Welcome to Snohomish Hate Free
We have our differences as a community. A hate free Snohomish is our aspiration and we’re going to work for it.
Not From Snohomish?
The Carnegie on “snohomish in bloom” day
A celebration of Snohomish’s original public library. For visitors to Snohomish, it may be surprising to discover how much locals care for this building , the history it stands for and the citizen activism it took to save it.
WE ARE SMALL TOWN SNOHOMISH
SNOHOMISH IN BLOOM
Snohomish in Bloom 2026 is in the rear view mirror, and this pop-up selfie station is no more, but look for others, less obvious but still scenic.
Book Corner
We’re approaching Election Day. It‘s time to spiff up your citizen responsibilities and critical thinking skills. When Timothy Snyder, Heather Cox Richardson, and Anne Applebaum agree we have not had as consequential an election in our lifetime we need to take time to understand their meaning and what‘s at stake. That explains the Constitution recommendation.
Knowing something about the history of the place you live, and the lives that made it so, grounds us. Mac Bates reminds us that we are surrounded by fascinating people who have stories to tell. I’m grateful he documented his and those stories he gathered.
Lewis Hyde is providing insight that is hard to characterize. The trickster is important in pivoting events, but there is no assurance the outcome will be benevolent—ever. I value his observation that the trickster character is found in cultures through history and universally, and he offers clues to discerning the creative agents from the malevolent.
What's New and Blog Posts
September 22, 2026
We’re on leaf watch. This is our target tree for 2026…a large maple on Avenue C between Third and Fourth Aves. There is a hint of color at the top branches but so far color changes are modest.
Autumn is a good time to take the tree tour…self guided. Go to greensnohomish.org for a walking tour map of notable trees in town. Wear comfortable shoes and carry a full water bottle. There are also guided tours in both autumn and spring. Contact Green Snohomish for the date of the Fall 2026 Snohomish Tree Tour.
We have new recommendations in the book corner.
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September 24, 2026
Having given Snohomish City Council and Mayor Hoffman time to settle in during the months since Hoffman’s inauguration, it felt like time to go back, virtually. September 15 was the most recent council meeting. Turns out the city was presenting their preliminary 2027 and 2028 budget proposals.
Let me gently remind all readers that Snohomish City Council Meetings are both audio and video recorded and can be accessed on line at snohomishwa.gov. Look for Agendas and Minutes, then drill down to the meeting information you want. Minutes and presentation materials are also available.
First, some recent history. The city has seen all of its directors leave, save one. They were either fired by this new administration or chose to leave. These departures were augmented by departures of several additional support staff. In all, approximately 12 people have left Snohomish City Government, not including the former mayor and city administrator. Approximately 4 replacements have been hired. In fact the city is having difficulty recruiting new hires, or may not be putting in much effort. For the jobs filled, except for one, the administration did not publicly post or competitively interview. For that one, apparently only one resume was considered.
So what to make of the September 15 Council Meeting?
The city is not listening to constituents. Members of Green Snohomish attended Council to follow up on a proposal they made to the city in May of this year offering volunteer grounds maintenance and consulting services to the city. They also voiced concern over the loss of trees and their, to date, non-replacement. The city has not responded to that proposal.
Several residents from the Terrace Avenue neighborhood were there to request the 22nd Street connector cut be completed as committed. In a neighborhood where there is a single way in and out, this connector would provide additional access/egress passage for both residents and emergency services. Developers had committed funding for the connector as a condition for adding more than 100 homes in the Terrace Avenue neighborhood.
(Now, remember who, in the last weeks of Hoffman’s Mayoral campaign, paid for the advertising against Linda Redmon: that would be local developers. And after you‘ve remembered that remember that Ken Klein was Planning Director at County before coming to Snohomish.)
Ken Klein, City Administrator and Engineering Director, has said the connector cannot be done, implying it is an impossibility, which is laughable. In the meantime, the 9/16/26 edition of the Snohomish Tribune has an article that describes a similar discussion taking place at the county level between the developers who do not want to provide through access in new developments and the Fire Departments, who need through access for safety and evacuation purposes. These Fire Departments demand to be included in the updates of county planning guidelines. Current and potential future residents who are depending on their county elected officials to represent their interests are the third party to these negotiations.
All of this discussion at the county level is for rural areas, which are rapidly growing in density. Our Snohomish is a city, of which Terrace Avenue is a part, but importantly it meets the county’s density requirement for a through connector. In short, it’s clearly needed no matter how the situation is looked at. The connector was offered and funded by the developer in exchange for building permits under the previous administration. The work needs to be completed.
