Our urban center is in big trouble. While local and national economies were booming, albeit on false hope and shady business practice, downtown Tacoma was just okay. As the recession persists, downtown Tacoma struggles to maintain a grip on relevance to groups of people who are not otherwise forced to be there.
Students and employees of downtown organizations remain constant, but they are fading into isolation. We the people of Tacoma who don’t need to be downtown have but 2 reasons to be there: food and drink. As “Annie” points out in her response to a recent article in the Weekly Volcano, downtown Tacoma needs a retail anchor. Unless we catch one or two big fish, our small businesses will continue to ebb with time-sensitive trends and fashions.
Parasitic recycling of commercial space in downtown Tacoma has held the region back for decades, while repeatedly stripping away elements of history and identity. Thank goodness we have the Tacoma Dome, neon lights and all, lest we be symbolized by what? The Swiss? Old Spaghetti Factory? These are fine establishments, but not cornerstone material. Where else have people been going in downtown for more than 25 years besides the theaters? Think about that for a minute. Tacoma calls itself Grit City. Does not this imply persistance, longevity and established identity?
The list of household name retail shops in downtown Tacoma currently amounts to squat. Zilch. There is an adequate supporting cast of mom-n-pop shops, but nothing remotely close to must-visits like markets, grocery, sporting goods, or department stores. Unless you are the opposite of diabetic, requiring entire boxes of cupcakes on a daily basis, you are on the outside looking in. You need a better reason to be there often.
Here’s the problem in a nutshell: retail anchors don’t want anything to do with downtown Tacoma. There could never exist a more inconvenient downtown road system than the one we currently have in our glorious City of Density. Pacific Avenue is a nightmare, yet it is the only semblance of a direct route from the freeways through downtown. It is our backbone, yet it absolutely strangles the potential flow of traffic through the city.
Crucial problems for Pacific Ave. are as follows. The timing of the stoplights is atrocious. If you are not lucky enough to hit green lights all the way, it can take 10 minutes. We’re only talking about traveling 25 blocks! Even at 4am, amid no other signs of life, you will wait and wait and wait. When trying to park near the UW Bookstore you may end up “going around the block” for several blocks if all the angle-in parking spots are full. Jefferson Street’s diagonal approach through the Convention Center/UWT (CCUWT) exacerbates the situation. It would sure be nice if there were other streets right above Pacific that added parking as well as a better flow to the traffic bottleneck. Instead, Jefferson comes down like a guillotine, severing all flow of traffic behind Pacific. If you don’t care to “go around the block” in the shape of a massive triangle, you hang a U-turn and try again. This 2 lane purgatory is one of the more awkward driving experiences I’ve seen on a city’s main drag.
Most major, urban areas have at least 2 parallel streets handling the bulk of the area’s traffic, especially near freeway access. This creates a circular flow. City blocks are supposed to work like wheels in a tank track. Take downtown Seattle, for example. There live 10 times the people and cars, but one can traverse the sizable area in 5 minutes on a handful of adjacent streets. Traffic clogs exist, but they are generally on the perimeter of downtown Seattle. Lower Queen Anne, Pioneer Square, Capital Hill and the waterfront are all a mess but you only have to deal with them if they are your final destination.
The entire area around the CCUWT is a giant plug, smack dab in the middle of everything. You cannot cross through downtown Tacoma without a) driving all the way down Pacific Ave, subjecting yourself to cruel and unusual Link light rail and stoplight queues, b) traveling all the way up the hill and utilizing the more effective Tacoma and Yakima Avenues, or c) encountering the CCUWT plug.
If our goal is to entice retail business to root down, our capacity for vehicles must be expanded. Now that we have the aforementioned limitations in place, it’s going to take some rather creative efforts to improve the overall capacity. Perhaps a more fluid connection between Pacific Ave and Dock Street can exist? How about a strategically-placed off-ramp direct to the hilltop/Nu Tacoma area, shifting some of the traffic burden up the hill? Fortunately for me, it’s not my job to figure this out. For those of you who do take on this responsibility, I salute you.
A constituency in Tacoma feels that parking stalls are a blight and that good traffic flow can lead to visitors leaving the area too easily. What is this, a prison!? We intentionally degrade our infrastructure to look fancy while people are forced to buy things as a result of being stuck here? This is not a sustainable method for building a positive commercial reputation. The same group who brought you red light traffic cameras must be responsible for seminating such an ideology.
Before we wrap, I have something for the environmentalists. Generally speaking I agree with most of your perspectives, most of the time. I’m sorry if better roads in downtown don’t benefit the environment – we’ll have to make up for it in other areas of the city. I’m sorry that many of you detest cars – heck, I don’t like cars. I’m sorry if you prefer to optimize downtown Tacoma for bicycles and pedestrians – this is traditionally the 2nd biggest city in Washington, not Port Townsend. Please accept the fact that Tacoma is supposed to be an urban hub of traffic, economy, activity and culture; it is not the time or place to conduct a preservation experiment.
I could go on and on, but will reserve myself to field your thoughts and opinions, should I be granted access to them.
