Twin Falls area (Boise, Nampa, Pocatello: employment, construction, university)

[nowhereman427]

Originally Posted by NW Crow

Like to learn more about certain areas to visit or possibly live. Twin Falls has some of my attention at this time. Learned about a few new things recently: the downtown commons, Saturday market, botanical gardens, planetarium, history & science museums, the theater, some of the nearby trails and rock climbing, Dierkes lake, the growing restaurant scene, etc.

Any locals with comments on recent development trends (beyond the big box stores and manufacturing plants)? Overall would you say Twin is getting "better", mainly just getting bigger or bigger & "worse"?

Favorite trails, camping areas, lakes mostly in the southeast direction (up to 2 hours away)?

Anybody in or have comments on Kimberley, Rock Creek, Oakley, Burley, Almo or Albion?

What do you consider interesting and little known or new about the area?

sAME thing here too.

[pnwguy2]

Kimberly, Burley, etc. are mostly agriculture towns. Yes lower cost of living but quite a way from bigger towns. Atleast a 2.5 hours from Boise.

[NW Crow]

2 to 2.5 hours from bigger metros is a consideration.

But if one is the type to have interest / willingness to make that drive only 1-2 times per month... or less... than it is not that a big deal... and it would beat current conditions of a 4-6 hour drive to a big metro.

[pnwguy2]

I understand that. People will definitely make decisions with full knowledge of transportation costs. And I am in no position to argue that. But simple math makes these decisions fairly unrealistic.

[NW Crow]

They can turn out that way for some. Knowing your style / history and doing the math are good ideas.

There are opposites to this. A person might rail against big city liberals but can't part with some of the amenities that a majority of big city liberals supported developing or some of the businesses they built or made viable.

Then there is the person who lives in a big city but hardly ever uses the things that make it different.

Lots of ways to appear to get askew but people are allowed to do them.

[cleosmom]

Originally Posted by pnwguy2

Kimberly, Burley, etc. are mostly agriculture towns. Yes lower cost of living but quite a way from bigger towns. Atleast a 2.5 hours from Boise.

I'm curious as to what you feel Boise has to offer, for survival sake, that Twin Falls doesn't have?

I'm near Idaho Falls and we've never had a need to go to Boise or SLC for anything. Its all right here

[pnwguy2]

Survival? Not much, with the possible exception of better healthcare. On a lesser level would be better variety of restaurants and shopping. But my post was not about Twin Falls, I was speaking of Kimberly and Burley.

[NW Crow]

It is common when living in a rural area or small town to need the next bigger city and maybe the next bigger city than that one for some things. A bigger metro is easier in terms of geographic proximity of all those levels of stuff. Not worth the inconvenience of living "out there" for many / most. But it is for some. Have to know thyself.

How much you want / need beyond what a 100k hub offers will vary. 150-200k will satisfy more. It is a snowball that builds. Most will stop at modest to moderate size unless there is a compelling need for that place to take a bigger role in state or nation. Only 192 metros over 250k. Idaho Falls will some day give Idaho another one officially. If one considers Idaho Falls - Pocatello to be somewhat close practically to a CMSA, then not really waiting on a big change. CDA is close. Twin Falls, not at all close but maybe in very distant future. So TF is best for those satisfied with a 100k hub... or a modest amount more.

The dining scene appears pretty important to a lot of people. Availability and quantity of third tier restaurants and above. Separates upper resort towns from lesser ones and small metros from bigger to way bigger. For small towns, one question is "does it have an asian restaurant"? Then it goes to does it have Thai, Sushi? Korean? Indian? Then how many, how good? Twin Falls has 18 "Asian" restaurants (if I recall correctly.). Is that enough? Are any third tier or above? How good / "real" is the Mexican food?

Restaurants aren't that important to me... but I do check the scene when looking at a place. It would be nice to have some options... Clearly more important to many who rule out places quickly below some level (25k, 100k or 250k or even 1-2 million) partly on this basis.

Things like that and other things such as how many non-stop flights there are from the local airport. Or degree of choice among medical specialists.

Or level / quality of grocery store. That one is fairly important to me but I dont want / need more than a standard national chain store fairly nearby (and can make do without if necessary) while others can't live without Trader Joe's, Costco or Whole Foods or Aldi or several or all.

There are many different people and many important or not so important criteria for them. Know what you want / need... and don't that much.

[cleosmom]

Originally Posted by pnwguy2

Survival? Not much, with the possible exception of better healthcare. On a lesser level would be better variety of restaurants and shopping. But my post was not about Twin Falls, I was speaking of Kimberly and Burley.

Sorry, I tend to tie Kimberly right in with Twin. We're not big into eating out since the healthier option are made at home,but that's us. I can count on less than one hand the restaurants we've been known to dine at. Shopping? Pretty much all is easily attainable and more often than not it's with small business.

The only medical service that I needed not in Idaho is a knee doctor up to Jackson.

We're all different, I get it.

[NW Crow]

In this thread

https://www.city-data.com/forum/gene...ize-tiers.html

I laid out a metro size distribution, fwiw.

Twin Falls would be tier 8. Idaho Falls, tier 7, Boise previously high tier 5 / now tier 4.