Yakima, WA

Flying_Nun

Flying_Nun

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Flying_Nun
Anyone have experience or knowledge about living in the aforementioned city?

Thanks.


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I lived there for a summer in 2016 while I worked at CubCrafters as an Intern. It's called "Yakistan" for a reason and I'm inclined to agree. I took a wrong turn near the mall once and wanted a column of humvees to get me out.

Why do you ask?
 
Excellent airport with instrument approaches and regional airline service; consistently better flying weather than what you find west of the Cascades*, though it can get very cold in the winter. Lots of fun places to fly in all directions. The CubCrafters factory is on the field, along with a small aviation museum.

*(except when Mt. St. Helens erupts ... !)

SoCal RV Flyer said:
There's a pretty neat airpark community close by...Desert Aire, M94.
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Great place!
 
Eastern Wa. farming community, high Mexican population, a hundred miles from anywhere :)
 
320 blue sky days per year. Driving times: Two hours twenty minutes to Seattle, 3 hours to Portland and three hours thirty minutes to Spokane.
 
Why would you want to move there? Head north, Wenatchee is much more better.
 
Mtns2Skies said:
I lived there for a summer in 2016 while I worked at CubCrafters as an Intern. It's called "Yakistan" for a reason and I'm inclined to agree. I took a wrong turn near the mall once and wanted a column of humvees to get me out.

Why do you ask?
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CubCrafters is the reason I'm entertaining the idea. They have a position that matches nicely with the special skills I have, otherwise it probably wouldn't be my first choice of towns in that state.

How was CCs to work for? Can you expand on the "Yakistan" comment?
 
Flying_Nun said:
If I may ask, what prompted the move?
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Flying_Nun said:
CubCrafters is the reason I'm entertaining the idea. They have a position that matches nicely with the special skills I have, otherwise it probably wouldn't be my first choice of towns in that state.

How was CCs to work for? Can you expand on the "Yakistan" comment?
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Yakistan refers to the large influx of gangs in Yakima, another pet name is Crackima. You can Google "gang map of Yakima" for more information.

My reasons for leaving Yakima are a mix of personal, changing demographics and the fact that the wet side controls the politics of the entire state.

While I have never worked for Jim Richmond or Cubcrafters I do know them. My Cessna 180 is tied down at the museum right next to CC and I have a house about a mile from the airport.
 
Stickman said:
Yakistan refers to the large influx of gangs in Yakima, another pet name is Crackima. You can Google "gang map of Yakima" for more information.
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Well, that was disheartening.
 
Flying_Nun said:
Well, that was disheartening.
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It is disheartening, and true. As in most such places, it does matter a lot what neighborhood you live in. But you could live in Ellensburg or Prosser, and commute.

I live about an hour and a quarter from Yakima. It is culinarily bleak, as well. Finding a good restaurant in Yakima has become a joke in our family. Sorry.
 
West Valley is actually very nice, there is also a fly in community out that way. Just northwest is Naches and Cowiche and north is Selah.

Selah is convenient and a little upscale. To the east is Moxee which is a very nice little town surrounded by hoppes fields. There are lots and lots of wineries and microbrew places. Yakima is by no means at all a horrible place to live. It has by far the best weather in the state.

It can get windy, but not as windy as Ellensburg. The climate is very dry, but to the north is the Naches River and east the Yakima River. Downtown Yakima is very clean with a lot of sidewalk eateries and shopping. There is virtually no such thing as traffic, we have rush minute if anything.

The whole valley is filled with apple orchards, some big, some huge. There are more public parks than most cities it's size, as well as a beautiful arboretum and a nice greenway along the Yakima River that is popular with strollers and bicyclists.

All in all Yakima is really a pretty decent place, there is a lot more to it than the negatives that have been brought out. It is the fastest growing city in Washington State after all so it must be doing something right.
 
Tom-D said:
YGTBSM,, colder than Fairbanks in the winter, hotter than hell in the summer.
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Spent a lot of time in Yakima have you? Didn't think so. Nope, I've never seen -57 in Yakima, did one winter in Fairbanks, midwest summers are a lot less pleasant than Yakima, it always cools down at night. Yakima doesn't have the humidity.

I was born and raised in Yakima.
 
Stickman said:
All in all Yakima is really a pretty decent place, there is a lot more to it than the negatives that have been brought out. It is the fastest growing city in Washington State after all so it must be doing something right.
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My searches have turned up mostly discussions about crime, gangs, drugs, etc. Not a lot pointing out the positives. What's driving the growth though? Is there a lot of new industry moving in? Tourism?
 
Flying_Nun said:
My searches have turned up mostly discussions about crime, gangs, drugs, etc. Not a lot pointing out the positives. What's driving the growth though? Is there a lot of new industry moving in? Tourism?
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I think a lot of it is the lower property taxes, we are seeing a lot of older retirees moving in. There was at one time a lot of RV manufacturing in Yakima. There is still a lot of manufacturing here, aerospace to Kwikloc. Kwikloc makes those odd little plastic things that hold bread bags closed, they make over a billion of those things a year.

