Auburn Avenue Theater’s old walls and roof have heard a lot over the years — buses, music, drama, comedy, film, candidate debates.
But a mayor delivering his or her annual State of the City Address there? Never happened.
That is, until Mayor Nancy Backus stepped on stage on a festive Tuesday night to give her’s, a mosaic of the sunny and overcast in the year to come.
“It would be my guess that many of you here probably have never heard, read, or watched an Auburn State-of-the-City Address.” Backus told the 100-120 member audience, which included complete families. “You’re part of our growing network of our energized and engaged residents, and thank you for being here.”
According to the National League of Cities, in 2015 economic development was the most common topic in mayoral speeches, three out of four speeches devoting a lot of coverage to the issue.
As did Backus.
To create an economic climate that benefits Auburn’s quality of life, the mayor said, its residents must work together in such areas as building and improving roads, utilities and Internet connectivity, in maintaining a strong educational system and worker training, enhancing public safety and encouraging new businesses to come.
But the best way for residents to beef up the business community in Auburn, Backus said, is to support those businesses.
“If you can buy it in Auburn, do it,” Backus said.
The mayor spoke with pride about construction underway in the blocks around the theater, including Merrill Gardens, the multi-million dollar expansion of MultiCare Auburn Medical Center, new businesses opening and projects about to launch.
At the same time, however, the City is looking to what happens in the next decade. That is, the City’s economic development division is at work on a strategic plan to guide economic development activities in the next 10 years.
Help for homeless
Backus then shifted her attention to homelessness.
She referred to a map and data from the 2015-16 King County Community Health Needs Assessment showing how South King County historically has had higher needs in regards to poverty and related issues like unemployment, hunger, crime and homelessness.
Like other cities have done, she said, Auburn has responded by launching initiatives.
A major concern has been the Auburn Library and the surrounding Les Gove Community Campus. After numerous conversations, Backus said, the library agreed to remove loiterers and turn off its Wi-Fi and outside electrical outlets at night.
Also, the City last year added bicycle patrols at Les Gove and in the downtown core, with positive results.
Auburn’s police force has been trained in crisis intervention. To date, more than 80 percent of the City’s police officers have completed the program, Backus said.
The City, she said, is also coordinating with local feeding programs to balance the need to help with the desire for public spaces to be comfortable areas for general public use.
In addition, the City funds several providers here and throughout the region that focus on poverty reduction and homeless prevention services, among them transitional housing, emergency housing, feeding programs, youth and family services, utility and rental assistance, supportive employment services and mental health services.
These are effective but short-term solutions, Backus said, and the City has to find a way to address the long term issue.
In 2015, the City convened the Mayor’s Task Force on Homelessness, stocked it with community leaders, service providers, citizens, faith community, police and fire, school district, representatives of the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, business owners and key City staff and then set it to the task.
The task force presents its action plan to the City Council this spring, and the City will then activate programs to find better solutions than it has today.
“Although the action plan will focus primarily on Auburn, we will also ensure that Auburn fits into the regional approach. We have to find an answer. I know what the answer isn’t; we can’t arrest our way out of this. We can’t keep pushing people from area to area, city to city. And we can’t turn away. We just can’t. If you’re homeless and you need help, we are going to help you find it. We won’t look the other way if anyone, homeless or not, is committing a crime; but we also won’t look the other way if someone needs our help. I hope you’ll help, too.”
Street talk
In her videotaped 2015 address, Backus stood in a pothole, spoofed a bumpy car ride to show she knew all about the City’s dire street needs and talked about what had to happen in the year then to come to make things better in terms of all those roads and streets, intersections, traffic signals, signs, street lights, trails and sidewalks, camera systems, transit routes, system wide traffic flows, crosswalks and parking, as well as underground infrastructure like storm and sewer pipes and cable.
As Backus said in 2015, in the legislature’s then-upcoming session lawmakers would have to pass a large transportation package. And they did, a $16 billion dollar list of projects that allocated a small sum for local roads. What’s more, the package guaranteed that several big, critical projects would be completed, among them: Highway 509 from SeaTac to I-5; and the six-mile extension of Highway 167 from Puyallup to the Port of Tacoma called the Puget Sound Gateway Project.
Two unexpected funding opportunities came the City’s way in 2015 in the form of grants worth a total of $1 million, Backus said. These allowed the City to expand four projects and add others to the 2015 schedule. Backus said City staff will continue to dog every grant out there until a stable sustainable funding source is found.
“Just know that we won’t win them all,” Backus said of the grant opportunities, “and when we don’t, our projects will be mothballed until we can find the money.”
Crucially, Backus also discussed what kind of local transportation funding package the City could put together in the days, months or years to come.
“The economics of funding our projects are complex. We will continue to attract successful businesses to Auburn to expand our tax base, and I hope you’ll continue to help us expand our sales tax revenue by spending more of money in Auburn and encourage others to do so.”
But the City, Backus warned, may need to ask for a bond, levy or other legislative method to create a stable local fund to improve Auburn’s streets.
