Built in 1890, the Luzon was designed by the renowned Chicago architect firm of Burnham & Root. With load-bearing exterior walls two feet thick and interior iron columns and beams forming an iron skeleton, the building was considered cutting edge in the 1880’s. This was one of the last buildings the firm built on the West Coast and was built at the same time as the famous Monadnock Building in Chicago. Both of these buildings set the stage for a new generation of buildings, the skyscraper. With the Luzon came references to Tacoma being the “little Chicago” of the West. Although the city’s politics, red light districts, and organized crime probably helped with that too.

A 1979 photograph of the west side of the 1300 block of Pacific shows the history that was lost to make room for a now common site in downtown - a surface parking lot. The buildings are, left to right, the David Levin building, 1312 Pacific (built 1908) the Samuel Wolf building, 1310 Pacific (built 1889) the Baker building, 1306-08 Pacific (built 1889) and the Luzon Building, 1302-04 Pacific. In 1979, the Luzon Building was home to the Fun Circus and, prior to that, Chopsticks restaurant. It was built in 1890 and is on the City, State and National registry. It was designed by Burnham & Root, architects. The building has been vacant since 1986.

Most recently, the Gintz Group purchased the building with plans to bring it back to its previous magnificence. As of late August 2008, the building sits surrounded by fencing and a tree growing out of its side.

But what do we know about them? Will they do anything to help the many needs Tacoma has?
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If elected which candidate can obtain something meaningful like reduce suburban sprawl, help to rebuild Tacoma and reduce the disproportionate number of felons being place in Tacoma and in Pierce County?
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Tacoma is located in Pierce County
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Its true. Tacoma cannot get away from the tremendous influence Pierce County government has on the city. The county runs the jail and is in the best position to hold the line on the number of felons being placed in the county and in Tacoma.

Appropriately infilling and rebuilding the city also depends on Pierce County getting suburban sprawl under control.
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Here are the questions sent to Ken Paulson and Tim Farrell, candidates for Pierce County Council District No 4.

We will post the responses when they come in.
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Do you see any that we missed?
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(No photo found for Ken Paulson)

1) Jail releases

The media has reported that the Pierce County Jail currently releases nearly all of the people who have been arrested in Pierce county into downtown Tacoma even if they are arrested in Orting or a remote area of the county. Would you support a plan which would transport some or all of the jail releasees to the places where they were arrested or where they live when their sentence ends?

Answer:

2) Growth management

Over the last 30 years, Pierce County has been know for suburban sprawl which has caused the loss of farmland, pollution, traffic congestion and disinvestment in Tacoma.

If you are re-elected, how will you address the effects of sprawl and growth management in Pierce County? How would that plan be different, if at all, from what is in place now?

Answer:

3) Pierce County Felon “Dumping Ground” Issues

As you know, Tacoma and Pierce County have a disproportionate number of released felons placed by the Department of Corrections as described in the Tacoma City Club report: 30 Years of DOC in Pierce County, Was It Worth It?

If re-elected, what do you plan to do, if anything to reduce the number of felons placed in Tacoma and Pierce County? Do you agree that Tacoma and Pierce County should have no more than their pro-rata share based on population? How can the concentration of felons be reduced to its pro-rata share?

Answer:

4) Elks Temple

A great many Tacomans would like to see the Elks Temple restored. There have been plans discussed to possibly turn part of the building into a transit station.

What is your position on this issue? What plan would you support?

Answer:

5) Rebuilding Tacoma

Despite the progress made, Tacoma still has a large number of vacant lots, and empty and blighted buildings relative to other west coast cities. What role can you and Pierce County take, if you are re-elected, to support the rebuilding of downtown Tacoma and Tacoma’s mixed use centers.

Answer:

6) Restoring Tacoma’s Streetcars

Many Tacomans support restoring Tacoma’s streetcar system. Gas prices are now at record levels. Pierce County plays a large role in transportation systems in Tacoma. Do you support restoring the streetcar network in Tacoma? What steps would be needed to be taken to make this happen?

Answer:

7) Pollution Issues in Tacoma

The City of Tacoma is currently failing the pollution criteria set by the State of Washington. What role can Pierce County play to reduce pollution in the city limits of Tacoma?

Answer:

VIII) Crime Reduction Proposal by City Manager Eric Anderson

City Manager Eric Anderson has set a goal to reduce crime in Tacoma by 50 percent in 14 months. Given the predominant role Pierce County plays on the criminal justice system, what steps will you support the County government in taking so that the City of Tacoma can succeed?

Answer:

Reference: The End of Suburbia (The Entire Movie)

This retail strip project at the corner of South 19th & MLK is a long time coming. A former gas station site, it sat vacant for years before the current project started.

On the 1200 block of MLK, Allen Renaissance Incorporated, a local non-profit organization, is renovating the historic Valhalla Hall. Planned uses for the building include a cafe, restaurant, children’s arts and culture center, a youth robotics lab(!), and a performance venue for receptions and community events.

The much anticipated project by the MLK Housing Authority got a kick start this year when several buildings were demolished. Here, a long covered window becomes exposed when an adjacent warehouse is torn down between South 10th and 11th on J Street.

Next door to the MLK Housing site, the Monsoon Room braces for construction.

View of the future MLK Housing apartment building. Looking south at the corner of South 10th and J Street.

Located on South 9th just up from Yakima Avenue, this new condo/apartment building stakes the claim as being on the tallest project of its kind under construction.

A long neglected First Swedish Baptist Church at South 12th and J Street got a make-over in 2006 and is now home to the MLK Ballet.

Meanwhile, half a block away, sits this amazing example Tacoma’s historic past.

A row of “great old dames” along J Street near South 7th showcases a rare example of old Tacoma. So unique is the series of in-tact restored Victorian homes that they received designation as a historic district.

Not much has changed at the Johnson Candy store with its vintage neon sign. A Hilltop fixture for generations, the building could be eligible for historic status and follow the recent addition to the historic register of Frisko Freeze.

After many years of using the right half of their building for storage, Le Le restaurant expanded their restaurant to add reception capacity. With the removal of coverings over the windows, this section of MLK is starting to look like a functional business district.

Adjacent to Le Le and adding to the revival of MLK, this renovated storefront is home to a copy center and martial arts studio.

At 6th and J Street, Prium is wrapping up a mixed-use project.

A before view of the same site showing a building that had been vacant for too long.

Multicare’s new steam plant, under construction directly across the street from historic Wright Park. Loose zoning by the city has raised concerns about uses incompatible with the surrounding neighborhood.

The vintage brick Frances Hall Apartments, a recent acquisition by Multicare, overlooks the new steam plant.

Detail showing rosette window above an arched entryway.

Detail showing a cast concrete or possibly a carved sandstone facade decoration.

The last three houses on I Street stand in the shadow of Multicare. Though modified over the years, the earliest ones - the two on the right - date from the 1895. The one on the left was built in 1908. Multicare picked up the one on the far right when it bought the Frances Hall Apartments next door.

This tattered Queen Anne house looks across 6th Ave at Multicare and wonders what its future holds.

There is no systematic effort in Tacoma to replace those lost trees and there is certainly no city-wide effort to increase the number of trees in Tacoma. This is unfortunate because trees can bring so much good.

Well-located trees can help keep the streets and sidewalks cooler. They shade our homes and result in lower energy bills. They keep the air cleaner and they soak up and filter water before it runs into our storm drains. They beautify neighborhoods, increase property values, and help pull carbon from the atmosphere.

