Moving to Shelton? Need Info PLS> (Olympia: to rent, crime rate)

[larrykcragun]

I go with your husbands aunt. I was born there never to return. Sorry. Olympia is close and I like it better.

[chris]

I wouldn't live in Shelton if I was single, noooo way.

For families with kids, it's one of the better areas if you want to avoid child predators for Western WA, even though there is a jail here that houses several of them (there is a guy who lives in town who was a serial rapist in the 80s, he's obviously under scrutiny and people know who he is). Outside of that, for example, where I live there isn't a registered sex offender within 10 miles. There is no comparison to say, Olympia, which is the exact oppposite.

The drug problem seems more isolated to a few blocks downtown and some points south of downtown. There does seem to be a small resurgence of crackheads after a big crackdown on them for the past few years. Downtown has really cleaned up even in the short time I've spent here.

Shelton/Mason county isn't for everyone though. For families with kids, I do recommend it.

[emeraldmoon]

I googled Shelton Wa, mason county and got a whole list of things. As a 10 year resident, there is more to list than not. This may be a place to start though:


Shelton-Mason County Chamber of Commerce | Community Information (http://www.sheltonchamber.org/community.php - broken link)

It's the link to the chamber of commerce... There are good schools and there are good places to live. As in any town, you just need to seek them out. In town here Walmart, Fred Meyer and Safeway are the big stores. There are local festavils like the Festival of Trees and Oysterfest. The Mason county fairgrounds are just outside of town, so there are events held there also. Shelton is called Christmas Tree Town USA. They have a bus (or 2 or 3) that you can ride on for a can of food, donated to the food bank, to see the lights around town at Christmas.

See what you can get from the link, it may help you out...

[shishka]

DONT MOVE TO SHELTON!!!!!!!!!!

Im 21 years of age and have lived here my entire life.
Its a hugely hick-town. The only thing for kids to do here, (unless they have a car and can drive to Olympia) is do drugs, drink, and get knocked up.
Mason county (from what Ive heard) has the highest Meth use AND teen pregnancy rates in the state. Of the 11ish girls in my 8th grade graduating class, only 3-4 of us have Not had kids..
I wouldnt recommend anyone moving here with children.. unless they have very good morals, and a strong family.
Its a hole of a town. A redneck breeding ground.

Despite what others are saying, I think the weather here is okay.
The seasons are very defined. In the winter, we Almost always get snow, but usually nothing more than 6inches to a foot. Though this year we have gotten about 2 feet, which is very unusual. The Summers are great, I dont know what other people are talking about haha. Its warm from June till early September. Its actually common for us to have a drought in the summer. But with the rainy season accenting our winter snow, it can make the winters seem extra long.
We have a record rain fall that was recorded a couple years ago, of I think 40ish days straight of rain.
But all that rain does make it beautiful in the spring.

[Ultrarunner]

Originally Posted by shishka

DONT MOVE TO SHELTON!!!!!!!!!!.

Is the area around Lake Cushman similar?

What about Grapeview?

[KidBlue]

I'm also interested in the Lake Cushman area. Is it a nice area to retire?

[gladtobeoutofhell]

don't move there....you'll regret it.

[k1bard]

Originally Posted by rosystarr

Hi. My name is Starr. My husband is in the Navy and transferring unaccompanied to Italy and my three young children and I are wanting to move to Shelton, Washington near family.

Is anyone from Shelton or know about Shelton. It looks really nice on the Chamber of Commerce website...but my husband's aunt seems to think it is sort of hickish???

