by Meg van Huygen

[[image]] Jake Carter

The entrance of Howdy Bagel on South Tacoma Way has been crowded with flowers and lit candles since Monday, in vigil for co-owner Jake Carter, who was shot and killed in New Orleans on Friday, January 5. Carter was traveling with his husband, Howdy Bagel co-owner Daniel Blagovich, when they were robbed by a gunman around 1:30 a.m. at the corner of Bourbon and Kerlerec Streets in the Marigny. The suspect fled, and Carter died at the scene before police arrived. He was 32.

[[image]] howdy bagel

No arrests have been made yet. On Tuesday, January 10, New Orleans PD recovered a blue Kia from Bayou St. John and confirmed that it had a connection to the incident, although it didn’t specify how. A story by 4WWL TV New Orleans suggested the vehicle could belong to the suspect.

After many months of suspense, the Western-themed Howdy Bagel opened on South Tacoma Way in May of 2023 to a tremendous response. In the first few months, it wasn’t unusual to wait in line for an hour, and the bagels invariably sold out every day. The couple was living in Seattle when they started making bagels in 2021, during the pandemic lockdown, and were well known characters at the Proctor Farmers Market before opening the bakery. Carter, Blagovich, and their team quickly gained a rep for the sunny, good-vibes atmosphere—only at Howdy can you make five new friends while waiting in line for breakfast. “We’ve been calling it bagel summer camp, because it’s so fun,” Carter told me last June in an interview for The Stranger. Howdy also serves as a crucial all-ages daytime queer space in Tacoma, a city where most queer spaces are 21+ and open evenings only.

[[image]] flower piles

Originally from Texas, Carter had a background in coffee, having worked for Olympia Coffee in Seattle. He had also been a caseworker for an org that finds homes for displaced refugees in the Pacific Northwest.

Although the couple had only recently moved to Tacoma from Seattle, they were quickly beloved and embraced by Pierce County’s restaurant industry, and the news is hitting hard all across Tacoma. The shop is closed temporarily, with no reopening date announced yet. Friends of Howdy have organized a GoFundMe campaign to support Blagovich and the Howdy Bagel team as they take some space to grieve and figure out next steps. At press time on Thursday, the campaign had raised over $242,000, almost five times the initial goal of $50,000. Despite the campaign’s success, we’re still encouraging people to donate, as $250k still won’t last long when you’re paying your employees, a mortgage, and living costs. An Instagram post on the @howdybagel account asks friends to give Blagovich space and not reach out to him or the family, but instead “find comfort with one another.”

In light of the news, which broke on Monday, scads of Tacoma businesses—including New Frontier Lounge, Field Bar, Side Piece Kitchen, The Cat and Rabbitt Cake Shop, Dirty Oscar’s Annex, and many more—are donating proceeds directly to the GoFundMe campaign. A small comfort in light of this horror, that the community knows how to come together to support its people.

[[image]] howdy bagel 2

Man, you guys, Jake Carter was about as charming and sunny and sincere as human beings ever come, and to know him was an honest privilege and a pleasure. Seriously the nicest, funniest, sweetest dude. Tacoma’s devastated over this idiotic crime, and our hearts and minds are with Daniel Blagovich, his and Carter’s families, and their zillions of friends in Seattle, Tacoma, and beyond. It’s gonna be a tough path forward for everyone at Howdy Bagel. Donate or share if ya can.

The Pierce County Department of Emergency Management has partnered with Tacoma Pierce County Coalition to End Homelessness, City of Fife, Washington and Pierce Transit to open to warming centers - one in Fife and one in Parkland - for the community, especially for our unhoused residents. These sites, in addition to others, are available to those needing a safe place during this very cold weather.

Pierce Transit is also offering free rides on its routes for those traveling to a warming center.

Additional Information

The smoke from the Gault fire settled and didn't disburse the way that the fire department expected so neighbors homes were engulfed in toxic smoke. Some neighbors were warned by an emergency notification system but it only calls land lines. Use this link to add your cellphone to be notified if there is an emergency in your neighborhood.

