In this issue, we look back at the beginnings and history of Tualatin Tips.
Tualatin 1.0
As we were coming out of the Great Recession in 2009, I started a blog focused on Tualatin.
Here is what I wrote in the inaugural post (emphasis added):
The vision
The Tualatin Tomorrow Community Vision and Strategic Action Plan (PDF), which was first published in June 2007 and updated in September 2009, includes this vision statement:
HOW WE PLAN AND GROW
Growth, Housing and Town CenterIn the Year 2030, Tualatin has maintained a strong community identity while successfully managing new growth and development. A dynamic growth strategy and plan for development have promoted growth choices that fit community values and priorities, while benefiting local neighborhoods, businesses, schools, parks, and roads.
The City of Tualatin has worked collaboratively with other local and regional governments, expanding its urban planning area as appropriate, and managing the impacts of Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) expansion to protect community and environmental assets. The City has also planned carefully to address the costs of new growth and needed infrastructure.
Tualatin has diversified its supply of housing, providing a range of housing choices and affordability to meet the needs of its changing population. Tualatin town center has preserved its best historical features while incorporating new mixed-use development, including high-density housing, a full complement of services, commercial and retail development, and amenities that accommodate pedestrians and bicyclists as well as cars.
Good urban design is an important part of Tualatin, with flexible standards that promote an attractive, well-functioning community, including appropriate mixed-used development, small, pedestrian-oriented neighborhood commercial centers, beautiful, tree-lined streetscapes, and community „gateway‟ entrances that strengthen local identity.
Tualatin has a thriving local economy that attracts businesses which fit well into the community, providing living wage jobs and supporting small businesses, while encompassing high-end retail development that offers better choices to shoppers and supports the local tax base.
This blog is focused exclusively on Tualatin, both today and tomorrow. Welcome.
A lot of that vision still resonates (and 2030 is now just seven years away!).
Over the next few years, I would cover a range of Tualatin topics, including:
Construction of a new office building by the WES station known as Robinson Crossing.
The effort to establish a Quiet Zone for Trimet’s WES commuter rail (successful in the residential neighborhoods, but sadly downtown Tualatin was not included in the designation — something that the City will need to revisit with the FRA if the parcel at the corner of SW Boones Ferry Rd & Tualatin Sherwood Road is ever to be developed into housing or office).
Plans for the Tualatin Town Center (which promised to introduce a more urban street grid and vibrant, pedestrian-friendly retail corridor; plans that were sadly never realized and are today acres of parking lots in front of Cabela’s et al — still an improvement over the former K-Mart and Jiggle’s).
The creation of the Tualatin Farmer’s Market (which continued for some years before fading and ceasing to exist — leaving Tualatin as perhaps the only community without its own local market).
Transportation, the City’s Transportation Systems Plan update, and Linking Tualatin planning ahead of the failed SW Corridor high capacity transit (HCT).
Posterous, the incredible site that I had used to launch and host this blog was acquired by Twitter in 2012 and shut down in 2013. That was the end of it.
Tualatin 2.0
After Posterous was shut down, I started to use Twitter more.
At 140 characters, it didn’t lend itself to longer-form pieces and I missed having an easy to use platform to publish about local topics. Over time, I evolved to focus on retweeting local news and topics of interest and engaging with community members or providing light commentary.
And sometimes I try to answer questions from people visiting Tualatin:
I continue to tweet on a weekly basis but we’ll see given how erratic Twitter has become.
Tualatin 3.0
During the pandemic, I started an Instagram account. Like so many, I had cabin fever and decided to start sharing pictures of Tualatin with our community.
It’s been well-received and grown slowly and steadily to more than 300 followers (entirely organic with no meaningful promotion). You probably found your way here from Instagram and I’m grateful for that.
Tualatin 4.0
I expanded the Tualatin Tips family by launching Tualatin Tips Today on Substack in January 2022. I was excited to have a way to discuss the present and future of Tualatin in a longer-form format again and started off strong with issues on:
The Bridgeport Village issue got a lot of interest (thank you!).
Unfortunately, I soon realized that I had underestimated the amount of time involved in researching and writing each issue and that cadence wasn’t sustainable. At least not right away.
And so for the last several months, there hasn’t been a new issue, much less my original goal of a new issue every Saturday morning. I apologize for that. In the interim, I’ve continued to post to IG and Twitter and am now planning to resume this newsletter.
As part of this evolution, I’ve simplified the branding to Tualatin Tips and am introducing a logo for this Substack:
If you’ve read this far, I hope you’ll join me on this journey.
And if you know someone else — a neighbor, a friend, a classmate or a coworker — who would benefit from knowing about this Tualatin-focused newsletter, please share. It would mean so much to me.
Thank you for reading.
-Tualatin Tips
PS: I’d love to know what you thought of this issue and what topics you would be interested in hearing about in the future. Please reply to this email or comment below — and thanks!