Episode Transcript
MTT- Grit City
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Marguerite Martin: [00:00:00] This is Channel 2 5 3,
Move to Tacoma Producer Doug Mackey: move to
Tacoma on this episode of Move to Tacoma.
Sierra Hartman: There’s so much going on in Tacoma. Tacoma’s a, what, 250,000 people ish. And
Heather Swanson: everybody experiences it different,
Sierra Hartman: right. And like mm-hmm. We, we hear about this thin strip of cool stuff happening around the, the outside edge.
Heather Swanson: Yeah.
Sierra Hartman: But there’s all of this life happening in the middle.
Mm-hmm. And so like. It’s, and that’s like when we can, when we can reach those people and get those authentic stories of like that life that no one else will experience. Like that’s the, that’s the stuff that I really get excited about.
Move to Tacoma Producer Doug Mackey: Channel 2 5 3 is member supported.
I’m producer Doug Mackey, and I hope you’ll show your support by going to channel two five three.com/membership
Sierra Hartman: and join.
Thank you. We are back.
Marguerite Martin: I’m Marguerite. And I want you to move to Tacoma.
Move to Tacoma Producer Doug Mackey: Move to Tacoma. Move to Tacoma. Move to Tacoma. You like
Marguerite Martin: [00:01:00] it?
Move to Tacoma Producer Doug Mackey: Move to Tacoma. Move to Tacoma. Move to tacoma com.
Marguerite Martin: Hi, I’m Marguerite with Move to Tacoma, and I’m here today with Sierra Hartman and Heather. Swanson from Grit City Magazine.
Welcome.
Sierra Hartman: Thank you so much.
Marguerite Martin: Yeah, thanks for being here. I’m excited to talk about the magazine, but before we dive into that, I would love to know when each of you moved to Tacoma and why.
Sierra Hartman: So I moved to Tacoma in 2015. Uh, my wife and I were living in San Francisco before this, and the magazine I was working for there shut down the day before we found out we were having our first kid.
Uh, and so that was kind of the, the end of our San Francisco time. Um. And her parents, she grew up in Gig Harbor and her parents are still there, so we, and she has friends in the area, so we moved back here to be closer to her people.
Marguerite Martin: And, and which neighborhood did you move to?
Sierra Hartman: Uh, south Tacoma. We lived on the east side for a little while behind the, uh, Fred Meyer on 72nd.
Marguerite Martin: Yep.
Sierra Hartman: Um, that’s [00:02:00] been a whole story arc watching.
Marguerite Martin: Yeah,
Sierra Hartman: that Fred Meyer. Uh, and then we moved to South Tacoma in 2017.
Marguerite Martin: And you’re still in South Tacoma?
Sierra Hartman: Yes.
Marguerite Martin: Okay. And what about you, Heather? Where, where did you grow? Did you. Where do you, did you, when did you move to Tacoma?
Heather Swanson: I was born here, born and raised. Um, still live here.
I loved Tacoma, so I don’t really see myself leaving anytime. I grew up in the North end. Um, but back then it wasn’t like it is now. Yeah, it was very much more like, I don’t know, just a. Middle class neighborhood that, you know, everybody was kind of blue collar workers. Mm-hmm. It was very much gritty back then, I think.
Marguerite Martin: Mm-hmm. And where do you live now?
Heather Swanson: Um, I live over in, kind of over by like the Emerald Queen in the Waller area.
Marguerite Martin: Yeah.
Heather Swanson: So we’re technically unincorporated Pierce County. I still have a Tacoma dress. Yes. But, um, it’s definitely a change of pace from just kind of the hustle and bustle of the city. But I do miss being just in it a little bit, so.
Marguerite Martin: What do you like about living in that area?
Heather Swanson: Ugh, [00:03:00] I don’t know. Um, I miss the people and I miss the conveniences of downtown, but I do love the peace and the quiet of it.
Marguerite Martin: Yeah,
Heather Swanson: we have chickens and stuff now, which didn’t know what I signed up for there, but.
Marguerite Martin: Do you have any wildlife experiences?
Heather Swanson: Actually, I had one this morning.
Marguerite Martin: Really? What kind?
Heather Swanson: Well, my husband had to shoot a bunch of rats that were flooding our chicken
Marguerite Martin: cow. No, I thought you were gonna say like a skunk or a deer.
Heather Swanson: No,
Marguerite Martin: my god. This is like pilgrims and stuff.
Heather Swanson: I know. I didn’t, I’m a city girl. I don’t know why I’m there. I really love it. But it is, um, there’s something new every day, that’s for sure.
Marguerite Martin: Okay.
Heather Swanson: Mm-hmm.
Marguerite Martin: What do you like about living in South Tacoma?
Sierra Hartman: Uh, I really like the spot we’re in. We’re, um, like just close enough that we can walk to like all the cool stuff on South Tacoma Way.
Marguerite Martin: Yep.
Sierra Hartman: There’s the whole bike path. Mm-hmm. Um, and we’re like three blocks from the school that my kids go to. Oh,
Marguerite Martin: nice.
Sierra Hartman: Um, and it’s, [00:04:00] we’ve got like every different kind of person on our block and it’s really cool to just have a. It’s not boring, it’s not all the same types of people.
Marguerite Martin: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Well, and I just think about like walking distance to South Tacoma way. You have everything. Mm-hmm.
Sierra Hartman: Yeah. And it’s
Marguerite Martin: been, you’ve got coffee bagels.
Sierra Hartman: Yeah.
Marguerite Martin: Pretty plant shop. Cool bars, different kinds of cool bars,
Sierra Hartman: right.
Marguerite Martin: Vent venues. Isn’t there a comedy club? Don’t they have drag brunch?
Sierra Hartman: Yes.
Marguerite Martin: You have like literally everything
Heather Swanson: And the night markets,
Sierra Hartman: right?
Marguerite Martin: Oh yeah, of course.
Heather Swanson: Mm-hmm. He’s in the right spot.
Marguerite Martin: Yeah. That’s really good. How long does it take you to get to downtown Tacoma?
From there?
Sierra Hartman: Uh, if I’m driving and there’s no traffic, I can get to the office here in like 10 minutes, honestly. ’cause we’re like pretty close to 56.
Marguerite Martin: Yeah. That’s really quick.
Sierra Hartman: Yeah.
Heather Swanson: Mm-hmm.
Marguerite Martin: And what about you? How long does it take you to get downtown from Waller?
Heather Swanson: I’ve timed it ’cause I said if we moved any farther than 15 minutes, I wouldn’t do it.
Um, so it takes me 12 with no traffic.
