Sound Transit Open House

Members of Sound Transit's staff including CEO Joni Earl met Pierce County residents in our neck of the woods Thursday evening, holding an open house at The Tacoma Dome Station. ST staff answered questions, navigated attendees through an impressive array of presentation materials, and encouraged attendees to share their feedback through conversation and written comment. Town Hall Tourist and Tacoma Tomorrow blogger Chris Karnes will post a more detailed account of the open house later today.

Campaign Ads Already?

It seems unbelievably early for it to be campaign season in Tacoma, yet every time I logged onto Facebook this week I was met by paid advertisements from recently appointed City Councilmember Robert Thoms' campaign.

A quick trip over to the Public Discloser Committee's website revealed that Thoms, a lobbyist by trade, certainly has got the campaign cash to spend as he has already raised over 25 thousand dollars. His opponent, small-business owner and Go Local Board President Patricia Lecy-Davis has raised about 6 thousand.

Read more...

The Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation - or its more popular name DAHP - adores people or organizations that like old things. Every year DAHP recognizes persons, organizations and projects that have achieved distinction in the field of historic preservation. DAHP calls the award the State Historic Preservation Officer's Award for Outstanding Achievement in Historic Preservation - and the city of Tacoma nabbed one this year for its work rehabilitation of the Murray Morgan Bridge.

Let's read the press release:

Read more...

Comment On This Post

There was a time when the Weekly Volcano covered local policy and politics, writing about issues ranging from transit cuts, to marriage equality to education. Our weekly coverage of politics and civic issues came to a halt in 2009 when the economy tanked and ad dollars shrank, gutting our newsroom. We threw all our focus toward a hip take on culture, food and music flavored by a lifelong love of the South Sound.

Today, the Weekly Volcano ventures back into the newsroom with the launch of our new blog, Town Hall Tourist. Why venture into politics and policy now? The short answer is because we believe that there is a lot to share about the who/why/what/where/how of local civics that isn't being shared or adequately explained by our our local partners in print.

That isn't meant as a barb or a diss, quite on the contrary actually. We've always been, and will continue to be, fans the other media outlets in Tacoma. We believe with so many crucial policy debates continuously ongoing in our community our eyes, ears and voice can help keep you that much more hip to what's going on at City Hall and elsewhere.

So what can you expect from Town Hall Tourist? Our goal is simply to help explain public policy debates by analyzing and critiquing them through a smart, critical and urban-centric lens. 

Spend a few minutes analyzing how Tacomans voted on recent issues like the TPS school bond, marriage equality or the proposed transit tax increase. It doesn't take assistance from James Carville to identify what our community values are and what we expect from our public policies and politicians.

With that in mind we won't hesitate to approach policy - and elections - from the standpoint of community members who value public K-12 and higher education, transit, density, inclusiveness and social justice.

Our goal is to help you cut through the bullshit and keep track of what the folks we elected are up to. We'll go into the weeds of local debates like link expansion, education reform and MLK restoration and, using research and reason, we'll call 'em how see 'em. 

We'll be a new voice in some debates that already have many, but hopefully just as often we'll help kick-start new ones. We're convinced that in our little polis opinions should be welcome and the citizenry informed. And we think we can help.

Join us. Please visit often, and follow us at twitter.com/TownHallTourist.