John Hines - District 1 Highlights of 2022

Happy New Year!

In these early days of 2023, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on my time as your representative on the Tacoma City Council. As many of you know, my top priorities have remained the same. I have continued to focus on the key issues that matter most to our community in District 1, including health and safety, housing and homelessness, and keeping Tacoma beautiful.

And, with another year of public service behind me, I am so proud of what we have accomplished together as a community. I look forward to the year ahead and the chance to work with many of you as we move Tacoma forward into becoming the City of Destiny that we can all be proud of!

I also wanted to take a moment to thank Claire Goodwin for all her help in this work over the past three years. Claire has supported me as my policy assistant (and newsletter editor) and is moving on to become the Executive Manager of the South King Housing and Homelessness Partners (SKHHP). While Claire will be missed, I am very excited for her in her new role. Congratulations, Claire!

Now, let’s take a look at our 2022 highlights!

Investments in Community Safety

Safety is a team effort, one that requires everyone in our community to get involved. I know that there is much more to be done, and we will continue to work on our shared goals in the year ahead. I hope to see even more of you engage in these efforts to ensure that Tacoma is safe for everyone.

Our budget invests $372 million in community safety to fund: 

• Emergency response services in Police and Fire
• Safe buildings and neighborhoods
• Proactive and long-term resolution of community safety issues
• Infrastructure safety for motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists
• Crime analysis and improved forensics services

Components of the City’s alternative response stretch across priority areas of community safety, health, and belief and trust. Our budget supports these holistic efforts by:

• Expanding the Homeless Engagement Alternatives Liaison (HEAL) team.
• Funding the start-up of a new Behavioral Health Response Unit to respond to individuals experiencing behavioral health crisis.
• Shifting from a security or law enforcement response to an approach centered on resource connection and support by funding two positions for the library’s pilot: a social worker and a support person to meet community members experiencing mental health, housing, and drug crisis issues where they are.

Street Racing

Early in 2022, at multiple City Council and neighborhood meetings, street racing and intersection takeovers were common concerns. In response, I co-sponsored the Street Racing Spectator Ordinance with Councilmembers Rumbaugh and McCarthy, which was designed to discourage gatherings at these events that, at times, have endangered lives. With the passage of the ordinance and the coordinated efforts of our local and regional law enforcement agencies, I am happy to report that the constant intersection takeovers have become much rarer occurrences.

While I often feel like it has been forgotten, I think this is a good example where good policymaking and cross-agency collaboration can actually address and improve safety.

Pedestrian Safety

In many conversations with residents of our district, pedestrian safety has come up repeatedly as a concern. Being able to walk, run, or bike safely in our neighborhoods is something we should expect to be able to do.  That is why pedestrian safety was one of my highest priorities this past year.

In March, I was proud to testify in support of traffic speed cameras at the state legislature and was happy that we were authorized to expand their use beyond school zones and intersections to include school walking routes, park and hospital zones, and arterials with frequent crashes and excessive speeds. See RCW 46.63.170. These cameras, along with additional police officers, will help us enforce lower speed limits and get us closer to our Vision Zero goal to reduce pedestrian deaths to zero by 2035.

Along with traffic speed cameras, I was very happy to support additional funding in our budget to address unfit and unsafe sidewalks, continue to improve our students’ safe routes to schools, and the maintenance of signs and pedestrian beacons. While I recognize enforcement is a critical part of making our streets safer for everyone, which both additional police officers and traffic cameras will help address, I look forward to making further investments in our streets and sidewalks to ensure everyone has a safe way to move about our city.

Safe Streets

Community safety has always been one of the issues that has motivated me to get involved in our community. This has been an area of focus for me since my days at Lincoln High School. This is why joining the Safe Streets Board earlier this year was both a highlight and a homecoming for me. 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 and I am happy to help lead this work with an organization that helped kickstart my career in public service.  It is a good reminder that community investments can pay off long into the future.

