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General : That Was Fun
Position 8 Candidate Forum - Follow Up
Our first Exit133 forum is now done. I would like to thank the Broadway Center for providing us with the venue. I would also like to thank the candidates and everybody that contributed questions, input, and suggestions.
The general format of the evening went like this:
The candidates were provided with 4 minutes to introduce themselves. It began with Marty Campbell. Next was David Curry, Marilyn Strickland, and then Jonathan Phillips. The order was determined by ballot order as provided by the Pierce County Auditor.
Then I began asking questions that we created by morphing and combining many of the questions you provided to us via email, voicemail, and in person. The time limit for answers was 3 minutes. I would ask the question to one candidate. Once that candidate was done speaking, I would ask one of the other candidates to follow up. Once the second candidate had spoken, we moved to the next question.
After eight questions, we asked one final question of all four candidates.
The entire event lasted 90 minutes. We have it all on tape. We’ll share it with you once we have a chance to… sleep.
Click for the topics, respondents, and the questions from this evening:
Housing Affordability
Jonathan Phillips & David Curry
As Tacoma becomes more dense and we in-fill with condos and multi-family projects, many of these new projects are priced well above the capabilities of a median income Tacoma resident. How would you respond to accusations that Tacoma is gentrifying at the expense of long time residents?
City Council and School Boards
Marty Campbell & Marilyn Strickland
With school boards and city councils becoming increasingly intertwined across the nation – with independent school boards being eliminated in some cities all together – what do you see as the role of Tacoma’s city council in directing education policy?
Regional Transportation
David Curry & Marty Campbell
As an elected official you would have the opportunity to participate in various regional boards and affect regional policy. Two of these boards, Sound Transit and the Regional Transportation Investment District, are proposing a tax package to the voters this fall. While an efficient transportation system is often required to accommodate economic growth, the direct impacts to the City of Tacoma is unclear. What are the positive and negative impacts of this transportation package on the City of Tacoma?
Alternative Transportation
Marilyn Strickland & Jonathan Phillips
Streetscars have been a fairly hot topic on Exit133 for the last few years. How do you see streetcars fitting into our urban landscape and how should we pay for them?
Environment
David Curry & Marilyn Strickland
The City of Tacoma has faced significant environmental issues over its history including multiple superfund sites. Though progress has been made, there are still significant issues facing the City. How can the City of Tacoma become more environmentally responsible as an organization and encourage environmental responsibility in its citizens?
Height Restrictions
Jonathan Phillips & Marty Campbell
The population of Tacoma is expected to grow by about 70,000 people over the next 20 years. With limited room for additional development, the Planning Commission is currently considering raising the height limits within some of the neighborhood business districts, as well as on a portion of the Foss Waterway. Is this an appropriate strategy to pursue? If so, what qualifications or restrictions are needed to ensure development compatibility with the surrounding neighborhood?
Partnering with Private Development
Marilyn Strickland & Marty Campbell
Other cities in the Puget Sound area have found ways to attract young people, professionals, and businesses by courting specific industries with high-paying creative and/or professional jobs, such as software and biotech. How do you envision Tacoma positioning itself to attract companies that hire such workers? Are there specific industries in this segment that you believe would be especially good fits for Tacoma?
Follow Up: What role do you see for council in encouraging commercial building development?
Neighborhood Infrastructure
Jonathan Phillips & David Curry
A primary responsibility of the City is maintaining City infrastructure such as roads and sidewalks. A recent survey identified the repair of inadequate infrastructure as a critical issue. While the citizens recently voted down a tax measure designed to improve and replace roadways, the City must still find a way to address the issue. What should the key components be of a city-wide plan to maintain the sidewalks and roadways – including how to pay for it?
Follow-up: Round-abouts, traffic circles, bulb-outs and other traffic calming devices have been added to many of the City’s roadways. Do they help or hurt the streetscape and how should their placement be identified in the future?
The Final Question
Many readers of Exit133 have dreams for the City of Tacoma or projects they would love to see happen. These regularly come out in the ongoing discussions on the site. So the Exit133 community wants to know: If you were given free reign to do a single capital project (either public or private) and funding is already available, what would you do? Why?
Previously on Exit133
Link | Posted on 22. June 2007, 00:18
Commenting Is Closed
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Our first Exit133 forum is now done.
Great event Derek. Good attendance. Hopefully, the video will come through for everyone to watch and I am sure Kevin will post some pictures tomorrow.
All four candidates are obviously strong. They all had some great things to say.
