Sponsor a Birder!
· Posted Thursday May 8, 2008 by jamie
The Tahoma Audubon Birdathon is going on right now, and birders are accepting pledges for their birding voyages, either on a per-species or flat-value basis. This is one of TAS’s biggest fundraisers of the year, which helps support their mission to “conserve and restore ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife, and their habitats for the benefit of humanity and earth’s biological diversity”.
A certain occupant of ThriceAllAmerican HQ will be journeying from “Purdy to Paradise” this Saturday on a trip that typically sees over 100 species of bird.
If you’re interested in sponsoring a birder, contact TAS, or, if you want to support Melissa, shoot me an email.
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categories: beyond-tacoma environment
Tacoma Biodiesel Happenings!
· Posted Tuesday April 29, 2008 by jamie
There are two really exciting biodiesel events coming up June 8th, the first being a biodiesel homebrewing class to be presented by biodiesel guru Lyle Rudensey, and the latter being a free-free-FREE biodiesel party/mixer later in the afternoon. (That’s more in the vein of free as in speech, not as in beer. Anyone is welcome to attend, but you’re on the spot to pay for any food or beverages you wish to consume.)
Image courtesy ktpupp@flickr.
I’m especially excited about the homebrew class… Petrodiesel is getting up near the $4.50/gallon mark, and commercial biodiesel is in some places well over $5.00/gallon. (APP, as of writing, is still at $4.749.) The possibility of making fuel for $1/gallon, or even anywhere under $2, is really appealing even if it means more work for me. And price aside, use of virgin oilstock for commercial biodiesel, and its effect on food supply, deforestation, and biodiversity, are increasingly troubling…switching to a waste-stream source will be awesome.
So without further ado, more details!
Biodiesel Homebrewing Class
Sunday, June 8 , 2008, 10am – 4pm
A hands-on workshop to learn all the basics to make your own high quality fuel for about $1 per gallon. In this workshop you will do titrations, make small batches of biodiesel with different oils, and learn the tricks to make quality biodiesel every time. We will also operate a small-scale “Appleseed” reactor during class. This system will be compared with the automated BioPro system which the instructor uses to facilitate fuel-making for a Bring-Your-Own-Oil type coop. The class will also cover topics, such as chemistry of the reaction, quality control, vehicle compatibility, cold weather issues, methanol recovery, disposal of wastes, and how to run a successful coop.
Class Fee: $60 each or $100 for couples
To Register: PayPal to: classes@biolyle.com, or online at: http://biolyle.com/workshops
Location: Provided upon registration
Instructor: Lyle Rudensey, M.Ed. aka “BioLyle.” Experienced biodiesel educator and biodiesel homebrewer for over 5 years. www.biolyle.com
Biodiesel Enthusiasts Afterparty/Mixer
Sunday, June 8 , 2008, 4pm-ish,
Paddy Coyne’s Irish Pub, 815 Pacific Ave, Tacoma
Following the workshop, we will be gathering at Paddy Coyne’s for drinks/food (no-host) and a chance to talk informally about biodiesel issues, network with other “enthusiasts”, and potentially even form some small homebrewing co-ops. Both class attendees and non-attendees are encouraged to join us, veterans and newbies alike! (Paddy Coyne’s is family friendly, so the under-aged are welcome.) No charge to attend!
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categories: tacoma environment
Tree Butchering on Stadium Way
· Posted Wednesday April 16, 2008 by jamie
I got a report and some pictures from Claudia that some of the trees along Stadium Way had fallen victim to something of a hatchet job.
Seems we’re perhaps seeing the reverse of the latest from the old Mattson Mansion site there, neighbors are complaining about the new trees being planted by historical destructionist and future McMansion resident Eric Russell. Here, the millionaires appear to be taking the trees down.
I believe these trees are location on public land. I think it also is worth mentioning that the Mayor’s “Green Ribbon” task force also set a goal of planting 200,000 new trees in the city to combat global warming.
Now, I will admit out front that I don’t know all of the details of what happened here closely, but Claudia’s contact at the city suggested that property owners were most likely able to get a permit to cut the trees, possibly in part because view properties are more highly taxed. (The only problem being that the Granville is subject to the 10 year tax abatement for downtown, multi-unit buildings.)
