Tacoma Urbanist
Feb. 27, 2008 at 12:03am
Looking Back at The"Go Local or Die Event"
Great event at the :"Go Local or Die."
Congrats to Paul Sparks at Local Life Tacoma for putting together a first class event.
There was food, entertainment, a great speaker and a community panel. The place was packed for 2 hours. Not an easy accomplishment.
The event certainly exceeded my expectations.
The first hour consisted of Jim Diers author of Neighborhood Power with music.
There will be another event next month. The place was packed. Its hard to believe so much happened in such a limited space.
The event started off with great music from a band.
A full house.
Here's Marie from Veritas Mortgage after the event at the Matador.
Final Comments:
There is so much metaphorical blank canvas in Tacoma, anyone can start something. If you see a potential project something that would be exciting and cool, that means that that project is yours to be a leader on.
Its a non-starter to suggest "someone else" should do something. They they likely won't. However, once you start, many others will likely join in.
Here's a piece of it which is pretty inspirational:
Here's what I think: I think everyone has a crusade in them. Everyone has a cause, however large or small. Some people think that their neighborhood needs better streetlights. Some people complain that there is no good coffee in walking distance. Hell, some people just wish there were other folk out there who love to watch Project Runway.http://www.izenman.com/2008/02/ownership-of-change-part.html
Cassioposa.net took KFnet's place as the photographer. I am sure Kevin will have quite a post tomorrow about it.
The good news is that Tacoma is building an ever large amount of energy which makes increasingly larger projects possible.
Final Final Comments:
I don't know why, but the issue of garbage cleanup kept coming up so I will link to the Tacoma Sun article:
The Tacoma Armchair Approach to Cleaning Up Your Neighborhood
 by NineInchNachos on 2/27/2008 @ 8:59am | 
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 by Erik on 2/27/2008 @ 11:51am | Nice pictures.
I saw that we have representatives from the TNT there, Metro Parks and the Tacoma Cartoon society. |
 by andrew.austin on 2/27/2008 @ 3:04pm | sorry I couldn't make it. Looks like a good event! |
 by izenmania on 2/27/2008 @ 3:34pm | Also at least one staff member from the Community & Economic Development Department of the city. |
 by morgan on 2/27/2008 @ 3:55pm | The izenmania link is DOA...
Is there a central place for comments and follow-ups related to this event? Paul? |
by izenmania on 2/27/2008 @ 3:59pm | Sorry, we're changing around some IP stuff at work (which is where I host the site)... ETA: fixed now. Link should be functional. |
by Erik on 2/27/2008 @ 4:23pm | Is there a central place for comments and follow-ups related to this event? Paul? Nope. izenmania has one posted. www.izenman.com/2008/02/ownership-of-cha... Then there is mine: i.feedtacoma.com/Erik/looking-back-thego... Then Kevin had his: www.feedtacoma.com/forum/local-life/go-l... Finally, Exit 133 has a Forum post: www.exit133.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=... Welcome to open source Feed Tacoma blogging. If you think this is confusing, you should have seen the dust up on the reviews of Mary's Burgers. That's ok though. They all go through feed Tacoma and each have their own angle and unique content on the event. |
by izenmania on 2/27/2008 @ 4:27pm | There can be... it's called "go into the forum and start one" :) Kevin has created a Local Life (www.feedtacoma.com/forum/local-life/) category on the forum inspired by the event where we're starting to talk about stuff, so I would say go in there and start whatever thread you want based on what you have to say. |
 by KevinFreitas on 2/27/2008 @ 5:28pm | It's setup so that discussions relating to these meetings, this group, announcements, podcasts, and follow-ups can all be gathered in one place. Think I'll head over there now... (footsteps receding in the distance) |
by Erik on 2/27/2008 @ 6:33pm | Kevin has created a Local Life (www.feedtacoma.com/forum/local-life/)
Hmmm. The link does not appear to work. |
 by intacoma on 2/27/2008 @ 6:39pm | make sure you have that slash
www.feedtacoma.com/forum/local-life/ |
by izenmania on 2/27/2008 @ 7:03pm | I would just like to say... it was all Kevin's fault. But he's fixed it now. |
by Erik on 2/27/2008 @ 7:16pm | I would just like to say... it was all Kevin's fault. But he's fixed it now. Nice. A podcast. That might be useful. I will link to it when it gets up. The first time, it only had a clip of the band on it. The next event will have Roxanne Murphy and other panalists.  Being that it is the second forum, I wonder if they will have a greater or lesser number of people there. Hmmm. Given that Roxanne has more friends than Veritas has chairs, I suspect it will be standing room only again. Derek will on next month too:  Here's the next panel and date. Mark your calenders: March 25th Innovative Co-working with arts, business, education, and urban living with Panel Members: Amy McBride: Arts Administrator for the City of Tacoma Derek Young: Founder of the Tacoma blog Exit133.com and Studio133 Roxanne Murphy: Community and Economic Development for the City of Tacoma Justin Mayfield: Broadway Farmers Market / New Tacoma Neighborhood Council |
by KevinFreitas on 2/27/2008 @ 8:44pm | I will link to it when it gets up.
It's up -- just right-click the file then choose "Save As". It's a big'en so be patient. What you heard was probably on the part that first loaded. It's about 105 minutes long total, I think, and packed full of goodness. |
by Erik on 2/27/2008 @ 9:01pm | What you heard was probably on the part that first loaded. It's about 105 minutes long total, I think, and packed full of goodness. Thanks. Nice work. We can archive it for city historical purposes: "When the Tacoma townspeople retook the city. Chapter XXIV" |
by Erik on 2/29/2008 @ 11:37am | Dan Voepel has a write up on the Go Local or Die Event. Pretty nice as it mentions the everpresent Paul Sparks who usually does not come on the radar of the msm: But what if, Sparks thought, rather than coach the directionless people, he coached the place? Could he help make a place so cool, so vibrant, so desirable that its people would feel a natural connection to it and each other? We’ll see. Sparks and two colleagues recently launched Local Life Tacoma – a nonprofit organization aimed at adding life to their downtown Tacoma neighborhood. “I think we’re at a turning point in a lot of ways,†Sparks said during an interview last week at the Tully’s coffeehouse on Broadway. “I think it’s the first time in at least 20 years that we’ve had a growing population downtown.†... The forum featured a panel of some of downtown’s young, nouveau leaders – Morgan Alexander, real estate broker and founder of Tacoma Streetcar; Patricia Lecy-Davis, owner of Embellish Salon and president of the Downtown Merchants Group; Kevin Freitas, founder of Feed Tacoma, a downtown-oriented blog; and Eric Bjornson, attorney and vice chairman of the North End Neighborhood Council. www.thenewstribune.com/business/story/29... Dan uses the word "nouveau leaders." Interesting. |
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