Six Years and Waiting

Announced almost six years ago was the purchasing of the Elks Lodge in downtown Tacoma. Roughly a month ago came the announcement that renovations were finally beginning. Why the six year lag you ask? Well, the purchasing company, McMenamins has your answer.

To find the answer you first need to know who is McMenamins? McMenamins is a Portland based entertainment company that holds properties throughout Oregon, Bothell and now Tacoma. They also only work on one project at a time, which explains the gap. With the Bothell building now complete, it is finally Tacoma’s turn.

Another recent announcement was that the City of Tacoma has awarded McMenamins with the bid for Old City Hall, located across the street from the Elks Lodge.

McMenamins has a thirty year history of turning historic buildings into entertainment and lodging locations. They are currently planning on renovating the Elks Lodge to feature an event space and a rooftop garden, accompanied by three restaurants, a bar, and a brewery. To top off this massive renovation, there will also be approximately 46 hotel rooms for guests to stay and play. The Old City Hall, which will be a few years behind the Elks Lodge, will be a complimentary experience for guests. The plan for Old City Hall is to have at least 60 hotel rooms, a gift shop, soaking pools, community and private meeting spaces, along with a jailhouse themed bar and a rooftop restaurant featuring a greenhouse. The Elks Lodge will have more of a unique floor plan with a labyrinth of different types of rooms, while the Old City Hall will keep its classic design consistent throughout the building.

This is looking to be two very large renovations with promising outcomes. These plans will not only take the burden of these two beautiful yet deteriorating buildings off the shoulders of the city but it will also be an amazing new opportunity for tourism and small businesses to flourish.

The Elks lodge has been purchased completely by McMenamins and due to it being a private selling process, no firm timelines were made mandatory for this building.  However, they are hopeful there will be an opening mid-2017. The Old City Hall is on a lease to potentially own status with firm deadlines so as not to experience a six year lag as with the Elks Lodge. Final details, deadlines, and costs have not yet been set but City Council is hoping to have everything approved by early next year. Decisions on if this will be a purchase to own property are still unclear and neither party is giving an indication on which way they are leaning.

With only a handful of historic buildings left to renovate in Tacoma, many people are looking to see what possible projects could be on the horizon for the companies who were outbid for the Old City Hall. Companies such as, Daniels Real Estate, a Seattle based company with experience in historical restorations, lost to McMenamins but is still interested in moving to Tacoma. Some are speculating that the Washington Building on Pacific Ave, the University-Union Club at 539 Broadway, and the Mansion on Broadway may be next to join the ranks of Tacoma’s beautiful historic renovations. Tacoma has a strong grip on their past and is not going to let changing times take away from the rich history that we have to offer. Restoring historic buildings is classically Tacoma and here to stay for many more generations to enjoy.  

Time to Once Again Brush Up on Tacoma Arts Month

As many Tacoma locals know, the month of October brings many wonderful things to the downtown area. While most cities are hunkering down for the winter and the end of tourist season, Tacoma is still buzzing with so many things to offer. A little cold has never bothered the city with the most grit. Tacoma locals are tough, weather going people with a soft side for art. As you might have guessed it is time for Tacoma Arts Month.

While some exhibits are presented year round in local store fronts and in the plethora of museums that the downtown area has to offer, some of the exhibits are only here for the month of October so be sure to see what our local artists have to offer at this year’s festivities. This year’s 76 exhibits are sure to inspire the artist within us all.

Being the 14^th anniversary for the Tacoma Arts Month, it promises to be a spectacular showcase of art, culture, dance and local businesses. One of the highlights to Tacoma Arts Month is that participants get the opportunity to take a studio tour October 17-18 at 35 locations featuring over 57 artists and a unique look into how their art comes to life. The tours run on both days from 11am-5pm. The tour is a free, self-guided tour and offers the opportunity to purchase art pieces from the artists directly. Be sure to get your Tacoma Studio Tour Passport to earn stamps and win prize packages. Tacoma Arts Month online website offers you a customized map with all tour locations to ensure you don’t miss out and have the opportunity to create your own art experience. Information regarding the passport, maps, and all that the month of October has to offer can be found on their website http://tacomaartmonth.wpengine.com/

Tacoma Arts Month kicks off this Thursday, October 1^st at 6pm at the Historic Tacoma Armory. This is a free public event with no RSVP required. The kickoff will be featuring pop-up exhibits, aerial and cirque performances, dance, poetry, and food. This event is being sponsored by Tacoma Arts Commission, SpaceworksTacoma, Historic Tacoma Armory.