Pull it all together, and here’s what I find troubling:
- The city bowing to individual property owners over how to handle things such as trees that should be in the commons. What if I liked to look at those trees?
- Trees getting butchered…if you’re going to do that bad of a job, at least spare us the ugliness and just cut them down? How about hiring an arborist, for Pete’s sake?
- $1.5 million dollar condos getting a break on their property taxes…can we put a ceiling on this thing? I think if someone can afford that kind of mortgage, they can probably cover a relatively piddling property tax bill.
I hope that I’m just jumping to conclusions, that this is all a big misunderstanding, that somehow there’s a valid reason beyond selfishness that these trees were cut down. But it’s hard to understand how in any world the public good should come after the individual good, why we should be allowing trees to get uglied all up while we’re saying we want more of them… And if it really is about selfishness, I hope we can find ways to keep it from happening next time, and the time after, and…
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categories: tacoma environment
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How Did I Miss This?
· Posted Wednesday April 16, 2008 by jamie
New Seattle local-Onion-wannabe The Naked Loon featured our own Tacoma Dome as the new home of the Sonics in their inaugural April Fools issue. Go T-Dome!
(In a post on the P-I’s Big Blog, Naked Loon creator Tim Ellis stated, “It’s always fun to poke fun at Tacoma,” so I guess we can expect more…)
Check it out at The Naked Loon.
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Another Waterfront Ballpark Option
· Posted Thursday April 3, 2008 by jamie
Seems architect David Boe has his own ideas about a downtown waterfront location for the Rainiers ballpark, as he mentioned over on my earlier post.
Using the New York San Francisco Giants ballpark as inspiration…
Boe immediately thought of the end of the peninsula on the east side of the Foss Waterway, where the infamous tank farm now sits:
Busting out his trusty sketchpad, we get this awesome rendering of what could be (click for larger):
I’ve gotta say, it would be awfully tempting to quit my job and become a water taxi pilot of something like this ever came to fruition.
Update: More discussion here.
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Play Ball! (On the Water?)
· Posted Thursday April 3, 2008 by jamie
It’s here! Opening Day for your Tacoma Rainiers! We’ve got our 7 game series tickets and I’m excited for game one tonight at Cheney Stadium.
Speaking of Cheney, there has been some interesting discussion lately on the topic of the stadium. It seems that the City of Tacoma, Pierce County, Metro Parks, and the Tacoma School District are tossing around some ideas involving redevelopment of the complex that includes Cheney Stadium into a “recreational village” with condos, shopping, etc. (much to the consternation of many neighborhood activists, mind you). But regardless of its merits, the topic did reignite some of the “what if” scenarios that have come up in the past regarding the ideal location for baseball in Tacoma.
In the past, several creative ideas have been suggested. One of my favorites proposed a new waterfront stadium at the former Asarco site. Another interesting suggestion that came up was to tear down the struggling Tacoma Dome and rebuild there (but would that make us too much like Seattle?).
In a recent Tacoma Daily Index article, Justin Carleton (aka Frinklin) of No Rhubarb offered his thoughts on the ideal “home of the Rainiers”:
...my best-case scenario would be to tear down Cheney Stadium, not rebuild on that site, and find a place where they could go back downtown or back down to the Hilltop. Be closer to where people are. Baseball is meant to be downtown. For all of baseball’s romanticizing itself as the sport being born on the plains — this ‘Field of Dreams’ kind of stuff — baseball was built in downtown New York. It was built in Manhattan. It moved out of Manhattan when it moved to Queens.
...which lead to this thread of conversation on FeedTacoma, wherein I tossed out a few ideas of my own.
Historically, the home of baseball in Tacoma was the Athletic Park (below) at 15th and Sprague, now the site of Peck Field.
I appreciate the historical significance of this site quite a bit, and it would be neat to see that recognized by the organization. It doesn’t hurt that I could walk there quite easily, too. But unfortunately I don’t think there is enough space for both a stadium and the supporting parking on the site…
Besides, I like the appeal of a site that is downtown, maybe even on the water, so I took a look at the aerial views to see what might be possible. Not seeing a lot on the west side of the Foss Waterway, I peeked into the Tideflats, where my attention was immediately grabbed by the site of the Supervalu warehouse, circled in the below image (near Johnny’s Dock restaurant).
