Best area in Spokane to raise a family (Seattle, South Hill: how much, new home)

[ginger44]

Thanks Medryn - your post is great and is so true. We've been researching many different cities in an effort to narrow down where we want to move to next, and let me tell you - there is NOT ONE CITY in this entire City-Data forum that is not bashed on by some people who live there that hate it. There are also an equal number of people who post who love their city, but usually the negative ones are more persistent.

Asking for advice in a forum should be no different than if you walked into a room full of strangers and asked them in person. Are you going to listen to the 1st person who answers you? The loudest or the rudest? I hope not! Hopefully, you'll see what the consensus is, see who has any concrete facts to back it up (not just opinions) and then you'll use that information to do further research yourself and make up your own mind. No one should be turned on or off to a city by one loud person's opinion - everyone is different, has different backgrounds, likes and dislikes - so how do you know that any particular stranger on here represents what you'd think?

Crime and traffic opinions are always relative to where a person's from and can be better understood to a researcher when comparing statistics between cities. We moved to a small town in Florida 6 years ago and all the locals here complained about the traffic. At the time we were wondering what the heck they were talking about, as obviously they didn't know the definition of 'traffic', as coming from Las Vegas, to us, there was none to be seen. On the same note, everyone talked about how safe it is here, but when I researched the stats on the sexual offenders in the area, there is a higher ratio here than anywhere I've ever lived. There is also a disturbing # of meth lab busts here for such a small area, so it all depends on what people define as 'safe', as well.

Anyway, we are looking to sell our home early next year and are now focused on Spokane. I've lived in cities in Hawaii, Utah, California, Alaska, Colorado, Nevada and Florida and am hoping to make Washington our next (and hopefully permanent) home based on our own research (helped by and despite the things I've read on the forums).

Thanks to all on here who have helped us by providing useful links and constructive information for us to research.

[sonicsfan]

Liberty Lake is by far the nicest area in what is considered Spokane. Close to the Valley Mall and a Walmart.

The South Hill is very nice too, but too far to get way up the hill from the freeway.

As for racism, yes, there is some. But there are many wonderful people as well. My family had no problems at all.

Good fortune to you,
Sonicsfan

[Shiggity]

Originally Posted by Medryn

The Mead school district (in further North Spokane) is notorius for being the best schools in the region and many many people make extra effort to have their kids there. They have outstanding teachers, great academics, superior sports and music programs, and they make sure to get the best educational material that many other public schools do not such as the reading/math curriculums that help kids learn it easier/better/quicker. The other added bonus is that if you are in the Mead school district area you are most likely living in one of the nicest areas of town to live in as most of the school district covers middle to upper class residential around new or very well kept commercial areas as well as beautiful recreational, park, and outdoor/countryside areas.

Positive comments like this are always better received than negative comments. However, this one is unfounded. "notorius" for being the best "schools" based on what? (Not spelling or grammar.) Outstanding teachers according to whom, this reviewer? Maybe their sports programs are good, Adam Morrison and Jan-Michael Gambill came from the Mead District, so if you want your child to be a professional athlete, maybe Mead is a good fit for you. Otherwise, you can have your kids eating on the floor, taking honors-level English classes from teachers who never learned any English in college, and learning from poorly xeroxed worksheets. Do you want your kid to go to school in a place where the administration makes decisions like remodeling the school during the school year, causing fires, floods, and asbestos to be a health hazard for him or her while they learn at this supposedly great district? Eating off of the floor because they decided they didn't need to budget for a cafeteria because kids like to eat on the floor? Having no help in understanding a concept because the teacher didn't understand the concept himself?

I'm from Spokane and I moved to Seattle. Spokane has its perks, a simpler life, Bloomsday and Hoopfest every year if you like running and basketball, and all the meth you could ever want. But I would never raise my kids there.

[kena]

Originally Posted by Shiggity

I'm from Spokane and I moved to Seattle. Spokane has its perks, a simpler life, Bloomsday and Hoopfest every year if you like running and basketball, and all the meth you could ever want. But I would never raise my kids there.

Wow, a linked article from the year 2000 about meth. Good thing the P-I keeps its articles archived for such a long time. Sadly, almost no area of the country is free from the problems of meth (including Spokane and much of the west side of the state) but the implication that Spokane has a particularly acute meth problem at this point in time is nonsense.

Anecdotal, yes, but if you ask people in Spokane why they live there (and they have or are planning to have children) they will often tell you it is because it is such a great place to raise a family.

By most standards, Mead schools are good. Not all schools are a good fit for everyone but not eating in a cafeteria (which most kids choose not to do anyway in my experience) and having poorly copied worksheets seem like fairly minor issues compared to a lot of schools out there.

[scirocco22]

I aree, kena. Good post. I was going to comment similarly but you beat me to it.

[ginger44]

Originally Posted by scirocco22

I aree, kena. Good post. I was going to comment similarly but you beat me to it.

I second that meth is everywhere - I live in a much smaller town than Spokane in FL and there's a meth busts here are so often, it's disturbing. Meth is EVERYWHERE.

The thing I can say about the town I live in now is that in the 6 years we've lived here, it's changed a lot from year to year, especially in the past 6 months, with the town becoming a lot more diverse all of a sudden. Given that, if I had left a year ago and were to review it on a post, the picture I'd be painting of this town would be inaccurate.

Places are not frozen in time from the time a person has left it, so that should be taken into consideration when looking at old data or reviews by people who no longer live there or people who have only visited. Just as the who have moved on to other areas, towns also move on and continue to change with time.

[Deena160]

Met someone today who moved from Spokane Valley a few years ago for her husbands work to over here in the Seattle area(yes, things could change there in a few years, but...). They've lived all over the country and she said she'd move back to Spokane in a heartbeat. They have 6 kids and she loved the schools and the community she was in. Couldn't say enough good things about it. I feel like she fit my demographic and we had a great discussion.
As for the meth...yeah, it's been rampant here, too and all the stuff like robbery and crime that goes with it. Best thing to do is know your neighbors and be aware of what's going on in your neighborhood. Hmmm, now I'm sounding like the Crime Dog! D

[googie]

Just like anywhere, you have to look at what type of person you are before you move to an area. Spokane is great if you're a conservative churchgoer. If, however you are liberal and not into organized religion like us, it is very, very tough to find like-minded people. My husband and I really wanted to come out West (we LOVE New England, but we always want to see new places) but we should have done more homework to find a region where we would fit in better. We are starting to make connections now, but it takes a lot of hard work and if I don't want to offend my neighbors, I have to keep my Democrats in '08 bumper sticker hidden.
It is absolutely beautiful out here, though. We love going to Coeur D'Alene to swim and Green Bluff is a great place to pick raspberries, cherries, peaches, etc. Being within driving distance to Glacier National Park is also a big bonus!

[kena]

Googie,

I'm not sure where you live around Spokane but things might feel more conservative than they actually are. Spokane county (which includes a good deal of rural area) voted for Gore over Bush in 2000 (55 to 45 %). The county went to Bush in 2004 (44 to 56 percent). In the most recent vote for Senator (2006), the county voted for Cantwell (D) with 57.5% of the vote. Moderator cut: from epodunk ...link deleted

Bottom line is that Spokane county is actually a fairly even split with small swings in both directions depending on the election and candidates.

[googie]

Kena,
I'd love it if some of those democrats moved to the area where where are (Colbert). Right now, we're very out of our element.