We honor some of the things Tacoma has lost over the last 12 months:

The Luzon Building

With a tree growing out of its side, a sag in its wall and a sad, dusty whimper that was sprayed down by guys in construction hats with hoses to keep the dust out of the eyes of the 17 bloggers that’d shown up to bid it farewell, Tacoma’s historic Luzon building — built in 1890 and designed by Chicago architects Daniel Burnham and John Root, and more recently deemed a life safety hazard with no one left in line to throw money at it — finally met its demise in Sept. ’09. It was a sad day, and one that still lives in mild infamy for those disgusted by the way Tacoma’s history has — time and time again — been simply torn down, blown up, grazed over or paved in the name of “progress” or “safety” or whatever. City Manager Eric Anderson has born the brunt of criticism for Tacoma letting another historic piece of itself get hauled off in dump trucks. And maybe he deserves it? Who knows? All I know is the whole ordeal sucks, and the goddamn Quizno’s or mixed-use piece of shit that ends up there is probably going to fucking suck. — Matt Driscoll

Russell Investments

After what seemed like endless posturing and vague threats — shrewd tactics effective enough to inspire the City of Tacoma to, basically, whore out its grandma in a last ditch effort to woo the global investment firm, and long time pillar of downtown, into staying — Russsell Investments announced last September it had seen enough of T-Town, and was heading north to greener, more urbanely appealing, pastures — taking most of its employees with it, of course. Bummer. But whatever. Have fun in Seattle, douches. We were never sold on the idea of an International Investment District, anyway. We think R.R. Anderson’s proposed International Bail Bonds District has a much more sustainable business model for Tacoma and Pierce County. — MD

Daniel Blue

Daniel Blue finally moved to Seattle. Wow. If that wasn’t the longest stretch of inevitable I’ve ever seen play out over the frayed nerves of Tacoma’s insecure and insular arts/music/rear window decal scene I don’t know what is. Wait a minute, I take that back. For a long time I had my money on Portland, but you know what? Dan’s old school. It took Motopony, Blue’s band, to do drag him, fighting tooth and nail, from Tacoma. I’m not exactly sure where in Seattle he lives, but I’m sure it’s somewhere reputable. Maybe he lives in Roxanne Murphy’s neighborhood, who knows? It’s not really important. What IS important is I hope he’s happy, and that anyone who’s pursued their life, to the fullest extent, even outside the bounds of Tacoma, is happy. What IS important is that people take Daniel Blue way too fucking seriously, people take the Volcano way too fucking seriously, and people take themselves way too fucking seriously. I was at Target the other day and saw a car in the parking lot with a big-ass 253 heart sticker on the back window, AND a dude inside wearing the 253 heart T-shirt. Daniel Blue lives forever. — MD

The Warehouse

I’m not really going to pretend like I was cool enough to have hung out at the Warehouse all the time. I wasn’t. I saw a few shows there, sure, had a sense of its place and quasi-artistic/bombed-out importance in Tacoma’s ugly duckling indie scene, but I was no regular. Still, I knew of the Warehouse, you probably knew of the Warehouse, and lots of people knew about the Warehouse. That’s where things got dicey. You see, really cool, organic, artistically inspired s*** — the amazingly good stuff that happens from the ground up and is the sort of thing real scenes are built on, where from time to time a youngin’ takes a tug off a warm PBR — isn’t for mass consumption. The good news is, hopefully the seeds it sowed will be blossoming in Tacoma for a long time to come. — MD

Black Water Cafe

The formula for great coffee houses was lost at some point. A good coffee house is like a parallel dimension, where the ghosts of old, pinched-faced, spinning Dervishes find their way into your veins through black water and loose tea leaves; one-room sanctuaries where artists soak in dopamine and Theta waves, buzzing in holy silence. These kinds of places make everything speed up and slow down, leaving patrons in a liminal space, staring at the world through a thin layer of jitters. Tacoma had just one place like this: the Black Water Cafe. Rachel, coffee, couches — you will be missed. — Paul Schrag

Hell’s Kitchen All Ages Shows

All-ages shows can be a hard thing to come by in this town. A blow to the all-ages scene came late last year when, due to those damned sprinklers that seem to destroy everything cool in Tacoma, Hell’s Kitchen was forced to move downtown. At this new location it was decided, for various reasons, that all-ages shows would be discontinued. I’d like to take this time to fondly remember the teenage dirtbags perennially lined up outside Hell’s Kitchen’s now-barren Sixth Avenue location, where innumerable cigarettes have been smoked, 40s have been secretively consumed and, in the back-alley, drunken pisses have been taken. — Rev. Adam McKinney

Two Vaults

Two Vaults Gallery made a valiant effort. Last time I spoke with gallery owner Paula Tutmarc-Johnson, she had renewed hope that the long-time gallery was going to make it through this damned recession. Sadly, Two Vaults didn’t make it, and closed its doors as spring was turning to summer. The closing of Two Vaults is a loss, plain and simple. It inspired artists. It inspired people who loved the arts. There was only one Two Vaults. It will be missed. — PS