‘Super positive energy.' Oft short-changed Tacoma neighborhood looks to future

Yahoo

09-06-2025

Tacoma is gearing up to finalize a plan that outlines strategies to make South Tacoma more affordable, safe and healthy.
The result of an effort that goes back to 2023, the South Tacoma Neighborhood Plan identifies strategies and programs that will help improve quality of life in South Tacoma that fall under five categories: transportation, health and environment, economic opportunity and development, community and affordability.
City officials and residents involved with the plan said it sought to build on work community organizers and local businesses have already done to change the character of South Tacoma. Once known as a dangerous, high-crime area, it has in recent years become a hub for beloved local businesses that attract a diverse array of patrons and residents.
The South Tacoma Neighborhood Plan is the result of Tacoma's Neighborhood Planning Program, which has facilitated the development of similar plans for the McKinley Hill and Proctor neighborhoods. The 264-page document for South Tacoma will come before the City Council for approval at its June 10 meeting after which the city leaders and staff can begin identifying funding to implement the plan's goals.
The plan includes recommendations like pursuing opportunities to build on South Tacoma's tree canopy, improving and creating new parks and celebrating South Tacoma's identity with art and signage. It covers parts of the city southwest of the Tacoma Mall and west of I-5, reaching as far north as the Tacoma Cemetery and as far south as Manitou Park.
Council member Joe Bushnell, whose district covers parts of South Tacoma, said he was happy to see such an investment in the neighborhood because South Tacoma residents have often felt neglected by the city.
'There [are] a lot of folks out there that feel really dismayed by some of the industrial activity that's going on down there. There's been a lot of criminal activity that has occurred over time, a lot of poverty as well,' Bushnell told The News Tribune.
The plan was developed through a series of outreach efforts, including surveys, meetings, multilingual focus groups, interviews and more. Bushnell said the group in charge of community engagement for the plan had to take into consideration the area's history and tailor outreach accordingly – to go out of their way to reach residents who have likely long since dismissed the possibility of aid from city officials because of the persistent history of criminal activity and poverty in South Tacoma.
According to 2023 data outlined in the neighborhood plan, South Tacoma is more diverse than the city of Tacoma — 46% of the roughly 8,000 residents are white, compared to 61% for the city at large. Median household income in South Tacoma at roughly $66,000 a year is about $12,000 less than the city of Tacoma's numbers, and a higher share of South Tacoma's residents are renters compared to all of Tacoma, according to the document.
'South Tacoma residents have lower incomes, are more likely to rent, and have a higher risk for displacement than the city as a whole,' the plan reads.
The South Tacoma as residents know it today can be traced to the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railroad in the late 1800s, according to the plan. After the company selected Tacoma as the western end of the transcontinental rail line, people relocated shops from downtown Tacoma to what is now South Tacoma but was then called Edison. By 1891 Tacoma annexed Edison, and the area continued to develop, with a business district emerging by 1896 on Union Avenue — now South Tacoma Way.
The plan states that the thoroughfare by 1923 becoming part of a Pacific Highway coupled with the burgeoning auto-related developments like repair shops 'cemented' the neighborhood's automobile character. The character has endured to this day — dozens of car dealerships and auto shops still line parts of South Tacoma Way.
Council member Jamika Scott, whose district also covers parts of South Tacoma, said she's looking forward to the implementation of programs outlined in the plan that would build on the neighborhood's tree canopy.
'South Tacoma, that's where a lot of our industrial stuff is,' Scott told The News Tribune. 'We have a lot of cars going through, trucks going through, things like that. The health outcomes for people in that area are not as great as they are for say, somebody living on the North End.'
To that end, council members on June 10 will decide whether to set aside $15,000 for a proposed 'green blocks' program, in which the Tacoma Tree Foundation and the city's urban forestry department will help property owners plant trees in the public right-of-way near their properties free of charge.
Heidi Stephens, a member of the South Tacoma Neighborhood Council and the steering committee for the neighborhood plan, said improving South Tacoma's tree canopy is her top priority.
'This neighborhood district is one of the most diverse in Tacoma, and also one of the most overburdened due to low-income and poor health from close proximity to industrial zoning and freeway air pollution,' Stephens told The News Tribune in an email. 'I believe the high illness and mortality rates may also be directly related to this area's lowest tree canopy in the city, which was forefront in my mind throughout the process.'
According to the neighborhood plan, all of Tacoma's tree canopy coverage as of 2018 came in at 20%, down from the city's goal of 30%. But large swaths of the area that the plan addresses had less than 20%, including the Tacoma Cemetery and Wapato Hills Park which had between 9% and 11%.
Building on South Tacoma's tree canopy, Stephens said, could improve air quality, reduce noise and light pollution and improve residents' mental health.
'Our second selected priority is a community event for local youth and seniors, and a cleaner environment with inviting shaded green spaces is meant to add to a healthier neighborhood for these generations and those to come,' she said.
Local officials have said that the neighborhood planning process is an effort to build on the work that's already been done in South Tacoma – to make it a safer place for the people who live there.
Austin Miller, chief executive officer of Theory Real Estate, is among the group of Tacoma residents who saw the potential of South Tacoma and South Tacoma Way that other longtime local business owners have known about and worked to build on it. The family-owned, Tacoma-based real estate company has over the last eight years bought buildings along South Tacoma Way, remodeled them and rented them out to local businesses.
'We've really been looking to fill them with small local businesses,' Miller told The News Tribune. 'We really have tried to avoid chain restaurants or large corporations. We really wanted it to feel like a neighborhood that was representative of the city and the people who live here.'
That evolution and feeling of collaboration has brought business owners like Stephanie Housden, founder of Sober AF, a zero proof bottle shop, to recently open up on South Tacoma Way. The South Tacoma Neighborhood Plan also acknowledges that shift in its findings.
'Many new businesses, from restaurants to retail, have opened in the last decade,' the plan reads.
Housden said she first got involved in South Tacoma when she worked at Edison Square, a music venue on South Tacoma Way. Housden knew of South Tacoma's reputation, but she witnessed how the area has changed over the years, the result of Theory Real Estate's efforts but also from the faith and commitment that longtime businesses like music venue Airport Tavern have had in the neighborhood.
That's what drew her to open up Sober AF earlier this year, she told The News Tribune.
'It's just an energy, a super positive energy, where there's a lot of us that are from all different backgrounds and races, and we're all super supportive of each other and we try to do a lot of collaboration on our street with each other.'