Jim Merritt Will Run for Mayor (21. January 2009, 13:57 by Whitney Rhodes) ~ Next?
Tacoma architect and community activist Jim Merritt recently confirmed he will indeed run for mayor this year. Merritt has a lengthy resume and a long history of community work in Tacoma.
I asked him last Friday why he wanted to run now. He expressed how he is proud of where Tacoma is but it seems to have run out of steam the last few years. He wants to bring people together and get Tacoma back on track.
Merritt is the first to publicly announce his candidacy, but we’ve heard lots of names being tossed about. It’s going to be a long campaign season. Who’s next?
Link to the News Tribune
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“[W]here Tacoma is but it seems to have run out of steam the last few years. . . .” it has run out of money and not steam in the last few years, but while steaming well; perhaps just look around Thea Foss Waterway, EPA waterway cleanup, and downtown Tacoma ‘Taxpayers’ parking areas, and new and ongoing downtown LID improvements. Enjoy what you got before the ‘Taxpayers’ pull-the-plug on their money as some just might call it ‘steam’ for tomorrows, but money is our most important natural resource, so don’t waste it and now just-let private business fund and build the new stuff needed to get back on any new tracks required.
1 | Posted by John Sherman | Jan 21, 02:08 PM
This early in the race there is only one thing for sure, Merritt’s involvement will help raise our politics to a more productive level, at least on urban design and related issues.
On one related issue, transportation and the Tacoma Street car, we do have money, thanks to the passage of the ST funding – as well as an expressed willingness to talk from the Puyallup Tribe.
That’s the sort of ‘steam’ we need. FWIW, if you don’t have that, money is only dangerous.
2 | Posted by Douglas Tooley | Jan 22, 05:56 AM
Here’s Merritt’s campaign web site:
Jim is a key figure for the Tacoma renaissance in many areas: The expansion of the Tacoma Union Station, the Federal Court house, the spectacular Dale Chihuly exhibit, and too-many-to-list projects that can be found in every neighborhood and business district throughout the city.
Jim’s approach to urban design is an in-depth understanding of the multifaceted needs of the city and and how those needs interact and impact each other. Sustainable historic preservation of our city’s best assets must coexist with new, green deveopment that is both needed and desired in an understandable framework that can be built by others on individual sites
I’m more concerned about a balanced budget than lower taxes.
Granted, less taxes=good, but balanced budget with no deficit, little to no debt and being sustainable on the current tax base are more gooder.
6 | Posted by Thorax O'Tool | Jan 29, 07:15 PM
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