There are, of course, heavily forested areas of our city. But our sidewalks, our urban and suburban parks, our backyards, our colleges and schools, all benefit from adding more trees.

The Green Ribbon Task Force met on Wednesday, June 25 and proposed an audacious goal for making Tacoma—quite literally—more green. The draft recommendations include at a city-wide effort to plant 20,000 trees in the next biennium. This recommendation (along with about 80 others) will go before the City Council at Tuesday’s Study Session for consideration. I would encourage everyone involved to not only implement this recommendation (along with the others) but here’s a goal I’d like to recommend. Let’s make this the target: plant a tree for every man, woman, and child in Tacoma.

Now that has a ring to it. Recent estimates put Tacoma at 201,700 residents so we’ll make that our 10-year goal. 201,700 trees by 2018. But if the Tacoma population increases in that time (as it almost assuredly will) so will our goal. There will always be more trees to plant, one for each new soul added to our city.

I recognize that in so many ways governments work to avoid goals and targets that forever remain just out of reach. But in this case, that might be just the point. Tacoma is going to continue losing trees and we need a reason to keep re-planting them.

The New York City model of tree planting brings together individuals, municipal governments and agencies, non-profits and schools to complete the task. Our community can do the same. If we set out to plant a tree for every person in Tacoma, our city is going to be a richer, more beautiful, energy-efficient place.

Erik Hanberg lives and works in downtown Tacoma. He blogs regularly at erikemery.com.

This week: The Tacoma Mall

It’s hard to imagine this section of town as wide open scrub land. But that’s what it appears to be in 1931. Just a few well-worn paths bisect the area now consumed with surface parking lots and 20% off sales. To help orientate the reader, an overlay featuring today’s roads and highways is turned on. Not even South 38th Street existed here at this point in time. The dirt road running right to left with a jag in the middle to traverse a steep hillside still exists today.

By 1950, the city’s grid has become more pronounced to the right and left of what will become the mall. South 38th Street has been graded and extended from the Lincoln District to Highway 99 (South Tacoma Way).

By the time this photo was taken in 1973, the Tacoma Mall had been open for almost 10 years. The Mall’s opening coincided with the opening of another suburban phenonemon: the super highway, in our case I-5. With a single slash, I-5 severed the local street grid pattern, removed housing, divided neighborhoods, and effectively cut the city in half. Fifty years later, the city still has not recovered.

By 1990, almost every parcel has been developed. The challenge of building on the steep hillside as seen in the center of the photo - the original “center” of the mall area that had the bisecting road in the 1930 photo above - most likely has prevented new development from occurring there.

By 1998, strip malls and surface parking had eaten up every square inch of the former scrub lands. Only the Tacoma Mall hill was left to develop. But not for long.

In this 2006 photo, we see a top section of the hill has been scraped and is awaiting development of the Apex Condo/Apartments. Since completing the first phase, a second “Apex” has since been constructed. It’s only a matter of time before the remaining single family residences - and a Quaker friends center - is replaced by large multi-family projects.

What does the Martin Luther King Housing Development Authority (MLKHDA), an affordable housing non-profit organization, have to do with one of the richest companies in the country? They both called the Lorenz Building at 1147 Tacoma Avenue South home.

Built in 1904, the Lorenz Building has played host to a number of companies over the years including a bakery, a floral shop, and a candy company that would eventually become the largest candy company in the world, Mars.

Frank Mars started the Mars Candy Factory, Inc in 1911 out of the family’s Tacoma home kitchen at 3312 North 27th Street. It was while Mars was in Tacoma - and possibly in the Lorenz Building - that the idea was developed for the company’s first blockbuster product, the Milky Way candy bar.

Unfortunately, success was elusive in Tacoma and the Mars family skipped town to return to their native state, Minnesota, to the city of Minneapolis. It was here that they hit their stride and quickly outgrew their facility. Next, the company moved to Chicago to take advantage of its central location and rail access for distribution across the country where, for most of the past century, Mars has had a mostly friendly rivalry with Hershey’s.

Last month, Mars announced it had purchased the William Wrigley Jr. Company, the world’s largest chewing gum producer, for $23 billion cash deal. The two companies together are expected to generate annual sales in excess of $27 billion to unseat Cadbury Schweppes as the world’s largest confectionary manufacturer.

Maintaining a long lasting tradition, Mars remains a private family owned business with family members consistently ranked on the Forbes List of “The World’s Billionaires”

Meanwhile, the future of the Lorenz Building remains uncertain. MLKHDA wants out of the homeless shelter business and the city recently posted a “do not occupy” notice on the front door.

Take the Mars tour of Tacoma! While living in Tacoma, Frank & Ethel Mars called these addresses home: 952 South Sheridan Ave, 504 South Ainsworth Ave, and 3919 North 35th.

The city has a survey of historic buildings and is in the process of updating it. There’s an interesting story about the builder, Edward A. Lorenz:

Edward came from a pioneer Northwest family. He took profits from growing hops in Orting to buy up property in Tacoma. Finding the Tacoma market more lucrative than farming, he sold his 160 acre farm to the town of Orting who wanted to build a Soldiers’ home.

Edward liked to keep busy. In addition to developing commercial real estate in downtown Tacoma, Edward was also owner of a lumber mill, a steam boating company (part of the Mosquito Fleet), and a boat building company.

Related links -
Yahoo News: Mars Announces Merger Agreement with William Wrigley

Wikipedia: Mars, Incorporated

The News Tribune: Tacoma shelter’s future in doubt

Certainly it can be argued that without the vision that created the UWT campus and the ability of the state to re-use many long neglected downtown buildings, Tacoma’s current revitalization might not have happened, or at least to the degree that it has happened.

Photos: Tacoma Public Library

Mark Monlux is an award winning freelance illustrator and cartoonist. A northwest native, he has called Tacoma home for the last 16 years. After graduating with a B.A. in Graphic Art from Central Washington University in 1985 Mark entered the freelance market initially as a broad-spectrum designer. But, as more and more clients requested is drawings, he focused solely on being an illustrator. Working mainly in the fields of advertising and published his just a few names from his long history of clientele includes Microsoft, Carnation, Workman Publishing, Eating Well Magazine, Kimberly Clark, Hewlett Packard, Alaska Airlines, Reynolds and Reynolds, Toronto Dominion, Coldwell Banker, March of Dimes, Washington Mutual, and a host of agency design groups.

Recently, the Tacoma Sun sat down at the computer and asked him a few questions.

[Sun] First off, a geek question: your stuff looks too good to be purely digital. How do you do it?

[Monlux] Currently, I start with pencil sketches. Those are faxed for approval. I then do pen and ink. The pen and ink is scanned in at a high resolution, colored in Photoshop and then provided to the client as a for placement file. For a number of years I constructed my illustration in Illustrator as vector drawings. I still do that, but only when the demands of the project call for it.

[Sun] Did you ever imagine that you could make a career out of cartooning?
[Monlux] I knew very early on in life (age 4) that I was going to become what was then termed a “commercial artist”. I could always draw, but it wasn’t until after a few years as a freelance designer that I made the decision to do strictly illustration. And it was a number of years after that before I decided to focus in on the cartoon style which I find I love to do the most.

[Sun] Who were your inspirations?
[Monlux] Graham Wilson was a huge influence on me.

