Tacoma Urbanist
Jan. 1, 2008 at 12:12am
Happy New Year Tacoma! 2007 Progress and a Look Toward 2008
Happy New Year Tacoma!
2007: Things happened in 2007. Progress was made breathing life into our fare city we that we can be proud of. Blight was removed. A number of buildings were renovated. Parties and events were held.
Coffee was brewed and the restaurant scene continued to expand and smother any reason left to drive to Seattle for a meal. More people choose to live and work downtown. The blogosphere expanded. Downtown and many neighborhoods were enjoyed by many. Politicians were elected with big expectations. Cartoons were drawn.
2008: Here's where we are at now: 54 years after the Tacoma Mall opened. 58 years after the Tacoma Narrows Bridge was built.
35 years have passed since Downtown Tacoma was nearly abandoned altogether.
18 years since the founding of UWT.
So much potential. Yet, so many set backs. So much progress made and so far to go. Dozens of projects remain in the balance.
You can do it Tacoma. Brush yourself off and rise to the challenge.
Enough of the rhetoric. Tacoma's resident poet channelled through Tacoma's resident cartoonist can say and show it better:
About
A ongoing conversation to make Tacoma a better to live and work through better urban design.
See my Downtown and Neighborhood Pictures
-Erik B.
Most Popular Posts:
1. Tacoma Coffee Shop Showdown
2. Traffic Calming Portland Style (by painting intersections)
3. Tacoma's Relevance to Presidential Election 2008
4. Daniel Blue and RR Anderson
5. Tacoma Document Archive - Key City Documents, Court Documents, Links, Books, and Videos.
6. Is your city worth caring about? James Kunstler discusses how to make your community a place worth caring about.
Useful Links
Tacoma Streetcars - Join the citywide effort to restore streetcars to Tacoma's Neighborhoods.
Congress for New Urbanism - the leading organization promoting walkable, neighborhood-based development as an alternative to sprawl.
Planetizen - A one-stop source for urban planning news, commentary and interviews.
New Urban News - Discussing traditional neighborhood development focusing on building mixed-use, walkable neighborhoods instead of conventional suburban subdivisions, shopping centers and office parks.