[Bootpathguy]

Couple questions. Will you purchase a place or rent? Why is public transportation important to you? How do you use public transportation?

[RichP]

I spent a few days in Boise this past week and was surprised. Lots of biking routes and many places to hike within a short distance. Seems to have a lot going on too. It is Idaho though.

[fourteen410]

Born and raised in the greater Seattle area. Based on what you say you're looking for, I actually think Portland would be a good fit. I would not suggest Enumclaw - "active" and "bike friendly" are not an adjectives that come to mind there.

[tmatlack]

Sedro-Woolley, Burlington, Mt. Vernon??? Not sure about your risk tolerance for bike riding ops. Rural roads have obvious dangers. Most of all, where ever you land, volunteer for city/county land use agencies/boards like planning commissions to hold the line on annexations and UGA expansions. Tom

[Ski]

Whatever you decide to do, don't move in and then try to tell your neighbors how they have to change to accomodate you. If affordable housing prices, availability of parking spaces, and not paying taxes for things you never wanted and will never use are issues, you do not want to live in metropolitan Seattle. If, on the other hand, you don't mind paying confiscatory rates for car license tabs, never being able to find a place to park your car, or having sports stadiums jammed down your throat whether you want them or not, then Seattle is just the place to be. (Oh.. and make sure to invite all of your homeless friends - the City will be happy to find them housing too.)

[treeswarper]

I think Ski's advice covers Portland too. I once thought that if I had to live in a big city, it would be Portland or Spokane. Portland is now crazy and Spokane is now growing and doing the usual thing of putting wider roads in. I haven't been there since returning from exile so will have to do so. Small towns? I like Republic. It reminds me of how Twisp used to be. Plus, they have a lake and a bike trail nearby and houses are still affordable.

[MtnGoat]

PDX has become noticeably worse in the 15 years since I've been going there fairly regularly. Repair of bad roads is obviously not a priority, and the ones that do get some repair often also get their disastrous 'calming' methods..removing lanes, narrowing existing lanes, etc. The end result after spending the money is less throughput (with full intent) and traffic increases on arterials around them... due to the decreased capacity after 'calming'. (They're trying to force people onto buses and trains because not enough of pesky little people will choose them on their own. ) The city's finances and governance are a fustercluck, they are one of the few places still staggering along under the 'commission' style of govt, abandoned nearly everywhere else. They started work on a reservoir project *before* fulling testing out the soil/geology and discovered after work began that the geology means the costs will soar 200% over the initial estimates. (minimum extra overcharge, of course it will be more). Then there was TRIMET, caught using private busing companies to move their own trimet drivers to assigned locations because it was *cheaper* than trimet using it's own system to move them. I don't pay as much attention to the SEATAC anthill antics any more because I don't have to, thank god, but it's likely as bad or worse as the city council goes farther and farther towards their inverted version of 'justice', which of course means the net taxpayers live in and around ever increasing squalor. But hey, step over that dude puking on the sidewalk and you can get to some real nice trendy cafes.

[reststep]

I think if I was moving here from out of state I might take a look at Port Townsend.

[Chief Joseph]

I agree with those who suggest the north areas, Bellingham would have everything you need with way less people and good access to hiking and recreation and also to Canada if you are interested in visiting there. Maybe the San Juan islands, Port Townsend, Port Orchard, Camano Island, etc. Traffic is so bad in Seattle and Portland, one would have to be crazy to live there, unless they happen to be employed in those (Sodom and Gomorrah) cities.

[MtnGoat]

Wenatchee is not yet part of the hive mind either, though the early signs of metastasis are showing up.

[Ski]

[MtnGoat]

They're in need of reminders that they're here to serve us, not their plans, and it 100% irrelevant if they approve of our plans, or preferences, or not. Citizens have plans and preferences of our own, and it is 100% inappropriate to force people to serve the plumbing, rather than installing the plumbing to serve what the customers *actually* prove to prefer when on their own time and dime. Note this intentionally leaves out what people claim to want vs what they actually choose on their own time and dime. That's because what you *do* is the measurable, demonstrable, empirical outcome of your judgment about your value decisions, what you claim to want to do, is not. (there's a lesson here concerning another hot topic ) There's another reality as well. This is not about efficiency. No one was born to serve someone else's view of what is efficient. Even the metrics for efficiency depend entirely on the subjective value judgments inevitably contained within the questions used to examine the quality of efficiency itself. It may be more efficient to move quantity X of people from place A to B on a bus or train, but if they don't *want* that, it is efficiency in service of...nothing. When folks have to organize their lives around a transit schedule, it is not necessarily efficient for *them*. When I was going to college without a car, it was a PITA even though it worked... because mass transit involves constant waits if you are not on a single main line at both ends. Every day I juggled the coming and going times with respect to school and labs all around when the transit would work. When I finally got a car, it cut my travel time nearly in half...and freed up my schedule, making my day more efficient...regardless of traffic. Citizens are not here to be shoved around to follow someone else's goal of 'efficiency' for their own reasons. I don't care wether it's planners or not...our lives are not their lives, and we have our own goals. If folks want buses or trains and to bear the enormous costs of trains, then more power to 'em. Pay up and ride, no problem. But when you intentionally reduce capacity rather than keep it or increase it in order to force people onto these things, that's another matter.

[Ski]

Well.... I'm not sure that any of this is of any value to the OP, who's asking for advice about moving here.... My intent was simply to point out that if he's one who wants to drive his own vehicle where he wants to, when he wants to, and wants to park it where he wants to, I would submit that Seattle is probably not the best choice. It seems that the closer one is to metro Seattle, the more delusional municipal planners become when it comes to allowing drivers to make their own choices and be able to find a place to park without paying crazy parking fees. (I should perhaps note that I do NOT pay for parking unless it's absolutely necessary - like a performance at Paramount Theater or Benaroya Hall on Friday or Saturday night.) It will be interesting to see how the effects of the last go-round of local elections shakes out and exactly what sort of people some of the knuckleheads have been replaced by.

[olderthanIusedtobe]

[MtnGoat]

Long story short, for someone interested in a smaller city, either of the anthills is probably not the best choice. Being tiny ....compared to Mumbai, Tokyo, Mexico City, or London doesn't seem to be relevant.