Maybe not the landfill, but where ever contractors working on the Park Plaza South project put their old concrete and rebar.

The Tacoma Daily Index has this item about demolition of the hillclimb between Pacific Avenue and Commerce Street. At the lower right is evidence of the entry to the Escalade, Tacoma's famous moving sidewalks that were meant to ease travel up and down the hills of the shopping district. And we had the name before Cadillac did.

Here are some pix from the TNT morgue showing the excitement surrounding the opening. And yes, those do look like mink coats.

And this one from the Northwest Room of the Tacoma Public Library.

As near as I can tell, the final archaelogical evidence of the system is beneath Park Plaza North, the stairway tunnel that leads from the Commerce Street bus stops to Pacific near 10th Street.

I've been getting some calls from folks wondering about the increased activity around the University-Union Club. That's the white mansion just up the street from the old Elks Lodge that most-recently housed David's On Broadway restaurant. (OK, Winfields was the most-recent but it wasn't open long enough for most to notice).

The grounds are being cleaned up, the old Winfield's sign was removed and a fabric sign advertising the now-closed David's was hung on the water side.

So I asked Aleta Benedicto,the agent marketing the building, if there was some news.

Not yet, she said.

"There is a very interested party but no written offer yet. Just doing some clean-up around the property," she wrote.

As part of the First Thursday Art Walk, the Tacoma Historical Society will offer free walking tours of downtown August 20. It is an extension fo the society's current exhibit called "From Ruins to Renaissance – The Architecture of Downtown Tacoma."

Details of the event are here.

"From Ruins to Renaissance: The Architecture of Downtown Tacoma" tells the story of the city's architecture from its founding 125 years ago to today.

In a small space at the Tacoma Historical Society's Exhibit Center, the exhibit walks visitors through the early days of boom and bust, the post-war decline, the mixed effects of Urban Renewal and the more-recent investments of public and private money.

It also displays several artifacts from buildings that have been lost.

The exhibit was designed by Mary Bowlby and curated by Heather Straub. Bowlby describes Straub as a newcomer to the city "who wanted to learn more about her new home and fell in love with its history in the process."

"From Ruins to Renaissance" was developed in partnership with GeoEngineers, Inc. The Exhibit Center is at 747 Broadway and is open between noon and 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.

Opponents of the way Sound Transit plans to run Sounder rail tracks from the Tacoma Dome to South Tacoma have started a blog called Do It Right Tacoma.

Here's how they state their position: "Sound Transit is planning to build a rail line through Tacoma and their current plans are NOT GOOD for the future growth of Tacoma. We're very concerned that the plans affect future economic development, damage critical environmental areas, and will greatly affect quality of life and recreation needs of the area."

Here is a link to the blog.

The Swiss Pub will provide all the food for the memorial Saturday at the downtown tavern for co-owner Gayl Bertagni who died last Friday, family and friends said today.

In an e-mail, they said there was some confusion earlier in the week about bringing food to the memorial. There will be no potluck, they said, and apologized for the confusion.

"The best way to show your love for Gayl is to make a donation in her name to the Emergency Food Network and to support your local farmers," they said in the e-mail.

The memorial begins at 3 p.m. at the pub, 1904 S. Jefferson.

A memorial for Gayl Bertagni, the co-owner of The Swiss Pub who died Friday night in an accident, is planned for Saturday at the pub. The public is invited.
A funeral Mass was held today at 11 a.m. at St. Stephen the Martyr Church in Renton. The following e-mail was forwarded to The News Tribune by family friend and fellow business owner Marty Campbell:

A celebration of Gayl Bertagni's life will continue on Saturday, May
30th beginning at 3:00 pm at The Swiss Pub, 1904 South Jefferson,
Tacoma, WA 98402. The Swiss is expecting quite a bit of turnout, and
while they will be providing some food for the guests, would also like
to request that you please bring a dish that you would have enjoyed
sharing with Gayl.

In lieu of flowers, please donate to the Emergency Food Network and
support your local farmers.

The Swiss pub will be closed through Sunday, May 31st, reopening for
business on Monday, June 1st.

The Rev. David Alger, executive director of Associated Ministries, has won the 2009 Greater Tacoma Peace Prize.

He’s honored, he said, to be considered in the same group as past winners, including George F. Russell, Jr., the Rev. Ron Pierre Vignec, David Corner and the founders of the Conflict Resolution, Research and Resource Institute.

He and his wife, Sally, are looking forward to going to Oslo in December for the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. His trip is part of the prize awarded by sponsors Norden Lodge #2, Sons of Norway, and Embla Lodge #2, Daughters of Norway.

And he is trying to work out his schedule for May 30, the day he will accept the prize, and the day he will bid his official farewell to his job of nearly 30 years.

Alger came to Tacoma in 1980 with the expectation that he would act as a “metropolitan minister,” promote dialogue among churches, and facilitate their service programs.

It did not work out quite that way.

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About 60 people walked through the streets of downtown Tacoma Friday, reading Scriptures, praying and reflecting on the suffering of Christ and the community.

