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 29^th 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.

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It happened in and around Tacoma this week. ...

Woodards Kicks of Re-Election Campaign

Tacoma's campaign season continued to take shape this week as yet another incumbent city official, Tacoma City Councilmember Victoria Woodards, kicked-off her campaign with a gathering of supporters at the Landmark Convention Center.

During her relatively brief remarks Woodards touted her work protecting public services and community programs during budget cutbacks, emphasized the value of small businesses and shared about her work addressing Tacoma's gang activity.

Woodards is currently unopposed and is not expected to field a serious opponent.

Van Dyk to Challenge Lonergan

Justin Van Dyk filed to challengeTacomaCity Councilmember Joe Lonergan for his District 5 seat. It's no secret that Lonergan is the only (moderate) Republican on the Council and in a city as blue as Tacoma it's not a big surprise that he drew a candidate who will look to unseat him by way of turning the race partisan - which is why it comes as a surprise Van Dyk is already using a trademark Republican tactic, lambasting Lonergan's salary in an interview this week with The Trib.

That noted, it's always exciting to see young people run for office. I'm looking forward to hearing what Van Dyk has to say over the next few months about what he would do differently for South Tacoma.

Link Debate Continues

This week the Tacoma City Council held a public study session with Sound Transit staff as they continue to consider which proposed route they will recommend to the Sound Transit Board.

There continues to be uncertainty regarding Councilmember Boe's plan, which was summed up well in this piece by The Trib.

The best link-related read came this week, as usual, from Chris Karnes of Tacoma Tomorrow and Town Hall Tourist who created his own charts further dissecting the five potential routes.

TAM Proposal Draws the Ire of Density Activists

The Tacoma Art Museum released plans for a large addition far less attractive than their current facility. Many downtown Tacoma activists are frustrated with the design for a variety of reasons. 

I-502 Implementation Timeline Announced

Just in time for 4.20 the Washington Liquor Control Board announced this week that it has established an official timeline for implementation of I-502. After Dec. 1 these sorts of escapades won't be necessary. 

South Downtown Subarea Plan Public Hearing

The City of Tacoma Planning and Development Services Department staff will conduct a public hearing at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, April 25 in the Carwein Auditorium on the University of Washington Tacoma campus (1900 Commerce St.) to receive comments on the draft South Downtown Subarea Plan and Environmental Impact Statement.

Zach Powers has managed multiple legislative campaigns in greater Tacoma and previously served as a Legislative aide in the Washington State Senate.

Sound Transit unveiled two new hybrid alternatives yesterday at their Tacoma Link open house at Tacoma Dome Station.

Tacoma City Councilmember David Boe and the Streetcar Stakeholders group respectively proposed the two corridors. Boe's alternative (dubbed H1) combines a portion of the Salishan alternative from 29th and Portland Avenue at the proposed Emerald Queen Casino complex and proceeds up 25th Street to Martin Luther King Jr. Way.  The second hybrid (H2) would link St. Joseph Hospital, Tacoma General and the Stadium District via MLK Way, Division and Stadium Way and along to 29th and Portland Avenue. Costs for Boe's H1 are calculated at roughly $199 million, with H2 coming in at $170 million.  According to engineers on the project, funds to add double tracking along South 25th and on Pacific Avenue is not included in these cost estimates. Ridership on these two corridors is projected to be lower than the Hilltop or Sixth Avenue corridors at 2.5-3.0 million riders per year, but higher than the Salishan corridor.

One panel from Sound Transit indicates that grades along all streets leading East-West up to Tacoma Avenue from Pacific Avenue exceed the grade tolerance for streetcar and would make operations impractical. The H1 alignment, for instance, has grades between 8 percent and 16 percent along South 25th Street. Streetcars are generally able to traverse grades of less than 8 percent.

The tone of public comments for the new hybrid alternatives was harsh.  "The engineering challenges of [the H1] approach seem insurmountable at reasonable cost," one attendee wrote. "I can't believe we held up the process for this," one wrote about the H2 corridor. Another person added, "If the casino wants to pay for it, let them."

Many are hoping that this open house will mark the end of what has been a nine-year stretch of feasibility and corridor studies that began in 2004, shortly after Tacoma Link opened for service.

The Tacoma City Council is scheduled to be briefed on the results of Sound Transit's analysis of the hybrid alternatives at next Tuesday's study session, April 16.  A recommendation to Sound Transit expected in the following weeks.

Oh what a difference a week can make.

Last week city civics was all mud and details as pro-transit progressives formed debate teams and held a meet over light rail extension plans and the future of public transit.

While the light rail extension debate and review will (rightfully) continue, this week was defined by jubilance and stability.

Jubilance over reports State Farm has all but confirmed that they will be moving 2,000 jobs to Tacoma and occupying the vacant Russell Building (and a few floors of the Columbia Bank Center). While I could write five pages about why this is such monumental news I'll resist as the The Trib has done a great job breaking this story, reporting on details and offering commentary.

