Neary-Sighted

Every year, City Council members from around the state gather to learn and share ideas at the annual meeting of the Association of Washington Cities. This year's meeting was pretty easy to get to: the meeting was in downtown Tacoma.

The most interesting talk I heard was by Bremerton Mayor Cary Bozeman, who discussed the 'inside story' of the renaissance going on in downtown Bremerton. If you have not been there in awhile, you would be amazed. A photo of one of the new buildings is above. In some ways, their situation before all the change is similar to what will be going on in Tillicum as sewer service comes to the area. I was very impressed with a chart, which you can view by link below, which lists how many partners Bremerton knitted together to create improvement.

The large group of projects was not done just with city tax money ... or just with federal tax money ... or just with private sector money. Bremerton has knitted together many groups to bring real improvement to that community. You can take a look at a very attractive PDF that shows what they have done - and how many groups are involved - by clicking here.

The lists of the many groups involved are in the boxes at the bottom of the chart. As the months approach, you can look forward to many lively public discussions about what approaches might be best for Tillicum. I should quickly note the plan will undoubtedly be very different than Bremerton's. Most of the waterfront land in Tillicum is in private ownership, which argues against hugely dramatic proposals along the waterfront. But unlike Bremerton, Tillicum sits at an incredibly desirable location along I-5. Change will come. It's very likely that private development and the people living in the community now will drive change in Tillicum. But Lakewood as both a city government and a community will be challenged to work with many partners to improve the residential and business climate there. That's the lesson from Bremerton.

One thing we are already proud of is that the private sector, in partnership with the city, is already exploring possibilities for Tillicum. You can check out that Web site here. It's already well-known that thanks to a lot of hard work by the community and by the city, Tillicum already has one of the lowest crime rates in Lakewood. That's change, and for the better.

Doing justice to the many changes that will come to Tillicum will certainly be one of the biggest challenges facing the community and the council. I have high hopes that in five to 10 years, someone from Lakewood can share a story of successful partnerships at the annual Association of Washington Cities meeting.
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