Episode Transcript
Silong Chhun Move to Tacoma Podcast Growing Up on Tacoma’s Eastside
Silong Chhun: [00:00:00] This is Channel 2 5 3, move to Tacoma On this episode of Move to Tacoma. I see new neighbors every day. Um, my neighbors that live next to me are from Seattle. We’ve been neighbors for the past probably seven, eight years. But when they first moved here, you know, I, I gave ’em a rundown. It’s like, Hey man, this is the hood.
Silong Chhun: Traditionally it’s the hood of Tacoma, so you’re gonna hear some gunshots, you can hear some sirens. What did they say when you said this? They’re like, are you serious? I’m like, yeah, but you’re fine. And you know, there’s no random attacks. Everything’s pretty targeted, so just. Don’t start no shit. Won’t be no shit.
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 and join. Thank you. We are back.
Marguerite Martin: I’m Marguerite and I want you. To move to Tacoma.
Doug Mackey (Singing): Move to Tacoma. Move to Tacoma. Move to Tacoma. You’ll like it. Move to Tacoma.
Doug Mackey (Singing): Move to Tacoma. Move to tacoma com.
Marguerite Martin: Hi, I’m [00:01:00] Marguerite, and this is Move to Tacoma, and I’m here today with Salon Chung from the east side of Tacoma. Welcome salon.
Silong Chhun: Thank you. Thank you. Glad to be here. Uh, I’ve been following move to Tacoma for a while and it’s such an honor to be here.
Marguerite Martin: Oh, it’s so great. I’m glad.
Marguerite Martin: I’m glad to finally have you in here to talk about the east side. But before we get started, I would like to know when you moved to Tacoma and why, what’s your story?
Silong Chhun: Yeah. I moved to Tacoma when I was two years old. I was actually born in Cambodia and my family came to Washington State, um, as refugees and we settled here in Tacoma.
Silong Chhun: Uh, first. Uh, in 1981, I was two years old. Right. Uh, we first, we settled in the hilltop area, but I don’t remember too much about the Hilltop area, but I know we spent about a year, maybe a year and a half there. Um, my only fond memory of the hilltop is, um, eating some fish. My mom fed me and throwing up all over the rice bag in our apartment.
Marguerite Martin: Oh, the eighties.
Silong Chhun: Yeah. But we were, um, really fortunate. I was really fortunate. Um, a lot of [00:02:00] my peers and colleagues, you know, came here as refugees. Two, with either one or two parents. I was fortunate to have both parents and also, um, a huge support system. My family, um, my cousins, my aunts and uncles came here and established themselves in Puyallup in the early seventies, in 75, 76, right before the KH Rouge took over Cambodia.
Silong Chhun: And then, and I got here four years later, well, six, six years later in 81. So. Very fortunate, established a foundation, and then we first moved in Hilltop and then ended up in Shan. Um, if you don’t know about Shan in the eighties, this was pretty rough. Uh, the community there was, you know, low income housing, um, a lot of refugee immigrants.
Silong Chhun: Uh. Lived there. So that’s how I got to Tacoma and grew up there. Went to Lister Elementary, MVE Middle School. I also attended Larchmont. Um, when we had a little bit of more, uh, economic stability, we were able to move outta saddle. And I actually lived on South End for a good four [00:03:00] or five years before I moved back to the east side.
Silong Chhun: So, yeah, that’s, that’s my Tacoma story. Um, I was two years old. Born, wasn’t born, but I was raised here and the east side made me who I am today. Yeah.
Marguerite Martin: That’s amazing. I, I’m, I’m curious. I mean, I, I don’t know as much as I probably should about what it’s like for a family to be a refugee to the US and, you know, everything that was going on.
Marguerite Martin: I think about like, places like Tacoma mm-hmm. Community House, like was that there back then? Absolutely. Yeah. So like, what, what was it like for your family? What was their experience like? Did they find, was it easy? Was it hard to, to. Adapt, like what happened?
Silong Chhun: A lot happened, I think. Um, it, it was very difficult to adapt.
Silong Chhun: Uh, you can imagine coming from a war torn country, just leaving all this violence. My, both my parents were fairly young, I think in the early twenties. My mom might have been 18 or 19 when the first had me. I can, I haven’t done the math, but, um,
Marguerite Martin: really? That’s so funny. I’ve definitely done the math.
Silong Chhun: Yeah.
Silong Chhun: But I mean, it. [00:04:00] As challenging. It was, it was, the community welcomed us with open arms. But, um, speaking a little bit to the difficulties of assimilating to brand new country, brand new culture, and not speaking the language, it was extremely difficult, uh, learning how to navigate these systems. W. You know, access to resources was really hard for a, a lot of us.
Silong Chhun: Um, but thankfully, you know, you mentioned Tacoma Community House, Tacoma Community House. Been around since 1910 and have been, you know, servicing immigrants and refugees since then. So, uh, really, really cool story about Tacoma Community House. Both my parents went through their programs to learn English.
Silong Chhun: Mm. Uh, English is a second language as they called it back then, and also both of ’em also went through their, um. Citizenship program where they were able to gain their citizenship with the help of Tacoma Community House. Amazing. Yeah. And then I grew up, and a few years ago I was working at Tacoma Community House.
Silong Chhun: So beautiful full circle moment with me. And then, um, our, my colleague, Paul Manny, who’s been there for 30 plus years, he was actually one of [00:05:00] the folks who, uh, received us at Sea Tac Airport in 81 when we first arrived to America. Wow. So Paul is a older Southeast Asian refugee from Lao. And, you know, he knew my parents before I did and I became his coworker.
Silong Chhun: So that was cool. So, um, one of the best things about growing up on the east side during that time is that we, I felt like we were, you know, ’cause we came, my parents and families and all of us Southeast Asian refugees came from the village settings. So the community in s town really had that village feeling, right.
Silong Chhun: I would go to school, come home, my parents would be at work, I can just go to my neighbor’s house, Hey, uh, I need some water. I need some food. And. You know, the door was always open and I just remember in the summertime just playing with all the neighborhood kids. Our parents, our neighbors would just get together and have a, you know, community potluck.
Silong Chhun: And it wasn’t planned. It was just something that spur of the moment. And, um, I think, uh, you know, being in, in a brand new country, you know, not knowing the cultures and customs and navigating these systems, we kind of had each [00:06:00] other. Yeah. And I felt that sense of community growing up and that really shaped the way, uh.
Silong Chhun: How I live my life, right? Um, you, you never go hungry at the same table I’m sitting at. Mm. That’s just how I see things. But one of the biggest challenges is just really economic stability, right? Um, a lot of immigrants and refugees today still work in the farms. I wanna give a huge shout out to Alura Farms in, uh, Puyallup.
Silong Chhun: They gave a us Yeah. They gave my family and I, huge opportunities working in the strawberries farm, the cucumber farms and the dill farms. It’s called ALD
Marguerite Martin: Farms. Uh,
Silong Chhun: Alura. Alura, yeah. A-L-D-U-R-I-S. Um, it’s, it’s pretty crazy that I, I still drive, you know, on, uh, I forgot what that river road highway. Mm-hmm.
