Spokane

Spokane, Washington 

The largest city in Spokane County, Washington, and the county's administrative center. It is located in eastern Washington along the Spokane River, close to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, 279 miles (449 km) east of Seattle along I-90, and it is 92 miles (148 km) south of the Canadian border. It is also 18 miles (30 km) west of the Washington-Idaho border and close to the Selkirk Mountains. 

The Spokane metropolitan region, the Spokane Coeur d'Alene combined statistical area, and the Inland Northwest all have Spokane as their economic and cultural hub. Locally, it is known as "Lilac City" and as the birthplace of Father's Day. Due to its annual staging of the largest basketball tournament in the world, Spokane is officially known as Hooptown USA. The Spokane International Airport is located 8 kilometers (5 miles) west of downtown Spokane and serves both the city and the larger Inland Northwest region. At 208,916, Spokane was the second-largest city in Washington and the 101st-largest city in the country, according to the 2010 census. There were 228.989 people living in Spokane as of the 2020 Census. According to a 2021 estimate, there are 593,466 people living in the Spokane Metropolitan Area. 

The Spokane tribe, whose name in Salishan means "children of the sun," were the first inhabitants of the region, and they subsisted on a lot of game. When the Spokane House of the North West Company was built and the region began to move west in 1810, David Thompson began exploring the region. The earliest permanent European colony in Washington was this trading post. After the Northern Pacific Railway was finished in 1881, residents began to arrive in the Spokane region. The city of Spokane Falls was formally incorporated in the same year (it was re-incorporated under its current name ten years later). Inland Northwest gold and silver deposits were found in the late 19th century. Up until the 1980s, agriculture, logging, and mining were the main drivers of the local economy. The first environmental-themed World's fair was held in Spokane during Expo '74. 

Architect Kirtland Kelsey Cutter created many of the older Romanesque Revival-style structures in the downtown area following the Great Fire of 1889. The city is also the location of the Riverfront and Manito parks, the Davenport Hotel, the Fox and Bing Crosby theaters, and the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, which is linked with the Smithsonian. 

The Episcopal Diocese of Spokane is headquartered in the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, while the Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane is housed in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Lourdes. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is served by the Spokane Washington Temple, which is located in the county's east. The Jesuits created Gonzaga University in 1887, and three years later the private Presbyterian Whitworth University was founded and relocated to north Spokane. 

Fairchild Air Force Base and two sizable casino hotels are located in Airway Heights, a suburb of the city in the west. 

The Spokane Indians of Minor League Baseball and the Spokane Chiefs of junior ice hockey are the professional and semi-professional sports teams for the area. At the Division I level, the Gonzaga Bulldogs basketball team competes. The Spokesman-Review, a significant daily newspaper in Spokane, with a daily circulation of nearly 76,000 as of 2010. 

Geography 

Topography 

At an elevation of 1,843 feet (562 m) above sea level, Spokane is situated on the Spokane River in eastern Washington. It is a distance of about 18 miles (29 km) from Idaho, 92 miles (148 km) south of the Canadian border, 229 miles (369 km) east of Seattle, and 279 miles (449 km) southwest of Calgary. The Spokane city's lowest point is in Riverside State Park, at 1,608 feet (490 m), while its highest point is in the northeastern edge, adjacent to the neighborhood of Hillyard, at 2,591 feet (but closer to Beacon Hill and the North Hill Reservoir) (790 m). The Inland Northwest region, which also includes eastern Washington, north Idaho, northwest Montana, and northeastern Oregon, includes Spokane. 60.02 square miles (155.45 km2) is the total area of the city, of which 59.25 square miles (153.46 km2) is made up of land and 0.77 square miles (1.99 km2) by water. 

