What is the Condition of Tacoma's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem?

41 comments

• N narndt September 16, 2009

  To me it’s all about making Tacoma a place people want to live, first. I graduated from UPS 5 years ago. Of those in my class who went to work at Russell, I can’t remember one who didn’t move to Seattle after graduation and commute down, regardless. Those folks definitely weren’t the aspiring entrepreneur type, but the example still stands. In a day when the purpose/“why are you here?” of a business is becoming the most important factor of success, you probably won’t succeed if you don’t set up shop in a place you love.

• M Mark Briggs September 16, 2009

  I live in Tacoma and have a startup company in Seattle. I spent almost five years working in Tacoma and now have sufficent “roots” here (house, kids in school, etc.) that make it difficult to envision a move to Seattle, no matter how much I despise the commute (off hours, it’s actually not so bad).

  But it’s more difficult for me to envision moving my company to Tacoma. The culture and community in Seattle, especially for a tech startup, is simply not present in T-town. StartPad talks, Seattle Lunch 2.0, Seattle Tech Startups group, Northwest Entrepreneur Network … the list goes on and on. It’s a constant stream of great opportunities for tech startup companies to find talent, partners, support and networking.

  I wish we had that in Tacoma. Not sure how you build that from scratch, so it’s a chicken-and-egg problem. Companies won’t want to locate here until that sort of community exists, but that sort of community won’t grow until companies decide to locate here.

  Mark Briggs
  CEO, Serra Media

• S Scott September 16, 2009

  1. Focus on bringing CA tech firms (for example) or otherwise to Tacoma – it’s much cheaper for them to operate here & they pay well.
  2. Help underwrite world class architecture (by world class architects – no more box-glass, 80s style designs & structures). This will serve to bring national/international attention to the city and set it up as a serious competitor to it’s larger neighbors.
  3. B&O is a problem – I run a small biz and I stay outside Tacoma for this reason, though not singularly (crime, cost, lack of density, lack of perceived support also apply).
  4. Lack of local support by entrenched network – many of the organizations (Chamber) and/or large businesses that exist in Tacoma do not support their local smaller business neighbors. As a Pierce County business, I do more work in Florida than I do in Tacoma. Go Local is a nice slogan, but there needs to be a real effort behind it.
  5. Enough with the museums – we run the risk of becoming a museum town & bedroom community with nothing much else to offer.
  6. Develop the Brewery district, but retain the feel and architecture – use Portland as an example, to some extent. Rehab, build lofts, make T Town a destination where people want to come and live. We need some level of density to make this happen. We need good wage paying companies to move in to support further development – vicious circle.
  7. Public infrastructure needs addressing – build out the light rail/trolley system. Get the light rail to SeaTac moving to Tacoma much, much faster. Finish full HOV from Gig Harbor through Seattle, not this bit by bit approach – it’s torturous for drivers and has been for years now. Now we will have HOV from King County to the port, it stops, then starts again once you are on 16. Huh?
  8. Develop neighborhoods – make more vibrant Proctor or 6th Avenue business districts. Don’t do it like the West End’s 6th Avenue area full of dead space and even deader strip malls. Do more with historical overlays to protect some of the beauty we have in our local residential neighborhoods.
  9. Develop more quality of life initiatives as soon as feasible – The waterfront walkway to Pt. Defiance; bike paths that join longer paths in other areas; what if we were able to get the BNSF railway lines – use it for trolley service around the city and a walkway/bike path – fantastic – brings Tacoma together.

  These are the few thoughts that come to my mind.

  I am sure there are a ton of others. I am not so silly that I don’t recognize these things cost money, but it just doesn’t seem like we have a blueprint and our focus seems kneejerk as a community. Losing Russell is not good – replacing those wages and taxes is not going to be that easy, especially on small business revenues that serve this important clientele. It’s not a surprise they left, but I don’t think we were truly prepared for it either.

