A less gritty T-town, seen through the eyes of a devotee / by Jessica Corey-Butler
I love Tacoma â€" and not in the way that some people love the Mariners when they’re winning but loathe them when they are losing.
I’ve always been there for Tacoma.  I loved her during the great police chief debacle.  I didn’t lose faith despite the neighborhoods in distress.  And regardless of the bad seeds who have tried to bring her down, I’ve stayed strong.
I love Tacoma’s reinvention as well.  I love the wires, the condos, and the restaurants that cost half of my paycheck.
Still, there are moments when my lover takes my breath away â€" even after all of these years.
In the course of looking for the Top 10 Rooms with a View in Tacoma (all 10 pictures can be seen online at www.weeklyolcanospew.com), I found some amazing vistas.  I knew they would be there: the mountains, the sound, the bay.  Beyond the views, though, I found Tacoma isn’t just a town with history; it’s a town with great stories.
There are the stories of the long-ago past, the past of lumber and shipping and prosperous commerce.  View #1 is from that history â€" the past of a castle that could have been a hotel but became a high school and its vantage overlooking Stadium Bowl (6229 S. Tyler).
There’s the less long-ago past, the past of decline and disinterest.  Then there’s the rebirth I mentioned before â€" helped by a main university coming to downtown. View #2 is from the University of Washington Tacoma’s Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences office â€" the scenes of Union Station and the Bridge of Glass.
View #3 highlights a huge financial mover and shaker â€" Frank Russell Company (909 A St.) and its upper floor boardroom with a deck area overlooking the boats, Brown’s Point, Vashon Island and the port.
Tacoma’s more than these giants, however.  It’s also about newness â€" a bustling past-meets-future industry, a downtown with restaurants such as the Sea Grill (1498 Pacific Ave.) and View #4 from the bar where large windows open up to the steel and glass façade of the new Tacoma Convention Center.
Then there’s the story of Tacoma’s dwellings: people live and stay in the coolest places â€" such as the condo at the water’s edge with a pool on top of it.  View #5 is from the Sky Terrace Condominiums (235 Broadway) â€" an 1960s apartment building turned condo â€" and one of the many new multi-living spaces gracing our downtown landscape.
Or how about the home by Point Defiance Park where two girls wake up every morning to a vista of trees and water and acres of grass?  View #6 is a secret, to protect a family’s privacy, but one I won’t soon forget.
There are also the lofts that helped pave Tacoma’s rebirth â€" the artists’ spaces on Pacific Avenue that opened before Tacoma was cool, some of the first upscale urban living.  View #7 is from the rental office of one such pioneer with views of Mount Rainier â€" The Harmon Lofts (1944 Pacific Ave.).
View #8 takes us to the Ruston Way waterfront and the King Suite in the Silver Cloud Inn â€" a room with a view of the Olympic Mountains and large container ships and that can be rented at a nightly rate (2317 N. Ruston Way).
Finally, from the deck at the 1889 Chinaberry Hill (302 Tacoma Ave. N.), a bed and breakfast in the city, we find View #9 â€" the space provides the launching pad for views of trees, flowers and Commencement Bay.
My favorite story of Tacoma, however, is the story of the people.  The guy from the church whose mission is to serve its community and does so not by holding vacation Bible school but by reinforcing academics in day camps held for Hilltop kids.  This view, View #10, is from the roof of Trinity Presbyterian Church (1615 Sixth Ave.), where a troubled area such as Hilltop is beginning to look promising.
I love Tacoma.  It’s like loving any of my family members â€" whose beauty I see shining through all of the flaws.  And who, when you least expect it, surprises you â€" just because.