Marguerite Martin: Perfect. [00:05:00] Okay. Mm-hmm. So this is all very, this is all very reasonable. Yes. Very close.
Heather Swanson: Yes. We’re close to the city, but not too far away, so it’s nice.
Marguerite Martin: So how did Grit City Magazine come about and how did you two connect?
Sierra Hartman: Yeah. So you’ve been part of three years?
Heather Swanson: Mm-hmm.
Sierra Hartman: At least two.
Heather Swanson: Like two and a half? Yeah.
Sierra Hartman: Okay.
Two
Sierra Hartman: and half, three. Okay. Uh, so Grid City Magazine we started in 2017. Um, it was, I met a guy named William Manzanares. He’s a local business owner, a member of the Puyallup tribe. Uh, and he had this hazy idea of making a magazine about Tacoma, but he didn’t really have any experience in.
Storytelling, journalism, anything like that? Um, I took my previous experience as a freelance photographer slash writer, and I said, cool, great idea. Here’s how it can go. Um, and I was familiar enough with the city to see like, okay, here’s a bunch of stories that we can tell. Um, and he basically said, great, go for it.
Um, my business partner at the time, [00:06:00] Sarah and I, I think you met Sarah at some point. In the past,
Marguerite Martin: I’m sure, I’m sure.
Sierra Hartman: Um, she and I ran it for about a year and then Will said, I’m, I’m done with this, you guys take it.
Marguerite Martin: Oh,
Sierra Hartman: and figure it out. Do good things. Um, so we took the business and took over the business and like, alright, let’s figure out how to run a business.
Um, we started doing the print magazine in 2018, uh, and. It went really well for that, that few years, and then the pandemic messed everything up. But, um, basically the, the whole impetus of it is like, there’s so many cool stories in Tacoma and we saw this, this easy space to fill of like, you know, we’re not journalists, we’re not, um.
We’re not running an unbiased newspaper kind of thing. Right. And we’re also not like lifestyle kind of stuff. We, we, we tend to go after the stories that other people aren’t telling. Mm-hmm. And we can [00:07:00] put our own personal opinions and everything in it. And there wasn’t, um, you know, irreverent, inappropriate jokes and whatever we want to say kind of thing.
And there wasn’t anybody else really doing that at the time. So that was kind of the, the space we stepped into.
Marguerite Martin: Hmm. And so when did you come on, Heather? You said three, three years ago?
Heather Swanson: Mm-hmm. Yeah, about three years ago.
Marguerite Martin: And what was it that drew you into the the Grit City Magazine Web?
Heather Swanson: Well, honestly, like I’ve said, I’ve always been obsessed with coma.
I love coma. I love everything about it. Um, and yeah, there wasn’t really a. I mean, we had like, well there was like the Volcano Weekly and a couple other things, but nothing like what we’re doing. Mm-hmm. And, um, I really appreciated just the, the art that was also incorporated into it. Yes, we’re really big in the art community and just, we featured like the posters.
We have a new artist for re poster, um, you know, just that whole aspect of it. But then well. You tell him.
Sierra Hartman: Well, so you, I mean, your part in it, you, you came on ’cause you pitched a [00:08:00] story first.
Heather Swanson: Yeah. Yeah. I pitched a story and I’d never written anything before. Oh. But I had always, I just, I knew that, I just, one day I was like, I’m gonna, I’m gonna be a part of that.
Like, I just really wanted to contribute to it. Um, and so I came across these letters that were from like World War II era. Mm-hmm. Like the forties. Um, and it was a woman named Norma Louise Demmick, who lived in Tacoma. And she was writing her like honey overseas and during World War ii, and I had their complete collection.
Marguerite Martin: Wow.
Heather Swanson: Of like both correspondences.
Marguerite Martin: And where did you find that?
Heather Swanson: I can’t disclose my sources. Okay. No problem. I can’t, I can’t just, I gotta, you know, but yes, I came across the very, I think there was over 200.
Sierra Hartman: Yeah,
Heather Swanson: something like that big. He categorized them for me and we like looked. Wow. There was a lot. And it came with a bunch of like just random ephemera things, but I wrote a story about it, just the how, I guess Tacoma really hasn’t changed that much when you go through and read.
Mm-hmm. I mean it has, but it hasn’t, at its court, it’s still kind of the same. So I wrote a little story about that [00:09:00]
Sierra Hartman: and we had a meeting about it. Um, we were just talking about how the story’s gonna go and we were looking through the letters and I think. It might’ve been even that first one, you were like, Hey, if you guys ever need anything else, if you got like space for,
Heather Swanson: yeah.
Sierra Hartman: I dunno if you’re hiring of volunteers or whatever. And we said we’re, we can’t, we’re not hiring anything, but we’ve got plenty of stuff to do. And you’re like, cool.
Heather Swanson: All right. Yeah.
Sierra Hartman: And you just kind of worked your way in and became part of it. Yeah.
Marguerite Martin: So how does Grit City Magazine, like, how do you see it fitting into the larger, like, media landscape of Tacoma?
You’re like, we’re clear, we’re not the Tribune. Um, but we’re not South Sound Magazine either, right? Right. So what, what is the role that you play in all this?
Sierra Hartman: I should have a good answer for that. Um,
Heather Swanson: I think we touch stories that they don’t want to.
Sierra Hartman: Yeah. I mean, that’s the easy thing is like. You know, it’s like cuss words and dick jokes.
Mm-hmm. Like no one else is really doing that. Yeah. I mean, we also do a lot of big, serious things, but like it’s, [00:10:00] it’s hard to, you might be able to give a better, concise answer ’cause you pay more attention to the media landscape and stuff. Um, it’s.
Marguerite Martin: Sierra’s, like, I’m not reading anything else, so I can’t tell you.
Sierra Hartman: Well, no, I mean, like, I love, we’ve got a subscription to, uh, vice Magazine, the Onion and The Onion. Yes. And we had one for, um, the Atlantic for a year before that. And it’s, it’s interesting seeing how. Storytelling is different. Like I, like we always say when we’re asking for, uh, story pitches, like we’re not looking for writers, we’re looking for storytellers.
We’re not looking for content creators, we’re looking for storytellers. And like, I don’t care if someone, I, I say this in the pitch form, like, I don’t care if you’ve never written anything longer than an email. Mm-hmm. Like if you have a story to tell, just tell it. And like, even if like your grammar sucks, you can’t spell.
Just tell it to me like you would tell a friend and
Heather Swanson: help,
Sierra Hartman: and that’s gonna be a good story. Yeah, because there’s. There’s so much going on in Tacoma. Tacoma’s a, what, [00:11:00] 250,000 people-ish. And
Heather Swanson: everybody experiences it different.
