Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Tacoma Sun. Tacoma is continuing to work to rebuild its physical structure, community ties and social fabric after half a century of disinvestment and enduring through number perilous periods.

The purpose of the Tacoma Sun will be to attempt to explore the methods in which Tacoma can continue to rebuild the physical and social structures to place the city on a path toward reaching its potential.

Our hope for Tacoma Sun is for the newspaper to able to discuss issues in some depth such as urban design which can create an walkable, environmentally friendly and inclusive city in a pro-active manner rather just in reaction to the latest press release or building proposal. Our built environment has the potential to create a public realm which civic life can flourish.

The other half of the picture is “community” building, the social networks and fabric which have the potential to create a meaningful civic life rather than living anonymously. No matter how well our streets, buildings and public spaces are developed, the city can never develop any further than the people in it and the strength of our community ties.

Our goal is to take a longer more holistic view of these issues than has been done in the past with the assistance of community activists, architects, artists, politicians, writers, bloggers and whoever else is interested in the rebuilding of the city.

Tacoma is a grand city. It has a downtown and many residential areas built with small walkable blocks. Much of Tacoma was built out in a manner which employed the best methods of urban design. It has many walkable neighborhoods and an intact downtown. Tacoma has a plethora of historical buildings.

Yet, Tacoma has lost more of its historical buildings than most Washington cities ever had. Tacoma suffered worse than most cities when the mall was built in 1968 and has never fully recovered. Many of the subsequent urban renewal efforts in the city ended up doing more harm than good, such as the demolition of several blocks of historical buildings to build the North and South Parking Garages. Whole sections of the streetscape in Tacoma have been eviscerated and are little more than blank walls and entrances to parking garages. Although there has been some recent interest in living downtown, the downtown remains relatively depopulated with a high number of vacant lots and parking lots as a satellite image readily shows.

Tacoma has unfortunately followed the path of many cities and during the 1950s has built little more than disconnected strip malls void of any potential for creating a community and by definition of being privately owned, incapable of being part of a meaningful public realm.

Hopefully, the Tacoma Sun can play a positive role in Tacoma’s future by helping facilitate the conversation to these ends.

The Sun will not attempt to be a peer reviewed journal or an architectural magazine or anything close to it. We realize well the efforts and accomplishment that have taken place to rebuild the city and we strive to facilitate the next few steps on these efforts.

We also anticipate focusing on neighborhoods which have been the backbone of Tacoma as likely the only reason the city was not abandoned wholesale in the early 1980s which has nearly occurred in some post industrial eastern cities.

This month, writers Morgan Alexander, Andrew Austin, Erik Bjornson, and Paul Sparks have submitted articles on a variety of subjects. Morgan and Erik discuss various urban design issues. Andrews discusses transportation and community leader Paul Sparks discusses community building and civic life. They welcome your feedback. In the spirit of Planetizen, we may also include reader comments and feedback in future issues.

The Tacoma Sun seeks article submissions from various communities in Tacoma. Feel free to contact us with your submission ideas.