The community activists who are redefining Tacoma will have a chance to get together and brush up their skills Saturday.

The City-Wide Fall Neighborhood Conference runs from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Aug. 29 at the Tacoma Campus of Evergreen State College, 1210 Sixth Avenue.

The Neighborhood Councils and Community Council of Tacoma are sponsoring the event, which aims to support the work that so many formal and informal groups have done to fight crime and blight. Thanks to their hard work, Tacoma is a nicer place to live.

Bill Garl, president of the Community Councils of Tacoma, will welcome the crowd, and Marion Weed will give the history of the community council program.

Elton Gatewood, of the City of Tacoma Neighborhood Council Office will give a quick course on "Grant and Proposal Writing Made Simple, and Mary Morrison will give advice on how to conduct a successful meeting. Allyson Griffith will share strategies on outreach and recruitment.

Lunch will be complimentary, followed by a presentation by City Manager Eric Anderson.

The conference is free of charge and open to all. For information, contact Gatewood at (253) 591-5229, or egatewoo@cityoftacoma.org.

Monday's joint meeting between the Lakewood City Council and Port of Tacoma Commission didn't feature any fireworks, just discussion about what a consultant's plan would do to an isolated neighborhood.

The two sides commissioned a study last year into the possibility of turning Woodbrook — a peninsula of land east of Interstate 5 - into a business park.

As I reported in my story Sunday, the study stated that one of the biggest challenges to redeveloping the area is the approximately 500 homes and 1,500 mostly low-income residents that are there now.

Both the City Council and the Port Commission said that complicates the problem. When the port developed Fredrickson in the mid-1980's, the people there were more than willing to sell their land, officials said.

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