Pros and Cons of Yakima (Mercer Island, Ellensburg: transplants, homes, school district)

[GameHog9]

Why?

Who knows.

I live in TC, and I can tell you that life in Eastern WA is the same everywhere. Although TC is growing faster than pot these days.

Im considering Tacoma

[xcottonxcandyx]

O-k. I have lived in Yakima my WHOLE life. WHOLE. I know exactly what goes on here and I have seen the darkest corners of the entire town. For those of you who say "Oh, Yakima isn't so bad." or " People over exaggerate the crime here." you people are wrong. Yakima is the cess pool of Washington State. Most of the residents in this town are either gang bangers, drug dealers, child molesters, tweakers or white trash. I'm not being racist but thats what alot of the white people here are- and yes i am white skinned. The only people who don't have to deal with this mess are the people who live on the rich parts of town and even those aren't clean- they just look that way believe it or not drug dealers make alot of money. The cops dont help at all. i lived less than a block away from the police station and it still took them 2 hours to get to my house when there was a shoot out in front of it. Come on now. There are also alot of crooked cops in this town.

So if your planning on moving to Yakima or just visiting you should really reconsider. This place sucks and you will most likely wind up dead or tweaked out of your mind.

GIRLS- DO NOT WALK THE STREETS IN YAKIMA ALONE AT NIGHT OR DAY. if you absolutely must i suggest you get some sort of protection. i prefer the double bladed knife i have or pepper spray....a personal firearm would be the best though. seriously

-A girl who lives in Yakima

[sykesfamily]

Originally Posted by xcottonxcandyx

O-k. I have lived in Yakima my WHOLE life. WHOLE. I know exactly what goes on here and I have seen the darkest corners of the entire town. For those of you who say "Oh, Yakima isn't so bad." or " People over exaggerate the crime here." you people are wrong. Yakima is the cess pool of Washington State. Most of the residents in this town are either gang bangers, drug dealers, child molesters, tweakers or white trash. I'm not being racist but thats what alot of the white people here are- and yes i am white skinned. The only people who don't have to deal with this mess are the people who live on the rich parts of town and even those aren't clean- they just look that way believe it or not drug dealers make alot of money. The cops dont help at all. i lived less than a block away from the police station and it still took them 2 hours to get to my house when there was a shoot out in front of it. Come on now. There are also alot of crooked cops in this town.

So if your planning on moving to Yakima or just visiting you should really reconsider. This place sucks and you will most likely wind up dead or tweaked out of your mind.

GIRLS- DO NOT WALK THE STREETS IN YAKIMA ALONE AT NIGHT OR DAY. if you absolutely must i suggest you get some sort of protection. i prefer the double bladed knife i have or pepper spray....a personal firearm would be the best though. seriously

-A girl who lives in Yakima

Much agreed to someone who was born an raised there. 20+ years ago it was nice. I remember being safe walking at night in Yakima with my friends. Its sad now when I go home to visit my family my brothers won't even let there kids play outside alone and my son hates it because here he is able to ride his bike around and go to his friends houses and go to the store, but there I won't even let him walk around the corner to the local thriftway.

[iamtickled]

I too want out of Yakima, I have my house up for sale and am ready to move. I do not like it here, to many drugs, killings, gangs, etc. I am an older person and just am looking for some quaint town so I can live out what years I have left. So, if you move here, good luck! And I hope you like it!!!!!!!!!

[patagonia1]

