BY AVERY GOODSTINE for WEEKLY VOLCANO | 6/19/2026
Through the power of community, the Hosmer Business Association (HBA) focuses on crime reduction and prevention to create a safe and inviting environment where residents, visitors, and business owners can unite and thrive.
The HBA meets the second Wednesday of each month at 6 p.m. at 8203 S. Hosmer St. Hosmer residents and business owners are encouraged to attend. At the June 10 meeting, HBA secretary Judy Ly shared Hosmer summer events and called attention to committees she feels Hosmer residents should be part of.
Officers from the Tacoma Police Department shared updates on brush clearing in the South Ash Open Space, traffic, and TPD’s Fourth of July plan.
Summer events
June’s monthly street cleanup will be Saturday, June 20, at 9 a.m. Volunteers will meet at Crossroads Treatment Center, 8717 S. Hosmer St., and the HBA will provide coffee, doughnuts, gloves, vests, and bags. Volunteers will focus their efforts on 84th Street to 96th Street and Steele Street. The HBA hosts similar cleanup events once a month.
The South End Neighborhood Council’s (SENCo) fourth annual block party is Saturday, June 27, in the Fern Hill neighborhood from noon to 3 p.m. This free event brings families together and provides food, fun, and local resources. It also marks the first free sustainable clothing and household goods giveaway, made possible by the Beyond the Bin Grant from City of Tacoma Environmental Services. The Beyond the Bin program aims to support and create waste-reduction efforts. Local stylists will demonstrate how to reuse gently used clothing to make new looks.
A free community meal will be provided by award-winning chef Shawn Tibbitts, who focuses on using almost exclusively locally grown products and bases his menu on Indigenous storytelling. Tibbitts owns Tibbitts @ Fern Hill, a 25-seat, reservation-only Indigenous brunch restaurant. This reservation-only model allows Tibbitts to run his restaurant with a no-waste mindset because meals are prepared based on the day’s reservations.
According to his website, Tibbitts’s work extends beyond the four walls of his restaurant. He can accommodate private dinners, catered gatherings, cultural meals, community-centered events, and collaborative meals created to support local business owners and community members.
Before opening the brunch restaurant, Tibbitts was known for private events, including charity meals and tribal storytelling dinners. After decades of large-format catering, he wanted to take brunch, a meal many chefs treat as less serious than dinner, and turn it into an art by mastering preparation, flavor, and hospitality.
Tibbitts has won 12 awards over 11 years, with the most recent being Cheapism’s 2026 Best Brunch in Washington. His first was the 2017 Tacoma News Tribune Best Tacoma-Area Restaurant Opening. His other awards include South Sound Magazine’s Best Chef and Best New Restaurant in 2018, Forbes 2020 Top Restaurants in the U.S., Food & Wine’s 2022 Best Places in the World for Brunch, and others.
Guest hours at Tibbitts @ Fern Hill are Friday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Seating times are 9 a.m., 10 a.m., 11 a.m., and noon. Reservations can be made by phone only.
The current seasonal brunch menu is influenced by Alaska Native food systems and includes blueberry lemon French toast, “bread pudding style”; Alaskan Cristo with reindeer sausage; Tibbitts’s “Super Tiny” breakfast burrito; and smoked salmon quiche. The signature Tacoma brunch dishes are the lobster bomb, foraged fungi frittata, and spring Oregon bay shrimp caprese omelet. Prices range from $25 to $28.
Community members will also have the chance to participate in a botanical printmaking activity led by Yoshi Nakagawa, see the new Fern Hill library mural, and watch live painting by Jesse Peterson.
Nakagawa is a printmaker inspired by the simplicity and beauty in everyday life. Born in Tacoma and raised in Portland, she graduated from the University of Puget Sound in 1999 with a Bachelor of Arts in foreign language and international affairs and a minor in studio art.
After working primarily in Mexico since 2012, she returned to Washington in 2021. So far this year, she has taught many printmaking classes, had solo shows at Auburn Community Center Gallery and the Seattle Japanese Garden, had work in Seattle Cherry Blossom and Japanese Cultural Festival exhibitions at Seattle Armory, and more.
Peterson is a Washington native who has painted many murals in the Seattle and Tacoma areas. He is listed with the Tacoma Mural Artist Roster and has worked with the Traffic Box Wraps Project, Spaceworks Rapid Mural Project, and Murals LIVE! Stage at the Washington State Fairgrounds.
His Fern Hill library mural is outside on the stairwell and brick wall that wrap around the property. On the staircase, he painted woodland creatures reading books. On the bricks, he painted more than 50 book titles across 500 bricks.
In addition to murals, Peterson creates recycled art using mixed media on objects that would otherwise end up in the landfill.
South Lakeshore Christian Church will host Summerfest on Saturday, July 18, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. This free event traditionally provides family-friendly activities while showcasing local resources and service organizations.
There is also an Earth Day celebration at Blueberry Park on July 25, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and the HBA picnic will be Aug. 15 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. A location has not been chosen for the picnic.
Neighborhood meetings
Ly requested that someone take her spot on the South End Community Center Committee because she will no longer be able to attend. Working with Parks Tacoma, the committee is gathering information about where the South End Community Center should be located. Without her, Ly said, there will be no voice representing the southernmost part of the city.
Ly said it would be beneficial for someone to also attend meetings about Tacoma’s Fifth City Council District participatory budgeting, a community-driven effort that allows the public to have a say in how some of the city budget is spent. Local residents will select a $1.6 million capital project addressing climate resilience, promoting decarbonization, or both.
TPD updates
Officer T. Petrie told the public that the Washington Conservation Corps has started brush clearing in the South Ash Open Space. Crews are clearing out invasive plant species, which Petrie said will also help prevent people from hiding in the bushes. He said Neighborhood and Community Services and Environmental Services are still cleaning out the space four or five days a week.
TPD also emphasized distracted driving at the end of May. Petrie said the effort was entirely grant-funded and allowed additional officers to be on the streets enforcing distracted-driving laws. Petrie said he alone issued 78 distracted-driving infractions.
There was another traffic detail focused on speeding at the beginning of June. Petrie said officers were in the 2100 to 5100 blocks of North Pearl Street and on South 84th Street between Hosmer and McKinley. The eight-hour detail led to 108 traffic stops and 109 warnings.
A dedicated team of officers will work from July 2 to July 4. Officers will work 5 p.m. to midnight July 2 and July 3, and 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. July 4.
Anyone interested in more information about the South End Community Center Committee or the participatory budgeting meetings can contact the HBA at HBATacoma253@gmail.com
This content paid for by the Hosmer Business Association