Eastern Washington in general is not too bad on taxes, we have no state income tax and in Yakima anyway the sales tax is 8.2%. Compare to Seattle at 10% or more.
Property taxes are also fairly low especially if you are in unincorporated Yakima County.
 
Stickman said:
Spent a lot of time in Yakima have you? Didn't think so. Nope, I've never seen -57 in Yakima, did one winter in Fairbanks, midwest summers are a lot less pleasant than Yakima, it always cools down at night. Yakima doesn't have the humidity.

I was born and raised in Yakima.
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Stickman said:
Spent a lot of time in Yakima have you? Didn't think so. Nope, I've never seen -57 in Yakima, did one winter in Fairbanks, midwest summers are a lot less pleasant than Yakima, it always cools down at night. Yakima doesn't have the humidity.

I was born and raised in Yakima.
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Stickman said:
Spent a lot of time in Yakima have you?
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YES, I live near by, and go there a lot, but never in July or December.
Here on the Island, we seldom freeze and summer temps are normally in the 70s.
But you have the best weather? No way.
 
A high school classmate has a Veterinary practice in Yakima. I don't hear of her planning on leaving anytime soon.

I've been in and out of KYKM a few times, but typically the VOR (YKM) is just a waypoint on the way from KOLM to KPUW. Nice airport.

And I need to stop in at Desert Aire some time.
 
Tom-D said:
YES, I live near by, and go there a lot, but never in July or December.
Here on there Island, we seldom freeze and summer temps are normally in the 70s.
But you have the best weather? No way.
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Different point of view I guess. Personally, I dislike the damp humidity and winter long drizzle of the wet side. To each his own.
 
Stickman said:
Different point of view I guess. Personally, I dislike the damp humidity and winter long drizzle of the wet side. To each his own.
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It's a fact, that we have more VFR flying days than most of the US. This year has been unusual, we've had 14 inches of rain since the new year, but our normal is 22 inches for the year. Last year we went from the middle of April to the end of October with out a drop of rain. By the end of July we had burned out and turned brown, like you do in may.
Don't get me wrong, Yakima is nice place, if you can bail when it is too hot or too cold.
 
Tom-D said:
The wet side's most dangerous weather is GREY, it will bore you to death.
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I went to Seattle Pacific University in the late 70's, I remember hating the endless overcast skies. Give me the 320 days of blue.

I will say though, when the sun comes out over there it is spectacular, even if it is just for a brief instant. LOL
 
Stickman said:
I went to Seattle Pacific University in the late 70's, I remember hating the endless overcast skies. Give me the 320 days of blue.

I will say though, when the sun comes out over there it is spectacular, even if it is just for a brief instant. LOL
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OMG you can't judge wet side weather from what you see in the southern Puget sound, come north of the convergent zone and see the sunshine. we live in the rain shadow of the Olympics.

https://weather.com/weather/today/l/USWA0309:1:US
 
When I was growing up in Seattle, I looked in an almanac and found out that the place averaged 48 clear days per year, and about an equal number of partly cloudy days.
 
Flying_Nun said:
CubCrafters is the reason I'm entertaining the idea. They have a position that matches nicely with the special skills I have, otherwise it probably wouldn't be my first choice of towns in that state.

How was CCs to work for? Can you expand on the "Yakistan" comment?
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Okay show of hands, who thought of Liam Neeson when they read that?
 
I think you will find varying opinions on living in Yakima or “Yakacrack”as it is also known because of the drug trafficking by the gangs. I have lived in the TriCities for over 20 years and have lots of friends in Yakima, Selah and surrounding communities. While it wouldn’t be my first choice of a place to live, there are lot of fine folks that live in that area and lots of recreational opportunities. You are right at the base of the Cascade Mountain so there is lots of camping on or near small mountain lake, backpacking, fishing, especially fly fishing on the upper Yakima River, as well as decent hunting. Lots of skiing in the winter at Whitepass and heck, you could run into Phil or Steve Mahre on the slopes someday. And there is Miners Burgers. Schools are so so and the youth sports programs are pretty strong. A number of D1athlethes come out of that area every year. And unlike Tom, you are on the right or correct side of the Cascade Curtain. Anyway, check it out and come to your own decision.
 
Jumpmaster said:
And unlike Tom, you are on the right or correct side of the Cascade Curtain. Anyway, check it out and come to your own decision.
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come July tell me how hot it is? or January, tell me how much you like the snow and ice roads. :)
 
Stickman said:
I went to Seattle Pacific University in the late 70's, I remember hating the endless overcast skies. Give me the 320 days of blue.

I will say though, when the sun comes out over there it is spectacular, even if it is just for a brief instant. LOL
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Which is why the weather guessers on TV in Seattle will sometimes talk about "sunbreaks" in their forecast. And we know what they are talking about. Scary.
 
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