Spokane is trying to entice unhappy Seattleites looking to flee

Sometimes when a player like Lebron James is unhappy with their team, numerous other cities will pull out all the stops in an effort to court them. The same thing is currently happening with disillusioned Seattleities, but on a much, much smaller scale.

Spokane is aggressively opening its arms to Seattleites looking to flee, and doing so with a city-run, $450,000 marketing campaign aimed at more than 500 local businesses. They’ve heard our complaints about commutes, housing prices, and gentrification, and are hoping that instead of waiting for those problems to be solved, locals will somehow see Spokane as the solution, reports Curbed.

The marketing effort partially comes in the form of the Hacking Washington website which shows the benefits of moving to Spokane.

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“I do think that Spokane is a great escape valve for people having a hard time in Seattle,” said KIRO Radio’s Tom Tangney. “For what it costs to live in Seattle, you could afford to buy a four-bedroom home and have a place on the lake, as well. You could live the kind of life that Seattleites were living maybe 40 or 50 years ago.”

The taglines on the Hacking Washington site are certainly less than subtle. “You used to think you could have it all in Washington. We still do.” Another says, “Welcome to the 12-minute commute” and “Your employees should be able to live where they work.”

The site has ample pictures of lakes and frolicking dogs and people enjoying themselves, like you’d see in a real estate brochure. There aren’t any pictures of Seattleites stuck in traffic or stepping over discarded needles. They haven’t taken that tact yet.

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Of course, the catch is that you’d have to live in Spokane. “Come on everybody, let Spokane wow you,” joked KIRO Radio’s John Curley. “It never feels like the city has taken off.”

“Off-air you were saying that it feels like one big bus station,” Tom added.

“I meant that in the nicest way,” Curley responded.

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