MATT DRISCOLL: HERE'S HOW IT WENT DOWN >>>

As is a quarterly custom, the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber City Center Luncheon went down this afternoon â€" in new digs. The Pacific Grill’s Event Center played host â€" and while I never had a problem swanking up to the Tacoma Club in the Wells Fargo Plaza for this white collar lunch in the past â€" there’s was definitely something exciting and new about seeing all those business folks in a different seating arrangement, for this â€" the first City Center Luncheon of ‘09. I heard it may have also been the first event held at the Pacific Grill’s new Event Center â€" but don’t quote me on that. I don’t exactly run in the right circle to know if that’s a fact.

While there were a few unexpected and tasty dollars and cents related tidbits divulged during the nearly two hour ordeal â€" including the fact that the Pacific Avenue Camera Shop is being renovated to become … wait … wait … hold your excitement … drum roll please … keep waiting for effect … almost there … don’t you feel the suspense? … wait … wait … an insurance office! â€" the bulk of the time spent by those in attendance not chewing the supped-up, coleslaw with chicken concoction (which DeRosa says was probably actually an “Asian chicken salad”) was spent listening to news about the three things: University of Washington â€" Tacoma’s Phase 3 construction, the Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design program that cops and the city are using to make it more difficult for criminals to do criminal things, and the expansion of Sound Transit’s Sounder train to Lakewood.

Kind of makes you wish you went, doesn’t it? Well, never fear. I did. Here are the cliff notes:

Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design

As it turns out, criminals, the homeless and drug addicts like to kick in spots where they can’t be seen. Who would have guessed?

Well, the Tacoma Police Department is hip to this fact, and it’s one of the reasons they’ve been trying hard to implement the CPTED. In short, and taken directly form a helpful brochure distributed at today’s luncheon that looks as though you might find it in a Holiday Inn lobby:

CPTED, (pronounced sep-ted) is an initiative that helps us create healthy, safe communities through well-planned design.

How does it do this, one might ask?

According to Greg Hopkins and Mike Tesky of the Tacoma Police Department (picture Larry Appleton and Balki Bartokomous) â€" who both spoke at the luncheon â€" our environment directly affects our behavior. CPTED works to promote “design strategies” that reduce the probability of criminal activity â€" basically, making sure areas are lit, visible and have controlled access.

The example the two coppers used was Fireman’s Park, which as most people from Tacoma know sits close to the Frank Russell building, and has long been a hangout for ne’er do wells of all kind â€" thanks to the fact the design of the park makes it almost impossible for passersby to see what’s going on within the park. Tesky said that plenty of “needles and other unmentionables” have routinely been found at the park â€" and though things have improved since Tacoma started implementing CPTED techniques â€" there’s still quite a way to go. Money is the main obstacle between the Fireman’s Park of today and the Fireman’s Park of CPTED dreams. In 2006 it was estimated that it would take half a million dollars to redesign Fireman’s Park using CPTED techniques.

According to Tesky, the City “found” $10,000 to spend on the project. The next phase will likely run more like $30,000 to 40,000. That said, there has still been plenty of progress at Fireman’s Park â€" progress that’s directly a result of CPTED techniques â€" according to Tesky and Hopkins.

And they had a slide show to prove it. Unfortunately, a slide show cannot be captured with words.

UWT Phase 3 Construction

Despite the fact we’re in the midst of what UWT Chancellor Dr. Patricia Spakes calls a “very challenging time” â€" speaking, of course, of the state’s budget concerns and impact that being broke as shit is sure to have on higher education â€" the outlook for UWT, and specifically Phase 3 Construction â€" seems to be fairly positive.

As has been reported, Gov. Gregoire’s state economic stimulus plan includes $34 million for Phase 3, and at this afternoon’s luncheon Spakes said she expects to move ahead with “at least part, if not all” of the development.

She also called the Joy Building, which will be renovated as part of Phase 3, the last derelict building on Pacific Avenue. She expects to displace many pigeons during the building’s revamping.

Also of interest but not directly related to Phase 3, the UWT currently has 2,414 full-time employees, and a student head count exceeding 3,000 according to Spakes. However, thanks to the state’s budget woes, we can expect those numbers to “level off for the next couple years.”

Sound Transit’s Tacoma to Lakewood Sounder Extension

Mark Johnson of Sound Transit is a pretty funny guy. He made the fact that Sound Transit is years behind schedule getting to Lakewood and the project will cost millions and millions of dollars more than expected seem pretty amusing, at least in the confines of the City Center Luncheon.

He certainly deserves credit for that.

He also deserves credit for showing some pretty kick ass computer generated images of the Sounder bridge that will someday cross Pacific Avenue near downtown’s Pink Elephant Car Wash. In truth, the bridge doesn’t look like anything special, but the new, sunken, 15-foot lower Pacific Avenue leaves room for the imagination to run rampant. What, oh what can we develop in the newfound cityscape? Something tells me there were plenty of people at the City Center Luncheon who feel they have the answer.

Johnson also says he expects to see a Federal Way to Tacoma Link extension “within our lifetime.”

No word on whose lifetime he was referencing. Dude’s probably twice my age.

That’s all for now. Check back next quarter for more hilarious and zany antics from the next City Center Luncheon â€" scheduled to be held April 17.