• T tressie September 16, 2009

  as you already know, I’ve been “entrepreneuring” here for about 30 years. What Was great about Tacoma? Cheap rent. Cheap start-up costs. I love that Tacoma is wired…Click! gave me a fab opportunity to sell worldwide using my TV (in the beginning 10 years ago).
  I hate to break it to you but an MBA school is not the very best use of a University…(how many of those do we really need???)(must every blessed thing on the planet be monetized?)
  We need a real art school (TCC is fab, but toooo small), and we need our damn law school back…
  Thank heavens for UPS, but we need more liberal arts education. (you knew I’d say that)

  Educational institutions aren’t being used enough around here…
  Let’s do more…
  City should fund/encourage a Green Jobs Initiative that’s better than the pkg. they offered Russell. And a
  Tech Jobs district.
  Boo on the Financial Services District. yuk. boring.
  Those “high-paying” jobs are found in Green and Tech…and Law…and well, with art, we can hope …but life is nothing without creativity…
  What’s good? A tight-knit community that will come out and support each other…we got that!
  That Marine Waters-thing on TheaFoss…FAB.
  You know how I feel about “Tacoma’s recent improvements”…they did nothing to keep Russell here or fill up the condos….but they won’t hurt in the future.
  As for the teeny tinies like me, it’s hostile.
  City government is brain-dead. Zombies in the not-so-good-way.
  We need Fresh Blood!

• N Nick September 16, 2009

  What entrepreneurial ecosystem? That’s exactly the problem – there isn’t one. Starting a company in Tacoma is no different than starting one in some remote town in Alaska. There’s no disadvantage really, but there aren’t any advantages either. Ok, so maybe that’s a bit hyperbolic, but my point holds true.

  If we want that kind of thing in Tacoma, we need to plant a seed to get something growing. The city could give tax breaks, build incubators with discounted rents, work with local universities to build entrepreneurial communities, the list goes on. The point is we just have to do SOMETHING, because right now nobody is doing ANYTHING.

  Imagine if we took that $175M or whatever it was for the IFS/keep-Russell-here package and instead used it to stimulate a startup-friendly environment? In 5 years we could rival Seattle or San Francisco with that pile of cash fueling the process. Use it to build some incubators around downtown, charge 50% market rate for rent in those incubators and watch what happens. Lots of benefits: it would fill in some of those awful empty blocks downtown, create more jobs, and retain all those college grads that immediately move north to live/work after graduation (of the 40 people in my fraternity while in college, 6 stayed in Tacoma, 28 moved to Seattle, 1 to Olympia, and the rest left the state).

• M Mofo from the Hood September 17, 2009

  Show me the money.

• S Steve September 17, 2009

  Great questions, and very interesting responses so far. I have been running a business downtown for 4 years now, having come here from Seattle. Depending on the business, the reality of running a business in Tacoma is very different from what the City or the Chamber describes.

  One of the things that hurts Tacoma has been sort of stated above, there are no huge disadvantages to being in Tacoma, but there are not really any clear advantages either. And if that’s the case, most businesses are going to chose Seattle. If you are competing regionally with companies outside of Tacoma you sort of put yourself in a difficult position by being in Tacoma – if there is a large local customer/client, then they are usually willing to consider competitors throughout the area or country, they don’t show any favoritism to people just because they are in Tacoma – but generally there is a perceived sophistication that people outside of Tacoma will grant to a Seattle firm, but not a Tacoma firm. That’s a long winded way of saying that Seattle companies can do business quite effectively in Tacoma, but it is much harder for a Tacoma business to do business in Seattle. From that standpoint, locating your company in Tacoma is a serious disadvantage. I think 10+ years ago there was a level of provincialism in Tacoma that kept local work going to local firms, but I think that is mostly gone.

  I second (or third) what has been stated about talent. We struggle to attract new college grads, they’d much prefer to be in Seattle. And if we can hire them they usually will live in Seattle and commute to Tacoma.

  B&O tax and “America’s Most Wireless City” are really not relevant to us. We can get DSL/T1 here or anywhere else in the country where we have an office, so what? Interesting slogan but it seems right out of 1997 at this point, broadband access is not hard to find in most parts of the country.

  I see very little business community synergy.

  My suggestions for the City/County/Community leaders : Help the businesses that are here. Consider location when contracting for City and County goods and services, why not make being in Tacoma worth 5%-10% when evaluating who to purchase goods and services from? Other cities have done that for a long, long time.

  I have tried the Chamber of Commerce and I have to say that I have no idea what value they are providing. They may be doing great things and I am too dense to get it but it seems like the most valuable thing they have to offer is a directory of Pierce County businesses, I am not sure who is benefiting from that but after a couple years we decided we must not be a good fit for that organization.