Sierra Hartman: Right. And like mm-hmm. We, we hear about this thin strip of cool stuff happening around the, the outside edge.
Heather Swanson: Yeah.
Sierra Hartman: But there’s all of this life happening in the middle. And so like. It’s, and that’s like when we can, when we can reach those people and get those authentic stories of like, that life that no one else will experience. Like that’s the, that’s the stuff that I really get excited about. Um,
Marguerite Martin: what are some of the stories you’re most proud of?
Sierra Hartman: Uh. Perfect segue. We actually, the, the latest magazine we came out with, um, the four of us, uh, picked two stories from past issues that were really meaningful to us and then like wrote some commentary and some background. So this is
the
Marguerite Martin: greatest
Heather Swanson: hits Yes.
Marguerite Martin: Issue. It’s coming out.
Heather Swanson: Okay.
Sierra Hartman: Um, we
Heather Swanson: had a lot of fun with this one too.
Sierra Hartman: Yeah, you
should
Sierra Hartman: see
Heather Swanson: the cover.
Sierra Hartman: It’s good.
Marguerite Martin: I’ll see it when it arrives in my inbox.
Sierra Hartman: Uh. So the two that [00:12:00] I picked for that were, um, one was from 2021 was from 2021, I think. Um. One of the stories that was really just valuable for us to get, um, Marilee Tan Barra was the, I believe, second generation American from, uh, Japanese immigrants.
And she told the story about the house that her mother grew up in up on Faucet, and it was all like actual things that happened, but she put it into this really perfect narrative of like, like people have heard a lot of the. A lot of people, not everyone, but a lot of people are familiar with the Chinese expulsion mm-hmm.
Of 1865. I forget. Um, and what that did to the city and how terrible that was, and acknowledging that painful history. Fewer people are familiar with the Japan town neighborhood. Like there was this whole thriving
Marguerite Martin: Right.
Sierra Hartman: Diverse, interesting. Meaningful neighborhood that was just [00:13:00] completely destroyed in like, almost one, one fell swoop with the executive order.
Um, everyone was just rounded up and sent to concentration camps. Um, and the city, despite the best efforts of a few individuals, it was just destroyed. Yeah. And a lot of people just never came back. Um, and so hearing this story like, you know. We did a book review on somebody who wrote about the history of it.
And I’ve, I’m generally familiar with it and like a lot of people can tell that story, but when we get someone who like, this is like, this is her family and she’s talking about this Yeah. This real thing. They, that’s, that’s so valuable. That can’t be, you know, I could never learn enough to replicate that kind of story.
So that’s, uh, that was a big, a big one.
Marguerite Martin: Yeah. What about you, Heather? What was your,
Heather Swanson: gosh, I love. I mean, everything that we print is phenomenal. Um, I, the one that I. Featured in our greatest hits was the, um, falling of the Asarco Smelter.
Marguerite Martin: Yeah.
Heather Swanson: Just [00:14:00] ’cause I remem, I mean, like, I remember sitting on my roof watching it.
That was a
Marguerite Martin: big deal.
Heather Swanson: Yeah. And so that one’s really cool. I think just like it, it, Sarah did it, Sarah Kay. And, um, she just kind of did like a, it’s a timeline essentially of basically people’s experience throughout the day. And it talks about. You know, going down to the convenience store to go get a can of Rainier beer to watch it.
And I mean, like I was living that. So I think I just resonated with that quite a bit and capturing that moment in time down to the, just those little details of
Marguerite Martin: yeah,
Heather Swanson: how that felt, I thought was really cool.
Marguerite Martin: Hmm. That’s awesome.
Heather Swanson: Mm-hmm.
Marguerite Martin: So I’m curious, ’cause you know, we have channel 2 5 3, which has a combination of like a subscriber model and also sometimes we get sponsorships for various podcasts, move to Tacoma, most loose sponsors the other podcast.
But like, how does the business model of the magazine work you were talking about? Oh, we were really going during the pandemic and then ah, and I know a lot of people’s like, kind of like community project. You know? Mm-hmm. They, they, the funding model for that, like [00:15:00] changes over time. So I’m really curious, like, how is that, and what would you like to see happen?
Maybe it’s too early for this question. I should still be asking about art stuff, but we can come back to the art.
Heather Swanson: We need more subscribers.
Marguerite Martin: I, no, I’m really curious and I wanna support that. So tell me how it works.
Sierra Hartman: Yeah. Um, excuse me. Uh, so the basic thing is the, the print magazine, uh, despite it being. Big and fancy and pain in the ass to actually produce, um, that brings in most of our revenue.
Yeah. Um, and we, like Heather just said, we are actually really hurting for subscribers right now. Mm-hmm. Um, unexpectedly. We actually hit our high point of subscribers during like 2020 and 2021. Mm-hmm. Um, we thought we were gonna lose all of our subscribers and it was like. Right. Like we thought it was gonna shut down right then.
Um, but that really carried us through. Um, we do all the, the traditional, like we’ve got like online ads and all that kind of stuff. Mm-hmm. Um. And we, we just started a thing [00:16:00] three issues ago where, um, my wife Nina came up with this idea, uh, it’s called bite-sized sponsors. And so it’s like we’ve got like big sponsors that they, they support the magazine and they, uh, they like what we do, so they get their name business info in there and the logo.
But the buy-side sponsors is more like, uh, just regular businesses. It started with restaurants and like food and beverage stuff. And now it’s like any kind of storefront stuff. And it’s like much easier buy-in and uh, it goes on a map organized by neighborhoods. Oh. Um, and the idea is like. Hm. No business owner that I’ve spoken to in the last five years enjoys social media.
They do it because they have to. If somebody opens up a new spot or they’re changing something, absolutely they, no one’s gonna know about it if they’re not talking about it on, mm-hmm. On Instagram or TikTok or Facebook. And so this is like an effort to get away from that. Mm-hmm. Um. You know, social media is still a useful tool.
And Heather, you can,
Heather Swanson: he hates
Sierra Hartman: social media. [00:17:00] He hate it so much. Enjoy it
Marguerite Martin: more than I probably should, but below than the internet.
Heather Swanson: Yeah. I, I do loathe it too, but not as much as him.
Sierra Hartman: Yeah. But this is like an effort to get past that, where like, you know, the idea is okay, like you want to, you’re, you’re going on a date night and like, oh, what was that restaurant I heard of?