I was born and raised in Yakima until my mid twenties. After traveling around the world I realized how behind the curve Yakima is. You have to ask the question why? One has to analyze the infrastructure of the city. Yakima is a big city at around 80,000 now and it still has no University. Why do much smaller towns like Pullman, Walla Walla, and Ellensburg have major university's and good ones at that. Yet Yakima has a C.C.? This is a very good start to realizing why the city has twice the crime rate then the U.S. and the average income has barely budged upward for 8 years! Here is the answer there is very very little entrepreneurship in Yakima. That is what makes American cities flourish and Yakima is a case study on how not to reach your goal if you want to have a city with a strong diverse economy. As the economy grows strong and has a mulitude of jobs for individuals to find their nitch through occupation's and ultimately express themselves through their labor with gratification in their bones and places for the youth to go and spend their time in a safe and enlightening environment. If this takes place guess what happens, wealth starts to spread and people have less time to think about how there is nothing to do and how their life is unfilling and then come up with great schemes on how to car jack, and rob houses.
The map of where to go and not to go is unfortunetly very accurate. The town is heavily based on Agriculture. Agriculture started seriously dying out at the beginning of the 20th century in America then manufacturing took hold through WWII and then it died out in the later half of the 20th century. We are in a service based economy and will continue down that path. Yakima is still dependent on agriculture and did not invest wisely during the middle half or later half of the 20th century and now it is paying the price. It not only missed the boat on manufacturing however it has really missed the boat on services and I really do not know how it is going to catch up. Now you have a very large population who seems like it is using the conservative approach of trying to pull itself up from the boot laces. But how? there is no infrastructure to support that approach I see it as spinning it's wheels. I think the town needs heavy investment in higher level education so young smart people will come into Yakima then ultimatley stay there becasue one it has alot of alluring things for young active people and two most people end up staying around the place they went to college. YAKIMA NEEDS ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND UNIVERSITY'S WILL CREATE IT. After that has been done Yakima needs to start looking at how to get the spanish population out to vote think about what type of demographic is really voting in Yakima then think about the 40,000 plus hispanics that live in Yakima. 20 plus living in poverty that is appaling. Why is it that there is 1.7 cops for every 1,000 people when the average in America is 3.0 for every 1,000. That statistic is almost directly proportional to the crime rate being twice the national average. Is it because the city beleives in smaller gov't? and that the market forces will lead to efficiency? The market is way to narrow with nothing to feed on. The city needs investment and coaching on how to get it on it's feet then let the market take the reins. Sorry for any mispellings I had to vent.

I will say this I thank my stars I am out of Yakima.

[iamtickled]

Dear Insight...............You said it in a nut shell. What a well written statement. I am in total agreement with you! Thank you!

[j_k_k]

I know what kind of scum deal drugs in Yakima because I'm related to a couple of old school Yakima drug traffickers and grew up with them. One got sense and got out of that stuff fifteen years ago; he has a family. The other finally OD'd/aspirated a couple years back. It's sad when you can honestly say about your own flesh and blood: society's better off with him gone.

One of my retired cousins (scum #2's mom) still lives in Yakima. I have no idea why she persists in this. All I know is that every time I drive down Nob Hill Blvd. to visit here I look around and be real thankful I don't live up there.

[patagonia1]

This is a good forum and it's nice to see that so many citicens participate. I was giving Yakima some more reflective thought last night (boy if I had a nickel for every time I thought about Yakima.)

One area where I had a deeper realization and closer movement to the truth was the drug problem in Yakima. Over and over again I see and hear the constant tone of drugs in Yakima. If I just take a look at my life growing up in Yakima and those around me (family and friends) and see how drugs played a role in our lives the drug problem in Yakima becomes much more obvious and shocking to me.

So I need to pose the question: Why do so many people in Yakima wind up in drugs?

Let's start with my youth. I was raised in Terrace Heights BTW... I was a very healthy active boy involved in all sports. By the time I hit 8th grade I started getting burnt out on the traditional sports like basketball and ended up with more free time on my hands. My mind and curiousity was expanding and I began to experiment with cigarettes and eventually tried pot by the time I was a freshman in high school. Pot to me was great. It could make the most boring Yakima days different and fun. I saw things in a different light and had different perspectives on the way I viewed the world. Then came alcohol later in high school. I was always smart enough to stay away from more serious drugs however even the pot use alone is a major pain in my ass now. I truly wish I could say that I never tried drugs because I never needed to as so many of my friends can say now.
When I tell my friends yeah my friends and I used to smoke weed all summer long and go play out in the country. There is the accpeted view from all parties that it is pathetic and the path to becoming a "loser"

So how does Yakima supply substitute resources to middle aged and high school kids who otherwise would meddle in drugs? after all alot of these kids are the same one's who eventually overdose at the age of 27 or 30 or who end up living below that poverty line.

