Safest Cities in Northern Idaho (Coeur d'Alene, Lewiston: rental car, rental, low crime)

[2hiptinman]

We are thinking of retiring and moving to Idaho,which cities are the safest in North Idaho?

[Cnynrat]

There are probably a few different ways you could think about safety, particularly from the perspective of an older couple:

Low crime rate
Proximity to emergency medical care
Other concerns - perhaps in town vs. out in the boonies

You can find crime rate statistics for various communities in north Idaho here on City Data. I've not looked at them recently, but as a general rule the crime rate in most of north Idaho is below average. For me at least there would be many other reasons to chose one area of north Idaho over another besides crime rate as I don't think the differences from one area to another are large.

The Kootenai Regional Medical Center in Coeur d'Alene is the largest and I'd guess most capable medical facility in the region. Bonner General Hospital in Sandpoint is an acute care hospital, and Boundary County Hospital in Bonners Ferry is a critical access hospital. A critical access hospital will generally try to stabilize patients with severe medical issues and then transport them to an acute care facility. So, if proximity to sophisticated medical care is a concern you'd want to be closer to CdA as opposed to Bonners Ferry.

Dave

[Clark Fork Fantast]

Welcome to the forum! Safety in terms of crime is really not an issue (at this point) compared to what you're probably used to, in SoCal. With a little more info about what you're looking for, we can be more specific. For one thing, "cities" as you know them would only apply to Coeur d'Alene--Sandpoint would qualify as a "town," and so would Bonners Ferry. So if you want to be close to the usual city amenities, such as Cnynrat suggests, like good medical facilities, or shopping, you'd have to be near Coeur d'Alene, which would also put you in proximity of Spokane with its very good medium-size airport. But if you're looking for a future further away from city life (and you can actually find it within 15 minutes' drive of Downtown CdA), then you need to line up your wish list. Fishing? Hunting? Hiking? Great photo opportunities? Just fresh air and mountain views, and no immediate view of your neighbor's house?

You'll find that CdA has somewhat elevated crime stats (nothing like SoCal, though). There is an thread where that phenomenon is explained, and I think it is partly because of diligent crime reporting. It's easy to keep crime stats down if no reports are taken...Spokane has some gangs, and there might be a spill-over into CdA, but even in Spokane you can find very safe neighborhoods. It's all a matter of perspective.

We're also in SoCal for now, and we have retirement property in Clark Fork on the Montana border. We're in love with the area. Sandpoint is an easy 30 minutes away (all depending on the time of year, and the weather), and we can get to Spokane in less than 2 hours. We went for the scenic factor, and since we don't have to eat scenery, the lack of jobs is not a problem for us. It shouldn't be for you, either. We have several retiree neighbors, so it isn't like other retirees are not choosing the area, even if it is somewhat remote. And yes, there are still people there who don't lock their doors at night.

If you can set a week or two aside for a scouting trip, you should come up and see for yourself. Fly into Spokane and rent a car. You can take a rental car out of state from Spokane, even into the extreme NW Montana.

I can see you're in Moreno Valley. That means among the "safety" factors you should think about icy steep driveways of winter!

[SandpointID]

Welcome to Idaho. I always chuckle to myself when I hear this question and count my blessings that I don't live anywhere else. We don't really have bad areas to live in as far as crime is concerned. Our big dangers here is having a moose between you and your car, or sliding on ice in the winter. Here you want to pay attention to amenities, weather, road conditions, proximity to stores or health care. The idaho panhandles is only 45 miles across. Do you want to live in a small city or a town or out in the country. What type of house do you want to live what kind of view, how close do you want neighbors. Here mother nature is the only safety concern you have to think about.

[Sandpointian]

Well, we don't really have many cities as you may know them

Population of the Largest cities in the Ten Counties of the North Idaho Panhandle
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CDA: 47K
Lewiston: 33K
Post Falls: 30K
Moscow: 25K
Hayden: 14K
Sandpoint: 8K
Rathdrum: 7K
Sagle: 5.5K
Bonners Ferry: 3K
Orofino: 3K
Grangeville: 2K
St. Maries, Kellogg, Priest River, Spirit Lake, Dalton Gardens: 2K

Hopefully, I did not leave anyplace out!

Apart from summer crime that is largely induced by the region's transformation into a tourist mecca, the crime that exists is of individuals and of families perhaps not of neighborhoods or really even streets.

One can rarely control from the odd bad seed or bad family. Otherwise, the places with a nice mix of gainfully employed, retirees, trust fund babies, and retirees is likely to have the lowest crime.

S.

[folkguitarist555]

I hope N Idaho remains a relatively safe and not so congested place, one of the few last great places left in the USA imo.....sadly....but seems like the area is getting very crowded and growing too fast...