In 1873, Tacomans considered laying out their fledgling city according to a unique Frederick Law Olmsted plan. The city ultimately discarded most of the plan, walking away from a greener, more park-oriented Tacoma.

Melanie LaPlant Dressel Park opened on April 11 as a beautiful park far away from the rest of the city. An elevated, wide ribbon of concrete — the roaring I-705 freeway — separates the park from its users. Tacoma should remove this barrier.

Greater Tacoma used to have an enormously expansive streetcar network. With just one line, Tacoma's modern streetcar network has a long way to go to catch up to that rapid transit standard.

April 1 is the launch date for Pierce Transit's newest offering, the Stream Community Line. A peak-hour service that will shadow existing service on the Route 1 between Tacoma Dome Station and Spanaway, the Community Line will run every 20 minutes from 5:30am to 7:30am and from 4pm to 7pm, only stopping at the most frequently-used stops along Pacific Avenue and Mountain Highway.

Zoning has created urban forms that are expensive, exclusionary, and unsafe — Tacoma’s attempt to reform zoning stands to create more livable and complete neighborhoods by tackling the many secondary effects of zoning.

If implemented, the new framework would make many of the types of buildings that already exist in abundance in Tacoma neighborhoods like Stadium and Proctor legal again to build across the city, with costly parking requirements in place reduced around current and planned transit.

The stalling out of major downtown redevelopment offers a chance to finetune goals. The Tacoma Town Center, a $300-million project that is to be developed...

As of December 8th, tenants in Tacoma have more legal recourse against rent increases, landlord retaliation, high late fees, and even some evictions. Tacoma's...