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I'm considering a move to CDA in the next few months and I'm looking for current information. I stayed in CDA for two weeks back in 1998, and for two days in 2010. I really love this area, but living somewhere that looks beautiful and feels peaceful can be different than just vacationing there.
I lived in the Bitterroot Valley in Montana for six years, then we moved up to the Flathead around Lake County. We really loved the Bitterroot Valley, but we are not happy here in Lake County. We feel extremely isolated here and the basic energy and unfriendliness of people in the area is making our family unhappy. We love the snow, cold weather, and do fine with the long dark winters, it's just that it seems like there's no sense of community here and we are looking to come to CDA, based on our good experiences there when we visited. My daughter really loved it there and asks us to take her back.
I also have MS, and there is a clinic at Providence Holy Family in Spokane that treats MS. I don't want to move to Spokane however.
We are just a family of three in our 30's with a 9 year old daughter.
So my questions about CDA:
1. How friendly would you say people are there?
2. Jobs. Realistically, how is the job outlook for service jobs, or security work?
3. Traffic. When I was there in 2010, it seemed the traffic was much more than 1998. Is there room on the roads or is it like Missoula where everyone is bumper to bumper sometimes? Are there roads to get on and take rides where you are not having to deal with someone on your behind, as in a relaxing drive around the city?
4. College town. I do NOT want to move somewhere like Missoula where it's a college drinking partying type of town. I don't mind a little of that but Missoula was too much for me. I didn't live there, but on the outside of it and stayed away most of the time I lived in the Bitterroot. Would you say CDA is like Missoula when it comes to the college town atmosphere?
5. Crime. How bad is it.
6. Shopping. This is not a huge concern as where I live now, there's ONE walmart. That's it for shopping. I'd like more diversity and places to pick from. Everything we buy here, I have to order online or from a catalog because there's simply nothing here.
7. Rent. Would I be able to find a nice 2 bedroom apartment in the $650 - $750 range in a nice area?
Personally I wouldn't move to CDA if I were you. We moved up here in 2007 and it has been the biggest mistake we ever made. We're hoping to move this summer. We have had bad luck the whole time and have had to use a lot of our savings just to make ends meet. A lot of the people I used to work with wanted to or did move to Montana.
Traffic is ok. Its more congested downtown and on Government Way and on 95. People will get on your bumper, change lanes in an intersection, and not use their signal lights. 95 backs up in the afternoon and mornings at the usual rush hour times and sometimes at lunch. Fridays are another story. Traffic will start to get heavy and be backed up on 95 starting around 1 pm and stay that way until sometime between 4 and 6. This is only on Fridays though. the side streets aren't too bad and are fairly easy driving since most of the traffic is along Govt. Way, 95 and 4th street.
As for people they're ok friendly. I haven't had any issues but people are definitely friendlier down south.
As for community I haven't felt a sense of one. There might be though. They do have a 4th of July parade and fireworks and a Christmas parade and fireworks. However, the city passed a huge project downtown that a lot of people didn't want. the mayor and council ignored the calls for a public vote. I am a bit biased though as I prefer the New England style of government where the citizens vote on everything including the town budget. As for me I don't have a feeling of community and the city doesn't feel like home to me.
As for a college town it really isn't. The city only has a community college so you don't have the atmosphere that a 4 year college does. However it does seem like a bunch of drinking goes on here. I wouldn't worry too much on that though since most of the bars are downtown around the lake and resort and surrounding areas.
As for jobs I'm not too familiar with the markets you're looking for. In general though the job market here is not too good at all. There are no major jobs here. Earlier it was construction but that has since gone away. Most jobs are low paying. there were a couple of articles in the news that for a single person just to make ends meet you need to earn over 15 dollars an hour. The downside is not many jobs here pay that much, even jobs for the county and city. As a result many people commute to Spokane for work. Even police officers quit and go work for Spokane PD because of pay and benefits. The only jobs worth anything here is in the medical field (especially if you are a nurse or doctor), firefighter, police officer/deputy/state trooper, lawyer or judge.
