Latest news with #MariaLee
Yahoo
17 hours ago
- Yahoo
Spotted the orange flag above the Tacoma Dome? Here's what it means.
On June 4, an orange flag was raised on the Tacoma Dome. Three years ago, Mayor Victoria Woodards declared June as Gun Violence Awareness Month. In June 2023, the annual tradition of raising the orange flag on the Tacoma Dome began to encourage the reduction of gun violence, city spokesperson Maria Lee told The News Tribune Thursday. 'In the State of Washington, there are about 850 gun deaths every year, with a rate of 10.8 deaths per 100,000 people,' according to Mayor Woodards' May 2022 proclamation. In response to those statistics, Tacoma uses one of the city's most iconic buildings to shed light on the issue. The color orange has become a symbol of gun safety as part of the Wear Orange campaign and National Gun Violence Awareness Day, which is June 6. Orange was chosen because that's what hunters wear for safety, according to a previous News Tribune article. The flag will get taken down on Monday, June 9, but efforts to promote safety will continue throughout the month. For example, Tacoma helps fund Summer Late Nights, a program that aims to reduce youth violence, Lee said. From June 23 to Aug. 29, middle and high schools throughout Tacoma will have their doors open on weeknights for students. Students have the opportunity to get dinner and hang out with friends, according to the Parks Tacoma website. 'The City of Tacoma maintains our commitment to end senseless gun violence with evidence-based solutions, and pledge to do all we can to keep firearms out of the wrong hands,' the proclamation said. Editor's note: This story has been updated to include information about the Wear Orange campaign and National Gun Violence Awareness Day.
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Yahoo
Spotted the orange flag above the Tacoma Dome? Here's what it means.
On June 4, an orange flag was raised on the Tacoma Dome. Three years ago, Mayor Victoria Woodards declared June as Gun Violence Awareness Month. In June 2023, the annual tradition of raising the orange flag on the Tacoma Dome began to encourage the reduction of gun violence, city spokesperson Maria Lee told The News Tribune Thursday. 'In the State of Washington, there are about 850 gun deaths every year, with a rate of 10.8 deaths per 100,000 people,' according to Mayor Woodards' May 2022 proclamation. In response to those statistics, Tacoma uses one of the city's most iconic buildings to shed light on the issue. The color orange has become a symbol of gun safety as part of the Wear Orange campaign and National Gun Violence Awareness Day, which is June 6. Orange was chosen because that's what hunters wear for safety, according to a previous News Tribune article. The flag will get taken down on Monday, June 9, but efforts to promote safety will continue throughout the month. For example, Tacoma helps fund Summer Late Nights, a program that aims to reduce youth violence, Lee said. From June 23 to Aug. 29, middle and high schools throughout Tacoma will have their doors open on weeknights for students. Students have the opportunity to get dinner and hang out with friends, according to the Parks Tacoma website. 'The City of Tacoma maintains our commitment to end senseless gun violence with evidence-based solutions, and pledge to do all we can to keep firearms out of the wrong hands,' the proclamation said. Editor's note: This story has been updated to include information about the Wear Orange campaign and National Gun Violence Awareness Day.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
What is happening (or not) with 171 planned apartments near Tacoma Mall?