Spaceworks Tacoma - Activating Space

Activated space.

It’s one of the most important elements of community development and neighborhood revitalization. It’s importance is understood by both high level urban planners and grass roots community organizers. It speaks both to architectural design and the importance of third spaces for people to gather, and it speaks to everything in between.

In Tacoma we have an inventive and robust effort that understands the importance of activated space - it’s called Spaceworks Tacoma.

Spaceworks is a partnership between the City of Tacoma and the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce that is designed to activate empty storefronts and vacant spaces in the city with art and creative enterprise.

Property owners donate their vacant spaces and Spaceworks makes those low-cost temporary spaces available to artists, entrepreneurs, organizations, and community groups who transform those spaces with creative business, art installations, short term community based projects, or pop-up events.

Spaceworks also provides training, professional development and technical assistance to the participants in the program. 

Have you seen a Spaceworks installation around town? Have you visited a Spaceworks business? Have you attended one of a plethora of creative events and parties held in a Spaceworks activated spaces?

If not, what are you waiting for? They are all around you - in the downtown neighborhood, the Hilltop, the 6th Avenue corridor, and throughout the city.

On June 3rd from noon - 1pm, Spaceworks Tacoma will be highlighted in the Walk Tacoma series for 2015. Spaceworks is hosting a free, guided Public Art Walk that will be lead by Public Art Specialist Rebecca Solverson with the City of Tacoma.

This particular art walk will be 1.5 miles and will explore the local public art and murals found throughout the Hilltop neighborhood. The walk will start at People’s Park on S. 9th and MLK Jr. Way.

One of the more whacky and fun projects that Spaceworks will be involved with is in partnership with the Cartoonist League of Absurd Washingtonians (CLAW) and Downtown on the Go (DOTG).

CLAW has their Open Swim event tonight, May 27th, 7:30 pm at King’s Books. DOTG is sponsoring this open swim event by providing ten blank white bike helmets to be drawn on and decorated by attendees.

The plan is to have the decorated helmets serve as a traveling exhibit for DOTG to be orchestrated by Spaceworks. Rumor has it these helmets might end up on the heads of some well known Tacoma personalities during the Downtown to Defiance event in September. Finally, the helmets will be auctioned off and the proceeds split between DOTG and the CLAW Student Scholarship Fund.

Now that is some creative partnership if you ask me.

The thing about activated space - it is both a function of the space itself and the people that populate it. Spaceworks is doing it’s part. Let’s do ours and populate these spaces with our presence and our dollars.

Creative Colloquy - Kicking the Gate Open

In a world full of gate keepers - Jackie Fender, Joshua Swainston, and William Turbyfill have dispatched the guard and kicked the gate wide open.

Together they are the team behind Creative Colloquy (CC), an online literary site that hosts a monthly reading in Tacoma’s Opera Ally at the B Sharp Coffee House (every last Monday of the month at 7 pm). In addition to the site and the readings, CC has an annual print literary review and a regular podcast that William hosts called LiterallyTacoma. CC primarily focuses on short fiction and novel excerpts, but they also include poetry and other prose.

CC was founded in February of 2014 and their mission is to foster relationships built upon the mutual admiration of the written word and provide a platform to highlight literary talent in the South Sound.

This coming Monday May 25th, I will have the pleasure of emceeing this months reading, along with my fellow co-founder and co-producer of the Drunken Telegraph (DT), Megan Sukys.

I don’t know the team at CC all that well.

I have attended a few of the readings, peruse the site regularly to read what local writers are putting out, and of course I bought a copy of this last years literary review, Creative Colloquy - Volume One. Jackie and I have crossed paths in other storytelling and literary circles.