Affordable Housing and Homelessness

This past year, I focused quite a bit on affordable housing and homelessness. These two issues, along with community safety, are ones that I hear most about from residents. I have been proud of the work I was able to do in beginning to address them, even though I recognize there is still much work left to be done. To address affordable housing and homelessness in the coming biennium, our budget includes $101 million to fund, among other things:

• New affordable housing units
• Down payment assistance
• Tenant relocation assistance
• Streamlined permitting for housing projects
• Existing and expanding shelter capacity
• New innovations like safe parking
• 100 beds of permanent shelter capacity through the Tacoma Rescue Mission
• Two more HEAL team members

Camping Ordinance

After months of research and discussion, I brought forward the ordinance that became Second Amended Substitute Ordinance 28831, which prohibits camping within in a 10-block radius around temporary shelters in Tacoma, as well as all public property within 200 feet of Tacoma’s mapped rivers, waterways, creeks, streams, and shorelines.

While this will not end homelessness in our city, I do believe it will help address the health and safety impacts of encampments. This ordinance was just a first step and, as I said in my letter to the News Tribune and in my comments at Council, no one is happy with the status quo. My hope is that the work we have done on affordable housing thus far will only continue to help ensure that the people on our streets can find shelter, services and a path forward.

ADU Accelerator

This past summer, through the Government Performance and Finance Committee, we looked at how we can support the development of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs). This multi-month process included discussions with developers, lenders and homeowners about the challenges and opportunities of ADUs. As we think about different housing options in our city, I think ADUs make sense as they can support multi-generational households, aging in place and potential income for homeowners.

As part of this conversation, we discussed pre-approved plans, site development assistance, and fee waivers as a way to support homeowners interested in building ADUs. In the year ahead, we will be returning to this topic as part of Home In Tacoma - Phase 2 and I will have more updates on this work in 2023.

Proctor Neighborhood Plan

This year also saw the beginning of the Proctor Neighborhood Planning Project. This was sponsored by Council Member Catherine Ushka, former Council Member Conor McCarthy and I in the 2021 budget. The goal of the pilot program is to enhance planning and development support to help communities create strong, vibrant and diverse neighborhoods.

The Proctor Neighborhood Plan has included a Plan-a-Thon and a neighborhood walking tour, and I have been part of the on-going Steering Committee meetings. I have been very happy with the level of engagement and neighborhood input we have seen thus far. Our work will continue into the spring and through summer of 2023, then switch to implementation of the neighborhood’s goals.  I am eager to see what develops from discussions and how we can continue to shape and improve our beloved neighborhood center.

AWC Housing Solutions Group

This past year, I was also proud to serve on the Association of Washington Cities Housing Solutions Group. I was one of a handful of local elected officials selected to discuss how we balance new growth and density with the impacts those changes have on our neighborhoods. Throughout the Home in Tacoma discussions in 2021, I heard from many of you what your concerns were and it was good to discuss these with elected officials from many diverse communities. I think it is important that local voices and choices are part of any statewide conversation.

Keeping Tacoma Beautiful

As many of you noticed, there has been an ongoing theme to my newsletters (and my Council efforts) that goes by many names: litter, trash, waste, garbage, etc. Our waste stream, how things go from our homes to the Tacoma Recovery and Transfer Center or recycled into new products, is a passion of mine. As we look at the future of our community, how we manage our waste is how we manage our legacy in the City of Destiny.

This year, my efforts began in March, as the sponsor to provide an additional $2,500 to support Litter Free 253. With these funds, we provided approximately 350 litter grabbers to distribute to volunteers at the April 16 Litter Free 253 event. My family and I were happy to participate and it was great to see how many other volunteers were similarly excited to pitch in and pick up our city.

Permanent Funding for Litter Pick-Up and Graffiti Removal

As many of you know, I was a strong supporter of Tidy-Up Tacoma in 2021. I heard from many residents excited to see the City out addressing litter and graffiti in our business districts. I also heard from many who wanted to see this go beyond Tidy-Up Tacoma and become a permanent effort to keep Tacoma beautiful. I agreed and that is why I supported the Solid Waste Excise Tax.

While I recognize that tax increases are not popular, this is one I was happy to support because it supports the services many of you have asked me about. This includes expanding litter, debris, and graffiti response across our city, funding regular and frequent trail maintenance, adding trash cans to our business districts, and supporting volunteer efforts at addressing litter and debris in our community. I am very hopeful that this will have an impact that you can see and feel across our city.

Our community is surrounded by so much natural beauty, and I look forward as we find more ways to do our part as residents and as a city, in making sure we keep Tacoma beautiful.