I can’t decide where to go. You open up this map and it’s like, here’s some people who supported the magazine. Yeah. And you. You and you don’t have to look, you don’t have to look at your phone to do it. So,
Marguerite Martin: okay. So people, if they want to have the magazine, they can subscribe and it’s like, I’m trying to remember what my monthly, where my bill is.
It’s a quarterly. Quarterly, and it’s like $35. How much is it?
Sierra Hartman: 40 bucks.
Marguerite Martin: 40 bucks.
Heather Swanson: And it comes with a poster. So actually you’re buying a poster and it comes with free magazine. It’s a
Marguerite Martin: tremendous value. That is for darn sure. Yeah. Yeah. So for 40 bucks a quarter, so 160 bucks a year. Mm-hmm. You get every single issue of this.
Mm-hmm. I mean, it is, you could. I mean, you wouldn’t want to cut it up, but you literally could cut it up and turn a lot of it into like display art. Yeah, I mean it’s, they’re beautiful and I have a girlfriend that’s [00:18:00] been subscribing from the beginning and her coffee table is just like stacked of great City magazine.
So that’s one way you can do it. And that’s like the core you’re saying is like you need X number of subscribers. That’s very, sounds like most magazine people and newspaper people. I know. We need to get to X number, right?
Sierra Hartman: Yeah.
Heather Swanson: Yeah. And well, and also a cool thing about our magazine too, that I think gives us an edge.
’cause we’re all about, like, we don’t wanna see print die. That’s like a big fear, I think Absolutely. In our generation is just losing that something tangible you can hold. Um, but I think we take it even a step further. Like every single magazine is hand stitched by somebody. Yeah. Like it goes through a stitching machine and we, yeah.
Call the C like it. It benefits the community too. We have our packing parties and people will come and meet us and we’ll stitch and we box ’em up. So like every magazine that is, that you get that’s ordered, has been touched by least, I mean like probably. Five to 10 local people that just wanna help and be a part of it and that enjoy it.
And I think there’s a lot of love that [00:19:00] goes into it.
Marguerite Martin: Yeah, they’re really beautiful there. I mean, each one, when I get them, like, it’s like you’re opening a Christmas present, right? Yeah. It’s like a work of art.
Heather Swanson: Yeah.
Marguerite Martin: Okay. So you could do that. You could subscribe to the magazine. How do you subscribe to the magazine?
Sierra Hartman: Uh, you can do it through our website, uhhuh, um,
Heather Swanson: grit city mag.com.
Sierra Hartman: Yeah,
Marguerite Martin: there we go.
Sierra Hartman: Uh, and there’s a link in the shop to sign up for a subscription. We also have a few shops around town that sell them individually.
Marguerite Martin: Oh. Where can you buy them? In person?
Sierra Hartman: Uh, high voltage books and Grit city books on six Ave.
Um,
Heather Swanson: odd Otter. Just, they just. Did that. They wanna do some too.
Sierra Hartman: Okay, cool. Mm-hmm. Um, we’ve got stickers in a few different places. Howdy Bagel, we have a stand there. Mm-hmm. And then Hive Provisions when they reopen in their new spot on 11th.
Marguerite Martin: Yeah.
Sierra Hartman: We’ll have some too.
Marguerite Martin: Cool. And then people can also do these bite-sized, uh, sponsorships, but also I imagine ads online and ads in the mag.
Do you have ads in the magazine? I’m trying to think.
Sierra Hartman: We don’t,
Marguerite Martin: yeah. I didn’t even think you did.
Heather Swanson: We’re gonna. Yeah, [00:20:00]
Sierra Hartman: I,
Heather Swanson: we need money.
Marguerite Martin: We’ll, we’ll take your money for an in magazine and we’ll be artsy and pretty if you do an ad in the magazine. Yes. We about, we’ll integrated into the scheme.
Heather Swanson: That’s what we’ve been talking about, how we can
Marguerite Martin: make it, oh, I just saw you have a magazine there.
Do you wanna grab it?
Heather Swanson: Oh, please look, this cover though, because we recreated it. Two famous.
Marguerite Martin: This looks like the classic Queen album.
Heather Swanson: It’s, it’s, it’s supposed to be Death Row records, but,
Marguerite Martin: oh, okay. Sorry, Claire. You can see what we did AbbVie Road
Heather Swanson: too. That one’s pretty cool.
Sierra Hartman: Not, yeah, you’re not the first person who’s,
Marguerite Martin: so the, the beautiful binding.
Oh, you have the binding machine on the back. Mm-hmm. Right there. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Which I have been seeing on the Devil’s social media. Is giving you some trouble right now.
Sierra Hartman: Mm-hmm. Yeah. It is. It. It’s, it’s old. We borrowed it from somebody who borrowed it from somebody and it’s, it’s getting
Marguerite Martin: fixed. But where else could you do this?
Kind of like, I mean, this is like fabric stitching that you bind these with. I mean, it’s really special. Yeah, I think, uh, this would be a good time to go to a break and, uh, yeah. Then we’ll come back and talk some more.
Sierra Hartman: This is Eric Hanberg, host of the Channel 2 5 3 [00:21:00] podcast Citizen Tacoma,
Heather Swanson: and this is Producer Doug.
Sierra Hartman: When my wife and I needed to sell our condo in downtown Tacoma, we wanted an expert in that niche market,
Marguerite Martin: and I needed an expert in selling a home as part of an estate sale.
Sierra Hartman: We both turned to Marguerite Martin from move to tacoma.com. She’s a real estate matchmaker. She finds you the perfect agent for whatever your situation.
Marguerite Martin: Not every agent knows what to do in every situation. You want an agent that knows your situation.
Sierra Hartman: Best of all, your agent pays Marguerite a finder’s fee out of their commission. So using a real estate matchmaker to help you find the best agent won’t cost you a thing,
Marguerite Martin: visit move to tacoma.com. Connect with Marguerite and find the
Heather Swanson: agent that’s right for you.
Sierra Hartman: Thank you Marguerite Martin, and move to Tacoma for your longtime support of Channel 2 5 3 move to Tacoma.
Marguerite Martin: We’re back with Heather and Sierra from Grit City Magazine. Uh, I, I’m so curious to know, you know, when we were talking before about like your favorite stories and how you’re looking for the stories that are not the usual stories that get told over and over [00:22:00] about Tacoma.
Like, what do you really mean by that? Like, what kinds of stories are you looking for? What are the voices you think are not coming forward?
Heather Swanson: Hmm, that’s a good question. I think, honestly, I think a lot of people’s just, I mean, we wanna hear everybody’s story that’s, that’s like the beautiful part about the magazine.