Silong Chhun: And they’re still around and it just triggers so much memories. I have a lot of good memories on the farm. Um, it wasn’t. Easy work. It was hard work, but that was one of the ways my parents and my family was really to get, you know, gain some economic, uh, stability and just be able to, to make a life for ourselves.
Silong Chhun: So That’s awesome. Huge thank you to Alura. Shout out if you go to his website, [00:07:00] alura.com. He does have a little blurb about, um, thanking the southeast, uh, Asian refugees during the eighties and nineties. So yeah, man, shout out to Cucumber Farms and Strawberry Farms, which give, give us an opportunity to, you know, to.
Silong Chhun: To thrive and just, you know, get our bills paid and put food on the table. Right. And you know, my dad worked on a farm for at least a decade before, um, he was able to start his own business, so,
Marguerite Martin: so. This great, this is great. It leads to my next question, which is the east side in general. Yeah. Like what do you love about your neighborhood?
Silong Chhun: I think, uh, what I love about my neighborhood that it, it is just really different. There’s a grit about it. When, when, you know, when we call Tacoma Grit City, I feel that’s what it’s describing. There’s a lot of blue collar workers. There’s working families and just. People are just trying to put food on the tables and trying to make it to the next build.
Silong Chhun: Okay. And what I love about it is how the community can come together. You know, growing up there in the eighties and nineties, the gang violence was at its height back then, um, a lot of my [00:08:00] friends and peers and colleagues were, you know, involved in that thing too. But you know, when you grow up in that environment, every day becomes normalized.
Silong Chhun: You don’t think it’s, as, you know, dangerous as it. There’s other folks from the outside. Think so I think what I love about the east side most is that when you’re from the east side, you grow up there and, and you raise a family there, there’s, there’s this nuance that you don’t really understand unless you live there.
Silong Chhun: Right? Oh, for sure. Yeah. Um, you know, growing up on the east side. Especially like me, I’ve never went outside of the east side too much. I never went downtown. Oh, that’s so interesting. I never went to the North end. The only time I was at the North End was a school field trip to point to find zoo, you know, when I was in middle school.
Silong Chhun: But, um, the east side was our world and we didn’t know Tacoma was bigger. And then, you know, during the height of the gang violence, if you grew up on the east side, you’re mostly Asians. And that’s where all, mostly the bloods are in, in Hilltop. This where the Hilltop Crips were, right? Mm-hmm. And during that time.
Silong Chhun: I’ve never, never, ever set foot in Hilltop because. The way it went down, right? It was on onsite. If you were in the wrong [00:09:00] neighborhood, right? You looked like you didn’t belong. You was, uh, automatically a target no matter who you were, you know? And, uh, it, it was just crazy to me ’cause I moved away, right? I moved away for about 10 years, lived in Portland, met my wife, I moved back.
Silong Chhun: And then Hilltop is being kind of gentrified and right. Redeveloped and right. And I remember meeting my friends at Hilltop Kitchen on Hilltop for the first time in like. 15 years. I’m like, whoa, this is crazy to me. Were you like
Marguerite Martin: looking around or, well, I felt safe. I felt
Silong Chhun: safe. Hilltop Kitchen’s a little bit more, uh, affluent.
Silong Chhun: You know, it’s true. It’s
Marguerite Martin: not there anymore, but it was not there anymore. But kind of like a hipster restaurant, right? Like Yeah,
Silong Chhun: yeah, yeah. And coming from Portland, I was used to being around hipster. So there’s no beer at all.
Marguerite Martin: So what do you like living about living on the east side now? I think like you’ve just kind of spoken to like maybe some of the like older stereotypes mm-hmm.
Marguerite Martin: About the east side, but like for you living there day to day, like. What are your favorite things?
Silong Chhun: I, I really love that diversity. You can walk down the block, uh, you know, I live right by the nine day, uh, on 56th and [00:10:00] McKinley, I mm-hmm. I feel so comfortable in this neighborhood. I can just walk around. I just love that diversity.
Silong Chhun: You can hear two, three different languages spoken at the grocery stores, right? We can go to B and A market or any of the. Mexican restaurants. We have a Colombian restaurant. I think all of the best Mexican and Hispanic and Latino restaurants are on the east side. But don’t tell nobody. I
Marguerite Martin: don’t think that’s a controversial take, but I mean, maybe somebody thinks it is, but I don’t think so.
Marguerite Martin: I think you’re probably right about that.
Silong Chhun: Yeah. It’s, it’s so vibrant. It’s, it’s, it’s colorful. I think it’s interesting. And the folks that are a little bit crazier than I think, than the rest of Tacoma, which I love for Let,
Marguerite Martin: let’s talk, talk about all the things that real estate agents. Cannot talk about, you know,
Silong Chhun: this is the neighborhood where the
Marguerite Martin: crazy people live.
Marguerite Martin: Like, okay,
Silong Chhun: yeah. You know, we have loose dogs in the neighborhoods. I mean, there’s been loose dogs in the neighborhood since I was a kid, and we knew whose dog it was, but you know, that’s the dog is family too. You know, we’ve got.
Marguerite Martin: Kids wandering house to house. We’ve got dogs wandering house to house. [00:11:00]
Silong Chhun: That’s
Marguerite Martin: exactly how it was.
Marguerite Martin: And the best Mexican food in town.
Silong Chhun: The best Mexican food in town, man. Best food trucks. Uh, we have a Colombian restaurant out there on McKinley that’s, that’s delicious. Just gotta come out and every weekend when it gets warmer on, on 72nd in Portland, well not 72nd. What street is it? I don’t know. Anyways, by the Wendy’s and all that stuff, there’s a outdoors swap meet where there’s tacos, there’s street tacos, there’s, it is just.
Silong Chhun: Things happen and the city has no idea as it’s happening. Yeah. The community come together. And that’s one, one thing about, uh, you know, around colored folks, uh, refuse and immigrants that we’re able to thrive, you know, without the assistance or resources that weren’t provided for us anyway, because that’s what we’re, so we used to doing.
Silong Chhun: So every weekend there’s like. Uh, a swap meet out on 72nd Street in Port 70, I think it’s 72nd next to Portland where, where the Safeway, the Kmart is, right? Mm-hmm. And it’s just so lively and it’s just so busy and it’s packed and everybody comes out and, and then, and that’s what I [00:12:00] love. It’s just the diversity, the different languages spoken and just.
Silong Chhun: The, the amount of different restaurants and markets that you can visit. You have a Mexican grocery store, you have Cambodian grocery store, you have a Vietnamese grocery store. Right. And you know, all the donut shops owned by Cambodians as well in the east side. And I think, um, to me it just feel like community.
Silong Chhun: Like I could, you know, although every day you, you hear a sovereign go off, uh, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, right? There’s always. Firetrucks going there, all police sirens going. And believe it or not, there’s still, till this day, there’s at least a gunshot that we hear either gunshots or fireworks that go off weekly.
Silong Chhun: And my kids, who’s grown up here, this is really bad, but they’re like, every time they hear the gunshot or a fireworks, and we’ve just learned to like stay away from the windows.
