State is changing its hands-off approach to Occupy Tacoma camp

Occupy Tacoma’s welcome is wearing thin.

On Tuesday, two representatives of the state Department of Transportation visited the Pacific Avenue encampment and notified residents of complaints from nearby business owners and residents.

Then on Wednesday, two workers from a fencing company pulled up in a flatbed truck and started measuring the perimeter of the encampment for a chain-link fence. They told residents they were working for the state.

“It’s pretty clear they want us to leave, which is really unfair,” Ryan Way, a 21-year-old Occupy activist from Tacoma, said Wednesday. “We are not causing trouble. We’re keeping the conversation alive.”

Occupy Tacoma, which has had about three dozen tents pitched at tiny Don Pugnetti Park at Pacific Avenue and South 21st Street since last October, is among the last Occupy encampments still active. Widespread and occasionally violent eviction efforts have taken place in cities across the country in the past month, including Seattle and Olympia.

But in Tacoma, authorities have taken a hands-off approach.

Until now.

The Tacoma situation is complicated by the fact that while the encampment is in the heart of the city, it is not on city property. Pugnetti Park is owned by the Transportation Department.

If an eviction takes place, the Transportation Department will be in charge, backed by the Washington State Patrol.

Steve Pierce, the communications director for the Transportation Department, acknowledged Wednesday that the agency is trying to figure out a way to get the protestors to leave with a minimum of pain on all sides.

“It’s gotten to the point where some of the issues need to be addressed,” Pierce said. “We’re trying to assess what the next steps are.”

“If the point comes when we have to clear that site out, we will do it in a very sensitive way,” Pierce said. “We’re not going to swoop in at midnight and kick anybody out. If the time comes to clear it out, there will be a posting process and 72 hours’ notice.”

Nearby residents and business owners have complained – at least one directly to Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond – about noise and apparently unsanitary conditions at the camp, Pierce said.

“We’re reaching a point where decisions will be made fairly soon,” he said. “But they’ll be done in a  thoughtful and sensitive way.”

The Transportation Department is consulting with Tacoma advocates for the homeless, the Veterans Administration and faith-based organizations to determine how best to proceed, Pierce said.

At the Occupy site, protesters said they’ll resist efforts to get them to leave.

“We are definitely not going to leave here willingly,” said Amy Spicer, 27, who has been at the camp through the winter.  “A lot of people call this home. We are peacefully assembling here. I think that evicting me is violating my rights.”

Camp residents said they are on good terms with most residents and businesses and will try to gather letters of support in their effort to stay put.

City of Tacoma spokesman Rob McNair-Huff said Wednesday he was unaware of the Transportation Department’s stepped-up efforts.

 “I was a little surprised when I started seeing the blog posts yesterday,” he said.

But McNair-Huff said he, too, has heard complaints from neighbors.

“There have been some concerns from folks who live in residential buildings close to the site and concerns by businesses down along Pacific Avenue in that area,” he said.

“What they’re saying, mostly, is that is an entrance into the city – into the museum district and the shopping area along Pacific Avenue  – and that maybe that this doesn’t present Tacoma in the best light.”

Occupy activist Josh Rickords, 31, said the encampment has a strict code of behavior and has reduced crime in the area.

“We’re here for everybody,” he said. “It’s a broken system and it needs to be fixed.”

Rob Carson: 253-597-8693

rob.carson@thenewstribune.com