Twin Falls area (Boise, Idaho Falls: purchasing, live, vs.)

[dogsmusicpizza]

Originally Posted by dcisive

Back in the latter 70's I moved to Salt Lake City. Back then it was actually a very manageable size city with very low crime, very clean, no gangs or issues. Most folks I knew never locked their doors or cars. That all began to change in the 80's when the gangs moved in and crime shot up like crazy. With the advent of the olympics, they went and vastly built out the I-15 corridor which made for horrific levels of traffic. In the 2000's with the housing boom it went crazy out of control. Traffic grew multitudes as did gang warfare, crime, taxes and the population which these days is pure out of control.

I for one hope and pray I won't be alive during a Twin Falls reaching anything near that level of mayhem. I live over half a hour west in a rural area and that's where I've retired, and hope things stay reasonably stable. Just in the 4 years I've been here I've watched the traffic more than double in Twin Falls. Between 3pm and 7pm it's now a zoo. Stores are way more crowded than they used to be. I don't know how much worse/more advanced I can expect it to get, but I'm sure it is headed in that direction. I sure hope above all that the immigrant influxes don't get way out of control in our area as well. Man, things are sure messed up. I'm not learning Spanish anytime soon.

Traffic 3 - 7, so true.

Even on weekends ( or especially on weekends ).

[banjomike]

Too fast city growth always results in bad traffic jams.
The reason is very simple: City planners simply cannot plan into the future adequately enough to prevent the jams.

Cities will always grow the fastest where the growth has been stable for a long time, and the city planners have prepared the streets for anticipated future growth. Widen the streets for more traffic, and the streets will suddenly open opportunities for new construction somewhere along them.
Where the growth will come depends on where the lowest-cost areas are. There is always someplace along every thoroughfare where the properties cost less than others.

If an area is zoned commercial, there are always boneyards, undeveloped lots, and old run-down buildings that have been in that location for a long time. Much of it is not accessible from the street, never has been, so it's overlooked or taken for granted that it won't ever be developed.
But once all the old stuff is leveled flat, new street access is very easy to create. And more money is to be made by building big for developers than building small.

A lot of our cities are mixed zoning where some areas along a street are residential and others commercial. They're typically older sections of town, built back when small business such as groceries or plumbing companies were welcome additions to the homes. Walking distance once dictated the plans for future growth.

When growth comes, those neighborhoods offer the most bang for the investment buck. The old business properties may have larger lots, so the property could make a lot more money when a large luxury home is built on it after the old grocery is demolished. Once one new home goes up, old houses next door can go so a bigger house can be built.

The same happens in business districts. Developers buy up entire blocks, then re-build on them. This always changes the neighborhood and its traffic forever afterward in un-anticipated ways the city planners never foresaw.

The faster the growth spurt, the worse it spins out of control. Old light-traffic intersections suddenly become major traffic blockages, with no way to fix the blockage except creating new intersections from other old ones. So the jams spread out and eventually block 2-3 streets instead of only one.

Really, the only solution I can think of is to abandon the car once the jams grow real bad. But in Idaho, winters make walking unsafe and riding a bike impossible.

Large cities can plan for city transportation, but that's an enormous cost for the citizens of a smaller city to bear.

I think that pwnguy is right about the near future; if someone grows so tired of life in a big city that they really want the life of a smaller town, work-at-home gives them the opportunity to move.
And the cheapest move will always be to a low-population state that has stabilized or still loses some population.

Those states are all difficult to live in for many reasons. Small rural villages usually have no plans at all for future growth after they have remained small for 100 years.

Wilderness totally rules. If a place is uninhabited wilderness now, it won't ever become habitable in the future.

[dcisive]

I guess I can be glad for ONE thing. Since I'm technically NOT in Twin Falls County, when they grow to where they feel the need to yank up their taxes for everything, I WON"T be involved with that one

[stealheadrun23]

I was out hunting Northeast of Mountain Home the other month and the wind was horrific. I've never been down into Twin Falls but every time I've driven on I84 the wind has been about as intense. Is this kind of wind a year-round experience in Twin Falls?

[banjomike]

Originally Posted by stealheadrun23

I was out hunting Northeast of Mountain Home the other month and the wind was horrific. I've never been down into Twin Falls but every time I've driven on I84 the wind has been about as intense. Is this kind of wind a year-round experience in Twin Falls?

Mtn. Home is one of the windiest places I know. There's always at least a breeze there, and it may be the reason why the Air Force chose it for an airbase.
It could be due to it's location- the mountains to the east and a long sloping hill to the north may act like a funnel, but I've seldom passed through there when some wind wasn't blowing.

Folks say Idaho Falls is windy too, but I've always found Mtn. Home to be windier. Stronger wind than I.F. whenever I from here to there.

The wind can be ferocious once in a while anywhere in S. Idaho. The Yellowstone's hot spot trail cuts across the state and it acts like a huge wind funnel. It brings Pacific winds up here and also brings rain.

