United States / Washington / / Klickitat County / Goldendale / Goldendale (zip 98620)

Review of Goldendale, Washington

Steve, you are right. It's not easy to live here.
Star Rating - 12/16/2020
I have lived 12 miles outside of Goldendale for 20 years. I bought my 20 acres because the oak trees reminded me of California. At the time, I thought that I would have no difficulty tolerating the unsophisticated culture of the town and its environs, but it hasn’t been easy. The people of the Goldendale area are overwhelmingly ignorant Fox-News-fascists. I have been deeply shocked by the opinions that have been expressed on the local radio call-in show. Steve cited the two Confederate flags in the parade. He did not mention an even more shocking incident following the arrival of the new pastor of the Methodist Church in town, a black woman. Shortly after she arrived, someone spat on her in the local grocery store. She quit her job immediately and left town.
A large percentage of the population of Goldendale and environs are poor people. The State of Washington heavily subsidizes Goldendale by providing funds for public services (Counseling for drug/alcohol addiction and other social problems is a cottage industry in Goldendale; most of the parking places on Main Street are usually occupied by people attending counseling.) Goldendale is the County Seat, and like all county seats, it attracts poor people because this is where the public services are (and because the rents are cheap). Like all poor people through the centuries, they look for inexpensive luxuries, including drugs. (In the 19th century, gin was “the fastest way out of Manchester”, England.) Due to the de-industrialization of America, the poor are demoralized and in despair. Regrettably, they typically (though not always) do not build their self-esteem by keeping their homes tidy (which, it seems to me, is a very inexpensive luxury and I do not understand why the poor do not take advantage of this inexpensive luxury). Sad but true.
The rich takes trips to Europe. The poor take drugs. The people in Goldendale who are financially a notch above the poor build their own self-esteem by despising the poor. It’s an old, old story.
I had hoped that outsiders moving in would create a more enlightened culture here. The west side of Klickitat County is indeed becoming more “blue” and more highly educated every day. Goldendale, however, seems to be becoming more and more fascist; fascists are buying ranchettes in the countryside around Goldendale. The county has always voted majority “red”, but, luckily, the increase in the population on the west side i
Sas | Goldendale, WA
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It is a shame that someone acted in that way. Yet, 2yrs later, the town welcomed a new pharmacist and her mother, both black. General rule: don’t judge intelligence based on how one votes:) Be kind and allow for discussion/debate. I have close friends that think CNN and MSNBC are the only truth they need and have parents that think Fox News is the end all, be all. I love them all and think they’re all a little nutty:) We are a spectrum of people, continue to work on changing the culture!
Mikal | Goldendale, WA | Report Abuse
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As someone who has moved my family here recently, I have to disagree with everything. Your review is based on frustrations from 5yrs ago, the world is a lot different. Your graceless attitude probably had/has a lot to do with your experience. I’m glad that there is local counseling for people drug addicted to get help, regardless of their financial state. If you want to talk about a poor/homeless/drug problem, look at Seattle and Portland not Goldendale….
Mikal | Goldendale, WA | Report Abuse
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This is a reply to Mikai. First of all, I am whole-heartedly sympathetic to the poor of Goldendale, including those who cope with hardship by taking recreational drugs. Everybody has a coping mechanism, and drugs happen to be theirs. My own income is below the poverty line. Indeed, all of my friends here in Goldendale are poor, some extremely poor. Drugs don't happen to be a big problem among my friends, though none of them are harshly censorious towards those who do use drugs. You say, Mikai, that you disagree with everything that I said. Does that include the verifiable facts? If you go to the archives of The Goldendale Sentinel Newspaper, you will find articles reporting how the black female Methodist minister was spat on in the grocery store. If you had told me 25 years ago that I would live in a town where a black person could not shop in the grocery store without being spat on, I would not have believed you. Yet here we are. Though there was some condemnation of this ugly attack on the black woman, the person who did the spitting obviously believed that a large segment of the community would approve of what he did. No doubt among his circle of friends and acquaintances, he received warm approval. When I moved to Goldendale in 2000, the local political culture was mostly good-ol'-boy-Republican. I could live with that, no problem. There was also a hefty percentage of left-of-center folks, many of them aging hippies. If you look specifically at the precincts in the Goldendale area, you will find that in 2008, 42.6% of the vote went to Obama, 57.4% going to McCain. After that, Goldendale took a hard turn to the fascist right. In 2020, 29% voted for Biden and 71% voted for Trump. Not only that, the statistics of 2008 vs. 2020 appear to reveal that there were fewer left-of-center voters in these precincts; in other words, the left-of-center people are moving away from Goldendale. Likewise, the statistics definitely show that the (fascist) right-wing population is growing. On my own country road, pretty much all of the new residents are fascists. The one left-wing newcomer on my road sold her property after living there less than two years. I write these two comments so that people will know what they are getting into before they move to Goldendale. Gawd knows, I wish more lefties would move here. It's lonely. Perhaps they could think of themselves as political/social missionaries bringing the Light to a place that needs it.
Sas | Goldendale, WA | Report Abuse
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