A Tacoma City Council subcommittee moved forward Thursday afternoon with updates to the municipal code that pave the way for the city to conduct a pilot project to test a speed camera.

The effort, which is also happening in Seattle, would give the state legislature data to make decisions about wider implementation of speed cameras, officials said.

The city had the option of selecting a single fixed camera or a roving one, but opted for the fixed camera for logistical simplicity, Tacoma Police Lt. Pete Cribbin told the Public Safety, Human Services and Education Committee.

If the council approves the changes, the camera would be placed in an area near the Emerald Queen Casino known as the "Bay Street Curve." The spot is very difficult to enforce with motorcycle officers, Cribbin said, and saw about 125 crashes over the course of a year.

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Thursday afternoon's Tacoma City Council public safety subcommittee meeting offered a perfect example of how efforts to regulate bad behavior on the part of some can, at least on paper, turn otherwise law-abiding citizens into criminals.

Councilman Mike Lonergan was quick to seize on this and recommended changes to a proposed ordinance to remove that effect.

The ordinance in question deals with the "human habitation of vehicles."

As Assistant Police Chief Bob Sheehan and other officers told the committee, it was an attempt to deal with squatters, drifters, drug users and other riffraff who pull into neighborhoods, often in RVs, and create trouble, malodor and crime.

"(Heretofore) we used notice of violation letters and did a lot of bluffing," Sheehan said.

The new ordinance would require RV owners parking for more than four hours to obtain a $10 permit from the city. The permit would last seven days and only one could be obtained in any given year. Nor would one be allowed to get a second permit for a different location.

Enter Mike Lonergan.

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Looks like Minneapolis voters will become the next to give ranked choice voting a try.

The Minnesota Supreme Court today cleared the way for the new voting system in Minneapolis. You can read about it here.

The move comes eight months after Pierce County voters got their first taste of ranked choice voting – and about five months before county voters decide whether they want to keep the new system.

In case you missed it, a new University of Washington study of last fall's Pierce County election found that ranked choice voting "does an effective job of simulating both a primary and general in one election."

Pierce County Executive Pat McCarthy chatted with Vice President Joe Biden Wednesday, giving Biden her take on how the federal government’s economic stimulus efforts are working.

McCarthy was one of half a dozen local officials from across the country who spoke with Biden for about an hour during a conference call. (You can see the list of participants here).

I’m playing phone tag with McCarthy and expect to have more details later. In a phone message, she said the vice president was looking for straight talk, not platitudes. Check back for more on this later.

Update: Still haven't talked to McCarthy. Here's an account of the conference call in the Abilene, Texas, newspaper.

Yesterday was a long day, so I didn't immediately blog about the Tacoma City Council Environment and Public Works subcommittee meeting I attended.

The committee decided to move forward with a public hearing before the full council on handicapped parking in the International Financial Services Area (near Russell).

Basically, in order to encourage increased use of alternative transportation, the city would do away with off-street parking requirements for new construction by employers in that zone. But if employers aren't adding spaces, they aren't adding the 2-4 percent of dedicated handicapped parking.

So the new proposal would be to require handicapped spaces as if they were providing parking for everyone.

The committee also looked at various "green" projects that might be funded by a federal block grant. Of note would be funds to help bring the city up to the bronze standard for bike friendliness -- on our way to the gold, of course. And also HVAC upgrades, wood-burning stove upgrades, LED streetlights, etc.

The list of potential projects, totaling nearly $2 million, was presented by Kristi Lynette, the city's new sustainability czar, and members of the Sustainable Tacoma Commission.

Council member Lauren Walker said she know HVAC upgrades are important, but she wanted to make sure some of the projects would be visible to the public.