  Appearances matter, and I think they matter a lot to businesses. Those of us who are here know that downtown does not smell like it did 20 years ago and that there are not hourly drive-bys but the reality is that outside of Tacoma that is still a common perception. The City needs to do a lot more to counter that image, and having derelict buildings, closed streets and vacant lots does not help. Use the A Street ramp to exit I-705 and it drops you directly into an expanse of vacant land and surface parking. That’s one of the doorsteps. And that vision immediately reinforces the image of Tacoma that people in Washington have been clinging to since the 1980’s The City has to get this stuff cleaned up, I don’t know how, but they have to make things look better.

  Finally I think the City needs to stop focusing on cultural institutions (art/glass/car museums) and take a balanced approach to development. They seem to come up with creative approaches that make the museums a reality but they have not been able to do that with attracting businesses, hotels, entertainment, sports or recreation. A city needs to be balanced to thrive and for the past 10 years it seems like all the focus has been on museums. It’s not enough.

  Our company has been downtown in Tacoma for almost 10 years. We came here because of the potential that we saw in Tacoma, and we wanted to be part of the revitalization that seemed to be very close at hand back then. With our lease situation we will be deciding in the next year where we want to do business for the next 10+ years. Right now we are strongly considering leaving Tacoma, maybe not the South Sound, but Tacoma. I am concerned about the lack of “urgency” that I see at City Hall, particularly after last week’s news. But I am also concerned about the things that the City has little control over, talent pool, commutes, transit options into the City, etc. It has become much easier in the past 10 years to do business wherever your people want to be, and I think that is going to hurt Tacoma in the coming years.

  That’s my $0.02, with my opinions directly related to the business we are in, I am sure that the type of business has a big impact on how a person would answer the questions.

• A Aroma Tacoma September 17, 2009

  This ‘problem’ is going to solve itself, folks. But not in a way that any dedicated Tacoma advocate is going to like. Here in the Puget Sound ‘cosmos’, Seattle is a black hole, sucking all energy of ANY type into its dark center. Tacoma is juuuuuuuuuuuuust far enough away from the event horizon to have managed to keep from getting completely sucked in; everything smaller has been. City ‘leaders’ talk about the GMA and the 100,000+ folks who are supposed to ‘move’ to Tacoma in the next 20 years. Come on, they’re not going to fit even if we put 200 foot towers in Proctor! What’s going to happen is what is already happening: development (controlled and uncontrolled) will occur from the event horizon outward until (drum-roll) TACOMA BECOMES PART OF SEATTLE. Tacoma may get to annex part of it, but we’re headed to a Dallas/Ft.Worth situation. We’ll know it’s arrived when the train to the airport COMES TO TACOMA. I’ve lived in large metropolitan areas (think Manhattan/NYC and Chicago) and what we are missing is any sort of comprehensive mass-transit (where all the stuff, you know, like connects to each other? duh…). If we had that, these discussions would be flipped 180. “I love my job in Pioneer Square’s Nanotech Garden, but I love hanging out in the Proctor District after I get off the train!” PS. “America’s #1 Wired City” was a national joke the second it rolled off Corpuz’s tongue. Today, it’s just tired and sad. Perhaps we could put in some WiMax stuff and be “Wired for wireless”…and come into the late 20th Century, at least.

• J Jesse September 17, 2009

  Start cherry-picking businesses from Portland. Thier income tax at the top state rates went from 9% to 11% recently.

• C crenshaw sepulveda September 17, 2009

  We need more Daniel Blue banners, that’s the ticket.

• R Rob McNair-Huff September 17, 2009

  I hate to sound like a cheerleader, but Tacoma is a great place to do business. It simply depends what your business is. We’ve already seen in this thread that it is a challenge for some tech firms to get a critical mass here in Tacoma, but what about other kinds of business?

  As someone who ran a small – ok, very small – business in Tacoma before I started working for government, I know that you can carve out a niche and succeed here.

  I’m enjoying this conversation immensely.

