Best places to live in the Pacific Northwest?

jkshdkjahsdk wrote:

I grew up in the Bremerton/Poulsbo area, went to UW and lived in Seattle, went to WSU and lived in Pullman, visited Bend often when I was a runner in the early 90s, spent some time in Spokane, had relatives in Sandpoint, ID, and have family now in Gig Harbor and Black Diamond, WA

Bremerton itself and East Bremerton are mildly ghetto. I'm wondering when the tech companies are going to discover it, move some HQ buildings there, and software engineers snap up the cheap housing to make it a trendy and expensive place. East Bremerton was new when I grew up there and it was a wonderful place to live. I think it's a bit more run down and old, but I guess that's a natural observation having known what it looked like when all the buildings were new. I did a lot of running there and frankly the running was terrible, but we didn't have google maps or anything so there were probably some great trail systems that I was simply unaware were there. Did most of my running on the side of the road, with very narrow shoulders. In retrospect I'm surprised nobody was ever hit by a car.

Silverdale/Poulsbo are a step up from East Bremerton. Silverdale used to be much more beautiful but it got somewhat overbuilt with strip malls and California style housing. If you stay away from Ridgetop, most houses have decent sized yards. You can still find property with acreage at a decent price. My parents had the perfect life: inexpensive housing, recession proof 40 hour a week jobs, 10 minute commute, and super safe place to raise kids. I don't see Silverdale as viable for the commute to Seattle but if you work at Bangor or the shipyard, or are a doctor or other high paying profession, it may be a perfect place.

Pullman is beautiful but boring. It's a great place to train. If it had altitude it would be a hidden gem for running. The weather is tough, especially for running, but I think that made me a much better runner. I used to be so bored there I would just get in a car and drive the farm roads. That's really when I noticed the hidden beauty. I was bored but happy there.

Bend was just about perfect in the early 90s. I haven't been there in a long time but my understanding was that it got overrun by California, prices got ridiculous, and I'm sure it is loaded with fake hipsters and yuppie snobs now. If you can ignore them and afford it, Bend is a tremendous place for running.

Sandpoint is stunningly beautiful, but there aren't many jobs there. We visit every few years or so. North Idaho also had a reputation in the 90s as being a neo-nazi stronghold, not sure if that is true now or if it ever was. It's definitely not a place for "city folk", lots of redneck types there. Winters can be very harsh.

Gig Harbor is where I am currently planning to move to. My parents live there now but they are moving to Black Diamond. GH is almost getting too crowded now but there is still a lot of acreage around the area. It's a lot like Silverdale was when I grew up. I need a nice place to settle my kids so GH-type place is what I'm looking for.

Black Diamond is starting to develop; my sister has lived there for about 15 years but she and her husband have good jobs that don't require commuting out of the area. BD would be a bit of a haul to get to Seattle or Redmond for work. I find it a bit too far into the sticks, my sister has come across a herd of elk blocking the road home and been attacked on multiple days by an owl while running. Not sure I'd want to live somewhere where I'd come across a bear or cougar while running.

If you don't need to be near a population center for work and want a smaller town, you might want to check out Port Angeles or, even better, Sequim. Sequim is in a rain shadow and gets significantly less rain than Seattle. Pretty little town.

There are lots of nice places up in the NW. I can think of dozens that I would move to in a heartbeat if I didn't need a city for the type of work I do.