Aberdeen (Seattle, Olympia, Longview: for sale, renting, crime rates)

[Ryan]

Originally Posted by Fat Freddy

In Aberdeen you are dealing with rednecks getting drunk and beating up their wives or meth freaks robbing and stabbing each other.

There is no way you can compare that to the City of Sacramento which last year had 60 murders to Aberdeen's 1, or 200 rapes to Aberdeen's 12, or 2,000 robberies to Aberdeen's 13, or 6,000 burglaries to Aberdeen's 240, or 13,000 cases of larceny to Aberdeen's 1,300, or 7,000 auto thefts to Aberdeen's 90, or 460 cases of arson to Aberdeen's 4.

When gunfire wakes you every night and police helicopters constantly patrol overhead with searchlights, then you can say Aberdeen has a crime problem.

Moderator cut: comments deleted I'll reitterate. I do hear (or hear about) gunfire every night and I see police helis all the time. I've worked in law enforcement for 6 years. A lot of Sac is pretty bad but Sac is just one city amongst many others, and Aberdeen still had more action. Other areas I worked (Folsom and Elk Grove, Galt etc.) were veritable paradises by comparison.

I've been there; I do it almost every day. Moderator cut: cut comments

[Ryan]

And since the info in my initial post is now gone, I'll allso reiterate that although I like our new place in the Tri-Cities a lot, I'd still move back to Aberdeen/GH in a heartbeat. There are a lot of wonderful intangible and indescribable things about the area that make it an amazing area to live in, and I do miss it.

[bmsea]

And since my post was also deleted, I'll also reiterate that when I come to these forums, I'm looking for a typical experience in a certain city.

When it comes to Aberdeen, I live in Westport, I go to church in Aberdeen, I work with people who live throughout Aberdeen and Hoquiam and Grays Harbor. And if there are helicopters and gunfire, we aren't hearing it. (And my colleague in City of Aberdeen reports that the Aberdeen Police Department does not own a helicopter). If there is rampant crime, I'm not seeing it. I will agree, there is a ton of poverty, and in poverty stricken neighborhoods, there is drug use, alcoholism, domestic abuse, which is a bummer, but doesn't equate to crime sprees throughout town.

In an informal poll of my office coworkers, one person had a crime to report in the past year - his christmas decorations were vandalized. When I lived in LA and Seattle, the answer would have ranged from armed burglary to car theft.

I'm sure those things happen in Aberdeen, I just don't know anyone who has had it happen lately, so I'm telling you all, in the neighborhoods that I'm familiar with, I haven't experienced a serious crime, and no one that I know personally has experienced serious crime.

At the end of the day, I maintain that this area is not paradise; but it is a nice alternative to city living. And, having invested my time and energy here, I believe its on an upswing, from what sound like some pretty dark and dreary days.

PS with regards to surfing in Westport, I grew up in Hawaii, and we get visitors from all points to enjoy the DIFFERENT beach conditions that you find here. The coldwater classic, which is put on annually by the Surfrider Foundation, attracts international surf sponsors and surfers from all over the place, and it has been growing exponentially each year. So again, its not the North Shore's pipeline, but it does attract an average of 1000 surfers each week, and the best proof of that is that it supports 2 full time surf shops in a town of 2000 people.

[FlintRocks]

There are some people who love Aberdeen/Hoquiam. For them the area is great. But for most people the area is a cesspool.

If you're going to consider moving there you have to just hope that you're one of the few.

BTW - We really enjoyed it there the first 3 years after we moved there. But it got really old after that and we finally realized the cities were not getting better like the chamber of commerce types kept promising.

[FlintRocks]

Originally Posted by boatguy

What can people tell me about Aberdeen? Average age of populace, work, rent and property values, weather, crime? What the place is like.Thanks

To actually answer your questions:

Age: mostly old. School enrollment is decreasing in Aberdeen. Few people in their 20s and 30s. Even fewer in 20s and 30s who aren't on drugs.

Work: Not much, mills have closed recently but the pulp mill may open again soon. Unemployment rate is worse than statitistics show.

Housing values: Excellent. You can get really cheap housing in Aber/Hoq.

Weather: Unless you like cold and damp the weather sucks. High temps may seem comparable to Seattle but it reaches the high for a very short time in Aber/Hoq so even in the summer it's pretty cool most of the day.

Crime: worse than average but not extremely bad

[Fat Freddy]

Here is the beginning from a story in today's Daily World. It is a graphic, shocking, example of the terrible crime wave sweeping Gary's Harbor County which makes Aberdeen/Hoquiam a more dangerous place to live than many major urban areas.

"A 27-year-old Hoquiam man waving a steak knife in the middle of Lincoln Street and challenging passers-by to fight, was arrested by Hoquiam police Saturday after being tasered."

I'm glad they were able to subdue him before they had to call out those imaginary police helicopters.

[bmsea]

I just think this crime discussion is so bizarre. Our babysitter's brother is a police officer and I was asking if there was some hidden crime community that I am not aware of. He agreed it was pretty mellow, but that there's no shortage of wierdo's here.

[mrkool]

Originally Posted by Fat Freddy

Here is the beginning from a story in today's Daily World. It is a graphic, shocking, example of the terrible crime wave sweeping Gary's Harbor County which makes Aberdeen/Hoquiam a more dangerous place to live than many major urban areas.
"A 27-year-old Hoquiam man waving a steak knife in the middle of Lincoln Street and challenging passers-by to fight, was arrested by Hoquiam police Saturday after being tasered."
.

So this is what you call a "graphic, shocking example of the terrible crime wave" there??
Yeah, a guy (no doubt drunk) waving a steak knife sure ranks right up there with the murders, rapes, and robberies of most big cities.
I figure either your post is meant in a joking way, or you've led a very sheltered life and have no idea what real crime is.
The violent crime stats for the Aberdeen area are quite low. For the life of me I can't figure out where you and some other folks are getting these perceptions of terrible crime in that area.

[bmsea]

I think Fat Freddy was being sarcastic

[allforcats]

Yes, mrkool, FatFreddy was definitely being amusing.