Museums Closed this Third Thursday

The Third Thursday of the month is typically when our downtown museums offer free admission to all comers.  Unfortunately, the weather has closed all of the museums for this month's walk.  Often there are numerous galleries also involved in the event.  If you are still planning on attending one, I would highly recommend calling ahead of time to see if they are still open.  The Artwalk website can be found here for future months: http://www.artwalktacoma.com/

Tacoma Art Museum: http://www.tacomaartmuseum.org/
Washington State History Museum: http://www.washingtonhistory.org/visitus/default.aspx
Museum of Glass: http://www.museumofglass.org/
Children's Museum: http://www.playtacoma.org/

UPDATE 2: Schuster, Parking, & Transportation Updates

Downtown Tacoma has a handful of access points along its eastside, where it abuts the water.  Now the ice storm has claimed one of them - Schuster Parkway.

With the extensive snow piled on trees, the added weight of the ice was too much for many of the trees.  Schuster Parkway is littered with broken branches and small landslide in addition to all the snow and ice.  The City has closed the street until they've had a chance to clear the debris from the three lanes its currently obstructing.

We'll let you know if/when we hear more.

UPDATE:
Schuster Parkway is expected to remain closed for most of the day.  According to the City, slides are continuing to occur as they are removing debris.

Also, for those who are downtown, there is no parking enforcement today due to the hazardous conditions and cars stranded in some areas of snow and ice.  This should be especially helpful to those residents who park on-street and have not ventured out in the last day.

Please note that a TPD officer may still cite anyone parked hazardously - blocking traffic, crosswalks, etc.  If your vehicle does become disabled, please do your best to move it out of traffic.

UPDATE 2:
The Tacoma LINK cannot stay ahead of the ongoing icing.  For this reason, Sound Transit is suspending LINK service for the rest of the day.  If you need to get to one end of downtown or the other, Pierce Transit busses are continuing to run on snow routes.

BIA Snow Maintenance

Each year we seem to get a snowfall or two in Tacoma, but usually not quite like this.  On the way in this morning I saw our BIA maintenance team working hard to keep downtown rolling for those businesses that were open.  This raised the question of how does the BIA respond when the snow falls?

The BIA's first responsibility is to prevent flooding on streets.  This can often happen when a stormdrain gets clogged with snow.  When the crews showed up early this morning, they first went throughout the area clearing the drains.  With the continuous snowfall throughout the day, they've been back clearing drains where needed.

Once the drains have been cleared, the crews have been removing snow from in front of the open retail establishments.  Since there are 84-blocks within the BIA, this can take some time.  As the crews move throughout downtown, they are clearing a path from the front door to the street, not the entire sidewalk.  With the constant snowfall, the BIA has been trying to get salt onto the icy sidewalks as well.

The BIA is only one piece of the puzzle in keeping downtown moving during snowfall.  The City, building managers, and businesses all play a role as well.  This means everyone pitching in as they are able.

The BIA will be back at it early tomorrow morning after what could be another interesting night.  If you see a drain causing trouble or we missed your business, please let us know and we will try and make sure we get to you.