thrice all american: Parkland Musings

Parkland Musings

· Posted Wednesday September 20, 2006 by jamie

Well, Autumn is just a couple of days away. I’m not much of a football fan, but this time of year always sorta evokes a bit of PLU football nostalgia for me. We’re looking forward to sitting in the visitor section at Baker Stadium when the Lutes visit UPS on September 30th. It’s on, Loggers!

These thoughts also take me back to Parkland, where there is actually some exciting development going on in the shape of Garfield Commons, a retail complex at Pacific Avenue and Garfield Street designed to help create a gateway to the PLU campus from Pacific Avenue. In addition to my time living in the dorms, I lived on Garfield Street, what some would consider the heart of Parkland, for two years, right above the old Planet Burrito (moment of silence). Parkland maybe isn’t the nicest area, but Garfield Street is a nice little business district with several good restaurants and a few nice shops.

A few days ago, PLU released a news release revealing some of the new details surrounding Garfield Commons, which has been under construction for several months. The anchor tenant of the complex, an expanded PLU bookstore, apparently will bear the moniker “The Garfield Book Company at PLU”. Mkay. But more interesting is the list of other tenants whose names were released. In addition to the UPS Store and Desert Sun Tanning, they have replicated the Poole’s Corner combination with both Firehouse Coffee and Farrelli’s Pizza.

On this positive side, I have good hopes that this will energize the corridor between Pacific Avenue and campus, and pull additional people into the neighborhood who otherwise might drive by. However, I do worry about the competition that the Firehouse/Farrelli’s combo will provide to existing restaurants on Garfield Street, particularly Northern Pacific Coffee Company (NPCC) and Mi Piace Pizza (formerly Tuscany’s). Hopefully those places can stay afloat despite the slicker new neighbors down the street (not to detract from either Firehouse or Farrelli’s, which are both locally-owned, I just would hate to see either of the existing places go away). Maybe proximity to campus will help them.

Now, when is Tacoma finally going to annex Parkland?

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