[Sun] How has the web impacted the quality and quantity of your work?
[Monlux] The web had a huge affect on the illustration market. Most of it negative. With royalty free and free clip art available at the click of a button the amount of work has gone down hill drastically from the time when I first entered the market.

[Sun] Any advice for any aspiring Illustrator Extraordinaires out there?
[Monlux] Be aware of the true value your art has in the marketplace. While it’s true that demand for illustration lowered, that does not mean the value of it has lowered. The key these days is to target and connect with clients who are looking for dynamic images that are tailored to them, and not just the random schlock you find on the web that everyone else and their grandmother is using.

Image credit: Art Director: Tony Ulwick, CEO Strategyn; Client: Strategyn

[Sun] As an Illustrator Extraordinaire, I’m sure you could live and work anywhere. What brought you to Tacoma and what keeps you here?
[Monlux] I moved here some 17 years ago when my wife and I decided to buy a house. The prices in Seattle were starting their first surge then. We wanted an older house with a large yard. Our search spiraled out until we found the perfect Victorian here in Tacoma. I’d just shifted my business structure to where I was doing everything by fax, modem and courier. I got myself an 800 number and sent that to clients. I never bothered to tell anyone that I was moving and lost none of my clients when I did. In fact, the process opened my thinking and I started to take on national clients, and then international clients. We are very happy with our move. I live in the Fern Hill District which has a very Mayberry feel to it. An alley runs behind my house and it is the artery of the neighborhood. Everyone visits everyone else in the garages and porches and I know all my neighbors very well.

[Sun] The ability to hold a pen or pencil with a critical eye or witty thought seems to be a fading art form. What is your hope for the future of illustrating?
[Monlux] That people will once again become demanding in what is offered up to them. If you look back at the advertising that occurred in the 60’s and 70’s
folks were very critical of what was set before them. Currently our culture is being very open to anything that appears, whenever it appear. This acceptance of the random was brought about by the internet. Folks learned how to surf, and it’s fun to do, just not very productive. Now folks are learning how to use search features to be a bit more efficient. As response the internet is building features which use your past searches to create ‘intuitive’ recommendations. I belive that as the internet grows in this direction, the average joe will once again become more discriminating about what they want offered up to them. The artist who foresee this trend, and design their presence on the web to be tuned to this trend will have a distinct advantage.

[Sun] Is it just me, or do the comics in today’s daily papers really suck?
[Monlux] With the internet the amount of web comics have shot through the roof. Many web comics do not have to be as tame or conventional as syndicated comics that fill the newspaper. Because they tap into a different revenue stream they’re not required to edit down into something that is widely palatable.

I look forward each day to opening up my email and my blog reader to read all the strips I’ve subscribed. I agree, there is a lot of bad comics out there. But, only because there are more comics. I keep hunting down and adding the ones I think are the cream. I also like to find cartoonists who are trying new and different things. Watching them improve with each strip is just as entertaining for me as the amusement of the strip itself. I’m developing a couple web comics myself, “The Comic Critic” which is a movie review in cartoon form, and “The Return of Stickman”. Both of my cartoons are anti mainstream. In The Comic Critic I use no consistent characters, this breaks the silent rule of having five core identifiable characters in a strip. In The Return of Stickman, all the characters are stick figures and sometimes the only difference between them is their names. Oh, and stickman is usually stuck in a cubical behind a desk. It’s my way of poking fun at strips that constantly use no background and just have a shelf or above the waist shot of their characters. When I see a strip like that I add it to my blog reader list.

Image credit: Art Director: Ron Pullium, Nautilus Design; Client: Flex-a-lite

[Sun] It seems like the best cartoonists are either slightly crazed or get burned out (Robert Crumb, Gary Larson, Berkeley Breathed, Garry Trudeau). How do you keep from going crazy or getting burned out?[Monlux] For a number of years I wouldn’t draw except during business hours. I wanted to be paid for every line I drew. But, the I decided to try something for a year. I bought a bunch of sketchbooks, of all sizes, and I put one in every room of the house, one in the car, and even a small one for my pocket for when I went out. I then drew in them constantly. I wanted to see if the faucet really would run dry, which was a big fear of mine. I did not place any limits on what I drew. I told myself not to care about the quality, or the ideas, just to let it stream out. To my joy and surprise the faucet never ran dry. Instead it flowed even stronger. Ideas, concepts, and gratification came faster and grew better. Sure I still drew a turd every now and then. But, it didn’t strike me negatively like it did before. Now don’t get me wrong, I still like and demand to get paid for the value of my work. If during my doodling I come up with something that I can license, that great. Certainly my client’s have taken note of how much more productive and resourceful I’ve become.

[Sun] Do you ever get “illustrators block”? What do you do to break through?
[Monlux] Drawing more and keeping the flow open is a long term solution. But, there are days when I get totally blocked. When that happens I try to get out of my head. Usually a walk will do it. If not I will read a short story or book and temporarily spend my time crawling into someone else’s head. By the time I get back to my own, the furniture looks like it’s been moved around.

[Sun] Can we expect to see you at a Frost Park Chalk Off sometime?
[Monlux] Yes. I keep planning on going but life interferes. Either I’m flying in or out of town, having the car die on me, have a crushing deadline, or like this Friday, I’m picking up my nephew to attend the Emerald City Comiccon. But, I do plan on making it one of these days. And I will dominate and lay low my competition.

[Sun] What is a question you’ve always wanted to be asked?
[Monlux] Would you like to draw an illustrated history of zombies in the cinema? Yeah, I’d really like to do that. In fact, I think I will start working on my first draft.

[Sun] GREAT! We look forward to seeing it. Thanks for taking time out to chat with us!

If you would like to see more of Mark’s work, check out his website and blog at: www.markmonlux.com

The first part of Kunstler’s talk was about our reliance on fossil fuel and how we’ve come to rely on it for commuting long distances to jobs (unsustainable), to move food from other countries to our tables (unsustainable) while converting our farmland to giant warehouses (unsustainable) that are served by giant fleets of diesel trucks (unsustainable). Meanwhile, we don’t support our national passenger rail service, Amtrak, and can no longer afford to maintain our highway infrastructure.

While I agree there is a finite source of fossil fuel - they don’t make dinosaurs anymore - I don’t agree with Kunstler that passenger air flight or single occupancy vehicles will be only for the ultra-rich anytime soon. Although the recent collapse and mergers within the airline industry may prove him right. It is clear to me though is that we are not moving fast enough towards effective sustainable solutions.

Cities vs. Burbs

About 12 miles southeast of Tacoma near Bonney Lake is a master planned community called Cascadia. Over a decade in the making, the Cascadia project is an ambitious project that sits on nearly 5,000 acres and is anticipated to eventually be home to more than 16,000 people. Needless to say, much planning has gone into the Cascadia vision: open space, parks, ponds, and miles of trails. According to their website other features include, “a major conference center, the business park, a town square built with pedestrians in mind, a performance hall, a think tank focused on international understanding — the Cascadia Institute — a culinary school, a hotel and an outdoor sculpture park. It will draw on green-development principles that include the use of sustainable power and water recycling.” It’s hard to find fault with such an admirable vision. Indeed, judging by the fact that they’ve already sold over 400 lots to homebuilders without even having infrastructure in place indicates there is something compelling about this project. The project is as close to being perfect as you’re likely to see, except for one thing: it’s not supposed to be there.

