Seattle Woman New to Yakima Says, "There's a Lot of Hope Here"

We've all heard the disparaging comments about Yakima. "There's nothing to do!" "It's full of meth-heads and gangsters!" or it is simply referred to as "Crackima". Having lived here virtually my whole life I cannot understand why we are so self-defeating. As I like to call it, we suffer from the "Yakimentality".

Am I wearing rose-colored glasses? am I oblivious to anything negative about the valley we call home?

I recently asked a woman that just moved here from the Seattle/Tacoma area to get the point of view of somebody that hasn't lived here for most of their life.

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Recently, I had an interaction on a Facebook group page called "Yakima Cares". It was there that I first encountered Lorrie Brown. She was reaching out on behalf of her son to find a dependable, inexpensive vehicle for him to get to and from work. She mentioned that it was difficult hitting the reset button on her life to move here to be closer to her son that is in recovery but also said that everyone she has encountered has been really nice to her.

Brown came to the valley in the middle of May this year and is trying to make a new set of friends but stated that there is "a LOT more to do here" than from where she came from. She said that she has been camping a bunch as well as hiking. She also said that if we think crime is bad here, it pales in comparison to Tacoma.

While she admitted that the prevailing political mindset here is, understandably, different than west of the Cascades, it doesn't bother her. She said that people in Yakima are much more motivated folks than she is used to.

We ended a recent phone conversation with Lorrie saying that "the grass isn't always greener on the other side" and, as it relates to now living in Yakima, "there's so much hope here."

Welcome to the Yakima Valley, Lorrie! We are here to help and hope you stay!