Marguerite Martin: Well, I mean, this is, this is something that I think is so tricky for me to talk about because there’s actually like, you know, being a licensed realtor, like I’m not allowed to comment on because of our rather troublesome history of segregating cities Sure.
Marguerite Martin: As a profession. Sure. Um, I’m not allowed to [00:13:00] comment on the safety of a community. Yeah. And I’m not allowed to certainly comment on. What kinds of people live anywhere, right? Sure. So this is a conversation that I am, I’m mindful that I am not used to navigating and not because. I don’t care, or I don’t wanna be honest, but because I don’t wanna, I mean, are we even enforcing the law anymore?
Marguerite Martin: I don’t know. But technically there’s a law about this. So I think it’s, I think your perspective is really valuable. And what is happening in my head is I’m imagining people from other parts of town with their preconceived notions about what it’s like. Mm-hmm. That talk about the east side that don’t go there.
Marguerite Martin: Like you’re saying. There’s all these things that happen there. That people don’t even know about, that aren’t talked about, but then also like the wrong things that people believe about the east side because of that same phenomenon. And so like how do you sort of balance how you, how you explain your neighborhood to outsiders, where you’re like, I wanna tell the truth.
Marguerite Martin: Like I wanna be honest. We’re not gonna sugarcoat this, we’re not gen, you know, we’re not gonna like throw an HGTV glossy coat over my [00:14:00] community and also like. This is a real place where like wonderful people live and have great lives. So how do you, how do you balance that?
Silong Chhun: Yeah, that’s a great question. I, I, I do balance it.
Silong Chhun: I always tell people, uh, you know, I gotta be honest, like the east side of Tacoma is hood. That’s where the, that’s, it’s always been the hood. That’s, you know, the AKA ghetto or hood whatnot. But,
Marguerite Martin: okay, but wait, wait, wait. Okay. I have to say that because I. Like, this is not what everybody says to me. And I, I did tell you right before we started, like I haven’t actually lived on the east side ever.
Marguerite Martin: I’ve lived on Easty and 43rd. Yeah. That’s as close as I got in 2002. Mm-hmm. So like I, I have no lived experience. Right. Crossing the street, but like. I’m trying to think of like the right way to ask this. Like, do you think everybody’s having the exact, would everybody in your neighborhood call it the hood?
Marguerite Martin: I feel like nobody has ever said, like, when I’m, when I’m, when I’m talking to people that live there, like this is the hood. I hear gunshots every day. I, I feel like you are the first person to say that to me.
Silong Chhun: Yeah. Yeah. It absolutely is the hood. It is, it absolutely is. If you [00:15:00] look at confusion, yeah. I mean, it, it’s improved, right?
Silong Chhun: It is. The, the, I mean, just. Tacoma in general.
Marguerite Martin: Right. Has
Silong Chhun: improved overall so Well, and again,
Marguerite Martin: we’re not trying to like get, I mean, people wanna move to Tacoma. I’m not worried about convincing anybody to move anywhere. Yeah. I’m more, I’m more interested in like, giving a clear picture Yeah. For people in and out of town of like what the real, what it’s really like.
Silong Chhun: Yeah. Well, it depends who you talk to and when they move here. Right. If, if for a person like me who, who’s lived on the east side since 81, when I moved here as a child growing up in Shan, which was a, you know, a community. Or you know, Shan was low income housing. There’s section eight housing, right?
Silong Chhun: There’s no. There’s, there’s no sugar coating that, that’s what it was. Right? And that’s what we were placed as refugees. And you know, when you live in a low income housing, who, what demographics usually live there? Poor folks, right? Poor folks, usually black folks. Uh, by design. Yeah, by design. And you know, the red lining, all that stuff, you know.
Silong Chhun: Comes into play if, if historically. [00:16:00] So me growing up there, east side, Tacoma is definitely, definitely the hood. Uh, we, we grew up poor, I mean yeah. Nobody lived in that community. Were rich. Yeah. If you think about Sally Shannon and the community and the housing there, the, the housing, there was all. Was built, um, during World War II to house, uh, soldiers.
Silong Chhun: Right, right. The family soldiers. And during that time, all the good materials for any building went to straight to the war. So if you think about these homes that were built temporarily to house the soldiers and their families during the war, and it was supposed to be torn down, right. And rebuilt. We lived in that.
Silong Chhun: Section eight housing and it was just torn down in recently what, in 2007, right? When we built something like
Marguerite Martin: that.
Silong Chhun: Right. So, um, there’s no sugar coating. It’s definitely the hood. We grew up poor. There’s a lot of crime, a lot of drugs, a lot of gang activity and a lot of policing in our neighborhood too.
Silong Chhun: Right. One of one of the things I do wanna mention and growing up on the east side. As dangerous as one would think it was. No matter what crimes happen, if we get jumped, uh, [00:17:00] if our car got broken into, we get, we never call the cops.
Marguerite Martin: Right. ’cause right
Silong Chhun: then for many reasons, right? We, we don’t feel safe around police.
Silong Chhun: Police usually come and harass our neighbors, harass my parents ’cause they didn’t speak English. So there was a barrier there. And, you know, at the time when we first came here as refugees, I, I don’t think the humanization was there. People just saw it as foreign other. Other, uh, so it’s kind of dehumanize, dehumanizing in that point too.
Silong Chhun: And, and second, you know. The cops to us never solved or reduced any crime. They just come and give you shit,
Marguerite Martin: right? Write
Silong Chhun: down the crime, and nothing ever happens. I don’t think it’s
Marguerite Martin: su a super controversial statement to say anymore that like the history of the Tacoma Police is not necessarily one that, uh, anybody’s gonna try to like, make a lot of excuses for No.
Marguerite Martin: Right.
Silong Chhun: Yeah. Yeah. It’s, I think
Marguerite Martin: mistrust of the police on the east side is. Probably pretty warranted.
Silong Chhun: Yeah. Yeah. Deep rooted since the seventies. Right, right. This is nothing new. And you can see how the, the culture and the history of that is still resonating today. [00:18:00] And you know, that’s one of the things I like to mention, that, you know, uh, we.
Silong Chhun: Everything is interconnected. Nothing just happens overnight.
Doug Mackey (Singing): Yeah.
Silong Chhun: But, um, going, going back to the safety of the East side, like I said, um, we grew up, uh, I grew up around friends who are gang members and it just normalized all the violence. But then you, you know, through, through the struggle and the challenges, you still find the joy, you still find the community.
Silong Chhun: There’s, you know, ’cause I believe that everybody. Who grew up on the east side during my time were intentionally good people. Just in an environment where there was less resources, uh, less mentorship, uh, just no guidance and directions we kind of had to fend for ourselves. So, you know, the, the, the, the violence and the gang stuff was really, um, a failure of the.
Silong Chhun: I think the refugee, uh, programs that brought us here, they didn’t provide what we needed to thrive and survive. So, yeah. You know, that’s, that’s, that’s just the reality of it.
Marguerite Martin: Absolutely. So I, when, when you go to the east side, you can see it looks like Tacoma. Mm-hmm. But it looks like [00:19:00] Tacoma. Uh. Frankly with fewer resources.
