Active Transportation City of Tacoma

How about a multi- story “shopping center” with movie theater and possible office space. Just an idea. I realize we have the mall but having options is also nice.

What is “environmental justice” and how will it affect property owners in Tacoma?

Finally, finally, finally.  Kudos to the City of Tacoma for placing these parcels on the market.  By hoarding great swaths of land in downtown, the City of Tacoma has caused much of the blight and vacancy in downtown.

Hopefully, some high density market rate affordable housing can be built for students at UWT to feed some of the retail on Pacific Ave.

“Anybody feeling inspired?”

Inspired to do what? Advocate for even greater government intrusion into our private lives? No thanks.

Tacoma’s program would be more impressive if they allowed us to line those little brown buckets with biodegradable bags, as they do in Portland. Newspaper is fine, but a bag would be preferable, especially in summer.

Keep the name as is, but paint the Warhol flower on it!

How about if we just call it Larry. Not The Larry Dome. Just Larry.

That way, you could say, “On July 22, Justin Bieber will be performing at Larry.”

Super catchy. And Larry is just a nice name.

Perhaps we could combine the naming rights along with getting the Warhol Flower finally on the Dome.

If employers can avoid paying for this in Tacoma by moving to UP, Fife, or wherever, they will.  In fact, the business I am working for is thinking about opening up another Puget Sound location.  Because of the B&O taxes in Tacoma, we may end up in a close-in neighboring community.  Adding another tax (it is an indirect tax) will seal the decision to locate elsewhere.

We offer sick time off and vacation time.  But, to be boxed into something like this takes away options for us if we ever need

Mandatory sick leave legislation will result in:

1. Employers may trim employee head counts
2. Employers may reduce hours available
3. Some job openings will be cancelled
4. Some prospective businesses may cancel plans to open in Tacoma
5. Some marginal businesses will fail
6. Marginal increases in local prices
7. Upward pressure on unemployment rates
8. Upward pressure on foreclosure rates

In summary. there are a lot of negatives bundled with this feel good plan.  Of course, that’s never

Dan, I believe that your are correct, I forgot about the wells.

If you think wooden boats on the water need a lot of maintenance, try pulling them out of 50 degree waters and into dry dock. If hauled for any length of time, the hull dries, paint and caulk crack from the wood shrinking. Then when you drop the boat back in, wood expands and everything needs patching again… I’ve had the misfortunes, luckily not my own boat.

As for wooden pipes used for domestic water, I’m still not sure I understand how rotting wood pipes and soil can withstand 50psi and

I stand corrected.  I’m just surprised.  Wooden boats exposed to water need constant maintenance.  A wooden pipe lasting underground for 80+ years is pretty incredible.  I don’t think all of the pressure just comes from the elevation where the water originates though.  A majority does come from the Green River in the Cascade foothills, but a good portion also comes from wells in South Tacoma and those are quite a bit lower than where I’m at in the north end.  There are definitely some pumps in

“...and since the pipe are underground…”
It’s hard to listen to a gal when she doesn’t even know how to use the proper plural form of a word. See how easy that was!

I know, two comments in a row….

About the wooden pipes in Pt. Defiance. There was a major pipe replacement project about 10 years ago downtown replacing these same type pipes. When kept out of sunlight and without oxygen, cedar will last for a very long time but eventually give out. As for the pressure of the hydrant system, that flows on static pressure that is created from where our water supply originates; up on a glacier. As the water flows downhill, it creates the head pressure that is

It’s not an English-exam or paper. Why YA got to be such a Grammar-Nazi YO!?

Fred, it’s hard to listen to a guy lambasting you when he drops “ya” and “yo” instead of real words. How stylized!

I saw some broken wooden water pipes up in Kent about ten years ago. They were still in use, estimated to be from the ‘20s, although nobody seemed to know why they still worked. Several people took pieces as souvenirs for their offices. So, I’m not totally skeptical.

Oops, gotta make a correction – the two buildings were much closer to one another than I’d previously learned. Like, next to each other. Not a few blocks away.

I’m not a professional historian, I only play one on the Internet.

The old Courthouse was severely damaged in the 1949 earthquake. Rather than fix it they demolished it. A shame, but it was unsafe and way out of style. The City of Destiny couldn’t settle for a broken 19th century building as one of their crown jewels, right?

The County City building is not built on the same site. It’s a few blocks away.

The styling of the “architecturally bland” building is not currently in vogue – the same sentiment that helped doom the old courthouse. Actually, I think

Ya don’t have to claim to be “privileged”. Ya spoke from a place of privilege. It’s evident in yo comment. If a single-parent is working a full-time below family-wage job - then ya should know it is not possible for them to set money aside for a rainy-day.

