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Fri. June 22, 2007, 07:25am PDT
Bullets from the Position 8 forum
Last night I took in Derek's forum for candidates running for Tacoma's "at large" spot on the City Council. It was a good chance to see and hear each of the four hopefuls back-to-back. Derek posted all the questions and to whom they went and the following are bullets of each candidate's responses as I heard them since I know people might be interested to know what was said but lead busy enough lives that making events like this may be difficult.
Take them as you will but I am pretty fast at typing on my Palm. ;)
Opening Remarks
Marty Campbell
- focus on small business
- crime reduction, take downtown success everywhere
- mixed use centers and transit
David Curry
- focus on people
- "real" voters are single moms, not developers
- lived throughout city in many different neighborhoods
- individual voices represented
- public safety, hold people to high standards
Marilyn Strickland
- worked in various businesses and for public library in Tacoma
- best days ahead for Tacoma
- do more for more people
- protect and grow assets, take care of basics, affordable housing
- education is civic priority
Jonathan Phillips
- safety, streets, reasonable development
- experience key
- spent time on council once as appointed rep for vacated seat
Gentrification
Phillips
- gentrification is example of tax abatement success
- conversion of apt to condos part of problem
- council needs to help people here stay here
Curry
- experience in affordable housing business
- protect neighborhoods from rampant development
- avoid pushing people out
Education Policy
Campbell
- class curriculum set by state, education environment helped by city
- rebuild community between all leaders
- mentorships in every level of school
- keep educated here, retain
Strickland
- provide comm for learning
- fund libraries
- support education development
- provide access/training in trades
Transit System
Curry
- don't segment areas
- light rail good for downtown
- need artistic look to sounder Pacific Ave. overpass
Campbell
- Alt "F" for Sounder route through downtown (trench option instead of overpass)
- 8 point plan (of which I got 6): use at pedestrian level, carpool progs, bus compliments rail, streetcars in neighborhoods, flex car sys, comprehensive parking program
Streetcars and Funding
Strickland
- make rail/transit more convenient than driving
- routes makes sense if useful
- in the end, ask taxpayers for money since funds all tied up in other city needs
Phillips
- attractive means to focus attention on transit
- didn't need car in Chicago
- Tacoma system seems to have only a couple buses and a train
- bus needs to connect meaningfully
- need efficient system over new one
Environment
Curry
- fleets lead way
- more green codes, incentives
- environmentally sensitive in practicle way
Strickland
- city does good job now, leads way in recycling and elsewhere
- needs to be practical on individual level
- more trees
- lifestyle changes
View / Height Restrictions
Phillips
- believes city not built out, plenty of green on map
- tall buildings changes city character
- doesn't want big city concrete and glass canyons
- not broken now, solution in search of problem
Campbell
- old rail stops boon to neighborhood development
- transit oriented development
- human scale key
- parking requirement restricts development
- scale needs to be right feel per area
Private Development Needs
Strickland
- grow asset here now
- health care core, education as well
- school/training here, work here, live here in affordable homes
Campbell
- need class "A" office space
- drivers by don't miss Tacoma from tall buildings
- tech and arts
- incubator for artists to learn business
- expand financial district
Neighborhood Infrastructure
Phillips
- intent of council key
- recently, council's hand forced by bad winter weather
- surface and subsurface need to be seen as entire system
- infrastructure #1 priority
- protect infrastructure
- some traffic calming (roundabouts, etc.) good, too much or obstacle course not necessary
Curry
- no true fix w/out tax/levy
- think long term not quick fixes
- utilities need to work/plan together
- roundabouts OK but most eyesores, not taken care of
Dream Project and Closing Remarks
Campbell
- water park on hill in downtown ;)
- transit plan
- cars off road is future, no car lifestyle
- mature parks straight off
- comprehensive events management
- domestic violence
- all for Tacoma that works
Curry
- practical dream: beautify streetscapes
- 21st Street between Proctor and Pearl ugly: calm it, add bike paths, widen sidewalks
- open and honest government
- posts videos online
- thankful for fellow candidates able to have civil discussion (unlike other local council races)
Strickland
- need class "A" downtown building(s)
- people out all hours
- develop urban core, currently bypassed by employers
- Whole Foods, downtown as destination
- lively up Pacific 11th to 15th
- get people downtown to shop on weekends
- regular customers for businesses
- need bustling streetscapes
- have courage to do something not just talk/blog about it
- cross section matters, represent everyone
Phillips
- help solve large company environmental problems for large impact
- electricity for idle ships in Port
- help small business in Port be green, efficient
- anyone here can make difference as he has
Who won?
After the event a few of us from the audience got some food over at Paddy Coyne's. Here's what we thought (each in order of result from first place on):
Best Overall Impression: Marilyn Strickland, David Curry, Marty Campbell, Jonathan Phillips
Clearest Goals: Marty Campbell, Marilyn Strickland, David Curry, Jonathan Phillips
Most Experienced: Jonathan Phillips, David Curry, Marilyn Strickland, Marty Campbell
Wants It Most: Marty Campbell, Jonathan Phillips, Marilyn Strickland, David Curry
Take that as you will though the event was a forum not a debate with any candidate interaction nor a town hall with any impromptu audience interaction.
The Event
Derek stepped out of the normal blogger comfort zone behind the keyboard for this event and I applaud him for arranging and hosting it. The questions and topics presented to each candidate were great and seemed to illicit responses that forced each candidate to think a little rather than just pick a page from their campaign materials. The time allowed for each response and the night was just about right. Opening and closing remarks were limited to four minutes while other responses to topics were limited to three and the event was through in 90 minutes.
Derek as a host/emcee was pretty decent though seemed a bit tense. I'm sure with other outings like this he'll grow more comfortable. The Theater on the Square venue seemed far too formal a setting with the very dimmed lights and spots illuminating each piece on the stage. Since this was a closed forum with no audience interaction the distance horizontally and vertically from the seats to the stage seemed too much. To me this contributed to a pretty stiff and dry evening overall. From a tech standpoint it seemed that the participants should have mics at the table where the sat waiting for each question rather than individually walk up to a podium for each response. That motion led to a disjointed pace that seemed to break the comfort up a bit. Hopefully more opportunities like this in the future will have appeal to draw a larger audience. Tonight there were likely about 50 people there. Not a bad number but easily half were people directly related to one of the four candidates campaigns, family or friends.
Like I said, it was good to get to know each candidate a bit. My vote for future events would be to have something during a Farmers' Market where there are people wandering around, coming and going and in a less formal setting. Bring the candidates there to interact with folks but also allow that comparison that last night did. I'm looking forward to next week's Coffee & Rhetoric. UrbanXchange's Julie mentioned last night some council candidates will be there to participate in a lighter mode that may include "speed campaigning". I'm so there.
Comments (1) | To Top
6/22/2007 @ 2:48pm
Great event Kevin.
Of course, one of the best suggestions by the candidates was by Marty Campbell to remove the off-street parking requirement in order to permit the empty lots downtown to infill so that we downtown can grow in an attractive pedestrian friendly manner. We want the downtown to look more like Pacific Avenue by UWT than 38th Avenue.
Jonathan Phillips is right about the pollution in the city. It is being largely caused by the Port of Tacoma who has been letting ships sit at dock and idle and burn tins of Diesel.
Marilyn Strickland is certainly right that Tacoma "need(s) class "A" downtown building(s)." She notes the low vacancy rates for class A office space. I hope she will continue to look at the reasons why developers would have a difficult time ever building such a building.
Curry went out of his way to recognize the other candidates and I personally like the effort to improve 21st Street.
by Erik B.