Marguerite Martin: Yeah, right. It’s like you can see the, the under investment in Yeah. Roads, sidewalks, you know. Yeah. Lights, infrastructure. Right? Yeah. You just see it on, on every level. And I am not, um, as, I mean I’ve never worked in like local government really, or anything like that. So like understanding, like how does that continue to happen?
Marguerite Martin: Like when you look at it as somebody who’s grown up there, who’s been involved, you’ve had jobs in the government, so you understand how things work probably a lot better than I do. Little bit. How is it that that kind of. Continuous reinvestment per persists.
Silong Chhun: Yeah, I think, um, that, that’s a great question, but what I, I wanna make continuous
Marguerite Martin: lack of reinvestment or vestment, sorry.
Marguerite Martin: Lack of re
Silong Chhun: I, I think, I think, um, you know, when, when we say marginalized, I want to be clear that marginalized means. Excluded. Ignored. Yeah. Ignored. Like this is a community that historically in Tacoma has been ignored.
Doug Mackey (Singing): Yeah.
Silong Chhun: Right. Um, over-policing, under-resourced and, and just not paid attention to. And, and I think, um, the, the [00:20:00] reason for that is just, you know, it’s not easy.
Silong Chhun: It’s not easy. I mean, I don’t know what our city leaders head were and. What they were like in the eighties. You know, city government was like so far away from my thought process as a kid, as a refugee, trying to learn this, this country. So I, I didn’t even know anything, uh, government exists. But, um, to answer your question, uh, why do I think the, you know, that side of town was marginalized?
Silong Chhun: Because this is where the poor, poor folks live,
Marguerite Martin: right?
Silong Chhun: When, when you live in a city and you place all the. Poor folks and low income folks into one area, they often tend to get ignored because they’re seen as a burden and not, and not people. Right. Right. Instead of being part of the solution, they become the problem.
Silong Chhun: So I think for me, from my experience, maybe the city government at that time didn’t see us as a community that can help benefit them in any way. So, you know. The, the, you know, being marginalized and ignored, [00:21:00] it’s easier to, to not think about it, it’s easier to not advocate for the most vulnerable. It’s easier to not give a shit, to be honest.
Silong Chhun: Mm-hmm. You know, when, when, when you’re in power and, and you don’t see a benefit in, in, in investing in these communities, and why should you?
Marguerite Martin: Well, and I’m, the, the thought that’s kind of popping into my head is, okay, well, there, there, there have been things though. Mm-hmm. There have been investments.
Marguerite Martin: Absolutely. There been absolutely. Individuals I can think of, there have been community groups on the east side that have advocated and Yeah. Politicians from the east side that have advocated successfully and unsuccessfully Yeah. Yeah. To get infrastructure developments. But why is it that with the entire Tacoma Renaissance mm-hmm.
Marguerite Martin: That we’ve been going through since, you know, I’m, I think we’re about the same age, so in my mind I feel like things kind of started really kicking off in the late nineties. Yeah. Like. Why is it that the east side doesn’t seem to get their fair share? Is that, oh, is that even like an iin Your question, do you think that’s an accurate question?
Marguerite Martin: Um, I don’t know. I, I,
Silong Chhun: you know, I couldn’t tell you honestly if the east side got their fair share or not. I haven’t been invol involved in the decision making process a long time, but as far as how we feel [00:22:00] in that, I say as, as the person who’s
Marguerite Martin: experienced the impact.
Silong Chhun: Yeah. Like, um, you can. See that, you know, uh, back then we didn’t have as many parks.
Silong Chhun: There was no skate parks where I grew up. Mm-hmm. So we got to make our own, I skated growing up. Um, but now you see, like, you know, I, I think Tacoma in the eighties and nineties, the. Resources were also limited. Right? Right. So you only had, uh, it was like a piece of the pie. You only had enough piece of the pie to go in certain communities and only certain communities who have the privilege of being engaged and evolved civically or not right, can advocate for those things because you, if you wanna.
Silong Chhun: Put it into perspective. The folks on the east side are blue collar working workers, right? Blue collar workers, working families, maybe working eight to 10 to 12 hours a day when they get home. Working minimum wage or a little bit over minimum wage, working 12 hours a day, six to seven days a week. You come home, you’re tired, you got kids to feed.
Silong Chhun: You don’t have time to be advocating for sidewalks, advocating for sidewalks, or advocating to fix these. [00:23:00] Potholes or advocating for safe parks or advocating for even a community center. I mean, for a while the East side didn’t have a community center. Right, right. Used to have a Boys and Girls club, the East Side Neighborhood Center in Shan that got torn down.
Silong Chhun: And just recently these investments coming in because the whole city, I believe, is thriving. And you know, they say raising tide lifts all boats, all boats. And that’s what’s happening. So when the tide raises, you know, there’s enough resource to go around. And I still feel like the east side get. Like the crumbs of, of the cookie.
Silong Chhun: Like
Marguerite Martin: they’re getting stuff. Getting stuff, stuff. Like, we could talk about these side community center. Yeah, we could talk about idea. Yeah. But still,
Silong Chhun: yeah, it’s,
Marguerite Martin: there’s a long way to go.
Silong Chhun: There’s still a long way to go. And as you can see as folks are, you know. Gaining a little bit more economic, being more economically stable, they were absolutely having more capacity and energy to advocate for these things.
Silong Chhun: So to answer your question, largely historically, I mean, the working families on the east side didn’t have the privilege to be civically engaged, to, to be able [00:24:00] to, uh, advocate for access and resources. For one, maybe they didn’t even know these things exist or there’s any opportunities to speak to government.
Silong Chhun: Because if you live in the hood right, you don’t, you feel like government. Is oppressive and never works for you. Right. You know, there’s no one coming to your community and saying, oh, government can only work if you make it work for you.
Doug Mackey (Singing): Right.
Silong Chhun: And then being, uh, dominated by, you know, immigrants and refugees.
Silong Chhun: They’re not citizens, so they can’t even vote anyway. So what benefit does it give any city leaders or politicians to come and talk to these communities that can’t even vote for you?
Marguerite Martin: Right. There’s a lot stacked against,
Silong Chhun: yeah. Yeah, but I mean, overall, I, I think it’s one of the most beautifulest, you know, parts of the town.
Silong Chhun: We have Wan Creek, which is now being developed as, as a green space. We have the only mountain bike trails, I think, in Tacoma, and it is a huge one. You know, it’s, it’s nationally popular people come all the time. And then just Swan Creek in [00:25:00] general is just a beautiful green space. Where can you go in the city of Tacoma when you can see salmon run, right?
Silong Chhun: And then. Ride your mountain bike and now walk your dog. And now it’s all
Marguerite Martin: connected. But Doug has given me the look and we have to go to a break. But when we come back, I wanna know, I, I need to know everything about Swan Creek. I don’t know anything about Swan Creek. Okay. And I want you to explain it to me.
Doug Mackey (Singing): Okay.
Erik Hanberg Channel 253 Cofounder: This is channel 2 5 3 co-founder Eric Hanberg, thinking back to 2017 and the start of the first Trump administration, adult civics. Happy Hour citizen Tacoma. All of these things came in many ways to a response to what was happening at the national level. We wanted to focus local, and we are still here for another Trump administration.
