"You wait. I'm going to make it happen," Diane Wiatr, the City of Tacoma's active transportation coordinator told me at a Green Drinks meeting earlier this year at the Broken Spoke pub on Hilltop Tacoma. "I'm going to convince the city to close down Ruston Way to vehicles and we all are going to have a giant, roving party on bikes and on foot."
Wiatr has been dreaming of a critical mass-like event ever since she witnessed similar community celebrations in Columbia and Mexico. Bogota and Mexico City close down long stretches of popular roadways for Sunday strolls and rides.
Today, in Tacoma, Wiatr's dream happened.
Launching from the Tacoma Dome at 8 a.m. (Tacoma Wheelmen's Bicycle Club started earlier incorporating the route into a larger ride), a registered 800 people made the trek from the Tacoma Dome, along Dock Street to Schuster Parkway, Ruston Way then to the new $60,000 Interim Trail to Point Defiance Park, finishing in the Park's bowl. While it's certain many might have skipped the "Downtown to Defiance: Sunday Parkways" event due to the rain, those who did participate had a blast, enjoying games in the parks along the route, with a festival in the bowl, which included a giant checkers game, music by the Kareem Kandi Band, bounce houses and vendor booths.
Wiatr didn't pull this off on her own. Metro Parks, the city of Tacoma and the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department partnered, with U.S. Bank kicking in more than $30,000. Many Metro Parks board members wandered the bowl in rain gear, including Erik Hanberg wearing a city of Tacoma replica helmet.
At 10 a.m. the "Leadership Working In Tadem" rig - pedaled by Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland, Tacoma City Councilmembers and state officials - rolled into Point Defiance Park to fanfare. One-liners from the officials poured harder than the rain, including someone shouting "Let's do the Five Mile Drive!" - which received moans from his fellow pedalers.
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