We want a down home type area...retirement community that is safe...and how is the weather there..winter, fall, summer??

thanks
Starr*

so hi starr ... im 15 an i live in shelton ... it's nothing involving amish some parts are hickish but not necisarily everywhere lol the closest mall is olympia which sucks but sometimes you gotta take what you can get an the school could very depending on your kids age an where you take them.. bordough ( however spelt ) sucks so does mary m knight you wanna avoid your kids going there ... pioneer hood canals acceptional an moutain veiw are your top ten choices youd wanna try... an obviusly have them go to the juinor high (oakland bay ) or the highschool( shelton high) when they're at the point ... it's ok living out here there isnt relly any issues like in the city for as gangs ... an if you have a daughter where ever she lives in this owrld they'll be drama lol uhm ... the place to shop is wall mart ( "i prefer fred meyers though "there one across the street ) an a few selective fancyish restuarts but for sure theres burger king an mcD's hmm... if you have property on a waterfront or ... near your kids would be happy the hottest times are end june july an aug. but it cools round sept. uhm ....theres lots of places to go hiking an lots of pretty places to go sight seeing an look at the moutains an nature around lol ... uhhh... an it's better then living around a ghetto or something... though people do joke saying they're the ghetto of shelton ... they are some trailer parks but thats obviusly theres trailer parks everywhere in
the world lol
well ~ britt

[itswhatyoumake]

Like virtually everywhere Shelton is what you make of it. Malls and shopping do not make a community nor an interesting place to live, they do make traffic though. Like everywhere the kids gripe about where they live. I heard the same things living everywhere I've lived around the country. Kids have this thing growing up that they always think it's boring and there's nothing to do where they live. They get all fixated on the forbidden and think that's the most fun and most interesting thing to be doing. Anything that isn't edgy or out there is boring and square.

Im 21 years of age and have lived here my entire life. Its a hugely hick-town. The only thing for kids to do here, (unless they have a car and can drive to Olympia) is do drugs, drink, and get knocked up.

I'm sorry but at 21 your experience in life is nil and I'm not being disrespectful or putting you down. Your viewpoint is very narrow minded and it appears to me you're looking to blame your drinking, drugging and getting pregnant on your environment. Last I knew we could make choices on what we do. Has that changed? Does the place you live now suddently have control over that? Hardly. There are plenty of things to do here and there is a very good bus system to get people who don't drive into Olympia for more things city life has to offer although Olympia is hardly what I'd call urban. Olympia is a very big small town and a very interesting place and not far away to accomodate things we don't have right in town. There is a movie theater here in Shelton with more than one screen that charges very reasonable admission and every time I've gone it's been a pleasure. Yeah, it's not new and fancy. If you want that and want to pay extra for it Oly is a quick trip and even if you don't have your own wheels there is CHEAP busing. I've never seen a rural area with so much available public trans. There is great hiking, there is a karting track, there's the MCRA recreation center with batting cages, ballfields. There is endless boating on the Sound and there is Mason Lake for boating if you like lake boating. There's a skate park. You can go skydiving. I can't begin to name everything available. Look around, see what's out there. Yes, it's a rural area but that doesn't mean there are only bad options for things to do, that is a total cop-out and nothing more. Some kids like to gravitate towards those bad things because of poor self-esteem and/or peer pressure. Drinking, meth and other drugs and unprotected sexual activity show a lack of intelligence in decisions and fixation on doing things that are supposed to be *taboo* for kids. Using meth shows an extreme level of ignorance. Almost all of us have done some level of those things but whether you make it your daily grind or not is your choice and choosing to immerse yourselves in that isn't smart. Kids, your environment is what you make of it. As a nearly 50 year old I've lived in a lot of places in this country. I grew up in a very small town in myself, I miss it a lot but I also like living in the different places I've lived. I don't put down my old home town because it's not perfect and it's not some cool urban hotspot. In fact it's very similar to here except the kids don't have the level of poor attitude I see here. Times were no different then than they are now. There where those that couldn't find things to do so they drank, did drugs and had unprotected sex too. Where I was from this was a very small portion of the population though, most of us were not so easily amused where I came from and we found other things to do most of the time. Yes, I partied. I also did it responsibly and didn't make it my life mission or a daily or even weekly activity. We did other things like cleaning up and clearing unkept property, worked on our cars, rode bicycles, played football, basketball, baseball and hockey when the fire dept would flood one of the ball fields in the winter. These were not organized league sports necessarily either, just get a group and play! Oh, but that just isn't cool now. How ridiculous and shows narrow thinking. We went fishing and swimming and hiking, or as well called it then, exploring. There are so many places to explore here it's mindboggling. Just use common sense when you do it. We didn't have things like video games when I was a kid. Maybe that's part of the problem now, on the other hand maybe they're part of the solution. Last I knew those were things to do to. If the weather is poor get a group and play video games like Guitar Hero, Rockband, Singstar, Burnout and omit the unneccessary drugs when playing. We play those video games as a family and have a great time. Yeah, the only thing to do is drink, drugs and get pregnant. Nonsense!! Complete and utter nonsense! How about something even more constructive. Think outside of the box and start your own business. At that age is a point where you can sometimes see things that might make a good business even better than us adults but you may not recognize it as such. Don't know how to get the idea off the ground? Talk to a community leader adult. Alter your thinking, think constructively about what you can do and not what you can't. The challenge isn't to find something self-destructive or illegal to do, those things are easy because that picture is already painted.

