This blog is designed to give readers a glimpse of our editorial-page operation and how we make our decisions. We’ll let you know who we’re meeting with, what they’re telling us, what events and issues we’re looking at. We’ll also pass on information and observations that may not make our print editions. In addition to the editorial board members who post on this blog, the board includes Publisher David Zeeck, Executive Editor Karen Peterson and Managing Editor Dale Phelps.
Editorial board bloggers
Editorial page editor Patrick O’Callahan oversees the online and printed opinion sections of The News Tribune. He came to The News Tribune in 1987 and has worked at Washington newspapers since 1979. E-mail him at patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com
Editorial writer Cheryl Tucker, in addition to writing commentary, manages the daily production of the editorial and op-ed pages and edits letters to the editor. She began her journalism career in 1974 at a Virginia newspaper and came to The News Tribune in 1978. E-mail her at cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com.
Editorial writer Kim Bradford manages the online opinion section of The News Tribune and writes commentary. She joined The News Tribune in 2005 after working 11 years at newspapers in Washington and Maryland. E-mail her at kim.bradford@thenewstribune.com.
Guest bloggers
Editor emeritus David Seago retired from The News Tribune in 2008 after 41 years at The News Tribune. E-mail him at sds99@harbornet.com.
Richard Davis’ column on state politics frequently runs in the print edition of The News Tribune. He was president of the Washington Research Council, a statewide think tank, from 1986 through 2006. Currently, as a principal with The Simeon Partnership, Inc. he coordinates the activities of the Washington Alliance for a Competitive Economy, a business coalition founded by the Research Council, the Association of Washington Business and the Washington Roundtable.
Karen Irwin of University Place, a mother of four, has been a frequent contributor to The News Tribune's print editions. She has also written for Seattle's Child, Puget Sound Parent, the Tacoma Weekly, the Fayetteville Observer Times and the political blog Right Meets Left. She graduated from California Lutheran University with a degree in English literature and is currently working toward a history degree.
Michael Allen, professor of history at the University of Washington Tacoma, was born and raised in Ellensburg. He served with the U.S. Marines in Vietnam from 1969-70. He has written five books, including the prize-winning "Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus' Great Discovery to the War on Terror," "Rodeo Cowboys in the North American Imagination" and "Western Rivermen, 1763-1861: Ohio and Mississippi Boatmen and the Myth of the Alligator Horse." Allen lives in Tacoma and Ellensburg and has three children.
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Tacoma Streetcar, a citizens group, has been making the rounds of neighborhood councils to drum up support for its hope of creating a system of streetcars (see the press release below).
Don't take this as a knock on streetcars, which can be a excellent component of urban transportation. But Tacoma's leaders should think long and hard before falling into this parade.
The problem: If Sound Transit were somehow persuaded to fund a streetcar system as an immediate priority, it would probably doom forever Pierce County's chances of getting a light rail connection to Sea-Tac Airport and beyond.
When the agency developed November's unsuccessful Roads & Transit package, it broke all the available piggy banks to barely get light rail down to the Tacoma Dome Station. There was hardly a penny to spare.
Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see any way Sound Transit could finance both the light rail connection and an expanded transit system within Tacoma. Something's got to give.
I'm also not seeing why Sound Transit – which was established to create regional connections – should give first funding priority to a streetcar system that operates only inside Tacoma.
Streetcars would be nice, but not as nice as a transit link to the rest of Puget Sound. Especially for the roughly 30 percent of the county's workers who drive north every morning on jammed highways to their jobs in King County.
Let's look for other sources of money for Tacoma's streetcars, not regional transit funds.
The press release:
With a potential vote by the Sound Transit board on another transit ballot proposal about a week away, Tacoma neighborhood groups are endorsing an expansion of the existing LINK streetcar system connecting Tacoma's neighborhoods mixed use centers.
The Hilltop Action Coalition (HAC) voted their support in February followed by the North End Neighborhood Council. Joining them this week is the New Tacoma Neighborhood Council. The Central and West End Neighborhood Council's voted to support the concept of a city-wide streetcar system in 2006.
Jonathan Phillips, Chair of the North End Neighborhood Council wrote "with the Failure of Proposition 1, we support Sound Transit placing an intracity streetcar network within the city and believe that this must be in the next Sound Transit proposal with prompt funding. We agree with Tacoma Streetcar's statement that "any Sound Transit proposal in the future must contain funding for a streetcar system in Tacoma connecting its neighborhood mixed use centers" and "the streetcar system should have an aggressive timeline, commencing on the passing of the ballot measure."
In a letter to Sound Transit and local officials, Marty Campbell, President of the New Tacoma Neighborhood Council board wrote, "we request that any future Sound Transit ballot proposal include an extension of the existing LINK system. Further, we ask that extensions be made using 'standard' streetcar technology (as opposed to light rail) in order to reduce costs and interruption associated with construction."
"This is a unique opportunity to implement much overdue investment in Tacoma's neighborhoods," stated Tacoma Streetcar President, Morgan Alexander. He further asserted "a Tacoma LINK extension connecting our neighborhoods will give voters the best bang for the buck in our great city."
Tacoma Streetcar sent a letter to the Sound Transit board in early February urging them to include an intracity LINK extension in any future ballot proposal and to do so with an aggressive construction time frame.
