THE ELECTION

VYFS in a post-election world

To every community member on Vashon, I extend my support.

Most of you know that Vashon Youth and Family Services serves the underserved population of Vashon. Post-election, this means:

• Students in the schools who are confused and anxious about the future and how this election will affect them.

• Parents who are confused and anxious themselves, and need to know what to tell their children.

• Immigrant families who are frightened about what this will mean for their safety, and that of their children.

• Members of the community who are struggling with high levels of anxiety and depression.

• And anyone in the community who is different, in any way, from the white, cisgender, straight, U.S. born, affluent standards that are normalized by our society.

If you need our support, please call us at 206-463-5511. If you are in crisis, there will be a crisis line available for you to call.

If you would like to contribute to our work, visit our website at vyfs.org, and hit the donate button. If you would like to be on our volunteer list to help us in our mission, please reach out to jjohnson@vyfs.org.

We are here for you.

Ann Palmer, VYFS Board of Directors President

We live in two countries, not one

When I first came to the U.S. almost 45 years ago, I fell in love with the country and the attitude of the people, which was so much more optimistic than in my native England.

When I took the citizenship test, the woman administering it asked, “Do you believe in the Constitution of the United States?” She just wanted a “yes”, but instead I made her suffer through a small lecture on how I believed that, two hundred years ago, a bunch of dead white guys had, at base, more or less gotten it right.

But now we find ourselves in a country where the majority have elected an avowed fascist who threatens to imprison his enemies, suppress free speech, and send women back to the 1950s, a narcissistic, compassionless grifter who encourages and validates hatred against anyone who disagrees with him.

I don’t know what that country is, but it’s certainly not the United States of America.

Trump’s pernicious vision for our nation is no longer the republican ideal conceived by the founders, whose grand experiment — for all its flaws — has been cherished and defended for more than two centuries.

For the reality is this: we now live in two countries, not one; and were it not virtually impossible to achieve, those of us who still believe in democracy and the rule of law would be better off seceding. So let’s all fantasize about living in the Republic of Cascadia — and let the others have their Jesusland.

Phil Clapham

Ranked Choice Voting

Thank you, Shelley Simon, for pointing out the problems with voting when you don’t approve of either the Democrat or the Republican nominee.

As a Democrat with Green Party values, I also struggle with our current voting system. Should I vote for the candidate I want or against the candidate that I don’t want? I cannot do both. If I vote Green, I am throwing away my vote and becoming a spoiler, which helps to elect the person I don’t want. If I vote Democrat, I am supporting someone who has major shortcomings on both foreign policy and working class issues.

Unfortunately, this problem is caused by our “first past the post” election system.

What is the solution?

Changing from First Past the Post to Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) would allow me to vote both for the person I want and against the person I don’t want. I would be able to rank the candidates in order of preference. If my first choice doesn’t win, my vote transfers to my second choice. If my second choice doesn’t win, my vote transfers to my third choice.

This continues until my current choice wins or I do not have a next choice.

Ranked choice voting is not new. It has been used in the United States since 1915 when Ashtabula, Ohio adopted RCV to elect its city council.

RCV is being used all across the country in a wide range of jurisdictions. As of the 2022 elections, RCV has been adopted in 62 jurisdictions. Some prominent examples include: Alaska; Maine; New York City; Cambridge, Massachusetts; Minneapolis; and San Francisco.

We can modernize our voting system and have better results. Let’s do it.

For more information, see: ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/ranked-choice-voting.

Melvin Mackey

ISLAND HEALTHCARE

Cooperation needed in healthcare

Agencies must communicate and cooperate on this island to succeed.

I moved here in 1989. For many years, I saw agencies operate in silos, unwilling to work with others for fear of losing funding, status, etc. Over time, many learned that by working together they could greatly increase their reach and the effectiveness of the services they offered — benefiting us all.

