Grit City Magazine

08/11/2025

If you know the significance of this day in history, you probably know the story of Leonard Coatsworth, the TNT reporter whose car fell into The Narrows along with his daughter's poor dog, Tubby.

But what you may not know is that after that fateful day in 1940 his daughter, Gerry Coatsworth, became a minor celebrity after the collapse and got more than a dozen offers for a new dog from all over the country.

She chose a new cocker spaniel puppy and wanted to name her Narrows Bridget. Other accounts said the name was Little Bridget. Either way, they ended up calling her Cobina because her father refused to name her after the bridge.

Also, if you want to see some rare found footage of a different angle of the collapse, be sure to check this out: https://gritcitymag.com/2023/08/the-lost-angle-found-footage-of-the-narrows-bridge-collapse/

And before you go cursing Leonard's name for leaving his daughter's dog in the car, you should know it's not as simple as it sounds.

He tried to get him out but Tubby refused to move. He returned but couldn't make it because of the swaying bridge.

Two more men made attempts to save Tubby before the bridge fell. One couldn't make it all the way and the last one got bitten when he tried.

Leonard was also really broken up about it and wrote in the TNT later that morning, "With real tragedy, disaster and blasted dreams all around me, I believe that right at this minute what appalls me most is that within a few hours I must tell my daughter that her dog is dead, when I might have saved him."

📷: The Library of Congress

07/11/2025

Running a local business is hard but we can help.

There are a lot of problems we can’t fix but we can help shine some light on businesses that need it.

So here’s the deal: If you run a local business and you want a spot on the Bite-sized Sponsor page in our upcoming issue, shoot us a DM. Or if you know someone who should be on the list, tag them in the comments. Our current circulation is about 600 magazines per quarter.

The going rate is $100 for your name, neighborhood, and type of business. This goes on a full spread at the front of our magazine with a heartfelt thank you and a reminder for readers to check the list when they’re deciding where to go for dinner, vintage clothes, home goods, tattoos, hair cuts, etc.

Buuuuut—$100 is not nothing. We get it. Rent is due every month whether your business makes any money or not and we don’t want that to be an obstacle. So if you can’t afford it this time, hit us up anyway and we’ll make it happen.

If you can afford it, though, we’ll happily take your money. We had some amazing support from local businesses last time who stepped up to cover other folks who couldn’t. Special shout out to McCoy Kids, Maddy Mixter - Realtor, Frog Mustard Stickers, WCP Solutions, Print NW, and Wonderland 222.

In Hard Copy 26 we had 40 brick & mortar businesses in Tacoma (listed below) and it made a significant difference in our production costs. We’d love to see even more this time!

Axe Academy
Big Bus Paddlesports
Black Bird Apothecary
Black Sheep Resale
Bluebeard
Boholo Curations
Camp Colvos Brewing + Pizza Co.
D Haberdashery
Doyles Public House
Good Luck Shop
Grit City Made
Grit City Patina
Happy Belly Eatery & Juice Bar
Hard Easy Tattoo
Hive Co.
Ice Cream Social
Intentions Juice Bar
La Paloma
Lil' French Flea Market
Mad Hat Tea Company & the tobin gallery...
Mattice Beauty Supply
McCoy Kids
Narrows Tattoo
Nothin' New
Peaks & Pints
Peppermint Tuna
Peterson Bros. 1111
Poodle Dog Restaurant
Ropa Thrift Store
Rose Hill Barber
Salty Dog
Sojourn Tattoo
South Sound Scooters
Stocklist Goods
Taco Street
Tacoma Knife Sharpening & Mercantile
The Barber Collective
The Hob Nob
The Valley
Three Hearts
Top of Tacoma
Twisted Fork Saloon
Waddington Esthetics
Wooden City

Send a message to learn more

04/11/2025

On the morning of November 3, 1885 a mob of 500 people—including the county sheriff, a US marshal, the fire chief, and the mayor of Tacoma—gathered on Pacific Avenue and walked to an area near modern-day Thea’s Park.

There they found a small neighborhood built by Chinese laborers who had lived and worked in Tacoma during the previous decade.

A month earlier a Chinese business owner named Sun Chong had met with the Mayor to confirm if he and others in his community were actually being forced to leave. The Mayor said yes and reported to the Tacoma Daily Ledger, "I told him, however, that the people were determined this time. That the Chinese did not assimilate with the Caucasian race, that their modes of life were different, that their habits were repugnant to us, that their ideas and thoughts, and ways ran counter to those of the Caucasian and that they were in fact, in all things, diametrically opposed to us, that there could be no compromise, that they must go."

The mob went through each home and told the residents to pack their belongings; they were leaving town that day. Chinese shop owners around the city were subjected to the same eviction notice.

The entire Chinese population of Tacoma was then marched eight miles to a train station and forced to board a train to Portland. Those who could not afford a ticket rode in boxcars or walked along the tracks.

Upon arrival in Portland they were “requested to move on east, where their presence could be tolerated.”

