Talk:Tacoma, Washington

Some things I'd expect to see
I'm nothing like expert on Tacoma (I live in Seattle), but there are at least three things I'd expect to see that aren't currently in the article.

Unless I'm mistaken, downtown Tacoma sits precisely on land that a treaty (from 1856, I believe) had given to one or more Indian tribes. Unless I'm mistaken, there was a significant financial settlement related to that in the 1980s or 1990s.

There is basically nothing here on the decline of downtown Tacoma that preceded its recent revival. That decline was certainly dramatic enough to merit some coverage.

There is really nothing outside of the demographic section that acknowledges race as an issue in the city's history. Given that in 1885 Tacoma drove out literally its entire Chinese population, and given the racial tensions of the late 1960s and early 1970s and the subsequent career of Harold Moss (city councilman, mayor, Pierce County councilman; see ) the African American presence probably deserves more of a mention. And Moss certainly deserves an article. - Jmabel | Talk 05:55, 5 February 2009 (UTC)


 * In researching Harold Moss I came across a presumably citable article on the revival of downtown that also quotes Moss on how low the city had sunk in the 1970s. - Jmabel | Talk 06:20, 6 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I've now followed up on this myself. - Jmabel | Talk 00:32, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
 * The Black Collective probably also merits a mention (and maybe an article). It's now been going on for 4 decades. - Jmabel | Talk 06:24, 6 February 2009 (UTC)
 * 1885 anti-Chinese incident now mentioned. Thanks to whoever did that. - Jmabel | Talk 22:20, 4 December 2009 (UTC)
 * 1885 anti-Chinese incident now mentioned. Thanks to whoever did that. - Jmabel | Talk 22:20, 4 December 2009 (UTC)
 * 1885 anti-Chinese incident now mentioned. Thanks to whoever did that. - Jmabel | Talk 22:20, 4 December 2009 (UTC)

The treaty in question is the Treaty of Medicine Creek, and the Puyallup land claims settlement was reached in 1990. Here's a source:. Both are worth a mention, in my opinion. —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 01:24, 28 September 2019 (UTC)

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ASARCO smelter at Ruston and its legacy of pollution
Why is this prominent part of Tacoma's history and ongoing troubles not mentioned at all? Just because the little enclave in Tacoma where the smelter sat was separately incorporated? Dicklyon (talk) 05:07, 23 May 2018 (UTC)

I'll collect some web-accessible sources here, and maybe I'll write something up, or someone might help.

There are plenty more. Dicklyon (talk) 04:12, 3 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Arsenic, ASARCO, and EPA: Cost-Benefit Analysis, Public Participation, and Polluter Games in the Regulation of Hazardous Air Pollutants, 1985
 * Arsenic and lead distribution and mobility in lake sediments in the south-central Puget Sound watershed: The long-term impact of a metal smelter in Ruston, Washington, USA, 2014
 * The ASARCO smokestack — once the world's largest — is demolished at the company's old copper smelter in Ruston, north of Tacoma, on January 17, 1993
 * Three decades after the Asarco smelter shutdown, its toxic legacy surprises Tacoma newcomers, 2015
 * Their Mines, Our Stories: Work, Environment and Justice in Asarco-Impacted Communities
 * Tacoma Smelter Plume project
 * Asarco Tacoma Smelter Superfund Projects: A Brief Overview
 * High-Pollution Smelter To Close Within a Year, 1984

More information needed
See the Tacoma riot of 1885. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A00:23C0:7C80:8401:3891:B6A6:C553:4AE3 (talk) 16:34, 24 May 2018 (UTC)
 * I stupidly over-looked the fact that the riot is actually in the article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A00:23C0:7C80:8401:3891:B6A6:C553:4AE3 (talk) 16:38, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

Requested move 25 September 2019

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion. 

