Moving to Yakima in a week(on purpose) (Ellensburg, Sunnyside: crime rate, living)

[as439726]

My wife, kids, and I are moving to Yakima next week for work and I was hoping for some help. Can anyone post important info like pictures, cool stuff to do, where to live without going broke, warnings, etc. Any progressive mom groups for my wife would be great also. Thanks everyone

[vette-dude]

Originally Posted by as439726

My wife, kids, and I are moving to Yakima next week for work and I was hoping for some help. Can anyone post important info like pictures, cool stuff to do, where to live without going broke, warnings, etc. Any progressive mom groups for my wife would be great also. Thanks everyone

I used to have alot of family in Yakima..and still a few remaining...This city has changed alot over the years, within the central part of the state, it has more than it's share of latino gangs...not sure the part of town they are though...would highly recommend go to the police department web page and check out the information...In regards to a nice area to live, one that comes to mind is Terrace Heights, eastern Yakima, located near the Interstate easy access to and from for shopping and work. Please stay away from the East end of Yakima, plenty of punk gang bangers, most are illigal immigrants, high crime rate and drug activity is totally disgusting.
West Valley is a good area and anything west of 24th Avenue is good...Good Luck....


Alot of wineries in the Yakima / Tricities locations.....Alot of fun things to do in the summer months such as boating.....

[j_k_k]

Originally Posted by as439726

My wife, kids, and I are moving to Yakima next week for work and I was hoping for some help. Can anyone post important info like pictures, cool stuff to do, where to live without going broke, warnings, etc. Any progressive mom groups for my wife would be great also. Thanks everyone

My cousins have lived in Yakima all their lives. It was a dump when I first visited it at age 10 (1974) and it's gotten worse. (Two of them were drug thugs for awhile. One grew some sense before it was too late; the other finally ODed himself to death a few years back.)

I'm sure there are relatively decent areas in town, though I don't know where they are. If it were me I'd commute from one of the nearby towns like Selah, maybe Naches. Not Toppenish, not Wapato. Mabton and Sunnyside don't even bear consideration even if they were closer.

[M3 Mitch]

Have you decided to live inside the city limits for some particular reason? Where is your job? From what I know of the area, you are better off living somewhere outside of town and commuting in (a reasonable distance)

If you decide to live in-town, it's not hard to recognize the parts of town that are more upscale and those that are more ghetto.

I'd suggest somewhere in an unincorporated area probably north and west of Yakima proper. Mabton and Sunnyside are too far away, do have some gang-related activity so I wouldn't consider them.

I agree with jkk that Selah and Naches are valid choices for nearby small towns, assuming that's what you want.

[bobbilly79]

Tieton is a nice unincorporated area as well. I used to live in Ellensburg and had a friend that lived in Tieton. When in E-Burg we would do most of our non-grocery shopping in Yakima due to lack of E-burg shopping, but always made sure we were out of Yakima by dark. It's not LA or anything, but it does have it's drug and gang issues, although it seems Sunnyside and the lower Yakima Valley are getting worse by the year.

[as439726]

i have been told to live outside city. thanks for that. Does anyone have pictures of Yakima? I wanna show my wife. What cool stuff is there to do?

[Dendrite]

Originally Posted by as439726

Does anyone have pictures of Yakima? I wanna show my wife.

If you don't get any takers, type "Yakima, WA" in to Google images. I just got 98,000 images that popped up with this search. Sure... 90,000 of them might be irrelevant but there were several nice pictures in the first few pages I saw that will get her started!

[j_k_k]

Originally Posted by as439726

i have been told to live outside city. thanks for that. Does anyone have pictures of Yakima? I wanna show my wife.

I wouldn't necessarily do that.

Although, in the interests of marital honesty which I much applaud, you should probably do so.

Try not to get any of northern Nob Hill Blvd, or you'll have a spousal rebellion. It's where I have to go to visit one of my cousins, and while she lives in the reasonable south part, I'm never too happy about the part near the freeway exit. Tempted to pack heat. It's called Crackima sometimes for a reason. I think the local leaders try real hard, but don't have a real promising situation to work with.

Good news: for major shopping, you can always make the 1:10 drive down to us in Tri-Cities. More to do down here anyway, I think.

[as439726]

still hoping someone can post real pictures of Yakima not commercial pictures.

[GameHog9]

Pictures? I dont have any. Yakima is located in Central WA, right at the division between green and brown. Well, sort of. The town itself is in a desert setting, but go about 30 minutes - 1 hour west and youll start hitting the evergreen part of this state.

The gang problem is very much real. The local paper here in the Tri Cites seems to report every week of another 14/17/18 year old shot in Sunnyside/Toppenish/Yakima. Totally sucks.