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If you want safe, you don't want any people around you at all if possible.
I would never live in a city, and I would be as far away from population centers as I could afford to be.
That said, if you had to live anywhere near a city, if the only requirement is to buy a house in town, Hayden Id. hands down. I would buy some cheap dump for the address, and live as far away from town as possible. So what if you have to commute 50 miles each way when you have to go into town? I would get a place east of Hayden because then you have the Coeur de Alene national forest at your back as an escape route and a place to hide caches of supplies.
You also have Hayden Lake as a water source and probable supplemental food supply from fishing.
Idaho is also a much better place to own firearms, and the state government isn't as overwhelmingly tyrannical as in Washington state. and Idahoans are a lot more self reliant than the folks I've seen in most of Washington.
But again, I wouldn't be anywhere near a town of any size in a SHTF situation.
Hayden is the obvious choice. Population centers determine the laws of a state. That means the very liberal Seattle-Tacoma area controls the state including Mead. Washington gun laws have become worse. Idaho is far more conservative. Idaho now has constitutional carry. It's a state with many survivalists.
In the big picture, they are essentially only a short trip between the two and can theoretically be viewed more as a connected metro area. So, the choice will come down to what are you looking for? "Want to be as "safe" as relatively possible" is just a sound bite with no meaning unless you explain it's meaning to you.
Are we talking safe from the meth cookers of the area?
Or gangs of ghetto thugs?
Or radical tin foil head loonies?
Or drunk wife beating walmart shoppers?
Or hidden hazardous sites?
Or mass military weapons storage areas?
Or safe from someone stealing your scented tree from the rear view mirror?
Or ...........
In all honesty, you have to be a bit more specific as we all have different proprieties as to what are safety issues we are concerned about.
Location: When you take flak it means you are on target
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Problem is now days if you want high speed internet you need cable, which means civilization. I can't "survive" without 50 mbps.
I live in an isolated city (we call it a town, but I guess it's a city now) of 40,000. We have a shaky water supply and it gets too hot in the summer for most. Our in town house is in a walled community with only two ways in and off the main paths. We can survive short term in place, beyond that, or if things turned really bad we have a mountain stronghold about an hour away, reachable offroad by 4WD if necessary - with only one road in or out. And 2 pallets of ammo waiting.
Beyond that, we're screwed. My goal is grab the national guard tanks followed by the ammo dump in Hawthorne, NV were we can grab some nuks if nobody else gets there first.
So at what size do you all consider a town to be a city? 1000+? 5000+ ect?
Personally for me i draw the line at no higher than 5k
In Montana, there are only 7 cities with populations over 35K. Most of the towns here are way under 8K. Personally I prefer to be at least 15 miles from the nearest town of 800-1500, big enough for grocery stores, usually a small hospital or clinic, parts/feed store and gun store, and those usually have a thrift store for clothing. All the basic necessities.
I had been looking at property near 2 towns far apart from each other but each was valuable property and had a lot of benefits. One was a mile from a town of 35 people, and 20 miles from the nearest town of around 1100, the other was 8 miles from a town of 600. Both properties had been on the market for at least a couple of years, but the second I showed interest in them, they sold.
The property I now have a buy/sell on is 5 miles from a town of around 1200. A little too close to town for my liking, but still halfway between 2 cities of 50K+ with one 60 miles west and the other 80 miles to the east. Otherwise, the land has all the amenities I need, so you make do with what you have to work with.
It's not a bad place, and only 2+ miles from thousands of acres of real wilderness on one side, and about 15 miles to the south on the other, and some of the roughest country in the world if you need to disappear.
Steady water supply, some arable ground for crops, about 3 miles off the paved road, and decent pasture.
Lots of game, Pronghorn antelope, mule deer, bear, elk on and near the property too, and it's big enough for me to have my cattle, so I can make do.
You have to work for a certain company (99.9% from home) BUT MUST purchase a home in one of these 2 areas.
You have a $450k max budget and want to be as "safe" as relatively possible.
Do you pick between Mead, WA or Hayden, ID?
Why?
TIA
Idaho for sure, because $450k will buy you 160 acres with a nice house, barn and shop in Idaho. Shop around and you can find spring fed water to the house. You will need at least a 10 acre woodlot because being your own energy utility means about 6 cords a year for cooking and heating. The Idaho panhandle gets enough rain to raise a dry crop of lentils or wheat. If you take an early hay crop off of 40 acres or so you could winter a small herd of cattle and maybe even a draft horse or two. It would be a hard life, but a good life.
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