r/AskVancouverWA

So I’m new to the area, it’s been like 2 weeks now and I don’t think I’ve seen any ambulances, fire trucks, or police vehicles(maybe one police car on the freeway the other day). Now, maybe I’m just used to my old state where they’re always going down the street but is this normal? Is there just not a lot of crime or medical emergencies happening or are we under resourced in these areas? Asking in the sense of like if God forbid something were to happen where I needed an ambulance or the police to come to my house, would I receive care in a safe amount of time? I hope that none of this is coming off as rude or dumb at all, just my overly anxious brain trying to get a peace of mind.

What gym do you guys recommend?

I'm looking to hire a house cleaner in SE Vancouver WA. I'm offering weekly work. I want to hire a person I can pay directly, not a company that will keep most of the money and pay my cleaner poorly. PM me for more details if you're interested.

Considering a move from Seattle to Vancouver. How bad is traffic into Portland, really? I’ve heard 2–7 p.m. can be brutal. Is that accurate, and how long can the drive actually take during those hours?

We’re used to Seattle traffic, so comparisons are welcome!

I cannot keep starting over. I’m not looking for someone to simply write prescriptions—I need one thoughtful, consistent psychiatric provider who can understand the full picture, manage my medications carefully, and stay with me long enough to get me back onto stable ground.”
And then end with the human part: “Please, with everything in me, point me in the right direction. I’m exhausted, I’m hurting, and I’m still trying very hard to advocate for myself!

I’m 38, soon to be 39, and I’ve had enough of Nebraska.
Without writing an entire autobiography, I’ve had some spectacularly bad luck with housing and life in general. Fifteen years ago, someone burned down my apartment building. In 2024, I was the victim of a bad car accident after someone went through a stop sign, leaving me with a pretty serious spine injury. My back was herniated badly enough that a disc was compressing the roots of my sciatic nerve. At its worst I couldn’t walk, and I’ve now had two surgeries.

I had the first surgery in May 2025. Two weeks later, at about 1 AM, my apartment ceiling collapsed on me and flooded the place. I reherniated my back afterward.
Almost exactly a year later, while still dealing with all of that, I found a bed bug in my apartment. Then I found dozens/hundreds. It turned out there was a major infestation that was eventually traced to a hoarder below me. I had my second back surgery shortly afterward, and my property manager decided not to renew my lease after I’d made “too many” maintenance requests.

So…yeah. I’m ready to go somewhere else.

A month or two ago, the lawsuit from the car accident finally settled. The at-fault driver was underinsured, but after everything was said and done I netted a little over six figures. Not fuck you money, but enough to start a new chapter in my life. I’ve lived in Nebraska my entire life and have always hated it. Right now it’s 91° and the humidity makes being outside miserable in the 110s. Then we get approximately 10 days of autumn before it’s -14° windchill, and we barely even get good snow anymore. There’s also not much for me to do here because seemingly everything either closes at 11 PM or revolves around bars.

I’ve spent the last 6–9 months researching where I want to go when all of this is finally over, and after considering a ton of places, I keep coming back to Vancouver.
I’m currently packing everything that survived all of this while recovering at my parents’ place, and I’m reaching the point where I need to start seriously contacting rentals. After getting very unlucky with property management twice in a row, though, I’d really appreciate some local knowledge.

Which property management companies/large landlords in Vancouver would you absolutely avoid? Conversely, are there any you’d actually recommend? And what areas of Vancouver do you think would fit me?

A little about me:
I’m a single 38 year old guy, 39 soon. I’m currently unemployed — my last job let me go after I needed too much time away for medical appointments — but I have about 15 years of professional IT/tech experience, so I’m not terrified about finding another job. I have pretty bad anxiety/panic attacks, ADHD, and I’m on the spectrum. I have an ESA, my 12.5-year-old black Lab/Golden Retriever, Indiana, whom I’ve had since he was six weeks old. I love this dog more than I can adequately explain. If I start having a panic attack, he’ll literally come sit on me until I calm down.

And, apparently, I now have a cat.
About three weeks ago Indiana and I were walking around a lake when I heard a kitten crying near a 60 mph highway. Long story short, he’d apparently been abandoned, and when I found him he jumped into a 20–30 foot-wide drainage ditch and swam across it to get to me. So I guess that’s how you acquire a cat. He’s about 8–9 weeks old now and is ridiculously sweet.

Personality wise, I’m a huge Indiana Jones, Star Wars, movie/film-in-general nerd and love all things ASOIAF. I used to game quite a bit before my back injury made sitting and playing difficult, and I’m hoping to get back into it. I love nature and walking, although I’m not looking to climb Mount Everest every weekend. Indiana and I normally walk a mile or two a day, and having nice places nearby where we can do that would be a huge plus.
I’m not looking for a huge nightlife scene, but I’d like to live somewhere where things actually exist and I don’t feel like the entire city shuts down at night. Being reasonably close to Portland seems like a major benefit for that.

One other question: is this subreddit (or somewhere else locally) a decent place to find someone for paid help getting settled after I arrive?
I’m not looking for movers. I’ll have movers for the actual furniture/heavy stuff. What I’ll need is basically another set of hands for unpacking and getting the apartment functional — unpacking and shelving a very large movie collection, putting away dishes, assembling/organizing some things, helping me put a TV on its stand or possibly mount it, etc.