We were grateful when Jackie invited the Drunken Telegraph to host the upcoming show and cross promote our final  Drunken Telegraph show of the season at Studio 3 of the Broadway Center for the Performing Arts on June 13 at 7:30 pm.

However, beyond my gratitude lies my admiration for CC and it’s team. Certainly, we share some things in common - not the least of which is a love for a story well told, albeit our focus is grounded in the oral tradition and their’s in the written word.

However, my admiration doesn’t end with CC’s fine work of highlighting and promoting storytellers and writers, and in fact is highest as it relates to their commitment to build community.

You see it in that one line of their mission statement - to foster relationships built upon a mutual admiration of the written word.

CC & DT have that in common - it’s not just about the stories and the writing - it’s about community and building relationships.

Going back to my opening point, I grow weary of the self appointed or privilege appointed gate keepers of the arts here in Tacoma and elsewhere. They never really grow the arts, they just recycle through the same old manifestations, which rarely serves more then their out of touch donors and their own egos.

This is why CC is so refreshing.

If you read their publications or come to a reading you will find the words of established and talented local writers - as you should. You will also read and hear the words of emerging writers, of writers who are sharing their work for the first time in a public forum, and yes, sometimes you might hear or read something that you think is really bad.

Perhaps that bad writing will never be any good. Then again, with practice, and with the forum they are provided through CC, perhaps it will get better, and even become great.

Right now I am reading the book The Republic of the Imagination: America in Three Books by the author Azar Nafisi, best known for her book Reading Lolita in Tehran.

Both of Nafisi’s books are about the power, the necessity, and the subversiveness of literature (and story) to transform peoples lives and to re-imagine and shape the identify of a generation and even a whole culture.

This is why I think the two most important words in CC’s mission statement are mutual admiration.

Too often the gate keeper approach to things only allows the ones deemed the most talented to get up close. This isn’t just true in the arts.

I think anyone that has lived in Tacoma for a while can attest that part of our problem as a city has been the role of gate keepers who hoard to much of the power within a chosen few and thus stifle the creative imagination of the masses.

Certainly this isn’t the only issue, but you’d be hard pressed to convince me that it hasn’t been part of the problem.

Not every arts based organization can be or needs to be as egalitarian as CC. But, every community needs a few groups like it to create a place not just for the super talented (whatever that means), but for everyone trying to tell a story.

Luckily CC isn’t the only group that refuses to play a gate keeper role in Tacoma. We have a lot of community based and in touch artists who are focused on building community and developing artists, wherever they are at in their development.

It is true that the tellers of stories and writers are transformed by the process and practice of sharing their words and stories. Still, the greatest service of stories and literature is to the masses. It is to the admirers. The readers and the hearers - whose imaginations, actions, and trajectory are forever changed by their encounter.

So, I say thank you to Jackie, Joshua, and William. Thank you for not only highlighting and cultivating the literary talent and culture of our city, but thank you for building community and opening your gates to every budding writer and storyteller that risks sharing their words and story with us.

I invite all of you to come out and join us this Monday night, right here in the Theater District of downtown Tacoma

Bring your own stories or just bring your imagination. Bring with you a belief that part of how we build the strong community we all want, is to build on our already vibrant arts community, and most importantly take the time to listen to one another’s stories - perhaps even risking to tell our own.

Join Love Tacoma at Hotel Murano and SAVI Day Spa

What: Love Tacoma at Hotel Murano & SAVI Day Spa
When: Wednesday, January 13th from 5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Where: 1320 Broadway Plaza, Tacoma, WA 98402

Tacoma, Wash – Renew and Refresh for the New Year with Love Tacoma at the Hotel Murano Lobby Bar and SAVI Day Spa. On January 13th at 5:30 p.m. the Hotel Murano is hosting Love Tacoma with $8 Love Tacoma Martinis. Enjoy your martini in the lap of luxury with a complementary mini-spa treatment at adjacent SAVI Day Spa.

Choose from one of four spa treatments including: a hand massage, mini foot treatment, seated massage or paraffin hand treatment. Or receive 20% off any spa service during the Love Tacoma event (check www.savidayspa.com for services and call ahead to upgrade). Valet parking is available with a paid service.

