Tacoma park renamed after Council member Catherine Ushka, who’s made ‘indelible mark’
The toxic lot that once housed an abandoned gas station was transformed into a vibrant park last year thanks largely to City Council member Catherine Ushka. Now her name will grace the sign out front.
On Tuesday, Ushka was surrounded by loved ones and fellow city leaders at the playground at 4801 S. Park as the space was renamed from Gas Station Park to “Catherine Ushka’s Gas Station Park.” The Metro Parks Tacoma board cast a unanimous vote for the name change last week.
Ushka announced in September 2022 that she’d been diagnosed with stage 3 cervical cancer.
“I’m overwhelmed and amazed,” Ushka told The News Tribune after the renaming ceremony. “I do the work for community because I believe in community, and I’m never looking for anything back. I mean, they named a park after me. How can I be anything but blessed by that?”
Ushka has served on City Council since 2017 and was reelected in 2021, Metro Parks Tacoma noted in a news release. She’s a U.S. Navy veteran who chaired the city’s Eastside Neighborhood Advisory Council and acted as president of the Tacoma Public Schools board.
Mayor Victoria Woodards lauded Ushka on Tuesday for her local advocacy over the years.
“We are gathered to honor and dedicate this park to a remarkable, amazing, awesome, incredible human being in Cahterine Ushka,” Woodards told attendees at Tuesday’s event. “She has made an indelible mark — not just on the East Side, not just at Gas Station Park, not just in the city of Tacoma, not just in the state of Washington — but she has made an indelible mark in this country.”
In addition to working as a hands-on community volunteer, Ushka is credited with drawing together the city, South End Neighborhood Council and Metro Parks to get funding for the space’s makeover, according to a Metro Parks news release. The colorful park offers kids a chance to swing, scale a climbing dome or whiz by on a tricycle track.
The city gave $320,000 as part of the park’s renovation, according to Metro Parks’ website. Other sources of funding included $504,700 from a Washington state commerce grant and $150,000 “as one of several improvement projects funded by 2014 Tacoma voter-approved bond money.”
Ushka said she saw many familiar faces at the event: people she’s known since they were in middle school and others whom she recently met and bonded with. She was grateful to be surrounded by friends, family, volunteers and colleagues past and present on a “beautiful day like this.”
She was also grateful for the Tacoma community and having had the opportunity to serve.
“It’s such an amazing group of people,” she said. “I hope to always have that opportunity, and I hope that people who see that opportunity before them take it, because it’s worthwhile.”
This story was originally published April 17, 2024 at 3:43 PM.