Not discussed in the meeting, but very much an issue, is the city’s unwillingness to work with the Snohomish Fire Department on capital projects like the replacement station on Avenue D as well as the new civic campus. The city has always been a reliable partner for the Fire Department in the past. Joint planning and space sharing has led to lower costs, coordinated operations and comprehensive long term real estate planning that benefit the city, Fire and EMS Services, and therefore city tax payers. Importantly, they also need to be included in the Terrace Avenue connector planning.
But I digress…
Much of the 9/15 city council meeting was dedicated to Department Managers’ presentation of their preliminary 2027-28 budgets compared to 2025-26, and they were presented as two year buckets, not broken down into discrete years. Nor were salary, benefits, or assumptions for cost of living adjustments adequately broken down. Why is this important? There was a step function increase for many, but not all of the city salaries between 2025 and 2026. There are again dramatic salary increases from the 2025/26 bucket to the 2027/28 bucket. So was this budget presentation a waste of time? Let’s just say the presentation provided a baseline upon which major improvements can be made and are expected.
I’m going to wrap up with some odds and ends:
If you have a history with our town and visit our parks like I do, you know that they are in sad repair. A renter this summer of one of the ballfields in Pilchuck Park had to ask her father to mow the field in preparation for for the game she planned, the city not having gotten it done.
The Aquatic Center field, which flooded severely last year and will be flooding again, I presume, this coming winter, has not gotten attention. It poses an attractive nuisance and needs to be addressed. Or perhaps it can be turned into a landscaped water feature. The city has shrugged responsibility, by saying it is school property, not their problem. Perhaps so, but again, this seems to be a failure of city administration to collaborate with partners in the city to the detriment of residents.
I have heard, though not verified, the city equipment yard will be moved to a portion of Ferguson Park; I assume the disc golf course. If true, this will essentially mean the loss of a significant portion of the park, and degradation of the remainder.
Summer is the time that city roads are given refreshed striping, crosswalks are repainted, sidewalks are repaired, and potholes are filled. Little, if any, of this work seems to have gotten done over the past months.
Finally, to circle back, I wish to remind the Mayor and City Administrator that Snohomish runs on volunteerism. Hoffman and Klein appear to be genuinely flummoxed, perhaps a bit threatened, by this. It must be a new concept; volunteering being something they personally do not do. So, Mayor Hoffman and City Administrator Klein, if you are offered labor, expertise, or donated materials, figure out how to accept the offer graciously. People will think the better of you. Believe me, people have been volunteering in this town in support of their favorite causes longer than you, and probably your parents, have been alive. It’s what made this town what it is.
Explore
Work on the Highway 9 bridge is causing closure of the east access (at the west end of First Street) to the Wildlife Sanctuary. Not to worry; there is another entry on Second Street, west of town. Go past the exit/on ramps to Hwy 9, as you leave town on Second. The entry to the park is shared with the entry to the waste water processing plant, on your left.
Why We Love Diversity
I’ll admit this is a bit of history that is not local but is important for these reasons:
It demonstrates diversity goes back to the very earliest days of our European ancestors‘ arrival.
It documents crushing prejudice endured by, and the stunning resilience of, an oppressed group.
it provides inspiration, and a provides promise of path through and past bigotry.
Volunteering and Local Resources
We speak a lot about volunteering in your community and the opportunities volunteering provides in civic life generally. Use the button for possibilities.
Also, for folks wanting more information on focused areas of interest I offer these suggestions:
Outinsnohomish.org is a resource for our LGBTQ+ community. They will be working on the Pride events that were, in the past, managed by HDSA. They are also on Facebook and Instagram, have an events calendar and offer volunteer opportunities.
In Facebook, look for Wil Johnson’s Facebook page. He does a great job of elevating and broadening the reach of marginalized voices…or perhaps simply voices you might not otherwise hear from. He is a longtime educator, works for Snohomish County, and his page is well worth the feed.
HDSA has a podcast called Snohomish Storytellers. You can query it on Apple Podcasts, and they have been at this for awhile. There were 25 recordings in their library on subjects of all kinds but all focused on Snohomish.
The New Apostolic Reformation
If you are wondering why we haven’t moved on here: Christian Nationalism remains entrenched in the White House. They support a far right political agenda which includes Project 2025, and therefore pose a threat to religious pluralism and freedom generally.
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Christian Nationalism and the New Apostolic Reformation distinctions; and how to identify adherent churches in the wild. And what it means for you.