Spokane is primarily located in the Spokane Valley Outwash Plains, which are located on the edge of the North Central Rockies forests ecoregion, and partially in the basaltic Channeled Scablands steppe of the Columbia Plateau ecoregion. This plain eventually rises sharply to the east in the direction of the rugged Selkirk Mountains, which are covered in trees. The Coeur d'Alene Mountains, which are the foothills of the Rockies, are located in north Idaho, about 25 miles (40 km) to the east. The city is situated in a transitional region between the arid Columbia Basin and the coniferous woods to the east, while the lush prairies and undulating hills of the Palouse lie to the south. Mount Spokane, which is located on the eastern side of the Selkirk Mountains and rises to a height of 5,883 feet (1,793 m), is the highest mountain in Spokane County. The Spokane River, a 111-mile (179-km) tributary of the Columbia River that rises from Lake Coeur d'Alene in northern Idaho, is the most notable body of water in the region. The river travels through downtown Spokane, across the Washington-Washington state border, meets Latah Creek, and then bends to the northwest, joining the Little Spokane River on its route to the Columbia River north of Davenport. The Missoula Floods, which followed the rupture of Glacial Lake Missoula at the end of the last ice age, created the Channeled Scablands and many of the region's numerous big lakes, including Lake Coeur d'Alene and Lake Pend Oreille. The closest national parks are Mount Rainier National Park, which is about a four-and-a-half-hour drive from Spokane, the Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge south of Cheney, the Colville National Forest, the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area, and the closest natural reserve is the Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge. 

Climate 

Due to its elevation and significant winter precipitation, Spokane has a warm-summer humid continental climate (Dsb according to the Köppen classification). However, Spokane is close to and occasionally even classified as a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Csb) because the average temperature for the coldest month is over 26.6 °F (3 °C), though in the US this threshold is frequently defined as 32 °F (0 °C). 

Summers in the region are often scorching and arid, with brief spring and fall seasons in between. The hottest month on average is July, which averages 71.0 °F (21.7 °C), while the coldest month on average is December, which averages 29.1 °F (1.6 °C). In the summer, daily temperature variations can surpass 30 °F (5.6 °C) frequently, while in the winter, they are just a little above 10 °F (5.6 °C). Temperatures of more than 100 °F (38 °C) or less than 5 °F (21 °C) are uncommon, however the record high and low are 112 °F (44 °C) and 30 °F (34 °C), respectively. 90 °F (32 °C) and higher temperatures occur on average 21 days per year, 100 °F (38 °C) and higher temperatures on average 1 day per year, and temperatures at or below 0 °F (18 °C) on average 2.2 days per year. 

Spokane is shielded from weather patterns experienced in other regions of the Pacific Northwest by its placement between the Rocky Mountains to the east and north and the Cascades Range to the west. The Cascade Mountains act as a barrier to the eastward passage of chilly air in the summer and wet, comparatively mild air from the Pacific Ocean in the winter. The Cascades' rain shadow effect results in the Spokane area receiving 16.5 inches (420 mm) of annual precipitation on average, which is less than half of Seattle's 39.3 inches (1,000 mm). Summer is the driest season of the year, and December marks the highest of precipitation. Some of the coldest air masses crossing Canada on their way south avoid Spokane thanks to the Rockies. 

Economy 

Due to its location between mining and agricultural regions, Spokane rose to prominence as a rail and shipping hub. When gold and silver were discovered in the Inland Empire in the early 1880s, the city served as a regional transportation hub for the miners traveling to the mineral-rich Coeur d'Alene, Colville, and Kootenay regions. The mining regions are still regarded as some of the busiest in North America. 

The economy of Spokane has historically been based on natural resources, with a large portion of the local economy being derived from the mining, logging, and agricultural sectors. When mining began to diminish at the turn of the 20th century, logging and agriculture took its place as the main economic drivers. Spokane is where lumberjacks and millworkers who operate in the numerous mills along the rails, rivers, and lakes in northern Washington and Idaho resupply. The local economy has long placed a high priority on agriculture. The Palouse is located nearby, particularly to the south. It is one of the major wheat-producing regions in the United States and has long been connected with farming and, specifically, wheat production. In the late 1880s, Spokane was a significant agricultural market and trading hub, similar to the mining industry. Wheat, livestock, and other agricultural products were exported by Inland Empire farmers to ports in New York, Liverpool, and Tokyo. Today, the Far East receives a sizable portion of the wheat produced in the area. The Inland Northwest is home to numerous microbreweries and vineyards as well. Spokane was predominantly a commercial hub rather than an industrial hub by the early 20th century. 

