Your exposure to crime in these cities is going to have a strong correlation with your income level. Both are pretty bad statistically though. Tacoma crime index is 0. Lakewood 2.

Lakewood is very different depending on what part of the city you are in. The areas near the lakes towards the NW side of town are very nice and pretty quiet, whereas the the SE part of town near JBLM is one of the highest crime areas in greater Tacoma. YMMV.

Also keep in mind that the downtown/city center area of Tacoma is at the far northeast side of Tacoma, not actually in the center.

I’ve lived in some sketchy areas in Washington and across the country but I wouldn’t want to live in Lakewood

NO.
The cops are fucking assholes and property crime is rampant.
I’ve seen beater cars slowly casing neighborhoods looking for houses without cameras.
Lakewood is a fucking shithole.

Totally. Lakewood blows. I go for the Asian food and GTFO ASAP.

I live in Lakewood ( Oakbrook ), very quiet and great neighbors. But fucks come into the neighborhood break into homes hit up on mailboxes, less than other parts of town. Still very good place to live.

Lakewood is always appearing on Cops. What does that tell you, lol.

Would you recommend Steilacoom?

steilacoom is better. I’ve walked from the beach at lakewood to tacoma, other than woodbrook, it gets sketchy just as tacoma. ruston is nicer in some areas

Some close friends of mine live on the west side of Lakewood, almost Steilacoom, about 5 minutes from Ft. Steilacoom Park. That area seems really nice, pretty quite, about 20 minutes from 6th Ave in Tacoma. It seems like they have less crime around there than we do around my place (South Tacoma/Lincoln District). Your dollars will definitely go further there for housing than in Tacoma proper. As others have said, Lakewood close to JBLM is pretty shitty. Like anywhere else, there are good parts of town and bad parts of town.

Lol! So I might as well say scratch off living in Tacoma, or would that be gross generalization?

it’s up to you, I’d have to be paid to stay in ruston and you couldn’t pay me to move back to tacoma or lakewood. I lived in both for 1.5 years and felt much safer in everett of all places. I was nearly kidnapped in tacoma twice and followed constantly in lakewood and tacoma and steilacoom is expensive and full of old rich people. my cousin is down on jblm and hates it, he’s from WA but would rather be stationed anywhere else

No, Lakewood is on par with south Tacoma as far as safety goes. Which is not great. University Place is a much safer area to live, or the north side of Tacoma. Lakewood, Ruston, University Place, Sfeilacoom and Tacoma have morphed into one continuous metro without any well defined borders and unless you’ve lived there a while it all blends into each other.

If you can afford it. There’s literally like one tavern and one restaurant and jackshit for schools. It’s pretty much all retirees that want a view of the water and never have to commute anywhere. Also the main west coast rail line runs right through “downtown.” As if it had a downtown.

In the PNW you get what you pay for.
If you want to spend $5000/month, you’re going to have a peaceful life. If you want to spend $500/month, you’re life is gonna suck and you’ll get your car stolen and your crap apartment broken into once a week.

Fircrest is nice if you have a shitload of money, and don’t need to commute anywhere. It’s a dry town. No bars…unless you belong to the country club.

Fircrest is no longer dry as of 2015 or something like that, but is incredibly resistant to bringing in commercial business. Spring Lake Cafe and the Sammy’s Pizza serve beer, and good luck to anyone pushing for hard alcohol.

I agree, Steilacoom is much nicer. My mom lives there, close to the Lakewood border. It's a nice area

So I might as well forget about moving anywhere in Pierce County?

I moved to Tacoma 3 months ago and am happier than I’ve ever been. It’s more a matter of what you’re used to/comfortable with.

The only issue is that it's harder to afford a house in Tacoma than Atlanta surbubs.

I lived in Lakewood for 4 years. Specific areas are sketchy. There are a lot of nicer, expensive areas. The target and Walmart are way more chill than the tacoma ones. There's a farmers market in the summer. Fort steilacoom Park is cool. For the most part, I think it's safer than tacoma.

