TACOMA CHOSE POORLY: City of Tacoma to Accept Window Replacement Grant Applications March 7 – 28.
As part of efforts to alleviate ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic* on Tacoma’s small business community, Mayor Victoria Woodards recently announced the availability of $300,000 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding, establishing a Window Replacement Grant Program to offset costs incurred replacing windows broken at their business location. Program details, informed by input from the City Council’s Economic Development Committee, were developed by the City of Tacoma’s Community and Economic Development Department.
Eligible small businesses based in Tacoma, with no more than 15 full-time equivalent employees, may submit an application starting March 7, 2022 at 8 AM for a Window Replacement Grant. The deadline for submitting a grant application is March 28, 2022 at 11:59 PM. Grant recipients will be selected via random lottery and notified on April 6, 2022.
Window Replacement Grant Program details are available now at makeittacoma.com. The online grant application will be available at makeittacoma.com starting March 7, 2022 at 8 AM in English, Khmer, Korean, Russian, Spanish and Vietnamese. Language assistance is also available upon request. Questions, or requests to receive information in alternate formats, can be directed to or (253) 591-5208.
* I had no idea the virus can break windows as well! Or perhaps there might be other causes, as Seattle’s CBS affiliate, KIRO 7 reported on February 2nd: City leaders propose paying for smashed windows, increasing security at Tacoma businesses.
Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards on Tuesday proposed three initiatives to help businesses impacted by crime across the city.
The proposals come less than a week after hundreds gathered at the LeMay – America’s Car Museum to raise the alarm on problems affecting their businesses, but Woodards said the city has been working on the initiatives for quite some time.
“The issues that are plaguing some of our businesses are an ongoing cost that makes it very difficult for them to sustain themselves during this difficult time,” Woodards said at a Tacoma City Council study session on Tuesday.
According to an end-of-year crime report from the Tacoma Police Department, the city saw an increase in both violent and property crimes in 2021 compared to 2020.
The first city initiative proposes allocating $250,000 for short-term private security enhancements in business districts.
Jeff Robinson, director of community and economic development for the city, said at Tuesday’s meeting that the city is looking into the funding being used for one- to two-person teams to provide security services. The details are still being worked out, like what the shift would look like, how long it would stay in place and which areas of the city would be prioritized.
As the Wall Street Journal noted in June of 2020: Liberal Cities, Radical Mayhem: Democratic mayors and governors seem unable to stop the destruction of their own cities.
The “broken-windows” school of policing says that you can help maintain public order by taking care of even small examples of disorder—such as fixing broken windows. Liberals scorned that policy in the last decade as somehow racist. Well, in recent days we’ve learned that America’s left does have a broken-windows policy: Let rioters break enough windows and loot enough stores and maybe their righteous anger will be satisfied.
That’s certainly how it looked when the June sun rose Tuesday over the broken glass, looted storefronts, burnt-out cars, and vandalized buildings in New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Madison and other American cities. Public officials let rioters exploiting the memory of George Floyd run wild in the streets. Even after nearly a week of violence, these and other liberal Democratic cities let lawless radicals harass and plunder almost at will.
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This isn’t merely about damage to property. It’s about destroying the order required for city life. Non-criminals are afraid to go into these cities to make a living. The police pull back from active policing, which creates more opportunity for criminals, especially in poor and minority neighborhoods. Businesses that are finally starting to emerge from government lockdowns have new costs to absorb and more reasons for customers not to return.
What all these cities have in common is that they are led by Democrats who seem to have bought into the belief that the police are a bigger problem than rampant disorder. They are either cowed by their party’s left, or they agree that America is systemically racist and rioting is a justified expression of anger against it. They offer pro forma disapproval of law breakers but refuse to act to stop them.
Jason Rantz of Seattle’s KTTH-AM wrote in October of last year: Police staffing crisis in Tacoma is nearly as bad as in Seattle, morale ‘decimated.’
To [Detective Henry Betts, the Local 6 union president for the Tacoma PD], there are simple reasons for the crime surge: Criminals are taking advantage of an underfunded and understaffed police department, while anti-police activists have impacted officer morale.
While the city did not defund the TPD by much last year, there were cuts. Now, a handful of councilmembers say they need to invest more as soon as possible. Beyond writing a public letter, however, officers don’t believe there will be any follow up. Add to the mix the overzealous statewide policing reforms, widely panned as driven by anti-police fervor from progressive politicians, and it has created a nightmare for the police.
You can see the effects the crime surge has had on the city when you drive around town.
“It’s about the community. You drive around the community, and it’s just different now,” Betts noted.
Betts says he and others have been vocal about their concerns, but he says the city response has been “crickets.”
As a result, another Broken Windows theory kicks in: