• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Moving to the west coast

F

frx218

Senior member
Well I have lived in a small city my whole life (Duluth, MN) and it appears I am moving to Tacoma Washington in August.. I really don?t know anything about this state or city. I guess its near Seattle and a pretty big city. Does anyone live near Tacoma or ever visited Tacoma? I would like to find out stuff like the weather and places to check out. Also Microsoft Is near and I have heard it?s a pretty tech savvy city.


My dads been teaching at the University of Duluth for like 14 years and has been having some trouble, and after getting an offer to teach at the University of Washington, Tacoma it was an offer he couldn?t refuse. Sucks for me because I am in High School, and I am I leaving all my good friends I have known from like kindergarten. I guess they have picked out University Place to stay and are currently looking for houses. This all could change when we arrive there so nothing is certain.
Click to expand...

Added that so you can get the whole story..
 
Tacoma is a very nice town. I live in Puyallup, which is around a 20 minute drive away. Tacoma is the up and coming city, its growing like crazy. They have an awesome artistic scene with the glass museum, the new art museum, natural history museum, chihuly glass blowing, etc.

Its still fairly industrial though, and is almost antique in some parts, as well as some parts being rough, such as the infamous hilltop, where gangs used to roam rampant, although it is much better now.

Tacoma is fairly diverse too, lots of racial diversity, unlike puyallup which is 99.9% white...

Lots of stuff to do, a big mall, airport fairly close, seattle 45 minutes away, lots of suburbs, kick ass gambling(if you are into that), etc etc etc 😉

Weather is pretty good. We hit around 80 today, which is pretty nuckin futs, usually we have a fairly mild climate, not really any snow in the winters, although it sometimes gets downright cold, and the summers are generally mild as well, but they have also been getting hotter.

Places to check out...Downtown tacoma has a kickass scene, some clubs and stuff, but most are in seattle. Good restaurants: Harmons, The Vault, and tons more i cant think of. Very close to the water, ruston way is pretty frickin sweet, lots of activity down there usually.

want to know anything else lemme know.
 
😉
EMP which is in seattle is pretty fantastic. The local music is quite good as well, I know theres a lot of local bands in the area that I really like, but it all depends on the type of music you like.
 
Tacoma is a pit. A few years ago it was actually ranked one of the most depressing places in the nation to live. Some of the suburbs are easily meth cities. (A meth city is where more than 50% of the population is dependent on illegal methanphetamines)

I know a few guys who live there, and swear they've leaving as soon as they're financially able.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/ <== the local news. Most of it bad (and yes, I know news reporting tends to be biased towards the negative, but most locals try to throw in SOMETHING positive every once in awhile to give the TV anchors a chance to smile and say cute things. Or, they have a little puppy from the pound on the set. One or the other.
 
Originally posted by: EyeMWing
Tacoma is a pit. A few years ago it was actually ranked one of the most depressing places in the nation to live. Some of the suburbs are easily meth cities. (A meth city is where more than 50% of the population is dependent on illegal methanphetamines)

I know a few guys who live there, and swear they've leaving as soon as they're financially able.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/ <== the local news. Most of it bad (and yes, I know news reporting tends to be biased towards the negative, but most locals try to throw in SOMETHING positive every once in awhile to give the TV anchors a chance to smile and say cute things. Or, they have a little puppy from the pound on the set. One or the other.
Click to expand...


🙁
 
Originally posted by: frx218
Well I have lived in a small city my whole life (Duluth, MN) and it appears I am moving to Tacoma Washington in August.. I really don?t know anything about this state or city. I guess its near Seattle and a pretty big city. Does anyone live near Tacoma or ever visited Tacoma? I would like to find out stuff like the weather and places to check out. Also Microsoft Is near and I have heard it?s a pretty tech savvy city.
Click to expand...

lol, duluth... can't think of a worse named city off the top of my head.
 
I live in Tacoma.

It's a fairly big city, but very spread out -- with each area having its own reputation.
I did hear the stat that Tacoma has the highest meth-lab/capita... which is pretty depressing. I'm fairly certain that that is limited to the "hilltop" neighborhood, "east tacoma" (just east of I-5, east of the Tacoma Dome), and maybe some bad parts of Lakewood (which I think is still considered "tacoma").