Erik Hanberg Channel 253 Cofounder: It’s happening again. It is happening again, but we’re still here. We appreciate that you are still here listening, engaging with the issues that you care about in your local community.
Producer Doug Mackey: We renew our interest in our goal and our mission, [00:26:00] and we hope that you’ll renew your membership as we move forward. And if you’re not a member yet, please go to channel two five three.com/membership and join for $4 a month or $40 a year.
Erik Hanberg Channel 253 Cofounder: We truly appreciate the support of all of you who have given, and we hope to welcome more of you in the new year. That can help keep independent media alive, that is focused on Tacoma and our community. Thank you. To
Marguerite Martin: Tacoma, and we’re back with, so Salon Chen from the east side of Tacoma. Welcome back salon.
Marguerite Martin: Thank you. Thank you. Alright, so you were telling us about Swan Creek Park and it’s clear, I don’t know very much about Swan Creek Park. So tell me, tell me everything I need to know. Tell the people what they need to know.
Silong Chhun: Yeah, well, you know. Aside from Point Defiance Park, Swan Creek Park is probably one of the best green spaces in Tacoma.
Silong Chhun: It’s huge. Oh, it’s huge In general. It’s on the east side. Um, but before it was Swan Creek Park, it was just, we call it the back roads.
Marguerite Martin: The back, like the back rooms. Yeah, the back roads. The
Silong Chhun: back roads of Shan, because grown up there, um, you [00:27:00] imagine that I mentioned earlier, Salahan, the housing development used to be housing for, uh, you know, soldiers and their families during the war, world War ii.
Silong Chhun: And, um. You know, if you go back there now, you see roads, there’s a dog park, there’s a, a mountain bike park trail and all that, right? It’s so nice and green and it’s just a good place for kids to run around. But before all of the development there, we, we, that grew up on the east side used to call it the back roads.
Silong Chhun: And my first memory of Swan Creek Park was being at Lister Elementary School. We were in third grade, and if you’re from the east side, you went to Lista Elementary, mve and Lincoln High School. We have an urban legend, uh, of, of a character named Baldhead and Murphy. He used to be our boogeyman. He’s kinda like Jason, you know, um, baldhead Murphy was just, uh, an urban legend that really resonated within that community, especially us being kids, where during recess, at least elementary school, we’d sneak out and go across the fence.
Silong Chhun: And Swan Creek before it was developed to the park that it [00:28:00] is today. You have to imagine, uh, all the roads there, there used to be, uh, housing back there too. Just abandoned housing. Some houses, excuse me, some houses were, uh, you know, were still intact. Some houses just a structure attack, uh, intact. But, um, but you know.
Silong Chhun: Before and after school and during school we’d go back there and play hide and seek. We’d have this game we used to call ditch was, uh, this
Marguerite Martin: is so scary
Silong Chhun: thinking about it. I would hate for my kids to be playing in the woods with some abandoned homes. Oh my God. The background. I remember
Marguerite Martin: playing in the woods in the eighties and having terrifying stories, but this sounds really spooky,
Silong Chhun: but you know, it wasn’t spooky at the time, but now that I think about it, I wouldn’t not have my kids be back there.
Silong Chhun: But, you know, being kids cur curious. Yeah. We didn’t have internet or anything, so it was fun. I mean, it’s true. So we used to play this game called Ditch, um, was like hiding seatbelt with teams. So you have two or three folks on each team and there’d be a home base. So, uh, one team would go hide, one team would count, and, um, [00:29:00] the game will, how the game works, if you catch your, your.
Silong Chhun: Opposing team, and then you just switch roles. Right. But the, the best part of the game is if you were able to hide, say you got caught and you caught in a home basin and your team can tag you out, you can get to go hide again. So, so we used to run around Swan Creek all the time, and urban Legend has it that there’s this.
Silong Chhun: Scary man that we call Baldheaded Murphy. And I used to have friends that would say, oh, I saw Baldheaded Murphy. I had a friend named Larry Glover who said he, uh, fought Baldheaded Murphy. And to us, I’ve never seen Baldheaded Murphy, but we used to scare ourselves. We’d go to the woods, look for his house, and there was like this house down in the hill.
Silong Chhun: Um. It’s just probably one of those houses that haven’t been torn down yet. So, and, um, we, we just scare ourselves and, and come to find out with a little bit of research, ’cause I want kind of, kind of do a documentary on this Baldheaded Murphy urban legend. But there was a real family with the Murphy’s that, that existed and.
Silong Chhun: I just learned this like recently, but, um, yeah, [00:30:00] so swung. Anyway, SW Creek, no spoilers for the documentary. Right.
Marguerite Martin: Okay. So today, uh, you’re saying like you go mountain hiking there, there’s dog trails. Yeah. Like there’s all, there’s hiking trails. There’s hiking trails. Like, it’s like one of the. Better parks in Tacoma.
Marguerite Martin: Right? Yeah. One of the things I say to people is like, with Parks Tacoma, like it’s a pretty well-funded organization. Absolutely. And so no matter what neighborhood you end up in the city, yeah. You’re probably gonna have really good green spaces.
Silong Chhun: Yeah.
Marguerite Martin: Am I lying?
Silong Chhun: You are not lying. Okay, good. Yeah, yeah.
Silong Chhun: Shout out to Parks Tacoma, man. One of the best parks systems, if not in the United States, but in Washington for sure. Yeah. We’re so lucky. We’re so lucky, um, to have good leadership there. Um, just being stewards of the environment. But Swan Creek today. Such a beautiful green space. There’s a community garden for the folks that live in Salahan, and it’s just a mixed use.
Silong Chhun: You know, you, you sign up, get your plot, and, and you, you won’t see this community anywhere else where you have folks speaking Ukrainians, speaking Vietnamese, speaking loud, speaking Samoan, right? All [00:31:00] coming together, you know, just. Just being community. Right. And you have that space and then you have picnic shelters, and then now you go a little bit deeper into the roads, you’ll run into a mountain bike trail.
Silong Chhun: Mm. Like where in any city I that you can find a mountain bike trail in just the middle of the city. Right in the middle of your neighborhood. Yeah. And not just the east side too, the south end, you know? Uh, the south end with Wapato Park. Yeah. We have this beautiful manmade lake with nice trails. Nice.
Silong Chhun: Picnics, that’s, and this is just less than a 10 minute drive from wherever you are on the east side. The one thing I do love about Tacoma as a whole, it’s a fairly small city, but also big, but everything else, I’m always
Marguerite Martin: trying to explain this to people because they get their impression of Tacoma driving on a.
Marguerite Martin: Five. Right? Yeah. So they have the, their, their whole take is coming from the freeway. Yeah. And if you’re coming from a place like Seattle or Bellevue where you’re used to turning traffic, I’m like, you understand like you can live on the east side and shop at Metropolitan Market if you want to. It’s a 10 minute drive, right?
Marguerite Martin: Like getting from one end of town to the other is, I think at max maybe 20 minutes.
Silong Chhun: Maybe [00:32:00] 20 minutes with Right. Like some, some traffic. It’s very
Marguerite Martin: well connected. Yeah. So why is it then that you have such a different experience? This is something people ask me all the time. Yeah. And I don’t have an answer, so maybe you have an answer.