We wanna hear from everybody. We wanna hear what everybody, how they experience our city and what they love about it, or something that they’ve been fighting against or something they wanna see changed or, um, just kind of looping back into what we said, like everybody just experiences our city so different, you know?
Um, but I think I would really love to hear, hmm. I don’t know. What about you? I can’t even think off the top of my head of a specific thing.
Sierra Hartman: I mean, so I’ll tell you a, a short story and a way to answer that. Uh, early on, the first few issues, it was like volunteer only. We were very clear about that. We said, we can’t pay you.
Are you okay with that? And you said, sure. And we were still looking for like, [00:23:00] you know, hey, we’re looking for all different kinds of stories, you know. This beautiful rainbow of diversity. We want everybody, right? Mm-hmm. Um, but the people who we consistently got stories from were, uh, predominantly upper middle class white folks who had the time to sit and write a story.
Interesting. Because they’re like, yeah, cool. I don’t need to be paid and I’ve got time to sit down and do this because whatever, I have an easy job, or my spouse works and mm-hmm. I don’t have to, um.
Marguerite Martin: I’ve got something to say.
Sierra Hartman: Sure. Oh, right. Yeah. And you know, like, not to say that those va those stories are like, don’t have value.
They’re still interesting stories, but it was, we were only seeing this one spot and it was this interesting thing where we’re like, look, the door is open. And then we were like, all right, let’s get more specific. We’re looking for, uh, underserved communities, people of color, queer folks. We’re looking for these stories and like still like, well, okay, like these are the stories we’re getting, you know, like.
And then we realized like through building specific relationships with individual [00:24:00] people like. If you don’t see yourself in this publication, you’re not gonna be like, oh, you know what? I’m gonna be like, yeah, I’m gonna try to go after this. And we got like some really valuable criticism of like, you need to do more.
Mm. And we had this, this hard realization, um, especially like through the summer of 2020 when we were like changing the, the types of stories we’re talking about. Mm-hmm. Like, it’s not just pretty pictures of the mountain and silly stories about whatever. Um, that we really had to be specific about building relationships with individual people.
So it’s, you know, I can say like, we’re looking for more people of color to write stories, but like, that’s not just a, a net we can cast out and expect responses. Yeah. So it’s like we try to be in the community as much as possible. We try to be involved in. Whatever, different activities or businesses or whatever.
And like you individual person, you have this interesting story. Mm-hmm. Are you interested in this? And then you do that slow, tedious building a relationship, building rapport. And then when [00:25:00] somebody else says like, ah, yeah, I don’t know, maybe. And then these four people say like, like, yeah, I was part of it and it went well, then they’re gonna be more comfortable.
Marguerite Martin: That makes sense.
Sierra Hartman: And so it’s, it’s hard to say because like there are, you’re talking about this like there’s. Every different kind of person in Tacoma. Mm-hmm. Every different kind of story is, you know, diverse is an overused word, but really like every different way you can think of it. Mm-hmm. Um, and so I always tell people like.
Start with what you know, you know, like what’s the story that you can tell? Like I can tell you what it’s like to be a 43-year-old white guy in Tacoma. Mm-hmm. I can’t tell you what it’s like to be any other type of person. So like, tell me, tell me what Tacoma looks like from your angle.
Marguerite Martin: Yes. Yeah.
Heather Swanson: Mm-hmm.
Marguerite Martin: Any thoughts about that, Heather?
Heather Swanson: No. I mean, he’s spot on. That’s, but that’s what I love the most about the magazine. Yeah. You know, that’s what I. I dunno. That’s what we look for.
Sierra Hartman: You’ve given,
Heather Swanson: oh, go ahead.
Sierra Hartman: Sorry. You’ve given some really valuable feedback too, [00:26:00] because like a lot of the stories that, do you remember when we did the, uh, the story was, the headline was, um.
On sobbing while pole dancing. Oh, I loved, remember that one?
Heather Swanson: That one. I, I loved that one so much.
Sierra Hartman: It was this like,
Heather Swanson: yes.
Sierra Hartman: Super. Mm-hmm. Deep personal story. I’m like,
Heather Swanson: raw.
Sierra Hartman: Yeah. You know, I, I understand that this is a meaningful story, but like, this isn’t meant for me and this is not the audience. And so mm-hmm.
I’m like, I need to go talk to the women in my life to get some feedback. Like, what do you think about this? And you and Nina were like, yes. Obsessed. A hundred percent. I loved, like, cool.
Heather Swanson: Yeah. Yeah. Who did the illustrations on that one again? I forget. Was it Alexia?
Sierra Hartman: No. Um, Jay something. I forget. I forget their name.
Heather Swanson: I forget too. But those illustrations were phenomenal as well. Yeah.
Marguerite Martin: We can throw a link to it in the show notes if it’s online.
Heather Swanson: Is
Marguerite Martin: it online?
Heather Swanson: I’d
Marguerite Martin: love to share.
Sierra Hartman: That one’s only in print.
Marguerite Martin: Oh, okay.
Heather Swanson: Well, maybe we need to share it online for the listeners because it’s it’s really good. It’s
Marguerite Martin: exclusive.
Heather Swanson: Yeah, it’s really good.
I [00:27:00] loved that one. I also love, uh, we have a. Writer that contributes quite a bit. Her name is Lana Stroop and some of the stuff that she writes is just so, it’s so unique. Like she talks about just working at the antique sandwich shop and all these really deep, complicated things that she experiences growing up with the Backset being Tacoma and it, how it influences her.
Mm-hmm. And she just has a really unique way of writing. It’s really good. Mm-hmm. That’s awesome.
Marguerite Martin: I know, like one of the things that happens, uh, if you start talking about Tacoma on the internet, literally whatever you say about it.
Heather Swanson: Mm-hmm.
Marguerite Martin: Like, some people are gonna be like, yeah, that’s it. And other people are gonna be like,
Heather Swanson: that is not it.
Marguerite Martin: I mean, literally, like, I, I joke like it’s a Rosh test because like people are constantly asking me to say like, people from outside of Tacoma are saying, well, how does this part work? Or how does that part work? And I’m like, well, I mean, I kind of think it works like this, but someone else is gonna tell you it.
Like that. Right. And I, it sounds like a cop out, but this is [00:28:00] actually like, I think the opportunity of the internet Yeah. Is to sort of put forward more, I mean, it used to be, you know, 10 years ago maybe when you moved to Tacoma. Like there’s a few, like there was like a, a, it’s not even around anymore, like a forum that was like city something and it was just the worst.
