Boise’s population now stands at a little more than 208,200.
That’s a few thousand more people than live in Spokane and Tacoma, and puts Boise population in third place, trailing only Seattle and Portland.
When I lived in Boise, I used to complain that we were the forgotten corner of the Pacific Northwest. But now that I live within one hour of the Pacific, I wonder how landlocked Idaho still gets to be considered part of the Pacific Northwest.
Idaho seems to me more naturally aligned with the Rocky Mountain West. More alike politically, culturally, religiously, geographically, intellectually, and ecologically to Utah, Wyoming, and Montana. Pacific Northwest means ferns, not sagebrush. Beach sand, not desert sand. Blue State, not Red State.
Of course, I could say the same about Oregon and Washington east of the Cascades. In fact, I have been saying, for a long time, that it would be interesting if state boundaries could be re-drawn to reflect the political, economic, and geographic realities we can all admit exist. That mass of empty ranchland in Eastern Oregon should properly be annexed with Southwestern Idaho with Boise as its capital. The panhandle of Idaho should be merged with Eastern Washington with Spokane as its capital. Southeastern Idaho should get to join up with its religious leadership in Salt Lake. And the area from the I-5 corridor to the Pacific, from Northern California to Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, should be one long Chile-like state of Cascadia.
