If you take time during the weekend to tour downtown Tacoma, you can experience these old buildings in their quiet, stately elegance. It’s like walking in the midst of a herd of sleeping elephants. Lacking the midweek frenzy of SUVs, hybrids and other post-modern means of conveyance, it’s easy to imagine that you’re back in, say, 1966. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a milkman come around the corner.

As I walk these streets I sometimes feel that I was born at the tail end of an era more refined than my own. In a way, I hope that feeling remains. If not, it could mean that something precious has been lost in the name of progress. With other cities, the future usually marches in to the clank of construction cranes bearing wrecking balls and steel girders. Harbingers of “revitalization.” So far, Tacoma has managed to do it right. For instance, when developers retrofitted Union Station into the Federal Courthouse, they added glass sculptures by Dale Chihuly that perfectly complemented the old while bringing in the new. And when the Washington State History Museum was added to Union Station, it was a beautiful match. Here’s to the future—and to not losing the things that are most important.

-J

Comments Feed