Things to do in Tacoma, Tacoma Community
Michael Duggan
Out on the Town 2024: Tacoma Tuesdays

Tacoma, Tuesdays, Trivia, Tacos, Talent. It’s the truth, there’s stuff to do. We have 19 of those things listed right here (twenty would have sounded so good) and not all of them start with “t.” There’s ballet and book club, wine and film, story time and bingo. So dust off your dancing shoes, clean your spectacles, strap the baby in a stroller, study up on random facts, warm up your vocal chords, and work up an appetite; it’s Tuesday in Tacoma!

Out on the Town 2024: Tacoma Tuesdays
Tacoma Community
Michael Duggan
Tacoma Love: 5 Good Things—Vol. 4

This is not an ultimate, all time, best of the best, win or go home, top 5 list. No, we aren’t really bringing that kind of energy to life. This is the 4th edition of 5 things we like in Tacoma from a list of way more things we like in Tacoma. Sound good? An annual rogue art treasure hunt, a tiny slip of sandy beach, an old place to watch new and cult classic films, a weekly opportunity for repairing your stuff, and a spot where the noodles and broth fill you up in a good way. Some of it’s free. All of it’s good. We’re not making any other claims (who needs all that best-stress anyway?).

Tacoma Love: 5 Good Things—Vol. 4
Tacoma Community
Michael Duggan
Tacoma 2024: Make Yourself At Home

As we take our first steps into 2024, we’re thinking about home and how we make it. We’re thinking about how we continue to seek, find, and create belonging. In this list we’ve collected 7 ways we’ve made ourselves at home in Tacoma and made friends with the city. Go to a festival, become a regular, follow some local news, help out, be pals with the library, explore local history and art, do something new. After a while you’ve made a connection that didn’t exist before. These 7 ideas aren’t deep Tacoma secrets. Rather, think of this list like suggested ingredients for making yourself at home. Take a look and join us.

Tacoma 2024: Make Yourself At Home
Tacoma Community
Michael Duggan
10 Ways to Give Local Love - 2023

This month we’ve created a list focused on 10 ways to give in December. You’ll find 5 sections of recommendations for local gift giving with holiday markets and some of our favorite small shops included, and 5 suggestions for giving outside your circle of friends and family to community and unknown neighbors. All 10 ways of giving put love into the Tacoma community! Read on for a choir made of refugees and USA-born residents offering a concert to celebrate peace, a list of local cafes for coffee lovers, a gift card drive to support clients at the YWCA, a nostalgic holiday movie marathon, a diaper drive to comfort local families, a gift that cares for birds, and more.

10 Ways to Give Local Love - 2023
Tacoma Community
Michael Duggan
5 Ways to Support Food & Housing for ...

We all get by with a little help from our friends. And really, we get by with a little help from strangers too. Be a friend or a friendly stranger by finding one way to support neighbors in the Tacoma community, in Pierce County, or across Washington by choosing from the 5 ways to give on our list. Support affordable housing and mental health, volunteer at a food bank, help prevent displacement due to gentrification, and serve or provide a community meal. Over time, we all have something to give and a real need to receive—most often it’s probably both at once.

5 Ways to Support Food & Housing for Neighbors in Tacoma & Beyond - Vol. 2

evergreen

Tacoma 2024: Make Yourself At Home

Tacoma 2024: Make Yourself At Home

As we take our first steps into 2024, we’re thinking about home and how we make it. We’re thinking about how we continue to seek, find, and create belonging. In this list we’ve collected 7 ways we’ve made ourselves at home in Tacoma and made friends with the city. Go to a festival, become a regular, follow some local news, help out, be pals with the library, explore local history and art, do something new. After a while you’ve made a connection that didn’t exist before. These 7 ideas aren’t deep Tacoma secrets. Rather, think of this list like suggested ingredients for making yourself at home. Take a look and join us.

,

Tacoma Bookshops: A 6 Stop Tour of Our City

,
Tacoma Bookshops: A 6 Stop Tour of Our City

It’s a Tacoma neighborhood tour and independent bookshop crawl all in one. Stopping for cups of coffee, a pint, a slice of cake, or even a feast on your browsing adventure is encouraged, and we’ll show you where! Get out the door on this bookstore tour from 6th Ave in the center to Proctor in the north to McKinley Ave up on the hill. Get lost in the aisles, among the shelves, in the pages, in an underground kingdom, in the worlds above the clouds. When you pull yourself back out, back up, back down, we’ll make sure you know where to find a spiced latte, black brew, or sparkling elixir to settle you back in the present and remind you of your own name. Support local shops, celebrate literature, and feed your need to read.

,

Meet the Tacoma Community House New Little Free Library!

,
Meet the Tacoma Community House New Little Free Library!

It’s finally here! The Tacoma Community House Little Free Library is up and open. Duggan, Brooks & Books are grateful to the Tacoma Community House and Craig (our designer and builder!) for all their help and support in getting this library to its home in the Hilltop Neighborhood of Tacoma. Read all about it!

Reintroducing the Sam Smith Fund: Reducing the Black Homeownership Gap in WA State

Reintroducing the Sam Smith Fund: Reducing the Black Homeownership Gap in WA State

You may have read about the Sam Smith Fund in our original blog post introducing it back in February 2022. If so, read on for some updates, including a major increase to the down payment assistance amount! This African American homeownership fund gives us as Realtors an opportunity to do more than just educate ourselves about racial disparities in homeownership. And anyone can contribute! We're eager to grow as an industry into greater ways to support and advocate for truly equal access to housing and homeownership.