You kids that live here should appreciate where you live instead of tearing it down and referring to it as Shelcompton as I see some do. It's just stupid and shows you think you wanna be gangsters. Sorry, but there's nothing at all cool about punk gangsters. First off if you knew anything about Compton you'd know it's nothing at all like it, the comparison is ignorant. Compton, CA is a city in the middle of *plenty of things to do* and yet those kids make the same lame excuses and lower themselves to bad behavior. Well kids, Compton is going through a change. Those types are finding out it doesn't get them anywhere and Compton is transforming. I'm happy to see it. Do the same here. Grow up a bit mentally, rise above, stop lowering yourselves to poor behavior that you should understand is first and foremost self-destructive. That means it's not good for you. You live in one of the most beautiful areas of the country. You have the beauty of the Sound, Mason Lake, Lake Cushman, Hood Canal, mountains, forest. Don't minimze those things. Most people I know who don't live here are jealous of where I live.

The school system here is a problem, many are a problem though and it's why my kids do not attend public school anywhere and are home schooled. We do not home school for religious reasons, we home school because our kids are smart and are tired of schools having to teach down to the lowest common denominator. It's not a problem because of funding either. It's a problem due to the same problem it seems most public schools suffer from these days, lack of discipline and self-esteem and poor parenting. As a parent your job is to guide, not be their party buddy. I have a child from a previous marriage that attended SHS and I'm very familiar with the school system and people in it. Some I like, some I really do not because I honestly don't know how they qualify for their position. The Shelton school system needs a huge attitude adjustment but I think that can be said for public schools as a whole.

Bottom line, Shelton from my perspective is no different than any other small town. It is what the residents make it. If you want it to be better then do things that benefit the community and not things that harm it. This is a great place to live if you look at it the right way and stay away from the bad influences every community has. Just don't bring to many people with you, I don't want it getting too crowded. It's one of the reasons I live here, to get out of the crowds of people. If I feel the need for crowds we go to Seattle.

One last thing. If you read much on here, no matter where, you'll see a constant in the attitude, everyone always thinks there's someplace better and are ready to rip apart where they live. Usually these people are pretty young and inexperienced. Well there always is a better place, until you're tired of that place too. There is no perfect place, there is no place that offers it all. New places are interesting because they are new. So maybe the key here is to get all the people out that don't like it and get in those that do. If you don't like it here then don't be shy, LEAVE, show some adventure. You'll talk about it but not do it. I know the type all to well. You can then go somewhere else and find out how much your negative outlook makes that new place no good for you. Your surroundings are what you make of them.

[raviraju]

Hi I am Ravi and I am moving to shelton coming month to shelton from India along with my daughter and wife. Can you please suggesst me where can i find houses for rent. What would be the range of rent? As I am new to US please sgive me your valuable suggesitions to lead a happy life there.
Thank you.
Ravi