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I'm a black, lesbian mom in my late 20s trying to find a place to raise my child. I'm looking for a place that's walkable, safe, good schools, good public transportation where I can live car-lite/car-free. Also looking for diversity and friendliness towards LGBT individuals. A healthy lesbian dating scene and a healthy tech scene would be great, too.
Ann Arbor seems to be a great fit except that I'm not sure there will be enough "to do." My current city has more people than Ann Arbor and I'm bored with all there is to do here.
I like parks, coffee shops, horse trails, festivals, concerts, parades, things like that. Westerville also ticks a lot of boxes, but I'm concerned about it being a conservative area. I'm currently in a mid-sized liberal city in a red state and frequently experience racism in the surrounding conservative suburbs, and it feels constraining because there aren't a lot of family-friendly places around here where I can exist comfortably as a gay, black woman. So I'm looking to escape that. I also considered Detroit and loved the walkable suburbs there, but it was too easy for me to be exploring the city itself and end up in a dangerous/abandoned area that's right next to an area that appears to be thriving.
Does Westerville or Ann Arbor sound like the better fit for me?
I'm a black, lesbian mom in my late 20s trying to find a place to raise my child. I'm looking for a place that's walkable, safe, good schools, good public transportation where I can live car-lite/car-free. Also looking for diversity and friendliness towards LGBT individuals. A healthy lesbian dating scene and a healthy tech scene would be great, too.
Ann Arbor seems to be a great fit except that I'm not sure there will be enough "to do." My current city has more people than Ann Arbor and I'm bored with all there is to do here.
I like parks, coffee shops, horse trails, festivals, concerts, parades, things like that. Westerville also ticks a lot of boxes, but I'm concerned about it being a conservative area. I'm currently in a mid-sized liberal city in a red state and frequently experience racism in the surrounding conservative suburbs, and it feels constraining because there aren't a lot of family-friendly places around here where I can exist comfortably as a gay, black woman. So I'm looking to escape that. I also considered Detroit and loved the walkable suburbs there, but it was too easy for me to be exploring the city itself and end up in a dangerous/abandoned area that's right next to an area that appears to be thriving.
Does Westerville or Ann Arbor sound like the better fit for me?
Ann Arbor is a good sized college town, that has quite a bit in its own right and has good schools. It is also close enough to Detroit to where you can enjoy what the city and area has to offer. So, that is something to consider as well.
Also, what walkable Detroit suburbs are you referring to? A place like Farmington is surrounded by Farmington Hills and is a quite diverse, with good schools(Farmington). It isn't close to any dangerous neighborhoods. Plymouth is a small city in between Detroit and Ann Arbor, that is walkable, but most of the diversity in that school district(Plymouth-Canton) is in Canton, which surrounds that small city. Those are a couple of suburban areas you could consider. Ferndale and Royal Oak are known for being LGBT friendly, with Royal Oak having a better rep in terms of schools.
Thanks for the insight! The Detroit suburb I was looking at is Berkley. I'll have to check out Plymouth and Canton, too. I've looked into Farmington Hills before but not Farmington.
I'm a black, lesbian mom in my late 20s trying to find a place to raise my child. I'm looking for a place that's walkable, safe, good schools, good public transportation where I can live car-lite/car-free. Also looking for diversity and friendliness towards LGBT individuals. A healthy lesbian dating scene and a healthy tech scene would be great, too.
Ann Arbor seems to be a great fit except that I'm not sure there will be enough "to do." My current city has more people than Ann Arbor and I'm bored with all there is to do here.
I like parks, coffee shops, horse trails, festivals, concerts, parades, things like that. Westerville also ticks a lot of boxes, but I'm concerned about it being a conservative area. I'm currently in a mid-sized liberal city in a red state and frequently experience racism in the surrounding conservative suburbs, and it feels constraining because there aren't a lot of family-friendly places around here where I can exist comfortably as a gay, black woman. So I'm looking to escape that. I also considered Detroit and loved the walkable suburbs there, but it was too easy for me to be exploring the city itself and end up in a dangerous/abandoned area that's right next to an area that appears to be thriving.
Does Westerville or Ann Arbor sound like the better fit for me?
I can't say....never having been to or knowing about your other option, but I think Ann Arbor is your ticket. Its an extremely liberal city that is growing and extremely expensive to live, however. It has great public schools and a growing tech economy. I think the black population has been in decline....likely related to how expensive it is to live there. Nearby Ypsilanti, Michigan is where the blacks live in the area.
Some people like to separate Detroit from Ann Arbor....but they would be connected in most metro areas as it is a contiguous built up area driving form Ann Arbor to Detroit. You can move to the fringes of Downtown Detroit. Those neighborhoods are booming. You can also move to suburbs like Royal Oak or Ferndale. The Detroit area is so much more populated than Columbus and you would seem more able to find your niche there.
I'm working primarily off your first para., i.e., "I'm a black, lesbian mom in my late 20s trying to find a place to raise my child. I'm looking for a place that's walkable, safe, good schools, good public transportation where I can live car-lite/car-free. Also looking for diversity and friendliness towards LGBT individuals. A healthy lesbian dating scene and a healthy tech scene would be great, too. "
Ann Arbor is an incredibly progressive, tolerant, liberal university town which, while most certainly not perfect, has always been known as a a bastion for free thinkers, diversity and progressive ideals. It's typically always -- rightly or wrongly-- ranked in the top 5-10 mid-sized cities in the U.S., primarily for quality of life, quality of education, and (I think) diversity. It's also a fairly compact town, so while you may need a car for some things, it does have a bus city and the city is eminently walkable. It's also known for its thriving tech scene, due the University of Michigan.
If those are attributes above are what you favor, Westerville can not offer them in the level of quality that Ann Arbor can. Though, Columbus is a bigger city, overall, it may have some edge in quantity.
These two cities are absolutely apples and oranges. That said, each city has their own attributes, depending on what you are looking fo.
I wish you luck in your decision.
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