As for crime there are a lot of DUIs including what is called Excessive DuIs. These are where the BAC is .2 or higher. Domestic disputes are common. About once a year or two you'll get a rash of burglaries. Its usually the same group (different for each string of them) and its usually to steal stuff to pawn so they can buy drugs. Meth is a problem as is the occasional battery or assault. I was talking to a city officer one time and he said the main reason why they need so many extra officers and overtime for the 4th of July parade is because of all the trouble from people coming from Spokane.
A lot of problems spill over from Spokane. If you follow the news there its not uncommon for a stabbing, murder, bomb threat, auto theft, burglary, robbery etc to take place there. In fact Spokane is often referred to as Spocompton, Spokangles, and Spokanistan. In fact when my friend was deployed to Kandahar last year I read less on the news about there than I did about in Spokane. I know for a fact it was safer than Chicago.
Shopping is ok. We have a 24 hour Walmart, 2 in Post Falls. We have a Costco, a couple of sporting goods and gun shops. There is a very nice gun shop and indoor range in Post Falls. Post Falls also has a Cabelas. There is a Hastings here in CDA and a Pet Smart, and a Sears, Home Depot and Lowes. On the downside Barnes and Noble closed down the other year. For coffee there are at least 3 Starbucks and lots of small coffee stands scattered around town. I'm sure there's more but because of work I don't have money to go shopping. Spokane Valley, Spokane and Liberty Lake have lots of shopping and aren't too far away.
As far as rents go it isn't cheap. We live in an ok 2 bedroom duplex for $650 a month. It does have a garage and a fenced in backyard. The duplex is old. Single pane windows that are drafty, (you can actually see the blinds move) no central heat or air (and you'll need the air, this coming from someone who lived a while down south) but its in a decent part of town. the heating is messed up in this house to. Its radiant heat but instead of being in the floor where it should be since heat rises its in the ceiling. A couple of things. Do NOT live on the east to south east of town and the south side of town. That's where most of the crimes happen.Also be careful around Target since in the wooded part behind it is a large homeless camp where a stabbing happened with in the last 2 years. I would also stay AWAY from Julia street and the area around there. This is by Lowes but no trouble goes over to Lowes so don't feel bad about going there. Another don't, DO NOT rent from Coeur d Alene Property Management. They will try to screw over everyone they rent to. They will find any reason to try to take your security deposit. They are also slow to respond to important calls and get things fixed. One time I had a problem that was a safety issue. I had to call numerous times and after about 3 weeks I had to imply legal action would be taken if someone got hurt.
I know I'm biased since we haven't had anything but bad luck since we moved up here. My wife and I have had to use about $20,000 of savings to make ends meet thinking we would be able to get better jobs. We would have moved earlier but medical issues came up that kept us from moving. moving here was the biggest mistake we ever made and we wish we never moved here. It is pretty and I kind of like the weather. It doesn't rain enough in the summer and it doesn't snow enough in the winter for me. We were better off in 2006 making less money than we are now. We are worse off. We wish we stayed where we were or moved to Kalispell, Missoula, or Bozeman. These were part of our original list. We are going to move back down south where we'll be able to save some money again and then try one of the last free states in the northeast.
I forgot to mention. I grew up in a small town where we would get some good snow storms. If we got about 4 inches of snow it would be off of the roads and school would start on time. If we had more than that it would be the 60-90 minute delay. It took a lot of snow or ice to close school. they would stay on top of the roads and keep them clear WHILE the storm was going on. Here they seem to wait until AFTER the storm to plow. Half the time they don't have enough plows and are using graders and payloaders. Some of the major town roads will actually have 4 to 6 inches of packed snow. There will be so much packed snow that the roads actually have washboards like dirt roads get. I spent 2 weeks driving with chains on around town. the road I live on usually doesn't get plowed until at least 2 to 3 days after a storm. If its under 6 inches they don't bother so you end up with slick packed snow until the next storm. One year we had 18 inches of snow on our road and they didn't get to it until 4-5 days after the storm. The only reason us on the road and cul de sac were able to get out was one of the neighbors plowed the street with his four wheeler.
Providence Sacred Heart in Spokane is a good hospital and they have a lot of different specialists there.
