Citizens Neighborhood Street Improvement Task Force: First Meeting

The City of Tacoma has posted an open invitation to a meeting tonight of the Citizens Neighborhood Street Improvement Task Force.

You are invited to attend the first meeting of the Citizens Neighborhood Street Improvement Task Force on Tuesday, May 29, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center. This task force is charged with creating project criteria for basic street maintenance, pothole repair and citizen safety; developing a project list that is balanced citywide to make sure all neighborhoods receive local street and safety improvements; and to recommend strategies to ensure accountability, transparency, and oversight of street maintenance funds. The task force is scheduled to provide findings and recommendations to the City Council by June 26, 2012.

We’ve written a few times in recent months about the ongoing discussion around Tacoma’s streets. Back in January the findings of Tacoma’s Mobility Stakeholder Funding Task Force included the conclusion that “… the need for improvements to roads, sidewalks, arterial streets, and pedestrian safety is significantly greater than the available funding sources…” The task force further made it clear that the situation should not be ignored.

The citizens of Tacoma are obviously unhappy with the overall condition of their streets. It is equally obvious that significant improvement is not possible without generating additional tax revenue for this purpose…

Citizens are most likely to approve new funding for street improvements if they can be confident that such revenues will be used only for this purpose.

Then in early May the results of a phone survey commissioned by the City suggest that Tacomans view road infrastructure issues as their top transportation-related concern, and that a majority would be willing to consider a tax to fix the problems. That study also included an observation that the City would do well to keep citizens involved in the process, identifying accountability and transparency as key objectives.

And now we have a Street Improvement Task Force. It would appear that things are moving forward, but in light of the imbalance between need and resources, the tough choices are only beginning. What is a fair way to allocated limited resources? Where would you start?