Stuff. Yes, it is. Like people would get PCSed, you know, at J JBL M or whatever, and they would Google Tacoma, Washington, and it would just be all these people like. You know, from other parts of the state saying terrible things on the internet, right? We didn’t have any glossy neighborhood guides. And then of course, you know, the realtors were the worst, right?
We went all the way in the other direction, right? Like one glossy neighborhood guide after another and trying to have like something that says also legally. We can only say nice things. We’re not supposed to say bad things about the city, it’s against the law. So we have to, we have to for
Heather Swanson: realtors.
Marguerite Martin: Yeah.
It’s
Heather Swanson: really
Marguerite Martin: fair housing law. Right, because Oh, okay. And, and they ask all the time. Right. People will be like, oh, where’s the safe neighborhood in Tacoma? Oh God. And I’m like, well, I guess that [00:29:00] depends what makes you feel safe. Right, right, right. And historically, you know, realtors, redlined, you know, we were on the front lines.
That was our job. So, uh, they. Put a lot of rules. Now, of course, in the current administration there, I mean, I don’t wanna blow the lid off it, but there’s pretty much no fair housing.
Heather Swanson: Mm-hmm.
Marguerite Martin: Enforcement in, I mean, they would disagree with that, but the truth is, is that it, it’s hard to prove discrimination in real estate, tenant law in general.
And uh, in the current climate, there’s probably not a lot of that happening. So people are doing whatever the hell they want on the internet when it comes to talking about neighborhoods, which is infuriating. Anyway, we’re on different subject now, but I think the overlap here, what I’m trying to say is like.
You know, the more people we have telling their version, whether it’s, I like this place or I don’t like this place, like to show that like different people are having different in experiences in every neighborhood in the city.
Heather Swanson: Yes.
Marguerite Martin: Like even you saying like, I grew up in the North end. People are gonna make an assumption about that.
Right. Based on now. And there are people, it’s always been [00:30:00] nice.
Heather Swanson: No,
Marguerite Martin: it’s always been nice. Has not had people that had your experience. Right.
Heather Swanson: It has not
Marguerite Martin: always been nice, but this is, this is the way it is here, right? Yeah. I don’t know. You’re having been here now, 10, 11 years, like, yeah. What do you think about that?
Does that feel true to you?
Sierra Hartman: Uh, boy. Which part?
Marguerite Martin: The, everybody having a different opinion?
Sierra Hartman: Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Uh,
Marguerite Martin: talking about it on the internet is gonna, it elicit response.
Sierra Hartman: It’s, it was an interesting experience moving here from San Francisco because San Francisco has always been expensive. It’s always been a relatively exclusive city.
But when I was there, I was there for five years. Um, I saw it go from expensive to completely untenable. Yeah. And then it’s like, then it’s, you know, Oakland was the like. Oh, yeah, maybe I could afford Oakland, but like, uh, I don’t really want to. It’s, you know, like working class people of color, like San Francisco’s the, like the safe neighborhood, kind of the sound.
Um, very, very similar relationship between Seattle and [00:31:00] Tacoma. From what I found. This
Marguerite Martin: has been pointed out a lot. Yeah.
Heather Swanson: Gentrification,
Sierra Hartman: right? But then it was like, when. When people like me started getting priced outta San Francisco, then it was like, oh, well I’m upset about this now. And then we moved to Tacoma and it’s like I saw the same things happening, but it was like just a few years behind.
And like South Tacoma is a really great example of this. Like I walked around, I worked in architectural salvage for a couple years when we first moved here, and so I really like got to see all the guts of the city and like mm-hmm. The people were starting like house flipping and all this, um. And it’s.
Uh, I’m getting off on a ramble. No, it was good. Like everybody has a different perspective and I think when we stop hearing complaints about like, no, that’s not how it is, like, that’s gonna be I think a red flag of like, if everyone starts thinking the same thing, if everyone feels the same way about this neighborhood and no one else is left to speak up, like something, something wrong has happened.
Heather Swanson: I will [00:32:00] say Tacoma’s not. Shy about voicing their opinions on our city, which I’ve always been really, I don’t know. I just, I love that we’re not scared to stand up and say things. Um, I also think that there’s so many creative people in this area too that really just kind of influence, um, what those neighborhoods start to look like.
And they each kind of take on their own identity, and it’s kind of like a different flavor for everybody, you know, depending on. What you’re into, what you like, what works best for you. But I don’t dunno if that was relevant to the question. I’m sorry. No, absolutely.
Marguerite Martin: Absolutely,
Heather Swanson: yes.
Sierra Hartman: Do you remember the first time we actually met?
Marguerite Martin: Yeah. Oh my God.
Sierra Hartman: No, this is, I’m sorry. You can cut this part if you want. No, I think it’s a great story.
Marguerite Martin: Don’t have to cut it. No, no. I’m like, we’ll, you know, there’s context.
Heather Swanson: I want to hear this story, so,
Marguerite Martin: okay. Before you tell it though, based on your reaction, I just wanna, I just wanna like, I’m gonna blush like I, that was in the middle of my, what Doug knows to be my nervous breakdown period.[00:33:00]
Heather Swanson: We all have one. It’s
Marguerite Martin: okay. Yeah. I, I was definitely the 2017, the colloquially only known within my friend group as Marguerite’s dark time where I was really, I was really hitting a wall. Um, with, um, all of it, like I had made the website to be a resource for my clients and it had gotten a lot, a lucky break, basically, and gotten a bunch of media attention because of satellites moving to Tacoma.
Mm. And I had capitalized on it, and it became a bunch of other stuff. Like we were gonna just do a few podcasts for SEO purposes. To drive traffic to the site and we weren’t gonna keep doing it. But then it was really popular and then it became a cha. And then we were having events and like, I think you know what I’m talking about.
You start this little thing and then it just starts to turn into like a bunch of stuff. And then also, like my peers were copying it, which I’ve now come to understand is like flattering and that shows that you’ve arrived. But I was feeling like very defensive about it and just like, oh, every day I’m just like working hard here and like, I don’t know, and like I’m depressed.
Anyway, so that’s the context of like, I’m sitting in Blue Beard and I overhear you [00:34:00] talking, and I don’t remember the whole conversation, so I hope it wasn’t as bad as I remember.
Sierra Hartman: No, it’s definitely not. And I, I, I swear I wouldn’t have brought it up if I thought, okay, I think my takeaway might be different.
I’m like, trauma
Marguerite Martin: dumping at the table today. I
Heather Swanson: love it. I love it. I love it.
Sierra Hartman: You know. You, everybody’s memories are gonna be different from, geez, almost 10 years ago now. So I was with Sarah and Will still like the, it might have just been with Will. This was like we sat in Blue Beard and that was where I feel like
Marguerite Martin: you were on the couch.
