Representatives from Sound Transit met with a large group of concerned citizens and presented their berm plans. In attendance were several Sound Transit Board Members, including Pat McCarthy, David Enslow, Julie Anderson, and Claudia Thomas, the City of Tacoma was represented by Mayor Bill Baarsma, City Manager Eric Anderson, Council Members Connie Ladenburg, and Mike Lonergan, there were also approximately 100 concerned citizens, several Neighborhood Council Chairs including Jesse Hart and Mike Lord, conservation groups, including Sierra Club and Cascade Land Conservancy, also Matt Perry of Representative Adam Smith office plus 10-20 Sound Transit staff. It was a very warm morning and they were not prepared for such a turnout of concerned citizens. To sum up the meeting, Sound Transit said they are not changing their plans, and after the walk-thru, a show of hands indicated citizens and groups were more convinced the ever that it should be open with a Post and Beam method of construction.
Sound Transit meeting July 27th
Walking the Dome District area with Sound Transit on July 27th
STRATEGY AND TRAINING
Our core group met twice last week to talk about strategy and next steps. We had one successful training session so decided to have another on August 6th. We are planning to meet at the Tacoma Green Drinks monthly meeting, because Cascade Land Conservancy is this month's sponsor, meeting at Meconi’s Pub and Eatery, 709 Pacific Avenue in Downtown Tacoma. If needed we'll move to an adjacent office for the meeting. About CLC http://www.cascadeland.org/
POST AND BEAM COST
Sound Transit officials have long argued that post and beam is prohibitively expensive, and have cited a cost increase of anywhere from four to ten million dollars. But their engineering firm’s “Technical Memorandum,” released Monday, estimates that a concrete and steel hybrid post and beam is only $5 million, compared to the berm at $4.6M (or $6.5M vs. $5.5M after cost contingencies). We are having an independent highway/rail Engineer look at the "Tech Memo" to confirm the numbers and to evaluate their hybrid design, which we think is over built.
FACEBOOK PAGE
New page with 187 fans joined in the past week.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Do-It-Right-Tacoma/115983747610?ref=mf
ONLINE PETITION
80 people have now signed and commented, if you have not signed it, please do so today.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/petition/844347001
You can post comments when you sign the petition.
NEWS COVERAGE
The News Tribune and the Tacoma Weekly each featured a front page story about the Sound Transit berm in last weeks newspapers. Bliss Moore and Lynn DiNino sent letters to the Editors and got published (they both support the no berm side).
Augsust 4th TNT article:
http://www.thenewstribune.com/topstories/story/833070.html
We encourage you to email letters to Newspaper Editors and the City Council.
SUPPORT LETTERS
We're collecting support letters from all of the Community Councils of Tacoma, neighborhood groups, environmental organizations, and business groups. Please check with the groups you're affiliated with, and if they support us request that a letter be sent to us as well as the Tacoma City Council showing support.
There's more but this is getting too long so I'll stop here.
Please tell your friends about Do It Right Tacoma, stopping the berm is a cause worth fighting for.
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