Sign Up for Emergency Notification

Our City of Tacoma Comprehensive Plan outlines our shared vision for our community’s growth and provides the framework that the County uses to guide day-to-day decisions. We want to know what you think! Send us a message, attend a meeting, or participate in our online open house!

Comprehensive Plan Drafts

Watch to Learn More

[[image]] Ruston Tree

City of Ruston lost a very majestic old tree on Winifred Street during the recent wind storm. If you want to plant more trees, check out Tacoma’s Tree Coupon Program

There was a shooting incident near 43rd and Bell that resulted in a woman’s death at the hands of the Tacoma Police Department. Here is a first hand account that neighbor Erin Miller posted on the NextDoor app,

“A woman with dementia tried to attack her upstairs neighbor and there was a standoff for about an hour and a half or so. She kept coming outside with a gun. Then SWAT came, they teargassed her house, and then when she finally came out they shot her. I live across the street so I saw all of it happen.”

Council member Jamika Scott takes her place after her 2023 victory. “The unique perspectives and experience in community advocacy that Council Member Scott brings will be invaluable to ensuring we are engaging every facet of our community as we address the community’s priorities” said Mayor Woodards.

Here is a list of all of the council districts

Tacoma Housing Authority has announced that several new units are now available to rent at the Bay Terrace property.

If you're interested in renting one of these units, pick up an application at 2550 South G Street, or call 253.448.2788

Pierce County Animal Control has rescued 35 animals from an unsafe, overcrowded home in Tacoma this week. Among the animals were dogs, cats, hamsters, ferrets, mice, rats and a parrot that are all at the Tacoma Humane Society. All of the animals arrived in various conditions of health. Vets and aides at the shelter are providing medical attention but donations are needed from the community. If you can, they ask for donations to thehumanesociety.org/35-pets/

[[image]] Snowplow

From the City of Tacoma: Starting January 11th, the Street Ops Division will be deploying 13 snowplows, 4 sanding trucks, 3 de-icing trucks throughout Tacoma in anticipation of freezing temperatures and possible snow flurries. More info on Inclement Weather in Tacoma

By Stephanie Smith

The West End Neighborhood is a charming area including some of Tacoma’s well-known sites like Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, Kandle Park, Ruston Way, Titlow Park, and all the areas between. There is so much to do in this council area but the most important is to connect with your local council and community members. The WENC meeting is held at 7 pm on the second Wednesday of the month, except for August & December, at Tacoma Fire Station 16 at 7217 6th Avenue.

Plenty of parking along the Park & Ride side of the building makes for an easy venture out to this Neighborhood Council. Just leave the snacks and drinks in the car, as no food or drinks are allowed in the meeting room.

There are currently three Board Members: Chair Cindy Bertozzi Turco, Secretary Janice Fikse, and Treasurer Dennis Munsterman. If you are interested in becoming a Board Member you need to live within the boundaries of the West End. To find out if you live in the West End Neighborhood check here

If you live, work, or own a business in the West End of Tacoma, you are already a member and should sign up for updates by emailing wenc@we-tacoma.org requesting to be added to the mailing list. Then be available to come on down to the meetings and get to know about all that is happening in the West End. If you are an organization that wants to do a presentation to the group reach out to Cindy and the Board. Cindy mentioned that she is very interested in increasing participation from younger residents and that someone with more technical expertise for working on the website would be of great assistance.

This meeting included in-person updates from the Tacoma Police Department (TPD), Tacoma Councilmember Hines, Tacoma Public Utilities, Port of Tacoma, Point Defiance Zoo, and Pierce Transit, with a special presentation on Prop 1 by Tacoma Public Schools at the end.

