Thanks so much to everyone who made it to our first hybrid General Meeting! Was great to see some of you in person and others on Zoom.
A special thanks to our two guest speakers, Doug Howell and Jamie Fiano!
SALMON
Doug gave us a great rundown of the lower Snake River Dams issue and how we have 136 days remaining to convince Governor Inslee, Senator Patty Murray and other elected officials to authorize removal of the dams and create 5000 additional miles of salmon habitat, which would be about 50% of that available in the lower 48 states! Judges have ruled for decades that the dams are illegal yet have thought other authorization was needed to proceed. July 31st may be the day that this decades-long campaign finally ends.
Please RSVP here for the March 26 rally and march here in Tacoma.
Details on SOS Website
Facebook Event
This event is followed by a clean up event at Swan Creek, Tacoma’s only salmon-bearing waterway, and a salmon send-off: https://www.facebook.com/events/489757465814932
If you want to help out with the rally, show up at 9am and lend a hand with set up!
WAREHOUSES
Jamie gave us a great summary of the massive warehouse project that Bridge Industrial, a Chicago-based company, is proposing for South Tacoma. In summary: it’s 2.5 million square feet of warehouse with some 120 acres of open space paved over, all built on a partially remediated superfund site (highly polluted) over an important aquifer for Tacoma. Additionally this is in one of the most diverse areas of Tacoma which also already suffers disproportionately from environmental health impacts. Laura, at the meeting, pointed out that referencing the equity index when corresponding with city council members is very useful, as they are required to consider that: https://tacomaequitymap.caimaps.info/cailive
If you want to write your own email about it, some talking points to consider:
- environmental justice issue
- refer to equity index
- ask for environmental impact study, including heat island effect, diesel emissions of all 5000 daily vehicle trips
- ask for Health Impact Assessment to be carried out (Tacoma Pierce County Health Department is already doing this but wants more public backing)
People to include:
- Council Member Keith Blocker keith.blocker@cityoftacoma.org
- Council Member Kristina Walker Kristina.walker@cityoftacoma.org
- Council Member Conor McCarthy conor.mccarthy@cityoftacoma.org
- Council Member Kiara Daniels KDaniels@cityoftacoma.org
- Principal Planner Shirley Schultz shirley.schultz@cityoftacoma.org
We have also made it easy to send a form letter, which you could modify, here: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/warehouses/
We’ll let everyone know once the city sets a date for the public meeting. Comment period will continue for a week beyond that date.
HOME IN TACOMA FOR ALL
Sean of Tacoma Democratic Socialists of America was on hand to share about their projects to promote an equitable and accessible housing plan for Tacoma. You can sign their petition here: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/home-in-tacoma-for-all-platform
They are having a community forum about this on Saturday, April 23 at 1pm at Evergreen Tacoma Campus (1210 6th Ave, Tacoma).
Questions? info@tacomaDSA.org
CLEAN AIR CAMPAIGN
350 Tacoma is putting together a clean air campaign to improve our local air quality, fight fossil fuel expansion and hopefully influence the Tideflats Subarea Plan process. One of our first goals is to get the Dept of Ecology to list Tacoma as an “overburdened” community. To help with this, take their 5-10 minute survey about your experience with air pollution.