According to the latest numbers released by the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC), suburban development accounted for over 75% of new housing development for the years 2000-2007. Put another way, less than a quarter of all new development was inside the Puget Sound Metro area which includes Tacoma, Seattle, Bellevue, Everett, and Bremerton. To implement Washington State’s Growth Management Act, the PSRC has just released the latest version of its guiding document called Vision 2040. The document was approved about a week ago by PSRC representatives from Snohomish, King, Pierce, and Thurston counties and various ports, tribes, state offices, and transit organizations.

If anyone knows what’s going on with growth in the Puget Sound, it’s the PSRC. Yet, even in their latest document their projections show housing growth for unincorporated and rural areas only 28%. Why the discrepancy? Why, despite all the cranes over Seattle’s skyline building condo tower after condo tower was Seattle’s growth less than the state average? City of Tacoma officials have known for years that something was amiss due to the fact that nearly no new housing has been built where it wants it most: in its mixed-use centers. Sure, downtown has seen much new development especially in the form of high-end condos and the Tacoma Mall area (Zen question: How is the mall a village?) has seen many new town-homes of questionable design go up. Meanwhile, there has been very little new housing built in Proctor, Sixth Ave, or Stadium - all desirable or upscale neighborhoods. Despite Seattle and Tacoma each garnering sub 5% gains for the 2000-2007 period, the PSRC did get right its forecasted total growth. Translation: the Puget Sound Metro area IS getting the increase in population it was expecting… it’s just not WHERE it was expected - or desired.

In his insightful story on Vision 2040, Crosscut writer Douglas MacDonald concludes, “This decade’s actual results to date, in other words, are farther from the expected share of regional population growth set in the Vision 2040 plan than the results across the previous decade. In the 1990s, those cities’ total growth was 96,000; for the first seven years of this decade, it is only 41,000. Seattle, for example, in that earlier decade added more than 47,000 people. Seven years into this decade, it has added 23,000. Bellevue added 11,500 (net of annexations) in the 1990s. Seven years into this decade, it has added 5,500 (net of annexations). Tacoma in the 1990s added almost 17,000. Seven years into this decade, it has added about 8,100.

Judged across two decades, we have been heading backwards from our goal of attracting much higher rates of population growth to the metropolitan cities, as Vision 2040 supposes we must in this and the three coming decades.”

Backwards?! I don’t think that was the plan! What does all this mean? Most immediately, it means that more earned dollars that should be going to places where they’re needed, like people’s bank and retirement accounts, will be needed for more infrastructure, public facilities and services, and of course, more roads.

That’s where it comes back to Kunstler: if you’re going to live outside a metro area, you will need your car. But it’s hard to drive when there’s no gas or when the price of gas continues to sky rocket as it has these past few years. Will Kunstler be right? Will the current gas trend make us rethink the future of driving? Will it make the Cross-Base Highway Project obsolete even before it’s finished? Only time will tell.

All this raises the question of what will happen to all those affordable cul-de-sac suburban homes when they become more expensive to get to and away from? As much as some new suburban developments try to mimic traditional neighborhoods, they continue to segregate uses which means residents must rely on their car to go shopping, go out to eat, go to work, go to the park, etc. Aside from being suburban developments being unsustainable due to their heavy reliance on cars, some recent articles suggest another emergency facing suburban developments: the sub-prime meltdown.

The Trend: More Going Local

In the March ‘08 edition of the Atlantic magazine, Brookings fellow, Christopher Leinberger, wrote “Fundamental changes in American life may turn today’s McMansions into tomorrow’s tenements. Strange days are upon the residents of many a suburban cul-de-sac. Once-tidy yards have become overgrown, as the houses they front have gone vacant. Signs of physical and social disorder are spreading.

At Windy Ridge, a recently built starter-home development seven miles northwest of Charlotte, North Carolina, 81 of the community’s 132 small, vinyl-sided houses were in foreclosure as of late last year. Vandals have kicked in doors and stripped the copper wire from vacant houses; drug users and homeless people have furtively moved in. In December, after a stray bullet blasted through her son’s bedroom and into her own, Laurie Talbot, who’d moved to Windy Ridge from New York in 2005, told The Charlotte Observer, ‘I thought I’d bought a home in Pleasantville. I never imagined in my wildest dreams that stuff like this would happen.’”

More interestingly, Leinberger goes on to connect the decline of suburban developments with a renewed interest in urban living. He writes, “The decline of places like Windy Ridge and Franklin Reserve is usually attributed to the sub-prime mortgage crisis, with its wave of foreclosures. And the crisis has indeed catalyzed or intensified social problems in many communities. But the story of vacant suburban homes and declining suburban neighborhoods did not begin with the crisis, and will not end with it. A structural change is under way in the housing market—a major shift in the way many Americans want to live and work. It has shaped the current downturn, steering some of the worst problems away from the cities and toward the suburban fringes. And its effects will be felt more strongly, and more broadly, as the years pass. Its ultimate impact on the suburbs, and the cities, will be profound.

Arthur C. Nelson, director of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech, has looked carefully at trends in American demographics, construction, house prices, and consumer preferences. In 2006, using recent consumer research, housing supply data, and population growth rates, he modeled future demand for various types of housing. The results were bracing: Nelson forecasts a likely surplus of 22 million large-lot homes (houses built on a sixth of an acre or more) by 2025—that’s roughly 40 percent of the large-lot homes in existence today.

For 60 years, Americans have pushed steadily into the suburbs, transforming the landscape and (until recently) leaving cities behind. But today the pendulum is swinging back toward urban living, and there are many reasons to believe this swing will continue. As it does, many low-density suburbs and McMansion subdivisions, including some that are lovely and affluent today, may become what inner cities became in the 1960s and ’70s—slums characterized by poverty, crime, and decay.”

Tacoma’s Destiny

This bodes well for older cities like Tacoma that already have services and infrastructure in place - even if some of our infrastructure could use some TLC (hello Murray Morgan Bridge). I noticed a regional trend starting about ten years ago of towns and cities wanting to create a downtown they never had. Most of them were too small or to young to have a real downtown. Witness the plight of University Place as a current example. Its leaders desperately want to create a new center for the town and are learning how hard it is to create a new heart from scratch. Besides downtown, Tacoma has the advantage of already having many built-out neighborhood commercial districts - thanks to an extensive streetcar system that once connected neighborhoods together. However, there are many obstacles to overcome: decades of disinvestment by property owners; a low level of entrepreneurial sophistication and activity (which could be connected to the high number of government and non-profit employees); a lack of commercial development capacity, expertise and opportunities; dirty image based on tide flats smokestacks, to name a few.

I do believe that Tacoma turned a corner sometime recently. It has been a long time since there was a critical mass of residents who actually cared about the place and its future. This has caused some tension between the old guard and the new, but this is a natural part of the process and is to be expected. The question remains though, if Tacomans can come together, take back ownership of their neighborhoods, create community, and demand a better more livable city. Once this question is resolved we will be able to take advantage of Kunstler’s “oil free” world and give suburban developers and residents a reason to move back to the city - our city.

This week: Old Town Dock
A familiar landmark to generations of Tacoman’s, the Johnny’s Ocean Fish Co. at the Old Town Dock closed earlier this year after Johnny’s was purchased by the nations’ largest seafood company, Pacific Seafood. The retail store is set to re-open this week and will be operated by Tacoma-based Northern Fish Company. New refrigerated display cases will feature fresh caught seafood and prepared food.

In this 1931 photograph, we see Tacoma during its heyday of being a significant lumber town. The waterfront is dominated by lumber mills with the only automobile access via McCarver Street - Schuster Parkway would not be built for another 40 years.