Now, granted I don’t even know if Supervalu would be interested in forfeiting this location, but let’s just dream for a sec. Plop in a cut-and-paste image of Portland’s much-touted PGE Park, home of the minor-league Beavers, and voilà!
Killer! A stadium right on the water. Lots of room for parking. We could even add some additional mixed-use stuff on the site: condos, retail, what have you…create the “recreational village” here.
So maybe it’s not right in the downtown core… But as long as we’re dreaming, if we toss in a foot ferry that runs from the promenade by the Museum of Glass and Thea’s Landing across to a dock in front of the Stadium, we’ve effectively connected it to downtown. (If we want to be really fancy, add additional foot ferry stops at other waterfront locations: base of the Murray Morgan Bridge, Thea’s Park, the upcoming Urban Waters, even out in Old Town. Fun commute option for people who live in Old Town or work at Urban Waters. Anyone checked out the ones in Vancouver, B.C.?)
One more assist from PGE Park in the cut-and-paste department…let’s imagine the view of downtown from my proto-stadium:
Ahhh…with views like that, I might buy season tickets just for the right to go take it in all summer long.
Update: David Boe revealed his location idea in the comments below, and sent some sketches along. See here for his killer idea…
Update: More discussion here.
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Watch Carefully...
· Posted Monday March 17, 2008 by jamie
It’s getting more and more spring-like every day, meaning many more bicyclists on the streets of T-town, yours truly included. Check out this awesome ad from the U.K. (Via Grist.)
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Get On Your Feet
· Posted Friday March 7, 2008 by jamie
I’m really hoping Steve Ballmer succeeds in keeping the Sonics in Seattle, because they totally wouldn’t even need to get cheerleaders. No matter how long these videos have been around, I will always find them funny.
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categories: beyond-tacoma
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My Truck Made the Paper!
· Posted Wednesday February 27, 2008 by jamie
Today’s Trib “top story” is a shocking indictment of the vanity license plates of Pierce County. Or maybe just a relatively cute/entertaining no-news day fluff piece. Anyway, the sidebar of the article includes some of the favorites found in a database of vanity plates issued in our county, and it includes the official lumber-hauler of the ThriceAllAmerican empire, my 1982 Toyota (bio)diesel pickup, commonly known as the Soyota. Boo-ya! My truck is famous!
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categories: tacoma environment
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Random Stuff...
· Posted Tuesday February 26, 2008 by jamie
A few random locally-interesting things clinking around today, from email and other dark regions of this series of tubes you’ve found yourself on… None are enough to bother with their own post, so I’m just cramming them all together into one omnibus thingamajigger.
Tonight is the first installment of Go Local or Die, covered extensively elsewhere, but worth checking out if you can make it.
Also related to local buying, I was thinking it would be really sweet if there were a website where I could search for stuff I wanted to buy, and find results from local merchants where I could then go to make my purchase. Turns out that I’m not going to get rich off of that idea, because it already exists in the form of Yokel. Granted, I haven’t found anything from a local independent store on there yet, just stuff from big boxes like Home Depot. But it like this would be a killer way to get people in the doors, and shoppers wouldn’t have to run all over town looking for specific things. So…I guess I’m thinking some of the local shops should look into this!
I wrote about ParkAtMyHouse.com nearly a year ago, musing about parking subletting helping to ease the parking struggles around here. Turns out they’ve launched their services in the US, so you can give it a go! I believe the one listed facility in Tacoma might be the Elf Storage building, but it will be interesting to see if more things develop over time.More here.
Also last year, I mentioned fledgling efforts to save Faith Dairy. Lots of buzz surrounding that lately as a group has come together to try to make the resuscitation a reality. Check out Save Faith Dairy to show your support and/or get involved, and also check out some additional thoughts from Monty Mahan at the Pierce Conservation District, where I’m apparently one of the “favorites”. (In the meantime, if you’re Jonesin’ for some glass-bottled milk, hit Stadium Thriftway for milk from Golden Glen Creamery in Bow, WA!)
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categories: tacoma
Comment [1]