OK, I know we just got over election season. But it’s time to get started again. Given that 2008 was one of the more tumultuous years in recent memory, especially regarding politics, the Weekly Volcano’s downtown Tacoma denizens wanted to offer a primer on issues that are likely to matter in 2009, or at least should matter.



Let’s just get it out of the way, and get back to canning food and preparing for the Apocalypse.



First and foremost, let’s put an end to partisan bickering. I am reminded most frequently of our primate heritage by politicians, who engage in a sort of high-brow feces-flinging all year long. Everyone always promises to stop drawing partisan lines, and everybody usually delivers for the first two or three months after election season. After that, it’s back to politics as usual. Which usually sucks, at least when it comes to working across party lines.



Always wise, Matt Driscoll says he’d like to see an end to all the posturing and grandstanding. Calvin Goings is headed over to work with the credit unions, so that should help. Honestly, that’s a 20 percent cut all by itself. But there is a point at which we, the voters, begin to feel insulted by all the manipulation of context and information that goes on in the name of selling political agendas. It’s not surprising that no one knows what’s going on. Try this: just tell us what’s going on. Use simple language, and speak in plain terms. Don’t dress it up. Don’t knead it into a more palatable form. Pretend we’re your equals. We can take it straight. We deserve it straight.



Next, can we stop whining about transportation dollars? Let’s see a concerted effort to get State Route 167 connected to the Port of Tacoma, and cross our fingers on finding money for the Cross Base Highway. They’ve been chasing that goose since 1980, for Bob’s sake. If you ask anyone really connected to that effort about how soon it will happen, they’ll deliver their answer under their breath, and it usually involves a lot of “ums” and “ahs” and dates starting somewhere around 2020.



We seriously need to pay attention to the Pierce County water supply. If you pay close attention, readers, you’ll notice that most of the water we’re going after is somewhere else. Thank someone somewhere that the City of Tacoma has a surplus to sell to the Cascade Water Alliance. In areas of unincorporated Pierce County and in cities such as Sumner, water is in short supply, which is in part a result of our recent, ridiculous building boom. Now is the time to start figuring out where it all went, and whether we can do anything to get some back. Start by following through on promises to beef up environmental enforcement, stop destroying wetlands, and build from there.



Next, can we take a serious look at affordable housing? I went to a Pierce County affordable housing task force meeting at the News Tribune two freaking years ago, and providing homes for good, hard working families was a crisis then. We have an unbelievable surplus of unaffordable housing, and an unbelievable shortage of housing for people who earn a decent income. I know developers hate this idea, but let’s explore incentives for developing mixed-income housing. Better yet, make a prerequisite for getting permits in areas where it won’t outright kill the financial viability of projects. Some of you may have to make less money on the front end. But all those people working 80 hours a week in crappy service jobs will appreciate not having to choose between feeding and sheltering their kids.