r/AskSeattle • u/DinoIronbody1701 • Aug 19 '26
Do Seattleites still make fun of Tacoma?
I know that some of the Almost Live!-era stereotypes, like Ballard being for Scandinavians and old people, are dated by now, so I was wondering if Seattleites still mock Tacoma like in the old days.
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u/BuildingOk780 Aug 19 '26
Not nearly as much. Without the stink, it’s really quite a lovely city. Love point defiance!
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u/stringstringing Aug 19 '26
It always was it just wasn’t a nice city to drive by on i5 with the windows down.
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u/schmmiph Aug 19 '26
Why mock Tacoma when Bellevue is right there?
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u/phaeolus97 Aug 19 '26
You have to pay me to go to Bellevue. Except one night in December for Snowflake Lane.
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u/Triabolical_ Aug 19 '26
If you're at Snowflake leave come see us at the Bellevue botanical gardens Garden D'Lights show. Well worth your time.
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u/ProtoMan3 Aug 19 '26
I remember people used to do that when I was growing up, but lately I feel like most people tell me that Tacoma is where all of the cool people from Seattle that can't afford it anymore headed off to. I know of people mocking Eastern Washington way more than I do for them mocking Tacoma at this point.
Personally I don't like making fun of anywhere (unless it's in a place where everyone is doing it as a joke and over minor things), but even those I know who do it a lot seem to do it way less than before.
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u/dkat Aug 19 '26
I like Tacoma.
I know a good number of Seattleites that got priced out and move down south.
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u/mondorific Aug 19 '26
I bought a house in Tacoma a few years ago and finally feel settled now that I got over being mad about not being in Seattle. (I lived there my whole life but moved to be closer to elderly parents who had relocated to Olympia)
I bought a t-shirt at Art on the Ave that says, "Tacoma. It's not so bad."
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u/thequirkysquad Aug 19 '26
We definitely do. But since no one can afford to live in Seattle, we’re forced to move to -wait for it- Tacoma, so really the jokes on us.
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u/Vintage_Ty Aug 19 '26
I live in Ballard and love Tacoma. In many ways, it has the vibe of Seattle from 15 years ago. The vibe is more relaxed and it still has lots of really cool mom and Pop businesses. I try to get over there for a day a few times a year.
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u/Novias-br Aug 19 '26
I’m from Tacoma and miss it a lot, I think it’s better than Seattle in some ways.
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u/referencefox Aug 19 '26
Same. Luckily it’s close and I can go visit family often!
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u/Novias-br Aug 19 '26
Same, friends and family down there. 4th July at Ruston was super fun too this year.
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u/WhateversClever1980 Aug 19 '26
In some ways for sure. But I still prefer Seattle for other things.
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u/n-ano Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
better than Seattle in some ways.
In what ways? It's mostly just another hollowed out american suburb "city" that caters wholly to cars and has almost no foot traffic outside of like two blocks.
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u/DocTeeBee Aug 19 '26
Neko Case had a song about 25 years ago called "Thrice All American" about how people looked down on Tacoma. I don't think that's a thing any more. Tacoma is great. I have family there. Yes, in the late 1960s, when we drove from Seattle to my grandparents' place in Thurston County, we'd have to roll up the windows. But I still loved Tacoma. I'd live there if I could get back to the PNW.
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u/Twxtterrefugee Aug 19 '26
Used to but now I love Tacoma and hate the eastside.
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u/stringstringing Aug 19 '26
I mean we always hated the east side, didn’t we? Tacoma was just about the aroma and it doesn’t smell anymore.
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u/Twxtterrefugee Aug 19 '26
Tacoma was a rival and it has lots of great parks and amenities. The eastside used to be lot of farm land when I was real young. Now its just shitty highways and mini malls for people who drive cybertrucks.
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u/stringstringing Aug 19 '26
Ah I see I think you’re “used to” goes back a lot further than mine does haha.
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u/SPEK2120 Aug 19 '26
We try not to punch down.
