August-September 2014 | BusinessWorld | 143
More than 50 wineries in the Yakima Valley
nowcovermore than11,000 acres of land.
“Over the past 10 years or so, there's been a
really strong push from the Yakima Valley's
wine interests – a loosely organized group
of vineyards and wineries – to promote
Yakima, Yakima Valley wines and to bring
the tourism in,” Cook said. “That's starting
to really pay off.”
The renewed emphasis on tourism has
coincided with a steady growth in the
number of people who call Yakima a full-
time home. The city's population was just
short of 55,000 as of the federal census in
1990, before 31 percent jump to 71,845 just
10 years later.
Another 26.8 percent rise came over the
subsequent decade in time for the official
count in 2010, and an updated estimate
placed the total at 93,257 – a moderate
increase of 2.4percent – in2013.
Seven area employers boasted four-digit
workforces, according to the Greater
Yakima Chamber of Commerce, led by
Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital at 2,200
and including the Yakima School District
(1,736), Walmart (1,587), the state's
Department of Social and Health Services
(1,400), the county itself (1,213), Del
Monte Foods (1,200) and the Yakima
Valley FarmWorkersClinic (1,181).
Cook's Ut i l i t i e s and Eng ine er ing
Department fluctuates in the neighbor-
