Tacoma 2025: What's Your Vision for Tacoma?

21 comments

• J Jenny J June 12, 2014

  It seems strange that you have to login just to even take the basic survey. I suppose I can understand forcing people to give their names for the comments section, but it seems like an unnecessary obstacle to force it for any participation at all. Also, what about people who aren't online, or at least aren't competent? An online only survey seems to discriminate against a large portion of the population that isn't computer savvy or doesn't have access to the internet. Hopefully there's a paper version that goes out at some point.

• S Sid June 12, 2014

  My vision is for a city that stops asking ridiculous questions they already know the answer to. Private investment will make the difference here and private investment goes to where there are opportunities, security and good infrastructure, but more importantly, where a competent government is in place. We have none of these and I have never lived in a city that has so many community meetings and does so little.

  • J JDHasty June 13, 2014

    [quote]My vision is for a city that stops asking ridiculous questions they already know the answer to.  Private investment will make the difference here and private investment goes to where there are opportunities, security and good infrastructure, but more importantly, where a competent government is in place.  We have none of these and I have never lived in a city that has so many community meetings and does so little.[/quote] You have just encapsulated most that needs to be said on the subject. This City has been governed by an insider led cabal that is run out of The American Leadership Forum [ALF]. Tacoma leadership is incompetent, one look at our pavement validates that, but they are also corrupt. Tacoma revenues are among the highest in dollars as well as on a per capita basis, yet our infrastructure is a shambles with no bottom in sight. Last year the powers that be tried to hoodwink the voting residents into forking over tens of millions of additional totally unconstrained (legally) dollars that they could direct to friends (i.e. campaign contributors), family and long time business associates of elected and appointed City officials. The City Manager is a bald faced liar who went before the residents in a series of "town hall' styled meetings and made promises and tied his credibility to the City following through on promises he was making regarding a "Back to Basics" direction in City government focused "like a laser" on rehabilitating and preserving our pavement infrastructure. This promise was not tied to Prop 1 passing, in fact we have recorded documentation wherein he specifically and unmistakably uses language that any reasonable person would understand to mean only one thing. The man tied his credibility to implementing this promise he was making and I have taken his measure, using his own scale, and have found him wanting. Not only is his credibility questionable, his trying to flimflam the public (as EACH and EVERY elected official in the City sat in the front row nodding and clapping like a trained seal at his every word) paints him as a charlatan, a swindler or a Mountebank. The City Manager serves at the pleasure of the grinning and clapping nitwits who sat in the front row and the words he was saying and the message he was presenting was their message. They own it. They are not interested in what the community thinks, if they were do you think that former Councilman Bill Evans would be given tax abatement and variances to build a six story apartment house, on the fringe of a neighborhood business district, in an existing neighborhood it does not fit into architecturally or demographically that the public overwhelmingly opposes?

• B Buck Futz June 12, 2014

  I hope the money get spent on his will be worth it.

• T Tyler June 13, 2014

  What a joke. The city is wasting a big chunk of money to develop a 'shared vision' for 'anticipated growth', when the problems facing this city are so totally obvious. I think the priorities of the city have been backwards for a long time now. From where I sit, it seems like the city spends so much time and energy trying to lure big development projects to downtown because of our inferiority complex and perceived competition with Seattle. Meanwhile, the government fails to supply basic city services to the rest of the Tacoma. It's time to reverse priorities. NEWS FLASH: Businesses don't want to locate in a city with a failing infrastructure. People from outside Tacoma avoid our roads because they are dangerous. Families don't want to move here because the performance of our schools is sub-par. So if you really want to plan for 'anticipated growth' why don't you focus on providing basic city services for a change? Come on guys, do you really need a 'shared visioning' process to learn this stuff? Give me a break. Vote these guys out of office.

