Tacoma Community
Michael Duggan
What's New, Tacoma? 17 New Businesses + 3 ...

There’s change in the air across Tacoma, the return of things once lost, the reopening of places once closed, the transformation of one restaurant into another, the creation of brand new places to gather, shop, eat, and drink. We’ve been experiencing this change across the city and wanted to pull some of it together in one place. What follows is a list of 17 new, renewed, and returned businesses along with 3 coming soon. See if you can enjoy and support something new this month; if you do, we’d love to hear about it!

What's New, Tacoma? 17 New Businesses + 3 Coming Soon
Tacoma Community
Michael Duggan
Tacoma Community: 15 Things to Do in October

We’ve rounded-up and narrowed-down 15 ways to get out into community this October. Don your most intellectual scarf and hat combination for a literary night, dance and eat with the Greeks, step into a candlelit tour our 1855, get psyched up about cycling (and bicycle fashion), try forest bathing, don your most eccentric scarf and hat combination for the film festival, write letters for fun, tour art studios, hear from Latinas who experience being The Firsts in so many ways, take a local art walk, and celebrate Día de los Muertos. We’ve got some ways to volunteer in here too—lend a hand with Habitat for Humanity, pick up litter, or pull weeds and plant seeds at a favorite park to keep Tacoma green.

Tacoma Community: 15 Things to Do in October
Puget Sound Day Trips
Michael Duggan
Get Out of Town: Puget Sound Day Trips

Once in a while, we all need to get out of town. This month we’re sharing about Port Townsend and Vashon Island, two places we go again and again when a change of scene is calling. They’re places where the beach is always near, where parking is easy, where woods and trails beckon us away from the sidewalks. Places where small, local bakeries, coffee roasters, independent bookstores, and one of a kind shops outnumber chains by far. We’ll share some of the ways we pass the time and how we fill our stomachs (never a problem). Don’t worry too much about planning; these destinations are so close to Tacoma, you can show up again and try what you missed. Wake up one morning and just decide to go!

Get Out of Town: Puget Sound Day Trips
Tacoma Community
Michael Duggan
Tacoma High 5 - July 2024

Tacoma High 5 is our way to nudge you (and us!) toward what we love about Tacoma. It’s a short list with a commitment to the local—it embraces the season, invites delight, encourages a spirit of exploration and some generosity as well. This month’s list includes Tacoma Pride, an all ages neighborhood music festival, a game that gets you supporting small businesses (and winning prizes), Swedish-style baked goods, and the chance to help out Habitat for Humanity or spend Friday afternoons watering trees to keep Tacoma (and its future) healthy and shaded.

  1. Community Event

  2. Sweet Treat

  3. Exploration & Adventure

  4. Local Love

  5. Volunteering & Sharing

Tacoma High 5 - July 2024
Tacoma Food & Drink
Michael Duggan
Tacoma Outdoor Dining Guide

Want to go out and really be out—out in the open air, beneath a colorful umbrella, on a shaded patio, beside a bustling sidewalk, seated on a deck overlooking the water, pulled up to a bar counter by the street? We’ve gathered over 60 of Tacoma’s outdoor dining spots by neighborhood to get you started. Take a look at our list of restaurants, cafes, and bars with outdoor seating, then get yourself away from the screen, out the door, and into the life of Tacoma’s summer. See you out there!

Tacoma Outdoor Dining Guide

Connect to Community: April in Tacoma

Connect to Community: April in Tacoma

Looking for one or two reasons to step outside your door, or a meaningful opportunity to connect online? We hope you’ll find that here! Our list of 10 ways to connect to Tacoma this month includes a kid-created online market and in-person scavenger hunt, free weekday dinners in Hilltop, a golf tournament to support the Rainbow Center, a new history museum exhibit exploring Japanese incarceration in WWII, neighborhood clean-ups, locally made Easter candy, a conversation about gender in the workplace, a local veggie and flower CSA program, and more. Take a look!

