I stopped by the ferry station at Point Defiance Park to see if Washington State Ferries' crisis affected the Ruston-Vashon Island run.

Apparently, things were operating as smoothly as ever.

"Actually," one pedestrian crosser said, "I've noticed even less traffic than usual."

While the rest of the Tacoma City Council were listening about air particulates – and Mayor Bill Baarsma made it apparent he’s more concerned about the city’s image than about clean skies – Councilman Rick Talbert and I chatted about the proposed Alcohol Impact Area.

Talbert has been a driving force behind the AIA since its start, and for good reason: He’s an Eastside guy, and his neighborhood sits within the proposed boundaries. He foresaw the need for the AIA:

“When we passed the first AIA – it was my first year on the council – I was very supportive of it,” he said. “But I made the statement that the night we passed it was that the problem was not going to go away. It was going to shift to the south and to the east. And I told them I’d want their support on either expansion or creation of a new AIA.

“So, within a year, folks in the Lincoln Business District approached me and said, ‘We’ve got a problem.’ There was an inebriation problem right on 38th Street in the Lincoln Business District, but the numbers didn’t support that it was worthy of a full-blown AIA. Instead, the police department worked with business owners and some other folks and came up with a short-term solution.”

It wasn’t a permanent fix, he said.

=> Read more!

I just chatted with Bob McCautchan, an Eastside business outreach specialist for the City of Tacoma and the co-chairman of the group that brought the proposed Alcohol Impact Area.

As you might guess from his title, he’s big on the business angle of the AIA. But his main goal was making sure this was something the people wanted – not just the cops or politicians.

“In whatever we did, I wanted a community group or a business involved because I think that’s a big goal of the city that I totally subscribe to,” he said. “We ask the people what they want, and we provide the resources. It’s been my driving mantra since I began that I will always include business groups and bring them to the forefront.”

Seeing public drunkenness as just an alcohol-related problem is dangerous, he said.

“We need to get people to understand that it’s not just the (chronic public inebriants) that are the problem, but it’s the drug dealers that hide among them, it’s the prostitution, the cost to businesses where these people scare the customers away,” he said.

Many businesses were naturally opposed to a move that would lower their profits, but many fears are allayed during talks. And, he said, no stores in the original AIA went out of business because of it.

=> Read more!

I rarely link to other TNT blogs -- you should be reading all of them, right? -- but I'm a giant nerd when it comes to fighter jets, so you need to check this out: The Thunderbirds are coming to McChord Air Force Base for the Air Expo this summer.

Freaking. Awesome.

A backpack can’t always change the life of a student, but some are hoping it can at least greatly improve the weekend.

The Food Connection is distributing backpacks full of “kid-friendly” food to needy students at McCarver Elementary School in Tacoma. The students take the backpack home after school on Friday and return it the following Monday.

The program is entering its third week, and already it has the school’s counselor, Carol Ramm-Gramenz, excited.

“Our kids are highly impacted by poverty – between 93 and 95 percent are on free or reduced lunches,” she said. “We have kids who are in shelters or transitional housing or doubled-up housing. And so to have food they can call their own is a special thing. It’s very needed, and it gives them a bit of control over their lives.”

Kevin Glackin-Coley, the director of Food Connection, said a friend in Des Moines participated in a similar program, and he thought McCarver would be a good first school because of the students’ needs and its proximity to the food bank. Kids do better in school when they’re not hungry, he said, and he’d like to expand the program to Bryant Elementary and Stanley Elementary.

“We hope to make it an ongoing project,” he said. “We’ve had some great community support.”

=> Read more!

I'm starting the day at a bi-monthly roundtable of charities.

After that, it's back to the Alcohol Impact Area reporting. I'm meeting with Bob McCutcheon and Councilman Rick Talbert, both of whom played crucial roles in the formation of the new AIA. I'll tell you later today what they had to say.

I'm also looking for people with personal stories (positive or negative) about the original AIA. If interested, e-mail me at scott.fontaine@thenewstribune.com.