Our monthly prize drawing includes a $40 gift card to BITE Restaurant from the Hotel Murano and a gift card for 2 Broadway Pedicures ($120 value) from SAVI Day Spa. Love Tacoma does not charge a membership fee and our events are open to everyone. Come Love Tacoma with us!

Visit www.lovetacoma.com for more information or contact Chelsea Levy, 253.627.2175, chelseal@tacomachamber.org.

Explore. Play. Repeat.

Love Tacoma is an informal monthly gathering of individuals who love Tacoma and enjoy exploring the city’s urban hotspots. It’s a great way to celebrate the places, people, and activities that make Tacoma great.

Love Tacoma goes to Stadium District

Love Tacoma is hosting our December event at Enoteca (21 N. Tacoma Ave.), the wine bar adjacent to the Tacoma Wine Merchant in the Stadium District. Join us TODAY Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 at 5:30 PM.

The atmosphere is fitting for a wine bar: the ambiance is cozy, the wine selection is incredible, and there is a array of delicious cheeses. Enoteca has a vast selection of wines which are mostly from Europe. Enjoy a glass, share a bottle, or create your own flight! The wines are a tremendous value--excellent quality for glasses of wine ranging from $4 to $9 per glass.

Love Tacoma membership is free and our socials are open to everyone. Come Love Tacoma with us!

Explore. Play. Repeat.

Love Tacoma is an informal monthly gathering of individuals who love Tacoma and enjoy exploring the city’s urban hotspots. It’s a great way to meet new friends and celebrate the places, people and activities that make Tacoma great. From casual happy hours to sophisticated wine tastings to next week's most anticipated show, you'll be able to meet and mingle with amazing people in Tacoma's urban community.

For more information, check out our website at http://lovetacoma.com

Love Tacoma is hosting a double feature for our October event! Join us on October 20th for dinner at Minoela followed by a movie at The Grand Cinema, for movies and times go to http://www.grandcinema.com/.

What: Love Tacoma @ Minoela & the Grand Cinema

When: Tuesday, October 20th at 5:30PM-7:30PM

Where: 604 Fawcett Ave Tacoma, WA 98402

Pronounced “min-oh-la”, the restaurant is a wine bistro with a comfortable café feel. They feature fresh local produce and organic options as well. Raffle prizes will include discounts and free meals from the restaurant. There will also be a special $5 glass of wine. Love Tacoma does not charge a membership fee and our socials are open to everyone. Come Love Tacoma with us!

Explore. Play. Repeat.

Love Tacoma is an informal monthly gathering of individuals who love Tacoma and enjoy exploring the city’s urban hotspots. It’s a great way to meet new friends and celebrate the places, people and activities that make Tacoma great. From casual happy hours to sophisticated wine tastings to next week's most anticipated show, you'll be able to meet and mingle with amazing people in Tacoma's urban community.

For more information, check out our website at http://lovetacoma.com

Love Tacoma (and a sunny Wednesday) at Woody's on the Water

What better way to soak in the sun TOMORROW and Love Tacoma than hang out on the deck at Woody's on the Water.

Woody’s is a local, family-owned and operated restaurant with a fun beach casual atmosphere. They offer delicious seafood, steak, salads, and cocktails. The outdoor waterfront patio has a great view of the Foss Marina Waterway and Woody’s is a favorite for local boaters. Come enjoy the sunshine and a signature cocktail with us at Woody’s on the Water!

When: Wednesday, July15, 2009, 5:30pm
Where: 1715 Dock Street (Thea’s landing building on water side).

Explore. Play. Repeat.

Love Tacoma is an informal monthly gathering of individuals who love Tacoma and enjoy exploring the city’s urban hotspots. It’s a great way to meet new friends and celebrate the places, people and activities that make Tacoma great. From casual happy hours to sophisticated wine tastings to next week's most anticipated show, you'll be able to meet and mingle with amazing people in Tacoma's urban community.

For more information, check out our website at http://lovetacoma.com/

Tollefson Plaza Moves from Vision to Action

It is official: the City of Tacoma and the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber have signed the contract for Tollefson Plaza that will have the Chamber manage the Plaza and its growth as the center for Tacoma’s civic life.