Community Liaison Officer from Tacoma Police Department

This area’s TPD Community Liaison Officer (CLO) is Officer Luke Wallin and he and his fellow Officer Kristin Braziel have been getting written trespass authorizations from the stores at Westgate Shopping Center to help improve the situations around shoplifting, robberies, and other issues. He also wanted to inform residents that despite hiring twenty-nine officers, 27 officers left TPD but, that the Dept is hiring Community Service Officers (CSO) who will be able to take police reports and perform some of the functions necessary to have the regular Police Officers more available for urgent situations. Those CSOs will be ten in number and will be wearing uniforms and driving vehicles that will prevent them from being mistaken for uniformed Police Officers, as they will not be fully commissioned Police Officers. This should help fill some of the gaps in police availability when the CSOs are in place. There have been approximately 120 arrests related to the street racing incidents around Tacoma.

Deputy Mayor and Tacoma City Council Member Hines

Tacoma City Council Member Hines stopped in with his son to encourage residents to be involved in budget discussions for the City of Tacoma and various agencies across Pierce County. There will be public outreach somewhere around May and June regarding the budget. Apparently, due to flattening sales tax revenue, this budget is going to be a tight one. The City gets revenue mostly from Utility Tax, B & O tax, Sales tax, and property taxes.

Hines will be participating in the Point in Time count for the Homeless in the area and will be out there at night helping to talk to and count those living outside. He encouraged people to volunteer for the January 25th event. A resident, Ralph, mentioned there were at times people living in cars around Titlow Beach. Hines, this year's Deputy Mayor, spoke about safe parking sites and the complexities around having sites for RVs due to sewage disposal issues. Resident Ralph recommended getting fliers to local businesses about the safe parking sites and other information for resources.

Council Member Hines also discussed that there had been ideas like vouchers for campsites or other places equipped to take RVs and that there were some projects in King County being watched closely for outcomes. This is something that Hines has been spending time thinking about and was welcome to ideas.

Another interest of Councilmember Hines is expanding into automated traffic enforcement aka Speed Cameras.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions you can email Council Member Hines at JHINES1@CityofTacoma.org or you can catch him at his next Coffee Chat.

Tacoma Public Utilities

Dr. John Gaines, a future West End resident, came in with Jody, an Assistant Division Manager from Tacoma Water to discuss the WestRock closure and the current and future rate increases. Westrock was Tacoma Water's customer for 90 years and its largest customer accounting for 7.4% of their revenue. 95% of Tacoma Water costs are fixed so there is very little room to reduce costs. Jody encourages participation in future budget discussions and that the meetings have already been starting, internally. Dr. Gaines encouraged residents to contact him if they had questions and he would connect them with whoever could help find the answer within the Utility.

The WENC Chair mentioned that Dr Gaines was very helpful when, after the new meters were installed, there was a noise coming from them that was also generated by her neighbor's meter. They switched both meters out with a new meter and the problem was resolved. If you are experiencing any issues around meters please contact TPU.

Port of Tacoma

Katy Skelton invited West End residents to participate in bus tours of the Port. Coming up soon there will be a planting of fifty trees on the 20th of January. Volunteers are encouraged to sign up and help plant trees at the Port. Another cool upcoming partnership is Maritime253, with about eleven school districts invested for a maritime skills center. To learn more about this amazing partnership check out https://www.tacomaschools.org/departments/cte/maritime-skill-center.

Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium (PDZA)

Fred from PDZA says it is budget season! SO, stay in touch with your parks department and attend any upcoming meetings. They intend to leave the outer loop of Five-Mile drive closed to motor vehicles. One resident, Mike, suggested that they might open it up once a week for vehicles since some residents have mobility challenges and enjoy the drive.

Fred closed his Metroparks presentation with a fun joke about a chicken and a peacock. And I refuse to tell you because you need to go to the meetings and ask him to hear if he’s got more jokes and I can tell Fred’s got jokes.

Pierce Transit

Tammy Apthorp with Pierce Transit was doing a darn fine job discussing the Micro Transit Runner Service. It’s their version of Uber to help get residents in transit-challenged areas to get to bus stops. The service operates in 5 zones, including Ruston, with service times from 7 am to 10 pm. This is another way Pierce Transit is working on transit equity. Resident Ralph commented that he could not understand why along Ruston Way, when all the new construction and designs were happening, they didn’t take bus transit into account and that they knew that individuals had sold their homes to live down there and were being negatively impacted by lack of transit (bus access).

