Exit133

February 23, 2009 · Derek

Tollefson to get Tables, Chairs and Planters. Oh My!

Over the weekend the News Tribune announced that our award winning Tollefson Plaza will be getting tables, chairs and planters, in an effort to bring more life to it. The City will be providing the furniture and the Chamber of Commerce will be managing it.

I’m sure this will fix everything.

Link to the News Tribune

Filed under: Downtown Tacoma, Neighborhoods, Tollefson Plaza

19 comments

  • Erik B. February 23, 2009

    The chairs are not going to fundamentally change the deadness in the plaza as the edges of the plaza will still be dead.

    Let us give Tollefson Plaza another year and then consider filling it in with a building to attract human life to this dead zone as David Boe has suggested.

    Kudos for the city for at least realing that Tollefson Plaza has been a failure to date and is vacant 99 percent of the time.

    We can keep a tally for the next year on how many days the plaza is pretty much dead and the days it is vibrant and then look at the result at the end of the year and then take the approprate action.

  • Mofo from the Hood February 23, 2009

    Hey, right now it’s a buyer’s market for both new and used patio furniture.

  • You're Welcome February 23, 2009

    Hot dog carts and roach coaches would help.

  • RR Anderson February 23, 2009

    There’s a grief that can’t be spoken.
    There’s a pain goes on and on.
    Empty chairs at empty tables
    Now my friends are dead and gone.

    Here they talked of revolution.
    Here it was they lit the flame.
    Here they sang about ‘tomorrow’
    And tomorrow never came.

    That I live and you are gone.
    There’s a grief that can’t be spoken.
    There’s a pain goes on and on.

    Phantom faces at the window.
    Phantom shadows on the floor.
    Empty chairs at empty tables
    Where my friends will meet no more.

    Oh my friends, my friends, don’t ask me
    What your sacrifice was for
    Empty chairs at empty tables
    Where my friends will sing no more.

  • Elliot February 23, 2009

    Me: “Hey guys, want to go to a big slab of concrete in between a main thoroughfare and a rail line? I hear there are some restaruants a few blocks away.”

    Some people: “No, not really”

    Me: “What if I told you there were metal tables and chairs on the concrete? There might even be vagrants sitting at some of them!”

    Some people: “That’s actually worse in some ways.”

  • Squid February 23, 2009

    There’s hot, hot sun at Tollefson? I’ll be right over.

  • Thorax O'Tool February 23, 2009

    On certain days of the summer, yes.

    I know it seems hard to believe, but I assure you, it does happen. I even saw it with my own eyes once! Really!

    So, since we’re building temples to pagan deities, I figure we could also set up a temple to Ra down in Commencement Jack Hyde Park down on the waterfront instead of that sundial.

    Wealth and sun. It’s a winning combination! Either way, it’s more productive of a use rather than chairs and tables in what looks suspiciously like a parking lot…

  • jamie from thriceallamerican February 23, 2009

    I buried the following in a vaguely related topic over at FeedTacoma, but it seems pretty relevant here…

    Hmm…what if the city allowed someone to build a small cafe (permanent or semi-permanent) at the skinny end of the park (near the bus stop) with at most a couple of places to sit inside, but by and large relying on the park for it’s seating? (Tiny triangle building, which would reflect the look of surrounding buildings.) Also, allow some more temporary things such as food carts (hot dog stands, taco trucks, etc.) along the Pac Ave edge and possibly also on the upper tier. Basically, create the edges that currently aren’t there…

    The planned tables in the center along with the seating provided by the amphitheater levels.

    Seems like a relatively affordable way to repair what ails the area so that we can stop bitching about it nonstop.

  • Thorax O'Tool February 23, 2009

    Tollefson needs: Less concrete, streetside parking, shade, and above all, a reason to go there.
    This is what it comes down to. As it exists now, there is no compelling reason for human beings to go there. It’s a failure in design, and the city should be grown up enough to realize this and fix it. Otherwise, it’s just an isolated hunk of pavement wedged between the bLink and the traffic.

  • RR Anderson February 23, 2009

    When they get the dumb tables installed lets stack them into interesting modern art sculptures.

    Lets stack all the chairs into a stair case over the WSHM bridge-hostage fence.

    Lets set up a lemonade stand with a Halloween skeleton manning it.

  • Erik B. February 23, 2009

    s it exists now, there is no compelling reason for human beings to go there.

    Exactly. Why would anyone want to hang out in a large swath of pavement any more than they would a parking lot?

  • RR Anderson February 23, 2009

    lol hey now I think everyone is being a bit too harsh. Tollefson is a great place. Heck I bet we can make it even better with tables and chairs. ha ha! gosh.

  • tom waits February 23, 2009

    in my neighborhood, people love hanging out in parking lots. perhaps if they put a payphone somewhere in it and a dumpster.

  • katie February 23, 2009

    Now Tom, I think you hit the nail on the head. Oooo, what about a rusty basketball hoop and a tether ball pole with no ball, then it would look like my sons’ elementary school playground.

  • drizell February 24, 2009

    So much discussion about Tollefson looking like a parking lot…why not just turn it INTO another surface parking lot? It’s outside the IFSA, and the current regulations would mandate at least 5 acres of surface parking for any new buildings built around there anyway. Plus, there would definitely be activity there, finally. Who doesn’t love to come downtown just to park their big shiny car in a big surface lot?

  • Mofo from the Hood February 24, 2009

    If you really want to attract attention to this area then you need to make some potholes.

  • tressie February 24, 2009

    Hey I for one, looooove to bitch about Prison Yard Plaza. The people who designed it went to college and got a degree and then….well….designed it. It proves my contribution to Tacoma may not be much, but at least I know the diff between a parkette and a parking lot.

  • Squid February 24, 2009

    Let’s not be dissin’ too hard on potholes. I used to hate on the ones in front of my house until I realized they were just this poor man’s speed bump.

  • You're Welcome February 24, 2009

    “poor man’s speed bump”

    Now that’s a positive way to look at potholes. “South Tacoma Speed Bumps.”