Tacoma, Washington, United States

Economy | Top employers | Education

🇺🇸 Tacoma is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, 32 miles (51 km) south-west of Seattle, 31 miles (50 km) north-east of the state capital, Olympia, and 58 miles (93 km) north-west of Mount Rainier National Park. Tacoma is the second-largest city in the Puget Sound area and the third-largest in the state. Tacoma also serves as the centre of business activity for the South Sound region.

Tacoma adopted its name after the nearby Mount Rainier, originally and locally called Takhoma or Tahoma. It is locally known as the "City of Destiny" because the area was chosen to be the western terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad in the late 19th century. The decision of the railroad was influenced by Tacoma's neighbouring deep-water harbour, Commencement Bay. By connecting the bay with the railroad, Tacoma's motto became "When rails meet sails". Commencement Bay serves the Port of Tacoma, a centre of international trade on the Pacific Coast and Washington's largest port. The city gained notoriety in 1940 for the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which earned the nickname "Galloping Gertie".

Like most industrial cities, Tacoma suffered a prolonged decline in the mid 20th century as a result of suburbanisation and divestment. Since the 1990s, downtown Tacoma has experienced a period of revitalisation. Developments in the downtown include the University of Washington Tacoma; Line T (formerly Tacoma Link), the first modern electric light rail service in the state; the state's highest density of art and history museums; and a restored urban waterfront, the Thea Foss Waterway.

Economy Tacoma is the home of several international companies, including staffing company True Blue Inc. (formerly Labor Ready), lumber company Simpson, and the food companies Roman Meal and Brown and Haley.

Beginning in the 1930s, the city became known for the "Tacoma Aroma", a distinctive, acrid odor produced by pulp and paper manufacturing on the industrial tide flats. In the late 1990s, Simpson Tacoma Kraft reduced total sulfur emissions by 90%. This largely eliminated the problem; where once the odor was ever-present, it is now only noticeable occasionally downtown, primarily when the wind is coming from the east. The mill produces pulpwood and linerboard products; previously owned by St. Regis Company, the mill was sold to RockTenn in 2014. The mill's name changed yet again in 2016 to WestRock. U.S. Oil and Refining operates an oil refinery on the tide flats in the Port of Tacoma. Built 70 years ago in Tacoma in 1952, it refines 39,000 barrels of petroleum per day. The Tacoma Mall is the largest shopping centre in Tacoma. It is owned by Simon Property Group. Anchor tenants include JC Penney, Macy's, and Nordstrom.

An economic setback for the city occurred in September 2009 when Russell Investments, which has been in downtown Tacoma since its inception in 1936, announced it was moving its headquarters to Seattle along with several hundred white-collar jobs. A large regional office for State Farm occupied the building until 2018 when the building was purchased by the 909 Destiny Fund LLC. The building is reopening as a multi-tenant Class A property. The anchor tenant is TOTE Alaska, which announced in 2019 that it would be relocating its Federal Way headquarters to the 909 A Street building's top two floors.

Hospitals in Tacoma are operated by MultiCare Health System and Franciscan Health System. Hospitals include MultiCare Tacoma General Hospital, Mary Bridge Children's Hospital, MultiCare Allenmore Hospital and St. Joseph Medical Center. The Tacoma–Pierce County Health Department manages public health initiatives across the city and county.

Top employers According to the City of Tacoma, the major employers in the area include the military, healthcare, finance and insurance, aerospace, trade and logistics, government and education, as follows: 1 Joint Base Lewis–McChord; 2 MultiCare Health System; 3 State of Washington; 4 CHI Franciscan Health; 5 Tacoma Public Schools; 6 City of Tacoma & Tacoma Public Utilities; 7 Pierce County; 8 Puyallup School District; 9 Bethel School District; 10 Safeway and Albertsons.

Education Tacoma's institutions of higher learning include the University of Puget Sound, Tacoma Community College, City University of Seattle-Tacoma, Bates Technical College, Corban University School of Ministry/Tacoma Campus, as well as satellite campuses of The Evergreen State College and the University of Washington. Pacific Lutheran University is in Parkland, just south of the city; nearby Lakewood is the home of Clover Park Technical College and Pierce College.

Tacoma, Washington, United States 
<b>Tacoma, Washington, United States</b>
Image: Adobe Stock Zack Frank #124931576

Tacoma has a population of over 219,346 people. Tacoma also forms one of the centres of the wider Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metropolitan area which has a population of over 3,979,845 people. Tacoma is the #29 hipster city in the world, with a hipster score of 5.9159 according to the Hipster Index which evaluates and ranks the major cities of the world according to the number of vegan eateries, coffee shops, tattoo studios, vintage boutiques, and record stores.

To set up a UBI Lab for Tacoma see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork

Twin Towns, Sister Cities Tacoma has links with:

🇳🇴 Ålesund, Norway 🇫🇷 Biot, France 🇲🇽 Boca del Río, Mexico 🇺🇦 Brovary, Ukraine 🇨🇺 Cienfuegos, Cuba 🇵🇭 Davao, Philippines 🇵🇭 Davao City, Philippines 🇲🇦 El Jadida, Morocco 🇨🇳 Fuzhou, China 🇿🇦 George, South Africa 🇰🇷 Gunsan, South Korea 🇯🇵 Kitakyushu, Japan 🇹🇼 Taichung, Taiwan 🇨🇱 Valdivia, Chile 🇷🇺 Vladivostok, Russia 🇨🇳 Wuhan, China
Text Atribution: Wikipedia Text under CC-BY-SA license | Hipster Index

Antipodal to Tacoma is: 57.558,-47.253

Locations Near: Tacoma -122.442,47.2531

🇺🇸 Lakewood -122.504,47.169 d: 10.5  

🇺🇸 Federal Way -122.333,47.3 d: 9.7  

🇺🇸 Kent -122.237,47.381 d: 21  

🇺🇸 Auburn -122.2,47.3 d: 19  

🇺🇸 Port Orchard -122.642,47.476 d: 29  

🇺🇸 Renton -122.203,47.481 d: 31  

🇺🇸 Seattle -122.317,47.6 d: 39.7  

🇺🇸 Bremerton -122.65,47.567 d: 38.2  

🇺🇸 Bellevue -122.201,47.612 d: 43.8  

🇺🇸 Kirkland -122.183,47.683 d: 51.6  

Antipodal to: Tacoma 57.558,-47.253

🇫🇷 Saint-Pierre 55.478,-21.342 d: 17127.8  

🇫🇷 Saint-Benoît 55.713,-21.034 d: 17094.9  

🇫🇷 Saint-Paul 55.27,-21.01 d: 17089.7  

🇫🇷 Saint-Paul 55.279,-21 d: 17088.6  

🇫🇷 Saint-Denis 55.457,-20.867 d: 17075  

🇲🇺 Mahébourg 57.7,-20.407 d: 17029.9  

🇲🇺 Curepipe 57.517,-20.317 d: 17019.9  

🇲🇺 Vacoas-Phoenix 57.493,-20.3 d: 17018.1  

🇲🇺 Quatre Bornes 57.479,-20.266 d: 17014.2  

🇲🇺 Beau Bassin-Rose Hill 57.471,-20.235 d: 17010.8  

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