How do hot weather folks handle a move to cold weather? (Pasadena: neighborhoods, theatre)

[tamirod]

Hello all,

I am new to this site, please forgive me if this has been asked and answered. My husband and I live in Southern CA - we have lived in the LA area all our lives - but we are considering a move to the East Coast...specifically the NYC area. Our main deterrent has been the weather. We are frankly big babies who have never lived in snow, and are freezing our butts off if it goes below 55 degrees. Any tips on how others have fared making similar moves? What adjustments did you need to make? Did you regret leaving the sunshine for a place with 4 seasons?

Thanks in advance!

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

Growing up in Port Hueneme I moved to Iowa for a couple years. What I did was get a warm coat for the winter time and some gloves. It seemed to work for me. Also get a scraper for your windows.

[Bunjee]

Adjusting to cold weather really isn't that big a deal, though there are nutjobs who attach some kind of...moral dimension...to growing up with snow . In a big place like NYC you probably won't have much of an adjustment at all since the pavement is salted and tended to and generally safe. This, as opposed to small towns where you are literally trudging through snowdrifts up to your knees and (minding the invisible ice) doing the geisha-walk to avoid slipping and falling on your ass.

For day-to-day living you simply take the weather as it comes. What you'll miss isn't so much the sunshine in itself but the dependability of having it, so you can learn to cope using the psychological mechanism of starting to despise the "boring" SoCal weather by contrast.

[tamirod]

Thanks for the advice! It does seem that people who grow up with lots of snow wear that experience as a "badge of honor". I don't necessarily blame them! If anyone else out there is considering a move to the NYC area from LA, or has made that move, I also am trying to gather information about the various neighborhoods. I have 2 kids, aged 10 and 7, one of whom is a special needs child, so good schools and safety are of course a priority. But we would also like an ethnically diverse neighborhood, like the one we live in now, which is in the Eagle Rock area of LA.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Be thankful you are not moving to the interior of the continent (for example, northern Michigan). It actually does not snow that much in NYC or really anywhere on the East Coast until you get up into New England. There is more snow (in terms of accumulation per year) in the high elevations of LA County.

[tamirod]

Thanks BayAreaHillbilly, I totally agree. We definitely could not handle the Midwest or Great Lakes areas of the country. I suppose I have this vision of snow storms and blizzards in the NYC area... but even just low temps seem a little daunting to a native LA girl like me. I'm sure we would get used to it though. We actually have also considered a move up north to the SF area to escape the horrendous heat down here. There's a compromise to be made anywhere we go!

[Dark of the Moon]

You might get better answers in one of the East Coast forums, since most of the people posting here, I imagine, still live in the L.A. area. Folks in NYC can tell you how they've learned to adapt to the weather there .....

[tamirod]

See, I told you I was new at this! Thanks DSOTM...

[Chava61]

In NYC, there is very good central heating in the winter in most buildings. So you did to dress in layers for going outdoors in the winter under a warm long winter coat, a wool hat, gloves & warm scarf.

[LArenter]

Hi Tamirod,

I was born and raised in the Pasadena area and lived in NYC for about three years from 2004. The first couple of years, I lived on the Upper West Side along the Hudson. Super nice and a lot of old money. My last year there I moved down to Battery Park City which is much more affordable and as far away from the NYC life while still being in Manhattan. BPC was much more family orientated, much less crowded, extremely safe, and much more quiet -- I loved it. There are trade-offs in that if you want to do shopping or go to a higher end restaurant, you need to take the subway. Which is contrary to most other places in Manhattan where those types of things are within walking distance. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of restaurants, a movie theatre, etc nearby BPC, but not any place where you would want to make a date out of.... although, drinking a couple drinks on the Hudson on a hot and humid friday night isn't bad.

BPC is also right next to Tribeca and directly west of ground zero. I hear Stuyvesant high school is one of the top public high schools in the city and it is located in Tribeca; I believe it is basically a magnet school.

As for the cold weather, it's all about covering your ears with ear muffs and scarves. I wore the same pants as I do in LA during the winter, but it was all about keeping your head and hands warm!

The weather isn't so bad; plus, the fall foilage is well worth it!

Good luck!