As a 25-year Renton council member and 33-year engineer and manager, I’m currently running to fill the open seat of Renton Mayor. Please review my work here to see how I’ve helped you. I have made over a thousand detailed entries in this blog as I’ve worked to improve our city, keep you informed, and resolve the issues important to you. Use the search box in the upper right to find entries on specific topics, or click on the categories on the right for highlights. Learn more about my qualifications and my campaign by clicking here
I support & endorse Randy Corman for Mayor. He has the experience, temperament, ability to bring all sides together for collaboration, respect City Staff, neighborhoods, businesses (including Renton Airport businesses) and history of “Having Renton’s back” in the 25 years on Council. Look at the current Voter’s Guide, you can compare all Mayor candidates.
Randy has the respect of City Staff & neighbors & businesses, throughout Renton for his diligence in studying, researching & standing WITH & for what is best for those without a public voice. He’s obviously respected Regionally as his many long-term Regional appointments on a variety of issues show.
Randy has my vote for Renton Mayor!
(last comment by the way… didn’t notice how much I’m spamming you) You’re definitely my choice for mayor! I’d love the following from you:
1. Annex Fairwood to Renton (I misread and didn’t notice the article I got steamed at was from 2010). Things have changed since you last wrote that article, and more techies are moving in. Renton needs Fairwood. It will increase the population and get real close to Bellevue, and making housing for new tech employees much easier (so much open space).
2. Help Southport expand into a new Renton downtown. I want Renton to look like Kirkland, if not maybe even Tacoma (not the economy, but the look). I’m not expecting a Bellevue but it can if the market is that hot!
3. Preserve the old downtown, and make smaller props for the residents. Don’t be like the other cities who only cares about the companies, but make new parks and open space for the people.
4. Try to keep Renton cheap. Renton is going to take over Bellevue soon because of Bellevue’s extreme prices. I’m not sure if its possible, but if it is, do it. We don’t want cities like Kent and Tacoma taking Renton’s future tech fame.
5. Make transportation better. I don’t think the I-405 master plan is going to be enough. 405 IS HORRIBLE!!! They need to add 4 lanes instead of 2, and stop getting lazy over Renton. King County, WSDOT, and Sound Transit are using our tax dollars for the North. I know Renton has paid so much to Sound Transit for new development, and they’re using it on Redmond. Really?
These are my main requests! Thanks, I’m signing out.
(1) Thank you for the above great comments! I will support another vote to invite Fairwood to annex. We have lowered our tax rates since ten years ago (thanks to our expanded business base) and made many improvements to our city, so Fairwood residents may have more interest than they did the last time.
(2) I’ve supported the development of Southport since the beginning, and I’ll keep working on it. It will become a new tech hub that competes with Bellevue.
(3) I appreciate your thoughts on downtown, and I agree with all of them. We can see dramatic improvement in downtown if we maintain current momentum and make the investments you are talking about. I’ll make sure we complete our Downtown Core plan which adds park spaces and greenspace, as well as getting all the buildings fixed up and back in action.
(4) We still have a fair amount of property ripe for redevelopment in the downtown and the highlands which should help keep our prices lower than Bellevue and Kirkland for years to come. We need to ensure that houses and apartments we build include some smaller units so that they remain relatively affordable in another decade or two after all the redevelopment is done.
(5) You are correct that I-405 desperately needs improvement. Fortunately new construction will begin this year on an additional lane each direction between Renton and Bellevue. You are also correct that the final build-out should include two lanes each way, and that is what is included in the I-405 Long Term Master Plan. I have continued to remind the DOT that they need to add the new lane each direction in a way that does not make it difficult to add the second lane, and this is what they are striving to do. The first lane each way is going to cost about a billion dollars, and can mostly be built on land that the DOT already owns. The second lane each way would cost far more than a billion dollars, perhaps twice that, and be more controversial because they have to acquire significant additional property on the corridor that is privately owned and mostly in the form of people’s homes and backyards. The decision was to go forward on the one lane that the state (barely) has the money for now, and build the second lane if voters pass a transportation bond in the future.
Thank you for the great imput!!!