Moving to the left - looking at either Spokane or Vancouver/Portland (Seattle: colleges)

[pbassjunk]

My wife and I (early 30s) currently live in Baltimore, MD and we've been planning to move out west for a while. Assuming the stars align properly, we are planning to take the plunge sometime later this fall or early winter (odd time to move I know, but we don't want to stay another winter in this area). We know the Seattle/Olympic penn. area fairly well (brother-in-law out there) and from our visits (and info gleaned here) we are pretty settled on Spokane or Vancouver/Portland.

Actually, we were pretty much all in for Spokane - seems to have everything we would like.. snow (not a blizzard city, but much more than we get in Baltimore), mountains (avid rock climbers), clean air (again, coming from Baltimore), medium-ish metropolitan city w/ burbs, etc.

However, my brother-in-law (in Olympia) has been saying 'avoid Spokane, go to Van/Portland'. I don't know why or his reasoning.. but it's put a kink in our otherwise focused little plan.

Any advice or corrections in our thinking? I kind of want to just write him off as having some sort of east/west WA bias (we do it here in MD.. everyone thinks Frederick (west) and Southern MD are just a bunch of tobacco rednecks, while they think we're all steel working heroine addicts ) but on the other hand, he lives out there.

[StealthRabbit]

Please state your work goals / needs + recreational desires and climate preferences and it will be easier to assist.

Spokane = dry and warm summers + gray winters, but not too cold and not too much snow (except last yr...). Agrarian roots (conservative bias) military base, inland, a few decent colleges (go Zags) and culture, recreation = kayak, hiking, skiing, hunting. Airport is not a hub (Must fly to SLC, SEA or PDX to get most places) 5 hrs to SEA . PDX. MT & ID are close and very good for outdoors folks and 'political conservatives'. 1.5 hrs to great Canada camping

Portland = we_t side weather = 280 days with rain or overcast; summers (August) are great, winters (sept - april) are cool and damp, but not heavy rain... 50 " of drizzle) granola, Birkenstock, brew pubs, lots of liberal arts colleges, Powell Books (Portland icon) and great airport hub (EZ and cheap). Decent public transportation, several sporting and culture venues. very liberal city.

Vancouver is 15 min away and is more conservative, but way left of Spokane (left coast) not much happening in Vancouver, Portland is too handy.
Probably more job opportunities in Portland / Vancouver. OR state taxes (9%) due if employed in OR. (whether living in OR or WA).

Beaches (cold but scenic), Mt Hood, Mt St Helens, 1 hr away
Columbia River Gorge (hiking / views 20 minutes away) Wind surfing paradise is 45 min east (which is where I would move)...