Moving to Missoula - Some Questions (transplants, apartments, rent)

[outofphx]

First a little background:

We moved to the Phoenix area about 2 years ago from Portland, Oregon. We absolutely hate this area. Hate it with a passion. Let me tell you what we hate about Phoenix. First, it is an ugly city with absolutely nothing to do. We have no family or friends here. We live in a nice area, but still dislike the crime. The traffic here is not bad, no worse than Portland anyway. There's no downtown here, and there are NO walkable areas. The city feels more like a suburb than an urban area. The city is made up of strip malls (completely lacks independent businesses), and people here think PF Changs is great Asian food. I am 27 and work in IT as a UNIX administrator / Perl hacker. My wife is going to go to UM, and we have a 9 month old son.

We are looking for a change in pace for a while. Little crime, walkable downtown, small town with more of a indie/hippy vibe rather than this soccer mom vibe here. We really liked Missoula, but there are some questions that we have.

1. The weather... How long does it snow? When does it start and when does it end?

2. What is there to do in Missoula? Especially during the winter, what is there to do? We don't want to be stuck in the house or anything.

3. Are there any good authentic Mexican food joints? What about Thai? Vietnamese? Basically, what are some good authentic ethnic restaurants?

4. We're not really finding a lot of apartments online. We'd like a nice 1 or 2 bedroom apartment, so please recommend. Right now we rent a 2br apartment for $900 a month and it is completely modern. We can afford something up to $1000 / month, but would prefer cheaper.


5. How are the job opportunities up there in the IT field? I need a job as a server administrator, programmer, or something similar. I have a lot of experience with UNIX, Windows, and SQL databases (Oracle, MSSQL, Postgres, etc).

6. I may be able to keep my job... What kind of life can we have on 60k a year? Single income household, two adults and one infant. She will be in school.

7. What are the people like? No offense, but are there a lot of "hicks" or "hillbilly" types? Are people out to start fights? Are they peaceful?

8. How accepting would they be of a Mexican-American family? We speak fluent English.

[outofphx]

One other question... Are there any good places to go bass fishing in Missoula, or near the area?

[seven of nine]

Here is an older post to get you started.
Welcome to the board :-)
http://www.city-data.com/forum/monta...ssoula-mt.html

[outofphx]

Thank you for the welcome! I appreciate the advice, but there are only a few posts in the thread that you gave me and I really did not find answers to any of my questions. I am still wondering about food, culture, jobs in IT, and so on.

[seven of nine]

Someone will wonder by, I wanted to give you a bump
I would say Missoula being a college town would have many things you are looking for.

[David Aguilar]

Originally Posted by outofphx

8. How accepting would they be of a Mexican-American family? We speak fluent English.

I don't think that will be a problem in Missoula. In my numerous short visits to Missoula this year, I didn't once feel out of place or mistreated (I lived in Spokane for a bit earlier this year, and am of a similar background).

Regarding #7, there doesn't seem to be more hicks/hillbillies in Missoula than there are in the average place.

Missoula is one of those places people are cashing out to move to. You've got a nice balance of people there (natives/transplants/college kids). It's grown quite a bit, there's even a bit of sprawl there now.

Overall, Missoula seems to be what you are looking for. I myself am a little turned off by it, mainly because of the growth, which makes parts of it feel artificial.

And regarding Phoenix, you didn't know those things before you moved to Phoenix?

[severdsoul]

Hi,
Not sure how much help i can be , but i'll give it a shot.


1. The weather... How long does it snow? When does it start and when does it end?
More like when will it stop snowing, *lol* Our fist snow was this week, not a lot but still some on the ground, a little early , but not unusual, should stop snowing some time around april maby before depends on the weather for the year. But its not usualy a lot, normaly we get snow, and a week or so inbetween before we get more.

2. What is there to do in Missoula? Especially during the winter, what is there to do? We don't want to be stuck in the house or anything.

Good question, there is a lot to do from what i'm told, but we have the same problem you do and have a 19mo old at home, so we spend a lot of time with him rather than going out. But even winter, there is a bit to do, depends on what your likes are, hunting, fishing, usualy a lot going on, you can do a search for events in missoula and probably get a decent idea.


3. Are there any good authentic Mexican food joints? What about Thai? Vietnamese? Basically, what are some good authentic ethnic restaurants?

Authentic? hmmm i'm not a lot of help here either, dont eat out much, prefer home cooked my self, but i've been told that there are a few places that are decent, but not sure about authentic.


4. We're not really finding a lot of apartments online. We'd like a nice 1 or 2 bedroom apartment, so please recommend. Right now we rent a 2br apartment for $900 a month and it is completely modern. We can afford something up to $1000 / month, but would prefer cheaper.

depends on what you are looking for, check with " gatewest" i'll see if i can find a few website for ya. We have a 1100sqft 2 bedroom apartment for just under $600 and heat is paid, which in the winter is a plus.


5. How are the job opportunities up there in the IT field? I need a job as a server administrator, programmer, or something similar. I have a lot of experience with UNIX, Windows, and SQL databases (Oracle, MSSQL, Postgres, etc).

