City of Tacoma Washington sent this bulletin at 01/25/2022 11:12 AM PST
Introduction
Good Morning,
Like many of you, I started out this month sledding, shoveling snow and carefully traveling our city streets. First and foremost, I want to thank our amazing City of Tacoma crews who worked hard to clear our streets throughout the recent snowstorm event (many of them leaving their family and coming in during their holiday break).
During a snowstorm event, City crews plow and de-ice streets on a priority level, beginning with primary arterial streets, followed by secondary and auxiliary routes. You can see a map of these routes and learn more by visiting cityoftacoma.org/inclementweather.
Beyond the winter snow, the City Council has been busy as we have added new members, begun our new committee assignments, and learned more about exciting initiatives coming in 2022. Also, as many of you have noticed, we have entered pothole season. I encourage you to keep reading to learn about what the City is doing to get caught up (and remember to report potholes to Tacoma FIRST 311).
As always, please feel free to reach out to me to share your thoughts and concerns. I invite you to also tune in to Council’s noon Study Sessions or 5 PM Council Meetings on Tuesdays via TV Tacoma, Facebook LIVE, or ZOOM. Access details are available at cityoftacoma.org/councilmeetings.
Also, if you enjoy getting this newsletter and regular updates from me, please feel free to share it with others who you think might find it valuable and encourage them to subscribe.
Catching Up With Council Member Hines
Committee Assignments
At the start of every year, the Council Members are appointed to various national, state, regional and local committees, boards and commissions. With the changes in the membership of our Council, I am moving into some new roles.
On a regional level, I was excited to be appointed to the Pierce Transit Board of Commissioners. As we look at housing and economic development in Tacoma, having the level of public transit to support the projected growth will be important in the years ahead. Along with the Pierce Transit Board of Commissioners, I will continue to represent Tacoma on the Pierce County Regional Council and the Zoo Trek Authority, which I enjoy.
Locally, I will continue to serve on the Government Performance and Finance (GPFC) Committee and am joining the Infrastructure, Planning and Sustainability Committee (IPS). After last year, and my work on the Multi-Family Property Tax Exemption (MFTE) program, participating on IPS will allow me to continue to focus on housing, as well as roads, sewers and sidewalks. I am very excited about all the opportunities that I have to serve our city through my role as a Council Member.
A Return to Community Involvement
Another special assignment for me is that I will be joining the Safe Streets Board of Directors as the representative from the City Council.
When I was a freshman at Lincoln High School, back around the turn of the century, my first involvement in my community was withYouth Leading Change and Safe Streets. It was through their support that I developed my earliest leadership experience and engagement with my classmates and neighbors. Empowering people to make their homes and neighborhoods safer, through learning, cooperation, and a shared sense of responsibility, has always been a passion of mine.
I am happy that I will return to some of my community roots to support an organization that provided so much to me and many others in our city.
Also, I have begun substitute teaching at Foss High School on Fridays this month. I know how important it is to keep our schools open and serving our families, so I am happy to help out. So far, I have taught culinary arts, Spanish, math and biology - and met some great students too! Though I am a proud Lincoln Abe, Go Falcons!
Scenes From the City of Destiny
Potholes
This month, I have been hearing from many of you about the annual winter return of potholes to our streets. A plan has been developed to address permanent repairs on arterial streets, and on January 20, Public Works deployed four permanent repair crews and one temporary patching crew throughout the city. It is estimated to take eight to ten weeks (dependent on weather) to permanently repair the potholes on the arterial street network.
Also, one intersection I often heard about was at North 26th and North Orchard streets. This intersection was closed on January 14 and the surface was completely rebuilt. Like many of you, I was frustrated for a long time with the condition of that intersection (I live down the street too!) and I was so excited to drive through it for the first time in years.
Whenever you see (or feel) a pothole, I would encourage you to report it to Tacoma FIRST 311. The City has many miles of roads to maintain and Tacoma FIRST 311 reports are the way to make sure your potholes are addressed in a timely manner. Again, thank you to everyone that reached out to me, and thank you for your patience.
Neighborhood Planning
At Council’s Study Session on January 11, we were given an update on the pilot Neighborhood Planning Program. Deputy Mayor Catherine Ushka, and Council Member Conor McCarthy and I sponsored the pilot Neighborhood Planning Program and it was funded in the 2021 budget. The goal of the pilot Neighborhood Planning Program is to enhance planning and development support to help communities create strong, vibrant and diverse neighborhoods.
At the time, we were going to focus on the McKinley Neighborhood Center in 2022 and Proctor in 2023, but we were able to add funding to the program this past November so that both will happen in 2022. The McKinley pilot Neighborhood Planning Program will begin this February and Proctor's will begin later this summer.
This conversation will be community driven. For Proctor, some areas of discussion based on community feedback are managing change and growth, traffic safety and parking, and creating a healthy and sustainable neighborhood. This will also be connected to the adaptive reuse of the Cushman and Adams Substations (which is a separate project with its own funding set to commence this summer). There will also be up to $50,000 to kick off select projects in the area.
There will be more information to come and I will be sure to share more through this newsletter as we get closer to the launch of the Proctor pilot Neighborhood Planning Program. I am hopeful, that as we begin this summer, we will be able to do much of this work in person!
Resources for COVID-19
Although COVID-19 has exacerbated many of the challenges we face in Tacoma, I want to let you know that we are taking important steps to address them. 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.