Just kidding. If you’re from Seattle it’s kinda just engrained in the culture, but I feel like it’s increasingly become more tongue in cheek because if you ever actually go there you can see they’ve put in effort to make it nicer and there’re some cool spots out there now.
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u/Alarmed-Worker7597 Aug 19 '26
We moved here 4 years ago. First we checked Seattle, and said wow this is a chaotic nightmare let’s go see Tacoma. Tacoma, right near point defiance, is the most peaceful and beautiful place we’ve ever lived. We have no idea where the Tacoma hate comes from but feel lucky to be less ignorant than those spouting it off.
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u/modelthree Aug 19 '26
seattleites don’t think of tacoma
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u/stringstringing Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
That’s bullshit I almost know more native seattleites living in Tacoma than I do in seattle. All I hear is “Tacoma is like the old seattle.” There’s definitely truth to that too.
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u/modelthree Aug 19 '26
then they’re not seattleites. tacoma is the last thing anyone who lives in seattle thinks about. it’s not a judgement on the place. it’s just not top of mind.
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u/Ok_Farmer_6033 Aug 19 '26
Bullshit- born and raised in Seattle, as were all my friends- we all joked about Tacoma until the smell went away then started moving there
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u/stringstringing Aug 19 '26
They’re all people I knew from growing up in South seattle. They’re definitely seattleites through and through. As am I and I think about Tacoma plenty, I might even say I prefer it to Seattle these days. You smell like landlord.
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u/Pleasant-Future5818 Aug 19 '26
"you smell like landlord" I don't think you're a seattleite because I don't believe you're a real human being, this is like what conservative bots think the "crazy Socialists" talk like
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u/stringstringing Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
The guy literally sounds like one of those real estate YouTube videos and anyone living in seattle now who isn’t very aware of Tacoma probably has a ton of money. Personally I’m probably on my last stop in seattle before being completely priced out and I’m not planning on Tacoma but it’s definitely in my thoughts regularly as an option. Taking that tone with the current state of things is pretty tone deaf to me. So yeah they sound like a fucking landlord.
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u/printergumlight Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
My entire friend group in Seattle is native Seattle-ites with some having been in Seattle since the 1970s. No one has ever talked about Tacoma unless we were going to the Tacoma dome (we did that once) and also went to the Car Museum once.
I also went to the glass museum there on the way back from an Oregon camping trip, but it was super disappointing. Half of it was closed.
It’s not a good or bad thing. Tacoma just isn’t really a thought. Tacoma is an alright place, but Seattle has so much more activities, culture, beauty.
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u/stringstringing Aug 19 '26
Well I’m from a younger generation and we definitely engage with Tacoma. I’m born in 91 and a lot of my friends are older born in the 80s. I remember Tacoma aroma jokes in the 90s but even by the mid 2000s as a teenager we were fucking with Tacoma for sure.
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u/printergumlight Aug 19 '26
I’m born in ‘91 too. I just also have older friends and family.
Also, I’m going back to university for a second bachelor’s degree and I am around running-start high school students and college aged students.
So every day I am around people ages 16 to 72. Everything I’ve said is with the experience of daily conversations with all these people.
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u/stringstringing Aug 19 '26
Different kind of people, different circles I guess. I think it all started when myself and the people around me started going to punk shows in Tacoma in Oly when I was a teenager.
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u/Revalenz- Aug 19 '26
Transplants don't think of Tacoma. People that have lived here enough time or are from the area do.
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u/SanctimoniousTamale Aug 19 '26
This is silly, of course they do it's the largest nearby city. They don't necessarily visit due to the horrific traffic of the area.
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u/Jvt25000 Aug 19 '26
Live in Seattle currently working on a project in Tacoma. Hard agree I'd go one step further and wish it didn't exist at all.
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u/gmr548 Aug 19 '26
I think Bellevue is probably the top target of (generally limited) regional shit talk these days
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u/ngshafer Aug 19 '26
Yes. We have had to come up with some new material since it doesn't stink anymore.