• S Squid September 17, 2009

  I’m not an entrepreneur, but I have worked with and known my share. Every one of them was interested in education – higher ed for direct hires and K-12 for recruitment and retention. Most of these firms hire young people who are starting families. They don’t scratch deep in their educational analysis – all they need to see is a few headlines saying “drop-out factories”, “below average test scores”, and “below average college attendance” and they form their own conclusions.

  File that one in the overall quality of life folder.

  Oh, and Mofo is right. Access to start-up capital is absolutely key and we have virtually none. I go to an angel investor and say “hey I need $5 million to start up XYZ Widgets in Tacoma”. Instead of his/her first question being market share, competition, business plan, IP, etc. it’s “why Tacoma?” (insert wrinkled nose here).

  The other posts above all make valid as well. Big question for me is What do you do about it? It seems to me that an entreprenurial culture develops rather organically. I don’t know of a place like Tacoma that has been able to deliberately manufacture such an environment. It’s more like “wow, look what’s growing here! Let’s do some things to promote more of it.”

  Some of it is perceived distance as well. Trains that ran each way every half hour from 6:00 am to 11:pm would do wonders.

• J Jesse September 17, 2009

  It’s standard of living that makes people look past Tacoma. Seattle and Portland are prettier, there’s better white collar jobs for the educated folks, and there’s more to do in those cities like fancy restarants, shows, shopping, and other hip people.
  Tacoma desperately needs downtown shopping. Big shopping. A mall and some stores like Nordstroms, Sears, etc. IMO, it’s a great time to crush the Tacoma mall – which, no city council member would ever admit, is a huge problem. It’s too close to DT and therefore sucks the life out of DT. The mall is like 45 years old now. People like new stuff in a major way. Make a DT mall “cool” and close to current DT shops as to help support them with it’s crowds. I propose turning the convention center building into a mall and some of the surrounding blocks as big-box stores.
  A cable car up 15th to MLK and down 9th to Foss or A street to conquer the hill and tie the DT together
  Maybe Tacoma can keep concentrating on being a tourist town until people want to live here because there’s so much to do here. Run streetcar up stadium way to 1st and up to the 6th ave business district. Don’t crusify me here but I think Stadium HS is such a waste. It needs to be a hotel similar to the Empress in Victoria, BC. People go to that hotel from all over the world because it’s so cool. I think a Stadium Hotel, with it’s views would make people want to stay in Tacoma’s Stadium Hotel more than the Empress. It’d be on streetcar route connecting all the museums, shopping sites too.
  Move the Raniers to Stadium Bowl with an old fashioned row of vendors in pup-tents on a surrounding street on game day.
  Demolish Cheney Stadium, increase capacity at Foss HS for the Stadium HS transplants and fill in the area with density of some sort.
  Re-make the central school building into a Tech HS. Build new admin buildings for Tacoma Public Schools nearby.
  LID for Tacoma Ave.
  Lease the land under I-705 to a nursery that can make an urban nursery there. As part of the lease, have an agreement that they will make and help maintain community gardens on rotating vacant lots on the hillside DT.
  Put a new convention center at the end of the Foss Waterway where all those Pierce County buildings currently are. Closer to the T-Dome where it can be in a symbiotic relationship.
  Build the Haub office (that was going to be for Russell) anyways. Tacoma has turned away companies for lack of class-a office space.
  Have a gondola from firemans park to Dock street.
  Basicly, I’m saying—- Tacoma could be better at being a livable city. POOOOOOORRRR the people into downtown anyway possible. Have some symbolance of shopping and nightlife. Make it super easy to get around and have a good time. Attract the tourists— Tacoma is beautiful.
  Be Beautiful.
  Be interesting.
  Be sustainable.
  … and the city will be successful.

  PS- Hey Tressie—- You want a law school back? How about a law school at the central post office building downtown? I’m affraid someone’s gonna buy it and knock it down otherwise. There are even beautiful court rooms on the top floor right now. Such a great building.

• H Highwater September 17, 2009

  To quote from Jesse @13
  “POOOOOOORRRR the people into downtown anyway possible”

  I’m sure it was an unintentional typo, but you hit it on the head. No business want to locate in a town where poverty is so obvious. You don’t need to look hard in Tacoma to see that this place is below the median for income and education. In Seattle, there are enough well-off folks downtown that the poor folks aren’t as obvious. Until Tacoma addresses the structural reasons for poverty in this town, this town will probably stay the same.

