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This is what I can say. My wife and I both work from home so we can take our job where we move. This job is only valid with similar wage and employment laws as Arizona. So we're limited as to where we can move. So we can't move to Washington, California or Oregon and I think it's because of higher wages than base pay for the job we do since a lot of our actual pay is more in bonus money. We could move to Utah, Idaho maybe Colorado and some states back east from what I've gathered.
I don't really want to live in Colorado i've met people from there and done some home work. Have you heard of cops ticketing people for warming up their cars in their own drive ways on cold winter days? that's ridiculous I can't put my wife and kids in a -10 car without warming it up first. There's a lot of weird laws and general weirdness in my opinion in CO a bit too invasive in common day citizens lives. I don't want to live in the Denver, Pueblo or Colorado Springs and a lot of it is a bit too ghetto for me and in the front range corridor of they get a bit more of the midwest weather than I have an appetite for. I have also found that the nice places in CO that I do like are really expensive like almost California expensive. I have met people who have moved from CO to Flagstaff just to get away from what they call craziness in CO. I know someone who lives in CO and they complain about how they hate it there everyday. My friend might be a bit less active than me but it's still a little disturbing to me.
I guess every place takes a little getting used to. As far as politics I could care less. I'm not really that politically affiliated there's tons of gun totin' folks in AZ they let you have a gun everywhere here and it's a pretty red state as far as politics anyway so that's nothing I am not already used to. If people want to hear their conservative screech awesome if they want to be super liberal awesome. I'm more middle of the road as far as politics but knowing the corruption of our gov't I choose to not get too involve to any political extreme but I don't get heavily bothered or heated by other people's political affiliation.
I think the thing I like about Northern Idaho is it's secluded relatively quiet yet closer to a bigger city such as Spokane on the Washington side and isn't going to be experiencing a crazy random rent hike like what i've seen in Flagstaff and Colorado. It's getting too overrun here too fast but there's still limited stimulation here for the citizens. I really like the outdoors here but aside from the natural beauty in Flag there's not a strong willed community here not a lot of activities here. There's some but they're tiny and limited here. I wanted to move to a bigger metro area i.e. Spokane. Shopping is really bad here and I know in Northern Idaho being only a half an hour from Spokane is a big plus to me. So that's my take on it.
One more thing that really sucks about northern Arizona is real lack of good medical care and a real lack of good doctors. Tons of rude doctors here that don't care about you. My wife ended up going an hour or more out of Flagstaff just to see a good OB/GYN for both of her pregnancies. Extreme lack of health care in the area or you have to go to Phoenix to get real care. It might sound negative but it's just based on our personal experience.
I'm not afraid of the cold or short days in the winter. While I like southwest winters / day time length etc. it's nothing I wouldn't care if I left behind. Flagstaff is really isolated from other larger cities and towns. For a larger metro area you have to go all the way to Phoenix about 140 miles away and summers are really tough in Phoenix to hang out in for activities. For me i'm ready for a change in geography and i'm more concerned with how people are, how easy it is to make friends there etc.
I did notice my wife got on a forum there in Idaho / Eastern Washington and started talking to people and already getting acquainted with people in that area. That would never happen in Flagstaff you would just get ignored and people would just think you're weird for trying to talk to them it's really bizarre here. My wife grew up and lived here her whole life in Flagstaff and still doesn't have any friends. Her good friends moved away years ago because it's too expensive. Where I grew in San Diego people would give you the shirt off their back. Here in Flagstaff people are on facebook complaining how there's a disabled woman who lives in trailer park and are discussing how they can tell her landlord to kick her out or get her charged with fraud. It's really weird. Don't get me wrong there's some good people here but I think the really good people for the most part take off from Flag to find a place to settle. Most of the better folk in Flag from what i've seen seem to be in an older generation than me.
It's not all bad here the scenery is really beautiful, the summer weather is great, lots of outdoor trails, miles and miles of dirt roads for the offroader like me etc. It's great besides the fact that the only places we can afford to live is in the low income housing... There seems to be a climbing meth rate, drunk natives on the street walking around staggering front of traffic, the selfish cold shoulder pushy in a hurry type of people and there seems to be a cop on every block here.. A lot of recent development here but a terrible lack of good jobs in Flagstaff. Infact it's been on national news that Flagstaff boasts the lowest paid local economy in the country? Would you believe that? but I am seeing a lot of yuppie/ hipsters moving in here and trust fund kids with rich parents sending their kids to the local university willing to pay whatever the market throws at them driving up the cost of living in this town more than what it's really worth... I've lived here enough years to see it all. I just wish they at least had more activities in Flag. If there were more things to do in the community I think the citizens would be less grumpy and I'd be more willing to stay but it's a bad attitude here and I don't want to get more wrapped up in the negative attitude than I already have. That's my take on it.
Why do you think North Idaho people are on forums looking for friends to meet? Something to think about...
Where do you see that happening? If you're suggesting it's happening here on C-D I don't see any here looking for friends to meet, but maybe you are thinking about some other forum.
We've observed that the general friendly and outgoing nature of north Idahoans makes it easy to develop friendships. We were able to develop a few friendships just during our scouting visits to the area.
Where do you see that happening? If you're suggesting it's happening here on C-D I don't see any here looking for friends to meet, but maybe you are thinking about some other forum.
We've observed that the general friendly and outgoing nature of north Idahoans makes it easy to develop friendships. We were able to develop a few friendships just during our scouting visits to the area.
Yea I was referring to a different social network like community swap boards on facebook. Never mentioned about making buddies on city data lol.
