Puyallup

Let’s start by saying that Puyallup is a wonderful place to raise a family. The schools are decent, the streets are clean, people are incredibly friendly, and you’re within 45 minutes of Seattle and (give or take), high culture.

That said, Puyallup is also a typical American suburb. The town sprawls across a valley and hillside (divided into two camps, Puyallup proper and South Hill). In what was once a fertile farming valley and forested hill, Puyallup is now long stretches of backed up traffic jams and McMansions. As of 2009, Puyallup now supports two Wal-Mart Supercenters, two Applebees restaurants, two Targets, and two Fred Meyer grocery stores. Tack on the endless barrage of fast food, franchised eateries, and strip mall complexes, and you’ve got an American death trap.

For what it’s worth, though, Puyallup offers up many amenities you won’t find in other south Puget Sound cities. Wildwood Park is a wonderful, forested area for the family, there are many coffee shops to sip at, read in, and connect with friends, and the quality of people here really can’t be beat. Puyallup is definitely Mayberry 2.0, for better or for worse. It’s a great place, even for all its pitfalls.

To the serial public fapper in the bushes by the river trail: DO. NOT. WANT. D8

all we have here is the fair.

does anyone know of any good stores downtown?

I’m a native of Birmingham, Alabama. I moved to Puyallup, Washington in the summer of 1999 for a short wonderful year. My ex-wife and I were trying to find a place within reasonable distance to her new job and yet still close enough to Seattle. We knew very little about Puyallup before moving.

Compared to towns of similar size in Alabama—well, I thought it’d be a place where I did nothing but rest my head in at night while spending the rest of my time anywhere else. But that was far from the truth. Saturdays were spent at Pioneer Park enjoying the farmers market. Visiting the Puyallup Fair was a blast. The friends we made were great. I even experienced my one and only earthquake one evening there. Unfortunately my ex-wife didn’t care for being so far from Alabama and after her year was up with the job that took her out there she wanted to moved back.

I miss Puyallup an awful lot and hope to take my wife and kiddos there to experience the wonderful town and the state of Washington some day.

I’ve lived in this town my whole life, before moving to Bellingham for college. I’ve watched what was once a nice, small town transform into suburban hell.
There are no more forests left in Puyallup. They were all cut down to build more houses. Then they planted some perfectly lined trees along the main road to make up for it.
Downtown Puyallup isn’t as bad as South Hill (the part where I’m from), but that’s not to say it’s worth visiting.

Lived there; the Fair is an exciting time for the town each year.

I live here. Puyallup is one of those towns that are big enough that the box stores and chain restaurants have run out all the small interesting places, and not big enough to be able to re-attract and support them.

In the last few years there’s been a big effort to attract smaller restaurants with some level of success, which is nice. Hopefully the trend will continue.

The Fair is the big draw of the city tourist-wise. It’s a good fair, certainly, but you need to be into fairs. I think I’m at the age where rides aren’t as much fun as they used to be and the other stuff – crafts, etc – I’m just not old enough for. If I had a kid I’m sure it would be different.

Other tourist things to see? We recently lost our Bottle House (a sad day), and most of the rest of town can be found in most towns our size.

It’s not a bad town, but I do find myself going out of town for most evenings out.

I live here. Not by choice but to be closer to my husband’s job. I didn’t think I’d ever like it, particularly after living in and loving Seattle, being able to walk everywhere. It was an adjustment but I am more used to it now! Plenty of retail. Some pretty places in Puyallup.