Connect to Community: March in Tacoma

Connect to Community: March in Tacoma

Find 10 ways to connect to Tacoma community this month in our list below. It’s a mix - Tacoma is always a mix! - with chances to share food, listen to local voices about growing up bi-racial, talk with an author about publication, get or give help with laundry, shop vintage in Lincoln, pick up a craft kit in Old Town, take a virtual bus trip to learn about transportation and gentrification in Hilltop, and get in on the 90-Second Newberry Film Festival too. Join, give, receive, explore, support.

Connect to Community: This Week in Tacoma

Connect to Community: This Week in Tacoma

5 more ways to connect to the Tacoma community! This week, you’ll find ways to share warmth, lend a hand, get outside, spread the love, learn history, and stun competitors with your trivia brilliance. Take a look at the list.

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Connect to Community: 5 Tacoma Opportunities

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Connect to Community: 5 Tacoma Opportunities

Bringing you 5 options for reaching out a hand to Tacoma this weekend and beyond. Get in on some local history, pick up a craft pack in Old Town, and show up for some markets (virtual and pop-up variety!). Pre-pandemic, Tacoma was really getting going with street markets, weekend markets, farmers’ markets, night markets, and we miss those! But the makers are still out there making and they could use our support. Explore the list and see what you can find.

Connect to Community: 4 Ways this Week

Connect to Community: 4 Ways this Week

Another weekend and week of Tacoma community opportunities is coming your way. If you’re starting to feel like you need a REASON TO GO OUT (safely, of course) go ahead and take a look. You’ll find treasure hunts of the vintage and monkeyshines variety, an encouragement to eat pizza (as if that’s necessary), and a Gal/Pal/Valentine charcuterie order form. We’ll be back with more next week!

Connect to Community: 5 Upcoming Opportunities

Connect to Community: 5 Upcoming Opportunities

We’re keeping it coming with weekly lists of 3 to 5 events, gatherings, and opportunities that invite all of us into the Tacoma community even while we continue to stay home. Take a look, find a connection!

Tacoma Community: 12 Ways to Connect in December

Tacoma Community: 12 Ways to Connect in December

Our monthly lists, you may have noticed, have shifted focus from events to connection (that’s been the idea all along!). This December list is no different. Find 12 ways to connect to Tacoma community from safe holiday markets to engaging youth with poetry, from a video and podcast inviting you into relationship with Native/Indigenous communities to cooking classes, a Nutcracker Ballet watch party, a local gift guide and Hilltop neighborhood crawl to support small businesses, suggestions for solstice, a featured non-profit, and our prescription: go outside!

Tacoma Community: 12 Ways to Connect in November

Tacoma Community: 12 Ways to Connect in November

In this list you’ll find opportunities to give bikes or books away for other people to use, volunteer days in our parks, a film festival, storytelling about homelessness, an online concert, a Then & Now tour of Tacoma, a chance to make sandwiches for neighbors in need, a fundraiser for Feed253, Zoolights and more!

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Tacoma Community: 10 Ways to Connect in October

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Tacoma Community: 10 Ways to Connect in October

This month we have 10 ways (actually 14, we threw is some special extras) to connect to Tacoma community! It’s a truly Tacoma mix of events and gatherings from storytelling to free community meals, from workshops to develop your recording artist skills to domestic violence and racism education and advocacy, from classes in watercolor to classes on how to use tools, from women in business to women and the vote (by the way: vote!).

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Tacoma Community: 10 Ways to Connect in September

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Tacoma Community: 10 Ways to Connect in September

Summer is waning, but we’ve gathered 10 things to do in Tacoma this September to get you through. This list is all about connecting to community. You’ll find a vintage yard sale, community meals, opportunities to give your time to people and to the environment, a public art tour, new pizza places, a cooking class, and more. We hope you find something for you, something that gives you hope, or a way you can give hope to someone else. Take a look.