Three days later, the homes that made up Tacoma’s Chinatown were burned to the ground. While a few members of the community objected to the methods used, the mob was met with little to no resistance from the white citizens of Tacoma.

The main organizers—known as the Tacoma Twenty-seven—were eventually indicted but never convicted of any crimes. As news of the events spread, “The Tacoma Method” was applauded as an example for other cities to replicate.

The way we view the people of the past is exactly the way people of the future will view us. The people of 1885 were, from their perspective, living at the epitome of civilization—just like we are now. And they still allowed this to happen.

These weren’t hooligans from rough neighborhoods. These weren’t outside agitators. These were respected citizens, celebrated for their actions and fully sanctioned by the governing authorities.

Justifying the violation of human rights by hiding behind authority figures and unjust laws has a long and tragic precedent—in this city, in this country, and throughout human history.

Looking back with the cultural wisdom of 140 years, any reasonable person would agree that this was a shameful moment in our history. But we do ourselves a disservice by thinking of it only as a thing of the past.

Learn more at tacomamethod.com and at the Chinese Reconciliation Park on Ruston Way.

Photos courtesy of Tacoma Public Library and Washington State Historical Society

03/11/2025

The second round of photography classes are up now!

We'll teach you the basics of digital photography, including all the manual settings you've never really known what to do with.

We're also getting special access to a new venue downtown for some indoor light painting demonstrations during the low light and long exposure class.

Last but not least, we'll be doing a less formal photo walk followed by editing and a voluntary group critique.

Find all the info on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/sierra-hartman-91701698743

📷 Nov 10+17 • 7:00 PM—Intro to SLR/mirrorless photography, including manual settings (2 days)
📷 Nov 24 • 7:00 PM—Shooting in the Dark: Low Light and Long Exposure Photography
📷 Dec 6 • 10:00 AM—Point Defiance forest photo walk

If you have ideas for other photo classes you’d like to see, let us know in the comments!

31/10/2025

"The bodies I live in, they are mine and not mine. I control them, but they retain memories and sometimes act on reflexes and instinct. This body made a noise as it was fed. 'Yum Yum' the loudest of the word-users said, 'It sounds like it is saying Yum Yum.'"

Happy Halloween, Tacoma. Beware the kittens...

Illustration by Nina Hartman The word-users came in their machine, “van” they called it. I do not know why they chosethis place to stop. Their reasons are often confused, even to them. My reasons are simple,I am hungry. “Kitten” is what they called me; they gave me food. It did not have the ...

24/10/2025

If you have strong opinions about what the President is doing but you’re not paying attention to what the Tacoma City Council is up to, you’re doing it wrong.

Mattice Hoyt interviewed candidates for City Council positions five and six over the summer. As you might expect, she got some good answers.

We had originally planned to have them up before the primaries but it didn’t work out. Apologies for that.

Huge shoutout to Mattice for conducting the interviews and all the candidates for taking the time to answer all the questions. Check out the interviews at the link below and get those ballots in by November 4th!

https://gritcitymag.com/category/local-politics

16/10/2025

Tacoma is a layered city in every way you can imagine.

📷: (via IG)
Killer graffiti: (via IG)

13/10/2025

Fixed that for ya.

Some people will always be offended by the idea of changing the mountain’s name.

If you happen to be one of those people, we kindly invite you to consider these facts:

1️⃣ Peter Rainier fought against the United States in the Revolutionary War.

The only reason we call it that is because 35-year-old George Vancouver happened to be sailing by in 1792 and started calling out landmarks for all his buddies back home in England.

This included Mt. Baker, Mt. St. Helens, a handful of islands, and the Puget Sound itself. This guy was the definition of audacious.

He wrote it down on a map and all the other colonizers just went along with it. Seattle also fought pretty hard against renaming it Mt. Tacoma around the turn of the 20th century.

2️⃣ If you’re steadfastly against the idea of renaming long standing landmarks, then you’re already on the right side. Because this wouldn’t be a change. It would be a restoration.

We’ve only had the name Rainier for about 230 years. The Puyallup, Nisqually, Muckleshoot, Yakama, Cowlitz, Squaxin Island, and other Coast Salish people have been calling it by a variety of other names for thousands and thousands of years.

Some of those names include təqʷuʔmaʔ, təqʷuʔməʔ, təqʷuʔbəd, təqubəd, and təqʷubəʔ.

Dr. Zalmai ʔəswəli Zahir published a comprehensive analysis of the mountain’s names earlier this year. He found 20 different names used in seven different languages around the mountain. You can find the whole story on the Puyallup Tribe of Indians website.

If you want to learn more about the Lushootseed language and the particular dialect spoken by the Puyallup Tribe, be sure to follow Twulshootseed and check out all the resources they have on their website.

