Northwest Battle: Boise Vs Spokane Vs Billings Vs Eugene (living, best, state)
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It has a rep of being old and run down, but I'll bet you to most of the urban appreciatives on this site it would win. Eugene and Billings cannot compare to Spokane. It has the best, most developed core of the bunch by a decent margin. Boise is cleaner/newer, but still not quite quite there. Spokane has a great location, great downtown park, large convention center, and better proximity to large PNC cities like Seattle. Not only that, but being close to Coeur d' Alene doesn't hurt. Boise boosters will say their city is better because it has less run down areas, but to me that spells less character. BSU is great, but Spokane has a branch of WSU, Gonzaga, Whitworth...the second largest health care conglomeration in the state of WA (which easily trounces ID and MT)- and the metro of Spokane/CDA is still slightly larger than Boise and much larger than the other two contenders in the thread.
CDA isn't part of the Spokane MSA, I believe its been said that it will combine sometime soon in the future. CDA is only about a 40 mins drive from Spokane.
Boise or Spokane, probably. Spokane has a nicer old look to it, but I haven't been there enough to really know what there is to do there in terms of amenities. It's close to the mountain in Idaho and Couer d'Alene which is a definite plus. Spokane sort of has a bad reputation in the Northwest, the people I know who went to Gonzaga still refer to all the "Spokompton jokes"--but it's never seemed that bad a place. Just not that happening, but some people enjoy the quieter, non-hyped aspects of it.
Boise has a sort of suburban look to much of it, besides a few nice older residential neighborhoods, but the downtown is apparently much better than it used to be. It seems to be annually ranked "up-and-coming" but I'm not sure what it's going to end up developing into. It's not the "next Portland" despite what disgruntled Oregonians might imagine it to be(what Portland supposedly used to be), though I don't know if it develop more into a city like Denver--it certainly has the room to sprawl, though it might not have the economy. The best thing for someone like myself is the close proximity to the mountains of Idaho--there's a lot of cool places for weekend trips for skiing or hiking. All in all, Boise has the most potential although at this point it feels like it's both better than it's detractors make it out to be though not as good as it's boosters imagine it to be.
Eugene is just a big college town. It's like a cheaper Boulder, Colorado with less gentrification and a wetter locale. It's a good place to go to college(and go to Ducks football games) but it's the folks that sort of like the quieter parts of the Willamette Valley that really enjoy living there for a long time. For a city of 150,000 or so, it's never even really seemed that big to me. It's an overgrown hippie college town surrounded by the real old school side of Oregon--which is much more middle class and conservative than transplants might imagine it to be. Doesn't seem like it's a good place to look for a job, but it's a great place to relax in the nearby rivers and hills in the summertime.
Billings just seems to be where the Rocky Mountain side of Montana ends and the Great Plains side of Montana begins. A very western sort of town, not that big yet and pretty conservative--but not too far from the more interesting mountainous side of the state. I've only driven through there, but it just seemed like a pretty average Western large town/small city.
First off, Eugene and Billings which are both nice cities are much smaller than Boise and Spokane, so my comments will focus on the latter two which I am very familier with which in turn explains the lengthy post. I do not know much about Billings, but have been to Eugene a few times and it is a nice town.
Boise and Spokane have similarities but also major differences. Boise is the more progressive, hip, entrepreneurial , fit, energetic and vibrant and somewhat more sophisticated of the two, has a lot of history, beautiful historic buildings, while Spokane looks and feels the opposite, has a lot of beautiful historic buildings and history, and in need of some TLC which I hope happens because I like Spokane.
Currently downtown Boise (and the metro) is entering a new boom era with several large projects beginning construction including a new 352’ 18 floor tower. Both cities are in beautiful areas and have a river running through them, have great urban parks and access to incredibly beautiful nature outside of each city. The Boise Metro is actually a bit larger than the Spokane metro and that is even after the Spokane Metro numbers are inflated with Coeur d’Alene’s metro population added in, but even then the numbers are still really close. Boise has much more life in its downtown: art galleries, coffee shops, boutiques, buskers, one of the best independent record stores anywhere, street life, diverse local restaurants, and is a capitol city and the center of banking, commerce, and government and medical services for a huge region. There is more happening on 8th Street in downtown Boise than all of downtown Spokane. Boise has recently been ranked as one of the most active and healthy/fit cities in the nation, has a huge bike culture (I mean really huge too), outdoor lifestyle and is the best city to live in if you love whitewater rafting.