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Connect to Tacoma Community: August 2020

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Connect to Tacoma Community: August 2020

Take a look at our list of 15 ways to connect to Tacoma community this August. Events have shifted from up close and personal gatherings, to remote or distanced gatherings, but connection is still the goal. You’ll find opportunities to serve the community, drive-in movies, a live music festival, social and racial justice conversations, and free community meals. Dig in and take care!

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Connect to Tacoma Community: July 2020

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Connect to Tacoma Community: July 2020

9 events, 5 organizations, and 1 new business equals 15 ways to connect to Tacoma this July. We’re 2 years in with these monthly events lists, and we’re changing it up as the times change. While there’s less opportunity for in-person gathering right now, the need for real conversation, connection, empathy, and advocacy are stronger than ever. It’s Tacoma Pride this month! You’ll also find free acupuncture care, an anti-racist book club, a home cocktail class celebrating iconic women, bike rides, a free business tax class, volunteer opportunities, and more.

Systemic Racism & American Homeownership

Systemic Racism & American Homeownership

We’re working on gathering reading resources and other material addressing systemic racism in America as it relates to housing, lending, and homeownership. This is just a short list, but we’re confident it will grow as we continue to work on educating ourselves about this system that we work in and from which we benefit. Find an article, a book recommendation, videos, podcast episodes, and more.

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Staying Together, Keeping Apart: 15 Things To Do in Tacoma in June

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Staying Together, Keeping Apart: 15 Things To Do in Tacoma in June

Here we are in June, continuing the balance of staying together while keeping apart. This month we’ve created another list of 15 things to do in Tacoma. You’ll find ways to give to the community, resources for anti-racism work, farmers’ markets, art projects, a scavenger hunt, bike rides, story times, nostalgic Tacoma music to stream, and an opportunity to write or record your story for the library’s Northwest Room archives.

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Corona Tacoma: 15 Things To Do in May

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Corona Tacoma: 15 Things To Do in May

Staying together while keeping apart; that’s life these days. This month we’ve created a list of 15 things to do in Tacoma including online cooking classes and story times, virtual open mics, farmers’ markets, home yoga, opportunities to give and share, window decorating, scavenger hunts, and getting creative at home (with paper! Geez!).

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March: 16 + Tacoma Events

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March: 16 + Tacoma Events

March is a month full of events! Tacoma continues rolling out community gatherings, open houses, Ladies Nights, fundraisers, dance parties, exhibitions, learning opportunities, markets, and tours no matter which calendar page is open. Speaking of Ladies’ Nights, March is Women’s History Month, so make the extra effort to learn about ordinary/extraordinary inspiring women; they’re all around you. Take a look at our list of 16 Tacoma events!

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February: 16 + Tacoma Events

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February: 16 + Tacoma Events

February in Tacoma is a month when the gray skies can hang pretty low, but it’s also the month of the Destiny City Film Festival, the month we celebrate lunar new year in the Lincoln District, when we focus on Black History, when we make homemade cards for gals/pals/and partners, when we go outside despite the rain (stalwart Pacific Northwesterners that we are). Take a look at 16 ways to get into the Tacoma community this month!

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January: 16 Tacoma Events

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January: 16 Tacoma Events

These monthly Tacoma events posts are becoming a tradition with us. We’re a year and a half-in and we’re on a roll. If you’re feeling more like taking a slow roll after all the holiday festivities we understand! Here’s our advice: Choose one thing from this list of 16. Choose one market, one history night, one celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., one open mic, one craft for kids, one community gathering. Then take a pause; that’s good too!

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The December Edition: 25 Tacoma Events

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The December Edition: 25 Tacoma Events

Whether you’re all about Santa Claus coming to town, holiday markets, hot cocoa, and getting down with festive crafts, or you just want to play your bingo, drink beer, and count some birds, Tacoma has you covered this December. We’re ready again (even if you’re not) with a list of 25 Tacoma events. There’s something for everyone in this last month with its darkest day and celebrations of light.

Hi, I'm Michael Duggan, a licensed broker with Windermere Abode. I would love to help you through the home buying or selling process. Please contact me to set up a meeting and get things started.