By 1950, the shift from lumber mills to retail starts to becomes visible. Gone are the log booms from the previous 70 years. The Ocean Dock seafood shop immediately next to the Old Town Dock and Top of the Ocean restaurant are operating. “The Top,” as it was affectionately called by Tacoman’s, was built by boat builders using traditional boat building techniques, but was never designed to actually float. The Top became the victim of an arsonists’ match in 1977.

By the time this photo was created 1973, Tacoma’s lumber past was on its last legs. Decades of consolidations and buy-outs by have taken their toll. But as one door closes, another one opens. The conversion of an industrial waterfront to a retail one continues as we see the construction of a parking lot and restaurant constructed to the west (left) of the Top of the Ocean building.

In the most recent aerial photo, The Top is gone, being replaced by a walking path and just recently a sculpture in memory of the old Top restaurant - complete with a miniaturized burned out fuel container as was found at the arson scene. Other changes: a floating dock has been added to the Old Town Dock; the restaurant to the west of the Top of the Ocean site has been replaced with a hotel (most likely, one of the few in the country where visitors will find a pair of ear-plugs next to the Gideon’s bible); and Schuster Parkway now connects Ruston Way and Old Town with a fast way to escape the city.

The critique has been in Hollywood for years, but it’s recently become much more prevalent. Look to the many recent television shows and films that have aimed to “pull back the veil” on suburbia—The X Files, Desperate Housewives, American Beauty, last year’s Little Children and Disturbia (which so obviously wants to indict suburbia, it starts its critique in the title). As far as Hollywood is concerned, the horror is in the suburbs, masked by the cookie cutter houses owned by people desperately trying to fit the mold.

Writing off the suburbs, or painting them all with the same brush, is a bad idea. Those in Tacoma who, like me, want to create a healthy downtown core should recognize that our success downtown is greatly affected by what happens in our suburbs.

I don’t want to get rid of the ‘burbs in favor of high rises. I want to make sure the urban core has a good relationship with them and encourage smart suburban growth. To do that, we need to draw distinctions between the good and the bad suburbs.

The NIMBY Problem

To the suburban dweller, the distinction between a good suburb and a bad suburb is easy: the bad suburb is the development that has leapfrogged past their own and is even farther from the city center than they are. They point across the street, “It’s that development that unnecessarily bulldozed a forest!” and “It’s that development that caused the roads to be filled with traffic.” Many move to the suburbs to “get away from it all,” and once they’ve moved out there, no one else should be allowed to come clog up their little slice of paradise.

I’m exaggerating a bit here, but the point still stands: most suburban communities want further growth curbed. It’s part of a strong NIMBY sentiment common to many suburban dwellers (the very phrase “NIMBY”—Not In My Back Yard—assumes the very suburban concept of a backyard).

The worst form of this NIMBYism results in the creation of a suburban municipality. These new suburban cities usually immediately create zoning laws that prevent the creation of multi-family housing like apartments and duplexes. It doesn’t take long before the city and the suburb are stratified along race and class lines. The city gets poorer, the city’s schools start to decline because their property tax base has dropped, and then even more suburbs want to break away. Consider Detroit: in 1950 it had 1.8 million people. Today it has one half that population (918,000 estimated), even though the entire metropolitan area has grown to 4.4 million. Is it surprising it has a high crime rate and blocks and blocks of abandoned buildings?

This is not necessarily a problem that is either liberal or conservative. Democratic mayor David Rusk in Albuquerque helped launch an aggressive annexation bid that kept Albuquerque growing faster than the city itself, ensuring that suburbs couldn’t break away and take their tax base with them. The Republican-run government in Indianapolis consolidated the City and County government in 1970. In 1975 Anchorage did the same thing and as a result the city became larger than the state of Rhode Island (apparently everything must be XXL in a state the size of Alaska).

Density & Transit

Again, not all suburbs are bad. Older, denser suburbs are more likely to be on historic mass transit lines, or will be good candidates for mass transit in the future. Their age also means that commercial development is more likely to be closer, possibly within walking distance. They are also less likely to secede from their central city.

That’s not even to say all newly-built suburban communities are bad by definition. The town of Dupont, Washington, has worked hard to create a suburban town that also avoids many of the pitfalls of suburban design (or lack of suburban design, if you’re a cynic).

It’s important to point out, too, that living in the suburbs is a trade that suburban residents accept. They are choosing a commute so they may have a backyard, choosing higher transportation so they may have lower housing costs, and choosing to be away from active nightlife so they may have a feeling of security for their family. These are not necessarily bad choices, as many suggest. I would call it a “bad choice” only when it is an unexamined choice. When is the commute so long you never get to play with your kids in the backyard? Is saving 6 hours a week commuting worth a home 700 square feet smaller?

The Future of Suburbia

The April issue of The Atlantic contained an interesting piece on one of the problems that will begin to afflict many suburbs in the coming decades: too much supply. Christopher Leinberger writes, “Arthur C. Nelson, director of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech, forecasts a likely surplus of 22 million large-lot homes (houses built on a sixth of an acre or more) by 2025—that’s roughly 40 percent of the large-lot homes in existence today.” This is due to smaller families, rising fuel costs, empty-nesters who are “right-sizing,” and young people who are less likely to seek a home in the suburbs.

Leinberger calls his piece “The Next Slum?” and suggests that the suburbs on the fringes of cities are going to hurt the worst—too much supply will send prices down dramatically in the suburbs, vacant properties will be common, and transportation costs will still be high (without the trade off in “quality of life” to make it more palatable). It’s a startling forecast, but in some parts of the US it’s already started to occur. In a development 7 miles outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, 81 of 132 houses are vacant and in foreclosure; vandals and squatters have begun taking over. In Elk Grove, California, 10,000 homes were built in 4 years—some of them valued at $500,000 just a few years ago. Many are empty and the residents still there are starting to see gang activity.

With that in mind, it makes me very happy that Washington State adopted the Growth Management Act in 1990 and that Pierce County followed up this past year by adopting Transferable Development Rights to help protect farms and forests. By designating large tracts of land that may not be further developed, the State has taken the first step to curb sprawl. This is actually good for homeowners, suburban homeowners especially. It means that a new development can’t leapfrog past you anymore, unless it had filed its permits more than 10 years ago (which, admittedly, many did). It means that while the local housing supply will keep expanding, the number of large-lot suburban house will not, which will help your property values. It also means that it gets easier for the City and the County to plan where people are going to be, which will help mass transit options improve and become a more viable option for the suburban dweller.

Pierce County expects to add another 250,000 people in the next 12 years according to Washington’s Office of Financial Management. That’s a 40% increase in our population in 12 years. With the limits on growth, we will house those residents by building infill projects within the City of Tacoma and its neighboring towns. More density, more multi-family housing, and (hopefully) better transit to link them all together. Even with that growth, Tacoma’s suburbs won’t go away. But they won’t get bigger either. Creating better transit options into them will help suburbs remain a viable option for certain families and tie them to downtown.

So I don’t want to disparage suburbs or those who want to live in them. I do wish that some of Tacoma’s neighbors—Fife, Lakewood, University Place, and Ruston—would someday consider annexation into Tacoma instead of walling themselves off from us, but I also know that’s probably a long way off. We need to encourage good suburbs and better mass transit options into the densest suburban communities. We need to make sure that sprawl stops, too, and that the forests and farmland in Pierce County can stay rural. If we can effectively keep the suburbs from expanding even farther, Tacoma’s downtown core will grow that much stronger for it.

