Posted Sat, Jul 2, 11:03 a.m.

This rather heartbreaking story should turn any fence-sitters against digital billboards: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v;=7aQjPWXWNGo Another thing not mentioned by this article: digital billboards make noise! Tacoma has a lot of billboards along 6th Ave, a highly walkable strip of restaurants and shops. Replacing them with these would be horrid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v;=AoKlQ-Dufao The people ...

Posted Tue, Mar 29, 10:37 p.m.

Ross — The News Tribune recently reported a restoration estimate of $14M. Still a lot of money. Raventrickster — I couldn't agree more that the obvious solution is to permanently beach her. I know that isn't popular among the real preservationists, but you have to figure that much of that ...

Posted Sat, Jul 3, 3:05 p.m.

Even if the facilities cost is lowest in Newport because of their big state subsidy, the decreased lifespan of the expensive ships being docked in saltwater vs. Seattle's freshwater certainly changes that equation.

Posted Thu, Nov 5, 3:35 p.m.

To be fair, Pierce County is only passing I-1033 with 50.27% of the vote (as of the time of this post). That's a virtual tie. Pierce is rejecting R-71 with 53.08% of the vote, which is a much more significant margin, although it's far from a blowout.

Posted Mon, Nov 2, 2:56 p.m.

I believe it was actually the New England keeper who stomped on Montero's hand (in the Open Cup final), not Chicago and chest. No mention of the Sounders goal called back by an early, unheard whistle from a Houston foul seconds earlier? It was my understanding that refs usually hold ...

Posted Mon, Nov 2, 2:49 p.m.

I found it a bit odd that a column on regionalism doesn't mention a single county or city outside of King County, other than Olympia, which was named only to brag about how the Eastside has worked together to get better representation (read: stuff for themselves) in state government. Regionalism ...

Posted Fri, Sep 18, 12:26 p.m.

I'll chime in with the praise for this article. As a jilted Tacoman, I can say that down here there's a whole lot of frustration not only with Seattle but with Sound Transit, which has really ticked off a lot of people. First they built us a light rail line ...

Posted Mon, Sep 14, 2:34 p.m.

Don't really agree about the 12-man penalty being a 14-point swing as the extra man was the one who blocked the field goal, but it was definitely a 4- or 7-point swing depending on your faith in Mare's ability to make a long field goal.

Posted Thu, Sep 10, 1:11 p.m.

Just read in a News Tribune op-ed that "roughly three-quarters of [Russell employees] live in Pierce County." Considering the Pierce County line ends just south of Federal Way and there isn't much between Federal Way and Tacoma, it's pretty safe to assume that most of those three-quarters live in Tacoma ...

Posted Wed, Sep 9, 4:54 p.m.

Jobs-housing proximity is also not taking a company from Tacoma, in and around which most of its employees live, and plopping it into downtown Seattle. Not to place the blame solely on Seattle's shoulders, but if Seattle was truly interested in jobs-housing proximity it wouldn't have offered incentives and open ...

Posted Fri, Aug 28, 1 p.m.

I think the #1 problem is exemplified in this quote: ...only 16 percent of the population lives in Seattle, although about a quarter of the jobs are in the region's biggest city. That’s why there are many commuters, including lots of people living in Seattle who work at jobs outside ...

Posted Mon, Jun 15, 12:20 p.m.

Avoid canned salmon, too. I worked four years in a salmon cannery/freezer operation. All the good fish go to the freezer. The rest go to the cannery. It can get pretty ugly in there. Canned salmon is like Russian roulette — some cans have decent meat, some have scary meat, ...

Posted Fri, Jun 5, 2:29 p.m.

Wow! Thank you David Brewster! I have new respect for Crosscut after reading this piece. So rare for a Seattle-centric publication of any kind to support Tacoma, however deserving. Seattle is one horrible big brother. My favorite quote — which echoes a point I've made in comments to previous Russell-related ...

Posted Tue, May 26, 3:21 p.m.

[virtual standing ovation] I love this speech. Why doesn't Seattle try creating something like Tacoma's North Slope Historic District (the state's largest historic district) to preserve a few bungalow neighborhoods? Tacoma's NSHD formation came a bit late -- a handful of beautiful old buildings were already torn down to make ...

Posted Fri, May 1, 12:48 p.m.

Funny, I was pissed off by the very same line that got a few of you other commenters. I'm sorry that the WaMu Tower is empty. But if you think that stealing Tacoma's most important employer is good for our region, you're a fool. Russell abandoning Tacoma would be severely ...

Posted Fri, Oct 3, 3:31 p.m.