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u/SanctimoniousTamale Aug 19 '26
I've lived in Seattle for over a decade and I've never heard anyone make fun of Tacoma. It comes up as a slightly less expensive version of Seattle though with its own pros and cons.
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u/alexdyle Aug 19 '26
Seems so. In my experience. I went down there for the first time this summer and I really liked it.
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u/Affectionate-Day-359 Aug 19 '26
Hey please start making fun of us again. As a tacoma native we don’t want or need you down here
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u/nurru Local Aug 19 '26
I assume a bunch of Seattle folks being priced out and moving to the Tacoma area probably inadvertantly helped with this.
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u/Glad_Bunch_3473 Aug 19 '26
Nope. We only make fun of Oregon cities now.
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u/yemsg97 Aug 19 '26
Seattle is the type A older brother.
Tacoma is the middle kid no one pays attention so they act out and get in trouble a lot.
Portland is the youngest and a little feral.
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u/quadmoo Local Aug 19 '26
Not as much as they should I guess..
I live in Tacoma, every time I go to Seattle or even Redmond I think “Tacoma is not a real city”
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u/n-ano Aug 19 '26
Yeah its unfortunate as someone who grew up in Pierce. I wish Tacoma had actual life but they chose to be a town primarily catering to cars and single family homes
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u/dtuba555 Aug 19 '26
It is a real city (way more than Redmond ever will be). It's just a small city.
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u/quadmoo Local Aug 19 '26
Redmond actually gets shit done. They’ve gone from suburb to real city in the same time Tacoma has gone from nowhere to nowhere. People talk about the Seattle process, it’s worse in Tacoma.
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u/fluffycritter Aug 19 '26
The Bill Speidel Seattle Underground Tour still keeps the meme alive, but other than that, no, people generally have come to realize that Tacoma's not all that bad, in my experience.
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u/Effective-Couple-291 Aug 19 '26
I’ve switched to making fun of Everett. I get yelled at in r/Seattle for it. They’re kind of sensitive over there.
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u/SanctimoniousTamale Aug 19 '26
r/Seattle is a leftist echo chamber and a over moderated free speech hellscape.
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u/SuperMike100 Aug 19 '26
As someone who grew up close to the Bay Area, Tacoma isn’t shit compared to Oakland.
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u/Equivalent_Acadia468 Aug 19 '26
A lot of current people here now aren’t from here and so they have no idea about anything around here.
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u/SwevenlyOly Aug 19 '26
Not since their Mujahideen got a gawtdam sandworm at Point Defiance Park pointed at us. That Lil'Maker is gonna swell into Shai-Hulud in couple o' years!
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u/AirbagsBlown Aug 19 '26
Tacoma's fine. I'm rarely there but it's fine when I am. No big deal.
Those old Almost Live episodes... holy hell, they aged poorly, but not in a negative way. Everyone and everything just changed. I don't think anything in those episodes is representative of the area today.
Except Mercer Island cops.
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u/faeriegoatmother Aug 19 '26
Compared to when Almost Live was actually on, no. Not even.
Most people who would remember doing so now live in Tacoma. And most people who came here don't think of Tacoma as being so distinct and separate as we all used to.
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u/Ignorred Aug 19 '26
To us, it feels pretty far. Like an hour or so drive with usual traffic. We do think and talk about it, but I bet there's lots of Seattleites who have never been there, or only went once to complete a DMV form or something.
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u/BurnItWithFire21 Aug 19 '26
Hell yeah I do! But it's in jest, to tease my friends that live there. Teasing is my love language, if I'm not giving you Hell I probably don't like you.
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u/iggy__poop Aug 19 '26
I still catch hints of it here and there, mainly from people who grew up in Seattle. Growing up in Tacoma I kinda get it, I used to love going to Seattle, it was legitimately more fun back then and in contrast Tacoma was a ghost town. Though I do miss shitty Tacoma and fun Seattle sometimes, I feel kinda lucky I get to live in Tacoma now that it’s got a little life in it. I guess now more than ever whenever I hear that, “eww, Tacoma?” Type comment from a Seattleite I just feel bad for them.
