Considering moving family to Spokane area in 2016/2017 (Seattle, Yakima: 2015, how much)

[danielsard]

Originally Posted by Moonlitehare

Danielsard... I will check it out. My boys go to a Calvary Chapel in Pealuma CA and love it. I'm actually excited about checking out Reformed Presbyterian. Have you ever listened to RC Sproul? he is reformed and an amazing teacher/theologian! I'm excited for the larger population of Christians in Spokane.. Where I live, I think the percentage of Christians is around 17%?
Not all Californians are wealthy, drive mega cars or shop at REI. That is a broad brush stroke to paint on people living here.

I attend a calvary and I'm super excited to check spokane and spokane valley calvary chapels ^_^

Gotta check RC's message. Does he has any radio ministry, or a website?

[rap53]

Not many NYer's in Miami any more

[danielsard]

Not true... I see NY plates as I see Florida :/

Specially in the winter

[509]

Originally Posted by Walkaboutcda

If you thought Cheney was nicer than Coeur d'Alene I can't really imagine why. The weather is actually not that different but the terrain in each area is vastly different. Cheney is surrounded by scab lands and rolling wheat fields compared to Coeur d'Alene's lakes, forests, and mountains.

The weather is much different. Check out the natural vegetation...that is an expression of climate. Trust me on this...the weather is much better in Cheney than Coeur d'Alene.

I am not sure how to say this....so take it well..........you sound like a ecological bigot.

I am a professional Forester....all natural landscapes are special. The scab lands are particularly interesting from a ecological and geological perspective. There are plenty of landscapes similar to Coeur d'Alene throughout the west. I have lived in many of those places.

There are very few places with the rich ecological and geological history of the scab lands.

Nothing wrong with Coeur d'Alene ecology. I did not like living there due to the weather and the community. Your mileage may vary.

Educate yourself on ecology and geology and you might be as thrilled with the scab lands as I am.

[Walkaboutcda]

Originally Posted by 509

The weather is much different. Check out the natural vegetation...that is an expression of climate. Trust me on this...the weather is much better in Cheney than Coeur d'Alene.

I am not sure how to say this....so take it well..........you sound like a ecological bigot.

I am a professional Forester....all natural landscapes are special. The scab lands are particularly interesting from a ecological and geological perspective. There are plenty of landscapes similar to Coeur d'Alene throughout the west. I have lived in many of those places.

There are very few places with the rich ecological and geological history of the scab lands.

Nothing wrong with Coeur d'Alene ecology. I did not like living there due to the weather and the community. Your mileage may vary.

Educate yourself on ecology and geology and you might be as thrilled with the scab lands as I am.

I lived in the scab lands and know how they were formed. If you like them that's great, enjoy.

[Moonlitehare]

danielsard... RC has a podcast that's amazing! And an app! I'll get the correct spelling and post it later for you..

[danielsard]

Originally Posted by Moonlitehare

danielsard... RC has a podcast that's amazing! And an app! I'll get the correct spelling and post it later for you..

Thanks ^_^

[ShadoAngel]

Surprises me.... I thought that the state was bluer than that thinking of the fact that is considered a liberal, unchurched (non-religious) state

I think Yele's map (2012 governor's race) is a bit misleading from a national perspective, as local or state elections can be more competitive than national ones. Massachusetts and Minnesota and even California regularly have Republican governors, for example. Yet those states are Democratic strongholds when it comes to their congressional delegation and presidential elections.

This is the 2012 Presidential election map:



The lightest shades are won by Romney/Obama with less than 50%. Middle shade 50-60%, Darkest shade 60%+. In 2014, 6 Democrats and 4 Republicans won election to the house of Representatives - most of them by convincing margins. The US Senate seats have gone to Democrats for a long while now. Most recent semi-competitive race was the Tea Party wave election in 2010, and even then Patty Murray held on to her Senate seat by almost 5% (which is a pretty solid win in most parts of the country.)

