Low Hanging Fruit (15. March 2006, 12:10 by Derek Young) ~ What Can We Do?
A lot of us like to debate the long term, occasionally expensive, solutions for Tacoma’s issues. We want more light rail. We want trolleys. We want more parking. We want more people to walk. We don’t want a convention center, but we got one anyway. Some people want a spire to rival the Space Needle. We want more condos. We want cheaper housing. We want better restaurants – as long as their cheap enough for a college student. We want a lot a things. It’s nice to want things.
My question to you, the average reader of Exit133 that doesn’t have the $1 million to open a restaurant or the city council clout to change zoning, what can we/you do to help Tacoma? What little things would change our world? Or your world? What would build community, get people outside, or make neighbors talk more?
Imagine the little things. What if more people played horseshoes in the pits down in Wright Park? What if each of us rallied to get a tree planted, helped paint a neighbors house, or helped an elderly neighbor garden? What if we had a few more community gardens available? What if we played bocce at Point Defiance and taught everybody that asked how to play the game? What would that do for our city? Would it help a little bit? I don’t know the answer here. I’m looking to you for help. What can we do – bring along a friend or two – to make this city even better one block at a time? Think of the little things.
Commenting Is Closed
Comments are allowed for two weeks from the posted date. If you want to make a comment or reopen this discussion, please contact us with your request. Thank you for visiting.
We personally already have the wheels turning on a ginormous neighborhood block party this summer. Based on what I’ve figured out, it should be relatively easy to get a special events permit to close one block of a non-arterial street, with enough advance time getting the forms into the City Clerk. For block parties, all of the insurance policy requirements are waived…
We are looking forward to dragging some grills out onto the street, maybe bringing in some live music, playing games, whatever. Perhaps tie in some yard sales. But the big thing is getting to know our neighbors better and fostering a sense of community.
I think it would be great to see these happening all over the city this summer…
See here for more info and the application form:
http://www.cityoftacoma.org/52generalservices/ClerkForms/SpecEvnt.htm?redir=no
1 | Posted by jamie | Mar 15, 12:31 PM
1.) Sweep your sidewalk. Do the neighbor’s on either side of you as well. Maybe pull a weed or two from the cracks. Time Investment = 20 min.
2.) On your way out of Thriftway, pick up a couple of those $6 flower pots and set them on your porch. Time Investment = 10 min.
3.) Take a walk around the block once a week and pick up some litter.
Time Investment = 15 min + you’ll lose 5 pounds in a month.
2 | Posted by Dave | Mar 15, 05:10 PM
Oh! I almost forgot. What do you think the impact would be if we all made the effort to Smile and say “Hi” to the folks we pass as we go about our business. Imagine what a change in attitude it would make, especially since Seattle seems to relish in the stoic gloom. For a double dose, get over wearing Black and slide into a bright color now and again.
3 | Posted by Dave | Mar 15, 05:15 PM
Yes!
We need more block parties and neighborhood events! Where is yours? I was thinking of doing one on Yakima Ave.
There is an annual event called “National Night Out” which a few neighborhoods participate in. It is set for August 1st this year:
http://www.nationaltownwatch.org/nno/about.html
Since moving back to Tacoma a couple years ago- I’ve set out these missions to work on:
Connect the community. Connect the neighborhoods. Increase Tacoma’s entrepreneurial culture.
These, I believe, are the basic ingredients to making a vibrant city. And Tacoma needs desperate help in all three areas …in my opinion.
-Morgan
———————————————————————————————————
For what it’s worth…
Connecting the Community
Tacoma has always been a sleepy kind of town where you get up in the morning, go to the factory, come home, eat dinner and then go to bed. This is starting to change, but we need to create more (free) ways to get people out of their comfort zones (houses) and into the community. This is the mission of a group I started last year, Tacoma Works (www.tacomaworks.org), last year we did a Day of the Dead procession on 6th Ave & downtown. We got some good press and had a lot of fun. We’re planning on doing it again this year- join us!
