COTW: The City of Medium-Size Shoulders?
We seem to have come out of the holidays and everybody is accounted for. We’re glad you came back after the holiday punch wore off.
Our Comment of the Week comes from a regular. It probably isn’t a surprise to you that it appeared in the graffiti garage thread. What we liked was its imagery and connection to the past and its desire to help us understand what makes Tacoma cool. Tressie gets our comment of the week.
um, kids, I think Tacoma has always been “cool”. What was cool was that it had authenticity and a carefree pluralist attitude. I tagged it “The city of medium-size Shoulders”. It was/is a working-class town with a few mini-moguls sprinkled in…
Filed under: Tacoma
20 comments
M Mofo from the Hood January 20, 2008
I’ve been reading Tressie’s colorful comments lately, and I would say that they help make clear why Tacoma is the way that it is/was.
Tacoma has always produced or attracted all kinds of characters. A large majority of them eventually move to the burbs of Spanaway, Graham or across the Narrows Bridge (not all emigration to the outer reaches of counties is bad).
Tacoma is a city that is big enough for one to be anonymous and it is a city small enough for one to have no secrets.
Tacoma may have that element of cool that Tressie says, but the carefree attitude part I don’t agree with. This is a tough town that does not suffer fools gladly.
S Sassy McButterpants January 20, 2008
Tacoma may have that element of cool that Tressie says, but the carefree attitude part I don’t agree with. This is a tough town that does not suffer fools gladly.
It doesn’t? That totally sucks for me…
M Mofo from the Hood January 20, 2008
Sassy, right now in the Buckley-Enumclaw area someone is building a condo just for you.
And for me, I’m sure there’s a run-down cottage waiting for me right near the Carbon River Entrance of Mt. Rainier.
E Erik S January 21, 2008
There’ll be plenty of foolishness for me, when I’m living in a VAN down by the river!
T Tressie January 21, 2008
Awww ! I’m so feeling the LOVE ! I must love something here ….been here for 25+ yrs.
Mofo…..I’m trying to understand the Fools comment from you…….honey, it must do some suffering of the Fool Parade…..I’m still standing!
Do you mean —- the calling out of the Urban Living Myth, when the Mr. and I can’t find any semi-budget place to eat but fastfood/Starvester after 9 pm most weeknites? (one of my fave rants)
(and as far as real estate…..can I park my trailer behind your quaint-nestled-cottage????)
B Brent Hartinger January 21, 2008
“Always” cool? I wish that were so, but growing up here, I remember an Asarco-loving, Puyallup-Indian/Hilltop-black/gay-hating city that regularly annoyed the hell out of me. Remember the Judge Bolt decision, and the city’s amazingly racist reaction to it? (I remember my TEACHER saying racist things!) Or what about the gay rights initiatve passed by the City Council that was overturned by 76% of the city in 1991? (76%
When are elections EVER that lop-sided? Then again, in 1981, the city voted 91%—91%!!!—against Antonakis’ neon sculpture on the outside of the Tacoma Dome—a sculpture, I might add, that would have made us world-famous.)
I could go on. I remember a HUGE brouhaha over TAG’s production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, THAT CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON, because—gasp!—it includes swear words. And don’t get me started on how the city fought tooth and nail for the right of Asarco to keep on poisoning our children and our environment.
Tacoma may be slowly inching toward cool lately, but it’s history is pathetically, chronically, amazingly uncool.
Sorry to sound so negative and bitter, but, hey, the city’s given me a lot to be bitter about.
E Erik B. January 21, 2008
And don’t get me started on how the city fought tooth and nail for the right of Asarco to keep on poisoning our children and our environment.
I wasn’t aware of that. What did they do?
M Mofo from the Hood January 21, 2008
Tressie @5:
“Mofo…I’m trying to understand the Fools comment [@ #1]…”
Tressie, if you read the paragraph above that and combine the two statements, the point is that in Tacoma one can act outlandish but you might be happier living in the outlands.
(2) (”…can I park my trailer behind your quaint-nestled cottage????)
That would be just picture-perfect.
R RR Anderson January 21, 2008
Hey Brent, dont forget the whole “throwing out the Chinese” thing.
With respect to Asarco I would encourage any homeowner with or expecting children to get their free DIRT ALERT soil sampling.
We’re being poisoned!
C Crenshaw Sepulveda January 22, 2008
I say change the name of Mt. Rainier back to Mt. Tahoma and the curse will be removed from Tacoma.