Stability as the town's political movers and shakers turned out in droves Wednesday evening to celebrate the kick-off of Mayor Marilyn Strickland's reelection campaign.

I've been to a lot of local campaign kick offs and this one struck me as noticeably different. Different because the event felt like less like a pep rally and more like a halftime check-in. Of course those who spoke before and after Mayor Strickland hyped and hollered, but when it was her turn to address her supporters she was calm, poised and focused while speaking about goals that have been met and work still to do.

That same calm, collected confidence and focus has served her well throughout the past four years - four years that haven't been without their fair share of municipal drama and polarizing debates - budget deficits, billboard decisions, the hiring of a new City Manager, etc.

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If you think of a light rail expansion like baking a cake, we are late in the process of figuring out what recipe to use. The characteristics of what flavors and textures we’d like to see in the cake have already been determined and were prioritized by public processes over the last three years. In order of priority, Tacoma wants the cake (that is, the light rail expansion) to:

1. Improve mobility and transportation access for Tacoma residents and visitors,
2. Increase transit ridership,
3. Serve underserved neighborhoods and communities,
4. Spur economic development,
5. Be environmentally sensitive and sustainable, and
6. Be a project that’s competitive for federal funding.

Up until two weeks ago, Tacoma was getting ready to select one or two (of three) highly-refined and well-supported recipes to tell Sound Transit to start baking.  Sound Transit staff had already narrowed a list of 24 alternative routes along nine different corridors to three options based on community input. The three remaining routes were: Hilltop and Sixth Avenue via Tacoma General Hospital and Salishan via the Emerald Queen Casino. The analysis had been completed, public comment gathered and the date to move forward was set for late this month. Then, as the decision approached, Tacoma City Councilmember David Boe and the Streetcar Stakeholders Group felt that we hadn’t exhausted all of the options since we started studying expansion of Tacoma Link (... more than six years ago). Both Boe and the Stakeholder group proposed "hybrids" of alternatives previously examined.

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Everyone in Tacoma Has a Link Opinion

Who can remember the last time this town had such a big debate about public transit? Pierce Transit has been dealing with devastating budget cuts for years now and I don't recall a two week period where activists and elected officials alike have been, at the same time, as riled up about transit as they've been these last two weeks over possible link extension plans.

The basic two week, 5-point plot has been this:

1. Sound Transit announces that based on their research they'd like to receive community input about three potential Link extension routs what would connect the current downtown link to the Hilltop, Sixth Avenue or the Eastside.
2. Debates erupt all over town (actually mostly on Facebook, but also on exit133) about which plan is "best for Tacoma." (In quotations because nine out of 10 activists and electeds have just been advocating for the plan closest to where they live).
3. Tacoma City Councilmember David Boe introduces his own "hybrid plan" that attempts to reach all three of the communities targeted by the three proposed plans. (The Trib ed-board summed up the pros and cons of Boe's proposal nicely in this editorial)
4. Local transit advocates criticize Boe's proposal for being far too expensive and for its potential to delay the extensions approval.
5. The city of Tacoma formally asks Sound Transit to consider Boe's proposal (at which point I'd like to imagine Boe ripped the sketch out of his pad and handed it over to Sound Transit CEO Joni Earl).

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Shifting to mass transit is not only critical to staving off an ecological crisis, it is also key to getting out of our economic one: the expansion of rail and bus lines drives development, creating jobs while making it easier for the rest of us to get to our existing ones. The reverse is also true. The dismantling of mass transit has, like cuts to other public services, erects a massive roadblock on the path to economic recovery. While the private sector adds jobs, public sector austerity is driving the American economy off the tracks.

This past November, voters rejection of Proposition 1, a measure that would have funded Pierce Transit by raising the sales tax 3 cents for every $10 spent. Its failure to pass by barely more than 700 votes means service reductions, including limited bus service on Saturdays and Sundays and no holiday service.

Plenty has been written about the failure of Prop 1. The bottom line is, people will lose their jobs due to the cuts. That's were the Weekly Volcano chooses to focus this week.

Elizabeth Corcoran Murray reports on how the Pierce Transit cuts jeopardize employment for people with disabilities.

It isn't easy to get a job; harder still when you have a disability - and virtually impossible without transportation. The 28 percent cut in service announced by Pierce Transit on Feb. 11 will devastate most individuals with disabilities trying to find work or to hold on to their job.  

"People lost jobs with the last round of cuts (in 2011) and more will lose them with this round," said Debbie Graham, the director of Centerforce, which links people with disabilities to employment. "We support people who work janitorial shifts at night and weekend shifts at places like Walmart. Employers change the schedules week to week. The most vulnerable people in our community will be impacted." Indeed, 55 percent of Pierce Transit's riders come from households with annual incomes below $20,000 and 45 percent of riders have no cars.

Read Murray's complete report on how the transit cuts will affect people with disabilities in the Weekly Volcano's Mudroom section.