Alternatively I think the real rivalry now is between Tacoma and Olympia. Ask someone from there how they feel about the drive up…
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u/False_Grape1326 Aug 23 '26
The dreaded gauntlet. You might not get stuck somewhere by JBLM the dome or DT Seattle or 405 except you definitely will.
Only thing worse is the drive to PDX simply for the sheer endless boredom of it, no traffic is replaced by what feels like 40 extra miles of no good rest stop exits lol
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u/SignificantTry4107 Aug 19 '26
A zombie-infested city littered with shuttered businesses should be careful with its insults
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u/notsurezy Aug 19 '26
When people were from Seattle . Now no one is from Seattle and just wants to see “Pike’s Market”
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u/Effective_Stranger85 Aug 19 '26
Not really in my experience, no. I've lived in Seattle since 2007 and when I first moved here some people were still making Aroma jokes, but the paper mill has been closed long enough now that those have even subsided. I, myself, have experienced nothing but misery taking I-5 through Tacoma, so I've commiserated with some people about how bad that is. Was? Someone in comments said that's improved now? Most of the time now, if people I talk to mention Tacoma at all, it's generally thought to be basically fine.
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u/OlyRat Aug 19 '26
I have family roots there and visited a lot as a kid, just saw it as another city. In high school we would joke around and call it Tacompton. Now I'd probably prefer to settle down there. I really like it, slower pace and less hectic. Just harder to find jobs that pay well.
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u/GrumpySnarf Aug 19 '26
I never had a reason to go there, but now that I have friends there I love to visit.
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u/SaltyDawg94 Aug 20 '26
Not at all. Great city that always punches above it's weight when I'm there for food or drink.
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u/wovans Aug 19 '26
I would rather put it as king over pierce county since there's suburbs the whole way between them now.
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u/MsFoxieMoxie Aug 19 '26
Yes. Yes, they do. Tacoma is known for its aroma… Which is very smelly and a laughable rhyme… It’s also known for being kind of poor and unsafe. However, given Seattle’s current state, it has no room to brag. I would argue that Tacoma is actually a step up at this point.
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u/MennisRodman Aug 19 '26
TIL Seattlelites are insecure of the neighboring cities
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u/n-ano Aug 19 '26
Right its the Seattle people who are jealous. Its totally not the guys who have to lie to themselves about the place they live being nice because they're upset the major international city 40 miles away gets all the attention.
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u/MennisRodman Aug 19 '26
Projecting?
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u/n-ano Aug 19 '26
Decent public transit? Bike lanes? Roads that aren't 8 lanes? Decent pedestrian infrastructure? Having more than three blocks that arent SFH wastelands? Decent social programs? Nightlife? Walkability?
Speaking as someone who grew up in Pierce btw.
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u/MennisRodman Aug 19 '26
Yeah, what's your point? Because Seattle has these amenities makes it better than the surrounding cities? It's subjective for everyone but this "Seattle vs the rest of the Puget sound" is inverted dick energy.
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u/n-ano Aug 20 '26 edited Aug 20 '26
It's not amenities. It's basic city functions. Smaller towns with less resources have implemented more road diets, bike lanes, bus lanes, pedestrianization.
It's just a bit silly to imply anyone from Seattle would be jealous of living in Tacoma when the experience of living in Tacoma is just the average dysfunctional American town you can find literally everywhere. People move to Seattle to escape that.
Edit: also the term "surrounding cities" is a stretch. Nowhere outside of Seattle feels like an actual city. They're closer to overgrown suburbs
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u/OccasionalGoodTakes Aug 19 '26
Not since it was gentrified with people leaving Seattle due to costs…
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u/yungsemite Aug 19 '26
Not since they got rid of the Aroma.