I never claimed to be “privileged.” As a business owner and employer I have the same obligations you mentioned such as taking care of sick parents, children and other family members who are in need and I have to pay huge medical bills and debts to boot. I ALSO have to pay all the obligations of owning the business such as taxes, fees, rent, insurance, utilities. inventory, theft, etc.  If only it was as easy as ya make it seem to be.

Not everyone is as privileged as ya are to make enough $ to put some away. Many, many people have to take care of sick parents, children, & other family-members who are in need. Some folks get sick & have huge medical-bills/debts to deal with. If only it was as easy as ya make it seem to be.

Did I read that right?  WOOD water pipes at Point Defiance?  Wow!  If that isn’t proof we need more infrastructure improvements, I don’t know what is…

May I have $35k? I’m a nice person and I will be very grateful.

“We heard stories of workers afraid to call in sick for fear of losing wages or losing their jobs; and of the negative impacts of this situation on workers, their families, co-workers, customers, and public health.”

If people learned how to budget their income properly they would know how to put a little money away from each paycheck into a personal rainy day fund.  Parents should instruct their children how to develop a budget so that they will be able to provide for their families when they

pay germer $35K for what?

no comment, that’s OK to give someone $35K and there’s no comment?

when do we start getting the transparent and fully accountable city government our council members promised during their campaigns?

The building with the clock tower in the historic photo of the armory is the late-19th C Pierce County Courthouse—which had beautiful woodwork around a multi-floor atriums—which was demolished in the late 1950s to make way for the architecturally bland County-City Building.

Several of the buildings between 23rd and 25th only have access to their upper floors from trail level. At least one was built by the City of Tacoma around the turn of the century (1900) and have been used this way ever since. Not allowing cars and delivery trucks in this section would render the upper floors useless. This is why the community has brought the access issue to the City.

Most cool.

Now it’d be REALLY impressive if he brought back the building shown behind the armory!

I totally hear where you’re coming from Dan, but the trail is bisected 3 times before it even reaches Pacific.  And the scale of the park is 80’ wide, a traditional street R.O.W. width.  What the plan shows is providing for angle parking (15’ street width max) and an 8’ drive isle for access.  8’ is so narrow, I don’t even know how this works, but that’s what they’re showing. And I wouldn’t be surprised if the access is being required by the fire department.

I’m not going there.

It is only a block from the likely link extension on Stadium.  There will probably be a stop at 4th as well since it is the best connection up the hill and will have a new signal for pedestrians to cross at come this fall.

This isn’t a street.  It’s a multi-use trail and a linear park.  We don’t let people drive around the trails of Wright Park.  We don’t create parking areas on top of the Esplanade.  It is ridiculous that this is being considered.  One of the primary purposes of having open space in downtown areas is to get away from the unpleasantness that is interactions with automobiles and traffic. 

These businesses can be accessed from Holgate St., or Jefferson Ave.  If you look at Google Streetview you

How about the Sharp Project, Jay Heights, and the rest of the Marcato?

Time to get the condo map back out?  Geez, lots of great stuff popping in T-town!  Good stuff!

If plans include food trucks or any service vehicles, than maybe the trail should have a parking space or two where the streets are.  I’d like to see restaurants with outdoor seating along the line and perhaps outdoor seating laws in Tacoma, and along its sidewalks and streets, need to be changed to include the realistic ability for businesses to use sidewalks for their food service and retail wares..

It’s the perfect size and location for an indoor urban farm.  We could grow about 100 tons of fresh fruits and vegetables a year in that location.  I know how!

There’s a pretty long history of the failure of pedestrian-only streets in U.S. cities, in terms of creating vibrant urban corridors. Streets that favor pedestrians yet still allow for some local vehicle access are generally safer (more eyes on the street at all hours), have more users, and are more likely to encourage retail in adjacent storefronts. I think that the current design provides for a successful balance of park-like pedestrian space and vehicular access where necessary. At the same

Why build anymore roads when you can’t keep them from being pothole ridden?  The businesses should be using their intended ingress/egress for parking not a historical trail.  Hilarious that the city would promote gravel aprons as a temporary measure as well when they let no private developer ever do that.

So, is it going to be repaired as part of the project or will the basin/beach that is there now remain?

Richard Brautigan and Gary Larson come to mind as other Tacoma natives that would be interesting to see honored.

Gary Larson Memorial Doors on the downtown library should have the push/pull markings reversed.

Point being, of there is a car coming don’t step in front of it. You can see them coming even if they are going 20 miles over the speed limit. If they are not stopping, don’t chance it.

I JUST PAINTED AN ILLEGAL CROSSWALK for TACOMIC TUESDAY! 

