A Tale of Two Cities?
By Will D
Compare and Contrast Essay
A tale of two cities[1]?
I was born in Santa Clarita, California, and I spent the first seven years of my life there until in 2009, we moved to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Coeur d’Alene, really? A tiny little town in the middle of nowhere! How would I survive in a place like that so different from my birth town? My life, as I knew it, was over. I was in for a revelation. Sure Coeur d’Alene was different, but it was also similar to my birth town.
Santa Clarita is thirty minutes north from the large city of Los Angeles in Southern California while Coeur d’Alene is also about thirty minutes from another large city: Spokane, the second largest city in Washington (Spokeman.com). Coeur d’Alene was founded in 1879, but became was incorporated in 1887 (Encyclopedia Britannica Online), one hundred years before Santa Clarita that has just celebrated its 25th anniversary (City of Santa Clarita: 25th Anniversary).
Both cities are surrounded by mountains. Santa Clarita is nestled in a valley, surrounded by the Santa Susana Mountains, while Coeur d’Alene is surrounded by mountains that are part of the Rocky Mountain range. Although the mountains in Santa Clarita are tall, they cannot be compared to the granite towers near Coeur d’Alene. The two cities have trees, but they are different. Santa Clarita has a few evergreens, trees that do not change or lose their leaves in the fall, and palm trees are everywhere; on the other hand, Coeur d’Alene has pine tree forests, woodlands, and trees that changes color and lose their leaves in the fall.
With a size of 48 square miles, Santa Clarita is almost double the size of Coeur d’Alene, 26 square miles, (City of Coeur d’Alene). However, the Californian city’s population, 200, 000 residents, (City of Santa Clarita) is almost four times larger! Both cities have two major highways/freeways that run through them. But that is where the highway similarities end. The traffic in the Coeur d’Alene highways flow freely all day long unless there is an accident, congestion is extremely rare. Not so, in Santa Clarita where the freeways are always full of cars and move slower than turtles during rush hour. Coeur d’Alene does not seem to have rush hour. Although distances are short in both places, it could take a long time to go five miles in Santa Clarita.
Have you ever heard of sunny Southern California? Well, it is true. You can wear shorts all year round. But sunny comes with a price: the summers are scorching, above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. In North Idaho, where Coeur d’Alene is, there are four different seasons: summers are usually mild, and rarely the temperature gets over 90 degrees Fahrenheit; springs are rainy, falls are chilly, windy, and rainy, and in winter it rains and snows. The different seasons provide opportunities for many activities depending on the season: swimming, golf, hiking, skiing, and even hunting and fishing. Do not get me wrong, you can do all these things if you live in Santa Clarita, but you may have to sit in traffic for a while to get to the activities.
I have been in Coeur d’Alene for the last four and a half years, and I have learned that not only my life is not over, but also that this tiny little town in the middle of nowhere has become my hometown. Even though I thought that the two cities seemed to be so different, I found out that in many ways they are alike.
Works Cited
"Census: Spokane Remains State’s Second-largest city." Spokesman.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. <https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2011/feb/23/census-spokane-remains-states-second-largest-city/>
"Coeur D'Alene (Idaho, United States)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. <https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/882268/Coeur-dAlene>
"25th Anniversary of Santa Clarita." City of Santa Clarita : 25th Anniversary. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. <https://www.santa-clarita.com/index.aspx?page=851>
"City of Coeur D'Alene - FAQ." City of Coeur D'Alene - FAQ. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2013.
<https://www.cdaid.org/index.php/online-services/frequently-asked-questions>
"Population." City of Santa Clarita :. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2013.< https://www.santa-clarita.com/index.aspx?page=574#pop>