Bordered by the Greater Tacoma Convention & Trade Center, Courtyard by Marriot Hotel, Tacoma Art Museum, University of Washington Tacoma, and retail shops and restaurants, an activated Tollefson Plaza will tie together a multitude of interests into one high-profile hub of activity.

Funding for the project received an early supporter when Rainier Pacific Bank became the first to donate $10,000—an encouraging boost representing the significant value that activities in the Plaza will add to downtown.

Events anticipated to activate the space include: Friday lunch markets, big screen movie nights, annual holiday festivities such as a Holiday Tree Lighting and a New Year’s celebration, and a Harvest Festival, among other events. The addition of tables, chairs, and all weather covering along with other aesthetic improvements, will soon create a more inviting environment.

The Chamber is convening area stakeholders to discuss future details and strategies for the Plaza.

For more information contact Joanne Buselmeier, JoanneB@tacomachamber.org

Go Local or Die!

Local Life Tacoma, Go Local Tacoma, and the Downtown Merchants Group will present a series of local charrettes called Go Local or Die. To insure the future vitality of Tacoma's principal urban neighborhood, residents, organizations, and businesses will gather to discuss the immediate and long term benefits from living a more local and community based life.

Both charrettes will feature local panel members, including Derek Young from Exit133.com and Suite133, Patricia Lecy-Davis of the Downtown Merchants Group, Kevin Freitas from FeedTacoma.com, Justin Mayfield from the Tacoma Farmers Market, Erik Bjornson of the North End Neighborhood Council, Amy McBride & Roxanne Murphy from the City of Tacoma, and Morgan Alexander of Tacoma Streetcar, Tacoma Works, and Historic Tacoma.

The charrettes will take place on February 26th and March 25th--both beginning at 6:00 p.m. They will be hosted by Jim Diers, the former Director of Neighborhoods in Seattle and author of the book Neighbor Power. These events are sponsored by Veritas Mortgage Group and will be hosted in their offices at 762 Broadway (next to Tully’s in the Bostwick Building). Appetizers will be provided by Veritas and admission is free, but space will be limited.

First Night: Back Again, Right on the Button!

Next Monday, New Year's Eve, will see the return of the First Night celebration to the heart of Tacoma's downtown Theatre District. First Night is an alcohol free celebration of the New Year, and also also a celebration of community, the arts, creativity, and diversity. This year's theme is "Year of the Pirate," and magicians, fire dancers and other acts will energize the streets where Main Stage entertainment, a host of artistic activities and a midnight fireworks display will be provided free to the public.

Purchase of a First Night button provides all-access admission to entertainment spanning seven venues, including:

• Rhythms of Grammy Award winning recording artists in the Pantages Center;
• Antics of Nellie the Performing Pig--who dazzled Leno, Letterman and Oprah--as she takes the stage at the Rialto Theater;
• A scene from "Shakespeare in the Parking Lot" at Sanford & Son;
• The Club SOTA Instrument Petting Zoo;
• An opportunity to help create 1,000 cranes at the Asia Pacific Cultural Center.

The buttons also provide a free visit to the Museum of Glass and the Washington State History Museum between 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. First Night button holders will also enjoy 15 percent savings while dining at Ravenous, Varsity Grill, India Mahal and Stadium Bistro. Appetizer specials are offered when showing the button at TwoKoi, El Toro or Galanga Thai, and Hello Cupcake is offering a two for one discount.

Buttons may be purchased in advance for $7.00 at Museum of Glass, Leroy Jewelers, Glenna's Clothing and Sanford & Son; on Monday, remaining buttons will be available at the Broadway Center for the Performing Arts box office (with the price then at $8.00). Kids ages 7 and under are admitted free to all venues.

The BIA is providing stepped up security patrols and cleaning to help make the evening brighter. The Tacoma Link light rail hours of operation will be extended until 1:00 a.m. Tuesday to accomodate First Night traffic.

The Russell Exodus: How Real a Threat?

Yesterday's feature article in The News Tribune by Dan Voelpel made public an issue that many downtown leaders have struggled with for months--the potential exodus of the Russell Investment Group, its 1100 employees (currently spread over four buildings) and the potential utilization of 1.2 million square feet of office space.

