Stuck in East Coast City, Can't Decide Where to Move (back west, cheap)

[claud605]

Come to Raleigh...tons of colleges, nice weather for the most part, yes, hot and muggy in the summer but oh well go swimming! And most of the year lots and lots of sunshine. Very friendly. PM me if you want to know more. I moved from Buffalo and family is just close enough for a drive with an overnight stop in WV. But far enough away...

[WestCoastDreamer]

Originally Posted by summer22

Good luck, really and truly. I might be "settling" on Evanston, IL, Oak Park, or the northern neighborhoods of Chicago. I want to be within two hours drive of family, in a liberal STATE (not just a liberal municipality), and at least for the next year I still need to be able to commute once or twice a month to Indiana for a job assignment.

At least I'll have Lake Michigan's beaches, the gay community in Chicago's Lakeview, the museums and aquarium and zoos, a long summer with really nice warm weather, and the college town of Madison fairly near.

But, when I think of weather and natural beauty, all things considered, California, the Pacific Northwest, or something on the eastern seaboard around Washington, DC or southward would be perfect. The West Coast would be 2,000 miles from loved ones though; and the East Coast would be 1,000 miles.

I like New York, but its cold. I like the independent thinking along the northern New England seaboard, but their winters and ruggedness might just be too much for me. I appreciate the young progressive community in Denver, and have friends who love Salt Lake City, but they just seem too far.

Every time I've been to Chattanooga and northern Georgia, the air and the weather just feel amazing to me. I have no idea why, but it feels good there. As soon as I hit Atlanta, though, the summers just get too hot for me.

Life is full of compromises. I think the best one can do is to live in a place you at least highly like 60-70 or more percent of the time, and to often spend time in the other places you love, just to keep your spirits high. If you stay on the East Coast, I hope your work will allow you to make a California journey every year. Good luck.

Thanks, summer22. I hope your move to Chicago is a profitable one. It's supposed to be an amazing town.

Denver is an idea. It's not overly-far from family. But something just tells me I need to be within a day's drive of home. Haven't ever been to Chattanooga, but I've got a friend who swears by it. Will have to go there someday. I think your 60-70 percent rule is a good one. California keeps calling to me. We'll see. Again, good luck with your move and thanks for your words of encouragement!

[WestCoastDreamer]

Originally Posted by claud605

Come to Raleigh...tons of colleges, nice weather for the most part, yes, hot and muggy in the summer but oh well go swimming! And most of the year lots and lots of sunshine. Very friendly. PM me if you want to know more. I moved from Buffalo and family is just close enough for a drive with an overnight stop in WV. But far enough away...

I've been to Raleigh once. It reminded me of my hometown, only a bit smaller and definitely slower-paced, which is a good thing. Also, I ate in this total Bohemian little cafe, wish I could remember the name. Very charming, except the staff were dingbats, which I guess you get with the dreaming set. I do get the sense that in NC, people are friendlier than the average bear - people actually make eye contact, which I think freaks us Northerners out. Thanks for your suggestion!

[BigD_JT_14221]

Columbus OH seems to match much of your criteria. You've got OSU there. It's a pretty liberal city overall. They don't get much snow - only about 28 inches annually. Decent job market. Low cost of living compared to anywhere on the east coast.
The temps are still going to be cold in the winter, but with your lists of wants in a new area it may be next to impossible to hit 100%.

[WestCoastDreamer]

Originally Posted by BigD_JT_14221

Columbus OH seems to match much of your criteria. You've got OSU there. It's a pretty liberal city overall. They don't get much snow - only about 28 inches annually. Decent job market. Low cost of living compared to anywhere on the east coast.
The temps are still going to be cold in the winter, but with your lists of wants in a new area it may be next to impossible to hit 100%.

Thanks, BigD_JT_14221. No offense to those from the Midwest, it's too cold for me. Don't want to move there. You're right that I can't reasonably expect to get everything on my wish list, but if there was one thing I'd want to see fulfilled from that list, it's to live in a warm climate.

[donie1]

How about TX? Austin, TX or some other small town in TX. I used to live in TX and will be going back hopefully this summer. I have a house in MD but will only use it for the summer months.

[donie1]

Also what I love about TX is that it is close to the West Coast, easy hop to CA, NM an AZ and then it's close to the East Coast. It's in the middle of each coast so it works for me. The cost of living is alot cheaper then MD and it's wide open space and lots to do.

Also I lived in AZ for many years and that's another possibility for your family. It's just very hot for me now and I like the break in seasons.

TX also has mild winters and they do have the change of seasons.

[WestCoastDreamer]

Originally Posted by donie1

How about TX? Austin, TX or some other small town in TX. I used to live in TX and will be going back hopefully this summer. I have a house in MD but will only use it for the summer months.

