Okay, here's the skinny:
Hubby has a sort of job offer in the Tri-Cities Metro region of Washington State. This is in the south-eastern quadrant of the state, at the conjunction of the Snake and Columbia Rivers, just above the border with Oregon.
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/united_states/washington_90.jpg
We are currently in the Washington, DC Metro area. While there are certain things we love about it here, those things are starting to be outweighed by the things that we hate:
- insane traffic and commuting times
- very dense population density AND massive suburban sprawl
- exponentially climbing real estate prices
- a huge lack of pedestrian friendly features
- that whole working inside actual terrorist-target concept ;)
So, combine all of this, and the concept of moving to a less-hectic part of the world with a good job is sounding great.
In theory.
While hubby is pretty sure he'd love the job, we both want to be sure that we would like the area. You can go take a quick weekend trip, but that just doesn't really give you the feel of how it is to actually LIVE somewhere.
We've done some research, and it appears to be a nice place. A little out of the way, but there are still amenities. Outdoor activities are aplenty. Wineries nearby. Our beloved Alberta and BC not too far away. And we're drooling over the real-estate - with what we'll clear on our condo, we could almost pay cash for a nice house - it's obscene, really.
We like the look of the climate. I'm a former paleontologist - this means that I spent time alternately frying myself to a crisp and freezing myself blue in various high plateau deserts around North America. Since I no longer actually have to be out in these extreme elements as part of my day-to-day life, I can honestly say that living in that kind of climate agrees with me. The temperature range looks no worse than the DC area (remember - we were a malarial swamp, and it still feels like it in the summer), and since hubby grew up in Upstate NY, the average winter weather wouldn't phase him one bit. Nowhere near as cold and almost no snow - we can both handle that.
We noted that there is a Superfund site in the area. I used to do some environmental work (because Paleo pays NOTHING), and as long as I can look at the remediation plans and contamination footprints, I can cope. I've slogged around in stuff almost as bad in my time, and I figure they've mapped stuff out, as opposed to the Northwestern quadrant of DC, which still has armed bombs and chemical mines beneath some of its' stateliest homes ;)
So all this is book knowledge. Marketing and Real Estate propaganda (well, not the Superfund stuff). What my hubby and I want to know from any UFies who currently live or have lived in that area is: is it really a nice place to live? We're really interested in looking for someplace that has a sense of community. DC has never had too much of that in abundance (a lot of historical turnover between all the military postings and the changing of administrations and congressional staffers), so we'd like to be somewhere a little more friendly. I know from various visits to the left coast that it tends to be friendlier and more relaxed, but there's always that one exception, and we don't want this to be it. 3,000 miles is a long way to move without knowing more than a few passing facts about the area, you know?
We are actually interested in hearing about negatives. I'll grant you our negatives here are really kinda over-sized and urban (my car was broken into twice in one month a few years back, there was a murder last month in the community less than a half-mile from our house, and we're about to get slammed on exceeding EPA levels for ozone), but we don't want to move into an area that has similar kinds of problems.
From what I can tell, Richland is the city to live in. There seems to be a good infrastructure, solid schools, and nice established neighborhoods. Is this correct?
Anyway, that's my ramble. If you have any information that could help me, please reply to this entry - I'd love to hear it.
Thanks in advance! | 