• J Jesse September 17, 2009

  Highwater@14: I meant… increase the number of people when I said poor people into DT. But, you do have a point there.

• D dni September 17, 2009

  Jesse. Just wanted give you a shout out. You get it. The big question, how the hell do you get the “money” to move? Until we get solid retail, the rest will just come and go.

  All the nice streets and pretty lights in the world won’t bring and sustain and promote real growth beyond a mostly mom and pop business profile. People sustain businesses.

  We need to give lots of people lots of reasons to come to downtown, and other areas in Tacoma. We are sooooooo small town, with some of us just so wanting to grow up to our full potential.

  We need smart, strong, determined, and relentless leadership.

• M Morgan September 17, 2009

  Great topic, Derek! I know you have thoughts- you should share them!

  Having started a food-based business in Tacoma some years back and considering doing it again- the health department needs a major overhaul. It’s mandate is too broad and not based on current research. Do sneeze guards in front of espresso machines seriously have any effect on spreading disease? Doubtful. And why is a 3-compartment sink still required when there is a dish washer? And what is so wrong with a hot dog stand or any other food stand?! Does our health department know something millions of New Yorkers don’t?!

  What needs to happen in Tacoma is a change in culture – both at the neighborhood level and political. Other cities accomplish this through the creation of Community Development Organization. To my knowledge, Tacoma has one such organization that could be called a Community Developer, the Tacoma Housing Authority. But they are not neighborhood based and they have their own mission. A Community Development Organization could assume ownership of a church and convert it into a community center which could also house a small business incubator- and much more. Tacoman’s hate to look North for examples, but there are some very good models worth considering.

• J jerry garcia September 17, 2009

  my 2 cents:

  it IS leadership, and it needs to go beyond offering low interest loans to major projects on a case by case basis. also, these deals are all real estate oriented. we need to move past real estate.

  it also needs to go beyond historic buildings and beautiful neighborhoods. we have those. by these standards south tacoma way should be a major destination point.

  it IS the culture here. this town is amazingly self defeating in attitude. it isn’t just a negative attitude, but the fact that there is so little desire for common good in the moneyed interests here. and really, i can’t blame that in a way. where is the upside? the city hasn’t set consistent expectations or a vision. what is the incentive to move past status quo?

  everyone seems to agree on a lot of things. there is desire. there is a consensus that there is a need to invest in the city’s infrastructure, character, development of its culture and population economically, educationally and culturally, and there is a need to continue to do good things with the city’s assets (like historic buildings).

  morgan’s comments are on point, i think, if over-specific. i am shocked that there isn’t a burgeoning busker community, or street vendors. i know the health department is a pain and our laws are an obstacle to that kind of growth. that’s why that (somewhat awful) taco cart gets to do farmer’s market and not some of the other AWESOME taco carts in the sound end.

  one of the most interesting things happened recently when the bus routes were temporarily re-routed to pacific, instead of commerce. pacific suddenly got interesting! why is this not being considered as a permanent solution? there were hundreds of people out waiting for buses.

  our issues from a policy standpoint to me seem to lie in a “wrong question, wrong solution” scenario. fixing problems that don’t really exist, or fixing symptoms.

  there are so many potential avenues of revitalization out there, but the chamber is content with an old set of ideas, old people, old tacoma. they should be an entreprenurial (god, is that spelled right) crucible leading the charge. a previous poster noted the number of private networking opportunities available in seattle. likewise for urban issues – there is not a single policy issue before seattle city council that does not attract multiple organizations devoted to specific interests – some dubious, some great. this fuels a healthy civic debate, no matter what you think of seattle.

  there are people living out in tacoma neighborhoods who have never been downtown. this is shocking – there are virtually no barriers to doing so. just…no reason to go unless you need a permit, are a student, or are going to court.

  i try to shop downtown, and frankly, it is a chore.

  if i were a business tenant, i would be livid at the high lease rates and lack of willingness to improve properties by some of our long term owners.

  ok, nuff said.

• C crenshaw sepulveda September 17, 2009

  Having the buses leave from Pacific was one of the best things I’ve seen in Tacoma for quite some time. For a week or so there was some good activity on Pacific and it almost felt like a real downtown. In downtown I catch the bus in a retail business area, what’s the deal with this downtown transit center in Tacoma, it is about as uninviting as it gets.