The Boise economy has been growing this year too, announcements of a few companies moving in from Cali with hundreds of jobs promised, and a major announcement from a Chinese company is pending to make Boise their American headquarters. The retail and service industry is currently booming in the metro with construction really picking up.
Boise has BSU, a Concordia University of Law, a University of Idaho Law School on the way, and the metro also has several other colleges with a top ranked liberal arts college and nationally ranked hospitals including a trauma center that serves the NW and a childrens hospital that draws patients from surrounding states. Boise high schools are nationally ranked. There is also a convention center downtown which is busy, and Boise hosts major sporting events such as Ironman and one of the largest bike races in the nation, the Twilight Criterium.
I know and work with 10 young professionals who moved to Boise from Spokane. At the end of the day though, both cities are good, different strokes for different people.
Spokane has an interesting downtown, but it seems like a lot of its "activity" is centered around one particular street - Division. It feels like half the "places" or "locations" in Spokane are somewhere along Division Street, and the rest of the city north of the river is sort of forgotten.
Eugene's best features, in my opinion: the nearby hills (Spencer Butte and so on) and the nifty little uncrowded airport. It doesn't have many destinations, but the planes servicing the airport tend to be smaller, and you get nice expansive views of Eugene, Springfield, and the nearby hills while flying in or out of there.
Boise has a nice-enough little downtown, but most of the rest of the area is wave upon wave of sprawl. If you drive into the area at night from the Oregon side, you can see lit-up tracts of houses from 25 to 30 miles out of the city, and it's an impressive amount of sprawl for a metro area of only 630,000 people or so.
Billings seems kind of sleepy and sedate, for the most part. There isn't a tremendous amount of "stuff" going on in that area in general, though there is some decent fishing.
First off, Eugene and Billings which are both nice cities are much smaller than Boise and Spokane, so my comments will focus on the latter two which I am very familier with which in turn explains the lengthy post. I do not know much about Billings, but have been to Eugene a few times and it is a nice town.
Boise and Spokane have similarities but also major differences. Boise is the more progressive, hip, entrepreneurial , fit, energetic and vibrant and somewhat more sophisticated of the two, has a lot of history, beautiful historic buildings, while Spokane looks and feels the opposite, has a lot of beautiful historic buildings and history, and in need of some TLC which I hope happens because I like Spokane.
Currently downtown Boise (and the metro) is entering a new boom era with several large projects beginning construction including a new 352’ 18 floor tower. Both cities are in beautiful areas and have a river running through them, have great urban parks and access to incredibly beautiful nature outside of each city. The Boise Metro is actually a bit larger than the Spokane metro and that is even after the Spokane Metro numbers are inflated with Coeur d’Alene’s metro population added in, but even then the numbers are still really close. Boise has much more life in its downtown: art galleries, coffee shops, boutiques, buskers, one of the best independent record stores anywhere, street life, diverse local restaurants, and is a capitol city and the center of banking, commerce, and government and medical services for a huge region. There is more happening on 8th Street in downtown Boise than all of downtown Spokane. Boise has recently been ranked as one of the most active and healthy/fit cities in the nation, has a huge bike culture (I mean really huge too), outdoor lifestyle and is the best city to live in if you love whitewater rafting.
The Boise economy has been growing this year too, announcements of a few companies moving in from Cali with hundreds of jobs promised, and a major announcement from a Chinese company is pending to make Boise their American headquarters. The retail and service industry is currently booming in the metro with construction really picking up.
Boise has BSU, a Concordia University of Law, a University of Idaho Law School on the way, and the metro also has several other colleges with a top ranked liberal arts college and nationally ranked hospitals including a trauma center that serves the NW and a childrens hospital that draws patients from surrounding states. Boise high schools are nationally ranked. There is also a convention center downtown which is busy, and Boise hosts major sporting events such as Ironman and one of the largest bike races in the nation, the Twilight Criterium.
I know and work with 10 young professionals who moved to Boise from Spokane. At the end of the day though, both cities are good, different strokes for different people.
Wow! Good to hear of all the growth going on in Boise. Based on the comments about the two cities it seems Spokane is denser, grittier and more historic while Boise is sprawly and more sun beltish in it's development patterns. Both seem like nice interesting cities.
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I do not know much about Billings, but have been to Eugene a few times and it is a nice town.
