|
History
Downtown Renaissance In the last 15 years, Tacoma has taken a number of steps to revitalize itself, especially downtown.
Geography Tacoma is located at 47°14'29" North, 122°27'34" West (47.241371, -122.459389). Its elevation is 116 meters (380 feet). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 162.2 km² (62.6 mi²). 129.7 km² (50.1 mi²) of it is land and 32.5 km² (12.5 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 20.01% water. Tacoma has its feet in Commencement Bay, with several cities surrounding it. Most of Tacoma has an excellent view of Mt. Rainier. On clear days, it is part of the city. The city is situated in close proximity to several military installations: Fort Lewis (an army base), Madigan Army Medical Center, Fox Island naval center and McChord Air Force base. Demographics The census of 2000 indicated that 193,556 persons, 76,152 households, and 45,919 families resided in Tacoma. Four years later, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that Tacoma's population had increased by 1.7%, to 196,800 (Trends, No. D3 Sept. 2004). In 2000, Tacoma's population density was 1,492.3/km² (3,864.9/mi²). There were 81,102 housing units at an average density of 625.3/km² (1,619.4/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 69.08% White, 11.24% African American, 1.96% Native American, 7.57% Asian, 0.93% Pacific Islander, 2.94% from other races, and 6.28% from two or more races. 6.85% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. There were 76,152 households in Tacoma in 2000; 30.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 41.6% were married couples living together, 13.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 39.7% were non-families. Almost one third of households (31.7%) were made up of individuals living alone; 10.4% of these were 65 years of age or older. The average household size in 2000 was 2.45 and the average family size was 3.10. In 2000, the population's demographics were evenly distributed: 25.8% under 18, 10.4% from 18 to 24, 31.6% from 25 to 44, 20.3% from 45 to 64, and 11.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34. For every 100 females there were 95.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.3 males. The median income for a household in the city was $37,879, and the median income for a family was $45,567. Males had a median income of $35,820, versus $27,697 for females. The per capita income for the city was $19,130. 15.9% of the population and 11.4% of families were below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 20.6% of those under the age of 18 and 10.9% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line. Average rents in Tacoma in 2005 were $577 for a one bedroom apartment, and $844 for a two bedroom apartment. Tacoma City of Tacoma The government of the City of Tacoma operates under a council-manager system. The City Council consists of an elected Mayor (Bill Baarsma) and eight elected Council Members - five from individual City Council Districts and three others from the the city at-large. All serve four-year terms and are elected in odd-numbered years. The City Council adopts and amends City laws, approves a biennial (two-year budget), establishes City policy, appoints citizens to boards and commissions and performs other actions. The City Council also meets in Standing Comittees, which help break down the Council's work into more defined areas like "Environment & Public Works," "Neighborhoods & Housing," "Public Safety & Human Services," and others. City Councilmembers also frequently serve on other local and regional boards and commissions dealing with an array of issues like transportation, housing, poverty, and the economy. Most meetings of the City Council are open to the public and provide for public input. The City Council meets as a whole most Tuesdays at 5:30pm in the Council Chambers at 747 Market St. Normal day-to-day operations of the City Government are administered by the City Manager (Eric Anderson). The City Manager is appointed by and answers to the Tacoma City Council. Commerce & Industry Tacoma is the home of such international companies as Labor Ready, Inc. and the Russell Investment Group. Beginning in the 1930s, Tacoma became known for its malodorousness, nicknamed the "Tacoma Aroma" by the locals - a distinctive, acrid odor produced by local paper manufacturing on the industrial tide flats. In the late 1990s, Simpson Tacoma Kraft reduced total sulfur emissions by 90%. This largely eliminated the problem; where once the aroma was ever-present, it is now only