Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Hello There.
I've lived in the Bay Area for 30 years now. Event went to college at CAL. After a few years of "trying to make it work" in California, I'm ready to move to the East Coast, most likely North Carolina or Virginia. I'm extremeley fed up with the California mentality of "hand outs" and not being generally nice to everybody. The cost of living is insane and the rat race is genuinely killing my happiness. I am a hard working individual with an education and the desire to provide for a strong and optimistic future for my daughter.
I'd love a few recommendations of where to look exactly for moving. I will need to apply for a new job as I currently work in Recreation City Government which is nontransferrable. My daughter will need to go to child care during the day.
Some things that are important to me are:
- public school education
- strong community such as prevalence of clean, safe parks, events, sports teams for youth (and adult) to join
- ability to meet other mid 30 - 40 yr olds who have children for future friendships
- strong employment area
- affordable child care
- hopefully near or on a lake, river or ocean (I don't need beachfront but, being that I'm a lifeguard by trade and have always lived in San Francisco area, being officially "land locked" is intimidating)
- less of a "welfare feel" to the environment and sense of self responsibility and reliability
- outdoor attractions for biking, walking, hiking is a plus
I really appreciate any feedback. I've started researching good cities to move to with a child, good cities/towns for families, cost affordable cities, etc but would love some personal feedback.
I've lived in the Bay Area for 30 years now. After a few years of "trying to make it work" in California, I'm ready to move to the East Coast, most likely North Carolina or Virginia.
That is a VERY big change.
Quote:
I will need to apply for a new job...
Yes you will. And the result of that process is what will determine the choices you might have.
Don't count on too many choices or that they'll be appreciably superior to CA. On any level.
Virginia would be a better location. Education in NC is horrendous and getting worse. VA is a good state, lived there in the past. Outside of DC most people there are nice. Look into Richmond, that is a nice area.
There are areas of CA which are not as leftist as the Bay area, since that seems to be what you are trying to escape. Conversely, there are plenty of welfare recipients and poverty in NC.
For what it's worth, I have found that people in CA (at least in SoCal) are far more gentle to one another than the East Coast - both North and South.
I won't be as negative as the others, but I think the OP should concentrate on the Raleigh/Durham area and other larger cities like Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and perhaps Charlotte. Send resumes everywhere, and apply online. Connect through networking sites,etc. I also suggest looking at Virginia cities and Charleston which have better employment numbers.
Once you locate a job, all of areas will have family-friendly areas with decent schools. Among the few places you might avoid are Rocky Mount, Lumberton and Kinston because of higher crime rates or depressed economies.
I agree with the RDU area...I had some family members make the exact same move and they find North Raleigh to be perfectly fine...of course they are NC natives so take it FWIW.
I recall looking at housing in SF with them and when they said a half million listing was in a bad neighborhood, I responded with "what are you doing here?". A year later they moved to NC with their small children.
Hello There.
I've lived in the Bay Area for 30 years now. Event went to college at CAL. After a few years of "trying to make it work" in California, I'm ready to move to the East Coast, most likely North Carolina or Virginia. I'm extremeley fed up with the California mentality of "hand outs" and not being generally nice to everybody. The cost of living is insane and the rat race is genuinely killing my happiness. I am a hard working individual with an education and the desire to provide for a strong and optimistic future for my daughter.
I'd love a few recommendations of where to look exactly for moving. I will need to apply for a new job as I currently work in Recreation City Government which is nontransferrable. My daughter will need to go to child care during the day.
Some things that are important to me are:
- public school education
- strong community such as prevalence of clean, safe parks, events, sports teams for youth (and adult) to join
- ability to meet other mid 30 - 40 yr olds who have children for future friendships
- strong employment area
- affordable child care
- hopefully near or on a lake, river or ocean (I don't need beachfront but, being that I'm a lifeguard by trade and have always lived in San Francisco area, being officially "land locked" is intimidating)
- less of a "welfare feel" to the environment and sense of self responsibility and reliability
- outdoor attractions for biking, walking, hiking is a plus
I really appreciate any feedback. I've started researching good cities to move to with a child, good cities/towns for families, cost affordable cities, etc but would love some personal feedback.
Thank you,
Kat
Might I point out that public schools, strong community resources as described, outdoor attractions and even your job history are all parts of a strong government. Please don't come to NC and be an anti-government voter because you only associate it with "welfare feel". I am not saying that you will but I have seen it time and time again.
Might I point out that public schools, strong community resources as described, outdoor attractions and even your job history are all parts of a strong government. Please don't come to NC and be an anti-government voter because you only associate it with "welfare feel". I am not saying that you will but I have seen it time and time again.
That's a good point. There are some folks that think building sidewalks/trails and schools are a waste of money....last I saw every city in the country has sidewalks and schools.
I have to laugh at the redirection of the NC DOT when the legislature changed hands. They started replacing every bridge on the old bridge list and said they were only treating "critical needs". Some of those bridges would have been fine for 10 or 20 more years. All the while people sit in standstill traffic EVERY DAY in cities like Wilmington, Charlotte, Greenville and even the Outer Banks while waiting for their long standing road projects to be done. Its just "their" definition of critical....and they act like 74 between I-485 in Charlotte and Monroe isn't a critical need. What's worse is the new roads needed are only going up in price (because of asphalt prices), but the bridge replacements won't change much. So we are deferring projects that will be more expensive in the future to do projects now that will not increase much in expense. Yeah, that made sense.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