The manufacturing industry in Spokane is led by the processing of wood and food, printing and publishing, primary metal refining and fabrication, electrical and computer equipment, and transportation equipment. The headquarters of Fortune 1000 companies Potlatch Corporation, a forest products corporation that conducts business as a real estate investment trust, and Gold Reserve, a gold mining company, are located in the city proper. The local and regional economies still depend on the mining, forestry, and agribusiness industries, but Spokane's economy has expanded to include new businesses, like as the high-tech and biotech sectors. In response to a declining manufacturing sector that began in the 1980s, Spokane is transitioning to a more service-oriented economy, particularly as a hub for the medical and biotechnology industries; Fortune 1000 technology company Itron, for example, has its headquarters here. The sole firm in Spokane to be listed in the Fortune 500 is Avista Corporation, the holding company for Avista Utilities, which was placed 299 on the list in 2002. Other businesses with headquarters in the Spokane region include the technology firm Key Tronic, the vacation rental company Stay Alfred, and the manufacturer of tiny cars, Commuter Cars. Although Spokane's economy has diversified into new areas, recent decades have seen economic difficulties. In both 2012 and 2015, Spokane was named the nation's worst city for jobs, and it was also placed fourth in 2014. Due to the extensive corporate fraud, Forbes also dubbed Spokane the "Scam Capital of America" in 2009. Fraud trends were identified as early as 1988, again in 2002, and up until 2011. 

The State of Washington, Spokane Public Schools, Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center and Children's Hospital, the 92d Air Refueling Wing, and Spokane County make up the top five employers in Spokane as of 2013. The 92d Air Refueling Wing, a military installation and the major employer, was situated close to Airway Heights at Fairchild Air Force Base. In Spokane, the top industries for those over 16 who were working were education, health, and social assistance (26.5%), retail commerce (12.7%), and arts, entertainment, leisure, and lodging and food services (10.4 percent). Spokane serves as a business, manufacturing, transportation, healthcare, shopping, and entertainment hub for the Inland Northwest as well as portions of southern British Columbia and Alberta. The Spokane-Spokane Valley MSA had a gross metropolitan product of $25.5 billion in 2017, compared to $5.93 billion for the Coeur d'Alene MSA. 

As of 2014, the promotion of the following industries is the main focus of economic development in the Spokane region: manufacturing (especially aerospace manufacturing), health sciences, professional services, information science and technology, finance and insurance, as well as clean technology and digital media. Innovate Washington's eastern branch, a state-funded company incubator, was established in the city to boost economic development. 

Spokane has developed into a burgeoning technology centre for both established businesses and startups in recent years. F5, Inc., a Fortune 1000 leader in cybersecurity, has two locations in the region and more than 250 workers who are dedicated to the development of hardware products, software engineering, worldwide services support, and digital sales. Other well-known companies are relocating to Spokane, such Josh Hug's Remitly, an app-based financial services company that was formed after Josh graduated from Whitworth University. Through the Spokane Angel Alliance and Ignite, Ignite Northwest, headed by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Tom Simpson, has contributed over $100 million to finance and promote early-stage businesses. 

Sports 

Numerous lakes and rivers are accessible from Spokane for recreation and outdoor activities. These are used by people for fishing, boating, kayaking, and rafting. Skiing, hiking, riding, and sightseeing are all possible in the nearby mountains. The Spokane Indians of Minor League Baseball and the Spokane Chiefs of junior ice hockey are among the professional and semi-professional sports teams in the Spokane area. The Gonzaga Bulldogs, who play in the NCAA's Division I West Coast Conference, and the Whitworth Pirates, who compete in the Division III Northwest Conference, are two local teams that dominate collegiate sports in Spokane. Local media also covers other regional teams like the Eastern Washington Eagles, Washington State Cougars, and Idaho Vandals. 

Population 

Virginia's Virginia Beach City County contains the city of Norfolk. With a projected population of 236,565, it will rank as the 99th-largest city in the country and the fourth-largest in Virginia. The population of Norfolk has declined by -0.61% from the most recent census, which showed a population of 238,005 in 2020, and is now falling at a pace of -0.2% annually. With a length of over 96 miles, Norfolk has 4,440 residents per square mile. 

With a 19.09% poverty rate, the average household income in Norfolk is $72,315. The median monthly cost of rent in recent years has been, and the median value of a home is. In Norfolk, the median age is 30.8 years, with men being on average 29.1 years old and women 33.3 years old. 

The Hampton Roads metropolitan region, which consists of nine cities and seven counties overall, includes Norfolk. It is a hub of history, culture, and finance and one of the oldest cities in the area.