by Kirby Lindsay Laney
originally posted 27 January 1999
in The Seattle Press
The other day I met Preston Tinsley for lunch at The Dock restaurant. He was slipping off of his beige overcoat and I was dumping my bags in a chair when I burst out my concern. I had heard he was planning to move out of Fremont. With great simplicity, he told me, “You can always come back to Fremont. Once you have lived here, nature installs a homing device in your soul same as it has done to a homing pigeon. You must return to Fremont to roost.” I’d never thought of it that way.
‘A Homing Device In Your Soul’
Tinsley lives on Whitman Avenue and has been around Fremont since the 1970’s, when it was “a dangerous place”. Tinsley is the person you ask when you need to know how to approach the City for something. Tinsley is the person who could help us ‘Go Downtown.’ He often introduces people to the right process, or the easier way. “He has always been willing to show people through the city morass,” according to Suzie Burke, another long-time Fremonster.
I knew his background was in City Government but I found out that Tinsley came to Fremont from Spokane, where he served in the Air Force as a Military Investigator until 1970. Originally from Atlanta, he came looking for a place without bugs (like Atlanta) or snow (like Spokane). After Vietnam, he’d had quite enough of the tropics. He liked Seattle because of the rain. Allergies, developed by exposure to Agent Orange, make it difficult to breathe. Here the rain keeps the pollen and dust down.
He started out in an apartment at the corner of 35th & Fremont Avenue (where Caravan Carpets is now.) He enjoyed being able to walk down to the water with his young son. In fact, when he helped start the Fremont Community Council (circa 1980) he came on as Parks Chairperson and saw to the construction of Canal Park.
Serving The City, And Fremont
In his career, he served as Special Assistant to City Councilman Sam Smith for over 17 years. After that, he worked in the same office at the Community Service Administration with Charlie Chong and Mary Pearson. Then he moved to a political consulting firm named Adviso with political guru Blair Butterworth.
The knowledge he gained in these positions often benefited our neighborhood; like in the fight for a fireboat on Lake Union. According to Margie Freeman, another long-time Fremonster, this battle had been going on since the early 1960’s. “Kind of like different waves of an army” kept advancing as bureaucracy and time won each battle. The only fireboat in Seattle, to fight boat fires and shore fires from the water, was located on Puget Sound – on the other side of the Locks. Tinsley is often surprised when people think getting a fireboat on Lake Union “just happened. It took a lot of nighttime meetings. It took a lot of lobbying.” he explains. Besides getting a boat – convincing City Hall to pay for it – they also had to put a crew on-board. Our Lake Union fireboat belongs to the Harbor Patrol and is a joint activity with the Fire Department, an innovative achievement.
“Through all of the eighties, Tinsley was a voice Downtown that Fremont is here and doing things. It is easy to forget that Fremont, or Ballard, or Wallingford exist when you are in the bureaucracy of Downtown,” Burke explained.
Re-Fighting The Battles
Now, Tinsley is looking to move out of Fremont, out of the City. He wants to be closer to nature. His health, always excellent, took a bad turn last fall when a wound, received over 30 years ago in Vietnam, acted up. When he gets better, he is looking to find a place to retire in quiet surroundings, closer to nature.
He doesn’t want to re-fight the battles. This fall will be the first election in which he will not have an active role. Politics, he feels, has gotten too personal. It used to be about give and take, he pointed out, but after you attack a person’s character and accuse them of horrible things, there can be no more giving.
Tinsley believes he did a good job. “I could have done better.” he admits candidly. He did his best, though. He was not trying to gain anything, not looking for financial rewards, just trying to do the right thing. “This way,” he explained, “I like myself better.”
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©2016 Kirby Laney. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.