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We are a recently retired, fairly affluent, conservative Christian, interracial couple, that is considering retiring to either a Boise suburb, or Colorado Springs.
We love the low humidity and the beauty of the mountains and lakes, hiking, sailing, swimming, cross country skiing, and small city feel. We want to get away from the nuts who love to raise taxes, abandon Americas heritage, be politically correct.
My wife is a wonderful woman, a native of the Philippines, now a US citizen, and is as American as apple pie. Everyone who meets her loves her. Do we need to be concerned about anyone treating us with prejudice or wanting to harming us? Will we feel accepted there?
Which fairly affluent, low-crime, family-friendly areas of the Boise metro area should we consider and which areas should we avoid due to crime?
Can anyone inform us which city we might prefer, Boise or Colorado Springs?
We are a recently retired, fairly affluent, conservative Christian, interracial couple, that is considering retiring to either a Boise suburb, or Colorado Springs.
We love the low humidity and the beauty of the mountains and lakes, hiking, sailing, swimming, cross country skiing, and small city feel. We want to get away from the nuts who love to raise taxes, abandon Americas heritage, be politically correct.
My wife is a wonderful woman, a native of the Philippines, now a US citizen, and is as American as apple pie. Everyone who meets her loves her. Do we need to be concerned about anyone treating us with prejudice or wanting to harming us? Will we feel accepted there?
Which fairly affluent, low-crime, family-friendly areas of the Boise metro area should we consider and which areas should we avoid due to crime?
Can anyone inform us which city we might prefer, Boise or Colorado Springs?
I wouldn't expect problems with racism anywhere in the Boise area. Not saying it doesn't exist, it's just that Boise is a city with a sizable university and at least some diversity.
Boise is a safe city with low overall crime. There are thefts, especially when people get complacent and leave bikes unlocked in their yards, stuff like that. Avoid Garden City from around Chinden Blvd to the river. Other than this area and the occasional run-down neighborhood (easy to spot when you see it, usually near industrial areas), there really aren't many "bad" areas of the Boise metro.
Eagle is the most conservative and affluent suburb. Meridian is also very conservative and somewhat less affluent.
Boise proper leans Blue, but more in the sensible old-school liberal sense than crazy progressive extremism found in other places on the West Coast.
I've never been to Colorado Springs so I can't make a comparison. But it sounds like you'd feel right at home in the Treasure Valley.
As for "nice" I suppose that depends on what you're looking for. The downtown areas are somewhat small, spread-out 1-2 story buildings and a lot of surface parking. Both cities have an agricultural/light-industrial vibe, with areas of quiet subdivided neighborhoods. It's not the kind of place I'd spend a lot of time walking and exploring on a Saturday morning, more of a drive up and park and do whatever I'm there for then leave kinda place. Again, the "niceness" factor here depends on what you want. Some people love to drive and value abundant close parking and hate dealing with any kind of congestion, in which case Nampa/Caldwell is a good fit. Other's value a high density of shops and sights and people watching in a walkable area.
ETA: I should mention that the recently redeveloped Indian Creek Plaza in Caldwell is more walkable and encourages people to linger and explore. It's a good start to giving downtown Caldwell more of a community feel, with the plaza for hosting events and the urban green belt.
The Indian Creek Plaza is a nice area. We go to an event there once a year or so. There is also some nice shopping nearby, and they have a Saturday market a few blocks away, so the area is good for walking/shopping. Away from that it is a couple main business roads that lead West to East back and forth between Nampa, or North/South to the freeway. There is a nice hospital and Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa. Most of the newer shopping and dining is up near the freeway. The older parts of town are south of I-84. The towns are mostly older homes on residential streets. Nothing special on lot size that I've noticed. Lots of new housing going in around Kuna (further south). I'm sure there are plenty of new developments that I just haven't noticed/paid attention to. Crime "might" be a bit higher in the areas around Caldwell, but it's just what I see on the news as it appears what little drug gang problems that are in the metro tend to be reported as happening in Caldwell. Mostly gang on gang/Hispanic on Hispanic drug deal gone bad type crime that gets reported a couple times a month. Normal folks doing normal day-to-day activities are not involved.
I'm more partial to areas North of the freeway, and generally to the east of Eagle Road, but just my preference. I like the downtown Boise areas and along the river further to the East, than areas further West.
I've been to CO Springs several times, and have considered moving there a couple times. The traffic is much, much worse in CO Springs. The weather is worse, in that thunderstorms and especially damaging hail are nearly non-existent in the Boise area, fairly common in Colorado. COL is lower still in Boise, even with the run up of housing prices over the past several years. Sales tax in Idaho is 6.5% and 8.2% in CO Springs. I'd guess property taxes are lower in Boise too, but just a guess. You likely won't get a basement in your Boise area house, but I see it is pretty common to have a basement in Colorado.
It appears that Boise property taxes are a financial roller coaster ride- up 100%, then down 50%. Why is this and how do homeowners cope with this? Will they go up again?
There are racists and bigots everywhere in the US; however, I firmly believe we are very welcoming. We used to have an international engineering, construction, mining company based in Boise (originally Morrison Knudsen). I know a large number of their employees that married foreign nationals and subsequently brought their families to Boise as well. We also have had a lot of refugees relocate in Idaho adding to the diversity. I know several men with wives from the Philippines and none have ever expressed negative comments toward them or their wives.
Taxes dropped for a bit due to the huge run up in values and we ran a surplus in revenue so there was a temporary reduction in property taxes to absorb the surplus. Where they end up depends on who we have in government and their decisions on what to spend $ on.
I wouldn't expect problems with racism anywhere in the Boise area. Not saying it doesn't exist, it's just that Boise is a city with a sizable university and at least some diversity.
Boise is a safe city with low overall crime. There are thefts, especially when people get complacent and leave bikes unlocked in their yards, stuff like that. Avoid Garden City from around Chinden Blvd to the river. Other than this area and the occasional run-down neighborhood (easy to spot when you see it, usually near industrial areas), there really aren't many "bad" areas of the Boise metro.
Eagle is the most conservative and affluent suburb. Meridian is also very conservative and somewhat less affluent.
Boise proper leans Blue, but more in the sensible old-school liberal sense than crazy progressive extremism found in other places on the West Coast.
I've never been to Colorado Springs so I can't make a comparison. But it sounds like you'd feel right at home in the Treasure Valley.
Eagle aka: Eaglefornia
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