One of those explanations was in today's Spokesman-Review, reporting
that the latest edition of "Retirement Places Rated" by MacMillan Travel
rates Coeur d'Alene the 7th best place in the country to retire.
The story quotes author David Savageau as saying there has been "a shift
in retirement relocation away from coastal areas to desert and mountain
communities, many of them in the West." This is clearly a factor in
Moscow's recent growth, which partially explains why the population has
grown while public school enrollment has remained steady (and in Pullman,
is expected to decline). How many of you knows someone who has retired
from a job elsewhere and moved to the Moscow area in the last five years?
I disagree, too, with the explanation that the new houses on Moscow's
fringes are merely people relocating from elsewhere in Moscow and don't
represent actual population growth. Someone must be moving into the
houses that are being vacated in the older parts of Moscow. I don't
think Dale Pernula's estimate of 2,000 additional people in the
city since 1990 is far off.
If you'd like to discuss some of these issues, come to the 2020 meeting
Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in the foyer of the high school auditorium on
3rd Street. (A video on "Subdividing the West: Implications of
Population Growth" will be shown at 6:30.) Bring a dessert or snack
to share .
KENTON