Do We Have to Rethink the Thea Foss Too?
What will become of the Thea Foss?
First, we have the hotel deal that may, or may not, happen. Now, the TNT is reporting that Prium has walked away from Foss Site 1 just north of the 21st Street Bridge. The mixed use project, once called Porpoise Landing (a name we still affectionately use for the site in our office), but now referred to as Nineteen Thirty-Three Dock Street, has apparently fallen victim to the same financing issues as everyone else these days. Oh and don’t forget about the project that had everyone up in arms about view corridors two years ago.
Our heads instantly wonder about the future of our downtown waterway. The Foss Waterway Development Authority is now approaching the City for $300k to keep it going through 2010. But, then again, who’s next in line for these sites? If we potentially have the opportunity to start over on these blank lots, what do we want to see?
Link to The News Tribune
Filed under: General
12 comments
D Douglas Tooley October 16, 2009
My focus is on the south end of the Foss, thinking about how you connect the Esplanade/waterfront to the Dome and LeMay.
The City is studying the question, but no details are available to me. Well, I do gather there’s an idea floating around to build a pedestrian overpass near the old North River Boat building.
Though I’m still a post and beamer it is great to hear they have agreed to open up the habitat corridor continuing on behind LeMay.
T Tacoma Girl October 16, 2009
Come on City Councilmembers! We NEED more business to open and develop in Tacoma because WE NEED JOBS!!
E Erik B. October 16, 2009
If the city would stop thwarting projects there such as the hotel, something might get built that could provide some revenue for the Foss Waterway Development Authority.
With the new council members coming on board, there is a potential for new leadership to keep the area from going into a further tailspin.
M Mofo from the Hood October 17, 2009
Wow, I like the look of that Nineteen Thirty-Three Dock Street building. According to the TNT, Prium prepped the site to start construction.
Has anyone suggested a deal to Hollander Investments to move this project forward? That BCRA design would make a kick-ass resort.
S Stanford Speck October 18, 2009
It would do out city official good to watch the Ken Burns recent series on the creation of our National Parks to gain some perspective and fortitude on how to approach managing an environmental treasure ( The Foss). To-date they have approached waterway as something to be sold to the highest bidder. They have altered zoning to placate powerful developers. They have consistently bowed to the interests of moneyed investors rather than supporting the commons. How about our public officials start considering the Foss like an aqueduct Point Defiance Park. Put public use first for a change.
T Tacoma_Gal October 18, 2009
I-5 has become a mass exodus of Pierce County residents commuting north to King County to earn a living wage. I’d like to see vacant land utilized for large companies with parking to provide living wage jobs. If there were many living wage office workers downtown, they would be spending $ downtown on breaks, lunch hour and after work, oh and be filling the area with life again!
T TacomaThinker October 18, 2009
@3 I think you’re saying lower the standards so things can get built
@5 I think you’re saying raise the standards so that whatever is built is for the greater good.
The great debate: If you’re standards are too high then you may never get married, but if they’re too low you may end up with regret.
I’m not sure if we can have our cake and eat it too, but if anyone has a suggestion for encouraging quality development within the bigger framework of a 100-yr vision, it would be more productive than then more ever-present council complaining.
H Highwater October 19, 2009
@5 “It would do out city official good to watch the Ken Burns recent series on the creation of our National Parks to gain some perspective and fortitude on how to approach managing an environmental treasure ( The Foss).”
Are you serious? This is a filled in estuary, with a completely unnatural shoreline. At its southern end, two giant 48 inch pipes (the “twin 48 inchers”) deliver the street run-off from South Tacoma. Walk along the curve in Dock Street that runs over these pipes and you smell…. sewage. Environmental treasure this is not. It may be worth preserving, making better, even beautiful, but let’s be real here. It’s a filled in estuary that supports little of the original wildlife or salt marsh that once called it home. Puget Sound is endangered because places like the Puyallup river estuary have been filled and destroyed. They are not environmental treasures: they are environmental blights.
S Squid October 19, 2009
Tacoma Thinker@7: Reminds me of my favorite quote – “either do it or don’t, you’ll regret it either way.” – Jim Harrison
C crenshaw sepulveda October 19, 2009
It is getting to the point that I’m starting to worry that the Sonic fast food people will be changing their minds about Tacoma soon.
T TacomaThinker October 20, 2009
@9 Someone will regret it no matter how many may love it.
Cliche Alert!: You can’t please all the people all the time.
So does Tacoma have an official plan for the Foss or Downtown or Retail? Something of substance worth critiquing rather than pipe dreams and complaints? Don’t get me wrong- I do love a good pipe dream, I just love it more when it’s got legs.
S Stanford Speck October 20, 2009
@9 Are you serious? This is a filled in estuary, with a completely unnatural shoreline. At its southern end, two giant 48 inch pipes (the “twin 48 inchers”) deliver the street run-off from South Tacoma.
I did not mean to compare the Foss Waterway to a national park. The point of the post was how the government officials have consistently bowed to the interests of moneyed investors rather than supporting the commons. It is protecting and supporting the “commons” that Ken Burns praised in his series. For and example look to Ruston Way as an example. Compare this to the vision of paid parking and high rise condos shadowing a 12 foot sidewalk.