Will Easton/Cle Elum ever be a suburb of Seattle/Bellevue? (Spokane: taxes, living in)

[Thom52]

Do they have ANY medical clinics/facilities in that area? Having to come over to Seattle for every medical visit, especially in Winter could be grind if something happened that needed regular or a sudden visit to a hospital or clinic.

I worked with someone who lived on Snoqualmie Pass, and could not work remotely. In good weather it wasn't a bad commute compared to coming in from Monroe or something, but in Winter he had didn't show up a fair number of times.

[grega94]

Originally Posted by Thom52

Do they have ANY medical clinics/facilities in that area? Having to come over to Seattle for every medical visit, especially in Winter could be grind if something happened that needed regular or a sudden visit to a hospital or clinic.

I worked with someone who lived on Snoqualmie Pass, and could not work remotely. In good weather it wasn't a bad commute compared to coming in from Monroe or something, but in Winter he had didn't show up a fair number of times.

They could travel to Ellensburg for those amenities, but with WFH jobs I imagine people would be enticed by more developed towns such as Leavenworth, in fact Leavenworth grew by 15% between 2010 and 2020 from 1,965 to 2,263 and I imagine that number will go up post Covid. Cle Elum on the other hand grew by 8.8% in the same time period from 1,872 to 2,037. And Leavenworth also has newly built schools too.

[pnwguy2]

Hmm…we were talking about working from home years before covid!

[grega94]

Originally Posted by pnwguy2

Hmm…we were talking about working from home years before covid!

True but it didn’t become mainstream until after, it’s a lot easier to find a WFH job now than it was pre-Covid.

[SusVelo]

Wenatchee a chance to turn into a Bend?

[pnwguy2]

Originally Posted by SusVelo

Wenatchee a chance to turn into a Bend?

Don’t think so. Bend is more affluent than Wenatchee, however they do have similarities. Both near Cascade Range and access to decent ski resorts. Both within a couple hours of a major metro. Both with mostly drier weather than west side.

[509]

Originally Posted by pnwguy2

Don’t think so. Bend is more affluent than Wenatchee, however they do have similarities. Both near Cascade Range and access to decent ski resorts. Both within a couple hours of a major metro. Both with mostly drier weather than west side.

Not sure Bend is more affluent than Wenatchee. It really depends on how you measure "wealth" for a community. Because of its orchards the Wenatchee area has lots of "poor" people picking the fruit. Those orchard owners, on the other hand, are NOT poor by any means.

Bend is more "urban" due to the refugees flooding the area. Wenatchee, in spite, of the large number of illegals flooding the area also has a very large population of rich urban refugees moving into the area.

What most people forget is that Wenatchee is a very affluent area in its "natives". They were/are not into the "flash" living styles of most urban residents.

Don't underestimate the wealth of people driving a pickup truck and living in a modest home. Their winter home might be in Hawaii or southern California.

Since they are self-employed, most people in that class work REALLY HARD to make sure their Schedule C tax return shows a paper loss.

All economic reports focus on easily obtained data....which is wage/ government payments data. On that point Bend, does look better than Wenatchee.

If you include in the "wealth" definition, the value of local governmental agencies the Wenatchee area is way ahead of the Bend area.

[pnwguy2]

Originally Posted by 509

Not sure Bend is more affluent than Wenatchee. It really depends on how you measure "wealth" for a community. Because of its orchards the Wenatchee area has lots of "poor" people picking the fruit. Those orchard owners, on the other hand, are NOT poor by any means.

Bend is more "urban" due to the refugees flooding the area. Wenatchee, in spite, of the large number of illegals flooding the area also has a very large population of rich urban refugees moving into the area.

What most people forget is that Wenatchee is a very affluent area in its "natives". They were/are not into the "flash" living styles of most urban residents.

Don't underestimate the wealth of people driving a pickup truck and living in a modest home. Their winter home might be in Hawaii or southern California.

Since they are self-employed, most people in that class work REALLY HARD to make sure their Schedule C tax return shows a paper loss.

All economic reports focus on easily obtained data....which is wage/ government payments data. On that point Bend, does look better than Wenatchee.

If you include in the "wealth" definition, the value of local governmental agencies the Wenatchee area is way ahead of the Bend area.

Well just looked it up and the difference is not huge but it is 34k in Bend compared to 30k in Wenatchee. I understand your argument but statistics are statistics.

[Hemlock140]

Originally Posted by Thom52

Do they have ANY medical clinics/facilities in that area? Having to come over to Seattle for every medical visit, especially in Winter could be grind if something happened that needed regular or a sudden visit to a hospital or clinic.

I worked with someone who lived on Snoqualmie Pass, and could not work remotely. In good weather it wasn't a bad commute compared to coming in from Monroe or something, but in Winter he had didn't show up a fair number of times.

I spent a fair amount of time in the Swedish Issaquah Highlands hospital in 2019-20. I ran in to several people there that were getting treatments and lived in Cle Elum, Ellensburg and even Yakima. Even pre-Covid
there were people working from home but with Seattle area employers and healthcare. Currently I only work in the Seattle office two days a week, so if I wanted to move to Cle Elum the 90 minute drive wouldn't be too bad with decent weather. When the roads were bad, I would just work from home until it clears, as I do now if we get snow in Sammamish.

[Thealpinist]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

I spent a fair amount of time in the Swedish Issaquah Highlands hospital in 2019-20. I ran in to several people there that were getting treatments and lived in Cle Elum, Ellensburg and even Yakima. Even pre-Covid
there were people working from home but with Seattle area employers and healthcare. Currently I only work in the Seattle office two days a week, so if I wanted to move to Cle Elum the 90 minute drive wouldn't be too bad with decent weather. When the roads were bad, I would just work from home until it clears, as I do now if we get snow in Sammamish.

That’s because Swedish in Issaquah is the best place for medical care if you live in those far out communities. Think about that. You have to drive all the way to issaquah for excellent care. That’s quite a problem.