Stuff to do... downtown is growing, with more and more nice "hang-out" kind of places. Univerity of Washington put in some distance-learning buildings, and I think that helped liven things up. (UW is based in seattle, not tacoma). The waterfront has a lot of decent restaurants. It gets pretty busy especially during nice days -- as there's a walking/skating/biking path that goes for a couple miles. Too bad you won't be around for the 4th, cuz there's usually a huge crowd, "street fair" sort of thing, air show, and fireworks from barges out in the bay.
"6th ave" (~1mi "up hill" from downtown) is also livening up -- with several music hang outs. Everything from freak-show grunge/metal to blues and rock.
When you get bored, you can always go to Seattle where there's lots more to do -- and it's not terribly far. (~30mi)
If you like outdoor market types of things, puyallup has "saturday markets" during the summer -- and it's about 15-20 minutes away. Sometimes they have outdoor concerts.

Weather: mild winters, since we're "warmed" by the puget-sound waters -- and generally mild summers. Rarely get more than 3-6" of snow, and it rarely lasts more than 3 days. Summers are nice -- I think ~75 today. June 60-80, july 65-85, august 65-90, sept 60-80. Maybe about 1-2 weeks total of temperatures of 90+.

Home prices: "north-end" is nice older style houses and is generally expensive. Hilltop and "east tacoma" should be cheap... or maybe just use a crowbar to remove the plywood coving the front door on a condemed ex-meth-lab. West tacoma is pretty mixed... some very nice places with views of the Narrows bridge and Puget sound, to fairly mediocre houses with brown lawns (poisoned by the old Asarco plant). Farther south (Lakewood and Spanaway) should be better priced -- mostly because it's a commute to get anywhere else. To the East/North is puyallup, where things are generally more "country"ish -- and more affordable... but it's pretty far away from most things.

If you tell me the address/area you're going to, I can probably tell you what it's like.

edit: oh, and if you're in the tacoma city limits, you can get "click network" cable from a reseller at ~30/mo for cable internet. beats the alternative of comcast at ~50+/mo.
 
I lived in Tacoma for about 2 1/2 years. I would say it's neither a "pit" nor one of America's greatest cities. Housing is moderately priced, and downright cheap compared to Seattle. There is a fair amount to do, and Seattle is about 45 minutes away. Point Defiance Park is one of the largest urban parks in the US, and great for hiking and cycling. You are close to Mount Rainier, and there's a wealth of great outdoor recreation within a short drive. The summers are beautiful and temperate. On the downside, the winters are long and gloomy, and much of Tacoma is a little on the ghetto side. There's also the small issue of the "Tacoma Aroma," a paper-mill smell that permeates much of the city, and can be intense under certain weather conditions.
 
Be glad that the Pulp mill is gone. Man, it used to be painful going through T town. The Tacoma Aroma would make you want to gag. PLU is a great school though
 
I lived for several years in Puyallup/Milton. Loved living up there. There is so much to do in the Puget Sound, you just want to make sure not to live in a nasty part of town.
 
Originally posted by: azazyel
Be glad that the Pulp mill is gone. Man, it used to be painful going through T town. The Tacoma Aroma would make you want to gag. PLU is a great school though
Click to expand...

Tacoma Aroma. I swear I can still smell it.

My husband finished his MA at PLU and we had a completely different experience. No alumni funds will ever come out of our house to that place. Financial aid is a joke. His curriculum was close to infantile and included topics/courses which any high school graduate should have already covered. The building his classes were taught in was just...gross, and dilapidated. He had a great view of where the homeless of Parkland sleep. However YMMV. /End PLU rant.

I think the best thing about Tacoma is its proximity to Seattle 😛 Seriously though, Tacoma is a town on the rebuild. The Glass Museum is cool as someone else said. Nice eateries on the waterfront. Close to everything. Puyallup is a really nice 'burb (lived there for 2 years), Lakewood not so much.

If you're an explorer you'll love the PNW; there's so much to do.



 
Spendy. Nice.
Where/what will you be doing? The commute is bad any way you go, with a few exceptions. Its worth a few extra bucks to get close to work, IMO.
 
Originally posted by: frx218
How is university place?
Click to expand...
It's an above average area, generally.

Don't get your hopes up about some "big university". The only school there is tacoma-community-college. It's basically an OK school. I've had several "continuing education" (non-credit) classes there. It just seems like it doesn't live up to the areas name.

