Pros and Cons of Yakima (Seattle, Ellensburg: insurance, crime rate, new house)

[Corsica2147]

I just accepted a job offer at Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital and will be moving out a month from now. I would like to know the pros and cons of living in Yakima. I read some articles about the high crime rate in Yakima and also illegal immigrant issue. But I am not exactly sure to what extend the crime is. If anyone would provide any insight about Yakima like things to do, where to live, etc would be greatly appreciate. Thank you.

[xboxmas]

I think that the further East you go when you're in Yakima, the worst it gets. But the further west you go, the better it gets. The East part of Yakima is a dump, there are drugs, meth houses, old abandoned houses, homeless people, unkept up house, ect. The west part of Yakima however, is a little bit better. It has old homes, but many of them are kept up and pretty. There's also many new houses on the west side. Of course, there is still crime and drugs on the west side but it's not as bad as the east side.

[AZ_singlemother]

I would be more concerned about the unemployment rate in Yakima. Once you lose your job, your hopes of finding another job is extremely slim.

[ogarro]

It is true that Yakima, as a larger E. Wa city does not have a lot to offer. But there are worse places actually. As far a immigration issues go, it's an agricultural area/hub and with that comes the workers who often live in the US year round. They are not all criminals and besides not being able to talk to them if you don't speak Spanish - they're people too and really have a life that has nothing to do with crime or you. Though Yakima can get snow and it gets cold in the winter, the summers are nice and hot. The mall is not great and shopping not fantastic, but when you live in E. Wa you learn to drive places (like 2-3 hours away) and make a good time of it. Tri-Cities is not so far away and has a decent shopping area. Seattle is over the mountains, but not that bad of a drive in good weather with fun things to do all over the place. There are interesting little towns within an 1/2 to 1 1/2 - like Ellensburg for one of the better rodeo/fair (the fair is big in E. Wa). True about unemployment, but it's not easy to recruit to E. Wa so once there you can always use your day trips to figure out if you want to move somewhere in particular in a year or so. I live in W. Wa now and wish I could buy a home in a good part of town for the prices you can over there. If you can handle a slower lifestyle, don't mind driving places, think picking up some conversational Spanish might be fun and can handle the reality that Mexican does not equal dangerous you'll be fine. Good luck.

[wishinandhopin]

No offense, but while I agree with the basis of what the above poster was trying to say, I don't think one can honestly comment without living it. Yakima has a horrible crime problem (murders, robberies, auto theft, etc). Twice in the last 6 montsh I've been caught up in the middle of a huge police chase. It's not fun having your children feet away from armed criminals and oficers with thier weapons pulled. We are in the most western part of the Yakima School District and it's still very uncomfortable to me. The East side schools are so overcrowded that they bus the children out here. The police are called to the middle school (adjacent to the elementary) 3/5 days a week. There are on duty police officers at the high school (across the street from the middle school). I was knocked off the sidewalk last week by a hispanic teenage girl while escorting my young children home from school. Funding for the schools is impossible because most of us are tired of financing the education of people who do nothing to give back to society. The emergency rooms are swamped with folks who don't have insurance or family doctors to take their runny-nosed children too. The problems here are REAL. I used to love it here, but you could not pay me to raise a family around here any more. Yes, we're getting out of Crackima this summer.

[scirocco22]

I was knocked off the sidewalk last week by a hispanic teenage girl while escorting my young children home from school.

I'm curious about that incident. Would you be willing to elaborate?

Thanks.

--'rocco

[mnmharrison]

Everything these people are saying is true, but that all happens in the middle of the city. There is good places to live here in yakima. There is east valley and terrece heights which is good neighborhoods and new developments all the time and no crime, but the schools i have heard are not challenging. The actual Yakima city area does have crime but if you don't live there you don't see it. I live in West Valley. There is great schools my kids go to mountainveiw it's small there is only a couple of hispanic familys and they are so nice. to have kids go there you need to live in west valley past like dazet it's all country setting it's nice and piecefull. I live on the 13300 block Barrett rd 98908 you can find it on map quest to get and idea how far it is from the actual yakima city. Takes like 15 mins to get anywhere but far enough out to have your own space. anything above (west) 16th ave is good and below (east) the yakima river is good. I wouldn't move anywhere else it's a little city and big city all in the same and you can go camping and be there in 20-30 min. They are also building a medical college in terrace heights it's a big thing because there is only like 2 on the west coast. Any questions email me. mnmharrison@aol.com

[mustang34]

The only thing I know about Yakima is it has a bad gang problem. But parts of town look very nice, such as the area at the edge of town going toward Naches. Also a really good restruant is Miners, delicious! I think it is on Nob Hill Blvd. Just a little thing to mention.

[WazzuCoop21]

Do you speak Spanish??? If not, you may feel somewhat out of place. There are many illegal immigrants in the surrounding area as well, which contribute significantly to the drug and gang problem. There are some nice areas around Yakima, but I honestly could not tell you where those are. It's not as terrible as it's made out to be, nice suburbs do exist. Best of luck.

[Moon Waffle]

Lots of it depends on where you're moving from and how that area compares to Yakima.