Something like 75-80% of the population lives on a third of the land in the west and the remaining 20-25% lives on the other two thirds of the land in the east. The more rural/suburban west leans Democratic with the Seattle metro heavily liberal. The eastern part is largely rural - farms, forests, canyons, and mountains and is fairly conservative, aside from the city of Spokane itself, which leans Democrat. So the state, as a whole, leans 'liberal' but as you can see from the map, there are a lot of places (mostly smaller cities in the central part of the state) where Romney won with more than 60% of the vote - definitely Republican. But there are more people living in King County than living in the entire red area of the map, so the state gets it's reputation from the west side, for sure.

The 'unchurched' reputation, while affected by the Seattle metro, is definitely true for the state as a whole. Religious participation is fairly low all over the west. The major exceptions being places with a high portion of Hispanics (New Mexico, southern/central California) and areas with a high percentage of Mormons (Utah, Eastern Idaho.) In most other areas, participation is much lower when compared to the South or the Midwest.

In my personal experience, that doesn't mean that the population is dominated by atheists or agnostics, just that organized religious services don't play as large of a role in the culture and every day life - when compared to most other places in the US. Another aspect that moderates religion in the state is a wide mix of religious sects. In that same article I linked to, you can see that Washington and most of the west has a high degree of 'religious diversity' - meaning that there is a wider variety of faiths and denominations represented when compared to other areas like Utah (dominated by LDS) or the Midwest/South where Protestantism - especially certain sects (Lutheranism in the Upper Midwest, Southern Baptist in the South) - is the overwhelming majority.

[509]

Originally Posted by ShadoAngel

Something like 75-80% of the population lives on a third of the land in the west and the remaining 20-25% lives on the other two thirds of the land in the east. The more rural/suburban west leans Democratic with the Seattle metro heavily liberal. The eastern part is largely rural - farms, forests, canyons, and mountains and is fairly conservative, aside from the city of Spokane itself, which leans Democrat. So the state, as a whole, leans 'liberal' but as you can see from the map, there are a lot of places (mostly smaller cities in the central part of the state) where Romney won with more than 60% of the vote - definitely Republican. But there are more people living in King County than living in the entire red area of the map, so the state gets it's reputation from the west side, for sure.

.

Pretty good write up....except. Eastern Washington is 25% of the states population and has been that way for years. The big change is the mass migration from western Washington into eastern Washington that is really changing the character of the state. Eastern Washington is becoming like western Washington simply because so many "coasties" are moving over here.

The eastern part of Washington "is largely rural". That is incorrect. Eastern Washington is just slightly more urban than western Washington!! By a few tenths of a percent, but it is still more urban than western Washington.

IT IS, however, perceived as being more rural than western Washington. Part of the reason is I-90 which bypasses ALL the metro areas in eastern Washington except Spokane. Even I-82 bypasses both tri-cities and Yakima giving the perception that those are "rural" areas.

The population of eastern Washington by itself is equal to Idaho and much greater than Montana and thirteen other US states. It is hardly....empty. There are over 1.6 million people crammed in east of the Cascades. Of that 1.167 million are crammed into the urban areas as of 2010 according to the census.

[PS90]

Originally Posted by 509

The eastern part of Washington "is largely rural". That is incorrect. Eastern Washington is just slightly more urban than western Washington!! By a few tenths of a percent, but it is still more urban than western Washington.

IT IS, however, perceived as being more rural than western Washington. Part of the reason is I-90 which bypasses ALL the metro areas in eastern Washington except Spokane. Even I-82 bypasses both tri-cities and Yakima giving the perception that those are "rural" areas.

I guess I don't see your point.

What defines "urban" vs. "rural"? You are clearly citing some kind of government designation for your comment above. Yet Eastern Washington has much less people, much more agriculture, much less infrastructure (no ferries, no expensive bridges or tunnels), etc.

It may be true under some arbitrary bureaucratic designation that Eastern Washington somehow has more urban areas than Western Washington, but in reality, that doesn't mean a whole lot considering how much LESS people live on the Eastern side.

According to this map:

OFM | Population density maps by county

As of 2010, Eastern Washington's counties clearly have a lower population density. Only 2 counties in Eastern Washington have higher population densities than the LEAST population dense counties in Western Washington.

Wenatchee, for example, has some kind of weird "metro" designation that includes Entiat, Orondo, etc, under some government classifications, but to include Wenatchee's metro area in a "common sense" classification with Seattle and it's suburbs, is ridiculous.