the next step:  appraisal and preparation of an ordinance.

But left unspoken was that Washington law requires FOUR COUNCIL MEMBER VOTES TO PASS AN ORDINANCE, including a VACATION ORDINANCE.  The Mayor can’t break a 3-3 tie to pass an ordinance.  The Mayor is now preparing an ordinance that he does not have the votes to pass.  RCW 35.23.11 says “No ordinance and no resolution or order shall have any validity or effect unless passed by the votes of at least four councilmembers.” Additionally, RCW 35.12.100 makes it clear the Mayor can’t vote on a tie to pass an ordinance:  “The mayor shall preside over all meetings of the city council, when present, but shall have a vote only in the case of a tie in the votes of the councilmembers with respect to matters other than the passage of any ordinance, grant, or revocation of franchise or license, or any resolution for the payment of money. “

So the School District is now on notice that they only have three Renton Councilmembers supporting their vacation request, and they should be careful about spending taxpayer money to further the design based on the closure of South Tobin Street.

The District and perhaps the Mayor might start approaching Council Members to change their positions, but this should be done in the light of day using a fair, open public process.  Many, many people will want to know why any Council votes gets changed at this stage, following a very public meeting and a very memorable vote.

Procedural errors tonight:

There were a few procedural errors tonight that kept the Public Hearing from going as smoothly as it should have, and might have denied some legitimate public comment.

The first error was not as significant but it got things off to an awkward start.  The Mayor first called on a speaker for  a public hearing that was scheduled later on the agenda, and that speaker gave his full testimony.  After this, the Mayor began calling names from the correct public hearing.

Then many speakers were surprised that the public comment was limited to three minutes, when it is typically five for a public hearing.  This surprise caused some speakers to rush their testimony.

I’ve been told by one resident that he had signed up to speak, and he was never called on.  There may have been others in this group as well.  It’s possible that the two signup sheets for the two hearings got mixed up during the sign-in stage. Such a mixup is unfair to the public and should have been corrected at the hearing.  The Mayor could have said “Is there anyone who signed up that did not get a chance to speak?,”  which is commonly done at public hearings.

Lastly, at the end of the hearing, there was a three-to-three voice-vote regarding advancing the vacation request, and the Mayor erroneously called it a win for advancing the vacation.  It took Councilmember Carmen Rivera firmly insisting on an accounting of each vote (essentially a roll call) before the Mayor agreed it was a tie.  That’s when he said he voted to advance it.

Strong testimony by public with many good ideas suggested:

There was strong testimony delivered by many residents tonight, and some of it deserves further discussion in a follow-on blog entry.  The full meeting with the public testimony can be viewed here.

 

Author’s note: I’m confident that both City and School District attorneys will be reading this blog entry, and I encourage them to correct me if I’m mistaken in my understanding of Washington State Law on these issues.  You can leave a comment here on this blog entry, or contact me at my first and last name at gmail dot com, or phone me at 425-271-6913 and leave a message.