Oh the bitterness, Mr. Fewster!

... and no one is exempt from his anger and bitterness. Except himself. And Seattle.

While I did find them a tad sardonic, I think that Fewster and Fosner had something important to say. The song talking about the gentrification of Tacoma is a song about what I’m seeing happen to the town in which I’ve lived for 21 years. The property taxes are pricing people out of their homes, particularly on the east side of Tacoma. Putting aside bitterness, what do you think of their views of what’s happening to Tacoma?

What a couple of jerks. I really dont understand people like this.

Fewster & Fosner – I’m going to set aside the issue of you hating Tacoma even though you live here because you can’t afford to live anywhere else.
I want to focus on your performances. You guys are really bad. Seriously. I’m concerned about your names having a connection to Tacoma. I just listened to your radio spot on KUOW and it was really painful to hear it all the way to the end! I did listen though because I was hoping that there might be something useful to take from the poems and songs. No suck luck! I felt like I was listening to some cheap sample of a radio advertisement for Jack Roberts Appliance or Vern Fonk or something, but it was even worse than that.
You guys actually have a show? Who pays to see you? Your family members? Do they clap for you when you sing songs complaining about the town you choose to live in?
No wonder you can’t afford to live in Seattle anymore!!!

Tacoma wasn’t always gritty, although it seems it was destined to be.

There’s an amazing early map by the Olmsted Brothers of their plan for Tacoma. I think Kings Books has a copy in their rare book room. Tacoma came upon a fork in the road and for better and worse it let the engineers decide its destiny. As much as I hear about the arts and artists in Tacoma, I think there’s still a ways to go until the creatives outnumber the engineers… I’m looking forward to that day!

Tacoma came upon a fork in the road and for better and worse it let the engineers decide its destiny

Fortunately, the basic “grid” of
downtown Tacoma and the historic neighborhoods is pretty incredible. I love the original design.

Like most cities, most of the damage was done after the 1940s.

Yet, Tacoma retains enough of its historical buildings and basic layout to be a great city if the repair work is done right.

We have a copy of the Olmsted map in the Northwest Room at the library.

I like how Tacoma’s been in the news for all things protest lately. Seems natural as Seattle becomes more exclusive. But I must say I can relate a lot more to the anti-war stuff then the “freeze Tacoma in time” message. What’s wrong with more people living downtown? My guess is that a housing correction will make some of these new places pretty darn affordable anyway.

Embrace your inner grittiness, be proud and hold your heads high. Sure Tacoma has much to be ashamed of, all cities do. But things can be fixed, not realizing who you are is when the trouble starts. Granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances are not the answers to Tacoma’s problems.

One can distill things down to their essense, simply what Tacoma needs is diversity. No city can be great until it embraces diversity.

Along with diversity, a city has to be known for something. In Tacoma’s case it should be know for education. Seriously, nothing started happening until the UW showed up in Taocma, sad the UPS school of law left us. Education is what Tacoma should be known for and the city should put all its backing in to this Let Seattle make the lattes and the software, we’ll create the people that make the software and consume the java. Let Tacoma’s focus always be education.

No planning for the city should be done unless it is inclusive. All classes of people, rich and poor should be considered when making the plans for turning Tacoma into a great city. Indeed, a city dedicated to education will pretty much insure the poor don’t remain poor.

What will happen to the people living in the Winthrop makes me sick. To revitalize a downtown by removing the poor is sad and misguided. A city with no heart will never be a great city. A city that cuts out its own heart is doomed to die. Tacoma needs to find its heart, it needs to celebrate diversity, Tacoma needs to show the rest of the state that it can build itself up without tearing anyone down.

If Tacoma needs to model itself after another place, it shouldn’t be Seattle, first of all it will never work. Tacoma should really consider modeling itself after itself. If Tacoma needs a model, I’d say look towards Madison WI. A fine college town at the cusp of a larger town (Milwaukie) that has no shame and does very well for itself. Madison has about the population of Tacoma, it is a great college town and Tacoma would do well becoming their own version of Madison.

Anyone in the position of authority, in the City of Tacoma should read the book by Jane Jacobs called The Death and Life of Great American Cities. This book, some 50 years old, in great detail describes how cities work and how they don’t. Arts, music, education, all of these things contribute and create greatness in a city. The young bring a vibrancy, the old bring wisdom. The poor bring their survival skills and appreciation of things that money can’t buy. The more diverse a community, the more likely it is that it will become great. Security in a community is not achieved by removing the “bad elements”, but rather by recognizing the humanity and contributions of all.

Shared experiences, public transportation, libraries, parks, do much to bring communities together. People being able to afford to live close by to where they work does much for a community. Business owners that live in the communities they do business in does much to create a great community. I remember the old days, growing up, where I would see a shop owner sweeping his own sidewalk outside his shop. That wasn’t an act of beautification, that was an act of marketing. The owner could be on the street seeing his customers go by, wave high, and continue building a relationship with the customer. What we have now, in downtown Tacoma, are minimum wage people sweeping (poorly) the sidewalks and having some monster machine come behind and gather up the trash. Of course you see very few business owners downtown, let alone on the sidewalks.

Civility in the city, that is what it is all about. We are all stakeholders in this city, not just the property owners, not just the business owners, not just the wealthy. Even the poorest amonst us is a stakeholder. It is time we all recognize this and act like we have a true ownership of our city.

You know, in Portland OR they have no problems with people living in subsidized apartments right next door to million dollar condominiums. People buy million dollar condos because of the neighborhood and only if it offers diversity. Creating the suburbs in a downtown area is absurd. First of all it will fail, second no one will really want to live there. A city shedding itself of its diversity is both economically unsound and just plain heartless. We are all the heart of Tacoma. I guess people will never learn.

But you gotta admit Downtown, Hilltop, Eastside, South Tacoma, South End is in no short supply of low income residences.

Much better.

Tacoma needs a 4 star hotel like it needs a hole in the head. I don’t care what the other cities of our size have, people don’t want to spend the night in Tacoma. To make the residents of the Winthrop face the uncertainty of possibly being homeless is heartless and cruel and unworthy of the city of Tacoma. To have designs on the Wintrop as a 4 star hotel that you can be sure no one will frequent is just absurd. I think we are making a good start with the condo development that is going on in downtown. Many new structures, some conversions that don’t impact the low income. Pretty sensible for the most part except the lower income people can afford them. Really is it necessary to drive from downtown the remaining low income people? My way of thinking the neighborhood will change as the residents change with the normal course of events. Or is there an ulterior motive? Are the developers worried that the poor will impact the prices of their fancy condos? My friends, what it looks like is going on is something very akin to ethnic cleansing. The sad thing is the City is willing to do this and in the end it will not make Tacoma a better place. You don’t make a city better by just helping one class of people, you make it better by insuring a better life for all. Helping developers get rich is no way to make a city better, and let us not forget all those 10 year tax abatements. You just have to love 10 year property tax abatements on million dollar condos.