The Tavern Battle on Pacific Avenue
Tacoma business owners campaign to clear saloons from their block to improve trade and decorum.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Business men on the west side of Pacific Avenue between Thirteenth and Fifteenth streets are somewhat chagrined at the consideration given their remonstrance by the council last night. The remonstrance was against the granting of new applications or renewing liquor licenses in that block. One of the leaders in the movement said to The Times today: 'We want to get the saloons off this side of the street for business reasons. We want to make this a good business block, and we can't do it with so many saloons. Ladies don't like to come down here to trade, because there is always a crowd of men standing in front of these saloons and spitting tobacco juice all over the sidewalk.' Sixteen of the business firms signed the remonstrance, and others would have signed it if they had been asked. Now that the remonstrance has been practically buried by the police and license committee, the business men have hired an attorney to represent them and will take the matter up as soon as a license is asked for.
“Ladies don't like to come down here to trade, because there is always a crowd of men standing in front of these saloons and spitting tobacco juice all over the sidewalk.”
The tension between local business owners trying to curate a 'clean' aesthetic and the prevalence of street-level social spaces like taverns remains a persistent theme in Tacoma’s urban development. While Pacific Avenue has shifted from a site of liquor license disputes to a hub of revitalization, the struggle to balance competing visions for downtown remains.
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