Americans from liberal West Coast states are fleeing in greater numbers to a neighboring red state to escape political unrest, homelessness and crime.
Idaho appears to be where disgruntled residents of California, Oregon and Washington are now flocking, whose populations have increased 12 percent in just five years.
Husband and wife Nick Kostenborder and Ashley Manning are among those who brought their nine-month-old son to Sandpoint to escape Portland.
The couple’s baby, whom they named Taylor, was on the way in the summer of 2020, just as the unrest in Portland following the death of George Floyd was in full swing.
A view of downtown Boise, the largest city in Idaho with a population of more than 236,000 in 2022
The Boise capitol building seen near sunset
Kostenborder pointed to the homeless problem in his former town as something that influenced his decision to leave.
You are worried about someone else besides yourself. Then you start to notice the threats more. It’s no longer charming to have the homeless man sleeping in front of the supermarket. “Now I’m like, okay, this could actually be dangerous,” Kostenborder said.
In fact, the homeless problem has gotten so out of hand in Portland that its own city government has a tracking portal detailing the number of camps in the city.
“There are currently hundreds of unauthorized encampments spread throughout virtually every neighborhood in our city, covering a whopping 146 square miles,” according to the Portland city government.
West Coast problems could be part of the reason Idaho’s population skyrocketed more than 12 percent between 2018 and 2023.
Tents housing homeless people line the sidewalk along Fifth Street in downtown Los Angeles.
Image from a night of protests and riots in Portland on Oct. 31, 2020. Armed counterprotesters stand outside a bail bond agency as a protester holds a T-shirt with a photo of black man Kevin E. Peterson Jr., who was murdered at shot by police in vancouver
A protester raises her hands as police detain other protesters and clear a park after a vigil and march commemorating the police shooting death of black man Kevin E. Peterson Jr.
The City of Portland’s homeless encampment tracker pinpoints the exact location of sites found in the city in “virtually every neighborhood.”
Manning, the mother of Taylor, now 3, said her small cul-de-sac is much safer than her old neighborhood in Portland, adding that she couldn’t imagine her son playing outside like he does in Idaho.
“You can go out on your bike and it’s very safe,” he said. “Everyone just looks out for him.”
Kostenborder said the same year his family moved to Sandpoint, families from Seattle and San Diego moved next door.
“It’s this kind of strange little group of expats that we all find here,” Kostenborder said.
For Bryan Zielinski and his wife, who moved to Idaho from the Seattle area, it was a combination of things that made them flee.
Zielinski was CEO of one of Washington’s largest gun stores, and as a conservative with an affinity for firearms, the state’s growing hostility toward his values greatly concerned him.
“Everything is political,” Zielinski said. ‘Whether it’s the car you drive or the place where you work. “You are wearing a mask, you are not wearing a mask.”
Tents line the sidewalk on Clay Street on December 9, 2020, in Portland, Oregon.
Lawmakers also targeted their livelihood by banning the sale of magazines with 10 or more bullets in 2022 and then banning the sale or import of “assault weapons” in 2023.
A combination of strict COVID-19 policies and new gun laws caused Zielinski to move to Idaho and open his own gun store, which has been in operation for four months.
Thanks to these West Coast transplants, Idaho’s small towns are getting less small every day.
Sandpoint, in Idaho’s Bonner County, grew 13 percent between 2020 and 2022. And while cities growing their populations sounds inherently good, there are some drawbacks.
Idaho natives are dealing with rising home prices, new development in what used to be open fields and wooded areas, and more traffic clogging their once-quiet roads.
“Growing up in a space as open as this, people get used to having room to move around,” said Bonner County Commissioner Luke Omodt. “And we’re struggling with the fact that there are other people who want to share the same beauty as us.”