I was waiting for something terrifying like this to happen at the convienience store I worked at. I was horrified, based on the clientelle, that I would walk out one day and find an abandoned baby when I was emptying the garbage. I'm not joking... it was scary like that. The downtown areas of two of our 3 cities are becoming very, very trashy!

> The downtown areas of two of our 3 cities are
> becoming very, very trashy!

Pasco always was kind of trashy, really. From the stories I've heard, it's actually better than it used to be.

Kennewick, though... Well, while downtown Kennewick never has been all that great, it definitely has gone downhill in recent years.

When Glenna and I were originally looking for a place to live, we both pretty much decided that we'd never live anywhere further east than highway 395. That's a pretty good rule of thumb for anyone looking for a place in the Tri-Cities.

It's kind of funny, though... As Shalaney can attest, there are those in our family who have this picture of California being some sort of depraved wasteland where you can't walk outside without being shot or stabbed. It amuses me to no end to tell these people that the city I moved to has better schools, less crime and less unemployment than at least 2 of the 3 cities that make up the TC.

Yeah, I know. California is where all the sinners go to live. ;p

Pasco has cleaned up quite a bit, actually. I still wouldn't walk down the street at night, but I'd feel safer there than I would in east Kennewick. East Kennewick is scary.

Then again, where I work is pretty friggen scary too and it's in Pasco (though East Kennewick is right over the bridge). Two years ago a homeless guy stabbed his "girlfriend" at the hotel next door, and last year a drug deal went wrong and some guy got knifed 17 times behind our building (at the same hotel). One of our employees car got stolen right out of our parking lot...so...I wouldn't want to be caught here at night either...