It has always intrigued me when I look out the windows of the Link Light Rail, how much of Tacoma seems frozen in time and forgotten. It seems to me as comparable to the cities that had sprung up along Route 66, feeding on the traffic that the thoroughfare provided them with, only to be left in decay when the Interstate Highway System came about in the late fifties; mere shadows of their pasts.
Tacoma was much the same up until recently, with its fifties and sixties-style architecture in much of the older parts of the city, a stark reminder of its past, perhaps the best example being Bandstand Music, along Pacific Avenue. For whatever reason, Tacoma as a city stopped growing, and while I still don't exactly know the reason why this was the case, Bruce Kendall our guest speaker did an excellent job at explaining why it has been revitalized in recent times.
He explained to me that the University of Washington, Tacoma and the Link Light Rail were were two very large factors that fostered this urban development in downtown Tacoma. That made sense to me, for having a source of future employees in your own backyard, along with the transportation needed get them to work would be enticing to any company. However, I couldn't help but wonder why Tacoma wasn't another Bellevue; business seems to flock there, and the city has an iron-clad grasp on the high tech industry. Why could Tacoma do that? What is missing in order to attract that businesses like those present in Bellevue?
Beyond my inquires about Tacoma in general, the class discussed a lot about the aerospace industry, which managed to get me very involved, as I'm a huge fan of the aircraft that come out of that industry. He also discussed DaVita, which houses their Central Business Office (however, not their headquarters, which resides in Lakewood, CO), in Tacoma. I of course found that to be an especially interesting considering the fact that both my mother and stepfather work in their Tacoma business office. All things considered, Bruce did an admirable job at explaining my myriad of questions regarding all of these topics.
Not to discredit the speeches of our previous guest speakers, whose contributions to my education were received with much gratitude, but this had to have been my favorite guest speaker to date. Bruce talked about all the things that I was interested about Tacoma, but never had asked up to this date. The next guest speaker will certainly have a lot to look up to.
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