  • J JDHasty June 13, 2014

    [quote]What a joke.  The city is wasting a big chunk of money to develop a ‘shared vision’ for ‘anticipated growth’, when the problems facing this city are so totally obvious.  I think the priorities of the city have been backwards for a long time now.  From where I sit, it seems like the city spends so much time and energy trying to lure big development projects to downtown because of our inferiority complex and perceived competition with Seattle.  Meanwhile, the government fails to supply basic city services to the rest of the Tacoma.  It’s time to reverse priorities.  NEWS FLASH:  Businesses don’t want to locate in a city with a failing infrastructure.  People from outside Tacoma avoid our roads because they are dangerous.  Families don’t want to move here because the performance of our schools is sub-par.  So if you really want to plan for ‘anticipated growth’ why don’t you focus on providing basic city services for a change?  Come on guys, do you really need a ‘shared visioning’ process to learn this stuff?  Give me a break.  Vote these guys out of office.[/quote] Our roads are an embarrassment, they are also a scandal (follow the history of how "deferred maintenance " was sold to the public two decades ago), and a disgrace. They are also "the canary in the coal mine" that signal broader problems are on the horizon. The utilities buried beneath our right of way are beneath roadway sub grade that has failed and no longer can distribute the load of heavy vehicles. There is currently not a day that goes by that Tacoma maintenance personnel do not have to respond to crushed utilities. I was there when the initial promises were made regarding the scheme to "deffer maintenance" on our pavement infrastructure and I was asking questions - my participation in the public discussion was dismissed by the powers that be, I was called incompetent and they tried to marginalize me in every way possible. But I persisted and as a result City of Tacoma senior staff contacted the Public Works Director for my employer, a neighboring jurisdiction, and tried to impact my ability to make a living. Luckily for Tacoma taxpayers the Public Works Director I worked under had enough common sense to terminate the conversation before it even got off to a good start or I would have sued the City of Tacoma. Before you ask, yes I have the original documentation and others have copies. The people in charge today are insiders, members of the same cabal that has been running Tacoma/Pierce for decades. The only hope is to have a general house cleaning and throw them all out of any position of public influence. They are not public servants by any stretch of the imagination, they are totally self serving and a menace to the community at large.

• J James June 13, 2014

  What fun it is to read comments on every post through the context of "potholes, blah blah blah" and "let the people drive all of Point Defiance Park, ADA blah blah blah." I get it, grumble grumble grumble. Now move along, because there are other issues important to our community. And it'd be nice to read what people think about the issues... like it was before you came along and co-opted this site as your own personal mouth piece for the idiotic. Go be unhappy someplace else.

  • J Jenny J June 13, 2014

    Amen.

    • J JDHasty June 13, 2014

      I suppose we can take that as two votes for continuing the status quo which is mismanagement of infrastructure assets and discrimination against those people who have disabilities that affect their mobility. I never hide in the shadows, just skip over what I have to say if you are not interested in treading it. My inclination though is that what I and others are pointing out is uncomfortable to some and inconvenient for others to read.

      • J James June 13, 2014

        I don't disagree that our roads could use some work and that there should be common access for parks. But you need to learn some internet etiquette or just plain manners, because right now you come off as the Robert Hill of Exit 133 (no disrespect to the Council crasher, at least he uses his real name most of the time). All your wacky accusations and self-aggrandizing conspiracy theories... it'd be great if you could find another place for your "free speech."

        • J JDHasty June 13, 2014

          What you "conveniently" leave unsaid is what you would do about the fact that our pavement is in crisis. I use my name and I have put forth a broad outline of what needs to be done with regard to that. If you don't want to read what I have to say the solution is easy. Keep your head in a hole in the sand and hide from the problem.

  • T Tyler June 13, 2014

    [quote] What fun it is to read comments on every post through the context of “potholes, blah blah blah” and “let the people drive all of Point Defiance Park, ADA blah blah blah.” I get it, grumble grumble grumble. Now move along, because there are other issues important to our community. [/quote] What a hilariously hypocritical attitude to have, especially during a public visioning process. So, because you are tired of hearing about the roads issue, you don't want those people upset about the roads to have a voice during the visioning process? You only want to hear voices that support other issues you find important? Ok.. Listen, I am tired of hearing about the roads, too. But, clearly something needs to be done about it. If the city council is so blind they can't figure out the roads problem on their own, well then I guess their 'visioning process' is the platform they've designed to hear about it, and people should be talking about it.

    • J JDHasty June 13, 2014

      How dare you point out the rank hypocrisy of these individuals. Sarcasm aside, there are people who have a vested interest in perpetuating the status quo and they just don't want to entertain the suggestion that what we are experiencing in Tacoma with regard to our crumbling infrastructure did not have to happen and does not need to continue. As far as did not need to happen, Tacoma property owners pay among the highest tax rates in Washington State and Washington is a high tax state. Ergo the revenue was available to maintain our infrastructure. Fact, the City implemented an initiative to strip all available revenue from every City maintenance department and redirect that money to finance a poorly thought out and nebulous downtown revitalization effort. Fact, the City had no fixed timeline in which this was to be accomplished and could not articulate on the schedule in which various milestones would be reached. I know, I asked repeatedly for this information when the whole "Visualize Tacoma" shebang was being bandied about and considered. Fact, the City of Tacoma is still spending like drunken politicians on discretionary items, if anything their profligacy has increased since the time in which the City "discovered" that current revenues directed to restoring and maintaining our pavement will not even keep up with deterioration. Fact, in the decade leading up to the point at which the City of Tacoma reached a tipping point at which deterioration was outstripping budgeted revenues I campaigned relentlessly to get the City to recognize the irresponsibility of their policies and practices with regard to budgeting and programming of transportation revenues. I could go on, but the bottom line is Tacoma's elected and appointed officials have been so damnably irresponsible that the City has forfeit the luxury of funding discretionary projects and must focus "like a laser" on correcting the mess they have made or the City of Tacoma will be bankrupted by their irresponsibility. One last fact for today, the current crop of politicians are pointing to their predecessors as being responsible for getting us to the point at which bankrupting the city is a real possibility and they are correct, however the current politicians and appointed officials are even worse in their irresponsible spending.