I just painted an illegal crosswalk FOR TACOMIC TUESDAY!

Actually the islands are already there.  They are part of a habitat basin Asarco built as mitigation for some other in-water clean up work.  Part of the seawall went down in the Nisqually quake.

If you want constructive criticism, I invite you to make an informed, educated presentation at an upcoming Council Meeting or a Disabilities Commission Meeting. I doubt you, or any of your cowardly cohorts will though.

I think it’s OK to use Exit133 for constructive criticism. Not everybody has the ability to take time off work to appear at council meetings.  And as a side note, any elected city council member worth his salt will follow all the local blogs and take notes so he/she knows what

To be fair, crosswalks that are not at intersections are in fact defined by their stripes.

I gotta say though the conceptual plan for this park looks amazing.  Will be interesting to see them dredge to construct those artificial islands.

Dune dune park.

Done.

YES! Also, Dashiell Hammett. And there’d better be a fedora involved (or, you know, TB. Whatever works).

Harkonen Park?  Fremen Park?

I do believe that it is EXIT133 policy to have one user name per user, @Dan tries too hard to get attention…

I think the name needs shortening, to ‘Frankerbert Park’.

At this point, it’s not quite a “proposal”, despite what the City’s agenda reads. I introduced a proposal that the Landmarks Commission write a letter to MetroParks in support of changing the name to Frank Herbert Park. The city does not have the jurisdiction for name changes in district parks. We are hoping the Arts Commission will join us in urging MetroParks to consider this name change. If it is something you care about, please contact the Arts and Landmarks commissions via

Oh, also, this is cool. Needs a statue of a sandworm.

Richard Brautigan and Gary Larson come to mind as other Tacoma natives that would be interesting to see honored.

If you want constructive criticism, I invite you to make an informed, educated presentation at an upcoming Council Meeting or a Disabilities Commission Meeting. I doubt you, or any of your cowardly cohorts will though.

Looking both ways will get you nowhere when a car is buzzing over your body way above the speed limit.

No. Natural selection is some motorist wiping you out because you lack a true awareness of your surroundings. You, my friend, are in Pierce County. I hope you have a good helmet.

Secret guerilla street improvement society? Sign me up.

There are already crosswalks all around Wright Park. They are just not painted. But they are there, with wheelchair cuts and all. Cars need to slow down for those too, not just the “painted” ones they can see from 500 feet away. Drivers can see side streets and intersections. Where those exist they should expect to find a crosswalk. City streets are not freeways. Drivers should expect pedestrians at all times and slow down!

By that same token, as a pedestrian it’s your ass. You need to look

Bear in mind there was a well advertized public hearing before the planning commission and no one was interested in speaking to these ordinances at the first reading. I think the value of lifting the moratorium two weeks early outweighed the chance of someone missing their two minutes to address the council.

Derek,  why are you defending your position?  This is your site brother and you run it as you see fit, I am thankful that this place exists so I can vent my differences with city government and applaud their good efforts.  Thank you.

Done. If there are any missing, let me know.

Please put them up for the sake of constructive critism. Thank you.

We have a long history of people using pseudonyms and anonymity. That’s fine. Your comments were valid. You also have absolutely no idea what my agenda is. We do not tolerate multiple personalities. And if we ask you about it and your email isn’t valid, we pull all of them. We’ve done that for more than eight years and have only had to do it it a couple times. Everybody has always stuck around. If you want them to all come from Jimmy, we’ll put them back that way. We tried to ask, but your

Its called anonymous scrutiny. My points were still valid. This is supposed to be an open discussion even if it goes against your personal bias standards. Put them back up. You are censoring the discussion to fit your own agenda.

The rules are as they always have been. You used four different usernames from fake email addresses. That’s not how we have a conversations around here. The comments would’ve stayed if you used the same name. Pick one.

Take safe routes if you think there may be danger in these. If you are dumb enough to get in a dangerous situation then that is called natural selection.

People shouldn’t drive like fucking animals and pull their heads out of their arse. Driving is the main cause for cardiovascular disease, the biggest killer in the US. Drivers are murderers.

Nice job on deleting comments. So much for free speech you goon.

My main issue with these is how completely terrible they look. There is one at Tacoma and S 7th, and it looks like it was done by a 3-year-old.

maybe the city manager should learn the law? all corners are crosswalks for pedestrians and card have to stop of there is a pedestrian at them.

a crosswalk is not defined by stripes on the road, it is emphasized by them.

same with bike lanes. bikes are entitled to the entire lane but are suggested to stay to the side of the lane with cars giving a 3 foot clearance.