I've been doing a lot of research and reading a lot of other forums in the area. Right now I live in Flagstaff, Arizona if you know where that is it's near the Grand Canyon around 7,000 feet so it snows that's nothing new to me. It's also in the midst of pine forest / mountain scenery and yes the area around here is very beautiful but i'm looking to get out of here for a few reasons... Firstly I've been here for years I am a young man with a family and want to give my kids wife and I the best possible family experiences and memorable moments. The other issue is I originally moved from California with my mom's side of the family years ago to try something different and to get away from a certain attitude that surrounds where I came from in California. While I do love San Diego (it's where I was born and raised) it's very expensive and not really feasible for my family and I to afford living there.
What I am trying to get at is that in Flagstaff there are a lot of new comers. Some good, some not so good but overall I have found that most people in Flagstaff are really rude or anti social. My wife and I have tried making friends and being chill with some other families using online meet up groups etc. here but people seem really weird anti social and seems like talking to a brick... There is also a big time college presence here in Flag so most people our age are in college and are wanting to party all the time so quality friends that would be good around kids seem impossible to make here... So long story short we kind of think the people suck in Flag... I constantly read the rude whiny or spammy comments on facebook community swap groups and you see a bunch of drama and B.S. here in Flagstaff.
Really i'm just looking to get away from that B.S. and maybe make some new friends and start life in a new place... A little more background when I was about 5 or so my mom and her husband at the time lived in nearby Spokane, WA so I have been to Coeur d'Alene before and I thought it was a nice place when I was a kid and that's where I got the idea to look into living in CDA. So here's some of the things I find fun. I really enjoy taking outdoor photography (check out my website for fun not trying to sell anything just some cool pics( tylerfinvold.com. I also enjoy stuff such as offroading with the family I have a 4x4. We also enjoy camping, hiking and boating and I really want to get a boat but it hasn't happened here in AZ (only small tiny mud holes for lakes in northern Arizona or you have to drive the desert to lake Powell etc.) So I just had some questions, how is daily life in Northern Idaho CDA area, what are some fun things you find to do up there? Drop some ideas or a list because to be honest i'm really bored as s**t in Flag and it seems like everyone I talk to here in Flag feels the same.
I use to Live in Coeur d'Alene area from 1993-2001, then moved to Fountain Hills Arizona Just outside of Scottsdale. I agree with you. I found over the 14 years in Arizona that most people were rude, anti-social, and just a feeling like everyone was trying to put on a show. I decided to take a trip to North Idaho July of 2014 and take my wife who had never been and our 6 year old son. They fell in love with the way of life. More Laid Back, better weather, healthier atmosphere, cleaner air, and my wife was amazed at how friendly people were. People literally waving at us driving down their back country roads, communities, saying hi at gas stations, etc.
We finally made the move back up and Glad we did. I don't think most places could even compare to North Idaho.
I use to Live in Coeur d'Alene area from 1993-2001, then moved to Fountain Hills Arizona Just outside of Scottsdale. I agree with you. I found over the 14 years in Arizona that most people were rude, anti-social, and just a feeling like everyone was trying to put on a show. I decided to take a trip to North Idaho July of 2014 and take my wife who had never been and our 6 year old son. They fell in love with the way of life. More Laid Back, better weather, healthier atmosphere, cleaner air, and my wife was amazed at how friendly people were. People literally waving at us driving down their back country roads, communities, saying hi at gas stations, etc.
We finally made the move back up and Glad we did. I don't think most places could even compare to North Idaho.
The wife and I are most likely moving to Idaho next summer so I have been following the news from different areas and ya'll are obviously struggling with bad wildfires right now and it seems to be affecting your air quality. How common is this for the summertime in North Idaho? How long does this season last? One of the appealing qualities of the move to Idaho would be fresher air, but many areas have been in the red and orange lately. I am from Houston, thus no nothing about wildfires other than what I have read the past couple weeks.
On very rare occasion we have Montana wildfire smoke blow over here. But in the 8 years I've lived here this is the first I can recall us ever having smoke this bad. So no...not common.
On very rare occasion we have Montana wildfire smoke blow over here. But in the 8 years I've lived here this is the first I can recall us ever having smoke this bad. So no...not common.
A bunch of us were talking about the smoke today. All of us are natives. The consensus was we get a bad smoke summer about 1 in every 10 years, when the smoke lingers for more than a couple of days. We all considered a bad smoke year to be one where it was smoky for a week or more.
At 8 years, that would be close to the average, but due to last years' heavy rain all through August, an event that has only happened once before in my life, and that was almost 50 years ago, it was almost a given that this year would be a bad fire year because there was so much fuel that grew heavy last year and was all dried out this year.
THe previous bad year was 2000. The one before that was 1988, the worst any of us could remember. That was the year Yellowstone Park and much of the Montana/Idaho border caught fire in late June and burned until November. While the fires in Montana were larger, all the smoke drifted this way.
It's not uncommon to see some light smoke haze and/or smell fire smoke in the summer, but typically it's only for 1-3 days at most. Smoke drifts a far long way. We could smell California fires here 3 years ago when nothing here was burning. By next Wednesday or Thursday, Chicago will be getting our smoke.
The smoke isn't uniformly strong here everywhere. Today, the only two places that have hazardous levels are C d'A and Idaho Falls. The rest of the state is moderate to severe, with a few spots that are smoke free. Our mountains create light eddies, which often localize and trap smoke in relatively small areas until a stronger wind and/or cold temp breaks up the eddy and allows the smoke to move out.
2012 was a really bad year, at least for the Boise area. We were surrounded by fire on three sides. Smoke in the downtown area was worse than even this year.
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