RE: Van Dyk comment: She has a genuine populist appeal in a time when there is much dissatisfaction with establishmentarian performance in both the public and private sectors. There's also much dissatisfaction with a certain other someone with similar populist appeal – the W himself. I like to believe my ...

Posted Wed, Aug 27, 1 p.m.

Best part of this post ...: ... is the off-hand "Sound Transit mag-lev" comment! It baffles me why our ST leadership wants us to pay billions in taxes to build what is essentially a streetcar regional commuting network. Linking Tacoma to Seattle is a tremendous cost made in large part ...

Posted Thu, Jul 31, 4:18 p.m.

Right on: I couldn't agree more. Unfortunately, today's transporation planners, Sound Transit in particular, are too Seattle-centric to see the truth. My favorite gripe is that Sound Transit's idea of building light rail to Tacoma, Bellevue, and Everett is trying to fix the effect of our transportation problems, not the ...

Posted Tue, Jul 22, 11:22 a.m.

Wrong from the second sentence: It's hard to put any stock in an article that's spouting inaccuracies in the lead paragraph: It mainly would fund a three-county extension beyond Seattle of a light rail line that is not yet completed in the city. Is he counting King Co twice? As ...

Posted Fri, Jul 18, 3:44 p.m.

RE: Moving foward: From MY Tacoma/Pierce County perspective (not unlike yours, tacomason): Sound Transit will be giving the second-largest city in the area ... what again? Increased diesel train service? That's it? ST wants to raise our taxes to buy half of the land required to someday build a light ...

Posted Tue, Jul 15, 12:58 p.m.

Pierce County Holdouts Still Holding Out: How exactly does the new project proposal attract Pierce County holdouts? Did TVD look to see what we're getting down here? How pathetic is this, for a 0.5% sales tax increase? Neither plan ... would bring the light-rail line into Pierce County. In fact, ...

Posted Wed, Jun 25, 12:50 p.m.

Uniting jobs and homes: I thought this was a great series overall, but I felt it only touched on the real root cause of our traffic congestion and need for improved transit options. In fact, it seems like no one ever talks about the cause; they only want to focus ...

Posted Thu, May 22, 2:39 p.m.

What about moving it?: I think this decision is character-destroying for Ballard. Even if the building isn't an architectural gem, it's a part of history. Plus, it's a cool building! I'm surprised so many people don't see it that way. Regardless, Seattle wants its 1000th generic condo building so it ...

Posted Mon, May 12, 11:40 a.m.

Buffalo = good: It's even worse that they were buffalo (actually bison, I believe). Bison are raised in methods less damaging to the environment, provide much healthier meat, and taste better too! Not that this would have been okay if they were cows.

Posted Fri, May 2, noon

Pierce County gets ... land?!: How does ST plan to get Pierce County excited about this new round of taxes when we aren't going to actually see any new light rail? All that money to purchase land right-of-ways for light rail in ANOTHER new round of taxes, in ANOTHER decade? ...

Posted Wed, Apr 2, 3:59 p.m.

Give them a chance: Skepticism is healthy, but I don't like hearing how the plan could be DOA before it even has a chance. Yes the waterfront idea was a mistake, but it was only their coolest location, not their only location. And don't slam them for presenting the idea ...

Posted Wed, Mar 12, 11:49 a.m.

RE: Geographic diversification of business needed: I think dbreneman and I are buddies on this one. I'm fortunate that I get to live and work in Tacoma, mostly because I own and operate a business, Wallflower Photography, that draws people from all over the region to me. When I have ...

Posted Thu, Mar 6, 12:58 p.m.

Pretty fair assessment: I started reading this article with some trepidation. Seattle publications are usually not very fair-minded when it comes to writing about Tacoma. I was relieved to find this article to be pretty fair, especially when it came to describing the +/- of Tacoma living for bright young ...

Posted Mon, Feb 25, 3:58 p.m.

The real cause of rush hour ...: ... is the massive imbalance between where people work and where people live. For example, some 30% of Tacoma residents work in Seattle. Tacoma is 200,000 people, say 90,000 workers out of there. Don't you think that instead of spending billions making it ...

Posted Mon, Jan 14, 11:21 a.m.

UW-Tacoma: I live in Tacoma and have watched the UW-T neighborhood with great interest. It has really boosted Tacoma's south downtown area, which is particularly important because this area also contains the museums and most other tourist draws. The UW-T development has been performed with much historical preservation in mind, ...

Posted Thu, Jan 3, 12:28 a.m.

Tacoma's got what you're missing: While Seattle has been obsessed with glittery silliness for some time (see 1960s, Space Needle) I agree that its taste for the modern has grown far worse After Microsoft. Many of Seattle's projects are commendable in their originality and execution, but it has become the ...