Want to protect Pierce County businesses from crime? Try locking up criminals | Opinion

Pierce County’s top job is addressing crime

Using county tax dollars to pay for local business security, as a draft of Pierce County’s 2024-2025 budget proposes, is a veiled admission by our elected officials of incompetence.

The County Council and Pierce County Executive need to quit avoiding their most basic responsibility of removing criminals from society.

Using taxpayer resources to protect businesses will make other soft targets, like our homes, more attractive to criminals. What is next? Body armor and Kevlar helmets for people living in Parkland or Tacoma?

Criminal behavior without consequences only condones chaos.

Tim Tengesdal, Elk Plain

Gentrification

As a Safeway employee and as a resident of Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood I personally witnessed the transformation of Hilltop, I think it’s imperative to raise awareness about gentrification and how it affects tenants like me.

Hilltop has always been a neighborhood where variety, culture and history have flourished. But the same thing that makes Hilltop special is being altered by the winds of gentrification that are blowing through our neighborhoods.

New construction and establishments are enlivening our neighborhood, but many long-term tenants, acquaintances and neighbors are being forced to the verge of financial ruin due to rising housing expenses.

At Safeway, I see the faces of individuals affected. They are the people who have made Hilltop what it is today, and they are now trying to keep their houses. It is time to address the issue of retaining affordable housing alternatives for Hilltop’s varied and long-standing community.

Let us ensure that our neighborhood retains its personality and uniqueness as we manage these changes. Hilltop’s people, who are its greatest asset, and growth must coexist in harmony.

Voting yes on Tacoma’s Initiative 1 for tenants’ rights will protect lifelong Hilltop residents.

Chadez Chalfant, Tacoma

Small landlords

I currently own a duplex in the city of Tacoma. I am a single woman; I live in one side and rent out the other.

I have kept the rent under market value since day one. If Tacoma’s Initiative 1 passes, and these unrealistic restrictions are put on me as a homeowner-landlord, you can bet I’ll be putting my property up for sale. You can also bet that I will not be purchasing anything in the city of Tacoma, and whoever buys my house will jack up the rent.

How is this going to keep rental prices down? This will only hurt the private landlords, who aren’t in it for the money. Why don’t we go after corporate “slumlords” instead?

Initiative 1 is not what the city needs.

Jennifer Edinger, Tacoma

Puyallup Public Safety Building

Anyone who has visited the Puyallup Public Safety Building realizes that it can no longer serve the needs of our community.

Still, bond measures for a new facility have failed twice. Knowing this, the members of the Puyallup City Council worked tirelessly to address voter concerns, reduce the cost to property owners and find common ground.

The resulting bond measure earned the unanimous approval of the council and subsequently the endorsement of both the 25th District Republicans and Democrats.

This is the way politics is supposed to work. Nobody gets exactly what they want, but finding common ground best serves the community at large.

I want to publicly express my appreciation to my council colleagues and all those community members who have weighed in on this essential project.

I am confident Puyallup Proposition 1 is a winner. Please prove me right.

Ned Witting, Puyallup