Erik Hanberg lives and works in downtown Tacoma. He blogs regularly at erikemery.com.

This week: The South Tacoma Railyards

This 1950 photo must have been taken during a rain spell as the pond has grown in size. The land to the right of the pond has been cleared to make way for the South Tacoma Airport which operated from 1936 to 1973. The city grid to the right above the cemetery continues to shape up as residential and commercial properties get developed.

By the time this 1973 photo was, the airport was closing. The following year found Burlington Northern Railroad closing operations. Most of the original structures, some dating to the 1890s, were demolished by 1976. Then, in the early 80s, the railyards were added to the national list of Superfund sites.

The EPA reported, “During the past 100 years, the site has been used for a variety of industrial and disposal activities. Historical industrial activities involved the manufacture and repair of railroad cars and equipment, the operation of a brass and iron wheel foundry, the maintenance of an airport runway, refueling depot and repair facility, and the construction and operation of an electric and water utility company. Large parts of the airport were used as dump sites for industrial and construction materials. Swamp and lakebed areas of the site were filled with refuse and dirt, including slag and sand from the foundry operations and dirt from the utility building foundation. Early investigations of the site suggested that past industrial and disposal activities have contributed to the contamination of soil, groundwater, surface water, and sediments at the site.”

In 1986, Burlington Northern Railroad was required to conduct an initial remedial investigation of the site. A more intensive investigation of the site was conducted by State and Federal experts from February 1991 through August 1992. In November of 1992, the EPA notified the community to avoid recreational use of the site.

Today, with the site all cleaned up and ready to go, Burlington Northern Railroad wants to put the land back in use by developing five warehouse buildings totaling approximately 1,900,000 square feet. This time though, it looks like it will be diesel semi-trucks and not trains providing the transportation.

More background:
The natural resource use associated with the South Tacoma Field site is groundwater production primarily for the city of Tacoma. Some of the wells in this field are high capacity with the potential of producing flows in excess of 3,000 gallons per minute. To the northwest, the towns of Fircrest and University Place have six production wells within 8,000 to 10,000 feet of the site. These production wells are considered upgradient of the site. Within one mile of the South Tacoma Field site, 41 residential wells also access local groundwater for domestic purposes. The nearest residential well is about 2,500 feet west of the site on South Mullen Street.

Potentially, the site can pose a public health hazard through exposure to groundwater and subsurface soil contaminants that could cause adverse health effects. Industrial development of the site may result in future exposure by workers to groundwater contaminants, should private supply wells access the shallow aquifer in areas of contamination. Additionally, should construction/excavation activities uncover contaminated subsurface soils, workers as well as recreationalists/trespassers may be exposed.

During the remedial investigation, groundwater contamination was detected in
off-site background and upgradient wells; however, the actual extent of contamination is not known. Should new public and private (residential and industrial) supply wells be installed accessing the contaminated aquifer, workers and residents could be exposed to groundwater contaminants. Exposure of workers and residents could also occur should migration of groundwater contamination impact existing public and private supply wells. Elevated concentrations of inorganic chemicals were detected in background and upgradient wells. Aluminum, chromium, cobalt, cooper, iron, lead, sodium, and vanadium detected in background wells at concentrations exceeding the range of inorganic concentrations naturally occurring in groundwater.

The initial comparison of lung cancer incidence rates between the two populations showed a higher than expected rate in residents living near the site. To determine if this higher rate was unique for the three census tracts, or caused by some other factor, it was compared to the rate for the entire Pierce County population for 1980 through 1990. This comparison revealed that the lung cancer incidence rates for residents of the three census tracts and residents of the entire county were similar. The incidence rate of lung cancer in Pierce County ranks fourth highest of 17 regions for which data are available in Washington State. The higher rate of lung cancer in the resident population when compared to the 13 northwest Washington counties population is most likely the result of the higher overall rate seen in Pierce County.

source: Department of Health and Human Services, PUBLIC HEALTH ASSESSMENT

Also, catch the related post at exit133.com

I’ve been thinking about alleys lately. This topic came up about a year ago over on exit133.com and again in some recent articles. I’ve always been a fan of alleys but became very interested in them several years ago while taking an urban planning course at the University of Washington. Since then, alleys have become one of my (many) obsessions. Especially after learning that public right-of-ways (streets, alleys, sidewalks and parking strips) make up about a quarter of the land mass in most cities - Tacoma included.

Of these right-of-ways, alleys receive the least amount of thought and attention. Out of sight, out of mind. As a result, not much thought has been given to include alleys in the broader context of issues such as sustainability, urban revitalization, and the environment.

Green Alleys
A New York Times article last year declared Chicago the alley capital of America and went on to outline Chicago’s plans to retrofit 2,000 miles of alleys with environmentally sustainable materials under a Green Alley initiative. The article continues, “In a green alley, water is allowed to penetrate the soil through the pavement itself, which consists of the relatively new but little-used technology of permeable concrete or porous asphalt. Then the water, filtered through stone beds under the permeable surface layer, recharges the underground water table instead of ending up as polluted runoff in rivers and streams.”

Tacoma is sometimes referred to as “Little Chicago.” Reading the New York Times article immediately brought to mind Tacoma’s effort to clean up the Thea Foss Waterway. A former designated Superfund site, many years and many millions of dollars have been poured into cleaning up this long abused waterway. Officials thought they were good to go when tests revealed that whatever polluted the waterway in the first place continues to do so today. One can only imagine the state of the soil underneath much of downtown from 100 years worth of dumping toxic chemicals directly into the ground.

One solution to help flush the pollution out of the soil could be by converting our alleys to permeable concrete like Chicago is doing.

Alley Density
Another way we can make better use of alleys is by utilizing their potential to create walkable neighborhoods. Mother-in-law apartments - or Accessory Dwelling Units as they are called in planner-speak - are nothing new. Yet for some reason, whenever the topic of increasing density comes up, NIMBYs rise up and scare Tacoma’s politicians, who generally have weak constitutions anyway.

Here’s an example from Toronto of a “laneway house” built in an alley. True, it’s not the prettiest house, but it’s better than nothing! According to the website, “one estimate puts the amount of units that could be added if the city’s 2,433 alleys were all opened to residential construction at roughly 6,000.” While this number seems optimistic, serious consideration should be given to this idea as it is a low impact way of adding density to our neighborhoods.

Only by increasing density will we be able to create walkable neighborhoods with thriving business districts that have the amenities we need.

Urban Alleys
Tacoman’s hate references to Seattle, but here’s another one: Post Alley. Most people are familiar enough with this iconic little alley that runs through the Pike Place Market. In just a few blocks it features a dozen restaurants, bars, two theaters, a travel hostel, and other shops. The closest thing Tacoma has to it is Opera Alley which doesn’t even come close. But it has the potential to.

My mother-in-law loves to tell the story of how her dad would give her a nickel and she would head over to an ice cream shop that used to be located on Court C between 9th & 11th. It’s hard to imagine Court C as a thriving commercial alley, but it once was. Now, its buildings are vacant and boarded up. Waiting.

Opera Alley’s narrow street and zero lot line adds character and is helps create a walkable neighborhood.

No chains here. Over the Moon Cafe, has strong presence despite the size of its small storefront.

Embellish (aka “The Purple Building”) moved to this alley location on Court D after its former building was converted into condos.