Thank you so much for posting this! This bit of law needs to be more fully understood. The guerilla crosswalks I’ve seen have

We are way behind in identifying what the people that live here NOW need.  Our police and other government offices don’t seem to quite get that Tacoma is changing fast and these changes are coming from individuals moving here from bigger cities, even criminals.  It is embarrassing watching our policing tactics against seasoned street criminals, it is also embarrassing listening to our police explain why our 911 system does not always relay calls to them because we don’t have our own 911

Fred, only stencil areas of road in need of grinding

Are these the same guys who paint bombed writes park? looks like the same paint colors to me.

Clearly, everyone in town should make up some large traffic stencils with whatever message amuses them and go around town spray painting their stenciled message on any street or sidewalk they desire. This is a town where such stupidity is not only tolerated, it’s actually encouraged.

Pedestrians have the right of way in WA with or without crosswalks.  Bicycles are welcome in the current lanes or on the shoulder where the streets are big enough.  As slow and frustrating as the City can be with putting in crosswalks and bike lanes it really doesn’t help to put in your own.  It forcing the city to waste money on removing vandalism that is not only vandalism but also a safety hazard.  Not every city was built with pedestrians and bicycles in mind.  It may take a long time

And I saw a car that didn’t expect to find a crosswalk near Wright Park nearly hit a woman who thought she was crossing at a real crosswalk. That woman was my wife. I would rather my valuable tax dollars go to fixing potholes than remedying these things painted by kids who think they are being cool rebels but who have no clue. I am in a wheelchair, by the way, and you cannot simply go around painting crosswalks where ee you feel like it. You are compromising my safety. This self absorption is

Would make a nice house if it wasn’t for the zoning.

I actually saw pedestrians who normally dart across the street at any locations going to and using the crosswalks. And the cars slowed down for them. This city needs to put pedestrians ahead of cars. We need crosswalks!

I’m sure he knows that law, Joel.  Drivers are supposed to yield/stop for pedestrians who step off the curb signalling they intend to cross.  So it’s a crosswalk whether the paint is there or not.  As the article said, the Federal MUTCD has standards for where MARKED crosswalks or even signal controlled crosswalks are located.  Guerrilla traffic markings of any kind just add confusion and, if an accident should occur at one of these intersections, who would you hold liable?  Certainly the

We can spend 10k on a F#$$G totem pole, but not on properly surfacing roads, WTF.

I ride that route daily and now after grinding the ground the city has caused a huge danger for myself and other cyclist. Thanks City of Tacoma, you goons. At least pave that shit and make it safe, after you say that these new crosswalks cause danger. Thats some muffuggin’ hypocrisy. damn, city yooz crazy.

Cut the gargantuan city police funding and put it toward building a resilient, regenerative city that people will actually want to thrive towards instead of run from.

To me, this is a serious cry for the city to recognize that the downtown core needs to be built out more so for people than cars.  I think the city “gets it” more and more as time and council members turn over.

There’s got to be a better way than grinding down the surface of the street.  You’re only going to antagonize residents this way.  Figure out a solution that’s more innovative.

Maybe help to crowdfunding of the bike lanes and crosswalks?  I’m not sure.  But this is using city resources to destroy city infrastructure.  It’s nuts.

maybe the city manager should learn the law? all corners are crosswalks for pedestrians and card have to stop of there is a pedestrian at them.

a crosswalk is not defined by stripes on the road, it is emphasized by them.

same with bike lanes. bikes are entitled to the entire lane but are suggested to stay to the side of the lane with cars giving a 3 foot clearance.

These DIY crosswalk makers just need to get better about their craft. They need to make their crosswalks look like every other crosswalk so the city isn’t even sure if it’s real or not.

every crosswalk ground away by the city just makes the crosswalk look like a real crosswalk!

STRIKE HARD AND OFTEN!

It’s such an amazing property with a great view too!  I hope someone takes advantage to make this diamond in the rough shine.

I don’t get why Old City Hall (OCH) and the parking lot (and graffiti garage?) across the street isn’t turned into new city hall.  Why can’t they buy it back?  It should be living it’s destiny as City Hall, IMO. 

The new building in the parking lot across the street could have Broadway street level business incubator storefronts similar to the SpaceWorks program.  They could build their parking garage up the hill in the Stadium District, with more Business Incubator street-front spots, on a

Thanks for write up and the support! Peter, the brewery and taproom will both be located on the ground floor.  The top two floors are office space.

Too bad it looks like the Space Needle…..

owe Yuan Lui studios $106,000 for what?

The “survey” might be a way for Metro Parks to find out how people think “they are doing.” I would suggest that the true purpose is to find out if people would support another increase in the property or sales tax rate for the benefit of the district. I’ve looked at my property tax statement and I say .... NO.