Take some time today to read about the people who have occupied this land since time immemorial and continue to live, work, and speak their native languages.

hiiɫ sləx̌il ʔə tiiɫ ʔacaciɫtalbixʷ
Happy Indigenous Peoples Day

-------

PS- We first shared this photo three years ago and it felt like a good time to bring it back. If you’re offended by it, take a minute to really examine why that is. Is it because you actually think Peter Rainier deserves a mountain named after him? Is it because thinking about what Christopher Columbus did to native folks makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside?

If your point is just that there are more important things to worry about, sure, of course there are. But this is about something bigger than the name of a mountain. This is about recognizing and respecting the Indigenous peoples who are still here today in spite of a concerted effort to erase them from the history of this country.

So before you take this as an opportunity to strike a blow against “wokeism,” imagine this is the start of an actual conversation, not just a thoughtless comment tossed out into the void of the internet.

If you actually have something to say, shoot us a DM and make your argument. If you really want to do it right, pick a day and time and I’ll buy you a cup of coffee to talk it over. If you’re not ready for that yet, that’s OK. Go ahead and share your gripe in the comments and there will be plenty of people to argue with. Just remember that there are still real people here and we haven’t all been replaced by AI bots. Yet.

-Sierra Hartman, Editor in Chief

📷: Courtesy of Mount Rainier National Park—edited by GCM.

10/10/2025

We talk about a lot of heavy things here and there is no shortage of hardship and tragedy in the world today.

But there’s also a lot of beauty and joy and it’s important to keep space for both.

📷: Sierra Hartman

02/10/2025

"In order to say 'don’t be here,' we also have to say 'you can be here,' or else we are just saying 'don’t be.' Our responsibility as a city, state, country, as a society to the people who live outside, the unhoused, the homeless, is to provide better choices. Criminalizing a person’s existence, that which they have no way not to be, is an available societal choice. But it is neither a fiscally responsible nor a morally acceptable choice."

- Your friendly neighborhood homeless industrial complex worker

If you have opinions or personal stories to share related to Tacoma’s camping ban, contact your City Council representatives and tell them. It makes a difference.

PS- Facebook is messing with our posts. Please click here to read the essay, not the message button below.
www.gritcitymag.com/2025/10/the-way-forward

On the first day of August in downtown Tacoma, I saw a young woman smoking fentanyl in a crowded church parking lot a few feet away from a narcotics anonymous meeting.

27/09/2025

"One thing for certain is that pouring millions of dollars of rent into landlord pockets with no long term strategy doesn’t work. Community Ownership is not just about keeping existing things afloat, it’s about banking the land that will affect our city’s future. Next Tuesday Tacoma has a decision to make and this decision is going to affect generations of what’s possible in Tacoma."

You’ve heard it a thousand times:  1. Landlord leaves building empty 2. Community transforms vacant building into desperately needed music venue, cultural center, arts space, making neighborhoods safer and bringing much needed support to working families. 3. Landlord sells building. Community ven...

22/09/2025

This hasn’t happened in over 50 years. Anyone who’s been following the story of our resident orcas will understand the significance of what happened last week.

There’s a lot we don’t understand about the lives of orcas but when you see things like this happening, it’s hard to think of it as anything other than a milestone in a culture that is entirely foreign to ours.

Here's the original caption from photographer Jami Cantrell:

"This week something extraordinary happened, something I never thought I’d witness. J-Pod, one of the three Southern Resident killer whale pods, traveled south under the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, the Fox Island Bridge, and into Carr Inlet. This marks the first documented visit by J-Pod to this area since the orca capture era over 50 years ago.

"According to the Orca Behavior Institute, Southern Residents historically frequented the southernmost parts of Puget Sound, as shown by captures between 1965 and 1972. At least eight whales were taken during that time, including the original Shamu from Carr Inlet and Hugo, Lolita’s longtime companion, from Vaughn Bay.

"After these traumatic events, Southern Resident visits to the South Sound became rare and poorly documented. NOAA’s 2006 critical habitat report notes only a few sightings south of the Narrows Bridge between October and January, and just one in April. In 2014, K and L Pods briefly ventured south of the bridge, though not far.

"Until now, J-Pod had not been recorded this far south in decades. While I didn't get to see them go under the Fox Island Bridge, I did get to see them as they entered Carr Inlet and traveled north until they were visible from Purdy. 😳 I still can't believe this isn't a dream.

"That night, I stayed up as long as I possibly could at a friend’s house overlooking Henderson Bay, listening to see if they would head out. Well, J-Pod not only stayed the night, but when they exited Carr Inlet, they went even further south, near Anderson Island before flipping back north towards the Narrows."

Seeing whales from the Narrows Bridge is already an emotional experience for me… BUT SEEING J-POD FROM THE BRIDGE?!!!!!!?????

I missed a lot of the action because my camera malfunctioned but I'm still on freaking cloud nine and I don't know if I’ll ever get off. Seriously just pinch me I must be dreaming. There's a lot more photos coming from this encounter. 🤍🖤

PS- FB automatically put that "Send message" button on there and we can't turn it off. Sorry for any confusion.

Orca Network Community Group