noticeable occasionally, primarily when the wind is coming from the west. Urban Form & Transport Tacoma's system of transportation is based primarily on the automobile. The majority of the city has a system of gridded streets oriented in relation to A Street (one block east of Pacific Avenue) and 6th Avenue, both beginning in Downtown Tacoma. Within the City, numbered streets run east to west and are labeled "North" or "South" according to their relationship with 6th Avenue or Division Street. North- and south-running streets are given a name or a letter, and are also labeled "North" or "South" in relation to 6th Avenue. This can lead to confusion, as Union Avenue intersects both North and South 11th Streets. Many first-time visitors have encountered difficulty with this. To the east of the Thea Foss waterway and "A" Street, streets are similar divided into "East" and "Northeast," with 0 Street East being equivalent to the Pierce-King line. "Northeast" covers a small wedge of Tacoma and unincorporated Pierce County lying across the tideflats from downtown. Tacoma's system of number extends to the furthest reaches of Pierce County, except for the Key Peninsula, which retains the same basis for north-south streets but chooses the Pierce-Kitsap line as the zero point for east-west streets. In portions of the city dating back to the Tacoma Streetcar Period (1888-1938), denser mixed use business districts exist alongside single family homes. Twelve such districts have active, city-recognized business associations and hold "small town"-style parades and other festivals. The Proctor, Old Town, Dome, Sixth Avenue, Stadium and Lincoln Business Districts are some of the more prominent and popular of these and coordinate their efforts to redevelop urban villages through the Cross District Association of Tacoma. In newer portions of the city to the west and south, residential cul-de-sacs, four-lane collector roads and indoor shopping centers are more commonplace. The dominant intercity transportation link between Tacoma and other parts of the Puget Sound is Interstate 5. I-5 links Tacoma with Seattle to the north and Portland, Oregon, to the south. Washington State Route 16 runs along a concrete viaduct through Tacoma's Nalley Valley connecting Interstate 5 with West Tacoma, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, and the Kitsap Peninsula. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport lies about 22 miles to the north in the city of SeaTac. Public Transport Tacoma's alternative transportation services include buses, commuter rail, light rail, and ferries. Public bus service is provided by Pierce Transit, which serves Tacoma and Pierce County. Pierce Transit operates a total of 55 bus routes on buses powered by natural gas. Most bus service operates at 30 minute frequencies on weekdays, some routes once an hour, while three heavily-ridden "trunk" routes are served every 15 minutes on weekdays and every half hour on weekends. Sound Transit, the regional transit authority, provides daily Sounder Commuter Rail service and express bus service to and from Seattle seven days a week. (To and from Olympia is serviced by Pierce and Intercity Transit.) Sound Transit has also established Tacoma Link light rail, a 2.5 km (1.6-mile) free electric streetcar line linking Tacoma Dome Station with the University of Washington, Tacoma, Tacoma's Museum District, and the Theater District. Expansion of the City's rail transit system either in the form of electric streetcars or light rail is under consideration by the City of Tacoma and Pierce Transit and is being supported by a local grassroots organization, Tacoma Streetcar. The Washington State Ferries system, which has a dock at Point Defiance, provides ferry access to Tahlequah at the southern tip of Vashon Island, typically on the ferry M/V Rhododendron. Tacoma also has Greyhound and Amtrak service, accessible via Tacoma Dome Station. Tacoma Highways I-5, I-705, WA-16, WA-7, WA-509, WA-512, WA-161, WA-167, WA-410 Public Utilities Tacoma’s relationship with public utilities extends back to 1893. At that time the city was undergoing a boom in population, causing it to exceed the available amount of fresh water supplied by Charles Wright’s Tacoma Light & Water Company. In response to this demand and a growing desire to have local public control over the utility system, the city council put up a public vote to acquire and expand the private utility. The measure passed on July 1, 1893 with 3,195 in favor of acquiring the utility system and 1,956 voting against. Since then Tacoma Public