This Is What It Looks Like When Nature Reclaims a Piece of Tacoma
August 28, 2018Have you ever wondered how long it would take nature to reclaim a neighborhood if everyone just got up and left? It’s hard to say how long an average house would last, but if you wiped the neighborhood off the map and left the ground bare, 67 years is, evidently, more than enough time to…
The Lesser-Known History of Stadium Bowl
August 3, 2018When Stadium Bowl first opened in 1910 it was a pretty big deal. Theodore Roosevelt visited a year later and had this to say about it: “I have visited, I think, most of the cities of the world, and there is not one of them which has such a stadium as this, situated with such…
Photo Proof Tacoma Looks Damn Good at Night
June 13, 2018After the sun sets, and long after most of us are resting at home, photographer Danny Crelling is out on the streets. In part, because that’s the time he can eke out away from his day job and three young children, and in part because Tacoma by night is really fucking beautiful. Take a look…
An Introduction to Tacoma’s Peregrine Falcons
June 7, 2018You may not know it, but Downtown Tacoma has played an important role in the recovery of peregrine falcons for nearly 20 years. The tall buildings emulate the rocky cliffs falcons naturally gravitate to. That, combined with a ready supply of pigeons, makes for prime falcon real estate. The resident falcons of the downtown corridor…
Here’s Your Last Chance to See the Inside of the Northwest Costume Shop
May 10, 2018Last 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…
Exactly How High Can You Get in Tacoma? We Investigate
April 20, 2018Getting 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…
Here’s What Mayor Woodards Has Been up to Since November
April 9, 2018When 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…
Ruston Way Piling Bikes Spread to Downtown Tacoma
April 1, 2018The 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…
Tacoma’s Future: Better Off Seattle South Than Detroit Jr.?
March 20, 2018There’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…
Can You Guess These Tacoma Spots Just By Their Textures?
March 9, 2018People 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…
Ever Wonder What It’s Like to Live at Salmon Beach?
March 6, 2018The 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,”…
Think Your Potholes are Bad? Check These Out
February 28, 2018Here’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.