Last November, an electrical fire ripped through the center of the 90 year old building on 6th Ave. that had been the home of Northwest Costume since 1982. Most of the costumes were damaged or destroyed and the business has been closed since then. Tomorrow night, though, you’ll have one last chance to visit the…
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Getting truly high in Tacoma isn’t as easy as one might expect. Sure, there are pot shops on quite a few corners, but we just can’t compete with the likes of Denver, Colorado. This is sea level, man. Being a waterfront city, it’s no surprise that on average Tacoma only gets to about 243 feet…
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When I walked into Victoria Woodards’ office on her 61st day on the job, she looked up sheepishly from her sandwich. She asked if I minded if she finished her lunch. I said no, and as she thanked me, she checked her phone, the back of which read in gold letters, “Glitter is my favorite…
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The phenomenon which was previously confined to the Ruston Way waterfront has now shown up in downtown Tacoma. Whether or not it’s the same person(s) responsible for the original guerilla art project is unclear. Whoever it is, though, seems to have stuck to the theme of mid-century folding bikes. The bike stuck to the giant W…
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There’s a new crane on the block, right next door to the Tacoma Public Library’s Main Branch. It’s part of the work transforming the parking lot located at 1210 Tacoma Ave. S into a $40 million, 166-unit, mixed-use private development called Hailey Apartments. Former Mayor Marilyn Strickland explained in 2017, “This development, our third foreign…
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People take a lot of big scenery pictures of Tacoma. It’s hard to pass up a view of the Narrows, when Mt. Rainier comes out to play, or even downtown from high in the sky, but Instagram user Where.is.Willis has taken to looking at the city from a closer perspective. Check out seven of his…
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The term “hidden gem” gets thrown around a lot but Salmon Beach really exemplifies it in every way. It’s one of the most wonderful parts of Tacoma and it’s about as hidden as you can get while still being in the city. “It feels like you’re living in Tacoma while not really being in Tacoma,”…
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Here’s the backstory: People talk a lot about busted roads in Tacoma but this 500 foot strip of awful is literally more patch than road at this point. The potholes are so deep you can actually damage your chassis if you don’t navigate them properly. Its infamy is so widespread that, in years past, whenever there was a paving project elsewhere in the city that ended up with surplus asphalt, the crews would bring the extras here to dump into the potholes.
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Like it or not, the nighttime look of Tacoma’s city streets and suburbs is changing. Tacoma Public Utilities (TPU) and the City of Tacoma are sweeping from south to north in 2018, replacing 75% of our aging streetlights with new, energy efficient LED fixtures. Though they’ve carefully selected the new lights to help control light pollution,…
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Say the words “Steve’s Gay ’90s” and you’re sure to confuse anyone new to Tacoma or born in the 1980s and beyond. For those in either group, we’re talking about a restaurant that used to rock South Tacoma Way — and the 1890s. Thanks to photos and news articles tucked safely away in Tacoma Public…
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Let’s be honest, nowadays, with our smartphones, we are all basically amateur photographers. Of course our phone pictures are no replacement for professional portraits, but that doesn’t mean they can’t look good! One of the keys to making even your phone photos look fabulous is finding great looking backgrounds. Luckily for us Tacomans, there are…
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If you have lived in Washington state for a while you know about the stark differences between east and west. I spent the first half of my life on the East Side and I’m just starting the second half on the West Side, here in Tacoma. I will always be an East Side kid, but…
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