Rubén Casas
Rubén joined The Urbanist's board in 2022. He is a scholar and teacher of rhetoric and writing at the University of Washington Tacoma. He is also the faculty lead of the Urban Environmental Justice Initiative at Urban@UW. In his work and advocacy, Rubén examines how cities and the institutions that comprise them imagine, plan, and build in ways that promote and/or discourage community and a sense of place.
My summer reading list this year included a debut novel by Seth Fried titled The Municipalists, which CityLab described as “the urban planning Sci-Fi novel you’ve been waiting for.” There are many things to say about this novel, but rather than offer a pseudo-review (other than to say that...
The McMenamins Elks Temple in Tacoma has been open for two weeks. With its five eateries and bars, ballroom, and 45 hotel rooms, this new addition to downtown destination is drawing and will draw hundreds of people from throughout the city and the region.
McMenamins has been lauded for...
Backyard cottages are officially a go in Tacoma but what's next?
The City of Tacoma has officially adopted new rules which make it much easier to add accessory dwelling units (ADUs) on existing single-home lots. While it is true that Tacoma, like other cities in Washington, already permit attached accessory...
Residents of Tacoma largely support a change to the municipal code that would make it easier for home owners to add a secondary living space on their property. The idea to allow more greater numbers of “Detached Accessory Dwelling Units,” or DADUs, was first taken up by the city...
In a previous installment, I wrote about the strain put on sidewalks when cities privatize, sell off, fail to maintain, or don’t care to provide proper public spaces in the first place. I argued that the reductions in public space we observe in cities across the U.S. undermines democracy...
Tacoma is growing. City, county, and regional leaders and planners are working to meet this growth with transportation options aligned with state mandates and community needs. The three biggest transit projects looming on the horizon are the Link light rail extension from Federal Way to Tacoma, the extension of...
In my last installment, I pointed out the importance of sidewalks—that they exist and that they are continuous—both because they provide an opportunity for residents and visitors alike to get to know a city, and because they ensure that people who don’t or can’t drive get to where they...
I moved to Tacoma the last weekend of July. Even as I got keys to my apartment the day after I arrived, my stuff wasn’t scheduled to arrive until later in the week. I spent my first weekend in the city in a hotel. These in-between-places days forced me...