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Hello
Can anyone in Yankton SD tell me the town atmosphere? My family and I may have a chance to move to Yankton and I was a little troubled when I learned how many sex offenders live in the area. For a small town, I thought it was quite a lot.
Hello
Can anyone in Yankton SD tell me the town atmosphere? My family and I may have a chance to move to Yankton and I was a little troubled when I learned how many sex offenders live in the area. For a small town, I thought it was quite a lot.
Not sure what you mean by atmosphere, but it is very much a family town. If you include the lake area, total population is about 20,000, so I don't think there is an abnormally large number of offenders. Schools are very good. Lots of summer recreation with the lake and river right outside of town.
I don't know Yankton well yet, having just moved into a nearby county, but it looks like a pretty town with lots of nice historic homes. Some areas of town did seem run down. In one neighborhood I did drive through a crowd of teenage boys hanging out on the street, which is always a little unnerving, but it was late Saturday afternoon so understandable, and none of them bothered me.
It's very very humid here, which I expected, and also very very mosquito-filled, which I didn't expect. When you come bring lots of repellent!
According to this websites data, there are 34 registered sex offenders in the town of Yankton. That's a 428:1 ratio. This seems like a high number in one small area. I'm not trying to run down the town, I just would like to know for concern of my family.
I know stats don't always tell the whole story. I guess what I'd like to know is if locals feel Yankton is a safe place for their kids?
I don't know enough about Yankton yet to give you a good answer. All I can tell you is that the west and north sides of town look a little more modern and well to do than the other parts of town. However, if you are nervous about living in Yankton itself, there are some other towns in easy commuting distance to Yankton which you could consider for your family home. Gayville is a cute small town, and Vermillion is a very nice small city with lots of young families and very good schools.
You may just need to come here before you start looking for houses so that you can talk with people you meet to get an idea about what's best for your family.
Thanks for the replys. I have read that Yankton is a very nice town but when I read the stats I was a little bummed. I live in a small town and in comparison, there are only three registered sex offenders.
My wife and I would love to live in a town where our kids can go on a bike ride or walk to the nearest store for an icecream like my parents were able to do as kids. Maybe those days are long gone.
Naw, come on out. I know Vermillion would fit the bill - there's always people out walking everywhere. Gayville seems to have lots of kids always playing outside, but I don't know about a place to buy a cone there. Yankton may well too, I just don't don't know yet.
I feel safe letting my 2 children (9 and 11) ride their bike to the park/pool. Our bigger worry is just the amount of traffic. Highway 81 through town can get pretty busy, especially during the summer.
Compared to the rest of the country, I think it's very safe here. Maybe a little more "transient" population in general than the rest of the upper great plains, but we've never felt unsafe here.
Looking through the registry, it also looks like a lot of the offenses were either many years ago, or a young adult male contact with a teenage female.
A reason that the ratio is pretty high in Yankton could be because of the federal prison. The prison is a minimum security prison for federal inmates. It doesn't even have a perimeter fence around it so the inmates there have to be considered very low risk.
Some of these inmates could be listed on the sex offender list and are still incarcerated there, but because they're within the city limits of the town they are being counted. Another possibility is when inmates are paroled, quite a few stay in Yankton and get jobs there until they're no longer on parole. Even after they're no longer on parole many times the inmates might stay in Yankton if they managed to find decent employment.
Just a theory.
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