Utilities has grown from a small water and light utility to be the largest department in the city’s government employing around 1,200 people. Tacoma Power, a division of TPU, provides the residents of Tacoma and several bordering municipalities with electrical power generated by eight hydroelectric dams located on the Skokomish River and elsewhere. Environmentalists, fishermen, and the Skokomish Indian Tribe have been critical of TPU's operation of Cushman Dam on the North Fork of the Skokomish River. Environmental litigation over Cushman Dam operations resulted in a 2006 opinion by the U.S. Supreme Court that will result in improved river flows for salmon and steelhead trout. The capacity of Tacoma’s hydroelectric system as of 2004 was 713,000 kilowatts, or about 50% of the demand made up by TPU’s customers (the rest is purchased from other utilities). According to TPU, hydroelectricity provides about 87% of Tacoma’s power; coal 3%; natural gas 1%; nuclear 9%; and biomass and wind at less than 1%. Tacoma Power also operates the Click! Network, a municipally-owned cable television and internet service, one of the first public utilities to provide such a service. The residential cost per kilowatt hour of electricity stands at a little more than 6 cents. Tacoma Water provides the customers in its service area with water from the Green River Watershed. As of 2004, Tacoma Water provided water services to 93,903 customers. The average annual cost for residential supply was $257.84. Tacoma Rail, initially a municipally owned street railway line to the tideflats, converted to a common carrier rail switching utility. Tacoma Rail is self-supporting and employs a little over 90 people. In addition to those services, the City of Tacoma offers commingled recycling services for paper, cardboard, plastics, and metals – as well as municipal garbage services. Parks One of the largest urban parks in the U.S, Point Defiance Park, is located in Tacoma. Within the park, the scenic Five Mile Drive allows access to many of the park's attractions, such as Owen Beach, Camp Six, Fort Nisqually, the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, and many other smaller sightseeing locations. There are many historic structures within the park such as the Pagoda located near the park entrance. Another larger park is Wapato Park, which has a lake and walking trails that circle the lake. Wapato is in the south end of Tacoma, of Sheridan and 72nd st. Titlow Beach, located at the end of 6th Avenue, is a popular scuba diving area. Wright Park, located near downtown, is a large, English-style park designed in the late 1800s by E.O. Schwagerl and Ebenezer Rhys Roberts. It contains Wright Park Arboretum and the W. W. Seymour Botanical Conservatory. Historical Landmarks
Schools & Universities Tacoma's main public school district is Tacoma Public Schools. The school district contains 36 elementary schools and 11 middle schools. The district also has 5 high schools, one alternative high school, and one School of the Arts. One of the district's high schools, Henry Foss High School, operates an acclaimed International Baccalaureate program. Another high school, Mt. Tahoma, has just been rebuilt in a new location, and offers a state of the art football stadium, theater, and classrooms. Also, one of the elementary schools, Sheridan Elementary, operates three foreign language immersion programs (Spanish, French, and Japanese). Two Tacoma high schools, Stadium High School and Woodrow Wilson High School, have recently been remodeled/refurbished and reopened in September 2006. The fifth high school, Lincoln High School is to begin remodeling in the near future from funds provided by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. Tacoma is also home to a number of private schools. In addition to primary schools Tacoma has a number of institutions of higher learning: including University of Puget Sound, Tacoma Community College, Bates Technical College, and the University of Washington, Tacoma. Pacific Lutheran University and Pierce College also lie within the greater Tacoma area (Parkland and Lakewood/Puyallup respectively). Mass Media & Local Blogs The city's major daily newspaper is The News Tribune, since 1986 a subsidiary of McClatchy Newspapers. The paper's circulation is about 128,000 (Sundays 144,000), making it the third-largest newspaper in the state of Washington. A daily newspaper has been in circulation in Tacoma since 1883; in the period from 1907 to 1918, three dailies were published: The Tacoma Ledger, The News, and The Tacoma Tribune.