There is a group along these lines in Portland that is doing some really cool stuff called City Repair – Tacoma could use a lot of repairing like this! I would like to do small impromptu “T†parties like they do- but maybe without the horse – that’s too much to coordinate! This is “T†town- right? I have a perfect spot scoped out! The little triangle park on Division at about Sheridan (just up from Frisko Freeze). Check it out at: www.cityrepair.org.
Connecting the Neighborhoods
I won’t go into detail here, but check out Tacoma Streetcar.
Increasing Tacoma’s Entrepreneurial Capacity
One of Tacoma’s challenges, is growing their own entrepreneurs… and then keeping them. Through my work in commercial real estate I am in constant contact with opportunities, people with money to invest, and more specifically, people that want to invest in making Tacoma a better place. All the pieces are here, accept we lack the operators of the cool cafes, cozy lounges, neighborhood markets – things that make a place vibrant. Instead, we have Subway’s, Tully’s and Starbucks, and restaurateurs from outside the area (el Gaucho, Chopstix, Asado, Duke’s, Stanley & Seafort’s, etc.) filling the gaps for what should be homegrown.
All the other pieces are ready to go, so if anyone out there knows someone interested in opening a business, I am waiting to plug them in to this network.
Summary
More than anything, we just need more people willing to get up off their ass and put some effort into making this a great place and not just sit back waiting for someone else to do it.
Morgan, we are on Pine St. just south of Sixth Ave, so we are going to pick a block somewhere between Sixth and S 12th…
Haven’t picked a date yet for the block party. I was aware of the National Night Out, so that is of course a possiblity, but we’re not going to limit ourselves too much.
Thanks for the link to Tacoma Works, though, wasn’t aware of that! Do you have an email list for that group?
6 | Posted by jamie | Mar 16, 09:26 AM
I think something easy people can do is go to local highschool sports games. Find a sport you like, find a team near by, and go watch. It builds up community spirit and you’ll get to know some neighbors. If you don’t like sports, try attending a few Knowledge Bowl matches or debates or school plays. Those tend to be entertaining as the kids are characters. Just showing up to lend support means a lot to the teenage participants who are going to have an impact on Tacoma’s future.
Also, if you don’t like the big franchise stores and restaurants, don’t shop or eat there. It might cost more to buy something from a local petshop than Petco, but just think of it as a tax on keeping nice businesses in the community. I know so many great bookshops that have gone out of business since Borders came to town. Nothing against Borders, but I miss having decent used and specialty bookstores (remember “The Children’s Bookstore,” by TCC?) around. If you make an effort to shop at these places, they won’t be as likely to go out of business and maybe someone thinking about starting a shop will be more inclined to try if they know there will be community support.
Oh! Oh! Oh!
Get involved with your neighborhood council! Sure, most of the meetings are deadly boring and filled with a bunch of old people bitching about all the change going on, but right now the annual allotment of $100,000 for neighborhood streetscape improvements is happening NOW!
Mine is North End Neighborhood Council:
The next meeting is 7PM in the University Of Puget Sound, Wheelock Student Center, Room 101, North Lawrence St., between N. 14th and N. 15th.
http://www.nenc.org/
Find your neighborhood here:
http://www.cityoftacoma.org/default.asp?main=/21Neighborhoods/default.asp
cheers!
Morgan
Seeing that kind of excitement about a neighborhood council meeting definitely intrigues me. I will look into it, although I appear to be in a no man’s land somewhere between New Tacoma and North Tacoma. I’ve found two maps with two different view of which council I fall into. I’ve sent emails to the neighborhood representatives asking for clarification. We’ll see.
I'm still looking for more little ideas. Dave seems to have a few creative simple things. Battling with an older generation of Tacomans at a council meeting sounds like fun, but what else can we do to make our world a better place?
Commenting is closed for this article.
