#1 Location

The location isn’t for everyone. Everyone thinks that we’re right next door to Seattle but it’s about a 5 hour drive and then in regards to the next closest big city you’re looking at a minimum of an 8 hour drive to Portland or Boise or a 10+ to Salt Lake.
It’s much different than the east coast where the next big city is only 1 to 2 hours away and it’s just one major metro after another.

#2 Crime

Spokane has had an increasing issue with the level of property crime. The Spokane police department released their report back in June 2022 and at the time, property crime was up nearly 30% and in some areas, specifically right downtown, there was nearly a 200% increase in property crime.
It’s not everywhere, its definitely contained to certain areas and time of day and so I think more often than not you have to be putting yourself in the situation that would cause you to be at risk of dealing with the increase in crime.

#3 Homelessness

Another issue that some may argue to be in correlation with the rise in crime, is our growing homelessness problem. Again, this is effecting our downtown core a lot more than anywhere else around town but a big issue that has been dividing our city is Camp Hope. It’s a large homeless camp that is just off the Freya exit. It’s very dividing and challenging issue for Spokane to overcome that started exactly a year ago after a protest at our city hall for a lack of low barrier housing around Spokane. It was moved to this location because the land was owned by the department of transportation and that would open it up to more types of funding. That’s the extremely short version but it has caused a lot of issues amongst Spokane residents. I think most of us can agree we want to help the people in there so we don’t have it as a statement piece for our city right along the freeway, but the most vocal people have much stronger opinions in both directions. I’m hopeful the best resolution for our community as a whole is found soon.

#4 Taxes

People love moving to Washington because we have no state income tax. We are one of eight total states to not have any income tax which is especially attractive to people moving from states like California that has the highest income tax. What people don’t plan for his we have very high sales tax. Our sales tax rate is 8.9% here in Spokane. So for anyone moving from a no sales tax state like Oregon or montana, it can be a hard pill to swallow. I would say for the high net worth individuals moving to Spokane, it makes total sense, but for some that is more middle class, it is definitely something to consider if you’re really interested in running the numbers!

#5 Weather

You have to come prepared for the weather here in Spokane! Right now it is December 5th and we’ve already have snow on the ground for well over 2 weeks. We do get all 4 seasons here but sometimes it feels like fall and spring get cut very short. Fall was only about 2 weeks long. It went from 80 degrees to snow on the ground very quickly this year. So, be prepared to adjust your driving, maybe take some driving in winter classes as it seems like every year the drivers in Spokane get worse and worse at driving in the snow. In the summer time though we’ve regularly have multiple weeks of 100 degree weather so in spokane you will experience temperature swings from 0 degrees to 100 degrees within a 12 month period.

#6 Seasonal Depression

Most people who live here won’t even admit that they have it but only 171 days out of the year are sunny days. That’s less than half. And when our winters can last from November to March and even sometimes April, that’s a long time to be in the cold with not a lot of sun and so there can be a little lack of energy, lack of motivation in some people around town. You really have to work hard to get out of bed in the morning and get to the gym. It can be dark as early as 3pm in December so there are challenges that come with that. In the winter time you usually arrive at work when it’s dark and you leave work when it’s dark so if you don’t have a lot of windows or get to spend time outside, it’s possible that you won’t see the sun until the weekend.

#7 Road Construction

And when you have a lot of snow that sticks around for months and you have to have snow plows and traction tires driving on all the roads, it makes the roads really bad. We have lots of potholes throughout spokane and there summer time is always insane when it comes to road construction and road repairs. Not a single year has gone by in my 27 year existence in Spokane where multiple major arterials are closed at the same time and slow traffic all over town.

#8 Transportation

Having a card in Spokane is pretty vital. We have a very decent public transportation system as in a bus system and not a lot of people love to use it. They’ve been making a lot of upgrades and opening more routes so that could change in the future but for the most part everything you need is generally not close enough to your house to walk or bike everywhere and especially if you live on the the south hill or five mile where you will have to conquer a very large hill to get home if you make your way downtown. I live just outside of downtown so its relatively flat and easy to bike but for someone with my job, I absolutely have to have a car to make to Spokane. I’ve had a lot of people that come visit Spokane to check it out before moving here and most of them mention that it is way more spread out than they anticipated and to prove my point even further here’s a map of the walkability of Spokane, suffice to say, it’s not great.

#9 Diversity

Spokane, Washington may be known for its beautiful surroundings and mild climate, but it lacks a topic common in many cities - diversity. With a population that is about 85% white, there are limited opportunities to explore culture and meet people from different backgrounds. This lack of variety means we miss out on the various perspectives and interesting experiences that cross-cultural interactions can bring. Therefore, creating an environment where everyone feels welcome regardless of their race or ethnicity could help provide richer experiences to both longtime residents and new arrivals alike.

#10 The Divide

This isn’t just a Spokane issue but we are technically the second largest city in washington which I think not a lot of people realize that. Obviously the west side of the state has a lot more concentration of cities that add up to about 80% of the population of Washington state. So the much smaller sliver west of the cascade mountains has about 5 million more people than the other side east of the cascade mountains. Now, generally speaking, the section west of the cascades swings more liberal or democrat and the section east of the cascades swings more republican or conservative. This has actually been in some form of debate since 1861 and is still ongoing. Again there’s people in the middle of the aisle that probably don’t care that much either way, but some far more extreme opinions on both sides as to why or why not.