KFnet in T-Town
May. 14, 2008 at 9:56am
$200K in Grants Available for Historic Preservation
Historic Tacoma and other local heritage groups would like you to know about grant money now available for historic preservation. The county has $200,000 to put toward such projects and are accepting applications now until July 7, 2008 for grants ranging from $2,000 to $25,000. Here's the press release from Historic Tacoma:
Historic Tacoma and other county heritage groups have worked to ensure that a portion of a new court filing fee for historic preservation will be broadly available for preservation projects throughout Pierce County. A new $200,000 annual grant cycle for preservation and heritage projects has just been announced by Pierce County's historic preservation office.
The county will accept grant applications ranging from $2,000 to $25,000 until July 7 at 4:30 p.m. Matching funds are required and prospective project activities must take place in Pierce County and be completed by Sept. 15, 2009. Owners of historic property, nonprofit organizations, and public agencies are eligible to apply.
Funding for the grant program was established by the state Legislature, which passed a 2005 law directing $1 of a $5-dollar filing fee toward general historic preservation. Distribution of the funds is the responsibility of County Council. The county had accrued approximately $912,000 as of the fall of 2007. Much of the accrual was directed to county departments for document storage and retention, while the remainder will be devoted to historic resource inventories and a county-wide document resource survey. Estimated annual revenue of $312,000 will be devoted to the annual grant cycle and additional funding for staffing the county's historic preservation office.
Grant workshops will be held starting May 15th. For more information on the grant program, workshop dates/locations and a grant application see the County's website.
Think Never Never Land could make use of such funds? If not, where else might these grants help out?
May. 14, 2008 at 6:46am
Downtown Farmers' Market Starts Tomorrow
This years season of downtown Thursday Farmers' Markets kicks off tomorrow from 9am-2pm. It takes place along Broadway between 11th and 13th Street and features plenty of fresh, locally grown produce, live music, food from local restaurants, the new local living lounge, and (at least tomorrow) some amazing weather. Hope to see you there!
May. 13, 2008 at 5:43pm
Never Never Land Will Never be the Same
Fabled creepy spot Never Never Land in Point Defiance Park is going to get some TLC. The Old Woman in the Shoe's large boot will get fixed up while three other structures (Simple Simon's Pie House, the Gingerbread House, and the Hickory Dickory Dock clock) will get the boot. After shooting our recent film there it's no wonder these will be taken out for safety reasons (I believe Jake's foot went through the floor of the Hickory Dickory Dock house at one point) but, still, I'll miss these gems of mediocrity. Bid your fond farewells now 'cause it's coming down this Thursday. Maybe they'll be able to remove those Asarco-related warning signs too. What a downer! ;)
Pics from a Photo Gang Outing last June
Here's some background on this corner of the park itself:
Never Never Land was a private attraction owned and operated by Alfred Peterson of Victoria, B.C. from 1964 to 1985. During its first year of operation more than 90,000 people visited the attraction, but its financial success was short lived. Falling attendance over the years, vandalism, and theft of the storybook figurines led to skyrocketing operating expenses that contributed to Peterson’s decision not to renew his lease when it expired in 1985.
In an effort to preserve attraction, Metro Parks Tacoma purchased the structures, figurines and molds and re-opened Never Never Land in the summer of 1986 as a park district facility. During that time, Metro Parks faced the same issues that had plagued Peterson’s operation.
In 2001, the District removed the fencing surrounding the property and opened the remaining storybook structures that were deemed safe and in good repair as part of a public picnic area. The pathway figurines were placed in storage as a protection against theft and vandalism. The popular fiberglass Humpty Dumpty remained atop the entryway books until 2004 when he was removed to undergo repair.
The storybook characters and their molds will remain in storage as the District works with the public to determine future playground needs and interests for Point Defiance Park.
May. 13, 2008 at 10:20am
Gringo de Loco Closes
Hope you didn't blink
Just saw on Spew that, a mere month after opening, Gringo de Loco has closed. They cleaned up the former La Costa spot and had a go at Mexican food and blues music. Seems as though the current owners dreams were dashed by a $50K lien on the place that came with their hasty purchase. They left the attorney part out of the buy and this is the outcome. Here's a snip from a lengthy note/back story on their website:
At the time we took over, La Costa was months behind on the power and gas bills. Payroll was late. State and City taxes had not been paid for much of 2007. To sum it up, if there is a vendor or organization that a restaurant needs to deal with to conduct business you can bet we owed them something. To make matters even more difficult, the old owner had packed up and left for Guadalajara without a word just days into the month of March. Not a good sign.
Here's a PDF of the note.
I feel bad for the current owner but it seems they'll be able to avoid all the debt due to a clause in the purchase agreement. Farewell, Gringo de Loco, we barely knew thee.
TacomaMama and friends ate there though!
May. 13, 2008 at 8:11am
100th Monkey to Hit Freighthouse
The next 100th Monkey is now on the docket for May 28 at Freighthouse Square. There will be live music and art and, you can bet, lots of creative and exciting people to meet and greet. Tiles are by Bonnie Chance and it looks like the wine is back.
More on the FeedTacoma Calendar
Can't say I've ever been to a 100th Monkey. I remember seeing/hearing about one a couple years ago that was under the east side of the Murray Morgan bridge and, though moderately creepy, I wonder if those more clandestine locations will make their way back into the rotation or if this group has become too "legit" to fly under the radar enough to pull that sort of locale off. I want some event to happen on the Murray Morgan bridge. 100th Monkey, Urban Arts fest, whatever! It's a huge space that's just begging to be used. So who wants to help find out how we can plan something atop this derelict beauty?
