Word cloud showing words 75 community members used to describe how they, or others, use the Ruston Way waterfront.
Last week I wrote about the new mixed-use development at Point Ruston (Ruston, WA). This week I’ve been considering how the parks on Ruston Way (Tacoma, WA) can be viewed as one part of a continuous mixed-use development along the shore of Commencement Bay. The Ruston Way waterfront provides an opportunity to interact with nearby nature through parks interspersed amongst the development, and also through the expansive views of Northwest forests, mountains and water.
I had lunch on the waterfront at the Lobster Shop with a biologist who has a keen interest in city planning. As we discussed Ruston Way, my lunch companion reflected on the benefits of mixed-use development.
“I think a good public space design principle is mixed-use. Mixed-use pleases the most people and provides multiple access points to public space. You see mixed-use all along the Commencement Bay waterway from industry, to residences, to parks, to businesses, to restaurants. You even see mixed-use in the waters of Commencement Bay from the individual scuba diver, to kayaks and canoes, to motorboats and sailboats, to ferries, to tugboats towing log booms, to cargo ships. This whole expanse—Ruston Way, Point Ruston, and Pt. Defiance—makes visible the intricate relationships between Northwest industry, mountain, forest, water, and the creatures that live here. It’s a very good example of mixed-use.”
Mixed-use came up as a topic again as I walked along Ruston Way with a psychologist. My walking partner discussed how mixed-use developments provide both familiarity and novelty.
“If you want people to come you have to have a mix of things. A mix gets people to the waterfront for different reasons. I walk here because I like the familiarity. I feel safe, I know where I’m going, I know what to expect, and I know the walking distances. But, I also like the novelty of it; there is always something new—boats, cargo ships, birds, clouds, changing tides.”
Mixed-use has also been mentioned in the survey I’m conducting. As part of my ongoing survey, one community member responded to the prompt, “Do you have a favorite spot along the Ruston Way waterfront? Where? What makes it a favorite for you?” by describing the importance of places which are located “at an intersection of various activities.”
“Perhaps my favorite spot along Ruston is at the fireboat because we have spent much time there while my son has been growing up. It is also at an intersection of various activities we do along the waterfront. When we walk along Ruston we always walk by the boat; it is just outside Duke’s where we sometimes go to sit on the deck, watch the views of the water and Rainier, and have dinner during the summer. We have played at lot just at the boat itself with my son and sometimes we climb down to the small beach and the rocks right next to the boat to explore.”
These reflections are a powerful reminder that the parks on Ruston Way are embedded within a diversity of development that includes homes and businesses, parks and beaches, as well as a major railroad line and shipping lanes.
Urban Park Design
Jane Jacobs, an author, activist, and a keen observer of urban life, wrote about how the surrounding environment dramatically impacts parks both positively and negatively. In The Death and Life of Great American Cities she described the unique dynamics within different parks and the importance of designing public spaces for a diversity of uses and users.
View of Dickman Mill Park. Harbor Lights restaurant and RAM Restaurant and Brewery in the background
Design plays a critical role in park use. Howard Frumkin, in The Health of Places, the Wealth of Evidence, explains that important park features include “the amount and type of vegetation; the presence of interesting, meandering pathways, quiet areas for sitting and reading; recreational amenities; adequate information and signage; and the perceived level of safety” (p. 262). From my ongoing survey, I’ve learned that Chinese Reconciliation Park and Dickman Mill Park (both of which have several of the design elements listed) are appreciated by multiple community members who describe these parks as “being secluded from the bustling traffic” and who appreciate the “informative placards, lovely landscaping, a substantial view of the water, and benches or logs for reflecting or sitting with others.”
Walkable neighborhoods and public spaces located near homes promote social interactions in park settings (Frumkin, 2005). My walks with friends, colleagues and community members have helped me learn about, and appreciate, different aspects of Ruston Way. I’ve come to view my walks with others as a form of collaborative investigation, where my walking partners and I are walking to learn. I’ve also experienced spontaneous interactions with community members, in particular when observing birds. In these types of casual conversations we appreciate, reflect on, and pose questions about where we live. If you’re interested in walking with neighbors to explore your city, consider joining Jane’s Walk, an international movement of citizen-led walks to bring community members together to discuss and explore their cities.
Using Nature
I’ve been reflecting on the term ‘use’ and its relationship to humans’ extensive natural resource consumption. William Cronon reminds us in The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature that,
“Calling a place home inevitably means that we will use the nature we find in it, there can be no escape from manipulating and working and even killing some parts of nature to make our home. But if we acknowledge the autonomy and otherness of the things and creatures around us—an autonomy our culture has taught us to label with the word “wild”—then we will at least think carefully about the uses to which we put them, and even ask if we should use them at all” (p. 89).
Found object sculpture, Dickman Mill Park. Is building structures with found wood acknowledging, using and/or honoring nature?
I appreciate Cronon’s reflections on using nature because they make explicit the notion that humans depend on natural resources AND can also work to make thoughtful choices about what nature we use and how we use it. I note his careful use of the phrase “acknowledge the autonomy and otherness of the things and creatures around us.” There are tensions between acknowledging, using, and honoring the autonomy of soil, air, water, rocks, logs, birds and fish. When we sit on logs, observe heron and gulls, eat salmon, and walk on cement pathways that cover soil, are we acknowledging, using and/or honoring nearby nature? How might we decide what uses acknowledge or honor? How might we decide when not to use the things and creatures around us?
I’ve also been thinking about the historical legacies of how spaces change, or not, over time. How we choose to use land at one point in time may impact how we use it at a later time. For example, Point Defiance Park is a large expanse of land that was designated for use as a park in 1888. While the park has changed over the past 127 years–and had numerous developments such clearing forests, creating gardens, picnic areas and roads, and building lodges, a zoo and an aquarium–the expanse of space remains designated as a park. In contrast, the Ruston Way waterfront has a history of mixed-use development that includes the Northern Pacific Railroad, lumber mills, and grain warehouses; we see that history of mixed-use continuing in today’s collection of restaurants, businesses, and parks.
My reading and walking this week have enabled me to consider that the parks on Ruston Way are a part of a larger mixed-use development. The concept of mixed-use provides an opportunity to consider the pros and cons of different uses of nearby nature, such as creating parks and creating retail outlets which overlook Commencement Bay and Mt. Rainier. Parks are not bits of preserved nature—they are shaped by both human uses and interventions, and the autonomy of natural processes, creatures, and things.
Word cloud showing words 75 community members used to describe places on the Ruston Way waterfront.
Resources
Cronon, W. (1995). The trouble with wilderness; or, getting back to the wrong nature. In W. Cronon (Ed.) Uncommon ground: Toward reinventing nature. (pp. 69-90). New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Frumkin, H. (2005). The health of places, the wealth of evidence. In P. F. Barlett (Ed.) Urban place: Reconnecting with the natural world. (pp. 253-269). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Jacob, J. (1989). The uses of neighborhood parks. In The death and life of great American cities. (p. 116-145). New York: The Modern Library.
For more information about this research project read the Project Overview.
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- Navigating Nature, Culture and Education in Contemporary Botanic Gardens - June 9, 2018
- Vashon Island Perspective - March 18, 2018
- Teaching and Learning in Nearby Nature - March 12, 2017