Sierra Hartman: Yeah, yeah. We were like, what if we call it Grit City Magazine? Like this was like the very beginning stages. I had
Marguerite Martin: no idea it was that conversation.
Sierra Hartman: Yeah. I know everything’s great to do something. Yeah. Um, and we were talking about, I was talking about how like. Yeah, like there’s so many different perspectives of Tacoma and I was talking about, I used this example of the sticker, the, uh, keep Tacoma feared.
Um. And I met the designer of that years later and she gave this great explanation of how that sticker came to be. And I was like, it’s so weird being in a city where you’ve got, you know, this sticker that says Keep Tacoma feared. And then like, I just saw this [00:35:00] website or something the other day that said, move to Tacoma, and you turned around and you’re like.
I’m sorry, I don’t mean to interrupt. And you actually, and I was, that’s such a
Marguerite Martin: Tacoma thing to happen, by the way.
Sierra Hartman: It’s, I love it. And that’s that, so you’re talking about people having different, different perspectives, uh, on their own neighborhoods and different opinions on the, the changes happening and the thing that I love so much about this city, like despite all of the, the ups and downs and whatever.
Is that it’s not, it’s not big enough to live in your own isolated lane. True. You have to overlap with, with other types of people. Mm-hmm. To get anything done. And so like you knew, like you had maybe just had this conversation with, I forget her name now, but the woman who designed that sticker and you like, had a whole conversation about that and like
Marguerite Martin: Right.
Sierra Hartman: That’s. You would expect move to Tacoma and keep Tacoma feared to be on opposite ends of a spectrum. But they’re not. ‘
Marguerite Martin: cause every one of we contain multitudes. Every one of us both wants to keep Tacoma feared. And we wanna tell our friends that we like, that we [00:36:00] care about, like, nobody wants to build a wall and make Seattle pay for it.
Right. Thank you. We don’t wanna be xenophobes. Thank you. We just don’t wanna displace the people that are already here.
Heather Swanson: Mm-hmm.
Marguerite Martin: And I, I think like, yeah, and I, I remember, I remember. What I remember about that conversation was trying to talk to you about the business model. ’cause that’s how my brain works.
Like, it’s not easy when you have a, a website. Like, I didn’t understand it. I did not understand that this is what they were making. Right? Like, I thought they were gonna make just like a South Sound magazine. Uh, tv. Like a website, right? Yeah. And I was just like, you know, it’s just really hard, just so you know, like getting people to pay for online ads like that doesn’t work and da da da.
And then of course you, you ended up in a model that of course you’re refining it forever, but like. I, I, I just remember after that conversation being really embarrassed and thinking like, why don’t I mind my business? And like, let people be like, that’s what I was thinking.
Heather Swanson: I feel like that every day.
Marguerite Martin: Okay. Heather, I’m, thank you. I think the other part about the Keep Tacoma feared thing [00:37:00] is, I don’t know if it’s, I don’t think it’s like that anymore, but back then I had a picture of it on as like the banner on my Facebook page for Move Tacoma. It was Keep Tacoma feared next to you’ll like Tacoma stickers.
Heather Swanson: Mm-hmm.
Marguerite Martin: And like that I think is like, you’ll see both of those stickers stuck to things. All the time.
Heather Swanson: Mm-hmm.
Marguerite Martin: Like, how do we, how do we reconcile that?
Heather Swanson: I don’t think we need to. I really don’t. I feel like there’s enough space to sit there and be like, you know, no new friends, but also like, come join us. You know, like it’s, I don’t know.
That’s what KO was all about.
Marguerite Martin: Sierra, any thoughts about that?
Sierra Hartman: No, that was great.
Heather Swanson: I dunno.
Marguerite Martin: So what is the future like of Grit City Magazine? Obviously you’re looking for subscribers and if people love the magazine or if they have a friend that subscribes, like you want people to subscribe and they can go to grit city mag.com.
Mm-hmm. Right. To do that. Mm-hmm. But what else?
Heather Swanson: Well,
Sierra Hartman: you’ve got more,
Heather Swanson: we have a lot [00:38:00] of precious
Sierra Hartman: mind
Heather Swanson: lot. We have a lot of big ideas. Yeah. Um, we have been talking about doing a form of like a digital magazine, so putting our, our magazine digitally. Because we wanna make sure it’s accessible to everybody.
Yes. And we know that not everybody has an extra, however much th for a disposable income to buy a magazine, you know, and the
Marguerite Martin: archive of stories. Right. You have now. Oh my gosh.
Heather Swanson: Exactly. And so we, but we really want, you know, everybody to have a chance to be able to have access to that. So we’ve talked about, we do give some to like the Tacoma Public Library and things like that, that people can go look at for free.
Mm-hmm. Um, but just kind of. Making a way for our magazine to be a little bit more affordable and accessible. So we’ve definitely played around with the idea of having some sort of, um, a digital version of that for a fraction of the price, but. If we ever get there, how we’re gonna get there. It’s all very much in the works.
Yeah. But I think that’s probably like, could be our biggest move. Um, and then advertisements, we’re gonna have to cave [00:39:00] and put ads in our magazine, but they will be cool. We have talked about that. They’ll
Marguerite Martin: be, they’ll be big, beautiful, cool
Heather Swanson: ads. Yes.
Marguerite Martin: Are they gonna be like integrated? Will I even know it’s an ad?
Will it be like
Heather Swanson: we actually have a, um, on our Patreon, this is something we talked about, joked about doing. But tears in our Patreon. If somebody, like we joked about having a, a high tier where if you pay that every month, we would like hide you somewhere in the magazine, like your face.
Marguerite Martin: Oh, that’s funny.
Heather Swanson: And just like in a random article or behind a page or something, you know, just stuck in there. Um, but we just, we like to have fun with it. And I feel like the magazine really does evolve as we do and as the city does. And just kind of, I don’t know, we move. With the city.
Marguerite Martin: Yeah.
Sierra Hartman: To be honest with the, the ads, um, if and when we do ads in the magazine,
Heather Swanson: we’re
Sierra Hartman: gonna, I would rather like, I’ve seen, uh, we shared this studio space upstairs with rotator creative,
Marguerite Martin: so
Sierra Hartman: Cool.
And they,
Marguerite Martin: and they’re the people that do beautiful angle. Yeah,
Sierra Hartman: for
Marguerite Martin: the best.