• C crenshaw sepulveda September 17, 2009

  I meant to say above, in downtown Seattle I catch the bus in a business retail area. I see no reason to segregate the transit area to some special and unattractive area in downtown Tacoma. I know when they built the downtown transit center it was a big deal and it was all fancy and all but it is a really miserable place to catch a bus.

• D Davest September 17, 2009

  @19: There’s no busier community in Tacoma because there’s no busker’s license available from the city. Any performer o. A corner that collects ant tips is in violation of the pan-handling laws. You can get an Event Permit but that’s specific to a location and date.

  As for the topic at hand, until the individuals in the city change their priorities and start working together both within the governments and with the business community, you are not going to see much change. GritCityGirl’s comments in the latest Luzon post here hits it squarely on the head. It seems there are enough individuals who just don’t know how to manage a citiy’s growth. Not to say they don’t have good intentions. They just don’t have the civic development accumen to get the job done.

  I could write paragraphs on the various examples but they all point to the same thing. The city’s approach to bussiness does not make anyone feel welcome. Why then would anyone put up with this for any longer than they absolutely have to?

• D Douglas Tooley September 17, 2009

  The ‘post and beam’ issue in the Dome District is a good example of the regulatory failure we have in our City government as it applies towards business.

  The medium to small business owners here made responsible and constructive proposals to the City addressing emerging issues in an evolving design only to be insulted with fraudulent claims.

  The City claims to be about business, but it’s really only about corporate welfare and extending the reach of an organization that at crucial levels is no better than ACORN. Sure, they will ‘support’ business, if it is a corporate welfare scam that they control, but if it comes down to being responsive to a responsible independent, forget it.

  The ‘City’ is more interested in establishing power bases than it is in building a lively dynamic place.

  FWIW, I hear from credible sources that Russell was lost years ago and that the recent bailout package fell on ears already closed.

• D David Boe September 17, 2009

  We need a vision and a plan (and not just continue to have more planning). As a small business owner Dowtown-T since ’96 – I have yet to see a community vision plan that can direct investment cohesively – Convention Center, bLINK, Pierce Transit Center, etc…). Without a vision and a plan the city is just a collection of disparetive, and usually competing, interests.

• T Thorax O'Tool September 18, 2009

  Forget a “sustainability czar” and the inappropriateness of using “czar” in US politics at any level…

  What we need is a ministry of propaganda.
  It’s well established that people will believe anything… it’s how political parties, wars, religions and cultures are born and die.
  We need a comprehensive propaganda platform that includes not just advertising, but also so-called “gurella” and “viral” propaganda. Sure, have ads for T-Town… that helps, but it’s not enough. We need to be subversive and spread the word about the rising violent crime rate in Bellevue, the rising robbery rate in Seattle, while not even mentioning anything positive or negative about Tacoma. It gets the idea across that it’s decaying up there, but we must be doing fine down here… but not in an obvious way. In a way that’s subliminal. We need to go deep into enemy territory and start mixing pro-Tacoma literature, posters, etc, etc all over the 206 and 425.

  Propaganda worked like a charm to convince people that the USSR and USA were each other’s boogymen… We need to turn that to our own devices.

• R RR Anderson September 18, 2009

  Downtown transit center is disgustingly dirty with the all appeal of hanging out in the loading dock of a walmart.

  Transit on Pacific was wonderful. It was a joy. You could see the electricity of life in the faces of my fellow bus people.

• R RR Anderson September 18, 2009

  this city needs ubiquitous 24hr video surveillance if it is going to compete toe-to-toe with our blood enemy city-state to the north.

• C crenshaw sepulveda September 18, 2009

  When the ASARCO smelter stack was demolished we got people coming into Tacoma from miles around to see it come down. Same with the press and TV coverage. We have our opportunity again with the demolition of the Luzon. Bring the family, pack a picnic. I’ll be the one there with the respirator concession.

• B boomer September 18, 2009

  Tacoma will NEVER be able to compete with Seattle as long as major players like Microsoft, Amazon, T-Mobile, Starbucks, Nintendo, Costco, Real Networks, Adobe, ClearWire, F5, Corixa (and all the other big bio-tech companies located in South Lk Union).

