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Most folks in Tacoma know of Laura Hanan's perennial fight to keep downtown a viable place for business and residents. She even squelched some of her own diligence snapping photos of undesirable local activity when she received personal threats. After emailing out info about some strange activity this weekend it seems more people are finally taking notice. From Laura's email:

There are at least 50 underage kids loitering, skateboarding, yelling, wrestling, and throwing frisbees in the parking lot and on the sidewalk where Brick City is located. I just watched two kids pull signs off of private property to use for skateboard ramps. There is absolutely no supervision of these kids and the area restaurant/bar patrons can't even walk on that side of the street.

The BIA nor the police responded immediately to calls about this activity until there was an injury involving one of the youth. Hanan goes on to describe that after this response the kids continued to loiter and even throw bricks at the nearby Drake's building which she says is being renovated to make viable for leasing.

Rose Calvin, owner of the nearby Learning Sprout, complains about the lack of City response saying she and local business owners are being "considered a nuisance" themselves and that "there is no other explanation for the deaf ear all the words full of facts have fallen on!"

Local pub owner Patrick Coyne writes, "This stuff is going to kill my business and also every business in the vicinity. How would you feel if you came to Downtown Tacoma for Dinner a few drinks, go and enjoy a show in the Theatre and you have to deal with this crap?" He goes on to add that someone needs to step up to the plate to avoid this area again becoming a bunch of vacant buildings with thugs ruling the roost.

Kris Blondin even sarcastically suggests that local leaders "Draw straws, play rock, paper, scissors or something," to start the ball rolling on a solution. Patricia Lecy-Davis appears to be the first to step up by offering to organize a forum to discuss among local residents, business owners and City leaders. She admits that past forums revealed that youth in the area didn't pose any "conflict of use" but that seems to have changed. She's even talked with the World Vision folks that run the local youth club with talk of even possibly moving to another location.

Does urging World Vision's youth programs to leave downtown solve the problem? Should the City of Tacoma implement clearer nuisance guidelines with real consequences for downtown? How can increased activity due to an increasingly successful downtown mesh with the needs and safety of local businesses and residents?

I've setup an online forum to help facilitate discussion so stakeholders that can't make any particular meeting can still participate and lend their ideas to help. Link to the forum »

Todd Matthews, of Tacoma Daily Index fame and a daily commuter from Seattle, took a journey on the first reverse Sounder train to Tacoma this morning. He liked the ride but not the arrival times. Here's a couple bullets.

Good things:

• I forgot how nice it is to ride a train
  
• Empty train (vs. crowded express buses)
  
• Nice view of Mt. Rainier at sunrise
  
• Souvenir travel tags handed out by ST staffers
  
• It's another commute option that doesn't involve driving my car

Not-so-good things:

• Woke up at 4:30 a.m., caught a 5:15 a.m. bus to downtown Seattle, and caught the train at 6:10 a.m., only to arrive in downtown Tacoma at 7:10 a.m. A long morning of commuting, and work starts at 8:00 a.m., so there was 50 minutes to kill. 7:10 is a strange arrival time.
• Low turnout that hopefully won't discourage Sound Transit from keeping this reverse commute running

Todd thinks that given time and perhaps a slightly more reasonable arrival time this option will be a success. Thanks for the perspective and photos, Todd, and happy commuting to you!

Link also to Erik's first ride perspective

Want to learn how live and urban life here in Tacoma? The group that puts out South Sound magazine is releasing Tacoma Live this Friday. According to the BE Daily, the guide "features 48 pages full of local images and listings of dining, entertainment, shopping and nightlife spots."

Be proud that some mega-corporation isn't just dropping this in our laps via metrics processed until completely vanilla. This publication is made here in Tacoma. Pick it up Friday at the City, visitor's center, convention center, the chamber and elsewhere at businesses around town.

Perhaps if I tire of maintaining our lawn urban living will be somewhere in our future at which point this guide could come in rather handy. It could likewise come in handy for the upcoming 2007 Tour of Urban Living in a couple weeks on Oct. 13th and 14th.

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