5 Questions for ... Bill Evans (Full Text) ( 9. December 2007, 21:25 by Erik) ~ Thanks, Bill!

Below are the unedited answers to the 5 Questions we asked Bill Evans.

1. Looking back on your tenure on the City Council, what achievement are you most proud of?

Thanks for your question. I’ve had the opportunity to work with some good people during these eight years. Students (our ‘youngest citizens’), Skateboarders (some of our most creative citizens), Tree planters, Teachers, Fellow Councilmembers (17), Mayors (3), City Managers (3), City Staff, Business Owners large and small and lots of clitizens, just good, ordinary, dedicated citizens. “Achievement” is, of course, all about working together to accomplish something for the common good.

Without any hesitation, I’m proudest of a Resolution and an Ordinance passed by Council during my tenure. On April 16, 2002 we passed Ordinance #26948 … “extending protected class status based on a person’s sexual orientation and gender identity.” Then, on January 28, 2003, we passed Resolution #35754 “Opposing a pre-emptive U.S. military attack on Iraq and proposing that the U.S. government give U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq sufficient time to complete their task.”

Unfortunately, the voice of many cities wasn’t heeded in D.C. and we’re all aware of the eventual outcome. We continue, of course, to struggle to bring resolution and closure. Policy is one thing, of course, and projects are another. The one should lead to the other.

Much has been accomplished in Tacoma in these 8 years in terms of building a ‘livable community’. The Bridge of Glass, Link Light Rail, a greatly expanded UWT, new Convention Center and hotels, Esplanade expansion, the South End pool, neighborhood police stations in NE, Hilltop, Westend and South End, retrofitting all refuse trucks, port straddle carriers and other city owned vehicles to burn ultra low sulfur fuel or bio-diesel, environmental cleanup and planting on Tideflats properties, agreement with DOT to plant 20,000 trees and shrubs along Hwy 16 and I-5, Urban Waters, Museum of Glass, new Tacoma Art Museum, Soul Salmon project, Harbor Flag project, Downtown LID, Murano Hotel, 2,500+ new multi-family housing units, D Street overpass, new Sister Cities in Cuba and Morocco, Tacoma Trade Office in our Chinese Sister City, boulevarding and paving of several major arterials, hiring a new City Manager, Business district infrastructure improvements, etc.

2. What changes do you see coming in the Proctor District in the next 10 years? What would you like to see remain the same?

To a certain extent, the state’s Growth Management Act gives us guidelines that will help us preserve what is best from the past while encouraging creative urban planning and growth that will help Proctor be the livable, walkable community that all of us want. I see people working hard to preserve small, family owned businesses. I see those businesses not only surviving but thriving and that will take hard work from the whole community. I see the condominiumizing (is that a word?) of spaces occupied by retail shops and restaurants so that entrepreneurs can actually own the storefronts and spaces out of which they work. I see housing options which, for all practical purposes, have not existed in Proctor for many years. I see more public art and more green spaces. I see a strong, vibrant and growing Proctor Farmers Market. I see old buildings preserved and new, environmentally friendly buildings built. I see a flexcar in Proctor’s future. I see more ‘feet on the street’.

Proctor, like many of what I like to call the ‘urban villages’ of Tacoma, has history. I just finished co-authoring a book on the Proctor District with Caroline Gallacci. I spent hours, for several months, in the Northwest Room at the Central Library researching the district from its earliest days. The beauty of Proctor is that there’s probably more history spoken at a breakfast table in Knapp’s than you’d find in any scholarly treatise. History is ‘lived’ and ‘talked about’ in Proctor and it’s important to treasure that history. During my years in Tacoma I have been fortunate to be involved in the preservation of four very significant buildings….Old City Hall, Union Station, Albers Mill and the old Elks. In Proctor you get to be involved in the preservation and enhancement of a whole community. History, of course, doesn’t have to mean stagnation. We can preserve and enhance at the same time if we work hard to do it right.

3. What’s your favorite movie you’ve seen at the Blue Mouse?

Next year, 2008, marks the 85th birthday of Proctor’s Blue Mouse Theater. It has operated seven nights a week, pretty much uninterrupted, since 1923. We’ll have to have a celebration!

Several years ago at the Sister Cities International Film and Food Festival I saw a movie from Korea that I very often think about. It was called ‘JSA’ (Joint Security Area). It told the story of two young Korean soldiers. They were men who, because of some terrible circumstance, had become victims of a strange, unfortunate and deadly political reality that had thrown their native land into a minefield of hatred and suspicion. One had been born north of the 38th parallel and the other south of that same parallel. Each had been charged with ‘protecting’ the border between the two Koreas. Despite official prohibition, a brotherly friendship blossomed between the two men. At night they would secretly meet to play cards together. They were just Koreans. But, unfortunately, they were ‘found out’ and all hell broke loose. When one of the men was put to death, the movie became the tale of a horrendous tragedy….an all too real tragedy for the Korean people.

