Birthday party = work party for County Exec Dow Constantine

| Environment | West Seattle news | West Seattle people

A momentous day for West Seattle’s highest-ranking politician, King County Executive Dow Constantine. As he would put it, this is the 12th time he is celebrating his 39th birthday. Do the math, and you’ll notice it’s one of those milestone things. Tonight, he partied at The Paramount downtown (check out the marquee); this morning, he celebrated in a quieter way, with volunteers from the West Seattle-based Nature Consortium, whose volunteers mark his birthday and half-birthday every year with a work party at College Street Ravine, a greenspace not far from his west Admiral neighborhood. (Helping save it is what got him into politics in the first place, the story goes.) Above, the birthday guy with the NC’s restoration director, who was also celebrating a milestone birthday today (let’s say her 13th eighteenth birthday!), Lili Alalla; below, some of the volunteers tackling invasives:

You can join a Nature Consortium work party at sites like this one just about any time – they’re usually out three times a week; find out more here.

KD November 15, 2011 (8:31 pm)

Happy Birthday Boss! ( from a Metro Driver )

Aman November 15, 2011 (10:24 pm)

If Dow’s staff were more politically astute he would have spent his photo opp fixing pot holes in West Seattle.

metrognome November 16, 2011 (12:55 am)

Aman — if you knew more about your government, you would know that Dow is the COUNTY executive and WS streets are the CITY’s responsibility.
Nice to see an elected official who cares about his community, even on his own time (as if elected officials have any spare time to call their own.)

Ann Martin November 16, 2011 (3:37 am)

Happy Birthday, Dow! Sorry to have missed both these events. Perhaps next year! Thanks for all the work you do, in this community and beyond!!

Dave November 16, 2011 (7:18 am)

Who cares. This is a craven photo-op; gladly slurped down by our local media.

WSB November 16, 2011 (7:53 am)

Dear Dave, actually no. The Nature Consortium announces a gazillion work parties (sorry for that imprecise number) each year, including this one. The announcement, which came from them, didn’t even mention whether Dow C is in attendance or not. We only checked it out because after the occasion last year, I noticed a photo on the website of NC – one of West Seattle’s many awesome nonprofits, devoted entirely to restoring local greenspaces to some semblance of their former glory (work whose results won’t be truly evident till pretty much everyone reading this is off the planet) – with him in it, and thought “oh, didn’t know he actually participates in the ‘in honor of his birthday’ work parties’.” So we made a note that if possible next (this) year, we’d check it out. Believe me, if you’re going to go for a photo op, there are easier ways to do it than to show up in a greenbelt in your home neighborhood, start pulling ivy, without your presence even having been announced to the “local media.” Just wanted to clarify that. Otherwise, you’re welcome to not care! – TR

Dick November 16, 2011 (7:48 am)

Who’s the guy in the bushes next to Dow’s right shoulder?

Elizagrace November 16, 2011 (9:44 am)

WSB, I heart you more than I ever have right now.

Aman November 16, 2011 (10:06 am)

Metro, Thanks for setting me straight on who looks after our pot-holed laden streets. I need more of your helpful wisdom.

Since Seattle streets are the city of Seattle responsibility, when the city fails to maintain them would a citizen then push the on-going street maintenance issue up to County? And, if no satisfaction there, up to the State level?

WSB November 16, 2011 (10:13 am)

Nope. It’s the city, not the county. The county is only responsible for unincorporated areas. And they already have passed a budget that dramatically changes how they handle roads – including designating some as roads that will go unmaintained and may even revert to gravel. If the city fails to maintain them, your recourse is with your elected city reps (Mayor, Council) – the buck stops with them … TR

Aman November 16, 2011 (10:30 am)

WSB – Thanks for the answer to my question. Another reason to work to ‘get out the vote’ in 2012 and beyond.

2 Much Whine November 16, 2011 (12:26 pm)

Why are people always so critical? Photo op or not, how many of us can say we spent our birthday doing something nice for others? And no, I am not involved with Dow’s election committee and really know nothing about his politics. I just know he had thousands of choices he could have made on his birthday and I now know that one of his choices was to pull ivy. That’s ok in my book. Thanks WSB for sharing.

Nancy Whitlock November 16, 2011 (3:48 pm)

Yes, West Seattle Blog…thank you for that! All of us at Nature Consortium put in tons of energy and heart into our work and we often get so busy carrying out our programs that we don’t have time to spread the word and tell everyone about it, so thank you for helping us do just that. Dow is an amazingly humble individual and has become a great friend of the organization as a resident of West Seattle, not just because he’s one of our electeds. This definitely was not a planned photo-op!
With gratitude,
Nancy Whitlock
Nature Consortium Founder & Director