Move to Tacoma Podcast

Pretty Gritty Tours is not JUST the most popular tour company in Tacoma, Washington. Pretty Gritty Tours (and its creator Chris Staudinger) are one of the most entertaining accounts about Tacoma on social media. From Tiktok, to YouTube, to Instagram and Facebook- Chris finds stories from Tacoma’s past and shares them with us in a way that is entertaining and enlightening.

Pretty Gritty Tours offers the best education, experiences, and tours in Tacoma, Washington. Pretty Gritty Tours was founded in 2016 by Chris Staudinger and Tawny Clark. They lead Ghost Tours of Downtown Tacoma every weekend, and have tons of other tours they offer to individuals and groups that are curious to learn more about Tacoma and it’s lost stories.

In this episode of the Move to Tacoma Podcast Chris shares with host Marguerite Martin how the pandemic catapulted Pretty Gritty Tours from a small local tour company into a full on social media sensation. He also talks about Moving to Tacoma to attend PLU, traveling the world with his wife as a travel journalist, and returning to Tacoma to live in the College Park Neighborhood of the North End (AKA UPS Neighborhood).

Chris shares about how he finds the stories and historic information that he features in his tours and on his social media channels. He shares one of his favorite Tacoma stories, about the Andelana, a merchant vessel that sank in Commencement Bay in the late 1800’s and all the spooky stories surrounding it.

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Chris Miller from The Red Hot joins us to share about 17 years of running one of Tacoma’s most popular bars. He talks about starting bar in Tacoma, all the lessons he’s learned along the way, and advice he has for other people with a dream of opening a bar in Tacoma. He shares about working all over the Puget Sound as a Union Carpenter before deciding to get in the bar business.

After an injury forced Chris Miller to reconsider his career path, he decided to take a big risk and start a hot dog bar in Tacoma. His brother owned a bar in another town, so he took the leap and decided to open a bar in Tacoma. He talked about driving around Tacoma and just calling signs in windows until he found his 6th Avenue location for the bar. “I started looking around at spaces and it was 997 square feet, that includes the bathroom.” he says, “In those days… smaller bars did not exist in this town. It didn’t seem small to me. But everyone who came in was like, ‘What are you doing!?'”

He shares about how starting out it was just him and his parents working in the bar. He didn’t have a business loan or cash, so he took a risk and put everything on his credit card to open. “I thought I don’t have any money, but I can build it,” Chris said. “I had some friends from the industry who would come help. My folks were there right next to me.”

“People always ask me how I decided on beer and hot dogs,” says Chris. “I just like beer and hot dogs!”

The success of The Red Hot surprised him. “I thought we’d sell like a couple dozen a week.” He worked a double 5 days a week and did admin stuff on his days off. He emphasises that he was working at the bar constantly and brought home very little in the beginning. “My wife carried our family,” he says. “I think for the first year it was like that. Putting in the work and some miserable times.”

It started working out after a year, and they hired their first staff member. He didn’t realize how busy it would be once it took off, so staffing up was the next challenge. Over time The Red Hot went from being a small family owned business to a very successful bar- winning Best Hot Dog in Washington State. From hiring baristas instead of servers to having a tiny bar, Chris talked about how the things that made them different set them apart.

Chris talks about how much more expensive leases are in Tacoma. It makes things much more challenging for regular people wanting to open their own bar. He had help from other bar owners in Tacoma, especially the folks from The Parkway and Doyles. “There was a lot of luck involved,” he says. “If I’d known how hard it was going to be I wouldn’t have done it.”

From signing commercial leases and learning what triple nets are to dealing with the permit department at The City of Tacoma, Chris shares about all the lessons he has learned in the past 17 years. He worries that it’s only become harder for someone like him to open a bar in Tacoma, and that is not good for the fabric of Tacoma. “Spaceworks should be a way bigger thing than it is,” he says. “We need to make it accessible for goofballs like me!”

