Non Mormon area in Boise (Meridian, Eagle: fit in, 2015, homes)
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My husband's company may be relocating us to Boise. If I offend anyone with requesting advice on areas that are not primarily Mormon, please move along and don't reply to my post. We lived in the Salt Lake area for nearly ten years and although we moved away from there three years ago, I am still doing damage control on my two children due to the egregious comments and actions of Mormons. I will not go into details but I never want to put my kids in that position again. Nor do I want to feel additional animosity toward any person or religion and that includes the LDS. If you're a good person, to each his own. We don't care what faith anyone chooses to follow.
Little did we know when we moved to Salt Lake, we chose an area that was at least 85% LDS. I'm trying to avert the same mistake if we move to Boise. Are there pocket areas where there is a minimum 50% diversity regarding religion and non-religion? We have a 4th and 8th grader so a school district that is known to excel in academics is also important to us.
If you're able to provide any suggesions, thank you in advance for your time.
I live on the other side of the state, but visit Boise frequently as I've got family there and I'm certain you're going to find out it's more diverse than SE Idaho or SLC.
As for the pockets you might want to aim for, I'll let others guide you.
I have friends in Boise but chose a very small town in the south central Idaho area. The LDS are virtually everywhere. Their strengths as compared to Salt Lake is considerably lower by comparison. 24 years in Salt Lake City showed me that to say the least. Glad to get out of there as well a year and a half ago. Now where I am I only ran into one LDS and they aren't anything like what I incurred in Salt Lake. I understand in Eagle they are particularly heavy in population. But for the most part I don't expect you'll run into anything close to what you dealt with in Utah.
Meridian seems pretty middle of the road. I haven't noticed any particular concentrations. I can't imagine the numbers being large in urban Boise. It's mostly liberal-hipster now. Probably not attractive to Mormon values (not that it's filthy and corrupt in downtown Boise) and also the cost of living would seem to be a turn-off.
I can only count one encounter so far with a Mormon preach to me and that was in the library. He was teen age and harmless. I let him talk and then he was on his way. And I've only had one religious group leave literature at my door. I can't recall which denomination but they weren't Mormon. They didn't knock. Otherwise, I don't notice the religious influence here much other than the family values
Yeah I get where you're coming from. My family moved to Eagle right before I started high school, from SW Virginia, where mormons aren't really a thing. It's more Baptists down there. But yeah, I used to wonder why all my friends left me at lunch (now I know, seminary). My best friend straight up stopped talking to me because her mom told her not to, because I wasn't mormon. I'm still dealing with the psychological damage they've done, 20 years later.
That being said, I don't know any particular area where there aren't as many. They seem to be everywhere
This is my experience living in Boise, as a single person, with no children. I've been gone from Idaho since 2010, but I lived in the NW Boise/Eagle area for 5 1/2 yrs, returning briefly in 2015 to see if I should return again or not. Though I disagree with many of their religious beliefs, I have nothing personal against the LDS community, as many of the ones that I've met seemed to be good, hard working individuals.
But from the moment I got there, almost every business that I dealt with, was owned or run by a Mormon. My hairdresser, my dog's Vet, where I bought my tires, my Realtor, the home repair men that I called to have work done at my house, etc. I was rather surprised by how many LDS families were in the Boise area and crossed my path each day. There was a large Mormon family directly behind my home, as well as many others in the subdivision where I lived. They were polite to me, but kept mostly to themselves. I don't recall ever being invited to their homes for dinner or neighborhood gatherings. And I really couldn't afford to feed and entertain their large families, so I didn't invite them to my home either.
The job searching in Boise was the most difficult part for me personally. I found searching for work in Boise more like an 'old boys network' than any place I had lived in prior or since leaving ID. It was all about who you knew and I wasn't LDS or a Boise native, so I didn't do so great. Some people have posted that they had no problem finding work here, while others gave up and left ID due to lack of jobs and low pay. It was sometimes joked that I should become LDS if I really wanted to find a job. I even applied for a position at Scentsy in Meridian and was asked during the interview how I heard about the opening. The man interviewing me was wondering if it was through my ward (like the majority of folks working there). Needless to say, I had not heard about this opening through my ward, so I really wasn't surprised when I didn't get offered the position.
Okay, I say all of the above because some people on this forum tend to downplay the effects that Mormans have on the Boise area - both for good and bad. Everybody's experience is different. This was my personal experience. Though the LDS people I met were mainly good people, it often felt like a large clique living in Boise. A clique that I would never be a part of, so that was rather limiting for me socially with so many people being LDS that were around me. That doesn't mean that I dislike LDS or even the Boise area. I just didn't really fit in with them socially and I wanted to live some place where I fit in better. I've been able to do that more easily outside of ID.
YMMV - there are alot of things to like about the Boise area and the people that live there!
The Mormon concentration in Ada County is pretty low. Maybe 15%? Low enough that if you have problems with Mormons here it’s likely to be as much you as them. My wife grew up in Southeast Idaho and it’s nothing like that around here. My oldest is just 10 so my kids haven’t really hit the age yet where the LDS kids tend to withdraw so how that process goes remains to be seen. They don’t have a ton of LDS friends but they do all have some. I don’t work with many Mormons nor do I have any close friends who are Mormons so in my day to day life it’s a total non-issue.
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