Sounds like Tacoma needs a Wholefoods and a REI. Between the two of them they should be able to build a multi-level parking structure to support traffic and free up some of the existing parking to maybe add another lane here and there. Seems like someone should be able to figure something out even if it means leveling an older structure that is currently in the crapper and replacing it with some sort of park-and-trolly.
Now that’s exactly what I’m talking about! If Wholefoods and REI should one day exist in downtown Tacoma, I will lay face down in the Tollefson Plaza fountain with my clothes on.
Awesome. I’m preparing my letters to Wholefoods, REI, and the Tacoma Board of County Commissioners right now.
Well spoken and well thought out. I agree wholeheartledy that the timing of traffic lights can kill an experience downtown. I have sworn off certain streets in Seattle due to the lack of consistent timing. It wastes time and resources to speed up and then stop every block.
Another good point is the ridiculous notion that parking spaces are a blight and its a good idea to make it difficult to get out of downtown. Are these people aware that most people don’t live downtown? Do they realize that half the reason most people don’t like to go “downtown” is because parking is a hassle. Sprinkle a little traffic and some confusing streets into this and I’ll be at the supermall before I’ve even considered shopping in T-Town. And I hate the supermall.
Let the record show that a Seattlite (born and raised in Tacoma) has officially said he would rather shop at the AUBURN SUPERMALL than in downtown Tacoma. I rest my case.
I respectuflly disagree with Mike. I only visit Auburn to bet the ponies or to get some crappy fast food on my way to Crystal.
Tacoma could take a hint from the Pearl District in Portland. It doesn’t need to be as precious and yuppified, but the way it was put together makes sense, and makes it appealing for pedestrians but not at the expense of actually, you know, allowing people to get there easily.
I would concur that a Whole Foods would be ideal. I also concur that it won’t happen because there is no critical mass of people living there.
Although I’ve spent a little time in Portland, I’m not familiar with The Pearl District. I will certainly look into it next time I head south.
Considering Seattle just got a Whole Foods downtown a couple years ago, we are quite a long way from that being a reality.
We have to start somewhere, however, so I ask of thee, what IS realistic?
I agree we are a long way from Whole Foods becoming a reality, however we need to continue growth in that direction.
It wasn’t too long ago the idea of a UW tacoma campus was a glimmer in Tacoma’s eye, now look where we are.
I completely agree with the idea of a retail anchor, but establishing this is the pickle. Eliminate the mall and bring a handful of staples back downtown with the addition of new faces(uwajimaya, a more complete REI, a subtier of Niketown) i don’t know.
What is on the other side of the Waterway? Parking posibilities? Revitilize the Murray Morgan with one lane each way car traffic and a pedestrian shuttle intermixed?
With the potential growth at the waterfront, now is the time for the City of Destiny to take back the downtown hub and make it a desired destination for tourists and local citizens.
What’s realistic? For starters, you have to understand who your audience is. Tacoma is never going to be a full-on tourist destination simply because of Seattle’s gravitational pull.
It is a regional destination/stopover whose primary target should be it’s RESIDENTS.
Today, where do Tacomites gather? It’s spread among the malls, Pt Defiance, the waterfront, etc. There is no center around which there should be an orbit (figure Pike Place is Seattle’s sun in this scenario).
That’s why the Pearl as a blueprint makes sense to me. It’s accessible by all parts of Portland via streetcar, MAX, and yes, cars, but was done at such a good scale that it draws in folks from out of Portland too (e.g. me every time I go down there). The Pearl has Powell’s books, which would be hard to recreate.
I suppose I’m not offering a solution but just suggesting that rather than building more spectacular edifices like the glass museum, it should focus more on human-scale, useable space.
May I offer another perspective on this? If you look at Pacific – and I agree that it’s a slow slog – it’s pretty full already with a few gaps like Tollefson Plaza! Maybe looking at this as “downtown” is too literal. If we extend a small, free bus service up the hill on 9th or 11th, south on J or MLK, and back down on 21st, and connect it to Link stations, we will have expanded the accessible core of Tacoma to an area about 10 by 10 blocks.
That would give us room to site some of the anchor stores you’ve been speaking of. But here too I’d offer a different view. Rather than Whole Foods which is straying a bit from it’s beginnings, let’s help site the Tacoma Food Coop in this “square”. (Think of the Olympia Farmers’ Market or the Skagit Valley Food Coop in Mt. Vernon.) That would support local farmers and small craftspeople and still be a vibrant, attractive destination for visitors.
Rather than an REI, let’s have some blocks of shops that can serve as cafes, bookstores, etc. with pocket parks scattered throughout.
This area already has lots of folks living in fine old apartment buildings and single family homes who could use a few more options for good, affordable food. And there’s space for people from other areas of Tacoma and the suburbs to drive in, find parking, and shop, dine, see a show just down the hill, visit the museums and galleries, then hop back on the highways.
So when we look to bring folks back “downtown”, let’s keep in mind the focus on increasing sustainability, reducing dependence on POVs, and valuing and supporting our regional economy.
So there’s my challenge. Think we can do it?