  Seattle is much too established now for Tacoma to try and grow and draw talent for small companies. That would be like Oakland trying to lure tech talent from San Fran — ain’t gonna happen!

• D dni September 18, 2009

  Love the business article in the TNT about McMennimens (sorry about the spelling there) where he laughed when asked if Russell’s leaving would affect their decision to go forward. He hadn’t even heard of it!

  Not everyone is focused on “business” to bring people to an area, etc. Retail will bring people. Good strong retail. Tacoma has a lot of opportunity for creative-minded organizations willing to invest their time, effort and money. Nothing worth having ever comes easy and its not neccessarily been easy, or will it be in the future. Tenaciousness will work.

  These guys coming to down was a grass roots effort and Voepel and others actually informed them of the unique opportunity that the Elks could offer them. The “seed” was planted and the time became right.

  Strong leadership isn’t meant just for politics. Unless we have strong determined people in our community willing to take risks and not be shy about what they would like for their community, no one will ever know what possibilities may exist.

• C crenshaw sepulveda September 18, 2009

  Didn’t know Russell was leaving and they are going to open up a business in Tacoma? I find that difficult to believe coming from what appears to be such a smart company. What planet are they from?

• D dolly varden September 18, 2009

  @31: A planet that doesn’t see the Russell departure and 900 employees who mostly never hung out much downtown anyway as the end of the civilized world. Hard to imagine, I know.

• C crenshaw sepulveda September 18, 2009

  It is very possible that a good many of the Russell employees would never set foot in the McMeninins revitalized Elks. I am willing to say that their departure will have an economic impact on Tacoma. If I’m going to invest millions of dollars in Tacoma I’d sure be on top of what is going on in Tacoma, even if I’m based out of Portland. I may not care if Russell is leaving, but I’d know about it. Seattle is already looking forward to Russell setting up shop in their downtown, they don’t see it as neutral thing. A Russell buck does move quite a bit through Tacoma, it will be missed, maybe not by McMenimins. The response from McMenimins vis the departure of Russell was ingenuous, it makes me wonder if they might back out and just not site the Russell departure as the reason.

• D dni September 18, 2009

  McMennimen’s reaction is amusing to me. Seems to me not everyone is waiting for someone else to dictate their investments. It is further refreshing to hear not everyone “buys” into what they are being sold.

  Russell players were set to leave long ago. I’m sure the building owners knew they had to look at other alternatives for the future. Its my understanding that they have people interested in the space.

  My question….why do people go on and on about Seattle and Portland? I think we are jealous we can’t be a bit more grown up like our neighbors.

  Can we not have enough confidence to be the masters of our own destiny and define who we are? Guys, we are Tacoma and parts of us are beautiful.

• P Penelope September 19, 2009

  The longer we all keep comparing ourselves to the big S or P the longer we get to sit in the “shit” we are projecting. Tacoma has some amazing qualities talents and visonaries. The problem is none of them are in any position of power. Until we have some business people on council, and “old guard” in the ground, we will continue to chase our tails. Some of the resources pooled to beg Russell to stay, need to be creatively redistributed amongst the efforts to foster a culture of entrepreneurship. Gee our city paid $150,000.00 to have someone from Austin tell us that a year ago. Can we stop looking outside ourselves to fix the perceived problem? Self esteem has to come from within! Tacoma suffers from a twisted sense of entitlement and territorialism matched by a large inferiority complex. Everyone gets offended jealous or suspiscious of a good idea. Collaberation appears to be poison to some. Go Local will only be more than a slogan when people start depending on each other. Reccognize a talent near you, contract it instead of stubbornly trying to do it yourself, tell theta about it and say thank you for it often! That’s what we need to foster here. It’s really simple. Let’s take stock of our asserts, identify the holes, and fill the gaps with complimentary offerings. No large employer or retail entity wants or can financially justify locating somewhere that there is numerous empty spaces surrounding it. Still ironically, the comprehensive plan never mentions any of that. Dust off Paulla Reeses study from 5 yrs ago. David Boe you should be making all future design plans, and how do we get buskers allowed to be downtown.

