Empowering Entrepreneurs

Tacoma is a city chock full of creative and enthusiastic entrepreneurs who are ever striving towards better ways to provide products and services to the people who call Tacoma “Home”.

We need to better support the needs of local people who are making an investment to our great city.  Behind every storefront, service industry, restaurant, coffee shop and hair salon, there is a dream.  There’s a lifetime of planning, and yes daydreaming, that goes into building a small business.  These businesses are part of the vision of Tacoma and more needs to be done to give them the tools to succeed.

All too often, these small businesses are given more burdens than assistance from the City Government that is supposed to be helping them achieve their goals.  Higher taxes, excessive demands (like grease traps that cost more to install than it cost to build the business in the first place), high permit fees and more hoops to jump through than a three ring circus.

Something has got to give, in Tacoma.

Just a couple of years ago, Tacoma was flourishing with new businesses cropping up all over the city.  Yes, Covid did a lot to destroy what we had built up but that period has come and gone.  Our city’s shortcomings should no longer use Covid as an excuse, which is all too often the case.  While most cities, large and small, were crippled by Covid, they have recovered, for the most part.  But Tacoma has lagged behind.  That’s unacceptable for the second largest city in Western Washington.

City Government needs to give more assistance to build back our small businesses.  We need to reduce high fees and do away with some of those fees altogether.  Small businesses do not need to be the main source of income for City Government.  Without small businesses, we would have no city.  The people of Tacoma need those goods and services in order to live, day to day.  Each one of those businesses provides jobs and income to thousands of residents.  Each of those businesses provides a place to go, to shop, to interact with each other.  To celebrate the good times, meet to discuss our lives, find that perfect something for someone.  You name it, Tacoma should have it, whatever that “it” may be.  And the way to build a successful city, is through small business.

As Mayor, I will put more emphasis on the needs of small businesses.  Leadership in Tacoma should listen to the voices of entrepreneurs and people who are willing to put their personal lives on the line to not only fulfill their dreams but to provide the city’s lifeblood.  City Government should give more than a proclamation at a City Council Meeting. We need more than photo ops. We need to truly support businesses and get our city back on track. Let’s rebuild a place that we can all be proud of and give people the support that they need to flourish and succeed.

We all win when small businesses thrive.