Victory! Tacoma Builds Missing Sidewalk to Pierce County Elections Center

Sidewalk under construction

This is exciting news – after our video with Blake Geyen led to a Tacoma New Tribune profile, Tacoma moved to build the section of missing sidewalk connecting the nearest bust stop to the Pierce County Elections Center.

Here’s an update from Gail Himes, the City of Tacoma ADA Coordinator:

Good news- despite the wet weather our City crews were able to pave a pathway from the crosswalk push button at the intersection of S 35th and Steele Street to the Pierce County Voting Center parking lot. The pathway is within the landscape area and keeps pedestrians away from vehicular traffic. I have attached some pictures but did not include text within the pictures. Let me know if you need more of a description of this work. Also, once we get some dry weather, we will be restriping the crosswalks at this intersection. Pierce County staff will be striping a walking path in their parking lot that connects this new accessible pathway to the Voting Center.

If you live in Tacoma or Pierce County and are interested in working with Rooted in Rights on transportation and streets advocacy, let us know. We’re building a Pierce County action committee!

Anna Zivarts is the program director of Rooted in Rights and a low-vision mom who can't drive. She joined the Rooted in Rights team from Time of Day Media, a digital media cooperative she co-founded in 2010. At Time of Day, Anna produced digital video for the Innocence Project and Fight for 15, and lead searches for the ACLU in Kansas and Wisconsin to find citizens disenfranchised by voter ID laws. Twitter: @AnnaZivarts