I hear that Club Friday, the Christian hop-hop club in downtown Tacoma, is a finalist for the 2008 Pierce County Executive's Award for Excellence in Hip Hop.

The club operates out of Brick City in downtown Tacoma. The building hosts all-ages clubs on the weekend and has attracted criticism from some with differing visions of downtown.

The awards will be handed out Friday night.

Laura Hanan hasn’t been shy about her views about Brick City (she’s not a fan of its location), and she sent this e-mail just before midnight Saturday:

Brick City's Saturday night group - Club Impact - was 100 percent better tonight. It was greatly appreciated by the neighborhood. Club Friday operated very professionally as well on Friday night. Thanks to everyone, especially the BIA for hanging tough on graveyard in the miserable wind and rain.

Sincerely,

Laura Hanan

Hopefully it’s a good sign of better things to come.

It’s the morning after the community forum about Ninth Street and Pacific Avenue, and the issue continues to stir up opinion. My original story just topped the 200-comment mark (whoohoo!), and others are starting to comment on my follow-up story from last night’s forum.

A few people around the office have asked me what the meeting was like. Here, in no particular order, are seven few random thoughts and opinions that couldn’t make it into the story:

1. The forum, held on the ground floor of Sanford and Son Antique, was absolutely packed. People were forced to stand on the stairs just to listen to what was going on. If you’re a fan of community-based action, you couldn’t help but smile.

2. Marty Campbell, the chair of the New Tacoma Neighborhood Council, moderated the event. He brought a gavel and pounded it when things got out of control. Smart idea. Really, really smart idea.

3. It was obvious all people involved were deeply passionate about what they envisioned happening with Brick City. And that could almost be a shame, because the two prevailing views seem irreconcilable at times.

4. The few times the meeting descended into a bout of finger-pointing and name-calling, there were enough adults in the room to steer the talk back to a level of civility.

5. It’s tough to escape the racial undertones of a lot of what is said. I believe many of the people who don’t want Brick City in its location are not racist or making their decisions on racial grounds, but it seemed obvious many of the Club Friday volunteers and clubbers (many of whom are black) feel it’s a big factor.

6. Deanna Neidlinger, the project manager for World Vision, made a good-natured crack at me during the forum. That was appreciated Deanna – it meant people were reading.

7. Lastly, this is a topic that isn’t going away for a long time.

Just back from the forum at Sanford and Son Antique. I'll paste my story below. Sorry I couldn't give you guys more before cranking out the story, but given the turnaround time (the meeting ran late, deadline was looming), I had to get writin'. Here's the story.

Tony Painter contacted me all the way from Iraq, where he's a civilian contractor, to give his two cents' worth on Brick City (among other topics). You'll be hearing more from Tony in the future; he's a local guy and I've asked him to send updates every once in a while about life as a contractor in Iraq.

But for now, here's his take on Brick City:

It’s ridiculous that the neighboring biz owners are blaming any lack of business of Fri/Sat nights on a few teenagers hanging out in front of one of the very few places they can go to socialize. They should be looking at what they are lacking in services as to why they are not being patronized, not shifting the blame to what they must view as the ‘scary youth’ across the street. The streets of downtown nightlife areas are supposed to be filled with people enjoying themselves and the accompanying bit of noise comes with the territory. I speak now towards the people choosing to live in that area – it’s a choice and they should know what they are getting in to. It’s a lot better than when Drakes will still operating down there! Pacific between 7th and 9th used to get really crazy!...and that’s a good thing, not something evil.

He later added this:

Yes, you may post my comments about the Brick City issue. Full disclosure – I used to be one of the promoters for the ‘Paradox’ club that was on Puyallup Avenue (now Barefoot Studios I think) that Club Impact also operated out of…and having said that, I can see how that particular location was maybe better suited to our type of business, as there were not any neighbors to bother with noise or outside activity. In fact, at the time, the old Bubble Room kitty corner to us used to appreciate the extra biz they drew from the over 21 crowd who patronized some of our bigger shows but couldn’t drink on our premises since it was an all ages event. We even sent the entertainers over there for meals. My comment still holds though – downtown areas area supposed to be vibrant at night and you have to take the good with the (perceived) bad that accompanies crowds of people out enjoying themselves.

Feedback continues from the Brick City story. A lengthy letter is from reader Teresa Mullins if after the jump:

=> Read more!

My story about Brick City and its neighbors ran today. You can see highlights from the interviews from this story below. Tell me what you think. Do you think the finished product was fair?

I'll be back with an update later about what I'm chasing down today.

Laura Hanan isn't a fan of Brick City's location in downtown, and she has rarely hidden her views about it. She e-mailed me last night (becoming the first non-TNT employee to read the blog -- and a day before it went public!) with her take on my reporting on Brick City.