The new Roberson Condo building on Court D off of 7th Street looked to the past for inspiration and incorporated live work units in the alley.

Boarded up alley retail at 11th & Court C.

Another view of 11th & Court C.

More underutilized space on Court C (between 9th & 11th).

The building with the red door has been for sale on the market for a number of years. More potential retail could be there.

Former location of the now defunct African-American Museum. This retail space is on the alley side of the Pythian Temple.

Side view of Pythian Temple showing “ghost billboards.”

This alley used to be filled with life. Will Tacoma’s turn come again?

This week: Trolley Court

By 1950, several more homes have been built and the former streetcar rail bed has grown over and is starting to disappear into the surrounding land.

By 1973, housing and a new church now occupy the north-eastern portion of the old streetcar line while the south-western portion is gradually being taken over by new development.

By 1998, it is nearly impossible to tell that a streetcar line had once bisected these two blocks. We also see single family homes along South 19th being replaced by larger commercial buildings.

Finally, in this 2006 image we see a temporary reappearance of the streetcar path. The path is a result of the land being cleared to make way for a new housing development. Today, with construction wrapped up, the development is being marketed as an “11 home community” called “Trolley Court.”

Previous Over Tacoma Then & Now: ASARCO/Point Ruston

This week:
ASARCO/Point Ruston

Rust ended up selling the business to ASARCO for $5.5 million, a tidy sum even now. As a bonus in the sale, Rust received a payment which he used to build his “I” Street mansion for his wife. His wife thought the house was too large so he built a more “modest” house on Yakima Avenue. But that’s a another story. 

As seen in this 1931 photograph, the entire “campus” has been built out and a thriving industry is in full swing. The 571 foot smokestack is near the center of the photo. At the time of its construction in 1917, the smokestack was the tallest in the world.

By 1950, the shoreline had been filled in and extended out into the bay to provide additional warehouse and work yard space. Originally built to produce lead, the smelter eventually dropped lead production to become a major supplier of copper. Sulfuric acid was also produced in high quantity.

This 1973 photo shows very little change over the previous 23 year period, save for the addition of a few more shoreline facilities.

This 2006 aerial reveals a greatly altered landscape. By 1983, it had become an EPA designated Superfund site and in 1985 the plant was permanently closed. The smelter was imploded in 1993 and remediation work followed. Today, it is the site for a planned community called Point Ruston.

During my recent obsession into the world of sourdough bread making, I found myself in the market for an oil mister. This gave me a perfect excuse to pay a visit to the Urban Gourmet store on 6th Ave.

While going through the ins-and-outs of different models with the knowledgeable staff, I happened to peak through a door in the rear of the store. Inside the room was a brightly lit kitchen fit for a TV show, theater style seating, and a fully loaded kitchen with a gas range at the center of it all. “What is that?” I asked. “That’s our cooking class kitchen,” I was told. Then I saw the overhead camera focused on the range broadcasts out to two flat screen televisions. A ceiling mounted mirror ensures there is not a bad seat in the house.

When asked about the kitchen, one of the owners, Robin Jensen, said the plan to offer cooking classes was there from the start. But they had to wait for the kitchen build-out until last September when the space became available. By November, they were off and cooking. Since then, the kitchen has been getting a good work out. Besides classes, the kitchen is rented out for private events and parties. I was told that there’s even a TV show called “Cooking with Ros” that is recorded on site. The show is shown on Comcast. “Unfortunately, I haven’t had a chance to see it since we have Click!” Robin said.

There have been many offerings by chefs and owners of local favorite restaurants including Stadium Bistro in the Stadium District, Marzano Italian Restaurant in Parkland, and Gateway to India on 6th Ave. Other demonstrations include tea tastings and knife sharpening and knife techniques. They are even thinking about hosting kids cooking classes or even a kids cooking camp in the summer.

When I stopped in to take pictures on the evening of February 27th, Chef Peter Weikel of Stadium Bistro was well into working his way through the menu. Entitled, “French Country Elegance,” the menu included Pacific Day Boat Black Cod Wrapped in Prosciutto and Cowl Fat with Fresh Tarragon, Caramelized Fennel and Leak Risotto with Petite Bask Sheep Milk Cheese, and Scratch Made Eclairs with Fresh Lemon Curd and Noel White Chocolate. Wow!

With a glass of wine poured for me I settled in to watch the Pete show - and what a show it was! To my left was Cheryl Tucker, editorial writer for the TNT, and a couple chairs to my right sat an elderly woman who was celebrating her birthday (note to self: wife’s birthday is coming up). The dozen or so people in attendance had a great time and ate some amazing food. It was especially entertaining bantering with Pete as he narrated the class and learning about his fear of the non-rising eclairs (it happened recently).

Alas, the Urban Gourmet is currently sans website. They took it down for updating, but it should be back up in about a month or so. They are also in the process of putting together their Spring 2008 newsletter which will have class listings and other special events.

Upcoming classes (call for confirmation):
March 6: Baking with Kris O’Leary
March 7: Mastering Salmon with Troy Reich
March 11: Chef William of Babblin’ Babs Bistro
March 17: Gateway to India

Urban Gourmet
2602 B 6th Ave
Tacoma, WA 98406
253-272-3111

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Not your mother’s kitchen: the chef’s island easily seats a dozen people and two wall mounted flat screen TVs make sure you don’t miss any of the action. Another nearby island seats six to eight people while a few smaller islands fill out the space.

Chef Pete wraps the cod in waffer thin prosciutto.

Notice the ceiling mounted mirror.

The fish gets a massage.

Almost done! Out of the pan and into the oven.

Putting the finishing touches on.

Touch my puff pastry.

From: Wandering in Tacoma

Recently, I came across a website that caught my attention because it touched on two favorite obsessions of mine: wine and Tacoma. The Wine Economist is a book in the works website by Michael Veseth, Professor of International Political Economy at UPS. Why would an Economics Professor at a small local private college be writing about wine, something near and dear to my heart? Intrigued, I had to learn more.

Sun: Please give us a little background on yourself.

Veseth: I’m a native Tacoman - high school at Lincoln and college at UPS, where I teach today.  I’ve studied, taught, lectured, lived and traveled across the U.S. and around the world, but I always come back to Tacoma.  It’s home.

I love teaching at the University of Puget Sound because the students are great and my colleagues are supportive. UPS is a place that has changed with the times (it was CPS when I was growing up here) but has always somehow managed to be just what students need at each particular moment. I like the University’s ability to adapt and grow combined with its steadfast commitment to achievement, intellectual integrity and the development of students as complete human beings.  I see my work with students at UPS as a way to continue the tradition of the great high school and college teachers who helped me so much.

Sun: I love the topic of the new book. It could have been coffee, cheese… or hamburgers, why did you choose wine?

Veseth: You are exactly right. Globalization and global market forces are all around us and all we really have to do is to look closely at our own lives to learn something about how the personal and local connects us to grand global forces.  I could write about almost anything and it would teach me something about globalization and the global/local connection.  In fact I have written about hamburgers and coffee, basketball and soccer, and the used clothes that you give to Goodwill and found something interesting and unique in each case.

I’m writing about wine now for a number of reasons.  First, a lot of people are interested in wine and so I can reach them and maybe teach them better through wine than I could writing about global interest rate spreads and covered interest arbitrage.  More importantly, a close examination of the wine market reveals a number of contradictory stories and I am deeply interested in trying to reconcile simplified dominant narratives of globalization (such as the McDonaldization theory) with the complex reality I find all around me. 