I remember the several hundred people in attendance that night walking out of the Blue Mouse in almost stunned silence. It was a powerful movie that I will never forget.

4. If you met a family from Portland, OR., how would you pitch Tacoma as a vacation destination?

It’s very important, I think, that we ‘pitch’ Tacoma as a destination different from Portland. I want this family to realize that they aren’t going to a ‘carbon copy’ city. Expect the unexpected.

First, I’d find them a place to stay. If they were a couple and this was their first visit to Tacoma I’d suggest something like Chinaberry Hill B&B (Stadium District) or the Villa B&B (Annie Wright Historic District) or the Green Cape Cod B&B (Proctor District). I’ve never found anything in Portland quite like these three. If they had kids I’d probably do the Silver Cloud (Old Town).

They’d arrive on the morning train. I’d pick them up and head directly to the Museum District (Downtown). We’d ‘do’ the Library at UWT. As you enter, turn right and walk up the stairs to the second floor. At the top of the stairs there’s a small balcony that overlooks the interior of what was the historic old electric generating plant and is now the main reading room for the University’s library. Then, to experience, up close, a magnificent Chihuly chandelier, I’d take them to the opposite end of the same floor. A small gathering space soars up two stories and in it hangs a huge blue glass sculpture. I think they’d enjoy this since there’s nothing like it in the ‘Rose City’.

Next we’d go to Union Station to see more incredible glass and one of our most historic buildings which was built as the terminus of the transcontinental railroad in the north. Portland’s history and ours kind of cross paths here, but I wouldn’t gloat. Next, we’d enter the Washington State History Museum to see Ezra Meeker’s oxen and before strolling across the Bridge of Glass (with its $12,000,000 worth of glass) and visiting the Museum of Glass and taking a look at historic Albers Mill we’d walk a block to the Tacoma Art Museum to see, among many other things, what must be the largest dog sculpture in the world. Portland isn’t a salt water port and the citizens of Portland can’t really see the ‘workings’ of an international port so we’d have to visit the Visitor Viewing Tower on the Sitcum Waterway to show off our region’s ‘Economic Engine’ and the 5th largest port in North America.

On the way to lunch in Proctor we’d stop at Thea’s Park to see the Flag Monument, the huge globe honoring our Sister Cities and the Peace Pole. If there were kids along and they had their skateboards we’d watch while they practiced their sport at what has to be one of the most picturesque skate spots in the world with Mt. Rainier as a backdrop on one side and Commencement Bay with ships at anchor on the other.

After lunch and a stop at a few shops in Proctor we’d head to one of the largest urban parks in the country, Point Defiance. But since Portlanders don’t have the opportunity to ride ferry boats we’d be ‘walk-ons’ for a round trip ride to Vashon Island. Once back at Point Defiance we’d visit Fort Nisqually and get a great view, from a distance, of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge (Westend). Portlanders will marvel at this structure since the closest thing they have to it is the beautiful but much, much smaller St. Johns Bridge.

On the way to Blueberry Park (South End) we’d make a few stops. First at the Landfill to tour the EnviroHouse (environmentally conscious Portlanders will be impressed with this) and at the Wright Park Conservatory to experience one of only three historic Victorian Glass House Conservatories on the West Coast. At Blueberry Park, a former blueberry farm, we’ll stroll through row upon row of blueberry bushes where we will eat as many berries as we want.

On the way back to the B&B we’ll go via a street that will make our visitors very proud, Portland Avenue (Eastside). We’ll tour Salishan which is a model for what Portlanders have tried for years to build but what, for some reason, has eluded that city. We’ll also stop to see the Soul Salmon, an outdoor sculpture at the Swan Creek library. On the way back to the B&B we’ll stop for a glass of wine in the McKinley business district and then head, via the largest wood roofed structure in the world, to Old Town and Ruston Way for dinner.

We’ll go via the Stadium District so we’ll be sure to see “The Castle” which will amaze our Portland visitors as will Yakima Avenue with its beautiful old Victorian homes. All in all, I think the Portlanders will be duly impressed on their first visit to Tacoma. The next day, or on their second visit we’ll start with something they’d never see in Portland, the magnificent Pantages in our Theatre District. In fact, they could keep coming back and we’ll just have more and more to share with them….from 6th Avenue to Roosevelt Heights to Salmon Beach. Mostly things they couldn’t experience in Portland.

5 What was the most bizarre or outrageous thing you ever saw at a City meeting?

No comment. It’s been a great eight years!

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