Marguerite Martin: Well, I think you could be one mile away and have a completely different experience of the city.
Silong Chhun: Well, I think, um, we all have different experiences because we stay in our comfort zone. I have friends who grew up on the east side that doesn’t even go downtown like right until recently. Right, right.
Silong Chhun: Because there’s bars down there. But you, you know, we kind of stay to ourselves. I mean, historically, um. East side and Hilltop, you know, enemy territory. Right, right. Like, like I never went to Hilltop since I moved outta Hilltop. You just don’t go there. But I think, uh, the, the answer to the question that people have such different experience and kind of siloed because you stay where you’re comfortable.
Silong Chhun: Mm-hmm. This is your neighborhood. I mean, I, uh, some folks don’t feel safe on East Side. I, I, I take walks, I ride my bike all the time. It’s just how we grew up and what we used to. But I think, um, you know, folks are just. S used to staying in their comfort zone. Like I have [00:33:00] friends that don’t go to the North end for No.
Silong Chhun: There’s no reason to go there. Right, right. So, and I can see how
Marguerite Martin: that can happen.
Silong Chhun: Yeah. And with the same thing, there’s so many people that lived in Tacoma that doesn’t come to the east side.
Marguerite Martin: So if you’re talking to somebody right now, and they’re from Tacoma, they’ve grown up in Tacoma, they lived in coma their whole life.
Marguerite Martin: Like what would be like your afternoon tour of the East side? Like what would you recommend as a, it’s time to dabble in the east side? Where do you go? Hang out?
Silong Chhun: Yeah, we’ll go back to Swan Creek. Uh, start there. Yeah, start there. Um, there’s hiking trails. Uh, you know, in the wintertime you see salmon, salmon run, which is super cool.
Silong Chhun: If you’re a mountain bike fan, you can go there. But, you know, just to enjoy the green spaces then, uh, and, you know, that Parks Tacoma provide, but that’ll be one place. Uh, the second place I, I just take him to, uh, 72nd Street where all the businesses are. Mm-hmm. Small businesses, we have. So many, uh, you know, good thrift stores and, uh, you know, just the food there.
Silong Chhun: And I’ll bring him to during the weekend where there’s a whole like, community that comes out and [00:34:00] do their swap meet and their food. It’s just like a, a food festival every, every single weekend. That’s what definitely would, would take him. And then, um, I would also take ’em to the 56th Street Park, you know, uh, now with the swimming pool, also another Park, Tacoma, uh, park.
Silong Chhun: Uh, there’s just so many exciting things to see and do. That’s awesome.
Marguerite Martin: Do you have like a favorite spot where you take people when they’re like coming from outta town? Um. Yeah, it, Swan Creek, like my house, we never go anywhere.
Silong Chhun: Right, right, right. Uh, I think Swan Creek would be probably one of the biggest spots.
Silong Chhun: And then, um, you know, Wapato Park too. Wapato Lake Park if, uh, they like that, you know. Uh, but as far as restaurants go, um, I, I don’t even know how to say the Columbia restaurant. It’s pretty new. That’s, that’s my favorite. I go there quite often. Um, you know, we like, I don’t know. That’s a good question, but it, it’s always.
Silong Chhun: It’s always SW Creek. That’s always the, the gathering spot. That’s awesome. Yeah.
Marguerite Martin: Very cool. [00:35:00] So when you think about, I mean, we’re in a situation right now where a lot is changing. We’re having conversations about getting funding and, you know, like refugees and it’s like, I, I’m thinking about the moment that we’re in and how much, you know, how many people are experiencing, you know, the same story your family.
Marguerite Martin: Experience when you were a baby. Mm-hmm. You know, they’re, they’re new here. Mm-hmm. Probably go working with Tacoma Community house. Yeah. Trying to find community, trying to find their place landing in whatever neighborhood they’ve landed in in Tacoma. Like, how have things changed, do you think, for the refugee community here in Tacoma?
Silong Chhun: Yeah, I think a lot has changed for the better. Okay. That’s good news. Yeah. Yeah. I
Marguerite Martin: even, even in these times, even in these unprecedented times.
Silong Chhun: Even in these unprecedented times. Okay, that’s good. ’cause I think, uh, uh, you know, being the first wave of Southeast Asian refugees being the first anything is not easy.
Silong Chhun: Especially, um, you know, with the United States, uh, accepting Southeast Asian refugees, I think it was the. Largest influx of refugee migration in the history of the United States. [00:36:00] Um, modern history of the United States anyway, and I think the United States as a whole, not just Tacoma, wasn’t really prepared right, to tackle that.
Silong Chhun: They didn’t have the resources, they didn’t know the nuances, and they didn’t know what the refugees. Didn’t know. So it is hard to provide services when there’s a disconnect there. You don’t know what the needs are.
Doug Mackey (Singing): Right.
Silong Chhun: So given the, you know, it’s been 50 years since the first came to the United States, I think given the experience of 50 years, I think for immigrants and refugees, we as a community are more.
Silong Chhun: Welcoming, more accepting, you know, Tacoma is a welcoming city. I think folks in this communities, the east side and south and specifically are more, uh, open and used to, you know, um, helping folks navigate when they needed to. I think that’s one of the unique things about GR on the east side. Um. Uh, we’re, we’re always willing to help.
Silong Chhun: We’re always willing to step up. So being able to provide more resources and, [00:37:00] and help and help folks, uh, get in the right direction, I think that’s what is the best thing that’s happened to for our immigrant and refugee communities. You know, um, let me, let me tell you a story about what I mean when I say this community Yeah.
Silong Chhun: On the east side. So I live. Right by Sheridan Elementary School, and my kids went to school with a lot of kids in the neighborhood. Um, this one morning, this grandma, he’s, she’s Jose’s grandma. I have no idea what her name is, but I, I know Jose because she’s, he’s a classmate of my son’s.
Doug Mackey (Singing): Yeah.
Silong Chhun: Um, there’s this one morning where ho you know, um, I was on my way to work and Jose’s grandma sees me as I walk into my car.
Silong Chhun: She. She, she waves me down. I say, hi, how are you doing? And she hands me documents, right? She goes, can you bring this to Jose? She doesn’t speak English too well. Can you bring this to Jose’s school? I know he went to Stewart. Yeah. And my son goes there, so I’m like, oh, sure. So just, just random. She gives me a whole bunch of documents to bring to him.
Silong Chhun: I go to [00:38:00] Stewart and I, and I just turn it in for him and everything’s all good. I followed up a few days ’cause she’s lived down the street. I just go knock on her door and say, what is everything okay? And then, you know, Jose was at home. He said, yeah, everything’s fine. So this is the community I’m talking about.
Silong Chhun: Like the people just trust each other. You know, even we are, we are we just engaging in passing. I’ve really never had a conversation with her, but she was able to say, Hey. You can you bring this to my son’s? I mean, my grandkid’s school for me and, and, and you know, she trusts me to do it. And, and, and that’s just the community that I I, that really emphasized the, you know, to how they, what the east side stands for.
Silong Chhun: Yeah. Yeah.
