The Battle for the West Waterfront
Tacoma citizens are urged to confront railroad attorneys tonight to prevent the Northern Pacific from monopolizing the city’s waterfront access.
The council will hold another session on the Northern Pacific franchise for the Point Defiance-Narrows line this evening when the document will be reviewed again in committee of the whole. All citizens who have any ideas as to what should be demanded in the franchise for the safeguarding of the interests of the public should be at the meeting and give vigorous expression to their views. The Jim Hill attorneys will be on hand to represent the railway interests and it is up to the people to be on the alert. This is the most important franchise the company has ever asked for in the city. It will come pretty near bottling up the west waterfront approach to Tacoma in the same manner that the east waterfront is fixed now. If the people ever get any rights to get to the water on the west, they will have to get them in this franchise.
“It is up to the people to be on the alert.”
This reflects the ongoing tension between private corporate infrastructure and public access to the waterfront, a theme that has defined Tacoma's civic development for over a century.
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