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Tacoma Pro Bono Community Lawyers is a legal aid organization in Tacoma, Washington. In this episode of the Move to Tacoma Podcast Marguerite interviews Laurie Davenport and Ash Meer. We cover the formation and the growth of Tacoma Pro Bono. How it expanded from a small team to 42 staff members, including 22 attorneys. The focus of Tacoma Pro Bono is on providing free legal services to Tacomans in need, primarily in civil matters. In addition to free legal representation they offer clinics in areas such as family law, bankruptcy, guardianship, and domestic violence.

Marguerite asks Laurie and Ash about the process of seeking assistance from Tacoma Pro Bono. They explain how it works, emphasizing the accessibility of services through walk-in hours and online applications. The conversation covers everything from intake to legal representation in court hearings. The organization’s proactive approach to addressing legal issues is highlighted, aiming to prevent crises and empower individuals with legal knowledge and support.

Further discussion revolves around the challenges faced by homeowners, with resources available primarily focusing on tenants due to recent legal changes. However, resources and referrals for homeowners are still provided through Tacoma Pro Bono’s housing justice project and external platforms like Washington Law Help.

Lastly, the conversation touches on Tacoma’s progressive tenant protections. The passage of Tacoma’s progressive Initiative 1 Tenant Protections laws  might have the impact of influencing statewide reforms. Overall, the podcast covers the vital role of Tacoma Pro Bono in providing accessible legal aid, empowering individuals in Tacoma facing legal challenges, and advocating for systemic change in the legal landscape.

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Tacoma Lawn Bowling Club members Laura Moscatello and Mike Catsi moved to Tacoma from Alaska and now they’re the president and treasurer of the Tacoma Lawn Bowling Club. In this episode of the Move to Tacoma Podcast we dig into what lawn bowling is, why it’s so fun, and how to get involved. If you’ve ever walked past the lawn bowling green in Wright Park and wondered what that was about, you’ll love this interview!

Laura (Tacoma Lawn Bowling Club President) and Mike (Treasurer) moved to Central Tacoma from Alaska a few years ago. They were walking past the lawn bowling green in Wright Park and couldn’t believe what they saw. Mike is originally from Australia and familiar with Lawn Bowling as a sport. Laura did some research and found out it WAS a lawn bowling green and they decided to join up. They think it’s a great way to make friends in Tacoma!

The Tacoma Lawn Bowling Club has been in Tacoma on the green in Wright Park since 1929. The club was first started in 1929 by Scottish immigrant Alexander ‘Sandy’ Drummond.  TLBC is now run by a new generation of bowlers. Players from Tacoma compete in regional competitions in the Northwest and in the US Nationals.

The 2024 Lawn Bowling Season starts in April! Looking to join? Check out the “Learn to Bowl” Lawn Bowling Class at Metro Parks Tacoma. It costs $60 and once you complete the class you can join the club. It’s $120 for the April to October season. They have days with open plays on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6:30pm and days where you can join a league and compete more seriously. You don’t need equipment to get involved, they have equipment to share. Just show up in comfortable flat soled shoes.

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Originally located in Downtown Tacoma on Commerce, Mad Hat Tea is now at its new location in Tacoma’s Dome District (where Downtown Tacoma meets the Eastside).  His shop serves tea in a laid back setting for locals, even crafting custom teas for people at their request. In addition, Mad Hat runs a thriving online business where customers order tea from across the country.

Tobin shares the story about how a voice in his head told him to start Mad Hat Tea, and what he did to start the shop and it a success without borrowing money. From a serendipitous encounter at a Pampered Chef party that led him to his first international tea importer to losing everything and working at El Gaucho to make a go of it. “I worked at Tacoma El Gaucho for almost two years,” Tobin recalls.  “I would open the shop at 11. And then I’d close at 3:30pm. Then I’d put on my El Gaucho suit and work till midnight. Get up and do it all over again.”

If you’ve ever thought about starting a business in Tacoma, you’ll get a lot of useful (and unconventional) ideas from Tobin! From finding landlords to simple marketing that works better than instagram.

Mad Hat Tea is located at 301 A Puyallup Ave, Tacoma, WA 98421 and they’re open Wednesday – Sunday.

