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My home town of Boise is no more my hometown. I hate to say this has I've lived here most of my life. I've loved this place, but the area has grown pell-mell to the point the area is unlivable.
I blink and the area is totally different. Not in a good way.
The Treasure Valley just plain grew too much, too fast and is now so chaotic. It didn't help that our inept local governments just OK'd pell-mell growth without requiring infrastructure upgrades to convey traffic first, or ever. Now traffic is like Mexico City.
The people have changed. We Boiseans all used to be a little scruffy and lower middle-class, but we were friendly and forgiving. Not anymore. The hundreds of thousands of west coast transplants with massive amounts of money have really changed the character of the Valley. They have also run up the price of everything to the point us Idahoans can't afford to live here and most transplants are not nice people. News story the other night said it takes a couple making $135,000 per year to afford a ho-hum house in a hum-drum neighborhood. Incredible, if you are an Idahoan.
Growth brought some good for awhile. Medical care and it's availability became far better. Then the avalanche of new residents saturated the health care system over just the past 2 years and now my wife and I can't find doctors. My Doc won't see anyone over 55 and my wife has to go on Doc interviews to see if the Doc will take her on as a patient. Unbelievable. And scary.
As many Californian transplants on this forum say: if you don't like the place: move. People do it all the time.
I guess they are correct. And yes, I've been spoiled to live here so long when life here was so nice.
So, any others among of us Boiseans leaving??? Where are you thinking about going? My wife and I are thinking the Midwest.
Ditto my little corner of NW Washington. Forestry, fisheries and farming were the backbone of our economy. Mostly middle class, white, little crime, no blocked land public roads, no crowded trails, moderate politics.
The farming is still viable but fishing and forestry are remnants of their former prominence. The state university attracted lots of liberal progressives and now they are in power. At the university, there is a Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies which has 12 professors/instructors. Bellingham has consistently voted for the far leftists. In the 2021 city council election, a radical black agitator who posted ACAB was elected. People decry the lack of diversity. Why move to an area that is majority white then scream out for more diversity? We have less than 2% blacks but they hold 2 out of 7 city council seats. Our class division is widening while rich people from out of the area cause home values to sky rocket. We have acres of homeless encampments that the police only go in pairs, soaring property crime and now we have more murders. The state legislature tied the hands of law enforcement so they can’t chase, can’t arrest and even if they do, the prosecutor and judges let them out as our jail is too small and antiquated. But, the electorate re-elected one of the sponsors of these bills. (????????). The Blake decision allows possession of hard drugs. But, the progressives still add to our property taxes with a percent for affordable housing and lately, universal childcare (just a few votes separate yes from no).
We are too old to move but I have had my eye on Fruita, CO. We just hunker down on our rural acreage and pretend they don’t exist.
We love Boise and plan to stay for the foreseeable future, at least until the kids are grown and out of the house. Great city to raise a family. I find that people are very friendly here, including newcomers, though those from big cities seem to need a little time to warm up. I'm still curious about complaints about traffic. Perhaps it's all relative, and since I've lived and/or worked in many major metro areas I have a different perspective, but to me traffic in Boise is nothing.
That said, I totally get that Boise is no longer a good fit for you. It happens, and it's wise to recognize this and make a change instead of nursing bitterness (life's too short for that!). So I wish you all the best and hope you enjoy the adventure and land in a good place.
I think the Midwest has many great places to live. While I haven't researched it extensively (so take this with a big grain of salt), Duluth MN has been on my radar for a while. May be worth checking out. Smaller metro area, low cost of living, scenic, Lake Superior waterfront, about average crime. Colder, snowier winters than Boise, which can be good or bad depending on one's preferences.
I'd also look at Rapid City, SD for the same reasons listed above (though higher cost of living).
Have you considered the smaller cities in southern Idaho: Twin Falls, Idaho Falls, Pocatello, etc.?
You know, Boise is a great place to raise kids and the traffic within Boise is not that bad as the city government of Boise has at least tried to manage growth. The traffic nightmare originates in the towns to Boise's west: Meridian, Eagle, Star, Nampa and Caldwell.
I recall that just a few decades ago these towns were very small. Eagle and Star were 100 person hamlets and Meridian had just a few thousand. Nampa and Caldwell about 20k each. Now these places are still essentially hamlets or small towns but with huge populations of people living in massive subdivisions rushing into Boise on State Street or on Eagle Road for work or shopping and creating a chaotic situation.
The towns west of Boise are all governed by city councils who have the attitude of ”build now and fix the infrastructure later. Like mid-century later.” They approve development with no regard to traffic. The road network west of Boise is still essentially the same as it was 30 years ago. Sure, ACHD has widened some roads, but it's really not even a band-aid on the crush of traffic. Eagle Road in particular is a chaotic disaster. The Highway 16 extension from State Street to I84 at the 10 Mile Road interchange is supposed to relieve traffic on Eagle Road and State St., but I'm skeptical the folks in Star will want to drive 10 miles south on Hwy 16, THEN hit the interstate at 10 Mile and head into jobs or shopping in Boise along the interstate. The Big Downside of living in an area with limited bridges crossing the Boise River is that the crush of pell-mell growth is focused on the few bridges.
