1. Tacomans Friggin' Love Tacoma
While Tacomans don’t need to explain to you why they live there, they’re usually more than happy to.
Considering everything Tacoma currently has going for it, from the 75,000 square foot Museum of Glass, to the revitalized Downtown, to the crazy beautiful views they wake up to everyday, Tacomans are ready to shake the perception that their city is anything less than amazing.
2. Tacomans Are Total Coffee Snobs
And they have every right to be.
Tacomans know that their area’s most famous export this side of grunge music—Starbucks—doesn’t even come close to offering the best lattes, cappuccinos and Americanos their city puts out. And Seattle’s Best? A complete misnomer.
For a better cup of Joe, Tacomans know the local spots where coffee isn’t just a pick me up, it’s transcendent. Bluebeards, which imports beans from Ethiopia and Indonesia for its roasts, Metronome, where they make a show of roasting dark and rich beans, and Valhalla, where the menu and seating is basic but the aromas and flavors are anything but, are big time favorites for local coffee geeks.
3. Tacomans Are Fierce Outdoorsmen
Almost anyone from Tacoma will tell you, one of the best things about life in their modestly-sized port city is the amazing meld of urban life and nature within grabbing distance.
This includes views of Mount Rainier, which looms over Tacoma’s skyline, and access to Mount Rainier National Park, which is just an hours drive away. It also includes the 700 acre Point Defiance Park, which is one of the largest urban parks in America, and features Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium.
Due to their proximity to the water Tacomans also have easy beach access, but they generally reserve them for sand-strolling and view-enjoying, since the water usually isn’t quite toasty enough for most swimmers.
4. Tacomans Are A Group On A Major Upswing
After booming as a port and international trade center, Tacoma hit some hard times during the second half 20th century. But recently, the Tacoma has enjoyed a small renaissance, ushered in by the University of Washington Tacoma pumping money into a newly-revitalized downtown area, and a number of tech businesses making the area their home.
With this revitalization has come a restored sense of pride and confidence in the city among Tacomans. People from Seattle still might not “get” why they live in Tacoma, which they consider a second city to their first, but increasingly, the reasons are speaking for themselves.
5. Tacomans Are Blue Collar Music Pioneers
Tacoma’s music scene might not have an enormous amount of names that you recognize right off the bat—although with names like Neko Case of The New Pornographers and Jerry Cantrell of Alice and Chains coming from the area, you might recognize at least a few. Still, chances are some of the music you listened to has probably been influenced by Tacoma sounds.
Tacoma garage rock bands like The Sonics, The Regents, The Wailers and Girl Trouble helped lay the tracks for the grunge movement, and the city also boasts an impressive blues scene. And while Tacomans occasionally complain the live music scene isn’t quite what it was in its golden days, Tacomans still take pride in their reputation as blue collar music pioneers.
It’s a sidenote, but also probably worth mentioning, that one of Tacoma’s smaller music venues, Bob’s Java Jive, is shaped like a huge coffee pot.
6. Tacomans Are Seattle Pro Sports Diehards
Even though they occasionally feel a bit overshadowed by Seattle, Pacific Northwest pride runs high when it comes to Seattle’s pro sports teams, who play just a half hour’s drive from Tacoma.
The greater Puget Sound area is still bummed about the 2008 departure of the Super Sonics, but the region still boasts the upstart Seattle Mariners and the Seattle Sounders of the MLS, home to American soccer superstud Clint Dempsey.
Oh, and there’s also the reigning Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks, whose fans are notorious for being nightmares to the opposition. On NFL Sundays, most Tacoma residents are either tied to to a television watching the squad or making the trip to their always-sold-out games.
7. People In Tacoma Appreciate The Military More Than Any Other City
Given the city’s proximity to Joint Base Lewis-McChord and a host of other military installations, military culture is a central part of everyday life for many Tacomans who either serve, have served or have close family members currently serving in the US armed forces.
Every year, thousands of Tacomans turn out for the Tacoma Freedom Fair Airshow at Marine Park, which features aircraft fly-bys and military displays. Even if you’re not in a military family, military influence is ubiquitous in the city, with military aircraft regularly fly in and out, and military shops and bars lining the streets.
8. Tacomans Are Summer Lovers
While the actual quantities of rain have been greatly exaggerated, like much of the Pacific Northwest, a light, misty rain and overcast is a constant state of being for Tacomans between the months of October and April.
Locals will tell you that it’s all worth it, however, once summer rolls around, when the sky is clear and the temperature constantly hovers around the seventies. They probably don’t want you to tell too many people, however, lest the Pacific Northwest’s secretly great weather reach mainstream consciousness and inspire too many people to up and relocate to the area.
9. Tacomans Are Way Gay Friendly
In 2013, LGBT-interest magazine The Advocate recently named Tacoma it’s “Gayest City in America,” finishing above other Washington spots Spokane (3) and Seattle (5) to take home the title. For the survey, the magazine took into consideration factors like LGBT elected officials, transgender protections and, of course “concerts by Scissor Sisters, Uh Huh Her, Girl in a Coma, and the cast of Glee.”
Suffice to say, Tacoma is way gay friendly, with a large number of gay-owned establishments, plenty of nightlife options, including a thriving gay scene in the St. Helens District. In July, Tacomans gay and straight alike celebrate the Out in the Park Pride Celebration.
10. Tacomans Take Pride In Their Blue Collar Roots
Even with the influx of white collar work in the area, Tacoma’s reputations as a hardened, blue collar town is well-earned. After all, Tacoma is a city that was built on the backs of longshoreman working the docks, mechanics working at Boeing, and workers at Simpson Tacoma Paper Mill, which are still huge parts of the local economy.
For Tacomans, hard work might be shifting slowly into the offices, cubicles and incubators, but they’ll always take pride in work that includes a significant amount of blood, sweat and tears.
Did we miss anything? Tell us what you think about Tacoma in the comments below! 