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Kirsten Sparenborg is a Tacoma artist who creates Architectural Map Drawings. When Kirsten’s husband PCSed to JBLM they found themselves in Tacoma’s Stadium District. After a brief move to New York Kirsten has returned to live and make art here in Tacoma. We talk about how she became a full time artist, creating and selling your art online, and being an artist in Tacoma, Washington.

Kirsten is an architect by training and worked as an urban designer for seven years before becoming a full time artist. She was attracted to Tacoma because of the urban environment and being able to walk around the city and explore. When she was researching neighborhoods in Tacoma before moving here she was drawn to the historic homes and apartments in Tacoma’s Stadium District. She could walk along Yakima Avenue, walk to Wright Park, the Farmer’s Market, and more. When she moved away and came back she searched for homes for over a year and eventually settled down in Tacoma’s West End.

Before moving to Tacoma Kirsten lived in Savannah and worked for an architect. She went to grad school in Virginia and studied Architectural History. Before she began creating architectural maps she had been creating streetscapes, “Art that you want to put on your wall!”.  She honed her style making original hand painted maps where she creates a line drawing then paints them with watercolors. She now creates maps using different methods like stitching, graphite, ink, different kinds of paper, etc.

“I really love the process of selling and connecting with people. It’s a really beautiful human connection…” Kirsten says. Over the past 16 years she’s gone from selling things on Etsy to selling things on her website and even selling wholesale to shops. You can see Kirsten’s art on her website here. You can also see her Etsy shop here.  Over her career Kirsten has hand drawn over 700 maps!

Kirsten shares about selling her art in person at markets. While she’s an introvert she finds connecting with people about the city and neighborhoods energizing. “It’s definitely my most favorite way of selling.” She Urban Craft Uprising Market, An Anniversary Celebration at Parable, and The Tacoma Night Market.

In addition to 82 maps of Tacoma’s neighborhoods and other locations in Washington, Kirsten has created hundreds of maps for cities across the country. Her favorite is a hand drawn color pencil map of Tacoma’s neighborhoods. You can see it here at Tacoma Tones Topographic Map.

What Kirsten loves about creating art in the Pacific Northwest is how much people love living here. People who buy from her love their communities and the nature in the area and are inclined to purchase art and to commission art to celebrate that. “People are quite excited about their place. They’re also just jazzed about people using their hands to make art.”

The post Making a Living with Your Art in Tacoma with Kirsten Sparenborg appeared first on Move to Tacoma.

Marguerite interviews Paul Kunitsa from the Waterfront Market at Point Ruston. The Kunitsa Family immigrated to the US and to Tacoma when he was a child, first settling on the Eastside then to University Place. Paul now lives on Tacoma’s West Slope. Paul shares his story of running a construction company and through “a series of events” ended up owning the 35,000 square foot building that houses the Waterfront Market at Point Ruston. He shares their goals of expanding and growing the market. From vendors they have to the ideal vendors they’d like to attract. “It’s more than the products that are sold at the market. You get to meet people face to face, in this economy, in this place that we’re in. For me the coolest thing is the networking part, connecting with people on a deeper level. All this stuff is pretty unique to each individual vendor.”

Paul shares that their goal is to be like Seattle’s Pike Place Market. Vendors lease space in the market full time, seven days per week, and year round while others do “pop ups” and short term stays on the weekend and throughout the year. “Some of our core vendors include Taco Street, Owen’s Meats… vendors who create art and jewelry and sell clothes. All kinds of categories in one building.”

“Food is a big draw for people,” says Paul. “That’s the biggest area we’re growing right now. Then expanding into produce and grocery and the daily needs of people who live down and around here.” The market is a great place for new and small businesses to grow without expensive overhead. With the events that go on attracting Tacomans from around the city, a new business can grow their audience and customers.

The Market in Ruston is open Monday-Sunday every day 10am-6pm with food vendors staying open until 8pm. There’s a 4 story parking garage right underneath the market which makes parking easy and free for customers (at the top of the parking garage).

Events Coming up include Hispanic Heritage Month September 15th – October 15th, Doggie Halloween, Indoor Trick or Treating, Yoga, and more. The Event Calendar is in the show notes.

