Parking lot of dreams

If someone told you, fair Tacoma, that the LeMay car museum promised to dazzle anyone passing through Tacoma was to start construction this winter, would you believe them? Well don't. At least not entirely. If the City Council agrees to adjust their commitment of money for a grand tribute to American cars toward a lesser collectors center construction may just kick off soon. Even in this reduced form, I'll believe it when I see it.

Don't get me wrong, I want this attraction as much any anyone since I stumbled across the idea of LeMay while out searching for a freshwater spring marked in a USGS map and found myself at a grand property in Spanaway that holds a portion of his collection. It dazzled my imagination to learn that one family, one man gathered together so many amazing cars together of which I know nothing but can surely appreciate their beauty if nothing else.

A focus on autos in this way would be a welcome attraction that would encourage visitors not into our museums or our parks or at least give families the option of splitting up a bit while here. For everything to work out well efforts between the LeMay construction, local SoDo businesses, and potential Sounder rail construction need to be tightly coordinated to help preserve any progress that's been made in the area.

Is something (e.g. the collectors center) better than nothing or should LeMay just hold out until the full dream can be realized? The News Tribune seems to think so but do you?

Comments (2) | To Top

8/27/2007 @ 9:37am

The change really just allows them to take an interim step. They still have the same overall plans.

Its a good deal for the city as it relieves them of the obligatiions such as having to built the replacement parking right away.

The change allows them to start now on the groundbreaking rather than put it off for potentially for years while they wait for all of the funds.

With the obligations relived for the city, I don;t see a downside. Having this kind of project on the end of the LINK is likely to be a benefit to downtown and the city overall.

The ceremonial groundbreaking could begin as soon as December 2007 and the real one in April. Below is the link to the August 21st Study session where they hear the presentation by the Lemay folk.

-Erik

by Study Session on Lemay Museum

8/27/2007 @ 2:14pm

I certainly just don't want anything to fall flat of the hyped expectations set out by the LeMay folks. A world-class experience demands, imho, a structure/setting to match.

by KevinFreitas

Latest Entries

Mon. August 27, 2007, 07:20am PDT

Parking lot of dreams

8/27/2007 @ 9:37am

8/27/2007 @ 2:14pm

Post Comments