Is Washougal really "up and coming"? (Vancouver, Mercer Island: apartments, attorneys)

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by TheOrca

I just bought a duplex in Washougal.

I think it's a nice area geographically with cottonwood beach and stuff.

Just went to the hardware store to get some stuff and was surprised to see a nice shopping mall thing with a delicatessen whatever that is but it sounds fancy

You don't know what a delicatessen is? A "deli"?

[Telesurfer]

Any new updates or trends with Washougal lately? Always keen to see if this is a potential city for further gentrification in the near future (like what Camas has received).

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by Telesurfer

Any new updates or trends with Washougal lately? Always keen to see if this is a potential city for further gentrification in the near future (like what Camas has received).

BTDT in ~ 2000 when Washougal was host to Parade of Homes for several yrs in a row.

We were building as selling $650k homes as fast as we could, and they were all pre-sold.
5 yrs prior... $65k would have bought you a Washougal home. Your neighbor would have worked rotating shifts at the mill, or in the Washougal Port. He would have driven a $500 pickup, not a $50,000 chineseium look alike Mercedes.

Downtown Washougal businesses will never be like 4th Ave Camas. (pritzy shops with no customers or anything you need to buy, owned by 5%r's looking for a tax break), Oh how everyone missed Camas Sporting Goods (the only place to buy kids t-ball / baseball items in the 1960's). And LOTS of guns and fishing stuff.

Washougal has always been the more 'practical' / local type town, Many who live in the west gorge only go as far as washougal for shopping and services. Largely a 'bedroom' / retirement / urban farmer community (place for you to have 4H projects, yet live near town). I only know a handful of people still working at the mill. Smeads is definately no longer "Smeads!" ($16 fish and chips )

Gentrification complete.

[texasdiver]

Gentrification isn't "complete" yet, but it will be closer when this project is completed

https://parkerslandingwaterfront.com/

[TheOrca]

Washougal gentrification already begun a while ago

[Telesurfer]

I feel like for gentrification of Washougal to really be ”complete”, it needs a proper Downtown with businesses. Also needs more higher end homes, mainstay shops (Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Target), and a portfolio of white-collar companies calling it home.

[texasdiver]

Most of the highly gentrified communities in the Pacific Northwest have very posh schools to match. Places like Camas, Lake Oswego, Wilsonville, West Linn, Westview, etc. in the Portland area, or Mercer Island, Bellevue, Sammamish, etc. in the Seattle area. Washougal has decent schools, but they are very median for the region in terms of ratings and facilities. They have a LONG ways to go before people will be choosing Washougal over other upscale areas based on the schools.

[TheOrca]

That's a good point, but school is going online - already is actually - and school is also bull**** for a lot of people nowadays choosing to just homeschool instead

[jertheber]

Originally Posted by StealthRabbit

BTDT in ~ 2000 when Washougal was host to Parade of Homes for several yrs in a row.

We were building as selling $650k homes as fast as we could, and they were all pre-sold.
5 yrs prior... $65k would have bought you a Washougal home. Your neighbor would have worked rotating shifts at the mill, or in the Washougal Port. He would have driven a $500 pickup, not a $50,000 chineseium look alike Mercedes.

Downtown Washougal businesses will never be like 4th Ave Camas. (pritzy shops with no customers or anything you need to buy, owned by 5%r's looking for a tax break), Oh how everyone missed Camas Sporting Goods (the only place to buy kids t-ball / baseball items in the 1960's). And LOTS of guns and fishing stuff.

Washougal has always been the more 'practical' / local type town, Many who live in the west gorge only go as far as washougal for shopping and services. Largely a 'bedroom' / retirement / urban farmer community (place for you to have 4H projects, yet live near town). I only know a handful of people still working at the mill. Smeads is definately no longer "Smeads!" ($16 fish and chips )

Gentrification complete.

C'mon, Smeads taco Tuesday is still a bargain at two for a buck, and those meatloaf sliders are just what the doctor ordered when asked about things worth living for.

[StealthRabbit]

Washougal was home base to the 70s homeschool movement of the Moore foundation. Most of our home schoolers were from Camas and Battleground.

Washougal schools benefit from a huge and overflowing pig trough of tax funding. $20k + per year from our family + thousands of volunteer hours donated over the last 30yrs. Impressive results! (as to be expected).