May. 12, 2008 at 4:23pm
Me and the Murray Morgan in Germany
Hasselhoff better watch his back
Remember that super vain entry I posted with photos of me taken by my buddy Gavin? Well, his talent was immediately recognized by someone browsing Flickr 'cause about a month ago Gav emailed me to ask if I'd sign a model release. I did and he made a stock photo sale of one of the pics to a German agency.
Today he sent the end result in the form of an information flyer:
That same shot of me geeking out on the Murray Morgan is also on their homepage:
Congrats on the sale Gav and cheers to him for making me and a great location in Tacoma look flyer worthy to someone across the pond. And if you want to learn more about seminars regarding local German politics, make sure and check out the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung website. ;)
May. 12, 2008 at 6:54am
How's the Hub doing?
After a little more than a month open The Hub looks like it's doing solid business. After a solid opening there's been some less than glowing reviews mixed with other good ones. So how are they doing today?
AP, ensie, Cassioposa and I stopped by last night and noticed many a family celebration Mother's Day dinner there. I kept things light and went for just a Caesar salad and munched on some of fries in the basket ensie ordered. The salad was good and I believe AP enjoyed his fish 'n chips. Service was great with our fries coming out quickly and drink refills steadily rolling in. Our server checked on us a few times and even discounted ensie's meal after a mention of the overy-salty mashed potatoes. I gave them a taste and they were salty and no where near as fantastic as the ones I had upon our first visit last month. ensie's steak also missed the mark. She wasn't asked how she'd like it cooked so it came medium and a bit dried out. The pepper rub also seemed burnt which rendered it pretty tasteless. AP's meal also came with the fries he asked be swapped for a salad though, instead, he received both.
Not sure if these are still just kinks or if this sort of spotty quality and inconsistent service will continue. Maybe the steak will never but up to snuff (though, I've had it when they make it that way) and visitors should stick to the Italian side of the menu. Hard to tell at this point but I certainly haven't given up just yet. How's the Hub been for you lately?
More "Hub" via FeedTacoma
May. 10, 2008 at 11:42am
Video ~ Blogland Murders (and our minor parking problem)
Our 72 Hour Film Fest Entry
Without further ado, and for those that missed out on last night, I give you Blogland Murders, a short film by Joe Izenman and Kevin Freitas.
The plot: Kevin knows someone's secret true identity but that someone doesn't want it to get out and decides to take Kevin and anyone he's associated with out. As I mentioned last week, we had a blast making our little film and it was a pleasure to show it. Tomorrow I'll take some time to throw up some fun behind-the-scenes photos. Thanks again to everyone who helped out!
The festival overall was pretty decent. There were some films that made me smile and plenty of others that just kinda' made me feel claustrophobic. Positive standouts in my mind were the imagery in Bridge Steps Walls (think that's what it was called, working without a program here), the quality filmmaking of An Army of Two, the production of the zombie flick, and the silliness of the boxers vs. briefs 1920s styled silent. The Rialto was packed but the production itself could've been run a bit smoother. First, I'm not a huge fan of the DVD showing the films and also for sale having the title of our film misspelled:
I also thought there needed to be a little black space between each film to help separate them in viewers' minds a bit -- especially for those with not titles or credits. Other than that it was an interesting evening capped by an even more interesting occasion of having our car towed. Yea, though my lovely wife warned me, I parked in a space just outside the Pantages with an unmarked curb with no signage marking the area at all. Nevertheless, upon leaving the film festival, we realized our car was missing.
I feel like a dolt and apologize to Sarah for having to put up with me in this regard, but this is bullshit. In an urban setting where every little curb is marked with do or do not park indications this area has nothing to denote that parking there would be illegal. There's a bus zone just ahead of this spot which I was careful to avoid. This space, however, has no sign nor curb color to tell me I can't park there. $250 later and a midnight visit to the tow facility in the Nalley Valley later, we have Sarah's car back no problem. I plan to snap plenty of photos of the zone, gather up other examples, and challenge this in hopes of getting our money back. Just because the City fails to mark an area appropriately doesn't make it right for them to make an example of us.
May. 9, 2008 at 1:50pm
Out of Control Truck Plunges Into Downtown
Just after 1pm today a crane truck careened out of control down 15th Street into downtown. It somehow avoided hitting any cars and people and ended up teetering on a jersey barrier on the 705 off-ramp just aside the DaVita building. Michael Pierce saw it happen from the vantage point of the Convention Center Link station and said people were direction cars and pedestrians out of the way when the crane whizzed by. The driver appeared to stumble out but there wasn't an hard impact but abrupt slowdown from the barrier. All up and down 15th trees, signs, and a couple large stoplight poles were taken out.
Photos below. Hope this doesn't hurt our case for keeping DaVita. (I can joke 'cause no one was hurt)
May. 9, 2008 at 10:00am
Friendly Proctor in the PI
Seattle PI writer Phuong Cat Le penned a piece about Tacoma's charming Proctor District Wednesday. The article goes into a bit of the district's history but then has the author and a couple friends wander around to see what there is to enjoy. They hit up pretty much everyplace in Proctor (Blue Mouse, Northwest Shop, Met Market, Art and Soul, and more) and even wandered to Puget Park and down the ravine to Ruston Way. Of the area, Le nails it when she writes, "In many ways, the small-town pace is precisely the charm of Proctor."
What's your favorite thing about Proctor? We live about a mile from there and I can say it's a great place to walk to after work on a Spring or Summer evening. The pace is charming and there's lots of good food. That combined with taking in a cheap movie makes for some great evenings. Took some time to shop for some clothes there with Sarah for her birthday and there are some amazing spots for that among Julia Ellen and Envy.
Thanks Michael!
About
Although I have another home on the web I thought it might be nice to lead by example a bit and put this blog system up to the test myself.
So far, so good... Funny how I build web tools for other people that are far better than the one's I have setup over on KFnet.