Survival is up to you

Gee, thanks for that tip!

Brilliant survival? Hmmm.

In addition to making fun of a guide that is merely trying to be helpful to the small business community, I hope you will all be able to depart from your computers (oh no!) to visit the local busiensses that need our support during construction.

Alfred’s, Johnny’s, Cascade Friction, Freighthouse Square, Bull’s Eye Shooting Gallery, those are just a few of them.

More and more businesses will need our support as the redevelopment of Tacoma continues, and rather than poking fun at the issue, I really hope you’ll try to understand what they’re going through and that you’ll be there for them.

Thanks!

Roxanne

Re: poking fun

I hope that we can all, at some point, stop confusing cynicism with insight. Seriously, I am so BORED with little cybercynics – armchair quarterbacking at its most pathetic and futile. Real revolutionaries engage the 3d world of sense and struggle. Taking the occasional, trite, mildly clever pot-shot from the safety and anonymity of a virtual world…well, I don’t know what to say, honestly. Way to go?

comment addendum:

yes the survival guide is retarded, and yes people making fun of the retarded are horrible people. However, the internet is not to blame.

Direct your frustration at your fellow citizens, not the tools.

Another survival tip:
save money on valet parking by moving your business someplace that won’t have construction happening. Like say the winthrop or the elks lodge.

Seriously though pot-shots are healthy tools in any democracy.

If you want to avoid pot-shots read Family Circus comics.

Hey, I have friends who shop at Bull’s Eye.
I had more interesting dicussion last night with another shop owner who said business owners he knows are more that eager to share their views related to the constructon disruption. I haven’t noticed some of the “anti” postering that he says has been appearing.

Anyway, for those existing in RR’s cyberia, there is a fairly useful constantly-updated city construction webpage linked to in the brochure with schedules, Broadway LID site plan, etc.
http://www.cityoftacoma.org/constructionupdates
_{(No, not “that” kind of lid.)}

It’s good conversation. Broadway will be attractive when done, and heck a few weeks ago my son fell through to his waist in the gap between the Broadway fence and sidewalk adjacent to the parking lot below. So I’m definitely for a safer environment. Hopefully the improvements will address the issue of squatters that emerge from under the ineffective Stadium Way fence. Unlike business owners, I can relatively easily pick up and move, and while I’d like to play along, I am serious considering it, rather than live in the storm under this month’s rent increase. Having been to the meetings and talking amongst the other business owners, dni, can you share more inside observations or generalizations, from either side of the issue? Such as where things have worked, and where there’s a total disconnect, real or perceived?

Broadway; There is so much involved here that it would take a lot of space on this blog. The website mentioned above will give you the “general” specifics.

The scope of the whole project is quite complex and expensive. The work is all infrastructure, i.e., water, sewer, electrical, phone, internet. Roads and sidewalks — building to building. There are also some “vaulted” sidewalk issues that the City is going to be dealing with.

Roads affected: Broadway from 9th to 4th. Market from 9th to 7th. St. Helens from 9th to 7th. Opera Alley, and have been told there will be extensive work to 7th. I’m unclear as to the impact itself on 9th, but sure that this will be impeded with all the construction traffic, traffic light installation, etc. I’m hoping to hear back more from the City on this.

My dealings so far with this whole issue began quite by chance really. I heard about a meeting to discuss the St. Helens traffic flow decision to be made, based on local input, along with the engineers employed by the city on this project. It was only then that I became aware of just “some” of the specifics of this plan. These meetings have been discussed on this blog.

I attended those meetings and began asking questions. My business is on Opera Alley, which I had been told was not going to be affected by the LID. Just to make sure this was so, I asked the question, and learned that the Alley would in fact be a large part of the LID. For me, its just the beginning of a lot of time spent asking questions.

My take on the LID...The infrastructure needs work; property owners voted on the LID and it was approved in April 06. The City engineers have been busy putting it together and the bid package went out this month. Construction is set to begin in August thru October, shut down, then set to begin in full force Jan 7th 08. I’ve been told that it will proceed throughout 08’ and most likely into 09’, but they cannot forecast 09’.

They are planning “phases” of the project, to be performed and to have “substantial completion” prior to moving on to the next “phase.” I believe the phases are outlined on the web site.

It looks like a lot of what property owners wanted, as far as “beautification” of the area, may not be able to withstand budget constraints. They were hoping to get some beautiful street lighting, a lot of greenery, etc., but this may not be exactly what was originally sought after.

For myself, and my business, there have been quite a few surprises so far. I can say, Thank God, I attended that meeting, or who knows how long it would have been before I would have been informed that my street would be dug up “sometime between August and October of 08”.

Also, as far as I know (since about 10 days ago anway) they haven’t come to a conclusion yet as to when the majority of the construction would be performed, day or evening. That’s to be decided, but not sure when.

There’s plenty more I know, but if anyone in the area needs more information on this, I would look at the website, get informed, get on the mailing list, etc.

this construction versus tax revenues stuff is very old news…I’ve yet to see a government seem to have an awareness that, while fresh new infrastructure is a good thing generally, to have a survival plan for business…...A pro-active forum to negotiate with landlords..perhaps to offer them incentives (temp prop tax reduction or a rebate…)to temporarily reduce rents, for instance, would be immensely helpful.
I read the city doc….It boils down to this: Figure it out yerself!
So good luck talking to the city of Tacoma….
My comment about shooting/drinking was to say: I make it a point to 1. Shop Local
2. Shop Under Construction
It’s our world….gov’t aint gonna save it for us…....I have sucessfully negotiated with landlords many many times to get over a rough spot….

Along the lines of Artwalk, I’ll make an extra 133-effort to commit a special day to patronize a construction zone if it fits my needs and budget. And in the spirit of Roxanne’s post above, I’ll try use it as as reason to extend beyond my usual haunts. For example, I’ve been meaning to try Alfred’s for a long time – I’ll finally do it. Thanks for taking the time out of your schedule, dni for helping us know your experiences and efforts from the inside.