May is Bike Month. May is Historic Preservation Month. May holds Affordable Housing Week. May is the month for a lightsaber battle, for live music and crafts in Old Town Park, for night markets, plant sales at your local high school, hands-on printmaking and paper arts, and locally made short films. It’s the month to learn about the history of Tacoma, and even contribute your own story at events like the Eastside Story Fest. It’s the month to pick-up litter with a bunch of nice people, the month to set out nutritious foods for your mail carrier to share with the food bank, the month to take time to learn more about affordable housing. It’s the month to tune up your bike and join a group ride.
Tacoma, Tuesdays, Trivia, Tacos, Talent. It’s the truth, there’s stuff to do. We have 19 of those things listed right here (twenty would have sounded so good) and not all of them start with “t.” There’s ballet and book club, wine and film, story time and bingo. So dust off your dancing shoes, clean your spectacles, strap the baby in a stroller, study up on random facts, warm up your vocal chords, and work up an appetite; it’s Tuesday in Tacoma!
This is not an ultimate, all time, best of the best, win or go home, top 5 list. No, we aren’t really bringing that kind of energy to life. This is the 4th edition of 5 things we like in Tacoma from a list of way more things we like in Tacoma. Sound good? An annual rogue art treasure hunt, a tiny slip of sandy beach, an old place to watch new and cult classic films, a weekly opportunity for repairing your stuff, and a spot where the noodles and broth fill you up in a good way. Some of it’s free. All of it’s good. We’re not making any other claims (who needs all that best-stress anyway?).
As we take our first steps into 2024, we’re thinking about home and how we make it. We’re thinking about how we continue to seek, find, and create belonging. In this list we’ve collected 7 ways we’ve made ourselves at home in Tacoma and made friends with the city. Go to a festival, become a regular, follow some local news, help out, be pals with the library, explore local history and art, do something new. After a while you’ve made a connection that didn’t exist before. These 7 ideas aren’t deep Tacoma secrets. Rather, think of this list like suggested ingredients for making yourself at home. Take a look and join us.
This month we’ve created a list focused on 10 ways to give in December. You’ll find 5 sections of recommendations for local gift giving with holiday markets and some of our favorite small shops included, and 5 suggestions for giving outside your circle of friends and family to community and unknown neighbors. All 10 ways of giving put love into the Tacoma community! Read on for a choir made of refugees and USA-born residents offering a concert to celebrate peace, a list of local cafes for coffee lovers, a gift card drive to support clients at the YWCA, a nostalgic holiday movie marathon, a diaper drive to comfort local families, a gift that cares for birds, and more.
If you’re looking for ways to get outside in and around Tacoma this summer, take a look at our list of local beaches (plus some favorites a bit farther afield), our Tacoma neighborhood guide to patio dining, and a few opportunities for volunteering in the great outdoors. Even if you don’t get away for a vacation, you can find some ease and fun nearby in these treasured weeks of summer near the Salish Sea.
This is just a tiny glimpse at all the things happening around Tacoma this month. We’ve included a few events, some new spots that opened up recently, and small businesses to keep an eye on so you’re ready to support them when their doors fully open—food festivals, Tacoma Pride, new coffee roasters, a way to lend a hand, delicious deliveries, and fix-it fairs too. Follow the links for details and see if you can find something—even someone—new out there!
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 gatherings. We’ve been hearing about and experiencing this change across the city and wanted to gather some of it up in one place. What follows is a list of 10 new, renewed, returned, resurfaced, reconstructed, reopened spots and experiences. Challenge yourself to experience something new this month; if you do, we’d love to hear about it!
From nachos to the cemetery and everywhere in between, this is just what it says, a list of 5 good things. No one said best! No one said “top rated.” Get out of here with that! Good, is good, is good. Enjoy just the first group of 5 from a long of way more things we think are good in Tacoma. The full list is long and growing: a corner we like to stand on, a window it feels good to sit by, a beverage we like to drink, a street to walk, a tree or garden to visit at a particular time of year. Some of it costs no money at all and all of it is good. Promise.
