Best area in Spokane to raise a family (Tacoma, Everett: environment, relocating)

[EasternWashMom]

My HF Autistic DD (dear daughter) is 15 and in the 8th grade at GreenAcres. They have been wonderful. She has 3 classes with her peers and the rest in Resource Room. We are getting her a NeuroPsych test next month, to prepare for High School.

We tried the Dan diet and we tried other things, she was DX'd at 6. I did refuse meds, and we found what worked for her is keeping a consistent schedule. She was attacked by a dog a few years ago and is now on Zoloft and we've had no bad issues, just great attention and focus from her.

How are you all managing?

[Chibichippoke]

lol Yeah leap of faith all the way. It's seems like that's all we've been doing, especially with the practically blind move from Colorado to Washington. Oh man sixteen houses to look at? I know it's been hard for the kids when mommy and daddy decide to go drive around and look at possible houses. I think my 5 year old has a love/hate relationship with weekends because he gets to be with mommy and daddy but not in the idea way he would like to. He wearily asks us where we're going when we all pack up and head for our car. We've been trying to cut the driving to just one day and I've been trying to be just a little more meticulous with houses so we can cut our list some more. I think he'll love it though when we actually get to look inside the houses. Which is soon I hope!
We've found some houses near Browne Elementary, Madison Elementary and Ridgeview, does anyone have any input from these schools? I know Kena mentioned she knows South Hill schools well but do you know anyone who's dealt with these schools or heard anything? And we also found a cute house in Nine Mile Falls, anyone have any experience with the elementaries there? Tons of questions I know, but I really do appreciate everyone's input but the schools and neighborhoods etc. Thank You!

[Jen54]

What I Loved. The Four Seasons. My House. And Tons Of Camping Areas And Parks Galore. I Lived In North Spokane, In The Mead School District. Up Near Five Mile And Whitworth College. Very Family/kid Oriented.

Loved That It Was A Short Drive To Portland.

Felt Very Safe In My Area.

South Hill Good, North Good. Everything In Between Really Iffy.

Hated About It. Everything Else. Sex Offenders Major Major Major Up The Ying Yang.

No North Or South Freeway.

Corrupt Everything.

Back Country Old School Thinking. It's Almost Like Spokane Got Stuck In Time.

I Personally Think If You're From A Small Town, And Have Never Lived The City Life, Than You'll Do O.k. There.
But I Think If You're Use To Having It All, Like Growing Up In California Or West Coast Areas, And East Coast Areas Where You're Up To Date And Up To Speed On Everything You'll Find Spokane To Be Too Slow And Boring. Even With The Beautiful Nature Around You.

[kena]

Originally Posted by Jen54

Sex Offenders Major Major Major Up The Ying Yang.

I appreciate your opinion. Spokane, just like anyplace, isn't for everyone. One thing I have to keep coming back to is the myth that Spokane is somehow overrun with sex offenders. Is it just a self perpetuating thing, maybe media coverage skewing perceptions? The following are numbers I found from the data on this site for cities that are comparable to Spokane and demonstrate that Spokane's ratio of sex offenders compares well with similar cities:

Spokane sex offender ratio 938-1 Spokane, Washington (WA)

Boise: 439-1 Boise, Idaho (ID)

Tacoma: 786-1 Tacoma, Washington (WA)

Omaha: 1068-1 Omaha, Nebraska (NE)

Colorado Springs: 474-1 Colorado Springs, Colorado (CO)

[chiaroscuro]

