yakima; where not to live (Seattle, West Valley: low income, affordable apartments, how much)

[Jodes1270]

Originally Posted by kasstev

Thanks for this information. My husband is military and we are moving to the area (Have no choice). NOW I have to say I am extremely scared to move to this place and I am sure my daughter will now be terrified also. I guess when we get there we should stay in our home with doors locked and never go anywhere, doesnt sound like anywhere in this area is going to be safe.

Yakima has gone downhill BUT I have lived here all but 4 years of my life and in my opinion, there are worse places to live. I'm not sure where you're coming from as I just signed on here and read this one post. I was really saddened when I saw how scared you are to move here and I just wanted to tell you to get more opinions. I have lived in West Valley off and on which is in yakima and I have never had my house broken into. SOme days I leave and don't even lock my doors. I know tons of people that live in Selah who have never been robbed, mugged or assaulted. I know people who live out in the country in selah who can also leave their doors unlocked, keys in car and are never bothered. West Valley and Selah have the best schools in this area. Union Gap in my opinion is not that safe. I just want to hopefully ease you fears a little. There are very safe areas around here. I would never enroll my children in the yakima schools. West Valley or Selah is the best in my opinion with West Valley being my number one choice. Hope this helps you. Have a good day and relax you will be fine here.

[jjjmr02]

Just for all the military families who HAVE to move here, lol, we just got orders to go back to FT Lewis, and I'm really sad to have to leave here. It took a while for Yakima to grow on me, but I will really miss this place. It's much quieter and more peaceful than any of the other military areas we have been stationed at. My kids have had so much fun in the West Valley schools, and with all the activities in the area, too. We are all dreading our move. Give Yakima a chance. It's not as bad as people like to make it out to be.

[MeatLoaf_Enchilada]

I live in Yakima, and I 'wander the streets' at late hours. No one has ever tried to mug me. I've never witnessed a shooting. The biggest groups I walk with is 2 other people. I'm Latino/Thai and I'm considered a minority. I'm a Freshman @ Davis and no one ever picks on any Freshman for being a Freshman like a typical high school. The real ass holes are the idiots at Ike. I've lived in Yakima my whole life, it's a great place. Also, we don't have gangs. We have 'crews.' That means it's a ****-load of graffiti out here. And yes, these crews are getting too serious, but if you don't like Yakima, **** off.

[SagaciousKJB]

Originally Posted by MeatLoaf_Enchilada

I live in Yakima, and I 'wander the streets' at late hours. No one has ever tried to mug me. I've never witnessed a shooting. The biggest groups I walk with is 2 other people. I'm Latino/Thai and I'm considered a minority. I'm a Freshman @ Davis and no one ever picks on any Freshman for being a Freshman like a typical high school. The real ass holes are the idiots at Ike. I've lived in Yakima my whole life, it's a great place. Also, we don't have gangs. We have 'crews.' That means it's a ****-load of graffiti out here. And yes, these crews are getting too serious, but if you don't like Yakima, **** off.

There are actually gangs in Yakima, sorry to say. There are also "tagging crews" which is what this young man is speaking of. The difference is that the gang members are typically street-level subordinates to higher-ups that are actually in prison gangs such as the Mexican Mafia and La Familia. These are hispanic prison gangs that orginated in the 60s and 70s in the California prison systems, and have since spread across the United States. Most of Yakima's gang members actually answer to higher-ups in California, but there are a few Mexican Mafia members in Washington state prisons that 'cause the problem in Yakima to be very great as compared with states that are further from any MM member. Most of the street-level subordinates, called Surenos and Nortenos respecitively, that are in other towns without MM leaders in prisons near by, are not really well established and are generally just cliques of young men that have the support of perhaps one high-ranking gang member. The Surenos and Norenos in Yakima, however, answer to several of these same high-ranking gang members, that answer to one or two MM and LF gang leaders in prison. That is why fighting the Yakima gang problem is very hard; there are kids that tag with gang affiliation, there are "soldiers" that commit most of the crime and drug sales, and then the higher-level members and the ones running everything from prison. It's very hard to get to the high-level members through the taggers and "soldiers", so as many of them as we arrest, the high-level members just recruit more. What's worse is that most of the "soldiers", Surenos and Nortenos, actually plan to go to prison, and then become more well-established in prison, and can go on to lead other soldiers on the street from their cells. Arresting them, in some ways, feeds the problem.

