Cd'A: Spokane East, you say?

Maybe this is simply about where I live.

But maybe not.

Even before I abandoned apartment life in the center of Coeur d’Alene and moved to a condo by the No. 3 tee box at Twin Lakes Village, it felt like Kootenai County was cutting itself in half.

There is obviously a resort side, which I suppose would include Coeur d’Alene and Hayden.

And it seems like we now clearly have a bedroom side — Post Falls and all the booming developments north toward Rathdrum.

Splitting the county that way, even if you’re just doing it mentally, wouldn’t mean that much under normal circumstances. Lots of places have a natural center and extend out to more suburban areas.

What makes our particular division acute is that, more and more, the western side of Kootenai County feels like part of the Spokane metro area.

You definitely cannot say that of Coeur d’Alene itself, which is fiercely independent.

Actually, you get the sensation Coeur d’Alene city fathers wish that Hayden, with its OWN inferior lake, would move a little farther north.

Out of the way — kind of like Sandpoint South.

And as for the outposts of Post Falls and Rathdrum …

Residents there might as well get Washington license plates.

I’d never thought of things that way until I moved to Twin Lakes.

To me, Kootenai County was just Kootenai County — until I discovered that the driving time from our village to Spokane is just about the same as a trip to downtown Coeur d’Alene.

In fact, plenty of my new neighbors work in the Spokane area.

I’ve had to learn a whole new geographical setup, too.

As an Idahoan, I’d look at a map and see two highways dividing at Rathdrum — SH-53 going north toward a junction with U.S. 95, and south toward Spokane, while SH-41 headed north in the direction of Spirit Lake and south to meet I-90.

Spokane folk among us look at Highway 53 and see nothing more than a short connecting road that changes to Washington-290 for a jaunt into Spokane Valley and then, after running parallel to I-90 for a bit, landing in the real downtown.

ALL OF this would be nothing but semantics, except that as Kootenai County continues to grow, most of the newcomers will wind up closer to Washington than to Coeur d’Alene.

We’re already debating the wisdom of apartment complexes on Highway 41, and any Realtor can tell you that most future development will happen in that general area.

Obviously, land availability is the key piece in this equation.

Coeur d’Alene is both expensive and basically built out. Meanwhile, you can find some open space for less money (though prices are rising) west of Huetter Road.

In the past, when I’ve heard people say that Kootenai County is little more than a suburb of Spokane, I’ve always disagreed.

I’d relentlessly claim that Coeur d’Alene is the hub of a separate metro area and — for goodness sake — it’s in a different state.

Unfortunately, reality is beginning to overtake my argument.

Thousands of county residents probably think of themselves as belonging to both states — and housed in the Spokane metro region.

What do YOU think?

Is Coeur d’Alene now simply a pricey resort oasis, basically cut off from everywhere else?

And does that make the rest of the county a bi-state bedroom?

Let me know.

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Steve Cameron is a columnist for The Press. A Brand New Day appears Wednesday through Saturday each week.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com.

Twitter: @BrandNewDayCDA