Marguerite Martin: I think about like. This moment. And even just everybody talking about community. Oh. The answer to all of our stress right now is community. Like what we need is more community. You need to know your neighbors. Yeah. And so many people may live in what would be considered like an expensive neighborhood.
Marguerite Martin: Yeah. Desirable neighborhood. Yeah. Where everybody’s very successful and has a lot of money. Yeah. And. [00:39:00] Uh, they probably don’t know their neighbors. Yeah. They don’t, you know, they probably couldn’t like walk up to a person around the corner and give them a bunch of papers to take to their kids’ school.
Marguerite Martin: Right. That comfort level isn’t there. Yeah. So, I mean, what is the advice you have for folks as far as like maybe haven’t grown up in that? Maybe don’t. Even know how to do that. Yeah. What do you think people need to know?
Silong Chhun: Well, I think you just gotta talk to your neighbors. Um, when you see ’em, grab the mail at the end of the block.
Silong Chhun: Just don’t be afraid to say hi. Um, you know, Tacoma’s grown. We have a brand new neighborhood down the street where I live from, and I see new neighbors every day. Um, my neighbors that live next to me are from Seattle. We’ve been neighbors for the past probably seven, eight years. But when they first moved here, you know, I, I gave ’em a rundown.
Silong Chhun: It’s like, Hey man, this. Is the hood. Traditionally it’s the hood of Tacoma. So you’re gonna hear some gunshots, you can hear some sirens. What did they say when you said this? They’re like, are you serious? I’m like, yeah, but you’re fine. And you know, there’s no random attacks. Everything’s pretty targeted, so just don’t start no shit.
Silong Chhun: Won’t be no shit.
Marguerite Martin: You know what I mean? I feel like this is exactly what Seattleites think is gonna happen. If they move to Tacoma, they’re gonna [00:40:00] have that exact conversation. You gave them the full
Silong Chhun: experience. Yeah. Yeah. But you know, my neighbors are cool. We’re hella cool. Um, uh, shout out to Steven and Mel.
Silong Chhun: Um, they’re just cool, man. They go, they have chickens that lay eggs and with the eggs prices, they share their eggs with us. That’s amazing. You know, those little basket that they just put it in and it’s just those things. And every single person who’s. Uh, new to the neighborhood that I, the block that I live on, I make sure I reach out to them.
Marguerite Martin: And what happens when you talk to your neighbors? Like, are most people like excited? Like, I feel like I’ve tried to meet my neighbors. Mm-hmm. And most people are like, oh, okay. And, you know, maybe exchange some phone numbers and like, and other people are just like, I don’t know, maybe their parents taught them like, you don’t wanna have to talk to these people.
Marguerite Martin: You don’t wanna live next to a person you don’t like. Or, I don’t know what the reason is that some people are just like. Leave me alone.
Silong Chhun: Yeah. Well, my experience is everyone’s really receptive and, and just happy that you’re talking to ’em. You know, you treat each other as human beings. Right. Just, I mean, just saying hi, um, that there’s.
Silong Chhun: Many a times where I just walk around and people yelling my name, you’re like, Shalon. Hey, I don’t have [00:41:00] no idea who it is. You know, they’re just driving by. So I think my advice to folks who, who want, you know, when you talk about community, be about community, being in community, um, you just, community starts at homes, community starts in your neighborhood.
Silong Chhun: So talk to your neighbors. Um, you bring them gifts. If you bake ex cookies, bake extra cookies and bring to them, you never know that that gesture can just start a whole relationship. So every single person on my my block knows who I am and we know each other and we watch each take care of each other, you know, even, you know, um.
Silong Chhun: My neighbor across the street from Mike, he’ll be gone for a few days. Um, he has a, you know, a younger child. He’s like, Hey, I’m gonna be gone a few days for work. Can you just keep an eye out, you know, on a house and you know, family. Yeah. Things like that.
Marguerite Martin: Amazing.
Silong Chhun: Yeah. Yeah. And we feed the
Marguerite Martin: cat. Feed
Silong Chhun: the cat.
Silong Chhun: Yeah. That’s what my kids do too. When my neighbors are out, uh, Steven Mel’s out. My kids are the one that goes, let the dogs out and it’s so good. Yeah. So when you say community, that that’s what community is and that’s what the east side stands for. Everyone is, um. Everyone has each other’s [00:42:00] back. And, and, and I feel that to the core.
Silong Chhun: That’s so good.
Marguerite Martin: I think about like, you know, uh, it’s been, uh, 10 years almost that since I started this website. Yeah. And I was talking with the guest before you about it ’cause he’s new-ish and didn’t know what it was. Yeah. And I was saying like, oh yeah, well, when I started the website, like nobody was really trying to move to Tacoma.
Marguerite Martin: Like nobody was really like. Gassing it up on the internet. Yeah. And I thought, oh, this is a good idea. And then come to find out, you know what, a lot of people don’t really like it when you do that. And so I understand the that, that, that we are in this tension of like, we want our neighborhoods to improve.
Marguerite Martin: We want our city to improve. We wanna have a great place to live. And also, the more people that wanna be here, when you have limited resources, the more tension there is around, well, okay, who gets the resources? Mm-hmm. Who gets to live here? That whole conversation. And so I just. Say that before I ask the question, like, what is your vision for the east side?
Marguerite Martin: Like what do you consider like success for your community, for your kids going forward 10, 20, 30 years? Like, how do you want to see it grow and change, and how do you not want to see it grow and change?
Silong Chhun: Yeah, that’s a great, [00:43:00] great question. I, I, I envision the east side as. To, to be what I’m to, to grow, to be, what I’m used to growing up is to be community oriented.
Silong Chhun: Um, being, um, you know, knowledgeable of who your neighbors are. Just I think just getting to know your neighbors. But my overall vision of the east side is to, to, to. To be a place that’s safe, uh, economically viable. Um, I wanna bring more businesses there, more jobs there so people can work and play where they live.
Silong Chhun: Um, because a lot of folks that live on the east side, you know, there’s really not a lot, lot of jobs there. I mean, there’s a huge cabinet maker, there’s a steel plant. Um, but even those folks, I don’t think live in the area. Right? So, um, my, my. Extreme. My overall vision for the East side is just to have a community that feels like a community, feel like a village where you can leave your door unlocked.
Silong Chhun: Right. But that’s not the case in a lot of cities. Right. I would say I, I, I, there are
Marguerite Martin: very few places I would ever do that.
Silong Chhun: Yeah. Yeah. But even, [00:44:00] even though I, I just want, uh, a place where folks have parks to go to, which we have now improve on that just to be able to walk outside and feel safe. And a lot of folks, I see me, I see a lot of folks walking their dogs and it’s becoming that way, but at the same time, not displacing.
Silong Chhun: Folks that Right. Have traditionally lived there. So how do, how
Marguerite Martin: do we do that? And, and I, I, what I love is, you’ve been so honest in this conversation, you’re like, it’s the hood. I hear gunshots every day. And it’s like, okay, I still do, you know, real talk about your neighborhood. And at the same time you’re like, but we need more businesses, we need more investment.
