Tacoma tenant protections measure passes — now what?

By Lauren Gallup
On May 25, a number of supporters of the Tacoma For All initiative for tenant protections, rallied in front of the City Hall building. Photo by Lauren Gallup.
The final release of election results for Pierce County showed a victory for those who have been pushing for a set of progressive tenant protections in Tacoma. “We feel really proud of what we've achieved. It was a real David versus Goliath kind of fight,” said Ty Moore, campaign manager for Tacoma For All, the group behind the initiative. Citizens’ Initiative Measure Read More

Controversial Tacoma warehouse proposal moves forward

By Lauren Gallup
The currently vacant site that developer Bridge Industrial is seeking to use for an industrial warehouse in South Tacoma. / Courtesy of Michelle Mood.
The City of Tacoma hearing examiner has upheld the city’s decision to issue a development permit for a mega-warehouse in South Tacoma. The permit decision was appealed by Seattle nonprofit EarthJustice, on behalf of the South Tacoma Neighborhood Council and 350 Tacoma, which argued that the city and developer hadn’t adequately analyzed the environmental impacts of the Read More

Get ready for the heat, west-siders!

By Lauren Gallup
Beachgoers stay cool Monday afternoon at Owen Beach in Tacoma. (Credit: Lauren Gallup NWPB)
Just in time for the Fourth of July holiday, the west side of Washington is going to see some sunny, hot weather. The daytime highs of 80- and 90- plus degrees being predicted might still seem abnormal to those who call the Puget Sound basin home, but those temperatures are on trend with the hotter summers climatologists have been tracking. Historically, Western Read More

Funding for some Tacoma homeless shelters reduced

By Lauren Gallup
The downtown campus of the Tacoma Rescue Mission, who's men's and women's shelters are set to be at capacity July 1 due to budget cuts. // Lauren Gallup NWPB
This year’s funding for Tacoma Rescue Mission homeless shelters has decreased. That means next month, the mission will have to decrease the number of shelter spaces available. As of June 23, the mission had 24 spaces available in their women’s shelter and 39 in their men’s shelter. But by July 1, those will go away, according to the mission. Read More

Pride in Sports: Dockyard Roller Derby

By Lauren Gallup
Skaters on the Dockyard Roller Derby league in Tacoma practice on Monday, June 12. // Lauren Gallup NWPB
Sense of community. Belonging. Teamwork. Identity. These feelings can come from playing a team sport. However, sports often are gendered spaces that follow traditional societal expectations. Then, there’s roller derby, which has a history of defying traditional female roles and giving a space for women to compete. One derby league, Dockyard Roller Derby in Tacoma, is Read More

A park from pollution: 30 years after the ASARCO smokestack demolition, Tacoma’s waterfront transforms

By Lauren Gallup
An image of the ASARCO smelter in Tacoma, showing the smokestack rising above the waterfront. Photo credit Tacoma Public Library.
It was a clear day in Tacoma on January 17, 1993. Commencement Bay was crowded with boats. Families gathered on boat decks and across North Tacoma sidewalks to watch the demolition of what was once the tallest smokestack in the world, the ASARCO smokestack that loomed over Tacoma’s waterfront for nearly 100 years. With the press of a button, a child, supervised by Read More

Tacoma unveils Black Lives Matter mural

By Lauren Gallup
Along Pacific Avenue in downtown Tacoma, the city’s new Black Lives Matter mural unfolds across the 23,000 square-foot Tollefson Plaza in bright colors. The mural cascades down the steps of the plaza and from different viewpoints, it reveals different faces, messages and meanings. The challenging space makes the viewer work to absorb the mural — something lead artist Read More

Pushing Back On The Gentrification Of The Hilltop

By Lauren Gallup
The new light rail expansion stop in the Hilltop, one of the many recent developments in this Tacoma neighborhood. Photo by Lauren Gallup.
Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood is a place where generations have raised families, where small businesses have blossomed and where art intersects with your local corner mart. But it's also a neighborhood where residents have faced systemic racism in the form of redlining, where the FBI monitored the sidewalks in the late 90s, and where gentrification is displacing longtime Read More

Greening Up A Formerly Redlined Neighborhood

By Lauren Gallup
Ailene Ettinger with the Nature Conservancy installs a device to track air temperature on a utility pole in South Tacoma this January. Photo by Courtney Baxter.
On an early and rainy June day, Ailene Ettinger is using a power drill to install a small, metal device on a utility pole. The device is a temperature logger, housed under a white rectangular UV radiation shield. Once installed, it constantly measures air temperature in this South Tacoma neighborhood, sending the data via Bluetooth to an app that Ettinger checks on her Read More
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