Hilltop Neighborhood, Tacoma, Washington

The Hilltop Neighborhood is a historically diverse neighborhood in the Tacoma, Washington Central District.The National Register of Historic Places specifies the geographic area of Hilltop as located within the City of Tacoma and bounded on the east by Tacoma Avenue South, on the north by Division Street, on the west by Sprague Avenue, and on the south by the edge of the bluff, which roughly equates to South 27th Street. Hilltop derives its name from its location on a high bluff overlooking Commencement Bay and the Port of Tacoma.Hilltop is near the historic Tacoma Public Library main branch, Bates Technical College, the Pierce County Courthouse, and the new Pierce County Correctional Facility, all of which are located on Hilltop's east side. It is adjoined by Tacoma's more affluent Stadium District.Sound Transit plans to build a light rail line on Martin Luther King Jr. Way, between Division Avenue and South 19th Street, by 2022, connecting to the existing Tacoma Link in Downtown Tacoma.HistoryGang activityHilltop has been notorious for drug-related gang activity, most notably related to the infamous Hilltop Crips. The word "Hilltop" became synonymous specifically with Tacoma's gang problems, and more generally with urban pathologies associated with the US's crack epidemic.