If Tacoma is so bad,why are people moving there? (Seattle: for sale, new home)

[ness]

In the Tacoma school district here are some school ratings from greatschools.com. Tacoma School of the Arts - 10, Wilson - 6, Stadium - 5. A 10 is the best score you can receive. I believe the scores are based on leadership, teacher quality, extracurricular act., etc. I know that University Place, next to Tacoma, has schools that rate very high.

[green_mariner]

I figured Tacoma wasn't "that" bad. I think there is more at hand than just it's reputaion for being violent.

[springshades]

The article simply says that it counts students who were students as freshmen and were not in that same school at graduation. Now maybe it's just me, but that doesn't sound like it necessarily has anything to do with dropout rate. It's just another case of bad journalism to present it as such.

Quite a bit of Tacoma's stigma I believe has to do with looks. There are quite a few things going against it. For example, Seattle and Tacoma both have sizable industrial sectors which are huge eyesores. Seattle's, however, is located primarily in West Seattle and is very separate from the downtown area. Much of Tacoma's industrial sector is easily visible from downtown however.

This also contributes to the "Tacoma Aroma" being noticeable from downtown. In fact, parts of north Tacoma up the hill get less of the smell than many lower elevation and waterfront areas of nearby suburbs like Federal Way and Puyallup.

Also, due to the geography of the city, many of the better areas in Tacoma are more removed from major thoroughfares, so you sort of have to go exploring to find them.

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by springshades

The article simply says that it counts students who were students as freshmen and were not in that same school at graduation. Now maybe it's just me, but that doesn't sound like it necessarily has anything to do with dropout rate. It's just another case of bad journalism to present it as such.

Quite a bit of Tacoma's stigma I believe has to do with looks. There are quite a few things going against it. For example, Seattle and Tacoma both have sizable industrial sectors which are huge eyesores. Seattle's, however, is located primarily in West Seattle and is very separate from the downtown area. Much of Tacoma's industrial sector is easily visible from downtown however.

This also contributes to the "Tacoma Aroma" being noticeable from downtown. In fact, parts of north Tacoma up the hill get less of the smell than many lower elevation and waterfront areas of nearby suburbs like Federal Way and Puyallup.

Also, due to the geography of the city, many of the better areas in Tacoma are more removed from major thoroughfares, so you sort of have to go exploring to find them.

I get what you mean about Tacoma Aroma. My mother grew up in Bogalusa,LA, a small papermill town. The smell of that place is horrid.
I do think Tacoma isn't the worst place you could live. Blue collar, yes.

[tada]

Everyone knows Tukwila is the new Tacoma. There are gangsters everywhere there, and just recently that shooting at Southcenter.

[haggardhouseelf]

I will say a positive thing about Tacoma schools: I was told the other day that they have decided to go back to using a traditional math curriculum instead of using the reformed math/new, new math/Investigations curriculum that most of the other schools out here use, and from what I've heard it's been a huge relief among parents and teacher's in that school system as well as a huge success among their students.

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by tada

Everyone knows Tukwila is the new Tacoma. There are gangsters everywhere there, and just recently that shooting at Southcenter.

Tukwila is becoming scary from what I have read. Tukwila is one of the top 10most dangerous cities with populations of 5,000+(#7 actually). Out of 101 cities, Tukwila is #7 in crime index(1276.5). Tacoma isn't even on the list of 101 most dangerous cities. Actually, Tacoma is somewhere in the 757 range, but Tukwila is bad I will agree.

[LordBalfor]

Originally Posted by pirate_lafitte

Tukwila is becoming scary from what I have read. Tukwila is one of the top 10most dangerous cities with populations of 5,000+(#7 actually). Out of 101 cities, Tukwila is #7 in crime index(1276.5). Tacoma isn't even on the list of 101 most dangerous cities. Actually, Tacoma is somewhere in the 757 range, but Tukwila is bad I will agree.

Tukwila's crime statistics are misleading because the crime stats are tabulated as #of crimes per resident. Tukwila's resident population is pretty small, but the number of people IN Tukwila on a daily basis is very, very large because of the presence of so much shopping (Southcenter and the surrounding strip malls) so the numbers of daily visitors is no doubt several times the number of residents. If the stats were adjusted so they they reflected the number of crimes vs the number of visitors (who make up both most of the victims and most of the perps) instead of just the number of residents, Tukwila's numbers would look a WHOLE lot better.

This is a classic case where statistic make for a very distorted and inaccurate picture because of the way in which they are tabulated. Probably more than any other city in the entire state, Tukwila is essentially just an enormous shopping complex with a very small population base (mostly along it's northern fringe)

Ken

[jeannern]

Tacoma is much safer since the gangs have been driven off the hill and out to the burbs like Puyallup, Lakewood and Bethel. I live in Brookfield at Silver Creek (Puyalllup) and in the past 2 weeks there has been a gang fight complete with gunfire, a kid was beaten with a hammer, and a kid was arrested for walking the neighborhood with a pistol and showing off to his friends.

[exit82]

ok so if I'm looking for a house/condo in Tacoma what area would be good to look in? I do see a nice condo community located near fort defiance park-is that ok? I don't have kids in school- just priced out of Seattle market -so need fast access to I-5
thanks