Marty Campbell obvously know how small businesses can thrive downtown which can rebuild the city and discussed often the need to build a dense pedestrian friendly city which is not car centric.
I liked what David Curry (who runs the Light House Mission) said about working to take out the blightful power lines and structures out of 21st Street to make the area more attractive.
Marilyn Strickland is the only candidate who lives downtown. Her wish (in response to the final question) was to have a large multi use building in the center downtown to bring some life to the downtown.
Jonathan Phillips actually was on city council for a time. He knows neighborhoods well and how they need to be protected from adverse government actions and private entities.
1 | Posted by Erik B. | Jun 22, 12:51 AM
Just posted a bulleted list transcript and my thoughts on the evening. Overall it was a great time with valuable insight into each candidate.
Thanks!
2 | Posted by KevinFreitas | Jun 22, 08:22 AM
My concern is that all the candidates seem to have an overall lack of fact-based knowledge/ understanding regarding the surge in market-rate housing, also referred to as “gentrification”... targeting MF development and allowing for the state-sanctioned 10-yr property tax abatement was a purposeful quest to bring the City of Tacoma’s housing stock into BALANCE. A housing study was done that indicated that for a city of our size we had an abundant stock of “coupon” and low-income housing, but
were woefully short of market-rate MF housing.
After several years of courting retailers – yes, including grocery stores – only to be repeatedly turned down because our “numbers weren’t there”... the only way we can get a “whole foods” or any other retailer to even consider Tacoma is by increasing the number of “rooftops” (density) and the average income of residents. The private sector determines where to locate their stores by using industry-based formulas to select locations, no amount of “begging” is going to change that. The BALANCING of housing stock will not only benefit the welathy, it will provide retail opportunities and services for ALL residents.
And if you wonder if we have to many condos, do some research into the Growth Management Act, the targeted housing requirments the city has, and you will see that we are not even on track to meet projected demand for housing. Height restrictions will NEED to be lifted in all areas of Tacoma, not just downtown… Looking at and aerial map and offering unbuildable or unavailable lands is not an option. We must preserve what little green space we have left. DENSITY is the only option to meet the needs both economically and ecoligically.
3 | Posted by Shari | Jun 22, 09:27 AM
My concern is that all the candidates seem to have an overall lack of fact-based knowledge/ understanding regarding the surge in market-rate housing, also referred to as “gentrification”... targeting MF development and allowing for the state-sanctioned 10-yr property tax abatement was a purposeful effort to bring the City of Tacoma’s housing stock into BALANCE. A housing study was done that indicated that for a city of our size we had an abundant stock of “coupon” and low-income housing, but were woefully short of market-rate MF housing.
After several years of courting retailers – yes, including grocery stores – only to be repeatedly turned down because our “numbers weren’t there”... the only way we can get a “whole foods” or any other retailer to even consider Tacoma is by increasing the “number of rooftops” (density) and the average income of residents. The private sector determines where to locate their stores by using industry-based formulas to select locations, no amount of “begging” is going to change that. The BALANCING of housing stock will not only benefit the wealthy, it will provide retail and service opportunities for ALL residents.
And if you wonder if we have too many condos, I encourage you to do some research into the Growth Management Act and the targeted housing requirments for the City… you will see that we are not even on track to meet projected demand for housing. Height restrictions will NEED to be lifted in all areas of Tacoma, not just downtown… Looking at an aerial map and offering up an unrealistic solution based on unbuildable (slope, watershed, etc.) or unavailable lands is not an option. We must preserve what little green space we have left. DENSITY is the only option to meet the needs both economically and ecologically.
The new housing stock does include a variety of options: both lease or own at different price levels. But the current HIGH COST of construction materials makes it very difficult to build properties that target workers making under $15/hr. Hopefully the changes to the MFPTA program (8/12 yr) will help.
4 | Posted by Shari | Jun 22, 09:46 AM
Good forum. Interesting opportunity to hear from the candidates on more specific issues beyond the stump speech of “I am running for office because I want to make Tacoma better.” (No kidding, don’t we all?) Unfortunately, sometimes there was a distinct lack of specifics or understanding of the issues.
My favorite quote (as best I can read my notes):
“Anyone can blog about what’s happening, but it takes real courage to run for office. I applaud my fellow candidates for their courage.”
5 | Posted by MichaelK | Jun 22, 09:58 AM
It was fun. Ms. Darcy and I snuck in an out to absorb the atmosphere, was sad to see everybody being so nice to each other.
Where’s the drama? Where’s the passion?
