In Search of a New Destiny

The City of Destiny moniker was attached to Tacoma in 1864 when it landed the economic-development plum of the erathe western terminus of the Northern Pacific Railwaybut in the midst of all the hoopla, no one thought to ask just what specific destiny the fates had in mind.

Instead of what the local gentry figured that destiny to bebecoming the pre-eminent commercial hub of the Northwestin economic terms, Tacomas destiny turned out to be a mix of setbacks, disappointments, frustrations and eclipse by a larger nearby city.

Some of the wounds were self-inflicted, the product of bad decisions or no decisions at all, while others resulted from factors and trends emanating from far away. In some cases, misfortune befell Tacoma despite its best efforts, as was the case with the recent departure of Russell Investments.

That one particularly stung. Russell was a homegrown company. It generated a lot of well-paying jobs in a business district that sorely needed them. It was one of Tacomas few claims to national or even global significance, in a town that has few major corporate headquarters and has lost many of those it had.

Worse still, Tacoma knew of the threat, and not only came up with a strong pitch to keep the company in town but also developed a plan to build a financial services cluster of companies with Russell as the centerpiece. Even more grating, Russell didnt leave before delivering a few gratuitous slaps at its former hometown, suggesting that Tacoma and Tacomans no longer measured up to its aspirations to be a player in global financial services.

And whats worst of all, Tacoma lost Russell tothe insult of it all!Seattle.

So Tacoma is left with a question it has been hit with before: Now what? The financial services cluster idea no longer makes sense with the anchor tenant gone. Swiping some other citys prized (or neglected) company is a high-cost, low-yield strategy.

But Tacoma is not without some options beyond resignation and railing at its lot in economic life, as will be demonstrated by an event scheduled to take place later this year.

Taking shape in a former Tacoma Dome parking lot is the new home of the LeMay Museum, a 165,000-square-foot building for the car collection assembled by Harold LeMay.

When opened, the car collection will join a cluster of museums and cultural attractions that already includes the Tacoma Art Museum, the Museum of Glass, the Washington State History Museum and the Chihuly Bridge of Glass, all within walking distance of one another.

A car museum? Thats what Tacoma is left to bet its economic fortunes on?

Why, yes, thats a piece of it. By creating a concentration of cultural amenities and attractions (something Seattle has attempted haphazardly and half-heartedly with Seattle Center), Tacoma will have built something to bring visitors (and their wallets), attention, positive publicity, maybe even a little prestigenot to mention something that isnt likely to be scooting out of town at the first whiff of cheap real estate somewhere else.

The LeMay Museum by itself wont cure Tacomas ills. Nor will the larger Museum District, even as it adds still more attractions (which it needs to).

Nor will chasing after some megaproject or cant-miss, wave-of-the-future industry (Biotech! Alternative Energy!), which everyone else has designs on.

Tacoma needs to somehow leverage its sizable and growing military presence into even more of an economic engine. It needs to figure out how to leverage its port into a greater role in world trade and logistics. It needs to leverage and market its considerable higher education infrastructure. It needs to find more niches like those where the city has an established foothold and which might be overlooked by others.

Thats a lot of needs to for a town whose leaders and residents might be excused for thinking that such economic-development ventures are an exercise in pushing the boulder up the hill so it can roll back down on them.

Tacoma isnt the only American city whose destiny didnt measure up to early billing. As discouraging as developments such as the Russell defection have been, Tacoma still has advantages and assets to work with. If it doesnt like the destiny its been handed, it can exchange it for one it finds more appealing.