By Morf Morford, Tacoma Daily Index
One of the most well-known town or regional phrases, known around the world is “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” It came from an advertising slogan created by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and R&R Partners in 2003. Their intention was to rebrand Vegas as a place where visitors could let loose and enjoy themselves without accountability.
To put it mildly, this phrase, even though immensely popular, was, at best, morally ambiguous.
After a few years though, the Las Vegas tourism department changed the phrase in ads to “what happens here, only happens here.” But the original phrase has become embedded as part of our everyday language.
That second phrase,“what happens here, only happens here,” might apply to every city, if not neighborhood or even household, but I would argue that the phrase comes true with a vengeance in and around Tacoma. Every neighborhood, and to a large degree, every urban area, has its own character.
And, if you know Tacoma at all, its convoluted history or its current neighborhoods, you know that our city as a whole has an established (and perhaps well-earned) reputation. And most of our city’s constituent parts have their own pace and personality.
From speed limit enforcement to college admissions to percentages of home-ownership versus renters, to ethnic/immigrant/Native ratios, every neighborhood reflects and embodies the tempo and character of who currently – or once – lived there. Types of businesses, from pawn shops to restaurants to bookstores cluster around (or are not seen in) certain neighborhoods.
When it comes to speed limits, for example, in most of Pierce County, driving within a mile or two (or five) of the speed limit is allowed – but not in Fircrest. In Fircrest you can get pulled over – and cited – for driving two miles over the speed limit.
Marijuana and alcohol
When marijuana first became legal, stores offering pot initially appeared in the most predictable areas – along 6th Avenue, Pacific Avenue south of about 38th and along South Tacoma Way.
But not in Tacoma’s North End or University Place.
And certainly not Fircrest. Fircrest was, in fact, the last “dry” municipality in Washington state, prohibiting the sale of alcohol by the glass. Voters chose to allow the sale of alcohol in Fircrest in November of 2015 – almost a hundred years after the rest of the country.
Alcohol was always easy to find just a few blocks away in Tacoma.
University Place (so named because the University of Puget Sound purchased land along Grandview Drive for its campus, but ended up selling the land back to the city of Tacoma) and Fircrest, both unincorporated at the time, had bans on multi-family housing – their zoning only allowed single-family housing. If you take note, you’ll see that virtually every apartment building was built after the late 1970s or so – unlike next door Lakewood which has had apartment buildings and complexes since the 1950s if not before.
Welcome to Tacoma
Tacoma, the largest city in Pierce County – and third largest in the state – of course sets the tone for the entire South Sound area.
Tacoma has changed dramatically over the years – and in some ways it hasn’t.
I had a friend in college who first came to Tacoma after joining the US Army. This must have been in the early to mid-1970s. He had taken a Greyhound bus from the upper Midwest to downtown Tacoma – lower Pacific Avenue to be exact.
He arrived in the evening, and stepping outside the seedy bus station on Pacific Avenue, for his first view of Tacoma, he saw what we all saw back then – a row of garish and glimmering bars and all-night porn shops as far as the eye could see. His wholesome Midwest upbringing had not prepared him for what he saw.
As he gaped at the fierce and glaring neon lights, he found himself blurting out loud, “I’m in Hell”.
There happened to be a local resident getting off the same bus. He responded as he walked by, “This ain’t Hell. This is Tacoma.”
My friend went on to what was then called Fort Lewis and settled in Olympia. Those sleazy porn shops are long gone – but they will never be erased from their first and most vivid impression of Tacoma in his memory.
It’s not a phrase that any tourist bureau would like, but it’s true in its way, for some at least, and certainly the most enduring image many in the Puget Sound region – and beyond – have of us – “This ain’t Hell. This is Tacoma”.
Every town has its own personality – some more than others. Some have been company towns anchored to specific industries or resources. Some have left those industries behind and diversified over the years.
But whether they have moved on or held closely to their roots, the past is never far behind.
