Richland Washington

[Balco9]

How far is Kennewick to Walla-Walla.

[silverfox]

Hi Balco,

It's about 45-50 miles. Understand they are considering upgrading the hiway.

Silverfox

[jjones]

I grew up in Richland, here is the long and short of it from my view, first the negatives:
1. dreary wet cold winters with alot of cloud cover and inversions that can sit in that area for weeks without sun, mostly from the fact it sits in a basin 500 ft above sea level in basically a bowl.
2. Short Spring and very hot and humid summers due to increased humidity from the irrigation over the past 15 years. I lived in Atlanta I have that as a reference, its not quite that humid. You definitely need a pool or a boat here. Oh yes we get some pretty severe wind storms too.
2. Pretty boring landscape mostly slighty rolling hills with sagebrush.
3. Possible River contamination from the radioactive waste leaking into the groundwater.
4. The City government is atrocioius due to the gobs of money they get from Hanford, they end up messing up everything they attempt and taking a long time to do it (probably worst than most city gov'ts)
5. ALot of Hispanics, dont get me wrong my best friend as a kid was mexican but you can definitely see illegals all over the place especially in pasco, and east Kennewick.) I would guess 50% in Kennewick and 80% in pasco. Whites are the minority in the Richland parks in the summer although there are not as many living in Richland.
6. Older homes are prefabs from the war effort, cookie cutter and not built very well and at least 50 years old.
7. No culture to speak of other than the Hanford history which you get tired of hearing all the time.
9. No central focal point of the three towns, and spread out all over the place. They tried to merge 10 years ago but no one wanted to give up their little kingdoms.
10. Not enough high end places to eat, and I haven't had too much good to say about the chain restaurants either.

Ok enough negatives, now some positives:
1. High paying Hanford Jobs, low cost of housing
2. Centrally located to Spokane, Portland, Seattle and the beach.
3. Large River, lots of hunting, fishing, close to several average sized ski hills.
4. Becoming well known for its wineries, many wine tours, events etc.
5. Golfing, lots of courses to choose from.
6. Small town atmosphere in Richland especially with high paying jobs.
7. 4 year extension WSU branch campus with graduate level degrees.
8. Hydroplane races

All places have good and bad but I have noticed especially in the last 10-15 years the negatives have become more prevalent in my assessment of my hometown.