We had a news item earlier about the parking and traffic problems from Saturday's Celine Dion concert at the Tacoma Dome.

Here's a first-hand report sent in by reader Len Barrett:

The Celine Dion concert on Saturday night was a reminder that Tacoma is not quite ready for prime time. It has been known for months that this concert was coming. Yet the lack of adequate parking, inefficient traffic control and incompetent dome staff made for a most unsatisfactory experience.

We arrived at 23rd and Pacific at about 7:15 PM after a wait of about 25 minutes to get to that point. As we got closer to the dome, the police directed us further away from the dome, specifically down the hill on D street to Puyallup Avenue.

As long distance walking is not feasible for this writer and handicap parking was apparently not available my passengers jumped out and walked to the dome while I drove around trying to find parking that might work.

It did not happen. I stayed with the car and parked on D Street near Johnny’s Dock restaurant and waited for friends and family to come out of the concert.

When we met after the concert, they told me how three different Dome staff members had directed them in three different directions to get to their seats. As they approached the dome, a staff member standing on the sidewalk directed them to the upper level ramp. When they got to the door, staff directed them to the lower level. When they got to the door at the lower level, they were redirected back to the upper level.

It would appear that Tacoma at many different levels is not ready to handle large crowds who want to attend events at the Dome. I can tell you that it will be a very long time, if ever, that this family ever buys a ticket to attend any event at the dome.

FRIDAY UPDATE: We just received a response back from city public assembly facilities director Mike Combs, with an explanation and some suggestions for future events.

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