There's a decent multi-plex theater, lots of fast-food places, bowling, misc. shopping, and a few decent restaurants. Short drive to a few parks, including Pt. Defiance park. Easy drive to the waterfront. Less than 10 minutes to the interesting parts of 6th ave. 15 minutes (non rush-hour) to Gig Harbor.

The college is a major bus transfer station, so getting somewhere by bus is pretty easy. But it's pretty far time-wise from any real jobs, so commuting may be a frustration. The highway closest to U.P. is hwy 16 -- which gets backed-up for the commute from Tacoma to Gig Harbor, over the Narrows bridge. All those people pretty much keep you from getting from Seattle/Olypia/anywhere-near-I5 to University Place. It's pretty much stop-n-go traffic on Hwy 16 between I5 and Gig Harbor from 4pm-6pm during the week. Sometimes longer. Commuting southbound, an option is Bridgeport road -- which runs all the way from west tacoma to U.P. to Lakewood. It also gets heavy use during rush hours in and out.

I looked at renting around U.P. about 10 years ago. At the time, they were a bit high, but not by much. Close to U.P., and much more homey residential is Fircrest. Speed limit is 25 in Fircrest, so watch your speed. Nice, basic houses with decent yards -- would be a good place to raise kids.

Basically, U.P. is decent. But I agree with the poster above saying living close to work is worth $. If you'll work anywhere near there, though, it's fine.
 
Tacoma is definitely on the low end of my desirable places to live in Puget Sound list. Go north a smidge and find yourself someplace a little less... Tacoma-y.
 
FWIW, I wouldn't live anywhere but the west coast (I'm in Oregon). Or....errr...east coast. Carolinas are nice. Not the goddamn middle of the country again.

*PUKE*

Still, west coast.

#1) Meth labs. Oh yes, everywhere. Comes from being too close to California, I think. Even the 'clean' cities have lots of them.

#2) Property value goes up, UP, UP presuming you have even a halfway decent area. Our house has gone up 25% from last year - NO IMPROVEMENTS - just by being in Bend. It's like that in most major Oregon cities. This comes from the Californians coming up and paying twice what they should for properties they will live in 1 month a year (if they ever see it at all) and thus driving up the price of all other property so the locals end up getting displaced right out of the cities.

#3) Entirely class driven. 'Haves' vs 'have-nots' quite a common theme. Mostly from the Californian tourists coming around. (Has anyone noticed - you know, you've got the NICE rich people...families born into wealth who are brought up to appreciate it and grow it....and then the SNOBBY rich people. You know, the type that have to FLAUNT the money - it's not enough for them to just *be rich*, no, they need to RUB IT IN YOUR FACE that THEY are rich and YOU are not and it is because they are SUPERIOR TO YOU. When, in fact, they are simply middle-class has-beens just like you who got lucky on the stock market, property market, etc. Ummm...sorry, retail experience.)

#4) Oh, yeah, in case it isn't obvious - everything wrong with the country, world, universe, and everything...is the fault of the Californians.

Ummm....anyway, yeah, I think that about sums up Pacific Northwest living. Down with California!
 
I'm not a Washington resident, but I have been to many cities on the west coast and southern US. And, IMHO, Seatle/Tacoma are some of the better US cities. Washington enjoy many nature amenities, such as parks/forests, beautiful coastal/island communities, and some of the best orchards that I have ever seen.

Don?t worry about the negative things that you hear, because every city has it good and bad qualities. And, you can always choose to live in a better part of the city or in nicer communities out side of town.

I live in Victoria (across the water from Port Angles/Port Townsend/Oak Harbor/Anacortes), which consider to be the prettiest Canadian city and is one of the best in the world and I can assure you that I can name many bad things about this city too.

Good luck!
 
My dads been teaching at the University of Duluth for like 14 years and has been having some trouble, and after getting an offer to teach at the University of Washington, Tacoma it was an offer he couldn?t refuse. Sucks for me because I am in High School, and I am I leaving all my good friends I have known from like kindergarten. I guess they have picked out University Place to stay and are currently looking for houses. This all could change when we arrive there so nothing is certain.

I an hearing a lot of bad things about Tacoma, is this just common for larger a city?

Tacoma, Washington, a city of some 195,000 people and situated 50 kilometres south of Seattle, ranks as the most stressful city of the 100 largest metro area.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top