Professional Sports Teams | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Sport | Founded | League | Venue | Logo | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tacoma Rainiers | Baseball | 1960 | Pacific Coast League | Cheney Stadium | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tacoma Navigators | Basketball | 2005 | American Basketball Association | Mt. Tahoma High School |
The city has struggled to keep a minor league hockey franchise, having lost the Tacoma Rockets of the WHL to relocation and having the Tacoma Sabercats of the former West Coast Hockey League go defunct due to financial woes. The Tacoma Dome does still host traveling sports and pseudo-sports events such as pro wrestling, figure skating tours, and the Harlem Globetrotters. At one point, the Tacoma Dome was home to a professional indoor soccer team, the Tacoma Stars. For the 1994-1995 season, the Seattle SuperSonics played in the Tacoma Dome while the Seattle Center Coliseum was gutted and renovated into Key Arena, the team's current home. The Tacoma Dome also hosted the 1988 and 1989 Women's NCAA Final Four.
Noteworthy Tacomans
Tacoma brings out a unique color of art and music. A number of noteworthy individuals have come from Tacoma.
Sports
The Arts
Criminal
Political and Business
Tacoma in pop culture
Neko Case's song "Thrice All American", featured on her album Furnace Room Lullaby, is an ode to Tacoma, which she considers her hometown. The album also includes a song called "South Tacoma Way."
The Nirvana song "Polly" was written about a girl who was raped on her way back from a punk rock show in Tacoma.
Richard Brautigan wrote of his Tacoma childhood in his autobiographical short stories "Corporal," "The Armoured Car," "The Auction," and "The Ghost Children of Tacoma," as well as his last finished novel So the Wind Won't Blow it All Away.
Tacoma is also prominently mentioned in the 1977 Steve Miller Band song "Rock 'N Me" (I went from Phoenix, Arizona, all the way to Tacoma, Philadelphia, Atlanta, L.A.).
A running gag in the 1985 Tom Hanks film Volunteers is the repeated references to Tacoma by John Candy's character, "Tom Tuttle from Tacoma, Washington."
Parts of the movie 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), whose plot is based on William Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, were filmed at Stadium High School and in the nearby North End neighborhood, although most other exterior scenes were filmed in Seattle. I Love You to Death (1990) was filmed in downtown and central Tacoma. Kevin Kline's pizzeria was located in the wedge-shaped Bostwick Building downtown. Also featured was the 1927-vintage Java Jive, a Tacoma tavern shaped like a giant coffee pot. Other films featuring a Tacoma location include Get Carter (2000). In addition, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992) featured several Tacoma locations, including a North Tacoma home and Wright Park's Seymour Botanical Conservatory. Prefontaine (1997) was filmed in large part at the University of Puget Sound, with the school's Baker Stadium standing in for University of Oregon's famed Hayward Field grandstand and track. The long-running series of Tugboat Annie radio dramas, television shows and films (one of which starred a young actor named Ronald Reagan) was based on Tacoma tugboat operator Annie Foss. Sources: (*) (*) (*}
Toyota has named a popular line of pickup trucks the "Toyota Tacoma" after the city.
Tacoma is mentioned in the Sir Mix-a-Lot song "My Hooptie" ("Rollin' in Tacoma, I could get burned
(Sound of automatic gunfire) Betta make a u-turn").
Tacoma is also mentioned at the end of Sir Mix-a-Lot's song "Jump On It" ("Tacoma, jump on it...")
Tacoma is mentioned in the song "He's a Grungewhore" from the Norwegian punk rock band Turbonegros 1994 album Never Is Forever. *
Tacoma is mentioned in folk singer David Rovics' song, "After the Revolution."
*
"Tacoma Trailer" is the name of an instrumental song by Leonard Cohen.
Tacoma was named America's most stressed city in 2004 by Best Places Magazine. *
Tacoma was 36th in “50 Smart Places to Live,” a ranking by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine (2006)
Tacoma is mentioned in the Steve Miller Band's song, "Rock 'N Me."
Neighborhoods
Sister cities
Tacoma has ten sister cities, as designated by Sister Cities International, Inc. (SCI):
-->
|
| |