1. How friendly would you say people are there? Everyone visiting from out of town that I have talked to has said that people are very friendly here.
2. Jobs. Realistically, how is the job outlook for service jobs, or security work? I don't really know but many people commute to Spokane.
3. Traffic. When I was there in 2010, it seemed the traffic was much more than 1998. Is there room on the roads or is it like Missoula where everyone is bumper to bumper sometimes? Are there roads to get on and take rides where you are not having to deal with someone on your behind, as in a relaxing drive around the city? If you really know the area getting around is fairly easy. Traffic gets backed up on Northwest Boulevard during rush hour but there are plenty of other ways to get out of town.
4. College town. I do NOT want to move somewhere like Missoula where it's a college drinking partying type of town. I don't mind a little of that but Missoula was too much for me. I didn't live there, but on the outside of it and stayed away most of the time I lived in the Bitterroot. Would you say CDA is like Missoula when it comes to the college town atmosphere? No, but downtown in the summer time late in the evening does have quite a few drunks behaving badly. This I only know from the news and word of mouth, I don't drink or party.
5. Crime. How bad is it. Not bad at all, Keep your house locked and don't leave anything of value in your car that you want to keep.
6. Shopping. This is not a huge concern as where I live now, there's ONE walmart. That's it for shopping. I'd like more diversity and places to pick from. Everything we buy here, I have to order online or from a catalog because there's simply nothing here. Plenty of big stores, the mall and downtown, if you need more choices there is always Spokane.
1. Overall, I'd say Coeur d'Alene is very friendly. It's a place where people can look strangers in the eye, nod, smile or say "hi" in passing without someone thinking their weird or attacking them for looking at them the "wrong way."
2. This is difficult to judge. Coeur d'Alene's two biggest employers are the tourism industry and the medical industry, but there are jobs available throughout the area in various professions. My roommate was out of work for nearly four years without finding a job, while I--not even looking for an extra job--was just offered one out of nowhere. So this is hard to really say. I personally wouldn't move anywhere without having something lined up or some very solid leads.
3. The busiest time tends to be 3:00p to 6:00p, with most traffic right around 5-5:30, and the busiest roads tend to be Northwest Blvd, Highway 95 and Government Way. Traffic is definitely getting worse, and in some cases the city is inexplicably taking roads that are large enough for two lanes of traffic each way and adding shoulder parking and bike lanes, effectively permanently reducing the roads to a single lane of traffic in each direction. Additionally, Kootenai County is in the process of adopting a new Unified Land Use Code, and one of the heads of that project has specifically stated that his ideal population division would be 90% urban and 10% rural. Such a division would only further-increase congestion in the cities. So there are somewhat questionable decisions being made in regard to traffic congestion. Nonetheless, some roads are being improved for traffic flow.
4. Coeur d'Alene does not have a college town atmosphere. During the summer you'll find a lot of people, many of them tourists, out and about downtown taking part in the active night life. However, the vast majority of people behave themselves and don't get into any trouble. Outside of the bars' most active hours (10:00p to 2:00a, Friday & Saturday night) there are virtually zero problems. One of the local papers periodically collects together police reports on "the drunks," which is usually only a couple/few pages long over the course of a month or two of reported incidents, primarily minor things--someone vomited, someone jaywalked in front of a vehicle, someone urinated in a back alley, someone got drunk and fell asleep on a park bench. Violent incidents are rare, and usually minor.
5. Lock your doors and keep your windows shut when you're not there, keep valuables out of sight--basic security procedures pretty much anywhere you go these days. Crime is relatively low, but it does happen.
6. I've always been satisfied with what Coeur d'Alene has to offer in the way of shopping. We have many grocery stores, including a couple of independent ones, as well as bi-weekly farmers markets throughout the warmer months. There is also Silver Lake Mall, and other places for clothes and other non-grocery items. I never have to go into Spokane for anything except to get my Apple products serviced since the only certified place for that is the Apple Store there. Periodically I'll go in for other specialized things like that, but my trips to Spokane for shopping happen at most once every 4-6 months.