Plans for new apartments near the Tacoma Mall recently received an extension in terms of permitting. Avanti Apartments, planned at the site of a former office building, 4218 S. Steele St., received an extension on its building permit last month. 'The building permit was granted an extension on April 17 for another 180 days (10/14/2025),' according to Maria Lee, media representative for the City of Tacoma. The status of the site's building permit is listed as 'awaiting resubmittal/revisions,' on the city's permit portal. The site is owned by an LLC affiliated with Bend, Oregon-based Pahlisch real estate entity, which acquired the site in 2022 for $6.5 million. Pahlisch Commercial, which has offices in Bend, Oregon; Vancouver, Washington; and Bellevue, is the firm's branch that develops mixed-use, multifamily properties. Pahlisch representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Tacoma site. The project received an 8-year multifamily property tax exemption from City Council in 2023. Plans at the time called for 171 market-rate units, eight live/work units at ground level and around 130 parking spaces on the first two levels of the seven-story structure. In 2023, the city listed the development's completed assessed value at $75 million, based on estimated construction costs. Pahlisch has other planned apartment projects in Western Washington. The developers earlier this year received an 8-year MFTE for a $135 million, 564-unit, market-rate apartment complex at Kent's West Hill. In January, Pahlisch Commercial landed a $69.2 million construction loan for a a seven-story, 198-unit apartment building in Vancouver, Washington, as reported by
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Encampments removed in Tacoma were ‘notably larger' in first quarter of 2025
The City of Tacoma removed nearly 80 homeless encampments during the first quarter of the year. While only a slight increase from the previous quarter, city officials said the encampments removed so far this year were 'notably larger.' According to data from Tacoma's Neighborhood and Community Services Department, the city conducted 79 encampment removals during the first quarter of 2025. The city removed 68 encampments during the first quarter of 2024. City spokesperson Maria Lee told The News Tribune encampments removed in the first quarter of 2025 were 'notably larger' than in the last quarter of 2024, with several locations having more than 10 tents. Lee said the first quarter of 2025 included approximately four weeks of pauses in removals for certain holidays and the Point In Time Count — a one-night survey of those living homeless. Those pauses might have allowed the camps to grow, she said. The city agreed to not remove encampments for approximately two weeks ahead of the county's annual survey of those living unhoused. The city stated the pause was intended to allow the county to collect more accurate data. In the first quarter of 2025, the city spent $561,112 to remove 488,960 tons of debris from encampments. In the first quarter of 2024, the city spent $585,621 to remove 605,600 tons of debris. According to data from Tacoma's Homeless Engagement and Alternatives Liaison Team, the city records the highest volume of encampment reports during the summer months. In March, Shiloh Baptist Church closed its homeless shelter, which had 40 beds. The city is preparing to lose nearly 400 shelter beds by the end of 2025. Heading into the 2025 legislative session, Tacoma requested roughly $6 million to keep roughly 300 shelter beds operational through 2025. By June the city will lose 339 shelter beds without state funding. Lee told The News Tribune as of the first quarter of 2025, the city has a little over 1,000 shelter beds. With fewer shelter beds available than in previous years, the impact on the number of encampments the community will see is unclear. In October 2022, the Tacoma City Council passed an ordinance that prohibits camping and the storage of personal belongings in a 10-block radius around temporary shelters and all public property within 200 feet of Tacoma's rivers, waterways, creeks, streams and shorelines. Under the ordinance, violators face fines of up to $250 and up to 30 days in jail. To date, the city reports that two citations or fines have been issued since the ordinance was passed. To enforce the policy, the city uses both police and homeless-outreach staff, known as the HEAL team, who make contact with people living in encampments that have been reported to the city. Their job is to get folks living unhoused to accept offers of shelter and services that help them get off the streets. The HEAL team reportedly contacted 519 people in the first quarter of 2025. It contacted 454 people during the first quarter of the previous year. When offered services by the HEAL team, historically only about half of individuals accept those services. That trend continued in the first quarter of 2025, with 54% of individuals expressing interest in the services offered. According to the city, the HEAL team placed 74 people into shelter during the first quarter of 2025, about 14% of those it contacted. In the first quarter of 2024, 61 were placed into shelter by the HEAL team, about 13%.