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In this episode of the Move to Tacoma Podcast we interviewed Matthew Wilson and Quincy Tyson. Matthew is the Executive Director of the Oasis Youth Center. Oasis is Pierce County’s only LGBTQ+ youth center. Founded in 1985, Oasis is a drop-in, resource, and support center. Oasis is a safe space for Queer youth to learn, connect, and thrive. Oasis envisions a world where Queer youth are valued as strong, creative leaders. Quincy is the new executive director of Tacoma’s Rainbow Center. Through education, advocacy, and celebration, Rainbow Center expands resources and safe space for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, two-spirit, and allied (LGBTQ2SA) community.

Matthew and Quincy shared about how Tacomans can support the queer community in Tacoma. In addition to attending Pride 2023, they shared their ideas on how all Tacomans can be allies. They also shared the biggest obstacles facing the LGBTQIA+ community in Tacoma and Washington State right now.

Tacoma Pride is in July because it gives people the opportunity to go to Pride Events in Seattle and June. “The nice thing about being queer in Tacoma is that we get two pride months!” says Quincy. Pride is more than the big event on July 8th. It will be held at 9th and Pacific Avenue in Downtown Tacoma from Noon to 6pm. There’s a series events put on by a bunch of different community partners. Tacoma Pride kicks off June 30th at 9:30am raising the pride flag at the Tacoma Dome. For a complete list of Tacoma Pride events check out TacomaPride.org.

The post Tacoma Pride 2023 & Tacoma’s Queer Community appeared first on Move to Tacoma.

Check out this interview where Nerd Farmer Host Nate Bowling interviews Zev Cook and David Galazin from Tacoma4All. They’re working to improve tenant protections for tenants in Tacoma by introducing a Tenants Bill of Rights. Tacoma is one of the most challenging places in the country to rent a home, and it’s getting tougher. Their first step is organizing tenants for a ballot initiative. Unsurprisingly that initiative is being opposed by the landlord and real estate lobbies. We were excited by this interview and wanted to share it out on the MovetoTacoma.com platform so more people could hear who is putting the initiative together and WHY it is happening here in Tacoma.

Examples of some items from the initiative:

Tacoma4All is a citizen initiative led by tenants in Tacoma and their allies. The initiative calls for protections for renters, protection from predatory institutional landlords, fair practices around excess fees, mandated situational relocation assistance, and longer notification periods for rent hikes and forced moves.

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Looking for things to do in Tacoma, Washington? We interviewed local Author Peggy Cleveland on the MovetoTacoma.com podcast! Peggy’s new book “100 Things to Do in Tacoma Before You Die” is here to get you started finding interesting things to do in and around Tacoma. This book is great for tourists visiting Tacoma, people who’ve just moved here, and even folks who have lived here forever.

After living all over the country in the military Peggy and her husband chose JBLM as his final duty station and retired in Washington State. Peggy had been living in Steilacoom for eight years and writing about the area for different publications. Recently she was approached by Travel Tacoma to write a book about things to do in the greater Tacoma area. We interview Peggy about how the book came to be, cool things to get up to in and around Tacoma, how she became a writer, and tips she has for others looking to start writing!

Peggy’s book has five categories. 20 Things to in the Tacoma area for each one! The categories include Food & Drink, Music and Entertainment, Sports and Recreation, Culture and History, and Shopping and Fashion. Peggy shares her process for writing the book and researching all of the places that ended up being featured. She tells us a few of her favorite spots to eat, and unexpected discoveries she made researching to write the book.

The Move to Tacoma Podcast has been out since 2015. Now a part of Channel253!  The Move to Tacoma Podcast interviews all different kinds of people about what it’s like living in Tacoma, Washington.

MovetoTacoma.com creator Marguerite Martin is a different kind of Tacoma real estate agent. Reach out to find out answers to questions you have about neighborhoods in Tacoma and Pierce County. Marguerite can connect you with a local real estate agent who specializes in the neighborhoods you love most. Click here to contact Marguerite.

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