Resident Dennis mentioned that he’d love to see some train access at the Tacoma Mall and that in Lynnwood this seems to have created a busy mall with lots of businesses doing well.

Best for Last! Tacoma Public Schools and Proposition 1

Morris Aldridge, the Executive Director of Planning and Construction, was there with Stacy Paige to discuss the construction 650-million-dollar bond measure coming up on the ballot in February. These include replacement campuses for Delong, IDEA, Pt. Defiance, Stanley, and Whitman with major renovations for Franklin Elementary, Hilltop Heritage, Silas HS, Central Admin, Professional Development Center, and the West End Swing School (former Skyline Elementary).

Also included are funds for building a Central Kitchen because the on-site kitchens are insufficient to make meals for TPS students and a Central Kitchen would enable kids to have better school meals.

AND THE WINNER IS…

So, attending the WENC meeting does have its perks as there is a prize drawing at the end. This month’s winner, Mike, won a gift card to Cloverleaf! Congrats, Mike!

By Stephanie Smith

The Lake City Neighborhood Association is one of six neighborhood districts in the City of Lakewood. This group is District 5 and will hold meetings at 7 pm every second Thursday of every other month. The location is the meeting room of West Pierce Fire Department (WPFD) Station 22, 8517 Washington Blvd SW. Every meeting has a representative from the city, WPFD, and Lakewood Police. And coffee with goodies… 😊

Fire!

Art Rausch from WPFD did a brief read of the calls for December in the Lake City Neighborhood. There was a total of 118 calls in December with 12 being fire alarm calls, 59 advanced life support, 38 basic life support, and one hazmat call.

Art encouraged everyone to be involved in CERT or Community Emergency Response Team and that there is a class coming up in March. These classes fill up fast so better apply soon!

Neighbors inquired about fire extinguisher disposal.

Pierce Transit

Once again, I got to hear from the awesome Tammy Apthorp who specializes in Orca discounts for businesses, and vanpools, and is a great source of information on programs within Pierce Transit. There will be some changes coming in March and this year there will not be the capacity to expand routes. Pierce Transit runs about 80% of bus driver capacity and needs to hire more drivers and mechanics to be at full 100%. There are excellent benefits and a signing bonus.

Lakewood Police

Speeding appeared to be the topic of the night! This poses a challenge as traffic consists of about 4 officers but, every LPD officer can enforce traffic laws. Officer Jeremy works with Lakewood’s unhoused population and recognizes the lack of places for them to go within the city. When asked about the old Candlewood Suites he informed the group that it is a State-run project through the Low-Income Housing Institute and they will be single-bedroom apartments. Lakewood doesn’t have any beds reserved for its homeless population at this location.

Lakewood City Council

Brandstetter was present to talk about the changes in City Council members and announce the VA hospital is celebrating 100 years on March 15th, 3 pm-7 pm. A neighbor inquired about plans concerning Clover Creek and the council member clarified the issue/rumor around damning the creek. Nope. Not quite right. It was discovered that there is now a change in the flood plain according to FEMA and this affects the cost of insurance for residents impacted by the flood zone, so Lakewood decided to examine the situation and found that this means that part of I5 is impacted by this 100-year flood zone. One of the likely scenarios is building a levy along Clover Creek. But Lakewood is not putting it up anytime soon and will continue to study and look for federal funds to help manage the costs of such an undertaking.

If you’re wondering about the removal of some of the flashing school zone lights, know that this is only temporary as there are some supply chain issues impacting prompt replacement so regular signs were put in place temporarily to ensure that individuals don’t drive normal speeds through the school zone because the lights have ceased to function. So, keep your eyes peeled for those school zones!

Neighbors were concerned about pedestrian safety in the “roundabout city” as several close calls have happened along Veterans and Washington Blvd. According to Brandstetter, we should stay tuned. Using Lakewood 311 is also a good way to get your questions answered!

Next meeting is in March!