Read her comments after the jump, and feel free to leave any comments or e-mail me about it:

=> Read more!

I recently talked with Lt. Corey Darlington, the sector commander whose territory includes downtown, about Brick City and the friction with its neighbors. It sounds like the police really don’t see much of a problem there. Here are some of the highlights from our conversation.

About working with Brick City on security:

We’ve been working with them from the very beginning. This is nothing new to us. We have a pretty good working relationship with them.

On the overall situation:

We feel we have an acceptable level of public safety in that area. The calls for service are certainly manageable and not excessive. We do have some flare-ups every once in a while.

We haven’t had any issues on Friday (since the shooting). We’ve had one or two incidents on Saturday night because they don’t have any off-duty officers – that’s one reason.

He says it’s the nature of the business:

I don’t care if it’s a club that serves liquor to of-age people or if it’s an underage teen club. It’s the nature of the business. There will be spinoff activity on the sidewalks, groups of people just hanging out. There will be some degree of nuisance activity.

=> Read more!

Here are some of the highlights from my conversation with Deanna Neidlinger, the Brick City project manager.

She said claims of out-of-control teens are out of control and defended the club's security:

We have two police officers that are hired at our own personal expense every Friday night outside. Everyone knows right now that there are a lot of challenges about stress and challenges concerning resources available to them. So the fact we hire two police officers here every week, that means we’re bringing in extra security that might not have been on location. One of our agreements with Lt. (Corey) Darlington is that police who work here outside aren’t just responsible for our sidewalk in front, but they’re responsible for the entire neighborhood. We feel like we’re bringing in an additional bit of security downtown.

Some of the kids involved with the club have been unfairly maligned, she said:

We’ve had kids who have been here who were here because they were getting trained to do work in Washington D.C. this summer. But they were featured in a picture because they were standing on a sidewalk. But they were here because they were learning how to talk to (Rep.) Norm Dicks. So, perception is an issue.

She dismisses the idea that downtown should just be a string of bars and condos:

The intention of a downtown area is really to be a downtown for an entire city. The fact that we’re at the end of a bus line, the end of a light-rail line – we’re in a very strategic location for the work we want to do. And that’s important to us.

She's worried what the impact on the teenagers will be:

When we’re criminalizing kids before they’re criminals, what does that do for a generation of kids of this city? Instead of bringing them in and helping them build up the city, we’re criminalizing them.

And Brick City isn't going away soon, she said. Its lease is valid through 2010, and there are no active plans to move the building:

I think we need to be realistic about where we are and who we are. Tacoma is kind of transitioning from this big town into this small city. We need to recognize there are challenges related to that and be realistic about looking at it.

Just got out of a meeting with Marty Campbell, the chair of the New Tacoma neighborhood council. He, like many of the business owners who neighbor the Brick City building on Pacific Ave., praised the work done at the all-ages club but questioned if it was the best location for it.

Among the highlights of our hour-long conversation:

They have a right to downtown. And if this wasn’t in the middle of what I think should be one of our top bar districts and entertainment districts, then, well, an all-ages club just doesn’t fit into that.

He suggested a big problem downtown is related to its different uses: residential spaces, bars, an all-ages club, retail stores, etc.:

Because it doesn’t have a solid definition, entities can pick a building here, pick a building there without really looking how other things work. So you get conflicting uses.

He thinks a meeting that lead to concrete decisions would drastically improve the situation:

What I would like to see us do is sit down, bring everyone together to the table and see what we can do. Not an endless series of meetings, but see if we can have one or two conversations and get the big stuff out of the way and find a way to make it a worthwhile solution.

He also said rewriting ordinances would be an overreaction, and the Tacoma Police Department's decision to take two bicycle cops off the swing shift didn't help the situation.

I've also talked to Deanna Neidlinger, the World Vision project manager for Brick City. I'll post her quotes later today.

The small-business owners across the street from the Brick City building at 754 Pacific Ave. have been complaining about illegal activity. Because the Tacoma Police Department puts their statistics on the Web, we can look up crime stats for this year.

I should point out that (obviously) not all crime in a particular area is related to any business, club, residence or anything else on there. And (again, obviously) not all crime goes reported. And the police release statistics to within a half-mile radius, so that means large parts of other neighborhoods are included -- especially in a compact neighborhood like downtown. And it shows that police aren’t making many arrests.

(Depending on what side you’re on, that means either it’s becoming a safe neighborhood or the police aren’t doing their job.)

So, as imperfect of a barometer as it is, here are some of the year-to-date stats though August. I included the ones many people have been saying the clubbers are committing and omitted others, like warrants arrests:

But as more businesses (and high-priced condos) move into the area, is it getting safer? As much as I hate to ask questions in my writing (I'm in the business of answering them, after all), I'll have percentage increases and decreases after the jump.

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