It’s a Tacoma neighborhood tour and independent bookshop crawl all in one including two new bookstores you really ought to meet. Stopping for a cup of coffee, a pint, a snack, or even a feast on your browsing adventure is encouraged, and we’ll show you where! Get out the door on this bookstore tour from 6th Ave in the center to Proctor in the north to McKinley Ave up on the hill. Support local shops and your need to read.
This new homeownership fund gives us as Realtors an opportunity to do more than just educate ourselves about racial disparities in homeownership. And anyone can contribute! We're eager to see the fund grow, and for us to grow as an industry into greater ways to support and advocate for truly equal access to housing and homeownership.
The new year has us considering belonging, how people find it, how we create it. In this list we’ve collected 5 of the ways we’ve found belonging in Tacoma, or ways we’d like to continue building it. These aren’t deep Tacoma secrets, or never-been-seen-before ideas. There’s nothing sensational here. This list is more like suggested ingredients for finding your place by giving and receiving, exploring and settling down. Sometimes belonging just happens to us, other times we need to find it and foster it. Take a look and join us.
This month we’ve created a special list of 10 ways to give in December. You’ll find 5 recommendations for local gift giving with some of our favorite small businesses included, and 5 suggestions for giving outside your friends and family, ways of giving to community and unknown neighbors, ways giving of your time, and even a gift that supports wildlife conservation and education. All 10 ways of giving put LOVE into the Tacoma community!
Tacoma High 5 is our way to keep nudging you 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 arts and outdoor markets, a new business you ought to meet, a delicious accompaniment to your pot of tea, and a simple way to help our neighbors!
Community Event
Sweet Treat
Exploration & Adventure
Local Love
Volunteering & Sharing
Tacoma High 5 is our way to nudge you 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 arts and trails, a new bakery, ways to support refugees, and a 10 Stop Pizza Tour of Tacoma!
Community Event
Sweet Treat
Exploration & Adventure
Local Love
Volunteering & Sharing
Tacoma High 5 is our way to nudge you 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. Maybe we’ll see you out there!
Community Event
Sweet Treat
Exploration & Adventure
Local Love
Volunteering & Sharing
The Duggan, Brooks & Books project lives on and this time we’re energized by the vision of Kwabi and The Peace Bus! Learn how you can support this Tacoma local’s mission to plant seeds of peace across the United States on his way to meet with President Biden. Peace, love, justice, reconciliation, and literature —we’re on board. Make sure to visit Brooks Dental’s site for more about Kwabi’s story! P.S. Book donations due by August 14th!
Tacoma High 5 is our way to nudge you toward what we love about Tacoma, toward 5 things that bring balance to our life in the city. You’ll find something to connect you to the saltwater, a big community event, a delicious treat from a small, local business, a little outdoor bustle and freshness, and a way you can give—big or small—to support and nurture neighbors. Maybe we’ll see you out there!
As members of the Tacoma community, homeowners, and people who work in real estate, we want to continue our learning about fair housing, the history of racism in housing and homeownership, segregation, and exclusion. We want to know how our history informs our present, and we want to take that learning into our lives, our actions, our votes, and our work. So we’ve gathered “Watch, Read & Listen” resources in hopes that we can learn together. From a section devoted to Tacoma’s history and the current Home in Tacoma Project, to a variety of media addressing systemic racism in housing across America, the list has grown a lot since we first created it last year. We hope we’ve grown too. Dig in.
May in Tacoma is full. It’s full of beauty and it’s full of things to do to get outside your house/skull/rut/routine, so we’ve created another list of 12+ events to get you started. You’ll find community bike rides, scavenger hunts, a vintage market, pet parade, Tacoma Mystery Mini Series, yarn crawl, writers workshop, tool lending, home tiling skills, a drive-in concert, opportunities to share food and toiletries, and more. We hope you find something that calls your name—Hey, You! Come do this thing! We hope you spark a connection you didn’t feel before to this place called Tacoma that we call home.
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!
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.
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.
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!
