thoughts on walla walla? (Spokane: transplants, home, job market)

[509]

Originally Posted by pnwguy2

What is somewhat surprising to me is how different Walla Walla and the Tri-Cities are, even though they are only 45 minutes apart. Walla Walla is a charming town with a nice downtown, stately homes, a college setting, trees, mountain backdrop. Tri-Cities is three somewhat disconnected towns with no real downtowns, no stately homes, no real college setting, few trees, and the mountains around are all bare of trees.

Yet, Tri-Cities is THE growth center of Eastern Washington. Thousands of new homes have been built in the past half decade. Retail is exploding. Major mall. New construction everywhere. New restaurants coming in even in the pandemic. I think what we are seeing here is a lot of exodus from Seattle and Portland moving to Eastern Washington, as well as perhaps Idaho, only exacerbated by more able to work from home. And Walla Walla will also gain from this, as Tri-Cities has.

Why is that surprising??



Walla Walla was the first settlement in Washington state. Tri-Cities growth was due to the Federal government and WWII. It is GOVERNMENT town....with the professional class living in Richland, the workers living in Kenniwick, and the agricultural community, what was left after the Federal government got rid of most of it living in Pasco.


All I have gained from the mass migration from western Washington to eastern Washington:


Rich obnoxious neighbors that ran off the coyote's. They are afraid of the dark, so keep all their outside lights on ALL NIGHT and are begging the County Commissioners to put in streetlights!!!!



Traffic jams every day of the week and traffic noise that is constant.


Instead of seeing my doctor the same day, I now need a appointment three months in advance.


Instead of just checking out books from the library, I need to use my new library card and carry it with me.


Yeah, we had great restaurants in Wenatchee. Now we have fast food!!!



Instead of great local stores, we have chain stores. Do people in western Washington shop anywhere besides Costco and Target???


So WHAT DID I gain?? Oh yeah, my home is now worth four times more than I paid for it. Chelan County home prices are higher than all but three or four western Washington counties.


Oh, that is what I gained....I can move to western Washington which is the area everybody is fleeing.


Growth without quality is a CANCER.

[TheManFromGlad]

Originally Posted by Unicorn hunter

If there's any way you could convince your wife, and if you can afford it, Bellingham has a whole lot more to offer than Walla Walla.....beautiful scenery, right on the bay, university town/culture and closer to both Seattle and Vancouver BC.

LOL - that is absurd.


"Bellingham" is THE leader in terms of most cloud-covered cities in all of the USA.

Topping every other sizeable population center in Western Washington and Oregon is hard to do, but Bellingham gets it done steadily.


No wife in her right mind...

[mayfair]

OP, have you considered Wenatchee? It's sunny, dry (compared to Western WA) and has more going on than Walla Walla. It's also closer to the mountains and has better nature opportunities. It has more restaurant and shopping choices, too. More people from outside the area. Probably better internet.

I agree that Bellingham would be a good place to consider except for the cloud cover (and internet is not great in parts of that area). It seems like the OP is open to other place suggestions on the dry side of the state.

[pnwguy2]

Originally Posted by 509

Why is that surprising??



Walla Walla was the first settlement in Washington state. Tri-Cities growth was due to the Federal government and WWII. It is GOVERNMENT town....with the professional class living in Richland, the workers living in Kenniwick, and the agricultural community, what was left after the Federal government got rid of most of it living in Pasco.


All I have gained from the mass migration from western Washington to eastern Washington:


Rich obnoxious neighbors that ran off the coyote's. They are afraid of the dark, so keep all their outside lights on ALL NIGHT and are begging the County Commissioners to put in streetlights!!!!



Traffic jams every day of the week and traffic noise that is constant.


Instead of seeing my doctor the same day, I now need a appointment three months in advance.


Instead of just checking out books from the library, I need to use my new library card and carry it with me.


Yeah, we had great restaurants in Wenatchee. Now we have fast food!!!



Instead of great local stores, we have chain stores. Do people in western Washington shop anywhere besides Costco and Target???


So WHAT DID I gain?? Oh yeah, my home is now worth four times more than I paid for it. Chelan County home prices are higher than all but three or four western Washington counties.