This is a complex solution and a hard one to find the right answer to, however my philosophy is to try and supply as many constructive avenues for the youth to travel down to avoid drugs. The ones who are curious about drugs need an anti drug. I do not believe that the kid who wonders what it would be like to see the world differently or feel no pain or feel no frustraion or who wonders what it would be like to be goofy or how to become goofy should be viewed as the kid who is taboo. I see those kids as the ones who become doctors, engineers, etc. those kids are the ones who are probably more interested in expanding the creativity or there curiousity of the world. When **** hole downs don't know how to redirect those thoughts into productive means the kids are likely to grab a bong as they don't know any other way.

So how does a city supply those kids with a satisfactory condition?

I think that great public libraries are a good place to start. Just think about Yakima's library for a minute are you kidding me? I am talking about one that has cutting edge technology, interactive resources, and fantastic images of artistic endevours. Take Seattle's Pacific Science Center, EMP, City Library, or Capital Hill's green library there are to many to list. Now think about the Museum at Franklin park what kid wants to go to a musuem where there are displays of covered wagons and stories about indians. Don't get me wrong, history is very important but let's cut to the chase the only ones who go there are 50 years old and above. So if no kid's go to the Franklin musuem where the hell do they go? No offense I will be old and I will go there too. But I am talking about youth they don't give a **** about 50 covered wagon's. granted parent's play the major role however even parent's will become hand cuffed at some point and just hope to god once there resources or constraints run out.

Alot of these resources can be given off with the entrepenurship factor that I spoke about earlier. For instance mulitipe coffee shops with unique traits like bookstore/coffee shops. Places where kids can go to get together to stimulate their minds. I found that I love reading in my mid twenties if there was a cool place where I could have gone to read and cruise the internet sip coffe and hang out with friends I would have gone there instead of charcoaling my lungs in B.F.E. to get away from everything that was old.

Oh yeah I forgot to mention the recipe for disaster with regards to YVCC. Don't get me wrong it is a great C.C. I went there. But it is like Yakima is putting a label on all of it's youth and sending them off to UPS. It's a C.C. a stepping stone for a university oh yeah there is no university so they leave and never come back. Remember that comment about usually living in the same city where you graduated from college. If you don't beleive me check out a gender map of the U.S. National geographic has a great one. Notice all of the women on the east coast and all of the men on the west coast one major reason is because more women go to college on the east coast and then stay there as there are more white collar jobs for them.

I guess my finger ultimatley points to the lack luster leadership of Yakima for generations. The city gov't needs an overhaul big time! it is obvious as day to me. It seems like all of the investments in the city are for the haves not the have not's. If I were living in Yakima I would start voting for smart democrat's who understand the importance of investing in the youth with a strong focus on education and cleaning out drugs, by doubling the police force and creating tax breaks for small business's by building a new interactive library that is forward looking not backwards. By building a cutting edge museum that is constanlty changing with ne pieces of work to keep the city on it's toes not on it's heels.

Any thoughts?

[NWDUDE2002]

Yakima is turning for the better, and we are getting more higher education opportunities. The Pacific Northwest Health Sciences University just opened up this past summer and while it just has 75 students, it has plans to expand and add a College of Allied Health Sciences and the College of Biomedical Sciences. For info see this article in a Seattle paper. Small steps and not a panacea, but heading in a better direction. I anticipate as the University grows, so will a variety of support industries, spin off jobs and a better community overall.

As for early childhood education, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Thrive By Five Washigton organization are implementing innovative programs to help pre-school children and their families in neighborhoods of need.

[lori01]

Originally Posted by Balco9

I read today in the Seattle business magazine that Yakima is suppose to be the next Bend, Oregon...
A lot of Californian and Western Washington Investors are snatching up land to develop...

I have lived in Yakima, Wa . Now living in bend,or. There is no comparisson.