How would you rank Boise, Spokane, Tacoma, Reno by overall influence? (best, state)

[g500]

If you had to rank the four peer cities - Boise, Spokane, Tacoma, and Reno by overall influence (socioeconomic, political, cultural, logistic, historical), what order would you choose (starting with the most influential first)?

You can weight the above-mentioned factors however you like, but I personally tend to consider economic and political factors the most important.

Boise - capital and primary population center of Idaho. One of the fastest growing MSAs in the nation, hub of its state, Boise State, growing tech industry, home of Micron Technologies ($80 billion market cap), usually considered one of the highest quality of life MSA's, nearby Nampa, Idaho adds some boost to the area if you consider combining it with Boise. 796k MSA (which includes Nampa), which comprises nearly half of Idaho's entire state population. Largest city in a 200+ mile radius.

Spokane - Home of Gonzaga University, and many other colleges, and also a major significance for the railroad as a major rail hub and rail crossroads. Also serves as a mining/logging/timber/paper products center. Has a decent sized commercial airport. Built on a nice neatly-gridded pattern. It once hosted the world's fair. It is located in a conferious hilly biome with some praries. It is the largest city in a nearly 200 mile radius, 593k MSA. It serves as the primary population center of most of eastern Washington state, and even northern/eastern Oregon, and northern Idaho for that matter. Its MSA does not include Coeur d'Alene Idaho MSA (171k), which is 33.6 miles away.

Tacoma - has a major airport and containerport/seaport. I am not sure, but I think it falls *just* outside of Seattle's orbit (it is 33.6 miles core Tacoma to core Seattle). Anchors the southern Puget Sound. A rail terminus. An industrial city with some post-industrial grittiness to it. About 58 miles away from the famous Mount Rainier, Washington. 795k "MSA" (really Pierce County WA, since Tacoma and Pierce County are already formally considered part of the Seattle MSA). My comparison assumes that we consider Tacoma a seperate entity of Seattle for purposes of ranking and ordering. I will include a bonus poll option for those who do not wish to recognize Tacoma as its own independent entity for this comparison.

Reno - "The Biggest Little City on Earth". A mid-sized and compact cultural midweight known for its casino gaming (20 casinos), and hosting many sporting events and conferences. Has a growing high tech industry and robotics scene, has the Tesla lithium ion battery factory "Gigafactory", known for offering a high quality of life, also near Lake Tahoe (astute vacation area) 37.4 miles away. Carson City, the capital of Nevada, is also 31.6 miles away from Reno. Smaller than the others in this comparison, but still packs a punch. Does suffer from water scarcity/droughts. The anchor of northern Nevada. 498k MSA

Edit: I will let you the voters decide which definition to use for defining "city" in this comparison/context. I strongly prefer urban area or metropolitan statistical area (MSA). But you can use city proper or combined statistical area (CSA) if you prefer.

[mhays25]

Boise and Spokane are stand-alone cities that are capitals of big regions. Boise is a little bigger and a lot techier so I give it the nod.

Reno is smaller and also very entertainment oriented despite having other functions. It's not terribly influential.

Tacoma is a wing of the Seattle area (it's role is Oakland, but located like San Jose, whereas Bellevue/Redmond is the reverse). Its port and military make it influential, but it's hard to judge. Seattle has stolen its big HQs. Much depends where you draw the line around "Tacoma" vs. the rest of the Seattle area. Mt. Rainier is 30 miles away BTW, not 58.

[jjbradleynyc]

I say this--based on the criteria:

1 Boise

2 Tacoma

3 Reno

4 Spokane

[bus man]

Boise is rapidly growing in population and corporate relocations and is the hub of a geographically large region, so I rank it first. Spokane plays a similar role in its own geographical region, though it's not drawing people and companies at nearly the rate that Boise is. But even so, I'd still rank it second. Reno, I tend to see it as an entertainment city more than a place of regional significance. But I still ranked it above Tacoma, because I think that Tacoma is simply too overshadowed by Seattle to stand on its own. (The OP mentioned the major airport near Tacoma that even has the city in its name, but I think we'd all agree that a stand-alone "Tacoma International Airport" would be a much smaller affair if Seattle didn't happen to sit just to its north.)

[mhays25]

Tacoma's sphere (shared with Seattle) could be defined as Pierce County and South King County. At last estimate, Pierce had 925,000 residents, which made it bigger than the others' CSAs. Add Federal Way, Auburn, etc., in King County and it might be 1,200,000.

Its size, seaport (equivalent to Seattle's), industrial/warehouse sector, and massive Army and Air Force presence might make it #1. At minimum I'd put it behind Boise.