Russell’s major leases in Tacoma expire in 2013--a strategic corporate move to consolidate operations. At that time, the company has three options:

• Add on to the current 'A' St. headquarters;
• Build a high-rise office tower elsewhere in Tacoma;
• Build a high-rise office tower or a low-rise corporate campus elsewhere in the Puget Sound region.

For several months now, City of Tacoma and private leaders have been mobilizing a "full court press" to make one of the first two options the preferred one for Russell. Among the strategies in play are efforts to find Russell a suitable site to construct a new corporate headquarters, new tax-incentive legislation, development of a parking system/streetcar network, greater height limits on skyscrapers, and a campaign to reposition downtown Tacoma as attractive and affordable to other corporate office users. It's also part of the impetus behind the Creative Cities Project, which has aimed to give Tacoma more of an edge in the increasing world competition for knowledge workers.

People Who Stay in Glass Hotels...

Next March is the official opening date for Hotel Murano (formerly the Sheraton Tacoma Hotel), decked out with works of (world class) glass from more than forty artists from around the world. Works by native son Dale Chihuly and other notables will help showcase the ongoing multimillion-dollar makeover of downtown’s largest and most distinguished hotel---and the emerging district around it. Hotel Murano even has an art curator, Tessa Papas--how many lodging facilities can make that claim?

It's no secret that the area around the hotel has undergone a stunning transformation in just the past few years. The BIA and other parties are now involved in helping to align this significant new private venture with public and nonprofit investments in Tacoma’s brand as a center for glass art. Hotel Murano's glass art will help tie key locations like the Museum of Glass and its distinctive cone-shaped hot shop, the Tacoma Art Museum’s collection of early Chihuly works, and the Bridge of Glass into one conceptual whole. It's also one more reason to brand Tacoma as one of America's most creative cities.

Featured artists include Chihuly, Hiroshi Yamano of Japan, Richard Whiteley of Australia, Miriam de Fiore of Italy, Karen La Monte of the Czech Republic, Vibeke Skov of Denmark, Janusz Walentynowicz of Poland, and Costas Varotsos of Greece, among others.

Admittedly, March is a long time to wait to experience the excitement; fortunately, Hotel Murano maintains the Looking Glass, a blog celebrating the hotel's renovation and promoting positive happenings throughout downtown.

New York, Washington (DC), Philadelphia, and...Tacoma?

At today's City Center Luncheon, Tacoma Art Museum director Stephanie Stebich made an interesting observation about Tacoma's position as a center for culture and the arts.

Her observation was that there are only a handful of cities in America where there are three or more significant museums within walking distance of each other--and that those cities include New York (Manhattan), Washington (the federal capital), Philadelphia, Fort Worth and Tacoma. It's a thought-provoking observation.

The three museums in Tacoma are the Museum of Glass, the Washington History Museum, and (of course) Stebich's charge--the Tacoma Art Museum.

Glass Roots Will Foster Growth in Local Arts

Downtown stakeholders looking for more after last weekend's Showcase Tacoma event should come out Sunday for the 2007 Glass Roots Festival from 12 Noon until 6:00 p.m. outside Embellish Multispace Salon (Ct. 'D' between 11th and 13th streets). This year's return engagement features live music and drama performances, visual arts and food booths--all presented by local artists and merchants.

Spawned from a meeting and brainstorming session co-sponsored by the BIA in November 2005, Tacoma Arts Community (TACom) is a non-profit group of creative visionaries working to promote, develop and sustain all arts in the greater Tacoma region.

Seattle Cites Tacoma's Creative Revival

James Vesely, Editorial Page Editor for The Seattle Times, wrote a glowing piece on the Creative Cities initiative in his column in yesterday's newspaper.

Vesely gets it right, citing the effort as "an initiative to merge imagination and academia into a creative combination" by building on four key pricipals articulated by cultural guru Richard Florida, who has been part of the initiative from the start.

While the Seattle (dba "regional") press has been at times disdainful of all things Tacoman, its been consiostently supportive of the Creative Cities inititative. When will Tacoma's local press do the same?