The second annual celebration of shopping locally happens Monday.

Tacoma Shift Happens, an initiative by business alliance GoLocal, is an attempt to get people to shift 10 percent of their spending from national chains to a locally owned businesses.

The event is open to the public, and everyone is invited.

Tacoma Shift Happens 2012 starts at 4 p.m. with a happy hour featuring a cash bar and more than 20 local food vendors, according to the event’s website. That leads into the featured proram, including the Mayoral State of the City address, followed by a showcase of …

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A new list of the 10 most popular American companies in China is dominated by Pacific Northwest companies.

Four of the ten companies on the list compiled by 24/7 Wall Street are based in Washington or Oregon.

Those four companies include Microsoft, which dominates the operating system market in China with a 99.3 percent market share, Boeing with a 52 percent market share in commercial aircraft, Nike, China’s leading sportswear provider, and Starbucks, which has 70 percent of the coffee business in China with its 450 stores.

Other companies on 24/7′s list include KFC, General Motors, Coca Cola, Procter & …

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Instead of a six-story retail and apartment complex on the site of a shuttered restaurant, a sports pub will spice up the corner of Sixth Avenue and Alder.

The Overtime Bar and Grill is headed for a spring opening, said Chuck Bayha, who has managed Tacoma’s Paddy Coyne’s Irish Pub and worked in pull-tab consulting.

The theme is a higher end sports pub, with pull-tabs and a menu of burgers and steaks. He said last week that he plans to remodel the former ABC Chinese restaurant, but some key pieces of the restaurant operation are in good shape including …

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Downtown Tacoma’s holiday ice rink has been such a success that organizers plan to keep it open an extra week, and to bring it back next year.

“We’re meeting target numbers right now,” Tacoma Art Museum’s Cameron Fellows said Wednesday. “We’re definitely going to make the goal where the operator wants to do it again, and we want to do it again.”

The museum and Texas-based Ice Rink Events opened a temporary rink in downtown’s Tollefson Plaza. Franciscan Health System has been the lead sponsor and gave it its name: Franciscan Polar Plaza. The museum guaranteed it …

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In a story today about the demise of a four-year-old Steilacoom restaurant, Jake’s Bar & Bistro, we quoted Washington Restaurant Association President Anthony Anton as saying the rising cost of food and wages were putting pressure on the local restaurant industry.

Heather Donahoe, the WRA public relations director, provided us examples of the costs Anton was addressing.

Wholesale Food Prices Sept 2010 vs Sept 2011
According to US Bureau of Labor Statistics
All Foods +9.8%
Fruits & Melons / Fresh-Dry Vegetables +13.3%
Cereal & Bakery Products 9.3%
Meats +13.9%
Eggs +52.3%
Unprocessed and …

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This just in from the City of Tacoma. I’ve added some emphasis for the things that stood out to me:

If you are interested in how residents, businesses and visitors use parking in downtown Tacoma, the Parking Management Advisory Task Force is looking for a new member to participate in making decisions for the downtown parking system.

The current duties include making recommendations on the paid on-street parking, and duties may grow to include the City’s off-street parking facilities. The current vacancy is for a commercial property owner/operator and/or a business owner.

Interested persons with these qualities are invited to complete

…

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Now’s the time to tell the City of Tacoma how you think south downtown should develop.

A public meeting is scheduled for Thursday as part of the public “scoping” period, when city planners are gathering as many comments as possible to guide the preparation of a broad environmental impact statement and sub-area plan. If the environmental impact statement ultimately is approved, it will allow individual developers to skip the costly and time-consuming step of doing environmental studies on their own.

This scoping period is an essential part of the start of a two-year master planning process that could lead …

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The Tides Tavern is not closing.

Well, it’s closing, unless there’s a big rainstorm – but only for a few days.

Look for the Gig Harbor waterfront icon to shutter its doors beginning next Monday, the 14th, and reopening on Friday afternoon, the 18th.

And when the tavern reopens, look for an expanded parking lot, as the city begins development of the old pier at the Stutz Fuel Dock, formerly the “People’s Dock” and erstwhile site of the city’s ferry landing.

“I think we’ll have 36 spaces when we’re done,” said Peter Stanley, Tides owner, earlier this week. Currently, the …

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