From My Notes App to You

Hi neighbors,

I’m always jotting things down in my Notes app. Half-baked ideas, random observations, things I stumble across and think might be worth sharing. Does anyone care what’s rattling around in my head? Probably not. But writing them out clears space for something else. So here’s another newsletter of somewhat disconnected thoughts, but each one is something I thought might be worth passing along.

Mountlake Terrace is preparing to adopt its first Urban Forest Management Plan—a 25-year roadmap for protecting and growing the city’s tree canopy. Trees already provide an estimated $2.5 million in annual benefits like cleaner air, cooler neighborhoods, and reduced flooding, but our current spending on tree care is far below regional and national averages. The plan sets clear goals: plant about 137 new trees a year, focus on hotter and underserved neighborhoods, maintain healthier pruning cycles, and update city codes to better protect large trees. It’s also designed with equity in mind, making sure all parts of Mountlake Terrace can share in the shade and health benefits of a thriving urban forest.

Check out the presentation at the September 11 City Council meeting.

Those of you who use AI tools like ChatGPT probably recognize its fingerprints in my writing. I’m torn about it. On one hand, I’m aware of the downsides: the environmental impact, the way it feeds more power to tech oligarchs, the risk of getting facts wrong, and the concern that it can dull original thinking. On the other hand, it helps me get started, refine ideas, and keep pace with this newsletter. Without it, I’d honestly struggle to keep up.

So, I want to be transparent. Like most things in a capitalist society, every tool, service, or product we use comes with costs. None of them are entirely altruistic. AI isn’t either. But for now, it’s part of how I’m able to show up and share these thoughts with you.

The City has recently released a draft Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Strategic Plan, which grew out of several years of work by the DEI Commission, city staff, and community partners. The plan identifies steps the City can take to make sure all residents have equitable access to services, feel welcomed, and see themselves reflected in civic life. It was shaped by community surveys, listening sessions, and staff input, and outlines actions like reducing barriers to participation in city processes, providing information in multiple languages, improving promotion of financial assistance, recruiting staff who reflect the community’s diversity, and offering programs that better meet the needs of our changing demographics.

It’s encouraging to see the DEI Commission, city staff, and community partners come together on this plan, with Deputy City Manager Carolyn Hope providing steady leadership. It’s a hopeful step toward making sure Mountlake Terrace is a place where everyone feels they belong.

In a recent newsletter, I wrote about Hannie Schaft and the moment her eyes opened to what the Nazis were really doing with the files they seized. That was a turning point in her life. I’ve since finished To Die Beautiful, the novel based on Hannie’s life, and one passage in particular stuck with me.

It’s such a small act — tearing a ribbon of paper. But in a world where silence and compliance were the norm, even that gesture mattered. It was a refusal to accept propaganda as the backdrop of daily life.

That scene has me thinking about what small acts of resistance look like today. Not every stand has to be dramatic. Sometimes it’s as simple as asking a hard question, sharing an article with a neighbor, or refusing to let the conversation be sanitized away. Each small act chips at the façade of inevitability.

The Edmonds School District has been talking about redrawing boundaries for a while, especially with the shift to putting 6th grade in middle school. I noticed the topic is on an upcoming school board agenda, so I wonder if things may finally start moving soon. I don’t pretend to know what the process looks like, and I’m sure there are smart, experienced people guiding it. Still, it’s bound to be a big deal and families will definitely have plenty to say.

One thing that has always stood out to me is the boundary between Mountlake Terrace Elementary and Terrace Park Elementary. The schools are so close that some creativity is obviously needed, but the way the lines are drawn now seems to encourage busing or driving rather than walking. Families in south-central MLT, for example, often have to walk almost right past Terrace Park just to reach their assigned school at MLT Elementary. I’m sure there are good reasons for this, it’s just always stood out to me as one of those quirks of planning that doesn’t quite make sense.

Anyway, I don’t envy the folks who have to sort all this out, it’s not an easy task.

When I started MLT Musings, I was deliberate about the format. I chose an email newsletter because I wanted to connect directly with people in the community, without all the noise that comes with social media. The biggest local forum, the Mountlake Terrace Community Facebook Group, used to serve that role for me. Years ago, I even helped manage it. But over time I stepped away, and earlier this year I deleted my Facebook account altogether.

That group, like many others, also changed its approach. In an effort to stay “neutral,” my understanding is it now blocks almost any topic that could be considered political or controversial. I understand why, since moderating is hard and conversations can get heated, but the result is that the discussion gets so sanitized it no longer feels meaningful. For me, it stopped being a place where people could wrestle with the real issues shaping our community.

This newsletter is my alternative. A couple hundred of you subscribe, and every time I send one out I get a handful of thoughtful replies. Those one-on-one exchanges mean a lot. They have led to conversations I never would have had otherwise, especially with folks who might not feel comfortable posting in a public forum.

Every now and then, people ask why I don’t enable comments on the web version of these newsletters. The short answer is: that is not what I want this space to be. The internet is full of places to argue, debate, or perform for an audience. What I value here is the chance to connect directly, neighbor to neighbor, without worrying about who is watching or how a thread might spiral. When you reply to me, it is just between us. That privacy creates a different kind of trust, and it is what makes this feel worthwhile to me.

So, no comments section. Not because I don’t want to hear from you, but because I would rather keep hearing from you directly.

That’s all from the Notes app for now. Thanks for reading.

Dustin