It’s the repetitive bending, twisting, reaching and lifting that my back really doesn’t tolerate after surgery. None of this is particularly difficult work; doing it all myself would just take me six months.
I’d absolutely pay someone fairly for their time. Honest pay for honest work.

Sorry this got long, but I’d really appreciate any advice from people who actually live there — particularly about neighborhoods, property management companies/landlords, and where to find reliable paid help once I arrive.

I have terrible health insurance that covers basically nothing, and I’m trying to find the lowest-cost route to get this properly evaluated within the next week. If anyone has been through this, would love to hear what you did.

What areas should you avoid in terms of crime?

I’ve heard the mall had some kidnappings and stalking.

Hi guys

Realistically, does it matter if a school is a 5 or 6 out of 10 school instead of like an 8 or 9? I mean if you can’t afford to move into an area with the 8 or 9 schools, my child would still be okay going to a school within the range above? And does anyone know what the real difference would be?

I have ran a Fantasy League with many local redditors through this discord (feel free to look at post history to verify) and we always have had a great time doing a local game. Usually we meet up to draft at Tap Union, but since I am late to getting players this year can be more relaxed. Anyway if interested there is a buy in, .5 ppr, 1QB, 3WR, 2RB,1TE, 2 FLEX, no K, no DEF. We usually have a full card but since I took a year off we may need a few . Shoot me a DM

What’s your take on getting a Sedan like Camry vs SUV like Rav4, given the option why would you chose a Sedan in PNW?

Considering that winter could be harsh at some point and the surrounding terrain, I figured getting an SUV makes sense for better ground clearance and easier drive (again winter tires do make the difference)

Also folks who have chose FWD over AWD, did you feel any pinch at any point while driving around here ?

I mostly drove rentals before and most of which were FWD but that’s for summer

I’m trying to find dash cam footage of the accident taking place, or ring camera footage, or even just witnesses. Please anything helps <3 happened Friday July 17th around 2:30-4, most likely around 2:40 ish. The other person is dodging insurance and they’re telling me I need video proof or witness proof now. It was right in between prairie high school and the brush prairie cemetery, if anyone knows anyone with a dashcam who commutes through the area during those times please send them this post.

Strolling around Arnada and Hough, we saw many attractive porches devoid of any furniture, plants, or anything. By contrast, a happy few other porches were loaded with all those things and looked like an important part of living in those houses.

Are the empty porches a case where people don’t value spending time out front, or do things have a habit of wandering off if you leave them on the front porch untethered?

I just moved here and the first thing I noticed was there’s like a massage parlor every block. Is there a big market or does law enforcement not care? lol. I just know what they look like cause they’re all the same looking places with the same fake names and fonts that were always getting busted in the city I come from.

Is the healthcare good?

I am going to try and make this short, but need to include all the details. I live in Washington state, and was served an eviction notice in 2023 at an apartment complex for falling behind on rent. I was able to move out before the eviction date, so the case was dropped and I did not have to go to court. after I moved out, I returned the key, mail, key, and gym key, and asked the manager at the time, how they wanted to go about making a plan to pay back my amount owed, and I was told that I didn’t have to worry about it since I moved out before the eviction date. the manager did not give me a form to fill out. my mailing address has never changed, and it’s the same address I filled the rental application out with, so it was my shock when I saw that I had a remark on my credit report that my rental amount went into collections. I was never contacted by the leasing office to arrange any payment plans, and I also sent an email to the leasing office and asked about a payment plan, but never had a response, and this was a week after I moved out. I need to know if it’s possible to get it out of collections? I contacted the leasing office and they told me I would need to work it out with the credit agency they sent it to. my issues is that it should have never been sent there to begin with, when I attempted twice to setup payment arrangements. The leasing office stated they had no forwarding address to send the notice too, but that’s not true because it was on my rental application and I never changed my address, they also had my phone number, and email address to contact me. can I file a complaint with the attorney generals office? I need this off if my credit, but I’m scared to reach out to the credit agency. The credit agency has not sent me any notice of it either, and it’s been in collections and posted to my account since 2025, and I only found out because I checked my credit. please help!

What are the reasons?
Money? Politics? Quiet?

Wanted to know what you’re currently paying for a monthly house cleaning. For a 3bed/2ba 1700sq ft house for a deep clean initially got quoted $700 and one a month after that $250. Would like to know if that’s typical?

Hey guys! I’m feeling a little discouraged. I moved here from Colorado last year. I had an amazing tattoo artist that I had to leave behind (I miss him every day) I don’t have the money to fly back right now to schedule a session with him and at some point, I know I’m going to have to find an artist out here. I took a chance and had a consult with an UNNAMED ARTIST in Vancouver and they quoted me $400 for a TEEEEENY little spider on my hand. I was blown away. I believe in paying for quality art, especially because it’ll be on my body forever, I just personally can’t justify spending $400 on that when some of my other pieces (much larger and color) were way under that price range. Does anyone have any good tattoo artists they recommend? I would like a woman but I’m not opposed to a male artist either. Thank youuuu ❤️