Originally Posted by Chibichippoke

lol Yeah leap of faith all the way. It's seems like that's all we've been doing, especially with the practically blind move from Colorado to Washington. Oh man sixteen houses to look at? I know it's been hard for the kids when mommy and daddy decide to go drive around and look at possible houses. I think my 5 year old has a love/hate relationship with weekends because he gets to be with mommy and daddy but not in the idea way he would like to. He wearily asks us where we're going when we all pack up and head for our car. We've been trying to cut the driving to just one day and I've been trying to be just a little more meticulous with houses so we can cut our list some more. I think he'll love it though when we actually get to look inside the houses. Which is soon I hope!
We've found some houses near Browne Elementary, Madison Elementary and Ridgeview, does anyone have any input from these schools? I know Kena mentioned she knows South Hill schools well but do you know anyone who's dealt with these schools or heard anything? And we also found a cute house in Nine Mile Falls, anyone have any experience with the elementaries there? Tons of questions I know, but I really do appreciate everyone's input but the schools and neighborhoods etc. Thank You!

My brother went to Browne, and we lived 60 seconds drive away from in, on Rowan street. Good school, good area. Affordable and good neighborhoods, some better than others, but I used to walk around at night as a 15 year old with my friends, and I was never harassed or mugged or anything. My brother liked the school, unfortunately he went there before they renovated it! It looks a lot better now, I'm sure it's still a good school.

[Deena160]

Originally Posted by EasternWashMom

My HF Autistic DD (dear daughter) is 15 and in the 8th grade at GreenAcres. They have been wonderful. She has 3 classes with her peers and the rest in Resource Room. We are getting her a NeuroPsych test next month, to prepare for High School.

We tried the Dan diet and we tried other things, she was DX'd at 6. I did refuse meds, and we found what worked for her is keeping a consistent schedule. She was attacked by a dog a few years ago and is now on Zoloft and we've had no bad issues, just great attention and focus from her.

How are you all managing?

Sorry. Not very PC for me to assume you had an autistic son. You DD's program sounds very similar to my son's, and I've been happy with it for the most part. He has 2 classes with peers, and the other time is divided between an enclosed classroom and the resource room. He's been in class with some of these kids since preschool and it'll be very hard for him to move.
We haven't tried any meds, but I've been tempted. He doesn't have too many problems acting out, but his attention span is pretty small, unless it has something to do with computers(same as my oldest DD). He's got gut problems like a many autistic kids. We got him off milk and that helps a lot, but that didn't seem to make any difference in him mentally.
It's hard as he heads into puberty. All of the sudden my little boy turned into a teenager--attitude, facial hair, etc...yet he is still obsessed with Power Rangers and and reads Magic Treehouse books. It's definately going to be hard watching and coping with him growing up. :~/ D

[coffeepotbend]

Jen54-Ha ha....I lived in Spokane for 15 years (1987-2002) and was also well aware of the time warp issue. Spokane has always been behind. Then, we moved to Minot N.D. which was surprisingly with the times. But, then we went ice fishing at Devils Lake, N.D. in 2004 and it was still the 80's there.....I kid you not!!!! The clothes, the hairstyles, the attitudes.....it was so weird!!!!!! It was worse than Spokane!!! But we enjoyed the weekend just the same. It was fun!

Your right about the sex offenders in Spokane. Here's an article about it.

Spokane.net - City of Second Chances

[coffeepotbend]

Originally Posted by Darko

I've been reading through the thread and I've noticed that some people have had very bad experiences and others haven't yet experienced a drive-by shooting and the horrendous amounts of vehicle prowling.

I've only lived here about 2 years. I first lived on the Northside, right near a major road, so it was a little safer. However, gang symbols would frequently appear on dumpsters and the backs of buildings. I would probably hear gunshots once every few weeks, which isn't bad at all.

The rest of the time I've lived in the valley. Everything looks nice but at night after 11:00 PM you shouldn't go out walking on the streets. It's okay in some places but I've experienced two drive-by shootings in less than 6 months right around 12:00 AM. I don't mean just someone driving by and popping cars with paintballs (which is common). I mean jackasses flying down the street to a skidding stop unloading pistols. Most of the time people can sleep through that stuff I guess. I'm a night owl however and I'm usually getting home at that time on friday nights and weekends.