• P penelope September 19, 2009

  Sorry for the typos, that was hard from an i-phone ):

• J jp solyom September 20, 2009

  If you carefully look at the framework surrounding vibrant and thriving economic zones, you will find that government has either learned that must foster zones of creative chaos that quickly evolve into thriving centers of activity – or – was too occupied with other problems to stamp out the nascent energy that was big enough to survive once noticed by central planners who appear more intent on suppressing all forms of unsanctioned activity and legislating morality.
  Tacoma now has a first rate pipeline to attract people from Seattle to have a fun weekend in Tacoma. The Foss waterfront has the potential of becoming the music destination of the Pacific Northwest. Put in some covered sound stages surrounded by comfortable seating and beer/food gardens and you can have a constant stream of Pacific Northwest bands honing their skills every weekend. People means food, retail, hotels, etc.

  Make it easy for scuba divers to access the waterfront (Les Davis Pier) and spend their money in Tacoma (take a look at what a typical diver will spend on an expedition) and create some unique activities such as hunting for rare bottles and other relics in the water.

  People want events and unusual entertainment. A recession is the perfect time to get started because many will stay closer to home due to budgetary constraints… But they still want to be entertained.

  Tacoma has the building blocks to create zones of chaos for allowing the marketplace to sort out what will work in this area. Create a framework for making it easy for creative entrepreneurs to quickly test their ideas and for the good ones to thrive. Gardeners know that you must carefully water and fertilize a new plant for some time to allow it to establish itself before you start to prune it… And that you must be careful in your pruning because if you take off too much it may not make it through the next season of bad weather…

• A Altered Chords September 21, 2009

  Re: music destination. I’ve been to the Harmon Hub on 2 different saturday nights and on both occassions, have been absolutly blown away by the LOCAL bands.

  Kim Archer was one band. I do not know who it was that I saw last Saturday night but they were great. I could not find the name of the band on the Harmon Hub website last Monday when I looked.

  I’m not so much interested in finding out who it was as I am giving kudos to local bands pumping out high quality, moving innovative music and to the Hub for recognizing what fits their venue and making it happen.

  RE: Boe. Why is Boe not desinging this city? Maybe he is.

• P Proctor-ite September 21, 2009

  Thorax O’ Toole’s comment @ 25 just reminded me of an encounter maybe 5 years ago with a woman named Wendy Luhabe, who at the time was basically marketing South Africa. The gov’t discovered that most people were getting their negative information about South Africa from South African business people who were traveling elsewhere. So that leads me to ponder, what are Tacoma’s business people saying about us?

  To combat this, they were running a campaign within South Africa with the message that “Marketing South Africa is Everybody’s Business” and outside South Africa the message was “South Africa, Alive with Possibility”. Perhaps that’s what we need – a message to Tacomans that it’s our job to be ambassadors, and a Tacoma rocks message to everyone else.

• I I'm for Change (for tacoma) September 22, 2009

  @ #39 — or we just win the bid for a future World Cup.

• E Erik B. September 22, 2009

  What helps and what hurts our ability to create new companies here?

  Predictability for businesses which from viewing the actions of the council on the Foss Hotel project, is pretty low in Tacoma.

• A Amanda September 23, 2009

  I love many of the ideas so far. They feel like people want a vibrant city with lively people instead of lovely (but cold and not very huggable) buildings.

  I agree with Penelope – we have to be ourselves instead of comparing ourselves to or trying to become as grown up as Portland or Seattle.

  After returning home from living in a major metropolitan area with multi-modal public transportation, Tacoma and Pierce County feel punitive and stifling to me even though Tacoma is or has been one of the top 100 populated US cities and P. Co. has 750,000 residents. I think we all want a vibrant city from bottom up (what works for us) not top down (what works for elected officials).

  I’d love for my elected representatives to genuinely invite resident input and have the courage to implement policies that promote forward-thinking ideas (or eliminate policies that hinder). Or maybe I just miss smelling street cart vendors cooking onions and sausages cooking in the wee hour mornings outside of bars.

  Transportation Soapbox: It bugs me that all these beautiful (and new and nearly empty) buses don’t go from one destination to another without at least two transfers. I prefer to contribute to global warming (drive my car) rather than waste half my day on two transfers each way to my grocery store 1-1/2 miles away.

  What is a next step for us (and should I buy a chicken or an egg next time I’m at the grocery store)?