Tacoma unveils Black Lives Matter mural

By Lauren Gallup
Along Pacific Avenue in downtown Tacoma, the city’s new Black Lives Matter mural unfolds across the 23,000 square-foot Tollefson Plaza in bright colors. The mural cascades down the steps of the plaza and from different viewpoints, it reveals different faces, messages and meanings. The challenging space makes the viewer work to absorb the mural — something lead artist Read More

Pushing Back On The Gentrification Of The Hilltop

By Lauren Gallup
The new light rail expansion stop in the Hilltop, one of the many recent developments in this Tacoma neighborhood. Photo by Lauren Gallup.
Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood is a place where generations have raised families, where small businesses have blossomed and where art intersects with your local corner mart. But it's also a neighborhood where residents have faced systemic racism in the form of redlining, where the FBI monitored the sidewalks in the late 90s, and where gentrification is displacing longtime Read More

Greening Up A Formerly Redlined Neighborhood

By Lauren Gallup
Ailene Ettinger with the Nature Conservancy installs a device to track air temperature on a utility pole in South Tacoma this January. Photo by Courtney Baxter.
On an early and rainy June day, Ailene Ettinger is using a power drill to install a small, metal device on a utility pole. The device is a temperature logger, housed under a white rectangular UV radiation shield. Once installed, it constantly measures air temperature in this South Tacoma neighborhood, sending the data via Bluetooth to an app that Ettinger checks on her phone.Read More
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