Friday, November 14, 2008
Catching up: Railroads and the Military Base
Somewhere in the haze of the Neary celebration of 25 years of marriage and my trip, bits of community news flew past that really should be noted on this blog. Here are a couple things from The News Tribune that are worth noting especially if you also missed them the first time:
A proposal on Fort Lewis to undercut the local economy is a reallllly bad idea. I don't think I need to say much more than that because the reflections of News Tribune columnist Dan Voelpel seem pretty definitive.
Well, one thought to add or elaborate on ... Lakewood's civic leaders esp. Mayor Doug Richardson have put an enormous amount of time in to try to convince governments and civic leaders throughout the county to support acquisition of land around McChord. The idea is that if the land is clear, the military would have all the more reason to keep the bases open. Lakewood is doing its best to support the bases. There are a lot of other problems we could have been working on. So building what would essentially be a rival to the Lakewood Town Center is just really tacky at best and economically destructive at worst.
Speaking of The News Tribune, their Lakewood reporter, Brent Champaco, published information about railroad safety that were quite enlightening. If you didn't see it then, it's worth reading his story about big changes in Lakewood.
I think a lot of us had been grumbling about how all these trains will mess with our ability to drive from one end of town to the other. But Brent reminds us that lives are at stake. The story is a bracing call to action.
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A proposal on Fort Lewis to undercut the local economy is a reallllly bad idea. I don't think I need to say much more than that because the reflections of News Tribune columnist Dan Voelpel seem pretty definitive.
Well, one thought to add or elaborate on ... Lakewood's civic leaders esp. Mayor Doug Richardson have put an enormous amount of time in to try to convince governments and civic leaders throughout the county to support acquisition of land around McChord. The idea is that if the land is clear, the military would have all the more reason to keep the bases open. Lakewood is doing its best to support the bases. There are a lot of other problems we could have been working on. So building what would essentially be a rival to the Lakewood Town Center is just really tacky at best and economically destructive at worst.
Speaking of The News Tribune, their Lakewood reporter, Brent Champaco, published information about railroad safety that were quite enlightening. If you didn't see it then, it's worth reading his story about big changes in Lakewood.
I think a lot of us had been grumbling about how all these trains will mess with our ability to drive from one end of town to the other. But Brent reminds us that lives are at stake. The story is a bracing call to action.
