TIAS 515 Oral History Paper Civic Pride and the Ebb and Flow of Tacoma's Development Andrew Fry One ofTacoma's most respected and experienced civic activists has witnessed the ebb and flow ofsuccess resultant from attempts to apply policy and zoning orders to seed economic activity. Dawn Lucien is a life-long political advocate and tireless champion of the city of Tacoma. Three ofthe many watermark projects she has worked on provide insight into the varying degrees of success. These include the damage done to the downtown merchants when land was rezoned to accommodate the Tacoma Mall in the early 1960s, the beginnings ofa renaissance and revitalization ofthe Broadway district with the renovation ofthe historic Pantages Theater in the 1980s, and the dramatic and positive changes along Pacific Avenue and the downtown core brought by the location of a University of Washington, branch campus in Tacoma. Dawn Lucien has been an ever- present participant in public policy and a seeker of economic development. Her efforts are intertwined throughout these projects during the decades in which they developed. The Roots ofEconomic and Civic Engagement Dawn Lucien may have had the spirit of civic stewardship, the drive to build up a city, in her blood. It was evidenced far earlier in her family history when her grandparents came West with Brigham Young in 1846, but split from the church in opposition of some of its tenets. As Dawn recalls: My first recollection of my grandparents was when we traveled to Utah on the train when I was five years old. And I met twin cousins, and I met, my mother and my father both came from families of ten. 1 My grandfather had pioneered. He was a settler in Promontory and the family farm was still going strong when I went to visit. He was very active in the community. I guess it runs in the family. Almost all of their offspring settled in the Ogden area. My grandfather had gone to Utah with Brigham Young and left the church because he became disillusioned with the way they actually wanted them to live with multiple wives, etc, when he got there. He organized a group. If you left the church you were sometimes hunted down. So he organized sixteen ofthem to leave the church at the same time. There was such a large number that they were safe in leaving the church. They moved to and founded the little city of Plain City, Utah, where my grandfather, who was a stone mason, built the Episcopal Church which stands there today. He built that church in 1877, four years after the village of Tacoma landed the terminus of the Transcontinental Railroad. Her grandfather and Plain City's founding members raised their families and began building their own civic organizations. In its early days, Plain City had a brass band, a choir, a dramatic association and a baseball team. Besides being active members of the planning and operation of the town, Dawn Lucien's grandparents were involved in several of the arts activities as well. William Sharp was one of the first members of the Fort Douglas Band and his wife, Mary Ann Sharp was a founding member of the arts society. With that family history, it is easy to imagine Dawn's interest in the Tacoma arts scene. 1 This interest would later come into playas part ofTacoma's renovation ofthe Pantages Theater. Dawn Lucien was born Dawn Sharp in St. Ignatius, Montana, but when her father experienced some difficulties with the banking system in the Depression the family moved and she was raised in the Yakima Valley from the time she was 9 months old. She was the youngest of seven girls with a twelve-year gap between herself and the sixth daughter. Dawn was interested in the world and constantly busy participating in Camp 1 Daughters ofUtah Pioneers, Plain City Camp, PLAIN CITY HISTORY, http://www.plaincityutah.orglbodily/utahj)ioneers.htm 2 Fire Girls and serving a tenn as seventh grade president, as examples. From the time she could read she would pick up the newspaper in order to study up for the family's dinner conversations. She has always had an avid interest in the role of government. In Dawn's words: I know that is what sparked my interest in what was going on in the world as well as what was going on in our community. I have felt that the government closest to you affects you the most because that's the one that fixes the potholes in the streets and that kind of thing. They affect your daily life and how your police department runs and so forth. But I have been fascinated by what goes on at the higher levels of government. She soon became politically active, the youngest delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1948 and the Vice President of Washington State Young Democrats in 1949.2 In 1952 she married Paul Olson, an assistant to Congressman John Coffee and President of the organization of congressional administrative assistants in Washington, DC. They married during his run for Tacoma mayor and they honeymooned in New York two days after his narrow defeat. They settled in North Tacoma and she had three sons. This did not slow her down as she was elected to help draft a new city charter with the Board of Freeholders, where she held the office of Secretary. Two years later, and after several weeks of closed door meetings, the City Council appointed Dawn to a seat left vacant by the departing Mayor Hanson.3 The council's activist agenda included approving an airport for the city, the approval for Cheney Stadium and the establishment of the Tacoma MalL 4 2 Brochure, Dawn Olson for Congress Committee, W A State Historical Society, ID Number 1997.80.31 3 Denny MacGougan, "Mrs. Olson Has Edge On Council Job", Tacoma News Tribune, June 28, 1960, Denny MacGougan, "Secrecy to Cloak Council Act", Tacoma News Tribune, June 15, 1960 4 Dick Stansfield, "Agreement on Airport Endorsed", Tacoma News Tribune, Oct 18, 1961 3 Unforeseen Consequences in the Establishment ofthe Tacoma Mall The success of economic development efforts are hard to predict. Phil Hardwick, award winning business columnist and economic development specialist provides an applicable definition in "Basics of Economic Development". He states that "Economic development is something everyone who has ever sought public office or served in public office seems to advocate. Almost every community wants it. ... Nevertheless, it seems that the concept is sometimes difficult to explain and has a mystique surrounding it." 5 Such is the case in the . efforts of Tacoma city leadership and the economic development of the downtown core. As the city continues to define and develop a sustainable community and downtown core, it weighs measures of economic deVelopment with the balance of its character. Decisions to foster growth have resulted in significantly differing successes and failures. Cheney Stadium still fills its seats with fans of the Seattle Mariners Triple A farm club the Tacoma Rainiers and today the commercial flights into the Narrows Field airport are being debated, but the decision to rezone for the build ofthe Tacoma Mall was a difficult blow to the success ofTacoma. Dawn recalls: Up until then of course everybody shopped downtown. And back in those days we would put on our hats and our gloves and our high heeled shoes to go shopping in downtown Tacoma just like going shopping in New York city or Seattle or any place else. All the stores were within walking distance and they were niajor stores. Four or five stories, four stories high, three stories high. So that mall made a huge, huge difference in Tacoma. 5 Appendix 10, Basics of Economic Development, Phil Hardwick, 311 4 When Dawn Lucien and the city council of 1960 were approving the zoning changes that would allow for the establishment of the Tacoma Mall, it was important that they maintain a balance between the outer reaches of the community and the vibrant downtown core. As Dawn explains "It was controversial but it was also something that people basically wanted to see happen in Tacoma. The bad thing was that no one at City Hall, no one, from the city manager to thecity council asked to see their lease." Unfortunately, the outcome of the new mall did not move the city in the direction that the council had originally planned. It was December 21 st, 1960 when the first portion of the Interstate 5 freeway had just been built through Tacoma. 6 Preparations were under way for the first designated "World's Fair". Whereas Highway 99 turned into Tacoma Way and wound its way through the city, 1-5 was about to cut the commute time down dramatically. A trip to Portland which would take six and one half hours in the past could now be done in less than three hours. In Seattle, Northgate Mall was proving a successful venture. Although Northgate was located the same approximate distance from Seattle's city center as the Tacoma Mall was from Tacoma's, it did not have any adverse economic impact on downtown merchants. But in Tacoma, Dawn notes a significant distinction: What happened, after we voted to rezone the property so that the mall could be built, the lease said that if you located in the mall, that you could not have another business within two and one half miles, which included downtown Tacoma. That is what killed downtown Tacoma. That is what I have had on my conscience all these years.