Marguerite Martin: So how do you balance, like, and I mean, believe me, this is my life, like trying to have real honest conversations mm-hmm. About where I live with strangers all the time about Tacoma. Yeah. Like how, how do you balance like reality and. Inspiring people. Like
Silong Chhun: That’s a great question. Um, I, I, I don’t think I have a good answer to that, but I think
Marguerite Martin: Okay, good.
Marguerite Martin: ’cause I don’t have anything,
Silong Chhun: but I think the best thing we can do is, um, if you, if you look at the history of the [00:45:00] East side and the South End itself, a lot of, even today, if you go look at the businesses now, the barber shops. Yeah. The restaurants, the grocery stores, they’re all mom and pops. The biggest grocery store we have on our side of town is the Safeway.
Silong Chhun: We have two Safeways. And then I’m
Marguerite Martin: trying to think like, where are the Safeways on the east? Well, we have one on
Silong Chhun: 56th and then one on 72nd towards, uh, towards the middleland. I was thinking like towards
Marguerite Martin: downtown. There wasn’t anything between, there’s no, there’s no grocery stores on the east side between 56th and.
Marguerite Martin: Like I five.
Silong Chhun: There is, there’s smaller ones. There’s Oh, okay. I mean there’s the BNA, which is International Food Mart. Right, right. And then, um, next to, uh, the Kmart there on 72nd Street, I think is Caps produce.
Doug Mackey (Singing): Yep. And
Silong Chhun: cap’s produce. But that’s also further. Still further out,
Marguerite Martin: right? Yeah, a little further out.
Marguerite Martin: But you have to go across Pacific Avenue to get like. There’s, uh, in the Lincoln District, there’s more.
Silong Chhun: Yeah. Lincoln District, there’s more. But, um, a, a lot of folks think it’s a grocery food desert. It is really not. We have cap’s produce, we have fresh produce, then we have all of our, uh, Asian [00:46:00] restaurant, uh, restaurants, Asian supermarkets like DNA, right?
Silong Chhun: I mean, there’s a. We get, that’s where I get my oysters, right. That’s where my, my, my wife goes shopping for all of the Asian stuff we need and we need, um, any, any Hispanic or Mexican ingredients. It’s just down the street right next to the O’Reilly’s, so. Right. You know, when you don’t come to this neighborhood and don’t know where all these shops are, people think it’s a desert.
Silong Chhun: We don’t need a Trader Joe’s. Out our way. Right. We, we don’t, we don’t need, we have everything we already need. You just gotta know where to find it.
Marguerite Martin: So how do you know where to find it? Oh, I mean, obviously you’ve lived there your whole life, but like if for your neighbors, when your neighbors were like, Hey, where do you go?
Marguerite Martin: Where are we gonna get our stuff? Like, is there like a list? Yeah. Well, there’s there a spot. Well there is. You go to see it all. Or do you just
Silong Chhun: have to talk to your neighbors? I just gotta talk to, I just gotta talk to ’em, you know? Well, if they have any, uh, if they have any questions, suggestion, I would, I suggest them, you know?
Doug Mackey (Singing): Yeah.
Silong Chhun: But there’s, we, I think we have everything we need there. Uh, I think that’s one of the Hi. The hidden gems, right? It is. Just where else can you go find, uh, uh, Japanese Kit Kats? In Tacoma, besides gonna H Mart, you can go to [00:47:00] BNA and find all that stuff there. Right? Yeah.
Marguerite Martin: So when you talk about, like, this is, and again, this is my fricking realtor brain that I have to like recalibrate because when you say like, we’re looking for investment, you know, we want more businesses, I go straight to Oh yeah.
Marguerite Martin: More Trader Joe’s. Sure. Mm-hmm. Okay. Like restaurants. Mm-hmm. But you’re saying like, no, like employers,
Doug Mackey (Singing): right?
Marguerite Martin: I mean, what? What do you mean when you say we want more investment and we want more opportunity?
Silong Chhun: Well, we want. Small business to thrive. I think small business is the backbone of the, the area in general.
Silong Chhun: ’cause if you look at every shop, every, every barbershop, every restaurant, every grocery store, it’s mom and pop owned. There’s no big, uh, yeah. And, and these businesses, establishments can become employers as well. Mm-hmm.
Marguerite Martin: Um,
Silong Chhun: as far as attracting like big businesses and, and, and, you know, uh, to become a major form of employment.
Silong Chhun: I, I don’t know. I don’t have the answer to that.
Marguerite Martin: Yeah.
Silong Chhun: Yeah. Yeah. That’s, that’s something way outta my, uh. That I’ve ever thought about, but that’s a good question. Does.
Marguerite Martin: Well, I, I have really [00:48:00] loved this conversation. It’s been like so far ranging. Is there anything you wanna make sure that you say before we wrap it up?
Marguerite Martin: That like, you really wanna communicate to people, either to your neighbors that live on the east side that would be watching or to people that have never been there?
Silong Chhun: Yeah, I just want to invite, um, those who never visited the east side before just to come by, check out Swan Creek, check out our, our wapato, which is not technically on the east side, but it’s close enough.
Silong Chhun: Uh, one of the places, you know, I grew up coming, but just, just come visit, come check out the food. We have all the cool thrift stores if you love thrifting. Um, we have the best Mexican food in town. And, um, on the weekends, just check out 72nd Street where the old Kmart used to be. It’s, it’s live, vibrant.
Silong Chhun: It’s music. There’s fresh, fresh, you know, feet, food on the grill. It’s, it’s. Just the best time.
Marguerite Martin: And if people wanna keep up with you and follow you online, like where are you on the internet? Where can they follow you?
Silong Chhun: Yeah. Um, I have an Instagram. Uh, LinkedIn. Uh, my social media handle is at the fake salon.
Silong Chhun: Um, that’s really it. We’ll [00:49:00] add it to the show notes. Yeah.
Marguerite Martin: Awesome. Thank you so much for coming on. Well,
Silong Chhun: thank you for having me. This has been an absolute pleasure and, uh, I, I love what move to Tacoma is doing. I love how you’re highlight highlighting our city and just, just e encouraging and proving to people that Tacoma, it’s a really cool city.
Silong Chhun: I also wanna mention about the whole Tacoma in general, as a filmmaker myself, yes. If you’re a filmmaker and you love the, the film and documentary or narrative, whatever, but has. So many different landscapes. We have hills that make it look like San Francisco. True. We have brick buildings that make it look like Philadelphia.
Silong Chhun: You can film and Wan Creek and make it look like you’re in the woods, or you can go to Dune Park and, and, and just make it look like anywhere. It’s, it’s, we have so many beautiful landscapes. Yeah. And buildings and historical, uh, stuff to film. So it’s a
Marguerite Martin: good looking place.
Silong Chhun: It is a good looking place.
Silong Chhun: Mm-hmm. You just gotta find it. You just gotta find beauty in it. It’s so, it’s,
Marguerite Martin: thank you so much.
Silong Chhun: Yeah. Thank you for having me. It’s been a pleasure.
Producer Doug Mackey: If you like this podcast, check out, move to [00:50:00] tacoma.com. Move to tacoma.com 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 information@movetotacoma.com. Move to Tacoma is part of the Channel 2 5 3 podcast network.
Producer Doug Mackey: 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.