The group stopped on Good Friday near a half-dozen spots, including a homeless shelter, a needle exchange van and a detention center.

Nora Leider pushed her 2-year-old daughter Maggi in a jogger.

Leider said the Stations of the Cross walking tour is "a meaningful way of relating the events of Easter to the life of the community."

Dotti Krist-Sterbick, Maggi's godmother, prayed at the first stop outside the St. Leo Food Connection and the Hospitality Kitchen on Tacoma's Hilltop.

"Gracious God, fill the stomachs of the hungry with good things and bless our land and our people with an abundance of your bounty," Krist-Sterbick prayed.

The group responded, "Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on us."

Krist-Sterbick said the walk enables people "to enter more deeply into solidarity with Christ's love."

The Stations of the Cross recall the steps in Christ's life leading to his crucifixion. The walking tour has been linking those events to places of pain in the community for 25 years.

Sponsors included Urban Grace Church, Guadalupe House and St. Leo Catholic Church, where the tour began.

Walkers took turns leading the group, carrying a 5-foot-tall wooden cross. The group sang "Oh Lord hear my prayer" as they walked.

Dave Hillis said the walk remembers Christ's death while acknowledging "the pain of the community."

On Good Friday, Hillis said, "This whole exercise puts him in the middle of the suffering."

The former Martin Luther King Housing Development Association is under new management, and that management is about to get some of the input it has said it welcomes.

The Tacoma Avenue Coalition will host a community forum at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 18, that's Wednesday, at the Tacoma Dominican Center, 935 S. Fawcett Avenue.

Jim Anderson, who organized the shelter's transition to Catholic Community Services, will speak about the plans for running the program that has been sometimes troublesone and sometimes troubled.

As its new director, Anderson wants to make Tacoma's largest emergency shelter a better neighbor, and a better host. The building at 1143 Tacoma Avenue South has its main entrance in the back alley.

Guests gathering there for hours with no security have attracted predators and made the alley dangerous and unsightly. Anderson intends to have security, a courtyard, extended hours and a no-loitering policy. That should be better for neighbors and guests.

He's also interested in hearing from the people who, practically speaking, live there. What services do they need? How can they find real housing?

Based on the improvements Anderson implemented when he took over management of CCS's Hospitality Kitchen up the hill, this is a promising development, said Jeanie Peterson.

Peterson, Director of Community Initiatives for Hilltop Action Coalition, is encouraging folks to go to the event.

"This forum should also be informative for those concerned about the homeless population and the issues that people are facing on Tacoma Ave, and even the situation at the jail, library, etc.," she sent out to her vast e-mail list.

For anyone interested in learning effective, responsible and responsive ways to help the most damaged and desperate people in the community, attendance should be mandatory.

Calendars are tough to toss.

They're like friends who keep us organized, never talk back and always cheer us up. I'm thinking of surrounding myself with song birds in exotic locations in 2009, having spent 2008 enjoying native plants in unlikely locations. My desk is way more cheery than the view out the window.

So why would I just flip those gorgeous photos away like used cereal boxes?

The kittens, puppies, trains, planes, automobiles, surfers, fish, mountains and firefighters on our walls had nothing to do with the events that unfolded during this miserable year. They deserve a better end than getting bundled into a big wad of recycling with ordinary newspaper.

Western State Hospital patients are giving us just that. The hospital offers art classes as therapy, and collages are a favorite medium. To replenish supplies, the Department of Social and Health Services is harvesting calendars, greeting cards, magazines, anything with pretty pictures.

You can bring them to drop boxes at:

* Western State Hospital Administration, Building 18, 9601 Steilacoom Blvd. S.W.

* DSHS Health and Recovery Services Administration reception, 626 8th Ave S.E., Cherry Street Plaza, Olympia.

* Frontier Bank, 1102 Commerce St. Suite 100, Tacoma.

* The News Tribune lobby, 1950 S. State St., Tacoma.

The New York Times' Jennifer 8. Lee blows the lid off the world of art museum toilets in a post to the news org's City Room blog.

So to speak.

Actually, it's The Art Museum Toilet Museum of Art that documents the world of art museum toilets and bathrooms.

The museum, which exists only online, has photos and links to artistic toilets and urinals from around the world. It even includes a call for submissions.

In my brief survey, I didn't see any reference to Tacoma's "Lovesick Walls," the art on the walls of the third-floor restrooms at the Greater Tacoma Convention & Trade Center.

Anyone care to toss Tacoma's toilet room into the fray?

Here's what TNT art critic Jen Graves had to say in 2004 about the art, set inside two bathroom stalls, and created by Seattle artist Alex Schweder:

The smooth white porcelain blocks forming the walls have begun to slump and form holes and lumps that are both beautiful and grotesque, in a serene kind of boldly fleshy entropy that begs to be touched. As odd as the idea seems, this is the most private place in the center, particularly suited to this powerful and almost primal work of art.

The art installation, Lovesick Walls, can be found in the restrooms on the Ballroom level at the Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center. Artist Alex Schweder's work is made of porcelain. Photo taken Tuesday, November 9, 2004. (Janet Jensen/The News Tribune)

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