City of Tacoma Washington sent this bulletin at 05/25/2021 09:27 AM PDT
Good Morning,
As we get closer to summer, I am excited that things I love are returning after a year of being gone. My family is ready to get back to Cheney Stadium for baseball games, visiting our favorite local restaurants, and attending birthday parties and BBQs with friends at our parks and pools. After a year of masks and social distancing, I am excited for the chance to see more of you in person in the weeks and months ahead. There are important conversations and events happening in Tacoma, so hopefully we will get to catch up (in person) soon!
Like many of you, my family and I participated in Litter Free 253 on Saturday, April 17. The event was a huge success and included 550 volunteers collecting over 1,000 bags of litter across 27 locations in Tacoma. My kids enjoyed the chance to get out on a beautiful day and compete to see who could grab the most litter. You can find free litter resources like bags, gloves, and safety information at cityoftacoma.org/litter and learn about Tacoma’s neighborhood cleanup programs at cityoftacoma.org/cleanup.
As I mentioned in the interview I gave to the News Tribune about Litter Free 253, I am interested in how the City might take a more active role in addressing litter. One of my top priorities for investing the City’s American Rescue Plan funds is a citywide Clean City initiative to address illegal dumping, litter, and graffiti. I hope to be able to share more details about this project in the weeks ahead.
Tacoma Arts Commission
Along with some of the other boards and committees I serve on, I am also the City Council liaison for the Tacoma Arts Commission. As a social studies teacher, I always loved to bring art into my classroom to provide my students with a broader perspective on what we were learning. As I said in the 2020 Annual Report:
“Art that is meaningful, that touches us and transcends our normal experiences with the world, identifies something or connects with a part of us that almost cannot be explained. Words do not do it justice. The mural, the sculpture, the story, the performance connect with us and reminds us that we are not alone in our world – others share our hopes and our fears, our dreams and our setbacks.
As we have gone through so much as a community this past year, but so often isolated, the arts are desperately needed to foster the connection we need. To express the often inexpressible and to bind up the collective wounds of the moment so that our community can move forward together again.”
The COVID-19 pandemic changed how we interact with art in our community, but I have been very proud of how our artists and the Office of Arts & Cultural Vitality have responded. Through Tacoma Creates, approximately $5 million was allocated to 58 organizations for the funding cycle from April 2020 through June 2021 to keep arts, culture, heritage and science organizations working in our community when it was vitally needed. You can learn more about all of the work they were able to do in 2020 here.
Scenes From the City of Destiny
Recycling in Tacoma
Do you ever wonder where the recyclables in your blue bin goes? This past month, Council Member Kristina Walker and I found out! We visited the Waste Management JMK Fibers facility down at the Port of Tacoma. It was great to see how all of our recycling is processed and then sent throughout our country and the world to be made into new products! All of the acceptable recyclable material that gets thrown in your blue bins, from aluminum cans and cardboard boxes to plastic bottles and paper, are sorted by machine and by hand in order to be reused.
On May 29, Tacoma’s Planning Commission forwarded a very significant package of housing policy recommendations on for City Council consideration. I know this is a topic of high interest for many of you, so I wanted to lay out the next steps for this proposal. The Council will begin discussion of the recommendations at our June 8 Study Session, with additional dates and a public hearing to be scheduled soon. City staff are preparing another round of public notice and engagement—visit www.cityoftacoma.org/homeintacoma to learn more.
Housing and neighborhood change are very important topics to all of us. This important conversation needs to have as many resident voices included as possible. Thank you to everyone that has shared your thoughts and comments so far!
Resources for COVID-19
The challenges we are facing in Tacoma with COVID-19 are unprecedented, but I want to let you know that we are taking important steps to address it in our community. We are working hard to support residents, families and businesses as we continue to address this public health crisis.
Rental and Utility Assistance: Pierce County and City of Tacoma residents struggling to pay rent or utilities due to impacts of COVID-19, can apply for assistance PierceCountyWA.gov/housinghelp
Washington State/Governor Jay Inslee COVID-19 Response: coronavirus.wa.gov
Please be sure to check out cityoftacoma.org for City updates and resources and, as always, please email me directly at john.hines@cityoftacoma.org and do not reply to this email. You can also call me at (253) 312-5620 if you have questions.
