According to BusinessWeek.com’s 2007 list of Best Places to Raise Your Kids, the communities that offer families a combination of safety, community and education are usually towns with family-oriented neighborhoods, affordable homes and good schools. Business Week used the following five criteria: test scores, cost of living, recreational and cultural activities, number of schools and risk of crime. I was sure Spokane or Coeur d’Alene or one of the smaller towns in the area would be on the list, but alas, that wasn’t the case. In fact, there weren’t any Washington or Idaho cities on that list. The only one in the Northwest that made it to the top 50 was Dundee, Ore., a commmunity near Portland of about 2,600 people where the median household income is $50,284/Virginia de Leon/Parents Council. More here

Question: Do you consider Coeur d'Alene, Spokane (or your Inland Northwest town) as a good place to raise children?

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