The City Takes a Stand on Waterfront Access
Tacoma’s council committee blocks the vacation of public street ends to preserve waterfront access for the public.
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Chairman Stewart of the council committee on condemnations is not in favor of giving away the city waterfront now held in street ends to private parties by street vacation proceedings unless the city gets full value. The North End Lumber company wants a street vacated that extends into the waterfront at its mill, and the Defiance mill wants another. Stewart and Councilman Rankin today went over the matter and both agreed that unless the companies get together and offer the city one piece of waterfront for the two streets, the vacations will be denied. The two streets will amount to a strip of waterfront 120 feet wide.
“I am not in favor of giving away the city waterfront now held in street ends to private parties... unless the city gets full value.”
Tacoma continues to grapple with the tension between private industrial use and public access to its waterfront. The 1909 struggle over 'street ends' echoes contemporary debates regarding the privatization of public access points and the preservation of the Ruston Way and Foss Waterway shorelines.
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