Are we destined to be Boise Jr.?

It feels less and less like we’re part of Idaho.

You know, the other Idaho.

The whole-world-is-Boise, Idaho.

Maybe we’re all alone.

It’s just us …

North Idaho.

I mean, even with Spokane right down the street, we’ll never be Washington, either. I’m not saying that.

The political differences are immense. No chance for a happy marriage.

Nope, I’m not saying our hearts and minds are rooted west on I-90.

We’re not really hooked up to the north, either.

If Washington is out of the question, Canada might as well be in another ideological universe.

No offense meant there to our cousins in Boundary and Bonner counties. Our world does extend that far north, surely.

East?

Montana?

Um, maybe, but that mountain range is kind of a natural border.

Anyhow …

WHAT GOT me thinking about North Idaho as a separate entity, unconnected to any other state or region, is Idaho’s mad scramble for growth.

Every few days, we hear another statistic about how Idaho is growing faster than any other state, or another press release comes flying in about how hard-charging Idaho is out hustling to bring in big companies with lots of jobs.

Growth, jobs, increased tax base, more growth, another hundred housing developments, yada, yada.

You know, all of that sounds just swell for Boise and Meridian and Nampa and various other suburbs in the Mountain Time Zone.

But the state’s official “grow fast and let’s do business with China” campaign is already hacking away at our little slice of paradise, and the result is causing mixed feelings up in our zip codes.

Hey, I know that you can’t put up a sign and bar anyone from moving here — even though it seems like a pretty cool idea.

And in fact, I think Oregon once DID have a sign asking Californians to enjoy their visit, and then go home!

Maybe that was just gossip, but Oregonians feel that way.

Now I see why.

The Coeur d’Alene and Kootenai County that we know is being overrun, and sometime soon we’ll just be another tangle of streets lined with backed-up Toyotas.

We’ll struggle to remember the awesome place that used to be a little wild, a bit of charming and a lot of fun.

Yeah, yeah, I sound like an old-timer who’s been here 60 years and wants to put forest and scrub land back in place of Walmart.

NO, THAT’S not what I’m saying.

Any area is going to change with time, and as all of us get older, we adapt with it.

I keep thinking of Tim Martin, Coeur d’Alene’s street guru, and his verdict that we’ve been “found.”

So be it.

We’re going to grow, whether we encourage it or not. It’s what people who study such things probably call organic growth.

But where we split from Boise, and the Boise version of Idaho, is in the state’s endless hunger for growth and growth and more growth.

Did I mention we’re growing faster per capita than Sri Lanka?

Or Death Valley?

Oh.

Anyhow …

Let’s get a huge tech company here with a zillion jobs (most of which won’t be filled locally). Hey, that will lure four more tech complexes.

Let’s have 400,000 people in the county and, hell …

Let’s just BE Boise!

Nooooooo …

Do you see now why we might feel detached from the rest of Idaho?

Other than laws and the Legislature, what do we share?

That fear of recruiting ourselves into extinction is why I wonder and worry about Post Falls’s great experiment, the juggling act of trying to have new housing, new roads and a new technology park come together all at once — while somehow leaving our county roughly how we found it.

I hope it works, but …

Look, if most of us wanted the Boise lifestyle, we’d have moved there.

No thanks.

•••

Steve Cameron is a columnist for The Press.

A Brand New Day appears from Wednesday through Saturday each week.

Steve’s column on Gonzaga basketball runs on Tuesday.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

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