What does the Martin Luther King Housing Development Authority (MLKHDA), an affordable housing non-profit organization, have to do with one of the richest companies in the country?

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It’s a somewhat fashionable thing right now to look down your nose at the suburbs. Environmentalists and students of urban studies (rightly) point to the energy wasted by single-family houses and the gas guzzled on the trips to the grocery store.

The critique has been in Hollywood for years, but it’s recently become much more prevalent. [...]

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Part 3 in a series on commercial development in Tacoma.
I’ve been thinking about alleys lately. This topic came up about a year ago over on exit133.com I’ve always been a fan of alleys but became very interested in them several years ago while taking an urban planning course at the University of Washington. Since then, alleys have become one of my many minor obsessions - especially after learning that the public right-of-ways (streets, alleys, sidewalks and parking strips) make up about a quarter of the land mass of most cities - including Tacoma. Of these right-of-ways, alleys receive the least amount of thought and attention. As a result, not much thought has been given to include alleys in the broader context of issues such as urban revitalization and the environment.

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During my recent obsession into the world of sourdough bread making, I found myself in the market for an oil mister. This gave me a perfect excuse to pay a visit to the Urban Gourmet store on 6th Ave.

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