In my professional life, I headed a small county agency with jurisdiction in unincorporated King County. We partnered with larger agencies like ours, and as a result, were able to share resources and information and coordinate our services. By communicating and coordinating, we greatly enhanced our effectiveness.

VIFR’s Mobile Integrated Health program (MIH) and the Hospital District’s contract with DispatchHealth (DH) are both valuable programs but currently serve different needs and have different clinical capacities. DH has been reaching out to many island agencies, including Sea Mar, to establish opportunities for cooperation and collaboration.

I understand that VIFR wants to expand into providing urgent care, and was opposed to the DH contract. However, DH is here and is fully operational now. I appreciate that the 2-year contract enables the Health Care District to serve us while learning more about what is needed on the island — information that will benefit VIFR in evaluating its direction.

I am personally very grateful for the 7-day-a-week urgent care offered by DispatchHealth. I am also glad that the MIH program serves neighbors with a variety of other needs. These programs have some similar and some different aims, and could be so much more if VIFR and its Mobile Integrated Health program coordinated services with DH and established a process of collaboration and cooperation.

This lost opportunity serves none of us. As islanders, we should require that agencies we pay for work together.

Bailey de Iongh

COMPREHENSIVE PLAN

County process leaves island in the dark

The FAQ page for the proposed large housing project west and south of the IGA was mistaken in its claim that 200 apartments were allowed on part of the property under current zoning. A clause, which originally went unnoticed by the county and the developer, limits density to 8 units per acre on Vashon’s Community Business zone properties.

In its Comprehensive Plan update, King County will likely bump this up, but the maximum density for apartments in this housing project will be, hopefully, under 40 units per acre — along with a maximum of 143 townhouses (the developer proposes to build 100 townhouses), most of them market rate, allowed in the fields nearby.

If the developer and county can make such a mistake, how can the Vashon public know what the county has in store for them? For example, how many know that in the comprehensive plan’s proposed changes to Community Business zones, building limits have gone from two stories to three, and the allowable height from 35 feet, to 40 feet to, most recently, no limit at all?

You can see the trend, right? Another few modifications, and it’s “Welcome to Fauntleroy Avenue” in West Seattle.

The developer claims he will target “most or all” of the units in the near-IGA apartment development at “workforce housing” prices, which is still at the high end of the county’s definition of affordable. He could still price the rest of the units at a higher market rate. His stated intent to build green, and attractive, and below the allowed density, may make it laudable compared to what someone else might put up.

But the real point here is how the comprehensive plan’s upzones are obscured behind a dense thicket of p-suffixes and overlays that are virtually impossible to find and interpret by a non-civic planner. There’s a link to a zoning map on the county website that would clear this up — but it does not work.

We’re near the end of the public comment period. The county has been and is derelict in giving us no clear picture of its proposals.

Richard Bard

VASHON HOUSEHOLD

A history of leadership

I was happy to read about Jason Johnson’s accomplishments during his time as Executive Director of Vashon HouseHold (October 31, “Change is Ahead for Vashon HouseHold”).

I noticed that the article described Johnson as “the organization’s first full-time director.” Jean Bosch was in fact the organization’s first full-time director from 1996 to 2000. My friend Sam Hendricks was the second full-time director from 2000 through 2009.

Under the leadership of Jean and Sam, VHH expanded affordable housing on the island greatly, including such projects as Charter House, JG Commons, Eerrnisse Apartments, Roseballen and Sunflower Community Land Trusts, Mukai Commons, Affordable units in Vashon Co-Housing and more.

Rob Peterson

POST OFFICE

Consider your postal worker

Please consider a gift to your postal carrier this year. They are overworked and unfairly burdened with our endless Amazon purchases.

The morale is low at the post office for good reason. Any show of gratitude, however small or large, will be appreciated, I am sure.

Personally, I am quitting Amazon, however convenient and cheap. Now that they are selling t-shirts that say “Your Body, My Choice,” I’m really done.

Shannon Mahan