Not one candidate threw their water or slammed the heal of their shoe on the table kruschev style.
Even so, whoever wins I think we’ll be in good hands.
6 | Posted by RR Anderson | Jun 22, 10:07 AM
“Where’s the drama?”
So there we were. Third Thursday and all. Broadway Center for the Arts of all places.
RR was looking for drama. I was looking for comedy.
None of that occurred.
A little dance routine, some heart-felt poetry, a funny home-video clip?
Show us the real you, candidates!
Thanks Derek!
7 | Posted by Claudia | Jun 22, 12:11 PM
This was probably the first kind of event like this that I’d been too but I don’t think I expected a lot of drama. Certainly there are big issues we’re looking at as a community, but it’s not like there is anything truly divisive right now.
There’s not a lot of reason for one candidate to bang a shoe at another candidate, I guess. I appreciated the civil discussion and respect the candidates had for each other.
Kind of reminded me of the forums and comments on Exit133 (insert sappy tear here and sigh here).
Claudia might be on to something, though.
Maybe next time each candidate should compose a haiku about Tacoma while on stage and then read it to the room. That would make for some good times.
8 | Posted by Erik Hanberg | Jun 22, 12:50 PM
I should probably add that I’m not trying to say that candidates sounded the same. There each had different goals, strategies, and opinion. But had this event happened shortly after Brame in ’03, you can bet there would have been real “divisiveness” as opposed to differences of opinion.
9 | Posted by Erik Hanberg | Jun 22, 12:59 PM
Raising the specter of our homicidal police chief… now that’s what i’m talking about!
10 | Posted by RR Anderson | Jun 22, 02:32 PM
The world would be a better place if there was less emphasis on who to blame or more emphasis on what “I” can do to make things better.
11 | Posted by kc | Jun 23, 04:11 PM
I thought Campbell seemed to have the best grasp of what Tacoma needs to keep improving — he seems most open to making Tacoma function like a real city, as opposed to a big suburb. He appeared more willing than the others — especially Phillips and Curry — to do what it takes to significantly increase density and transit-based development not just downtown but throughout the city.
However, I came away concerned that Campbell doesn’t quite grasp the importance of more and better commuter options to and from Seattle. I agree with him that we need more focus on intra-city transit, but that shouldn’t be at the expense of further improving inter-city transit service.
I can’t imagine that my wife and I are the only couple where only one of us can get a good job in our respective fields in Tacoma. That’s the reality of Tacoma’s relatively limited employment base. That’s not a slam on Tacoma, it’s just a smaller, less prominent city, and it makes more sense for a lot of businesses to locate in Seattle rather than here. Ironically, that problem is only reinforced by the mediocre transit options between Tacoma and Seattle.
I hope that if Campbell wins (and I think I hope he does), that he will work to improve inter-city commuting options whether it’s through light rail, much more frequent Sounder trains, or HOV lane restrictions sufficient to keep buses from getting stuck in I-5 traffic.
12 | Posted by michael g. | Jun 24, 11:47 AM
Perhaps Exit 133 will hold a forum for the other candidates.
Today, the Takhoman reports that the 27th Democrats endorsed Manthou overwhelmingly over Moss.
13 | Posted by Erik B. | Jun 27, 01:36 PM
“Ironically, that problem is only reinforced by the mediocre transit options between Tacoma and Seattle. “
Yes things aren’t perfect but busses every 5 minutes during peak times, congestion free commuter trains, and light rail on the way if we can approve the package this November…I’d call that pretty good inter-city transit, altough not perfect. What I think we need to look at is creating more dense transit orinted developtment and transit within the city.
The 27th Dems endorsement meeting was very interesting.
14 | Posted by Andrew | Jun 27, 11:07 PM
Compared to many other big urban areas with well-developed light rail systems, our system of buses that get caught in traffic nearly as frequently as they run and trains that run a few times a day (and not at all the reverse direction yet) is clearly mediocre. Sure, it’s a lot better than it used to be, but that doesn’t make it good enough.
That said, I’m a big supporter of density and transit-oriented development in Tacoma. Improving regional transit and intra-city transit are complementary goals, not mutually exclusive ones.
I hope Marty (who I’ll probably vote for regardless of his position on regional transit because he seems to have a better overall vision for the city than the other candidates) gets that, because it seemed at the forum that he wasn’t too enamored of hooking Tacoma into a regional light rail system, i.e. it sounded like he was inclined to vote “no” on RTID.
15 | Posted by michael g. | Jun 28, 12:37 PM
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