DB: Moving?
Recently several people have approached me concerning a rumor that is going around about my leaving the deuce-nickel-trizzle. I have no idea where people have received this information, no such thing has entered my imagination nor exited my lips, pen or keys. However, come to think of it….
What the hell am I going to do?
The lease is up at the warehouse (I am currently subleasing from the man leaving), and I have an option to resign since I am living here. However, based on the current “modifications” to my neighborhood, the owner would like $500 more than we were paying per month. That is an increase of more than 33%. WTF?!
Currently I can walk from the coffee shop to Suite 133, hit the bank, get veggies from the farmers market, stop for tea and lunch on Commerce and get back home in about the space of a half mile. This has provided me with a pretty ideal lifestyle that excludes the need for a car payment, gas bill, and insurance. Being a freelance creative person doesn’t always pay the highest, but a decent standard of living is possible by contextualizing oneself in proximity to income and needs.
My space mates and the current lease holders are possibly moving to a cheaper spot about 15 blocks south on Tacoma Ave. It is also a warehouse type loft situation that could accommodate my bohemian lifestyle so I took a walk about the neighborhood to get a feel for what I might be getting myself into. Holy crap.
Coming up from Pacific on 21st is no joke, the hill is a bit steeper than 9th or 11th but I’ve some youth left in me so I trucked on up and found myself pretty much in the middle of nowhere.
Beset on all sides by absolutely nothing but brambles and empty lots this walk left me with a little bit of depression. Barely anyone was on the streets and the people who were didn’t look like they wanted to talk to me. To be honest I felt like I was in the Downtown Tacoma of my childhood – say 15 years ago. While Broadway is getting a face-lift, this area seems to be ignored…
With the pocket gem of Commencement Bay Coffee, the only other business I can see myself patronizing is the Goodwill Outlet. Somehow I managed to eek my way up the hill on 25th, only to find my path blocked by this chain-link fence covering the once convenient pedestrian staircase.
The way around adds about 10 blocks of walking! It must have become a problem after all the homeless people were swept out of the good part of downtown, the sensible thing is to close it….make it harder for them, especially the older ones.
I don’t want to leave Tacoma, and I honestly don’t plan to, but I’m not really willing to relive the past 5 years in a new neighborhood. Watch it come up, become populated and safe and livable, only to have it become too expensive to occupy. Its been a privilege to work for the betterment of my current proximity, to use my creativity to make help it shine. With all the new developments, I wonder if it is possible that we have forgotten the kids that started the ball rolling, showed up in the “bad” neighborhoods and set up camp. Affordable housing seems like kind of a buzz-word, especially when we are talking about artists….it also seems like kind of a joke.
As more of my old friends and peers move further away from downtown, and I explore the dwindling options available to me; the rumor of relocation is beginning to look like a bit of a prophecy. However, just to set the record straight: I still love Tacoma, and have no current plans of leaving. It is my intent to arrange my life in such a way as works for me, while still remaining in my beloved TDT.
Filed under: DB
11 comments
I intacoma September 3, 2008
6th ave is pretty fun, maybe that area will work better for your budget. Downtown is not that amazing :)
J Joel413 September 3, 2008
Hi Daniel:
Some words about your walk, as a former resident of that neighborhood.(granted in McCarver Village, one of those developments that would be driving up your rent, but I’m not there any longer)
Your hike up S 21st Street took you along the Southern Edge of the UW Tacoma property, City Glass being the South West corner of “Campus”. That’s why that stretch from Pacific to Tacoma is so desolate.. there was once a Rumor on Exit133 that the area across the street at Jefferson was once eyed as the location for consolidating all the city offices into one campus itself.
Next the “gated stairs” were walled off after Zenia Lenic’s abduction 4th of July 2007, her house was about 3 or 4 houses north of there.
What’s funny is that I lived in that neighborhood for 4 years and never experienced a police problem (except for a neighbor that enforced HOA rules like a hawk) and a chopshop that has since been torn down.
Keep in mind from that area, you’re only a half mile walk to the bottom of the hill and a Link Station at 25th and Pacific. Free Public Transportation.
Just something to think about. BTW, hope you didn’t mind my shout out during Frost Park XX
D Davest September 3, 2008
Roof tops. I was in the Big Apple last June sipping a scotch on the roof of my friends condo in Tribecca and was simply amazed at the creativity employed to make use of the roof top space. From the simple deck chairs that we were enjoying to full on, hard wall living spaces.
I know that building codes can be a bear these days but since you are already living in a warehouse, the adjustment to the vagaries of roof top living should be fairly simple.
I’m imagining a glorious XXL Yurt for creative space in conjunction with a simple Tumbleweed Homes for cozy family life.
Y Yman September 3, 2008
I live in that area and It is DEAD. My Wife walks to work everyday from the hill down 21st and doesn’t see a soul every morning, (except the cop that pulled next to her asking why she was walking in that area), our neighborhood over there needs some help. It is sad.
D drizell September 4, 2008
I spent my college years in Detroit. I loved hiking around the ruined city, walking several blocks without seeing another soul. The area we’re discussing is one of the few urban places in the Pacific Northwest where one can witness such despair and hopelessness. I predict it will be a very long time before this area comes to life again. I think it will happen when the UWT finally expands up the hill.
The best thing about having spaces like these are that you let your mind wander; you imagine how you would like the area to look. If everything is already perfect, then what reason do you have to stay somewhere and work to make it better. The great thing about Tacoma is that there are innumerable spaces throughout the city that desperately need help. These spaces are the blank canvases upon which those with the desire to help make Tacoma a great city will hopefully leave their marks.
D Douglas Tooley September 4, 2008
Perhaps you should buy a bike?
I live off near 34th, not far from Tacoma Avenue and the new ‘G’ Street bridge.
Tacoma Avenue is a great bike route into downtown, 6th Avenue, and the North End.
-Douglas Tooley
at the McKinley neighborhood CoffeeHouse
R Roxanne September 4, 2008
I was actually in and around the same area today. check out the el pollo restaurant up there! it’s kind of awesome.
+1 on the bike suggestion too. Although the hills going down can be F-ing scary and i end up walking my bike down them.. apparently the farther out (streetwise) that you are taking the hill down, the less steep and more enjoyable the ride.
M morgan September 4, 2008
The fence on the stairwell in that last photo must have gone up – I just noticed it recently too. How completely depressing!
Is that the city’s solution to our problems? Fences? They fenced in the little park on Fawcett and would have done the same with Frost Park had the Chalkies not shown up.
There must be a better way.
T tim September 8, 2008
have i got the place for you. 34th and mckinnley house for rent. we could use you in our neighborhood. .
A altered chords September 8, 2008
Tim – How do you like the neigborhood there?
K Karen September 8, 2008
That’s my neighborhood and I love it! I walk to work every day and hardly see a soul, except for the occasional homeless person sleeping in the grass, or the wandering prostitute asking me if I’m ‘workin’ her territory.
It’s quiet & peaceful & all the neighbors are awesome, especially the lady on the corner of 21st & G street (check out her yard).
You should move on up here and enjoy it while you can, because it won’t last long. You could also get involved in our neighborhood coalition and help us keep affordable housing in our neighborhood. Tacoma Ave Rocks!!http://tacomaave.freeservers.com/