T Tressie January 22, 2008
Perhaps the Tacoma-Haters (of which I am president) should move somewhere else. There are other places. I am well aware of the racist, gay-hating, etc etc that happens in Tacoma, just like it happens almost everywhere else on the planet.
I have learned to live with contradiction.
There is a reason there is so much hating going on in the world. I am not going to Explain All Of Life To You.
(I raised children, and I already did that)
But I will say this:
Tacoma was a town that was what it was. It was a town like many other towns. It was hateful and poisonous. It played host to many SuperFund Sites!!!
Through the efforts of many many Tacoma Very Bad History is being changed.
It is becoming far less racist. We have had some non-white people on the council, no?
It is becoming less gay-hating. Who was leading the arts renn here in T-Town? (and I’m not counting the antique/mid-century funk store owners)
It hated on its original owners…..mmmm….Indians !
It was a Stinky cheese town. Clean-ups and retirement of stupid jokes are happening daily!
I am not a cheerleader. I love to rant. Have you read my blog? (for crying out loud)
What is cool about Tacoma is its history, which is kinda unique in many ways.
It gets better because people stay and people work hard. And people work hard at making it better. Did you read any of my articles from 12-15 years ago about Tacoma?
No?
Tacoma is becoming better because of the caring people who care.
That’s what makes Tacoma Cool. And the neato old buildings and homes and the waterfront and the hills and the views.
It’s not anymore corrupt or hating than most American cities/towns. Tacoma suffers from the Seattle-Tyranny of Nyah Nyah.
I say throw off the bonds of yesteryear. We Good Now. Write plays and books about the very thing people hate!
They’ll step up. They already have. They are stepping today. There is a humane effort to house and care for the homeless, just a for instance.
Don’t give up. Have Faith.
And collectively perhaps we can bring back sane real estate prices, TowerLanes Open Kitchen at midnite, The Tacoma Law School (you wanna talk about bitter !!!) and Maybe……..
Just Maybe……….
We can rid our Fair City of the blindingly dangerous & ugly Mercato car magnet.
M Mofo from the Hood January 22, 2008
Tressie, did you mean to say that you’re the president of the Treasure Chest welcoming committee?
M Mofo from the Hood January 23, 2008
Looking for clarification:
What does gay hating mean? Is there something wrong about some behaviors?
Some facts that I know:
• Two genders. People are born either male or female.
• The two genders, male and female, are different and equal in value and they complement each other.
• The two genders, male and female, are born into a very important purpose: they form a natural union to reproduce a baby male or female.
Does intuition or history or science dispute the facts listed above?
B beerBoy January 23, 2008
Actually Mofo, history and science do dispute your “facts”.
Visit the wikipedia listing for “third gender” and expand your horizons.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_gender
L Laura Hanan January 23, 2008
beerBoy, re: third gender: I’m not Balkan, but if I can become a “Sworn Virgin” anyway it would relieve me of a lot of bad choices I made in my twenties (thirties, forties…oh my I’m so old)
T Tressie January 23, 2008
One can disapprove of a lifechoice/mandate without hate. Um, I’m president of the Things I Hate About Tacoma club (yes, I’m reffing the movie/Heath)
I did say I live with contradiction.
That “treasure chest” thing…..sounds kinda ……….dirty.
M Mofo from the Hood January 23, 2008
beerBoy, I read the wikipedia nonsense.
How could people reproduce themselves in any other form than what I stated above.
Assuming there is a deviant gene and it is not just an inferred entity, where did the deviant gene come from?
How long could a deviant form of people sustain their biological existence?
Like produces like.
Apple trees produce apples.
Orange trees produce oranges.
Third gender people produce third gender people?
I’m not ready to capitulate to stupidity.
D Derek staff January 23, 2008
We’re heading toward a debate about biology and morals that will not or should not reach resolution on Exit133. Who would like to steer the topic back toward… something else?
D drizell January 23, 2008
I think the “City of Median Shoulders” is an accurate label. Of course, Chicago is widely known as the “City of Broad Shoulders.” There are a couple similarities: second city status, waterfront location, blue collar image…grit…
The difference is that Chicago talks the talk AND walks the walk. Tacoma spouts lots of rhetoric but usually doesn’t follow up with any meaningful action.
Like saying you want to become a great city then having development codes that only allow suburban sprawl. And allowing historic preservationists to prevent development.
D drizell January 23, 2008
Oops….I meant Medium Shoulders.