  • X Xeno June 13, 2014

    The New Takhoman is populated by the racist/homophobic libertarian tinfoil hat society and driven out any positive energy about the city, so they come here and rain down their conspiracy theories of this and that group of people. You never see these people at public comment, part of any volunteer group, ect. You can't reason with them and they continue to complain and complain and complain. So here we have a visioning process, which is a normal proceedure, reccomended by a citizen advisory group, and they come on here and say the City isn't listening to its citizens. Complete hilarity.

    • J JDHasty June 13, 2014

      I would put the time I have spent doing volunteer work up against yours any day. If you have never seen me participate in public comment time it is because you chose to to attend, it is not because I don't comment. Here let me help you with a little pertinent information that you chose to leave out: "recommended by a citizen advisory group" headed up by a certain former mayor who siphoned off State Motor Vehicle Fuel Taxes to fund renovation of the alley behind his residence. You are nothing more than a pyromaniac in a field of straw men, straw men you set up yourself and set out to burn down to prove a point. And yes I can unequivocally "say the City isn't listening to its citizens" in fact I will go further and say that the City of Tacoma has nothing but contempt for the citizenry.

      • X Xeno June 13, 2014

        First, I don't even think you know what a strawman argument is. I think you're fun to prod because you react and can never defend your position. Love the visual though, burning scarecrows and all. How dramatic. Here are the facts. The City's Fiscal Sustainability Taskforce, a taskforce that is supposed to address the City's financial woes, is reccomending a visioning process. Why? Because the city is using this document as described in their plan letter for guiding "desicion making and resource allocation." Essentially what they are going to cut and what they are going to fund. This task force is a public task force taking many of these decisions under reccomendation to codify into an actual document. The city is obviously listening to the public And then we have people like yourself that find it more productive to complain online about the City's approach and the composition of the complete takeover of our city government by the American Liberty Foundation (ALF). Who needs strawmen when you have crackpot conspiracy theories like this? Nobody can take you seriously. I'm the only one that will tell you this because no one has the patience to listen to this insanity. You'll never be happy and never compliment the City for anything it does, even when they are apparently doing it like this example.

        • J JDHasty June 13, 2014

          That would be The American Leadership Forum, but who's counting. The City of Tacoma continues these dog and pony shows because they have not gotten the answers they were looking for. The city has spent a king's ransom on consultants to poll the public and the public keeps telling the city to concentrate on restoring our pavement. The City's polling results from when they were trying to sell Prop 1 to the voters was online and still may be online. Regardless, it is a government doc and therefore is available to you. If you are waiting for me to complement the City of Tacoma for neglecting our existing infrastructure to the point that it is collapsing around us while going on a spending spree with monies they have raided from maintenance budgets and spending on new capital projects then you are absolutely right - ain't gonna happen. The leadership of Tacoma is a disgrace and I mean that. Tacoma has been following in the Detroit model for a generation now and using that model for governance leads to infrastructure collapse every time it is tried and will eventually lead to municipal bankruptcy. Period. Full stop. I wouldn't give two hoots and a holler for a man who neglected the maintenance of his home and spent the money, time and energy acquiring a new 52 inch flat screen to hang on the living room wall of a home that has a blue tarp on the roof and nothing in the refrigerator but an onion and a bottle of vodka and I will not congratulate any civic leaders who prefer to fund new capital projects at the expense of maintaining existing infrastructure. I'm kinda funny that way.

• A Araman0 June 13, 2014

  My votes would go towards Education, Economic vibrancy, and quality of life / livability. All three of these will help grow the city's middle class which will then create a domino affect for helping with the other categories listed. Tacoma has so much potential, and from what I can tell things are already heading in the right direction.

• M Mik June 16, 2014

  Tacomans need to secede and slice up the city into smaller towns and let the neighborhoods keep their own property tax money. Let downtown keep Tacoma. Dream of streets like UP or Steilacoom.

  • J JDHasty June 16, 2014

    I would second that idea. Promises were made regarding the redeveloped downtown paying back enough in future taxes to "more than make up for deterioration caused by deferring maintenance and transferring the money that was raided from maintenance budgets to fund downtown revitalization" and bla, bla, bla,, and yada, yada, yada and that ain't ever gonna' happen. The entire downtown is a liability, and will continue to be a liability for decades and possibly for an eternity. Break the City of Tacoma up into smaller towns and let the chips fall where they may.

• R RHTCCComedyfan June 18, 2014

  A saner city council headed by future Mayor Robert Hill.