7. Maybe. I do live in a reasonably nice 2-bedroom apartment, but not in the best area of town, and I'm within that range on rent. I have friends living in a 3-bedroom duplex on the east side of Post Falls for $750/month, and friends living in an older 2-bedroom apartment in Hayden for about $700/month. When I was apartment hunting, I did find that there were a lot more competitive prices (and availability) for 2-bedroom housing, compared to 1-bedroom housing, which was nearly impossible to find without a waiting list and costing nearly the same.
Hi! My family of 6 is very seriously considering a move to the area and I would love more information. I have been through many of these responses and consider them all very helpful. We are looking for a safe quiet place to raise children, where people value community but still respect privacy... hoping we will find this nice balance there. Any suggestions on close towns or neighborhoods? I have four children who are all involved in sports... gymnastics, dance, soccer, and kenpo karate. I have been researching places for them but would love local recommendations. We will also be in need of a church. It is here we seem to be having the most trouble finding a fit. Again, any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Virtually anyplace in the Coeur d'Alene/Hayden/Post Falls area is a good family neighborhood. There are only a few isolated "bad" neighborhoods (discussed recently in another thread on the forum). I think the best place to start narrowing that down would be to contact a realtor and discuss your price range to get some neighborhood recommendations.
As for your church needs, what are you looking for there? I suppose the biggest questions here are: Any denominations you prefer (even if it's just general Calvinist/Wesleyan preference)? Any denominations in particular you don't want to attend? Is there a certain size of church you prefer? What kind of and how many church activities do you like to be involved in, if any?
Hi! My family of 6 is very seriously considering a move to the area and I would love more information. I have been through many of these responses and consider them all very helpful. We are looking for a safe quiet place to raise children, where people value community but still respect privacy... hoping we will find this nice balance there. Any suggestions on close towns or neighborhoods? I have four children who are all involved in sports... gymnastics, dance, soccer, and kenpo karate. I have been researching places for them but would love local recommendations. We will also be in need of a church. It is here we seem to be having the most trouble finding a fit. Again, any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Kenpo Karate:
Northwest Kenpo Karate https://www.facebook.com/cdakenpokarate // http://cdakenpokarate.com/
Jason and Colleen Johnston are some of the finest people you'd ever want to meet. Wonderfully supportive, highly skilled, but humble about the craft. I once saw Jason against a "visiting black belt" who was higher degree who seemed like he had something to prove, and with complete humility and not trying to show the guy up just held his own. I think he could have seriously beaten this other guy because he looked like he was effortlessly moving around the guy where the guy was becoming frustrated, but Jason is the kind of guy who didn't feel he had to humiliate the guy just because he was on his home turf. I gained even more respect for him that day as I realized that honoring the martial art was more important than him proving he was the more skilled fighter. And over the years they worked with my child, in private lessons and group sessions (both Kenpo Karate and groundfighting/grappling/sparring), seeing the level of confidence they helped instill in my child was huge. I can't say enough good things about the Johnstons.
Soccer:
Sting is the local soccer club (this would be a higher level of club/select play...you didn't mention if you're looking for rec soccer or club soccer). A lot of very talented USSF-licensed coaching. They compete on a regional level, and at state cup tournaments, etc. Coeur D'Alene Sting Soccer If you're looking just for rec league local soccer, then I don't know.
Super talented staff, and they are just really nice people. Again, can't say enough good things about them and how much they've done for my kids. Brook and Amy are just gifted instructors and choreographers at Christian Youth Theater North Idaho (cytnorthidaho.org).
Can't help you with gymnastics, sorry.
To get started with a church, try Real Life in Post Falls. It's a really big church, but a super place. A good place to try, and if you find it too big, then at least it's some place you can go while looking for a smaller church in the area.
Thank you for all of the suggestions and recommendations. We are looking for rec soccer. I believe my oldest boy is the only one who might be ready for club. But I do def. appreciate the help!!!
Coeur d'Alene is a resort. That's what it is. If you need a job don't move here unless you have one because there is not much of an 'economy' here.
There are a lot of retired people moving here (like me). Because it's a nice place to live, but not if you need a job.
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