You have only to spend a few minutes in the wine aisle of your local supermarket to appreciate some of globalization’s effects.  The wine department at Tacoma Boys on 6^th Avenue has more than 3000 different wines from about 30 different countries. Washington wines, however, are the largest single group on the shelves; global choice hasn’t crowded out local producers so much as it has created a larger market for their products.  The variety and diversity of choice is amazing and the questions that are raised - who produced these wines, how, and how did they get here - are endless.  Globalization is there in your wineglass, I like to say.  Drink up!

I can’t deny that I find wine research pleasant, too, especially since so many of my former students are active in the wine industry in one way or another.  My wine research has given me the opportunity to reconnect with former students and to change places with them.  Now they are teaching me about their particular businesses just as I once taught them as students.  Who wouldn’t enjoy an opportunity like that?

Sun: What are some opportunities, and challenges, you see around the corner for our homegrown wine industry?

Veseth: I write about Washington wine frequently on my blog The Wine Economist (wineeconomist.wordpress.com) and in fact I’m helping to organize an international conference of wine economists that will be meeting in Portland in August to discuss the Pacific Northwest industry among other things. 

The Washington wine industry is in extremely good position for the opportunities that lie ahead.  The dominant winemaker, Chateau Ste. Michelle, has achieved national and even international distribution and its success has uncorked opportunities for Washington wine in general.  Washington is one of only two important wine regions that I can think of (New Zealand is the other) that does not compete in the low cost commodity wine market (Two Buck Chuck drinkers, you know what I mean).  Most wine regions sell both commodity and quality wine.  Washington has benefited from a strong focus on premium and super-premium wine at a time when these are the fastest growing global market sectors.

That said, I think Washington wines still have trouble breaking into new markets because of a lack of a distinct regional identity.  What does it mean to be a Washington wine?  This is a liability as the wine shelves of the world become even more crowded and consumers search for a reason to buy one bottle instead of another.  The Washington “brand” needs strengthening.

Sun: Wow! I had no idea there was even a title of wine economist! Do you have any idea how many there are in the world?

Veseth: The American Association of Wine Economists has several hundred members, I understand, and there are a lot  more of us around the world.  I’m helping the association organize a conference in Portland in August and I guess they expect about 300 people to attend from the US, Europe and Australia and maybe other places too.  http://www.wine-economics.org/  The email list for conference announcements has about 4000 names, I’m told, but I think that includes both academic and industry people and perhaps food economists, too.  So I don’t have a solid number for  you, but it is a surprisingly large group given the narrow (but deeply interesting) topic.   Wine economics is very important.  The famous Master of Wine examination is 1/3 about the economics of wine, 1/3 about its history and geography and 1/3 about sensory analysis of wine.

Sun: I’m a budding winemaker with dreams of starting my own wine empire. I read that the number of Washington wineries has increased 400% over the past 10 years. Meanwhile, wine consumption is only growing at something like 4%. What do you think of this? Should I quit now while I’m ahead?

Veseth: It depends on what you hope to achieve.  I have written that consolidation in the wine market seems to be producing a “missing middle” effect.  Big winemakers are successful because of economies of scale in marketing branded goods and in distribution. 

Small winemakers (one or two thousand cases) can still be quite successful if their wines are good because they can internalize labor costs (friends and family) and handle distribution personally through direct “cellar door” sales.  This business model keeps out of pocket costs low and allows a higher yield on sales.  Higher wine volumes (middle-sized wineries) mean substantial labor costs and the necessity to accept bigger discounts to get your wines into the distributor system.  This makes it problematic to make the middle work.  It can work, but it’s a different business model.

There are good opportunities for small scale wineries, especially if you take the time to get training on the business side as well as in winemaking.  The community college in Walla Walla offers good one-day seminars to help you understand the economics of your operations and how to meet the many regulatory requirements on production and sales, especially inter-state sales. 

The Carlton Winemakers Studio in Carlton, Oregon is an interesting experiment in filling the missing middle of the wine market.  It is something like a wine cooperative where several smaller winemakers share facilities and start up or grow bigger without taking huge risks.  I am cautiously optimistic that it is a model that can be reproduced elsewhere.  Maybe you should be thinking about a wine cooperative in Tacoma rather than going it alone?

There are a several boutique wineries in the South Sound area - more than most people imagine.  They are invisible to us for the most part because of the very local and personal nature of their production and distribution. You have to seek them out because they don’t have tasting rooms with parking for tour buses and they don’t necessarily appear on the published wine maps.  But they are there.   If you want to see “cottage industries” like these you have to look very closely around you and train your eyes to see what you don’t expect rather than what you know you’ll find. This is harder than it sounds, but it pays off.

Sun: In you’re previous book, Globaloney, you explored myths about globalization and that “all globalization is local”. Should Tacoma get out of the Port business and into something else? Are we putting all our eggs in one basket?

Veseth: International trade created Tacoma and sustains it today, so I am a big fan of the Port of Tacoma. I edited a book for the New York Times a few years ago as part of their “Twentieth Century in Review” series.  They gave me 100 years of everything published in the New York Times  - news stories, photographs, editorials, book reviews, obituaries, the works.  My challenge was to tell the story of the rise and fall and rise again of the global economy through, as it turned out, more than 400 articles and about 150 images.  When I went looking for stories about globalization in the pre-World War I era I was not surprised to find Tacoma in the center of it.  The most important stories about trade with Japan and China were published with a Tacoma, Washington dateline.  Interestingly, these stories reflected the same combination of optimism and anxiety that we find in discussion of international trade today.

Sun: What do you love about Tacoma?

Veseth: I love the neighbors and the neighborhoods.  I grew up in the South End and I loved the sense of community I found there.  I go back to the Lincoln International District a lot and I take out-of-town students there so that they can get a feel for how diverse Tacoma really is.  I live near UPS now because I like being able to see my students, former students and co-workers every day on the street, in the shops and at the library.

And I like being less than an hour away from Seattle, the mountains or Hood Canal.  Tacoma’s the center of the world… my world, anyway.

By Erik Bjornson

After the Tacoma Mall moved into Tacoma in 1968, much of downtown and neighborhood business centers suffered neglect and some were nearly abandoned in their entirety. The city likely struck its all time low point around the late 1970s and early 1980s (Stephen Cysewski made his infamous photo tour of downtown Tacoma in 1979).

Many of Tacoma residents who had the means, moved to the suburbs leaving many areas of the city depopulated and in poor physical condition. The homes in Tacoma’s existing neighborhoods suffered decades of disinvestment. Although some progress has been made, many neighborhoods still suffer from blight, neglect and other entrenched social problems. There are relatively large numbers of empty houses, commercial buildings and vacant and blighted lots.

Yet, we all have limited time.

A. Reduce the Many Sources of Blight To Reduce Crime And Increase the Livibility of Your Neighborhood

Studies show that much crime is opportunistic and that blightful physical characteristics give visual cues that that criminal acts can be carried out without repercussions. Thus, following the “broken window” theory, removing blight in your neighborhood can reduce crime.

A cleaner neighborhood is a signpost that neighbors have taken ownership of an area that they may be also watching out for criminal activity and will act protective of the area. It also raises property values and makes your neighborhood more of a place worth caring about.

The first 7 steps can be done from the comfort of your kitchen or computer chair

1. Have the City of Tacoma remove abandoned cars from your neighborhood streets

Abandoned cars facilitate criminal activit