Ten months into downtown Tacoma’s use of paid street parking, city council members will hear a comprehensive update tomorrow on how things are going.

City staff and citizen parking task force members will brief the council at their regular study session, beginning at noon, on details including revenue, debt payments, enforcement data, court fee collections and the number of citations.

The update will be Tuesday in Room 16 of the Tacoma Municipal Building North, 733 Market St. Audio from the session is live-streamed on both Channel 12 (TV Tacoma) and at www.tvtacoma.com.

No public comment will be accepted …

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Officials with LeMay America’s Car Museum announced today that they’ve scheduled the grand opening of the downtown car collection for May 19, 2012, not quite two years after they broke ground on city property on the west side of the Tacoma Dome.

“We’ve managed to build a museum … during difficult economic times when nearly everybody said it couldn’t be done,” museum President and CEO David Madeira said in a statement.

Madeira said the museum, on time and on budget, will have 15 galleries housing up to 500 cars, trucks and motorcycles from private owners, corporations and the well-known …

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At its meeting Wednesday evening at City Hall, the Landmarks Preservation Commission got its first look at the proposed landscape plan for the Spanish Stairs next to the old Elks Lodge.

Because the stairs and the Elks are in a historic district, the plan must be approved by the commission. Members made no decisions Wednesday because talks between the city, the architects and the developer are still going on and the plan might change.

The big announcement – good news for some – is that the city has decided that the towering monkey puzzle tree at the top of the stairs will remain.

“The monkey puzzle tree is being retained,” said city historic preservation officer Reuben McKnight. “That is something the city’s asked, as I understand.”

Overall, however, the commissioners weren’t exactly impressed with the plan developed by Portland architecture firm Ankrom Moison for the McMenamin Brothers. The redeveloper of the Elks Lodge has offered to design the landscaping – and even maintain it – because it will be integral to their complex of pubs, restaurants and music venues. Read more »

R.R. Anderson takes issue with the blog post below about what some carvers might do with the wood from the Elks Lodge monkey puzzle tree (if it were to meet a timely demise).

So, to give equal time to live wood aficionados, let’s see what a well-maintained, mature monkey puzzle tree can look like.

You can post them here. File them under Washington and Northwest Scenery. Please include an address or intersection so people can visit them in the flesh, or bark if you prefer.

Mike Price doesn’t have an opinion about the fate of the iconic monkey puzzle tree near the top of downtown Tacoma’s Spanish Stairs.

The retired city employee just wants to put in a request that if it does come down, the wood not end up in someone’s fireplace. Instead, Price wants it to be offered to wood carvers such as himself because the patterns in the wood make for especially elegant carvings.

Price has been working on some pieces from a tree that was recently removed from a house near the entrance to Point Defiance. He said he is …

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Let me be clear: no one is proposing that the 80-year-old (or thereabouts) monkey puzzle tree that stands at the top of the Spanish Stairs should be removed.

But as the old Elks Lodge begins its transformation into a McMenamins beer and entertainment mecca and the stairs are refurbished, there is an emerging discussion about that tree. The native of Chile, Araucaria araucana was a popular ornamental in Tacoma and Seattle in the 20s and 30s.

At a meeting with the Landmarks Commission Wednesday, historic preservation consultant Michael Sullivan said, “I don’t think we have a …

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As the 2010 Daffodil parade makes its way through the streets of Tacoma, Puyallup, Sumner and Orting, we’ll have two reporters and two photographers covering today’s events.

Check this blog for updates throughout the day, or leave a comment to share your own stories. What’s your favorite thing about the Daffodil parade?

Here are Daffodil parade routes and start times:

• 10:15 a.m. in downtown Tacoma at 11th Street and Pacific Avenue and travels along Pacific Avenue, ending at South 21st Street.

• 12:45 p.m. in Puyallup at the intersection of Seventh Avenue Southwest and Fifth Street Southwest.

• 2:30 p.m. in Sumner …

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If you notice a crowd downtown this afternoon, waving signs and chanting, it’s most likely protesters marking the 7th anniversary of the Iraq war.

At 4 p.m., about 40 people had gathered near the Union Station Federal Courthouse, along with a couple of Tacoma police cruisers, bicycle cops and a Homeland Security van.

The crowd had grown to about 100 by 5 p.m.

Pacific Avenue is blocked from South 21st Street east to the Interstate 5 overpass. Protesters chanted “Whose streets? Our streets!” as they marched to the overpass for a 5:30 p.m. demonstration.

Organizers had a city permit to …

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