Lacey vs. Puyallup... tell me everything! (Seattle, Tacoma: crime, home, teaching jobs)

[MBDLProc]

My husband is looking at a military transfer between McChord or Charleston AFB. I am trying to do as much research as possible on the two areas before they hand down our orders in a few months.

I want to know as much as I can about these two areas, Lacey and Puyallup.

1. Traffic (which is the lesser of two evils?) Currently he commutes from our home in DE to our current base in NJ... so he is used to a commute, but would prefer less of one if possible.
2. CRIME and areas to avoid in each area.
3. Shopping and Restaurants
4. Outdoor activities and Entertainment
5. Schools (and opportunities for teaching positions)
6. New Construction neighborhoods

Anything else you can think of, I would really appreciate the feedback!!!

Thank you so much.

[Vinylly]

Originally Posted by MBDLProc

My husband is looking at a military transfer between McChord or Charleston AFB. I am trying to do as much research as possible on the two areas before they hand down our orders in a few months.

I want to know as much as I can about these two areas, Lacey and Puyallup.

1. Traffic (which is the lesser of two evils?) Currently he commutes from our home in DE to our current base in NJ... so he is used to a commute, but would prefer less of one if possible.
2. CRIME and areas to avoid in each area.
3. Shopping and Restaurants
4. Outdoor activities and Entertainment
5. Schools (and opportunities for teaching positions)
6. New Construction neighborhoods

Anything else you can think of, I would really appreciate the feedback!!!

Thank you so much.

If your husband is working at McChord, by all means pick Lacy, which is about 20 miles away on I-5. So, (1) it is far less of a commuting problem. (2) Lacy has practically been swallowed up by 'Panarama City' which is a very nice retirement village. Senior Citizens with means to support themselves are not known for wild crime activities, gang warfare or mob mayham and violence, but are responsible citizens trying to escape such acitives in the cities like Seattle or Tacoma. (3)Lacy is just the suburbs of Olympia where you will find far more good resturants and interesting shopping then you will find in Puyallup. (4) Outdoor activities will be equally as good in either town but since Lacy is close to Olympia, there will be more entertainment in Olympia then Puyallup. However Puyallup has the State Fair in the Fall. (5) You might have better teaching opportunities in the Lacy/Olympia area is it's a more densely populated area then Puyallup, which is more of a farmland/dairy area. ( 6) Unforntuately for the NW, there is too much construction going on everywhere.

[Inkpoe]

Originally Posted by Vinylly

If your husband is working at McChord, by all means pick Lacy, which is about 20 miles away on I-5. So, (1) it is far less of a commuting problem. (2) Lacy has practically been swallowed up by 'Panarama City' which is a very nice retirement village. Senior Citizens with means to support themselves are not known for wild crime activities, gang warfare or mob mayham and violence, but are responsible citizens trying to escape such acitives in the cities like Seattle or Tacoma. (3)Lacy is just the suburbs of Olympia where you will find far more good resturants and interesting shopping then you will find in Puyallup. (4) Outdoor activities will be equally as good in either town but since Lacy is close to Olympia, there will be more entertainment in Olympia then Puyallup. However Puyallup has the State Fair in the Fall. (5) You might have better teaching opportunities in the Lacy/Olympia area is it's a more densely populated area then Puyallup, which is more of a farmland/dairy area. ( 6) Unforntuately for the NW, there is too much construction going on everywhere.

Puyallup is more a grossly overdeveloped bland affordable suburbia than farmland/dairy area. Puyallup has more bad areas than Lacey/Olympia... and it touches other towns that are notorious for their bad areas. Traffic sucks through Puyallup-- Olympia/Lacey is much better developed in that regard. However getting to the base-- well you know that it's always a chokepoint getting into the base. Neither has an edge over the other as far as traffic. Both cities are close enough so it's not like your husband will spend a gross amount (1hr plus, for example) of time on traffic.

Now Olympia School District, no question is the better SD (Puyallup's isn't too bad, just a little above average). I wouldn't say your odds are better in either SD as a teacher-- the state has cut over a billion dollars from education and lots of teachers been laid off. Competition for teaching jobs are severe. So if you have an edge (math, science, SPED, for example)... it'll help a bit.

Shopping/restaurants, outdoors/entertainment... meh, you wouldn't be really deprived in either. Olympia has an awesome Farmer's Market.

[lady fern]

I avoid the traffic in Puyallup like the plague. I live in Olympia and Lacey is not my favorite place in the world, but there are nice areas. One of the complaints about Lacey is there is not a defined downtown. It's a post war boom town when everyone had a car so it is not pedestrian friendly like what you will see in the core of Olympia. If I were looking to buy in Lacey, I would stick toward the periphery areas. I believe they have done some building out the west side of Marvin Road. There's easy access to I5 and it gets rather pretty once you get past the dump and industrial area. I would get yourself a good street map of Lacey and just avoid the core areas such as mid Ruddell, Sleater Kinney, and College streets.