welcome Nathan. Thanks for serving and have fun boating over hear.
If I were you I would either want to live in the Orting area or south. Olympia is nicer for sure but then you have to get through nasty traffic everytime you want to boat. The chunk of hwy from Lewis to Fife is nasty during and there is a little chunk south that backs up but nothing near that northern portion.
Orting is cool because you can get on base the back way and still have quick access to other runs without the traffic slog. Spanaway is common for off post housing but to be honest... its kinda ghetto. Dangerous is kinda BS, I wouldn't say any place is dangerous if you use your head. Sure Tacoma has bad zones and if you head out in the middle of the night alone wearing White Supremacy shirts asking dudes for crack you might find yourself in a sticky spot but I don't think it's bad all together.
If you wanna live in the straight up sticks, try Eatonville or Mineral.
No real runs in the city, here are close ones though.
Carbon
1 - Fairfax to 177th St. EastLittle Nisqually
Winston Creek to Alder LakeMashel
1. Upper - Busy Wild confluence to EatonvilleNisqually
3 - McKenna to Yelm Hydro PlantNisqually
2 - Mashel River to MckennaOhanepecosh
Ohanepecosh Campground to La Wis Wis CampgroundPuyallup
1 - Niesson Creek to Electron (Puyallup Gorge)Puyallup
2 - Kapowsin Road Bridge to Highway 162