Dolores Silas High School (formerly Woodrow Wilson High School) was the site of Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards’ “State of the City” event Thursday, March 28th. Tacoma residents were invited to hear the mayor of the third most populated city in Washington State give a status and progress report on the concerns of citizens and city leadership, and how her office, city council and other leaders intend to address them in the coming months and year. Per the City’s original Facebook posting, the Mayor was to ‘speak on the theme “Collectively Weaving Our Community Tapestry.”’
But no address was given.
At the March 19, 2024, City Council Meeting, Mayor Woodards announced that she is stepping back from the traditional State of the City Address format to this year to prioritize community voices.
The SOTC, previously planned for the Silas auditorium, moved to a detached campus building, “Hall 500,” and to a format that, according to the card handed to each attendee as they entered the building, “ . . . allows us to hear directly from you in a focused way that gives us the foundation to weave a tailored response that engages the public in positive dialogue over the summer.” In other words, the address became an “open house" collection of classroom spaces with city and mayor's office staff inviting citizens to comment and ask questions on slips of paper, or scan a QR code to submit their comments online to a dedicated website, organized by topic. Refreshments of light finger foods and beverages were also served.
Mayor Woodards, Deputy Mayor John Hines, State Senator Yasmin Trudeau, Olgy Diaz of the City Council, and other elected officials circulated and spoke with attendees.
Staffers were also available to answer questions (answers were polite, even in response to difficult and pointed questions, but were fairly neutral and noncommittal) that would be compiled and given to Mayor Woodards to respond to, along with, “community leaders and experts" at events to be held during the summer months.
We are curious to know why the event was shifted to an open house alone, rather than combining it with even a brief address by Mayor Woodards. Perhaps the Mayor will provide her assessment of the state of the city in a different format.
We are also interested in the reason for the large Tacoma Police Department presence on campus for this event. It is understandable to have a few Law Enforcement Officers (LEO) on location for security and crowd management, and perhaps to answer questions regarding public safety from those who are directly connected. However, we observed at least 8 LEOs on the second floor alone (where classrooms were occupied with city staff, and Mayor Woodards and other city officials were circulating).
There was a small, peaceful demonstration outside the building that focused on the opioid crisis in Tacoma, but we saw no disturbance of any kind.
It was observed that the main campus parking lot was full, with just a few open spaces, but the northwest parking lot, closest to the auditorium building at N. 14th and Orchard, had only a half dozen or so vehicles (and one TPD Explorer on duty). Our assumption is that a larger turnout would have been expected if the event was a traditional address. An estimate of the number of attendees on Thursday evening was probably not enough to fill the Silas auditorium by half.