Oh, that is what I gained....I can move to western Washington which is the area everybody is fleeing.


Growth without quality is a CANCER.

Your rants are noted, but don’t add up to anything notable. Growth will occur whether you like it or not. Growth is generally a good thing bringing new jobs and subsequent better lives. Your ideal society for Eastern Washington is not good for employment and families. Please keep ranting if you must but you will eventually realize they all for naught.

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by 509

Why is that surprising??



Walla Walla was the first settlement in Washington state. ...

Rich obnoxious neighbors ./.. They are afraid of the dark, so keep all their outside lights on ALL NIGHT and are begging the County Commissioners to put in streetlights!!!!
...
So WHAT DID I gain?? Oh yeah, my home is now worth four times more than I paid for it. ..

Oh, that is what I gained........

Growth without quality is a CANCER.

afraid of the dark

Just went outside to look for the moon, and all I see are (4) neighbor's LED spotlights (a spec of light destroys darkness, reminds be of a parable) https://www.darksky.org/

yeah, great benefit...
my home is now worth four times more than I paid for it.
So you will be forced to get rid of it (or lose it) if you can't afford the taxes.. all for a place to lay your head at night, just as it was intended when you bought it, at 1/4 the current valuation...

I get to 're-purchase' 100% of the cost basis of my home every 7 yrs from the WA tax man. Fun, I will have bought it 8x by the time I die (soon). 1x for me, 7x for WA State / County taxes. Enjoy our TERRIFIC schools and all their great output (if sadly you have to hire them). Oh, and enjoy those extra traffic lights in Wenatchee (they are REALLY expensive !)

Let's keep Walla Walla a quaint village / college town as long as possible, just for nostalgia's sake. It seems to have been prospering quite well (Pre-Covid).

[509]

Originally Posted by pnwguy2

Your rants are noted, but don’t add up to anything notable. Growth will occur whether you like it or not. Growth is generally a good thing bringing new jobs and subsequent better lives. Your ideal society for Eastern Washington is not good for employment and families. Please keep ranting if you must but you will eventually realize they all for naught.

If your such a fan of cancerous growth.....why did you move to the Tri-Cities.



Wasn't all that growth in Seattle what you wanted??? So you move to Tri-Cities and want it to be like Seattle!!!



Stay in Seattle....

[rkcarguy]

Originally Posted by 509

If your such a fan of cancerous growth.....why did you move to the Tri-Cities.
Wasn't all that growth in Seattle what you wanted??? So you move to Tri-Cities and want it to be like Seattle!!!
Stay in Seattle....

Just wait until you get a whole bunch (more) homeless druggies, and all the implants vote in their leftist city councils, majors, and soft handed DA's, and run off half the police force, it will be great!

Really, it sucks and it's not fair, but there comes a time where you cash in your up-valued home and move to a place that better suits you. Might as well do it now before it starts to go downhill like Seattle and rents/values drop. There is nothing we can do to stop the infestation, except stay ahead of it.

[xPlorer48]

Originally Posted by pnwguy2

Your rants are noted, but don’t add up to anything notable. Growth will occur whether you like it or not. Growth is generally a good thing bringing new jobs and subsequent better lives. Your ideal society for Eastern Washington is not good for employment and families. Please keep ranting if you must but you will eventually realize they all for naught.

“Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.”
Edward Abbey, writer and environmental activist stated. Growth results in crowded stores, roads and schools. But, if you enjoy the crush of humanity, there is nothing I can say to dissuade you.

[pnwguy2]

No, just no. I appreciate all the growth in Tricities because it improves lives and families. Very important in the pandemic. If my home value goes up that is a bonus.

@509: no you don’t know my history. I have lived in Alaska, Oklahoma, Oregon, Illinois, Idaho. Your simplistic description of me moving from Seattle to Tricities is based on some incorrect assumptions on a very general profile on city-data. Perhaps you should not be so eager to judge others on here when you don’t know what you are talking about. But based on your posts, you enjoy placing posters into “buckets” of your reality. Sad.

[dcisive]

The perfect world scenario is that the populated areas with all the shopping be a 40 minute drive away, but you then go home to peace, quiet, open space, clean air, no traffic and wonderful people...........oh wait.......that's where I'm living.