This is so embarrassing. Tacoma is not scary to live in. Lakewood is worse (and more boring) in most places.

Even a city like Atlanta has more crime, perhaps more shooting crimes than Tacoma, but if we are looking into home affordability, Tacoma is becoming another seattle cost-wise.

The part of Pierce County on the peninsula is pretty nice if you can afford it.

Yep. “Downtown” is just the banking district. It’s a ghost town after hours. The real life of Tacoma is in the neighborhoods. Proctor, Hilltop, Ruston, 6th Ave, Old Town, etc.
back in the 90’s, there used to be a bunch of dance clubs like Drakes and comedy clubs and a huge pool hall/arcade called Jillion’s. There was The Swiss. Oh and a shitty, shitty line dancing redneck hick bar called McHale’s where people liked to stab each other in the parking lot while their cowboy boots slipped around on chew spit.

You get what you pay for. Good neighborhoods aren’t cheap, and cheap neighborhoods aren’t good.

Only if you don’t have to commute. There’s really nice places on that side of the Narrows, but those bridge tolls and traffic are hell.

Everything on the west coast is becoming Seattle/San Francisco cost wise. Tacoma, Vancouver, Portland, San Diego, all of it.

At Western State Mental Hospital? ;)

Definitely more boring

I’d live in Tacoma

I liked the area near Bridgeport. But I like University Place more. Not that far from Lakewood (if that’s a thing you need) and it’s pretty.

I was born in Tacoma and at one time it was wealthier than Seattle and the wealthiest part of Tacoma other than the Northend was Lakewood. The largest mansions were around Gravelly Lake and American Lake and built by the lumber barons like Weyerhaeuser. Then Ft. Lewis came in and the area expanded with off base low income housing particularly during the Korean and Vietnamese wars with Little Korea, Elmo's bookstore (porno parlor) strip clubs and other low rent businesses for a transient military population. The first time I saw crystal meth was from a Banditos motorcycle gang member when he was selling a bag of Mexican weed to my friend's older brother in 1978 at a motel just off of Pac Ave. Things got worse as time went on and eventually Lakewood incorporated into a municipality with its own police force. The Lakewood PD had a particularly bad reputation back in the 90s. Bottom line is it would not be my first or even my last choice to call home in 2023.

This was a jolt to my geriatric heart lol. The loft on pac Ave.

Dupont and Steilacoom are nice

Steilacoom is awesome if you like a slow town with character, there are plenty of things to do within a 15 min drive too

I wandered into McHales rocking an ass-length ponytail. I thought I was about to die. I bought the only bottle of Budweiser I’ve ever had since 3rd grade, pounded it and GTFO. I thought I was a goner.
There was another shithole dive called The Pegasus that I went to with a bunch of Puyallup tribal members, and it was ok. I went there alone a couple weeks later, and the bartender told me to get out while I still could. It was a “run while you still have legs” warning. She gave me a coupon on a coaster for the rum and coke I ordered. I still have it. It’s been 30 years.

Lakewood is worse.

Why do people hate you so much

Real Estate company and homeowner in Tacoma here. I'm in all the neighborhoods around JBLM all the time. Lakewood and Tacoma especially because of JBLM. In my opinion, Tacoma and Lakewood are both neighborhood by neighborhood. You can be in a D-class neighborhood in either city, travel 2 miles in any direction and be in a B-class neighborhood. Neighborhoods also change over time, so it's worth spending some time driving around and experiencing it for yourself.
We've sold houses in really fantastic neighborhoods in both cities, and the buyers have loved them. And, there are others we wouldn't even feel safe putting families into homes. It comes down to research. If you're looking in the city limits of Lakewood and Tacoma, go check out the interactive crime maps for both cities. For everything else, check out the Pierce County Crime Map: https://gisdata-piercecowa.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/crime-data/explore.

If I had to pick 2 areas to stay away from in each city, I'd say steer clear of the areas immediately West of the Tacoma mall, and for Lakewood I'd steer clear of Tillicum.

Good Luck!