I don't have a concealed firearms permit so it's a little unerving at times. It seems like the valley department is probably understaffed. I'd rather not have to rely on them anyways, not much they can do after you've been mugged (which I haven't experienced yet, just an example). I'm probably a bit more biased right now because of the recent broken window I've received in a case of vehicle prowling.

The neighborhood I live in is great really... during the day. Kids out playing, etc. No shoes hanging from the power lines yet. I'm told that the shoes you see hanging from power lines all across spokane and the valley are markers indicating either that the territory has been claimed by a gang or that it's just an indication to illegal substance abusers that they can buy in that neighborhood. Maybe someone can clarify that for me.

I read earlier someone mentioned cars scoping out neighborhoods at night. There's rarely a week that goes by that I don't notice this happening. Like others have said though, it depends on where you live and it depends on when the next gang is going to come along and "claim" your neighborhood.

I would suggest that anyone considering moving to spokane or the valley really look through crime charts to see which neighborhoods have the lowest crime rate.

Another person mentioned homeless. I don't know how homeless people are in other cities but here, they'll walk right up to you and touch your shoulder begging for money. That just isn't acceptable in my book. I've also seen one rip/beat the push handle off one of those push doors to get in a building. This was right in the heart of the downtown area.

If you work early in the morning downtown, you will see them sleeping up against entrances too. It clears out as the morning progresses though.

The beggars at intersections is getting ridiculous as well (again, this is common all over the place, it just pisses me off). I wish there weren't so many ignorant people giving them money. A while back when I was driving home I hit a stop light (sprague/pines) I watched a woman in a wheelchair roll over to the side of a building, stand up, stretch and get a bottle of water out of her cooler. There's also another woman there who yells at cars as she crosses and wears her backpack under her coat. If any of you frequently drive that area you'll know who I'm talking about...

There is also mention of the Meth problems. I grew up in Montana and there is a major meth problem in the city I grew up in. Labs in every neighborhood, and one place even exploded into a ball of flames. However, I never had to deal with doped up meth heads yelling at every car they walk by as people are waiting for the stop light to turn green though. Maybe it's just because it's getting warmer again or something but I've been dealing with this about twice a week as I'm leaving the downtown area after work, right near the homeless tent city by the brown street freeway entrance. They make you want to get out and lay a bat swing or two into them. In one of these events the passenger in the car in front of me actually got out yelling back. I probably should have helped.

Obviously Spokane is very liveable. It just wouldn't be my first choice. It might just be a series of unfortunate, random events that have been laid before me for the past year but I have seen it get progressively worse since I moved here two years ago. I know you get different answers from whoever you ask but this is just my personal experience.

I know what your talking about here!!! The crime is horendous!! When we finally moved (yea, we took Minot, N.D. orders to get out, and now we're getting sent back), I was so uptight it was crazy. The first time I walked out of a Walmart in the dark alone and asked store employees to escort me to my car, they thought I was nuts. It took me 6 months to relax, and stop carrying my concealed weapon everywhere!!! I didn't realize just how "on guard" I had been become. Minot was soooooo safe, I loved that!!! It was good for me to get a chance to relax and feel safe.

Speaking of meth labs, does anyone know if sellers have to disclose wether a meth lab had ever operated in a house they are selling? I was thinking it was a law, but I can't remember what state has this law.

I remember seeing Russian gang members boldly scoping out the parking lots of the malls and grocery stores (even in daylight) for the cars they wanted to steal. The Russians run the chop shops. When they arrived, car theft went through the freaking roof!!! I remember being glad that we did not have one of the "desirable" cars. None-the-less, one of us would stay with the vehicle while the other went into the store.

[Deena160]

Rocking in the fetal position here...what area of Spokane/Valley are you talking about? :~( D

[coffeepotbend]

Deena160-are you asking me what area I'm talking about? And are you asking about the car thefts? Or about getting escorts to my car?