IT field? probably not advertised as much, i'd check the Missoulian (local news paper) but i'm sure there is demand.


6. I may be able to keep my job... What kind of life can we have on 60k a year? Single income household, two adults and one infant. She will be in school.

Yea, you would be fine with that much, should not be a problem at all.

7. What are the people like? No offense, but are there a lot of "hicks" or "hillbilly" types? Are people out to start fights? Are they peaceful?

You get all types here, but for the most part, people are not judgmental, or at least not that i have seen.

8. How accepting would they be of a Mexican-American family? We speak fluent English.

Most true montaian's judge people by their actions and character not by race/background.

[grizzfan]

1. The weather... How long does it snow? When does it start and when does it end?
2. What is there to do in Missoula? Especially during the winter, what is there to do? We don't want to be stuck in the house or anything.
3. Are there any good authentic Mexican food joints? What about Thai? Vietnamese? Basically, what are some good authentic ethnic restaurants?
4. We're not really finding a lot of apartments online. We'd like a nice 1 or 2 bedroom apartment, so please recommend. Right now we rent a 2br apartment for $900 a month and it is completely modern. We can afford something up to $1000 / month, but would prefer cheaper.
5. How are the job opportunities up there in the IT field? I need a job as a server administrator, programmer, or something similar. I have a lot of experience with UNIX, Windows, and SQL databases (Oracle, MSSQL, Postgres, etc).
6. I may be able to keep my job... What kind of life can we have on 60k a year? Single income household, two adults and one infant. She will be in school.
7. What are the people like? No offense, but are there a lot of "hicks" or "hillbilly" types? Are people out to start fights? Are they peaceful?
8. How accepting would they be of a Mexican-American family? We speak fluent English.

Let me try:

1) Actually the first snow in the mountains occurred on September 30 and we had a very early freeze this year - temperature yesterday around +9F with a horrid windchill. Usually it doesn't snow until around Thanksgiving and rarely can you plant things much before 1 May. June is often cold and wet and July and August are usually hot and often smokey because of forest fires. Everybody's favorite month is September.

2) People in winter often ski locally or close by. Some like to snowmobile and go ice fishing on nearby lakes. Some folks catch up on their reading or walk the dog!

3) Other than Taco Johns there aren't too many authentic Mexican food places that I recall, but we have Oriental food places of several varieties.

4) This time of year college students depleat the supply but I don't think you'll have any problem finding a small house or large apartment for that amount.

5) There are few large corporations here, but you might try Community Hospital, Saint Patrick Hospital, Washington Corporations, the University of Montana, Direct TV (large call center), Montana RailLink or Opportunity Resources for starters.

6) I believe $60K is well above the median salary/wage in Missoula. Sort of depends upon what you do in your spare time!

7) Montana has, as do many places in the West, a bunch of what I call "end of the road people" many of whom are simply hiding out either from the law or something. They pose little problem unless you go looking for them. Montana has it's share of people of little means but again they pose no problem for others. The truth is you can find a guy to fight with in any bar in Montana. I guess the ones I can do without are the commie-pinko-liberal-swine who write assinine letters to the editor!!! No offense intended!

8) If it would be a problem, I wouldn't have answered your quesions!!

9) There are several ponds, most noteably East of Missoula about 20 miles, that contain bass. We consider ourselves trout people around these parts and there are plenty of those but with species restrictions that you must become familiar with. And there are those snooty "catch & release" freaks who keep fish out of your frying pan and are the source of all sorts of upity lectures!!

Good luck.

[outofphx]

Awesome, thank you guys for all the help! I am very liberal, and would consider myself a pinko-socialist-liberal, but I don't mind differing points of view and basically I keep my views to myself. I am not to type to go into the bar and start spouting off about politics or religion. I have my opinions and other people have their opinions, and we will never see eye-to-eye, no matter how much we debate.

What we do in our spare time here in Phoenix is nothing, but back in Portland we enjoyed concerts, symphony, plays, comedy clubs, movies, and all the other normal things that people enjoy. I have been looking and the Wilma theater seems to play some good movies. Also, The Keep (formerly Shadow's Keep ?) seems to have some good food. I also found Bob Marshall's Biga Pizza, which looks really good as well.

It's going to be difficult to leave behind authentic Mexican food, but it's a quick drive over to Portland to visit family and get some, so not too big a deal.

My last question is this: I have been checking the Missoulian and Missoula Job Service, but have not found anything IT related up there. Anyone know any other good places to look?

Also, if I don't end up keeping my job, we are leaving October 23rd... Is it difficult to get a job making at least $15 an hour down there? I am an office type worker, typically computer stuff, but can do data entry or whatever else I need to do. Unfortunately, I do not have my degree at the moment. I got a job when I had about a year left and I took the job (stupid move). I will be finishing my CS degree up there, but in the meantime I will need a job making at least $15 an hour. I don't mind physical labor, but I have absolutely no experience in any of it.

[seven of nine]

Ouch,
I really would consider getting the job first. Would that be a problem?
Have you considered the climate difference? Not Portland winters here.