Yesterday, Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland and Tacoma City Councilmembers Lauren Walker, Victoria Woodards, Robert Thoms, Anders Ibsen and Ryan Mello created a 6-3 majority over Marty Campbell, Joe Lonergan, and David Boe for a Tacoma Link extension to Hilltop via the Stadium District (E1 corridor).
Eastside Councilmember Campbell led the effort for C1 proponents for a Portland Avenue line. During his 10-minute long speech, he indicated that the Puyallup Tribe would be willing to commit "$12m over five years" for a capital match for a Link expansion to the Eastside of Tacoma. $12m represents about a third of how much it would cost to construct light rail between Tacoma Dome Station and South 29th and Portland Avenue, but as Campbell asserted, would have brought the project potentially within $2m of being "fully funded." The alleged contribution offer has been disputed since then.
Councilmembers Boe and Lonergan piled on Campbell's comments about the "acres" of development potential for Portland Avenue, while criticizing several portions of the Hilltop and Sixth Avenue corridors for lacking the capacity for transit oriented development. Several of these councilmembers should have their eyes examined. Much of Sixth Avenue and Hilltop are already "transit oriented" - they sport short, walkable, urban blocks, a mixture of uses and density levels that only existed because of Tacoma's historic streetcar period.
Councilmember Ibsen came out in favor of the hybrid H2, potentially hedging his political bets between council camps for E1 and C1. Though he had never stated a preference for B1, many were counting on his critical vote of support to help the Sixth Avenue corridor have standing in the conversation. Instead, he joined Eastside proponents in criticizing B1 as being "built out." His second choice was for E1.
Councilmembers Mello and Thoms referred to ridership and federal grant criteria when they spoke about their choices, both being B1 and then E1 as a second choice. Mello spoke eloquently about how the process has made it clear that Tacoma is "clamoring for transit" and will not put Sound Transit and the region through the morass that Bellevue has been regarding East Link. But he was also solemn in noting that the process has also pitted neighborhood against neighborhood. He pleaded for the Council to make good on its commitment to fund and implement a transportation master plan to help realize a more connected Tacoma and to position the city for Sound Transit 3, (4 and 5).
Mayor Strickland spoke confidently after all other councilmembers had taken the time to give their comments. Sure of the fact that she had a majority of votes to move forward on E1 - counting Councilmember Woodards, who was not present - the Mayor reiterated that "this is about trying to prioritize and maximize the investment. ... We have to get this up the hill to density."
What should be disturbing to some is how few if any of the councilmembers seemed to be interested in the top priorities as rated by public input: mobility and ridership. Nor were many of them concerned about the impacts of gentrification or cared to talk about any of the more than 800 public comments received. In fact, it appears that most of their minds were made up several years ago. Councilmember Walker talked about how she wanted MLK as an alignment back in 2008, when she allegedly met with Tacoma Streetcar. Mayor Strickland said early on in the discussion, "I don't need a 100-cell spreadsheet on this." She made her decision to support MLK using on-the-ground observations about "where people are walking" in addition to other efforts she's helped to spearhead to encourage growth on Hilltop over the last decade.
While no vote was taken at the meeting, flags have been planted and the April 30 vote by the Council is likely to be a rubber stamp on the issue. Sound Transit is expected to take up the issue of a locally preferred alternative for extension of Tacoma Link late next month.
Good game City Council.
LINK: Read Chris Karnes' editorial on Tacoma Tomorrow "Time to Come Together Around Hilltop"