That's the reason why we got so much snow this winter. We were on the upper edge of the big storms that kept hitting California straight on all winter.

[stealheadrun23]

Originally Posted by banjomike

Mtn. Home is one of the windiest places I know. There's always at least a breeze there, and it may be the reason why the Air Force chose it for an airbase.
It could be due to it's location- the mountains to the east and a long sloping hill to the north may act like a funnel, but I've seldom passed through there when some wind wasn't blowing.

Folks say Idaho Falls is windy too, but I've always found Mtn. Home to be windier. Stronger wind than I.F. whenever I from here to there.

The wind can be ferocious once in a while anywhere in S. Idaho. The Yellowstone's hot spot trail cuts across the state and it acts like a huge wind funnel. It brings Pacific winds up here and also brings rain.

That's the reason why we got so much snow this winter. We were on the upper edge of the big storms that kept hitting California straight on all winter.

I'll have to rule out Southern Idaho then. I don't mind a certain amount of cold but the wind really does me in in a hurry. SW Idaho meanwhile gets too hot for me in the Summer. I might have to head North. I was eyeing Lewiston but I didn't realize the elevation was sub 1000ft. Seems like the Summers there are on par with Boise as a result.

[volosong]

Originally Posted by stealheadrun23

...SW Idaho meanwhile gets too hot for me in the Summer. I might have to head North. I was eyeing Lewiston but I didn't realize the elevation was sub 1000ft. Seems like the Summers there are on par with Boise as a result.

Out of curiosity, and because of your post, I looked up the climate stats for Boise and Lewiston on both the data side of City-Data and on Wikipedia. Lewiston is minimally cooler in all seasons. Very minimal, within a degree or two.

Like you, I decided to not retire in the Treasure Valley due to summer heat. Too hot for what I like to do outside during the summer. I ended up in the Coeur d'Alene area. We get a week or two of pretty hot temperatures in the summer, but it passes soon enough. Fire smoke is another problem. Some years pretty bad; some years, like last year, not so bad.

[stealheadrun23]

Originally Posted by volosong

Out of curiosity, and because of your post, I looked up the climate stats for Boise and Lewiston on both the data side of City-Data and on Wikipedia. Lewiston is minimally cooler in all seasons. Very minimal, within a degree or two.

Like you, I decided to not retire in the Treasure Valley due to summer heat. Too hot for what I like to do outside during the summer. I ended up in the Coeur d'Alene area. We get a week or two of pretty hot temperatures in the summer, but it passes soon enough. Fire smoke is another problem. Some years pretty bad; some years, like last year, not so bad.

I visited North Idaho a few years ago and you answered some questions via this site while I was there. That was during a Summer with no fire activity so the air quality was nice and the temperatures were in the 80s. On paper I understand the annual snowfall is 3-4x greater in magnitude than here but I'm sure I can navigate that.

I've thought about checking out the more mountainous regions around East Tennessee/ Western North Carolina, but depending on the region in question I'd be concerned about winters not being white enough, the climate being too humid and the culture being too different to what I'm used to. As an example, I can be reasonably confident there's a pro archery shop within a reasonable drive of pretty much anywhere I'd want to move in Idaho. Not sure whether things are quite that way in the Appalachian region. Similar concerns for other outdoor recreation culture that's abundant in the mountain West. I'm fortunate to make a comfortable living but I'm on the opposite end of my life/ career as you so need to be thinking long term. If the cost of living doesn't justify looking East in a big way, I'm not sure I'd be interested.

I may just look for a place in Post Falls or Hayden or something. I was surprised to discover Sandpoint real estate is even more expensive than in Kootenai County. I don't mind being hours away from a major airport (Lewiston and Twin Falls are fine for me on that dimension), but the climate fit is important to me. My sources of income allow me to be flexible but do require that I be in a place that has baseline reliable utilities and services (shipping/ postal especially), so I can't be too remote.

Twin Falls is close enough that I can make a few visits over the next few years. I'll probably make a few more ventures up North, one to Kootenai County during the winter and one to Lewiston mid-Summer. Then I need to check things out back East (TN/NC/WV). Otherwise, barring tragedy or anomaly, I don't see myself winding up anywhere else in the states.

If forced to choose between Ada County, Twin Falls and Lewiston, having not spent time in the latter two, I would probably take a risk on Lewiston.

[Syringaloid]

Originally Posted by stealheadrun23

I'll have to rule out Southern Idaho then. I don't mind a certain amount of cold but the wind really does me in in a hurry. SW Idaho meanwhile gets too hot for me in the Summer. I might have to head North. I was eyeing Lewiston but I didn't realize the elevation was sub 1000ft. Seems like the Summers there are on par with Boise as a result.

Keep in mind that with global warming, North Idaho has been getting hot the past number of years during Summer. The heat streak may not last as long as SW Idaho, but it does exist.

As of today, North Idaho has the lowest Snow/Water Equivalent in the state for the Winter/Spring of 2022/2023.

[stealheadrun23]

The heat streak may not last as long as SW Idaho

Can't let perfect prevent an improvement