Josi Callan's Farewell
This seems to be the year for grand farewell bashes in Tacoma’s arts community. First we had Frank Underwood’s party at the Point Defiance Zoo. Last night we had Josi Callan’s event at the Museum of Glass.
A few notes from the evening:
- Karen LaMonte’s Absence Adorned show is much better than we had expected. The member opening is this Friday.
- George Weyerhaeuser is much funnier as an emcee that we had expected.
- Women wear a lot more fur than just a few years ago. Some of it seemed much more tasteful than others. I’ll be nice and won’t name names.
- Several speakers, including Josi, commented on her control issues.
- There were some strong drinks being poured at the bar.
- Farewell videos are an artform. I’ve been amazed lately.
- While Josi thanked all the employees that had been there since the beginning, I don’t think there are more than a couple employees that have been there since the beginning.
The Callan era at the museum is just about over. What will the next year bring?
3 comments
D David Anderson October 23, 2012
Get the Feds to pay for it. Why can’t this track, which is a drain on Tacoma’s budget, serve as a ‘two-rail solution’ with one benefit being the realization of Tacoma’s vision for “The Train to the Mountain” and the other a ‘pain reliever’ for Lakewood’s headache and angst (and possible law suit) over Amtrak’s “only option” the so-called Pt. Defiance By-Pass which, backed by federal dollars, could pay the $24M track improvements for the Mt. track instead of the $89M for it’s route through the life-congested neighborhoods of Lakewood, Tillicum and DuPont. Upon reaching Chehalis, Amtrak could just keep on going.
D Dan Hansen October 23, 2012
I don’t think the sale of 1.3 miles of track near Freighthouse Square has any bearing on a potential train to Ashford. Tacoma will still own the entire track from the junction in in the dome district to the Fredrickson Industrial Park to the boundary of the national park. This deal is great for now. Sound Transit will have full ownership of the rail from the point where it diverges from the BNSF main line in Nisqually to the point where it rejions BNSF across the Puyallup river. This should help Sound Transit if they need to replace the trestle, or upgrade the Freighthouse for Amtrak; and Tacoma gets to offload some debt. Its a win win for all, but not the deth of the dream. I’d love to see a train to the mountian someday, but it isn’t imperative right now. We can wait.
N Nathanael November 2, 2012
Sound Transit is the primary user of the tracks in the Dome District — for Lakewood and Tacoma service — and will soon be joined by Amtrak Cascades. It makes perfect sense to sell that section to Sound Transit, if Sound Transit can get the money. Sound Transit would be perfectly happy to run a “train to the mountain” over that track if someone asked.
Chehalis to Centralia is mainly useful for Puget Sound & Pacific and for local traffic, though it might also be useful for Amtrak Cascades some day in the future. I don’t see a problem with selling that, either.
As for the suggestion of running Amtrak all the way from Fredrickton to Morton over the Mountain Division, it would bypass Lacey, which would be a big step backwards — a very bad idea. Amtrak should run through Lakewood (and will improve the situation in Lakewood).
The Mt. Rainer Scenic is the logical owner of the tracks which are primarily used by it, so if it can raise the money (a big question), I’m all for that sale too. Perhaps the Mt. Rainer Scenic should buy the tracks all the way from Sound Transit’s boundary to Morton, in fact.