Sierra Hartman: Uh, and they [00:40:00] made one issue of Rotator Magazine that was honestly like a big inspiration for
Marguerite Martin: Yeah, I remember
Sierra Hartman: that. Out Print magazine. And they have ads in there that you’ll flip right past ’em, not realize because they’re so well designed.
Marguerite Martin: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Sierra Hartman: And that’s a great idea. I would rather just say, these are the ads, like these people gave us money,
Marguerite Martin: like literally at the top. These are the people that make it possible for
Sierra Hartman: you
to
Sierra Hartman: have this. Like nobody likes being, uh. Nobody likes realizing that they’re being sold to. Yeah. Nobody likes like, oh no, this is just this thing.
I’m just showing you this product, and like, click down here for the Amazon link or whatever.
Marguerite Martin: Mm-hmm.
Sierra Hartman: And when you explain to someone like, yeah, we need money so I can like pay my mortgage and print these magazines and buy food.
Marguerite Martin: Yeah.
Sierra Hartman: This company gave us money to do this thing. Mm-hmm. Like, no one’s gonna be upset about that.
Everyone knows how that works. Nope. And so if we just said it blatantly, like we don’t want to just like copy paste something that would go in a. You know, some other advertising we wanted to Yeah. Be engaging somehow, but like I [00:41:00] we’re, we’re gonna have a whole argument about it, probably, but like, I would rather just be upfront about it and like, thank you to these people who gave us money so that we can make these magazines.
Marguerite Martin: Absolutely.
Heather Swanson: Mm-hmm. Yeah. No, it’s, it’s our, I think it’s our biggest struggle and ’cause yeah, we don’t want to have to put ads in there. It, it feels like we want our magazine to feel like a work of art, you know? And it is. It definitely is. But yeah, we still have to pay the bills, which sucks, but.
Marguerite Martin: I think everybody understands that.
Like everybody and, and I think about the people I know who subscribe to GR City Magazine, they would much rather see an ad than not get their magazine once a quarter. Right? Right. Like a hundred percent. They’re willing to, I, I, I don’t know. I guess I can’t speak for the, no one can speak for the whole city.
Fuck.
Sierra Hartman: I think you’re probably right
Marguerite Martin: though. Yeah. Yeah. People wanna see. Thrive.
Heather Swanson: I just still think we should do personal ads.
Marguerite Martin: Oh. Oh.
Heather Swanson: I wanna bring back personal ads to the magazine.
Sierra Hartman: I that once years ago.
Marguerite Martin: Connections,
Heather Swanson: yes. A misconnection, a shout out to your mom on her birthday. I don’t, I love [00:42:00] a page where like, anybody can pay $20 and have, you know, a hundred words.
I think you could church
Marguerite Martin: 25
Heather Swanson: or something. Yeah, 25. A little mini soapbox to stand on and scream whatever you want. I don’t know.
Marguerite Martin: I love that. I mean, that’s when you think back to like. You know, I, I have friends that we argue about media stuff all the time, and they’ll be like, you’d have to pay. You have to pay to, that’s always how the newspapers have worked.
People need to remember they have to pay, and it’s like, actually no. We didn’t used to really have to pay hardly anything. Yeah. Because companies paid, real estate, agents paid to advertise houses, you know, big companies paid for the bank, paid for a bank ad. To the economics section and individuals paid to job postings.
I have a piano for sale.
Heather Swanson: Yeah.
Marguerite Martin: Like it’s, and, and you know, we have, I’m not, probably not gonna post my couch for sale in magazine.
Heather Swanson: I mean, you could,
Marguerite Martin: although maybe if it was the, was really Right. Kind of couch.
Heather Swanson: Yeah, that’s what
Marguerite Martin: I’m saying. Yeah. Like a, a couch
Heather Swanson: with a story maybe. Mm-hmm.
Marguerite Martin: A couch. But that could be really interesting.
Sierra Hartman: Mm-hmm.
Marguerite Martin: Yeah. Mm-hmm. What a interesting like, but you’re saying we tried it.
Sierra Hartman: I tried [00:43:00] it once years ago. I think we should try pre, pre pandemic and I didn’t do a great job of advertising it. It was like, remind your neighbor that they still have your lawnmowers, shout out to your favorite child. Mm-hmm.
People weren’t super into that, so. Lemme try it again. I
Marguerite Martin: just think you just put it in your grit city stories with a little link. Click here to Yes. You know, like, I, I would be, I, I just, I have faith in our city. We’re also interesting and weird, like, you would get some good ads.
Heather Swanson: I want to see,
Marguerite Martin: I’ve been on Reddit.
I know what people are talking about.
Heather Swanson: Yes. Like, yeah, I wanna hear the weird stuff, or I also thought it would be really cool. Somewhere in the city. I would love some, like, have you ever seen those phones where people can just go, like, pick ’em up like a little confessional booth? Yes. That would be a dream.
Marguerite Martin: I would pay, I’d
Heather Swanson: be there every day.
Marguerite Martin: Pay for anonymous confessions in Grit City Magazine. Yes. Like I’m sorry I caught you off on North 30th last week. I would pay for that actually. I have a lot to get. Clearly I have a lot to get off my chest. Yes.
Heather Swanson: But
Sierra Hartman: it’s just all you with like six different names
Marguerite Martin: I need.
Yeah. I’ll, I’ll fund it the first round. Uh, [00:44:00] I just need to please confirm an anonymity. It’s. Too late. Well, is there anything else that y’all wanna make sure to mention while you’re here?
Heather Swanson: Subscribe to our magazine?
Marguerite Martin: Yes,
Heather Swanson: we love you. I dunno.
Marguerite Martin: Send Send your stories.
Sierra Hartman: Yeah, send your
Heather Swanson: stories. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Marguerite Martin: All the stories,
Heather Swanson: all of them,
Marguerite Martin: all voices are welcome.
Heather Swanson: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Marguerite Martin: Awesome. Thank you both so much for, for coming on and sharing about all this.
Sierra Hartman: Thank you for writing us.
Marguerite Martin: Yeah.
Heather Swanson: Sorry if we were awkward.
Marguerite Martin: No, I love it. I love it. I was clearly very awkward as well.
Sierra Hartman: If you like this podcast, check out, move to tacoma.com. Move to tacoma.com
Marguerite Martin: is a neighborhood guide, blog and podcast to help people in Tacoma Pierce County and beyond. Find their place in the City of Destiny. More [email protected]. Move to Tacoma is part of the [00:45:00] Channel 2 5 3 podcast network.
Check out these other shows. Grit and Grain. Nerd Farmer, interchangeable. White Ladies what say you, citizen Tacoma and Kitchen 2 5 3. This is Channel 2 5 3.