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Tacoma voters to weigh permanent tax hikes for street improvements. What to know
Tacoma voters will decide on April 22 whether to embrace increased taxes expected to raise millions of dollars annually for the second iteration of a sweeping city streets improvement plan. The city's Streets Initiative II, which will be on the ballot in the upcoming special election, would succeed Tacoma's major 10-year effort to upgrade streets that voters approved in 2015. That tax package, referred to as the Streets Initiative, is set to soon expire. Streets Initiative II, or Proposition 1 as it's named on the ballot, would increase utility tax on natural gas, electric and phone utilities by 2% and bump the regular property tax levy by 25 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value beginning next year, according to the city. The tax hikes would replace rate increases imposed by the first streets initiative, which had raised the same taxes by 1.5% and 20 cents, respectively. The current utility tax rate expires next February while the existing property tax rate ends in December, the city said. To put it into perspective, the proposed new utility and property taxes combined are expected to cost the average Tacoman homeowner roughly $98 per year — or about $8 per month — more than they have been paying under the expiring tax rates, according to the city's explanatory statement of Prop. 1 on the voters' pamphlet. Qualifying seniors and certain others would be exempt from the rate increases, the city said. While the 2015 streets initiative had a decade-long shelf life, Streets Initiative II is a permanent levy, city spokesperson Maria Lee told The News Tribune in December after the City Council unanimously approved sending the measure to the special election. The first tax package represented a nearly $400 million investment in improving city infrastructure over the past decade, accounting for grant-matched funds and other dollars, according to the city. Streets Initiative II is projected to raise $37 million each year for a bevy of road-related upgrades in Tacoma, including street repairs and maintenance, safety improvements on high-risk corridors and a betterment of bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, the city said in its ballot measure explanation. A News Tribune analysis in September showed how the city's first streets initiative largely accomplished what Tacoma officials intended it to do by vastly improving the condition of residential streets, which make up 61% of the city's entire street network. The initiative, by design, also paid much less attention to arterial roads — the more heavily trafficked, commercial pathways in the city such as Portland and 6th avenues — that ultimately declined in condition as a result. City officials previously noted that street quality wasn't the lone benchmark for progress, underscoring street safety as a key objective. They cited the city's Vision Zero initiative, which aims to end traffic deaths and severe injuries by 2035. Vision Zero embraces a complete-street philosophy that incorporates sidewalks, crosswalks, flashing beacons, bike lanes and other accompaniments. Still, the differing trajectories of residential and arterial road condition under the first streets initiative raised the question of how Tacoma plans to avoid a seesaw effect in the next iteration, particularly since city officials have said Streets Initiative II would heavily focus on arterial roads and multi-modal transportation. In an interview in September, Public Works director Ramiro Chavez said that the city hadn't ignored arterial work during the first streets initiative, despite a dramatic reduction in maintenance for arterial roads and much more of the initiative's dollars being set aside for residential streets. If voters approve Streets Initiative II, Chavez said, the city planned to continue to invest in and manage residential streets, too. The city performed work on more than 4,000 residential blocks over the past 10 years — a number which Chavez previously said was anticipated to increase by the end of this year to surpass the city's 5,600-block goal. In a presentation in December, Chavez told the City Council that Streets Initiative II also would prioritize projects in under-served neighborhoods, which encompassed 64% of Tacoma's highest-risk streets. 'While the 2015 initiative delivered measurable benefits, challenges remain,' Chavez said. In a joint op-ed in The News Tribune last month, City Council members Kristina Walker and John Hines cast Streets Initiative II as a 'generational investment' and highlighted the first street initiative's positive returns. The city improved nearly 70% of the city's residential streets, secured $2.25 for every $1 of initiative funds and consistently had a clean audit, they said. Streets Initiative II has been endorsed by the entire City Council, Tacoma Firefighters Union Local 31, local transportation-advocacy group Downtown On the Go, the Pierce County Central Labor Council, Pierce County Executive Ryan Mello and others. In a voters' pamphlet filed with the Pierce County Elections Office, the proponent committee, Yes to Safer Streets, wrote that Prop. 1's focus on fixing major roads would result in millions of dollars in workforce development, reduce traffic deaths and avoid lengthier and costlier repairs in the future. 'The cost of poor infrastructure — traffic delays, accidents, and vehicle wear — also impacts businesses and residents,' the committee wrote. 'Deferred road maintenance leads to higher long-term costs, as roads deteriorate faster without timely repairs. Prop 1 will grow our economy, reduce traffic fatalities and, in the long run, save Tacomans money.' The opponent committee urged voters to reject increasing taxes and suggested that the city had failed to act and now sought to pass off a burden onto taxpayers, which would hit people with limited incomes particularly hard. 'Why haven't they used the funds they already had to begin this work years earlier? How many lives were lost due to their inaction?' the committee wrote. 'Why didn't they just resubmit the same tax rates as last time? After all, assessed values have gone up 153% since (the) first 'Roads Proposition' passed. Where are the taxpayers in support? All endorsers have vested interest in passage.' The city said it's hosting information sessions at two libraries on Saturday to discuss Prop. 1. One session is scheduled at the South Tacoma Library Branch, 3411 S. 56th St., from 1:45 to 2:45 p.m. The other is planned at the Swasey Library Branch, 7001 6th Ave., from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Tacoma also has a dedicated webpage on Prop. 1: See the voters' pamphlet here: Visit for information about voting.
