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I'm actually a mid-career professional, but will be eligible for early retirement (with a pension, yeah!) in 4 years. Doing a bit of daydreaming and low-order planning, and following the footsteps of innumerable recent threads soliciting advice for where to retire, I offer to the City-Data community my list of criteria - in no particular order...
1. A substantial and vibrant Russian-speaking immigrant community. It doesn't have to be Brighton Beach, but it should have at least a couple of thousand community-members in the metro area. There must be Russian grocery stores, community activities, venues for touring Russian-speaking artists, and the like.
2. Proximity to water. I'm a coastal person. I want to see real ports with real ships docked, and to smell the sea.
3. International airport. It doesn't have to be O'Hare, but there should be plenty of direct flights to Los Angeles and NYC, and direct flights to London and Frankfurt… and maybe to Moscow.
4. Moderate taxes… especially state and local income tax. I don't mind tax on earned income, but I'm sensitive to taxes on pension income, dividends, interest and capital gains. I don't really care about property tax, and I couldn't care less about sales-tax.
5. Mild climate. I don't mind the occasional snowstorm, but don't want to deal with below-zero (Fahrenheit) temperatures, or 5 months of winter. I don't mind the occasional heat wave, but don't want to deal with 5 months of 90-degree days. Perfect would be winter in the 40s and summer in the 70s.
6. Mass transit. I'm not one of those who insists on "walkable" communities, but I'd like to be able to drive to a subway/metro terminus, hop on the train, and head into the city-center.
7. Politics and social climate. I'm one of those Chardonnay-sipping "limousine liberals" (minus the limousine), the very antithesis of blue-collar heartland conservative. Ideally I'd be able to find like-minded people, and their influence would pace the prevailing local values.
8. Dating opportunities. I'm single and looking. And child-free.
Let the proffering of advice (and criticisms of my shallowness and impracticality) begin!
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,570 posts, read 81,147,605 times
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Seattle area does seem to be a good fit. We do get down as low as 20F sometimes in winter but not that often, and rarely over 85 in summer. As long as you can deal with not seeing the sun for a month at a time and constant light rain everything else on your list is here.
Actually, the perfect place for you, the one place that hits every one of your criteria (except mass transit), is just a few miles north of me in Sunny Isles. In fact, it has been known for decades in the Miami community as Little Moscow.
Let the proffering of advice (and criticismsof my shallowness and impracticality) begin!
Since you brought it up...
It's extremely rude to create a thread seeking advice and assistance and then not bother to at the very least acknowledge those who've attempted to assist you by providing answers to your questions.
BTW, you're welcome.
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