HomeMy WebLinkAboutKeolker 12.14.20From: Kathy Keolker <kkeolker@gmail.com>
To: Council <Council@Rentonwa.gov>
Bcc: rcorman@rentonwa.gov
Date: 2020-12-14 14:33
Subject: Comments about Red Lion issue
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Dear Councilmembers,
For those of you who are new this has been an impossibly difficult year for you to learn the job without the
ability to have in person meetings with your colleagues and learn from them as you go. I am impressed with
your dedication to learn and grow in spite of the challenges you have faced. I have watched your deliberations
about the problem with the Red Lion with great interest. I know this is a very difficult situation and you have
been bombarded with many opinions and a great deal of criticism and pressure from people with competing
interests many of whom do not live here or have businesses here. In the final stretch you will have to take a
roll call vote and be held accountable for the decision that you make. I would like to offer a bit of perspective
from my 24 years as an elected official having taken many difficult votes and having faced angry people many
times.
In the early 1980’s Renton was faced with a zoning issue that we had not planned for. While the land use was
not like the one you are facing today, in some ways it was more problematic because it involved the First
Amendment. I was the citizen activist who was asked by the council and the mayor to bring the community
together around the issue of zoning to make sure we did not end up with porno theatres in downtown Renton
between Renton High and St. Anthony’s School. It was not the proper location for that use. There were many
who didn’t want that use at all but because of the First Amendment we had to find a place for it. The
community and city worked together and I ended up on the council two years into the battle. We won some
and lost some in court hearings but in 1986 we ended up at the U. S. Supreme Court. I listened in the
audience as our own city attorneys presented our case. We won and that case is still taught in law schools
around the country today. I am telling you this so you understand that Renton has a history of fighting for our
right to zone property for the needs of the community. It is almost a sacred right and it is something that
should not be considered casually or given away without serious consideration.
King County and Seattle had no right to usurp Renton’s zoning laws and deliver the most problematic
homeless population to the Red Lion Hotel in the first place. If they had been a private business, they would
have been shut down very quickly. But because of the pandemic, they saw an opportunity to export a problem
to the south end (Kent and SeaTac also) and this is something they have done for years with other unwanted
uses. Part of their strategy has been to rally the troops and make you feel guilty for “kicking out” the poor
homeless people in the winter in a pandemic. It’s working. You do feel the pressure and you are feeling bad
about it. You have said so in your meetings.
But I am asking you to take a breath and consider the long term. You do not have an obligation to provide for
over 200 of Seattle’s chronic homeless population. It is well documented that this population from the Morrison
Hotel has created serious issues in downtown Seattle. It is also well documented that they are creating issues
here. You have an obligation to protect Renton’s zoning and make sure that it meets the needs of the greater
community. You have an obligation to work with social service providers, police and emergency services to
figure out how to provide services to Renton’s homeless population and you have an obligation to work with
the region on strategies for ending homelessness in King County which could include a shelter in Renton. But
that is an option to be considered as part of a larger regional plan that should not be a club held over your
head if you do not do what King County wants you to do.
This is about zoning, not about homelessness. If you do not separate the two as you proceed, you are setting
this city up to have the same problems as downtown Seattle. This city does not have the resources to deal
with that kind of volume of people or the issues they bring as you are already finding out. Please do not
extend the timelines. King County needs to treat Renton with respect and play by the rules. They have already
gotten away with too much.
Sincerely,
Kathy Keolker
Former Renton Mayor and Councilmember
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