Monday, July 12, 2010
The Future of Tillicum
Tonight's Lakewood City Council study session is 7 p.m. at the police station community room. There will be discussion about federal community development block grants, but likely the liveliest discussion will be a preliminary conversation about a draft neighborhood and economic development plan for Tillicum.
We've been waiting about four years for this day. A lot of work has been done or is under way in that area, and what happens will make a difference to all Lakewood (but especially the Tillicum area).
The Tillicum neighborhood, which originated at the turn of the last century as family campsites around American Lake, with teeny tiny lots, is a hard area to describe in a short blog post. But Tillicum arguably has the most community spirit of any neighborhood we have; even as most people know the area has struggled with crime issues for decades.
The crime situation has improved dramatically, but there are still problems from time to time and certainly reputations take a very long time to change. Meanwhile, at least one out of three families lives below the poverty level, and many more are struggling. And yet it's a community with enough oomph and pride to organize what promises to be a great centennial in a few weeks.
The neighborhood plan is very involved, covering everything from design standards to economic analysis. But as usual with very complex questions, public attention will likely focus on just one controversial matter. Fortunately, this is at least a very important matter: how wide to make Union Avenue, the main road that runs parallel to I-5.
It's 40-foot wide now but the area will grow; should it be 50 or 60 feet wide? And if we make it wider, which properties would have to be trimmed to widen the road? There have been a lot of discussions among residents in the area, such as one grand vision the community designed a couple years, ago, and three of the city's citizen advisory committees, and there's no clear consensus at all about the best width of Union Avenue - or what 'best' means for Union Avenue.
Stay tuned. Tonight's discussion is exploratory. I'm checking to see if the most recently draft plan is online. Even if you don't care about planning, it's got a lot of interesting info about the history and current situation there and makes for interesting reading if you are interested in Lakewood public policy.
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We've been waiting about four years for this day. A lot of work has been done or is under way in that area, and what happens will make a difference to all Lakewood (but especially the Tillicum area).
The Tillicum neighborhood, which originated at the turn of the last century as family campsites around American Lake, with teeny tiny lots, is a hard area to describe in a short blog post. But Tillicum arguably has the most community spirit of any neighborhood we have; even as most people know the area has struggled with crime issues for decades.
The crime situation has improved dramatically, but there are still problems from time to time and certainly reputations take a very long time to change. Meanwhile, at least one out of three families lives below the poverty level, and many more are struggling. And yet it's a community with enough oomph and pride to organize what promises to be a great centennial in a few weeks.
The neighborhood plan is very involved, covering everything from design standards to economic analysis. But as usual with very complex questions, public attention will likely focus on just one controversial matter. Fortunately, this is at least a very important matter: how wide to make Union Avenue, the main road that runs parallel to I-5.
It's 40-foot wide now but the area will grow; should it be 50 or 60 feet wide? And if we make it wider, which properties would have to be trimmed to widen the road? There have been a lot of discussions among residents in the area, such as one grand vision the community designed a couple years, ago, and three of the city's citizen advisory committees, and there's no clear consensus at all about the best width of Union Avenue - or what 'best' means for Union Avenue.
Stay tuned. Tonight's discussion is exploratory. I'm checking to see if the most recently draft plan is online. Even if you don't care about planning, it's got a lot of interesting info about the history and current situation there and makes for interesting reading if you are interested in Lakewood public policy.
