Federal Way favorites I'd like to have, part 1

Over the past three months, I’ve shared my list of my 100 favorite people, places and things in Federal Way. The premise was that while Federal Way isn’t the greatest city in the world, it’s a pretty darn good place to live. But if it’s not the shining city on the hill, what added features would make Federal Way a better city, if not a great one? Here’s my stab at making Federal Way great. I’ll call it the Federal Way Favorites I’d Like to Have. Unlike the original 100, let’s do this one in ten easy steps.

1) An independent bookstore. Yes, we’ve got Borders and Barnes & Noble. And no disrespect intended, but there’s something mysterious and adventurous about roaming through the stacks of an independent bookstore like Elliott Bay Books or Powells. You just can’t compare the selections.

I recently took the family on a junket to Powells City of Books in Portland. There’s nothing quite like the range of material there, not to mention the downright quirkiness a bookseller like Powells brings to a city. And a good independent bookstore would be a people magnet; bibliophiles will travel to reach a destination bookstore like Powells. Something right off I-5 – say, the Gateway Center - would do the trick.

2) An independent music store. Like an independent bookstore, a store for music lovers would also be a draw for shoppers and add grit and character to the community. Indie music stores – and I’m thinking along the lines of West Seattle’s Easy Street Records or the U District’s Cellophane Square – are places to discover new music (or old music you’ve never heard before), find cheap used CDs and hang out with people who love music.

In my mind, Federal Way would get the Powells of music; a roomy retail space with every conceivable selection and more. It would be a place you could go seeking the latest White Stripes, and come out with that and CDs by Maceo Parker and Manu Dibango that the staff turned you on to.

3) Night club. Ok. Let’s be honest with each other. The F-Dub does not exactly have a rocking reputation. Some might say we’re just a bit more exciting than your typical Amish community. Seriously, there’s an issue when you have to go to Fife to rock out (I’ve made a number of sojourns to the Fabulous Firwood and know others who have rocked the Pup Room at the Poodle Dog). Now, generally speaking, suburban communities have less of a night life than the big city, but if the Firwood can exist in Fife, I have to believe that a modestly sized club could make it here.

A night club and live music would add some needed spark to Federal Way. One could even envision a joint that offered some open mike sessions and acoustic fare for the lunchtime crowd.

4) Expand Celebration Park. Federal Way Schools Superintendent Tom Murphy had the right idea when he proposed building a new athletic stadium near Celebration Park. That proposal withered when the district’s first draft of the construction bond just missed passing. Nonetheless, the idea of expanding our premier park should become a community priority.

The park is a first class recreational facility for Federal Way’ers and one of the prime attractions drawing thousands of visitors to town for the many tournaments and sports leagues offered her. The park’s wetlands trail is a popular walking spot for residents and connects to the BPA trail.

There is still room to expand eastward, but the land won’t be there forever. As the city fills in, land across from the park will develop and the opportunity will be lost forever.

Great cities feature parks facilities in and around their downtown areas; places that encourage visitors and residents to linger in the downtown area. Celebration Park is the best such park facility we have.

5) Connectivity. Great cities are best enjoyed on foot or bike, not by car. That’s hard to do in much of Federal Way, plagued as it is with fractured development. Most of the older development was designed with only cars in mind. A fair portion of the neighborhoods, including my own, don’t have sidewalks, making foot travel adventurous and sometimes downright dangerous. We need more bike paths pedestrian-friendly routes, and they need to connect to places people want to go.

The BPA trail was a good start for the community. The next evolution of pedestrian and bike connectivity will be finding ways to connect other parks, like Steel Lake and the West Hylebos, to the BPA. Then, we need to find ways to connect the BPA with other regional trails, such as the Interurban and the Foothills Trail.

Making it easier to get from one place to another by foot or bike will get more people out of their cars and make life here a little bit better.

So, there are the first five Federal Way Favorites I’d Like to Have. In the final segment I’ll look at building for a better future.