Hey donie1, good suggestion. I love Austin. The only problem: the Texas school board. I heard they gutted textbooks of important historical figures like Thomas Jefferson because he was a deist and not a full-on Christian (he even wrote his own Bible with all of the magical-realism cleansed out of the original version). This, in a word, freaks me out. I mean, Thomas effing Jefferson? One of the greatest thinkers in American history??

I also hear tell that the school board mitigated the inclusion of minorities in their history books, like Hispanics. Ugh. What in the world is going on in Texas??? If you ask people who live there, they'll say Austin is totally unlike the rest of TX, which is all well and good, but what if I want to take my family on a road trip? We're a multi-ethnic family, and I'm worried I'd catch weird looks (or worse) in the smaller towns in TX. I've been a Northerner/East Coaster all my life and have never had to worry about that level of cultural myopia.

Can you please shed some light on this? Thanks in advance!

[OysterCatcher]

Raleigh, great suggestion, also search triangle area (Chapel Hill, Durham Etc)
Ashville, NC also a great option
Athens, GA (home of UGA)
Chattanoga, TN somebody mentioned
Charlottesville, VA (home of UVA)
Tidewater area VA
Knoxville, TN (home of UT)

[Trade Wind]

Originally Posted by WestCoastDreamer

I've spent nearly ten years in a major U.S. East Coast city (which will remain nameless) and long for nicer people and more wide-open vistas. My wife and I recently had a kid, so our situation has changed, i.e. it was fine living in this super-expensive city when it was just the two of us, and it was marginally fun, but now I'd like to be able to take my kid to the beach whenever we felt like it, and I want the kiddo to be surrounded by more down-to-earth people. And I don't want to pay an arm and a leg for a small apartment anymore.

I realize I'm asking a lot because I'm a long-time viewer of city-data forums, and I know there's no magic answer. I'd just appreciate anyone's wisdom on this. Thanks in advance.

I'll leave it to others to give you advice about what cities and regions are more cosmopolitan/artistic/hip/down to earth/cheaper…etc. However, as to climate let me just point out a few things to offer some perspective:

I moved from the West Coast (central California) to the East Coast (Melbourne, Florida). My reasons were weather/climate too: As a huge beach/sun/sand family, coastal central California was just way to cold much of the year for us. We wanted the heat/sun/ and warm ocean waters that California never had...so we headed for Florida. The May Gray, June Gloom…etc is a real spoiler on the coast of central/northern California - much more than people realize. If you’re thinking of the typical beach day along most of the East Coast from NYC southward in summer - with a sunny 85 F day and warm ocean waters – think again. Often a beach day (meaning it’s above 72 F - lol) in coastal central/northern California is cut short when the marine layer/stratus moves and in ten minutes your freezing as a cool damp air mass chills you and the temp falls to 58 F. Add in - that the Pacific Ocean is freezing cold compared to the Atlantic…and you often have anything but beach weather. So if you truly like the beach…my advice is head to far southern California (LA, San Diego…etc)…or stay on the East Coast from NYC southward. If you seek sunshine, warm beach weather, and warm ocean waters…coastal central/northern California is not for you.

Next, we did a great deal of research about climate before we moved. We wanted beach weather and warm ocean waters 12 months a year…so Florida was the only choice in the USA. However, I learned a lot about the climate of the USA in general. In the end, I found that when comparing many areas of the USA in terms of climate/weather everything in a trade off:


SUNSHINE: The Pacific Northwest has relative mild winters (say Seattle compared to Chicago, Denver, Boston)…but the Pacific Northwest is the cloudiest/gloomiest/overcast climate in the USA. People who seek sunshine will really be unhappy in Seattle, Portland, or far northern California. Most of the East Coast from Connecticut/Long Island southward is far sunnier. Here is a map hours of sunshine for December:








COLD: Cold in the USA is shaped like a wide U. The interior is very cold…the coasts are milder. Here is a map of average January mean temperatures (the average of the high and low). Florida is the warmest. It's really only the southern Califorina coast (for example Long Beach has a high of about 66 F in January), and the Gulf/south Atlantic Coast (New Orleans high of 64 F /Charleston SC high of 60 F in January) that are semi-warm. While the middle East Coast from NYC to Virginia is cold in Dec/Jan/Feb…it are still far warmer than many areas of the USA like much of the interior West, Midwest, Great Lakes, and New England (yellow dot is NYC):




SEA TEMPS: This is just a side note…remember the Pacific is so coooold! The warmest seas are found off the lower East Coast and Gulf Coast. The Pacific off the central CA coast is 58 F in summer....it's 70 off NYC/Long Island. Much of the middle Atlantic Coast from New Jersey south to VA is often 78 F in summer...while from South Carolina southward the Atlantic is over 80 F...while the Pacific is closer to 66 off LA or San Diego - even in summer:


Lastly, the irony of much of the climate data that I found…shows the middle East Coast is still one of the best middle of the road climates in terms of sunshine, cold weather/hot weather/, warm ocean waters...and rainfall.

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