While walking from the parking lot to my work today I overheard a robust man in a tight white tank top expressing his antipathy for Spokane to a female friend. “That’s why I hate Spokane. It’s too damn big,” he barked matter-of-factly. I stifled a chuckle and continued walking.
Living in Spokane these twenty-two years I’ve heard my fair share of interesting reasons given to justify a person’s vehement dislike of this, the great lilac city. Until today, overpopulation was never one of them. I have, however, heard fellow citizens gripe about the exorbitant amount of potholes (quite possibly a complex conspiracy orchestrated by the
automobile repair industry), ill-timed traffic lights, and native Californian, turned Washingtonian drivers. One of my peers has even gone so far as to affectionately label Spokane as the armpit of the Pacific
Northwest.
While I don’t share near the amount of the aforementioned aversion for my hometown, this man’s statement sparked a sudden interest within me to discover the actual size of Spokane. Had Spokane, I began to wonder, sprouted into a thriving metropolis with a size to rival Seattle or Portland while I was away for the weekend?
According to the 2000 Census, Spokane’s overall population sits at 195,629 people.
After stumbling upon this data, I became instantly awe-struck at this man’s unrealized powers of perception. Spokane IS too big.
If you’re from Idaho.
Oh, and for anyone looking for something about Spokane to dislike, try this statistic on for size (no pun intended):
out of a population of roughly 195,000, 175,000 Spokannites are Caucasian.
Apparently other ethnic groups don’t prefer the smell of armpit. Or maybe it’s just that Spokane is too damn big.