Another reason Tacoma rocks: Neighbors

I had coffee today with a fellow PLU alum and former T-towner, and we got to talking about what makes this little city so great. You see, it was great for her even when she bought a house on the East Side in 1999 for many of the same reasons I think it's so great in 2007 going on 2008 -- reasons that don't have anything to do with a good or bad downtown, condos, home prices, development, etc. It's all about the neighbors.

She remembers buying her first home (don't choke -- it was less than $100K), and fixing up the inside and out the best she could, and neighbors coming by and talking. Neighbors bringing food from time to time. Living there, and knowing her neighbors. And it sounds like that's one of the things she keeps in her heart about her time in T-town ... the neighbors. She recounts later living in Des Moines for awhile, and everyone pretty much drove into their garages and shut the door. This bedroom community liked its privacy,

My neighbors are a big part about why I love Tacoma, and why I likely won't move for a decade, or two, or three ... or more. While I am not "in love" with our house, per se, it'll do. And if I tried to move ... well, I'd have to gamble on what kind of neighbors I'd get. Right now, I know everyone on my block, and almost everyone across the block, over a block, and many throughout the neighborhood. As of recently, there are more than a dozen kids, with several near my kids' ages. We share advice and resources. We invite each other over for various social events. The folks across the street have brought us food many times, which was especially appreciated one day when I was very pregnant and had two kids very sick with the flu and the husband who had been carted off by the ambulance due to a nasty nasty flu about 3 years ago. Other neighbors have been there in a pinch when we need someone to watch the kids for an hour or two, or walk the eldest to school with their girls. I've raked leaves for neighbors, others have weed-wacked parts of my lawn. We share loads of TAGRO; we recently paved our alley so the kids would have a place to bike and trike all over the place; we deliver occasional pies and cookie batches off to each other; know the people's houses we're trick-or-treating at; say hello whenever we see each other; ... and so much more.

My neighbors are more than why I don't want to move out of the neighborhood, they're why I don't want to leave Tacoma. For the latter, that "neighbor" definition of course extends beyond my surrounding blocks ... but the word still applies. My friends; my neighbors.

I'm in Tacoma for the people.