Thinking of relocating to Portland from CA? (Detroit: low income, crime)

[butterfly_223]

What are the pros and cons of living in Maine?

For example; the number of available jobs?

Describe to me what the winters are like?



*Thanks for your valuable feedback*

[Submariner]

Everything is subjective.

Where in California are you?

I grew-up in the San Joaquin Valley [Modesto - Fresno] and spent a lot of time in the Sierra Nevadas. I also lived in Northern California in Lake County on a goat dairy. So my experiences of California might be very different from someone who lived exclusively in L.A. or Santa Barbara.

For me, the crime is amazingly low, as are property values and taxes.

In Maine a family can buy a home, raise a family and prosper on a relatively low income. Whereas such is simply impossible in other regions of the nation.

You will here a lot about the lack of jobs in Maine. Maine has had a depressed economy for many decades, it is not a recently event. Whereas California's problems are mostly due to more recent issues.

Maine does not experience droughts like most of the nation does. No brown dry grass by the end of May. The trees, shrubs and grasses all stay green year round in Maine. Most of the state is forest and very rural, yet we have very few forest fires.

[BVitamin]

forest beekeeper, wow. i'm currently living in the central valley of cali, have been for three years. off topic, i was just wondering what made you move to maine? and is it a tundra as i make it out to be? i ask because i'm looking to move, i just need large space for cheap (being a starving artist and all), i just can't afford big city living.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by BVitamin

forest beekeeper, wow. i'm currently living in the central valley of cali, have been for three years. off topic, i was just wondering what made you move to maine?

Long story; my career had us traveling a lot. My siblings stayed in Cali and I went back every year to visit. Maybe I changed, maybe Cali changed, but I would not be comfortable there anymore.

My employer provides a good pension so we got to focusing a lot of my vacation time on where we would prefer to go when I retired. After about ten years of that, Maine filtered it's way to the top of our list.

... and is it a tundra as i make it out to be? i ask because i'm looking to move, i just need large space for cheap (being a starving artist and all), i just can't afford big city living.

Maine carries a strong reputation for being 'tundra'; 18 months of winter each year and -40 degree temps.

I think that the snow-belt that lies South of us, extending from the Great Lakes and Eastward, causes so much havoc for the folks in Detroit - Buffalo - NYC that it firmly establishes in their minds that anywhere North of them must be an uninhabitable tundra.

If you go to my 'profile' on CD, there are some pictures of my land. It is not tundra.



On the other hand, I think that a 'starving artist' will most certainly starve in Maine. Maine has had, and continues to have a high unemployment rate. Maine has had a depressed economy for many decades. Jobs are few and generally seasonal.