Plays Oakland to Seattle's San Francisco.

Industrial, blue collar, with some considerable ugliness, but also some good points.

Seattle residents get pretty snotty when talking about Tacoma, but its by no means as bad as their jokes would have it.

To my surprise, I have come to adore Tacoma.  Every time I venture around Tacoma, I stumble upon a new, interesting area.  Point Defiance Park is gorgeous.  The downtown and 6th Ave areas have gained a lot of new, exciting restaurants and bars.  The Hilltop area has had a terrible reputation but is now experiencing a revival with some new businesses and truly fabulous cocktail bars:  the Monsoon Room and the Tempest.  It seems that there has been a lot of development to this city (new museums, university, and many condos in the downtown) and people really care about the community.

In my personal opinion, Tacoma is part of the greater metropolitan Seattle area due to its close proximity 30-45 minute drive depending on what part of town your in.  It has its good parts like North -North East Tacoma and the bad i.e. East Tacoma, parts of South Tacoma, and the Hilltop area of downtown.  Tacoma to its credit is in a bit of a renissance with a rapidly developing water front and gentrification of areas like the hilltop.  Much of Tacoma's reputation was derived from the late eighties to the early nineties which is still prevalent in certain parts of town but not nearly as bad as it once was.  The "aroma" of Tacoma has also been significantly reduced from the past years.  Tacoma is military/blue collar town which is making steady progress in improving its image and its reputation.

Tacoma has a decent waterfront strip (Ruston Way), considering its proximity to the port, that has been kept fairly nice due to lack of development. There is a long paved path for walkers, bike riders and rollerbladers to use and many upscale restaurants. At the northern end of this road is Point Defiance Park which contains Washington's best zoo and Ft. Nisqually, which is an early trading post. The Tacoma Dome is the best spot in the state for very large (about 30,000 cap.) crowds to see concerts in an indoor setting. The North Shore neighborhood is a middle to upper-middle class area along Puget Sound that has one of the nicer golf courses in town also called North Shore. Tacoma has had serious problems with gang violence at times, especially in dealing with the spread of crack cocaine. The Hilltop area near downtown is the worst in this regard, but is not limited to it. It is not surprising it gained the nickname caphillsea notes. However, it is not reflective of the city as a whole. The smell is bad, but it is mainly on a small strip of I-5 that crosses the industrial district's tide flats. In the majority of neighborhoods in is unnoticeable.

People in Seattle love to rank on Tacoma. Not the most desireable city to live, it's got a very large industrial area with a notable shipping and distribution port and mills producing paper and lumber products. This can sometimes give off a big stench throughout the city known as "The Tacoma Aroma" and it's not pleasant... smells like rotten cabbage. To the south of town there are milatary bases and lots of strip mally garbage. Tacoma does have some positive elements too. It's downtown has greatly improved over the last 6-7 years or so. There is a collection of museaums, Museaum of Glass and the Washington State History Museaum. It's got a new light rail operating from the Tacoma Dome / Rail Staion into downtown. There are some new residential buildings going up and downtown actually has some archetectual interest. Point Defiance park is a beautiful city park with a zoo and aquarium, heavily forested and beaches on Pudget Sound to take a stroll on. Also the waterfront area north of downtown has some great restaurants. Tacoma will probably always be the butt of jokes from Seattle but it's not the worst city... more to do than say.. Spokane.