The result of the move request was: not moved. WP:SNOW closure, as with any proposed move that goes against WP:USPLACE. (closed by non-admin page mover) feminist (talk) 16:29, 26 September 2019 (UTC)

Tacoma, Washington → Tacoma – The page Tacoma already redirects here, so the present title seems like unnecessary disambiguation. The city seems a likely primary topic based on both long-term significance and usage in published sources: according to William Bright, the name comes from a Native American word for Mount Rainier, of which the city in Washington is the namesake; other U.S. places derive their name from this original usage. The first few pages of GBooks search results for "Tacoma" are predominantly about the city. Similar titles in Wikipedia include Baltimore, Dallas, Denver, etc. Sangdeboeuf (talk) 05:02, 25 September 2019 (UTC)


 * Strong oppose per WP:USPLACE, a longstanding guideline based on consensus from years of these kinds of discussions. As Tacoma is not listed in the AP Stylebook's list of cities, it still requires the state qualifier. Tacoma is also not a major city at the national level and is almost never referred to without the state.  Sounder Bruce  05:42, 25 September 2019 (UTC)
 * As noted here and in similar discussions while I agree this is unnessesarry disambiguation and falls foul of WP:CONCISE, WP:USPLACE specifies that its common usage in the United States and should remain.  Crouch, Swale  ( talk ) 09:07, 25 September 2019 (UTC)
 * Oppose per WP:USPLACE and above. This is its common usage (it's rarely seen without the state name). Paintspot Infez (talk) 00:03, 26 September 2019 (UTC)
 * Oppose, WP:USPLACE. Tacoma does not fall under the AP Stylebook exception like Baltimore, Dallas, and Denver do. Please see Perennial proposals for the rationale of WP:USPLACE. The consensus in the numerous archived discussions regarding WP:USPLACE (listed near the top of WT:NCGN) is that a consistent convention, commonly-used by most reliable American sources, overrides conciseness on these article names. Zzyzx11 (talk) 07:04, 26 September 2019 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

2019 United States Census Bureau American Community Survey estimates
The ACP is a reliable source so why is it being removed? It is currently more accurate than the 2010 census numbers.Patapsco913 (talk) 22:18, 28 May 2021 (UTC)

I think that they are perfectly OK to use until the census results are announced. At that point, they would need an update. — Mikehawk10 (talk) 19:37, 29 May 2021 (UTC)
 * The captions need to specify that these are ACS estimates, separate from the decennial census, and should be prose-only to match the rest of the section.  Sounder Bruce  19:15, 3 June 2021 (UTC)

The pie graphs on the main page are different than the ones shown here. And they don’t correspond to the percentages listed. I’m surprised no one caught this yet. Please correct the errors. Thanks

Mid-sized urban port city
User:KidAd reverted an edit which read:
 * "A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound..."

to read:
 * "A mid-sized urban port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound..."

If it's a city, it's probably urban. Also, how big is "mid-sized"? Kind of unencyclopedic..."mid-sized". The input of others would be appreciated. Thank you. Magnolia677 (talk) 23:10, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
 * mid-sized urban port city has been the language on the page since as early as April 2006. The change, with the edit summary size is subjective, and all cities are urban, was clearly made in error. Size, of course, is not objective. 15 feet is 15 feet. One block is one block. A city with 200,000 residents is not a city of 1,000,000 residents. KidAd  •  SPEAK  23:32, 11 January 2022 (UTC)

Request for Disambiguation of Tacoma Redirect
Hello everybody, I am requesting that Tacoma should not redirect to this city, but to Toyota Tacoma. See here the page view stats in the past 30 days: the city received 36,610 views, while the car received 50,352 views! Additionally, I would like to prove my point with a search browser. If you may, please search up “Tacoma” and see if you get results about the car or the city; it is clear that Tacoma has gained more attention than the city. Now this isn’t a move to change Toyota Tacoma into Tacoma, this is just a friendly redirect change. Thanks for your attention, and have a great rest of your day. DirtySocks357(WreckItRalph) (talk) 15:51, 29 March 2024 (UTC)