Affordable cities with mass transit? (rent, house, neighborhoods)

[xz2y]

Are there any affordable cities in the US where you don't need a car? Maybe affordability and mass transit in the same sentence is an oxymoron, but I thought I'd ask.

[JR_C]

I've been told I could live car-free in Cleveland, Ohio. Specifically, Downtown and the Ohio City neighborhood, but I'm sure others would work, too.

[Jimrob1]

You can live car free in Portland. It most certainly can be done. There is extensive light rail, streetcars, and buses here. The problem is one may not want to live or could afford to live in some of the more practical areas of the city to have this kind of life. Not everyone is geared to live in downtown Portland for a number of reasons. Not everyone wants to live along the areas in close proximity to the light rail either. Its what one can afford and is comfortable in a city when they will depend solely on Public Transport. Portland is probably one of the cheaper cities that has extensive transit, however it is not an inexpensive city to live in. Quite frankly so much of this country, puts absolutely no interest into public transport in major cities. The lack of it as far as I am concerned has become ignorant and a disgrace. So if one is comfortable with the neighborhoods they have here in Portland, then this is a city you can live without a car.

[miamiman]

Philadelphia and Baltimore

[leighland]

Originally Posted by miamiman

Philadelphia and Baltimore

Rent in Philly and food costs there are pretty high-it's only affordable if you compare it to NYC costs.

[nephthys]

Portland for sure.... I lived just west of downtown near "fareless square" and could take the light rail for free to downtown and across the river into NE. The only problem is I work about 20 miles away.... and the light rail doesn't extend there yet and I checked the bus routes and it would take me 3 hours to get to work. So, I'll stick to driving for now.

[oakparkdude]

What's your definition of affordable. Manhattan is pretty affordable to multimillionaires. People on minimum wage jobs, not so much.

[Fred314X]

Originally Posted by sukwoo

What's your definition of affordable. Manhattan is pretty affordable to multimillionaires. People on minimum wage jobs, not so much.

That's right; you have to define 'affordable' before you can allow anyone else to make these kinds of decisions. Practically everyone will tell you how unaffordable New York City is, yet there are eight million people who call this city home--and the large majority of us are not millionaires! There are lots of neighborhoods you might be able to afford in NYC...just don't have your heart set too strongly on any of them being in Manhattan. That obstacle overcome, you certainly don't need a car in this town.

[Andysocks]

^^ you need to probably make nearly double minimum wage though to live without any kind of assistance in any part of town... which is unaffordable by countrywide standards haha.

[atlantagreg30127]

Well, my home town (Charleston, WV) was once at least actually voted as having one of the best transit systems for a city of it's size (50,000 city/250,000 metro roughly). Buses go everywhere and centralize in a plaza downtown. Home prices aren't "cheap-cheap", but rents are very cheap.

Unfortunately, the economy there is so bad that if you don't have something lined up then the lack of income might make up for the cheap cost of living.