[g500]

Originally Posted by jjbradleynyc

I say this--based on the criteria:

1 Boise

2 Tacoma

3 Reno

4 Spokane

So far, based on the poll results, it seems Boise is clearly leading the pack, while the other three seem virtually tied with no clear placement yet.

Of the remaining 3 (Reno, Spokane, Tacoma) my perception is:

Reno wins on brand name recognition, tourism, tech, wealth/income

Spokane wins on legacy, history, education, cultural institutions, rail logistics, raw materials

Tacoma wins on size/scale, air and sea logistics, proximity to other metros, skyline

Not sure who wins on location. Tacoma has the most "going on", but that is due to its proxomity to Seattle, which heavily overshadows Tacoma. Reno and Spokane are both very isolated/stand-alone with no nearby major cities for hundreds of miles. Which can be a big advantage.

Really not sure who wins on economy. Seems like they all have their differences.

Tacoma and Reno look slightly bigger than Spokane from a skyline perspective. Spokane has the nicest and most ordered urban grid pattern though. Spokane appears to have a more robust mass transit system than Reno. Spokane has more NGOs (non-govermental organizations) than Reno. I really cannot find this kind of data for Tacoma because it is all lumped with Seattle.

Reno and Spokane have similar growth rates and appear to be growing faster than Tacoma as of the last year. From 2010-2020 they all grew about the same 13-15% (Reno was slight leader).

Idk, seems inconclusive. The three seem tied.

I think my order is: Boise, Spokane, Reno, Tacoma. But I would say the latter three are practically a dead-heat tie. idk maybe Spokane is too high. Spokane does so well in some criteria (history/culture/education), but somewhat underperforms in other criteria (economy).

I am interested to see if we can get a few more votes in the poll, maybe a few more opinions/insights.

Edit: I will add that I think Boise is the clear leader here. Strongest, fastest growing eco. Clear leader and focal point/center of its state. Sort of a small "It City" on the national stage. I think Boise can confidently stand a half step above the others.

[mhays25]

Tacoma is a fascinating case. It used to be a downtrodden, air-polluted city, with urban prairies near the core, like it belonged on the Great Lakes. People moved there because of jobs or Seattle's prices. But over the past few decades the big polluters have left, and it's gained its own mojo. The population (aside from COVID) grew in the last decade, and it's really surging now. I'd argue that the biggest key key has been the new UW Tacoma on the south fringe of Downtown, which now exceeds 5,000 students. A dozen apartment projects are underway on the Downtown fringes. It needs another wave or two like this to be truly vibrant in the core, but it's on its way.

[TheTimidBlueBars]

Yeah Tacoma, despite being the best city on the list by far from an urbanity standpoint, is definitely the least influential.

Spokane at least is "the city" for a pretty large region of eastern WA + ID panhandle + western MT, so I put it second to last.

Then Reno just has a lot more history and notoriety than Boise (Tahoe, Donner Pass, Comstock Lode, early divorce capital) while also serving as "the city" for a decent-sized, albeit thinly populated, area.

So Reno > Boise > Spokane > Tacoma for me

[Syringaloid]

Originally Posted by TheTimidBlueBars

Then Reno just has a lot more history and notoriety than Boise (Tahoe, Donner Pass, Comstock Lode, early divorce capital) while also serving as "the city" for a decent-sized, albeit thinly populated, area.

So Reno > Boise > Spokane > Tacoma for me

Notoriety yes because of the casinos, etc. History? Debatable because Boise was founded before Reno. Before the Europeans arrived, the Boise valley was a home to the Native tribes and the area around Boise has some of the oldest evidence of ancient human occupation in North America, at least 10,000 years ago. The Wees Bar Petroglyphs south of Boise in the Snake River Canyon has one of the largest concentration of petroglyphs on the continent.

Shortly after the Oregon Trail pioneers travelled through Boise, and many remained, the gold rush began immediately north of Boise in the Idaho City area and was the largest and richest in the nation after the California gold rush.

Most western towns, if not all, are going to have a colorful history.

[SonySegaTendo617]

I get this perception, that I'd rank these cities from 1(top) to 4 like this:

1) Boise

2) Tacoma

3) Spokane

4) Reno

It's hard to decide between 3 and 4 which is more prominent, since both cities have smaller cities with a little population not too far away. I.e. Coeur D'Alene and Sandpoint for Spokane, and Carson City, Sparks, and other towns near Lake Tahoe. I have this weird feeling Spokane might be a tad ahead, and it helps they have Gonzaga University. Although Reno is nice for outdoor, and other entertainment stuff. Like it's a smaller version of Vegas, in northern Nevada.

I'm not sure if I am overrating Tacoma. Maybe I am?