On Tuesday, December, 5th the City of Tacoma held their weekly Council meeting. You can view the full meeting on the City’s website [1]. Citizens of Tacoma came out in force once again to support our firefighters because of budget cuts that the Council planned. Many citizens empathize with the difficulty of balancing a budget and were frustrated that such an important service was not being fully funded. Unfortunately, the only options presented to the community are further cuts that benefit the people of Tacoma. City Council framed the decision of cutting the HOPE team or Firefighters, or our Senior Centers or Firefighters. Never did the council propose cutting the budget for outside business tax breaks or extra payments for Shot Spotter.
The Climate Alliance of the South Sound also gave a joint statement to the Council as part of our campaign for a better Climate Commission [2]. During this statement, we explained the flaws in the current ordinance and how our demands are informed. CASS distinguishes itself from other environmental groups because we identify and fight against green-washing. We demand provable, actionable change to improve our environment. We will not let our City Council fool us when they say that they are taking meaningful steps to address climate change while proposing toothless, undemocratic panels to be ignored by our City Manager and Council.
Our city leadership now knows how serious CASS is taking their new ordinance for a Climate Commission. Some city council members may have thought that this was an opportunity to appease citizens who haven’t had the time to watch them ignore our concerns again and again. But we see this ordinance as a chance to push for real tools to recover from the sacrifices our community members have made for the sake of industrial polluters. Projects like the mega warehouse would never have been approved if an Environmental Impact Statement was done. Or even a Health Impact Assessment would have uncovered the environmental racism that the project perpetuates on an already overburdened community.
That is why we encourage everyone who has supported our campaign against the mega warehouse to join us on Tuesday, December 10th when the ordinance is first addressed [3] At this meeting, community members will be able to give public comments about ordinance 29014 both in person and online. Afterwards, CASS will hold a rally at Ben Gilbert park with other speakers from our community about the importance of amending the ordinance.
If you are already working in your community by volunteering with an organization, we hope that you can see the importance of uniting in action to fight a common enemy. Ask your org to join the Climate Catastrophe Ground Zero (CCG0) Coalition. If you’re looking for other people in your community that care about the health of the people in our city, come down to 311 Puyallup Ave, Tacoma WA every Monday at 5:30pm for a free dinner. CASS meetings start at 6:00pm with Zoom options available. Child care is also available on request.
[1] Official website of previous City Council meetings
[2] Official statement of demands of CASS for Tacoma Climate Commission
https://climatealliancesouthsound.org/tacoma-climate-commission
[3] City of Tacoma website for City Council sessions
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