Tacoma 2023: Make Yourself At Home

Tacoma 2023: Make Yourself At Home

As we hang our 2023 calendars on the wall and consider a new year we’re thinking about home and how we make it. We’re thinking about what makes us feel like we belong, how we experience belonging in our lives, and how we can create it. In this list we’ve collected 7 of the ways we’ve made ourselves at home in Tacoma and made friends with the city. Making friends with a place is kind of like making friends with a person—you listen, show up, help out, pay attention, participate, and receive. After a while you’ve made a connection that didn’t exist before. These 7 ideas aren’t deep Tacoma secrets. Rather, think of this list like suggested ingredients for making yourself at home. Take a look and join us.

10 Ways to Give: Local Love - 2022

10 Ways to Give: Local Love - 2022

This month we’ve created a special list of 10 ways to give in December. You’ll find 5 sections of recommendations for local gift giving with holiday markets and some of our favorite small businesses included, and 5 suggestions for giving outside your friends and family, ways of giving to community and unknown neighbors, ways of giving your time, and even a gift that supports wildlife conservation and education. All 10 ways of giving put LOVE into the Tacoma community!

Tacoma Love: 5 Good Things

Tacoma Love: 5 Good Things

From nachos to the cemetery and everywhere in between, this is just what it says, a list of 5 good things. No one said best! No one said “top rated.” Get out of here with that! Good, is good, is good. Enjoy just the first group of 5 from a long of way more things we think are good in Tacoma. The full list is long and growing: a corner we like to stand on, a window it feels good to sit by, a beverage we like to drink, a street to walk, a tree or garden to visit at a particular time of year. Some of it costs no money at all and all of it is good. Promise.

,

Tacoma Bookshops: An 8 Stop Tour of Our City

,
Tacoma Bookshops: An 8 Stop Tour of Our City

It’s a Tacoma neighborhood tour and independent bookshop crawl all in one including two new bookstores you really ought to meet. Stopping for a cup of coffee, a pint, a snack, or even a feast on your browsing adventure is encouraged, and we’ll show you where! Get out the door on this bookstore tour from 6th Ave in the center to Proctor in the north to McKinley Ave up on the hill. Support local shops and your need to read.

,

Meet the New Peace Little Free Library!

,
Meet the New Peace Little Free Library!

It’s finally here! The Peace Little Free Library is up and open. Duggan, Brooks & Books are grateful to the Tacoma Community House, Rotary Literacy Committee, Brendan Nelson, and Aaron Skwirut for all their help and support in getting this library to its home in the Hilltop Neighborhood of Tacoma. Read all about it!

A Conversation with Kim: Tacoma, Homeownership, Gentrification, & Knowing Your Schools

A Conversation with Kim: Tacoma, Homeownership, Gentrification, & Knowing Your Schools

Kimberly Thomas, M. Ed. grew up in Tacoma, graduated from Lincoln High, and works for equity in education. She has a message for us! Brew a cup of coffee and sit down for a conversation with Kim. We’ll explore gentrification. We’ll talk about Kim’s mixed feelings about homeownership, and - just for fun - her favorite places in Tacoma.

,

Duggan, Brooks & Books Project: Meet the Emergency Food Network's Little Library

,
Duggan, Brooks & Books Project: Meet the Emergency Food Network's Little Library

Sharing Books, Creating Community. Duggan, Brooks & Books is excited to feature the Emergency Food Network's Little Free Library in Lakewood! Read our interview with Emergency Food Network's CEO Michelle Douglas and find out how you can support the library!

,

Duggan, Brooks & Books Project: Meet Julia & the M Street Library

,
Duggan, Brooks & Books Project: Meet Julia & the M Street Library

Sharing Books, Creating Community. Get all the Duggan, Brooks & Books book drive details, meet Julia and her family’s M Street Little Free Library, and find out how, where, and what you can give to support community, literacy, and neighborhood love in Tacoma!

,

Duggan, Brooks & Books Project: Meet Leigh & The Cushman Branch Little Library

,
Duggan, Brooks & Books Project: Meet Leigh & The Cushman Branch Little Library

Sharing Books, Creating Community. Get all the book drive details, learn what Brooks Dental Studio and Duggan Homes have to do with Little Free Libraries, meet Leigh and her family’s Cushman Branch, and find out how, where, and what you can give to support community, literacy, and neighborhood love in Tacoma!

,

Duggan, Brooks & Books Project: Meet Melo & Her Eastside Library

,
Duggan, Brooks & Books Project: Meet Melo & Her Eastside Library

Sharing Books, Creating Community. Learn what Brooks Dental Studio and Duggan Homes have to do with Little Free Libraries, meet Melo Hogan and her family’s Eastside Community Library, and find out how, where, and what you can give to support community, literacy, and neighborhood love in Tacoma!

,

South Tacoma Day Trip

,
South Tacoma Day Trip

You know how we’re always seeing logos and hearing phrases about Tacoma as the “gritty city”? You’ve caught on that Proctor and Stadium aren’t the neighborhoods keeping that nickname around, right? Take a day and explore South Tacoma and the South End where some of that good grit still abides; we’ll help.

,

Second Hand Home: Habitat for Humanity Store

,
Second Hand Home: Habitat for Humanity Store

If you're into hand-me-downs, one-of-a-kind thrift store finds, saving money, and participating in a force for good in our community, then read on and make a visit to a Habitat for Humanity Store.

Hi, I'm Michael Duggan, a licensed broker with Windermere Abode. I would love to help you through the home buying or selling process. Please contact me to set up a meeting and get things started.