Anyway, that was a lot to read, but basically the point is that gangs are very deeply engrained in Yakima now because of the accompanying drug trade. It is not just Hispanic prison gangs, but caucasian biker gangs as well. While the latter doesn't have much effect inside the city, they perpetuate everything by smuggling in drugs that make the gangs money within the city. If it werne't for the biker gangs good graces, most of the Hispanic gangs wouldn't even be able to smuggle their goods all the way through California and Oregon to Washington.

This is why some people feel that all of Washington state is a bad place to live. We are essentially a major drug state, and Yakima is at the central point of it. You can imagine it as grand-central station for drug smugglers, because we go West to Seattle, which can then go North and South to Canada or Mexico, and then we extend East to cover the South East and North East. Yakima is basically a very integral part of this drug smuggling network, and so to think that the gang and crime problems are going to get any better is a very hopeful thought, since it's basically just been getting worse since the 80s when this started.

Here is a link to some more information on the drug problem in Washington.
http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/state_factsheets/washington.html (broken link)

[olgalast]

I am going to move to Yakima on June from California for 3 years for my Medical Residency. You guys, scared me.

[manhor92110]

Yakima, or better yet Crackima, is the most drug infested, gang banger infested, s**t hole in Washington. 15% of the states gang population, and 5% of the total population says a lot. The thing that bothers me though is the animal abuse and neglect that goes on in plain view. I cannot go outside without seeing an abandoned animal running around scared and lost. The fact that it goes on in plain view is completely disgusting. There is absolutely no value of life here. My wife and I have decided that the best thing about Crackima is the fact that were only stuck here for 2 years. If your thinking about moving here, dont make the same mistake we did. Stay away.

[509er]

Judging from some of the posts, I'd say we have a lot more crazies than we do criminals.

[skinem]

My folks moved to Selah they year after I graduated high school and they and my younger siblings lived there and in West Valley and out Nob Hill for over 20 years and none of them had a problem ever anywhere.
I don't know anyone there who has. Obviously that's anecdotal, and there are some rougher parts of town, but again, I've never had issues in any of them either.

I think some people tend to equate poor with bad...they do not necessarily go hand in hand.

[509er]

One other observation: Perhaps those who don't seem to be happy with their town, or where they came from, are in actuality not happy with their life, and probably not someone to be taking advice from.

[skinem]

I have to say that when my parents moved there right after I left home after high school, I only lived in the Yakima area for a couple of summers working during college (yay Sage Furniture, Larson's and Snokist!) and lived there for 6 months right after graduating. Of course, for 20-25 years, I spent a lot of time there with family during all times of the year.

When my folks moved there from Medical Lake, I thought Yakima was the hottest, brownest, dustiest, dirtiest, ugliest, crummiest town I'd ever been. I can remember hearing, jokingly of course, that the nation's tallest mountain without a single tree on it was nearby...

...but...as time went by...it began to grow on me. I liked the size of the town...pretty much big enough to have what you needed yet small enough that it felt like a small town. People were real friendly. And the weather was great. If you like the outdoors, it's a great place.

And the big, bare, brown hills began to look...nice. I really grew to have an appreciation for the wide open spaces, the empty and the quiet.

My folks pretty well felt the same way. They were from western Oregon (Lorane area) originally and had always intended on retiring back to there. But, after 12 years in the Spokane area and 20+ years in the Yakima area, they couldn't take the rain, the gray and the closed in claustrophobic feeling some folks get in dense forest.

Yep, it'd happened to them...they'd become Yakimaniacs.

Yakima--it may not be Palm Springs, but it isn't bad!