I'd move to Duluth if I was younger. South Idaho has some nice places and is less expensive, but those cities are also experiencing a lot of growth. I like Missouri and it has lots of hardwood and I build furniture. ;-)
You know, Boise is a great place to raise kids and the traffic within Boise is not that bad as the city government of Boise has at least tried to manage growth. The traffic nightmare originates in the towns to Boise's west: Meridian, Eagle, Star, Nampa and Caldwell.
I recall that just a few decades ago these towns were very small. Eagle and Star were 100 person hamlets and Meridian had just a few thousand. Nampa and Caldwell about 20k each. Now these places are still essentially hamlets or small towns but with huge populations of people living in massive subdivisions rushing into Boise on State Street or on Eagle Road for work or shopping and creating a chaotic situation.
The towns west of Boise are all governed by city councils who have the attitude of ”build now and fix the infrastructure later. Like mid-century later.” They approve development with no regard to traffic. The road network west of Boise is still essentially the same as it was 30 years ago. Sure, ACHD has widened some roads, but it's really not even a band-aid on the crush of traffic. Eagle Road in particular is a chaotic disaster. The Highway 16 extension from State Street to I84 at the 10 Mile Road interchange is supposed to relieve traffic on Eagle Road and State St., but I'm skeptical the folks in Star will want to drive 10 miles south on Hwy 16, THEN hit the interstate at 10 Mile and head into jobs or shopping in Boise along the interstate. The Big Downside of living in an area with limited bridges crossing the Boise River is that the crush of pell-mell growth is focused on the few bridges.
I'd move to Duluth if I was younger. South Idaho has some nice places and is less expensive, but those cities are also experiencing a lot of growth. I like Missouri and it has lots of hardwood and I build furniture. ;-)
I don't live in Boise, so I can't say any of your observations are not correct.
I will say for perspective, Boise is not alone. MANY cities experienced huge growth over the past 3 years, and many cities have seen huge increases in home prices. (Spokane, Minneapolis, Denver, Sarasota all come to mind.) Additionally, here in Florida, many doctors also have months-long waitlists, if they are taking new patients at all.
That said, you might have options. Duluth is a fabulous town, but it is way colder. You might think you're used to cold from Boise winters. But (a) it gets much colder in the winters in northern Minnesota (sub-zero), (b) the cold season lasts much longer (spring/fall), and (c) summers never get very warm. Think summer highs in the 70s, not near 100 daily. So if those temps are OK for you, then it's a great town.
Being from Boise, you might have better luck in other mid-sized towns in areas like Montana, South Dakota (Rapid City or Brookings), Ft. Collins, Reno, etc. I can't speak much to any of those options.
Remember - when you leave Boise (or whatever city you're in) and relocate to another...you're doing the exact thing that drove you from your town/city. Don't get upset when your new neighbors don't greet you and your Idaho license plates with open arms as you're now the person moving to their town and raising prices, crime, traffic, etc.
Remember - when you leave Boise (or whatever city you're in) and relocate to another...you're doing the exact thing that drove you from your town/city. Don't get upset when your new neighbors don't greet you and your Idaho license plates with open arms as you're now the person moving to their town and raising prices, crime, traffic, etc.
Therein lies the absurdity of hating on newcomers. When I hear Idahoans complaining about people moving in, I often wonder if they realize how much they sound like Californians 20-30 years ago. (To be clear, not accusing OP of this, who was nice about it.) The similarity in rhetoric is uncanny: invaders, carpetbaggers, if we don't built it they won't come (didn't work, just made things much worse), let's tax the new people, and so on. I used to tell people that if they ever have to relocate, I sincerely hope residents of their new state treat them better than they treated newcomers.
Ironically, many of the most passionate xenophobes were also the least able to compete for housing and were therefore priced out. They shot themselves in the foot with no-growth policies and were forced to relocate. This was more than a decade ago, whereas many of the people leaving CA are now young people and young families that had nothing to do with no-growth policies but are nevertheless priced out because it's so impossibly expensive.
I'm hopeful that Boise has learned some lessons from CA. It's encouraging to see urban infill in/near downtown, things like higher density apartment buildings. And the city's efforts to up zone to make way for more housing is positive. Urban sprawl into agricultural land isn't my favorite, but even so it's good to see more single family homes built. To be clear, I'm not a "build, build, build" cheerleader, growth for the sake of growth. It's just that I've seen the alternative and it's much much worse.
Last edited by AnythingOutdoors; 11-29-2022 at 09:19 AM..
I think most of the people who complain about Californians, moved here from California a decade or more ago.
Most people don't do enough research to realize that it's not only Californians moving here, but people from Washington, Oregon, Utah and Arizona are also among the highest percentages of newcomers.
Boise attracts a fair amount of transplants from the Bay Area, as well as LA, Seattle and Portland. I moved here over two decades ago and Boise was "cool" and growing swiftly and evolving back then, but is even better now imo.
My wife and I have looked up Duluth, and it is beautiful. I'd love to attend the Folk School in Grand Marias a few times a year!
The cold wouldn't both me. I will keep it on our radar.
I was thinking St. Joseph Mo. On second thought: maybe not.
My wife wants to live in a tiny town where we can keep quiet and enjoy furniture making and a very plain and simple life. If that's even possible anymore.
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