Would you be able to come up with 365 positive things to say about Tacoma? That’s precisely what Tacoma resident Jennifer B., aka Tacoma Mama, did. Following the fatal shooting of a student at Foss High School last January, Jennifer B. was tired of all the negativity surrounding Tacoma.



“I was arguing with people online and realized how pointless it was,” she recalled, “because they would never change their mind(s) about Tacoma.”



Jennifer B., 34, wanted to spread the word about all the great stuff happening in the City of Destiny. She decided to take action and started a blog, “Good Days in Tacoma.” She was committed to posting one positive thing about Tacoma every day for a year.  



The blog grew in popularity on her Web site, www.tacomamama.com, and was picked up by FeedTacoma. com. “It was surprising how quickly it grew,” Jennifer B. said.



She talked about everything in her Good Days in Tacoma blog, from the city’s array of parks to great restaurants and coffee shops.



Jennifer B. is a stay-at-home mother of two so she admits her site is “parent-focused,” but she branches out and includes content for everyone, such as calendar listings. “It has a little bit of everything,” she said. “I try to keep it broad.”



Now that her commitment to finding 365 good things about Tacoma and telling the world is done, Jennifer B. continues to blog almost every day on her site.



She funds the site, which gets around 20,000 hits a month, out of her own pocket. She described it as a “labor of love.”



“I would love to turn it into something that made money,” she said.



The graduate of University of California Hastings Law School had high hopes of being a powerful lawyer some day, with a nanny to care for the children. However, Jennifer B. changed her plans after the birth of her first child. “I decided that was 180 degrees from what I wanted,” she said. “There’s no way I could have done that.”  



The Connecticut native fell in love with being a mother and spending time with her children. She and her husband of 10 years now have two girls, 7 and 4 years old.



Her family doesn’t mind the hours and hours Jennifer B. spends on the computer. Her girls especially enjoy it as they accompany their mother on many of her outings to gather content for the blog. “The kids have had a lot of fun with it,” she said.



Jennifer B.’s big project now is neighborhood guides. She already has a guide to Proctor District posted on her site and is working on one for McKinley Hill District. “It’s fun discovering all the different neighborhoods in Tacoma,” she said.