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A few years ago my girlfriend and I headed West from Bloomington, IN to live in the mountains. We settled in Salt Lake City, and then shortly moved to Park City. With some exceptions, we've been generally happy here, but have started to feel like it's time to move on. We're both extremely active, into music and art, and really want to find a town with a strong local vibe and community that has a nice climate and is bikeable. I'm a graphic designer and my girlfriends a teacher.
Some towns we are considering: Chattanooga, Asheville, Fort Collins
I'm already well aware of all the redeeming qualities of places like Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, & Austin so please try to steer the conversation away from those cities.
Here's what we've liked about the past places we lived:
Bloomington:
Strong bike culture
Diverse/college town
Strong Local Economy
Good music and restaurants for it's size
Fairly Active
Salt Lake / Park City:
Endless outdoor recreation opportunities
Tons of biking/skiing
Fort Collins is wonderful and seems like a great fit for you based on most of your criteria. It's a young and active community, and bicycling is held as a cultural value there, due largely in part to the influence of New Belgium Brewery, who are cycling advocates on the national level. I loved biking in FoCo. Lot's of good local spots for food, and lots of brewpubs. If you're into beer, then you'll love it. I have no idea about live music.
The city has began to feel the recession, so the economy isn't amazing-- especially for teachers. Poudre Valley School District has had huge cuts in funding and laid off hundreds of employees. So she might have to look into teaching in other parts of Larimer/Weld County.
Diversity, ehh. I haven't spent enough time there to really know, but it's always seemed pretty white bread to me. I'm sure the presence of CSU provides some diversity. Fort Collins also has a reasonable CoL, compared to say, Boulder. Good luck in your search!
Are you looking for a small town situated in a mountainous setting or would you consider a suburban area of a larger city that might fit all or most of what you're asking about?
Tempe, Arizona is very bicycle-friendly, has a strong sense for the arts, and lots of sunny weather year-round. This might be a little too citified for your tastes because it's nearby Phoenix.
Sedona, Arizona might be a better fit if you are looking for something more in a mountainous region and away from the city life, it has a strong artsy vibe and people there seem to be avid hikers and bicyclists.
Ideally we would like to find a small city / large town... somwhere around 120,000 or so. We've only spent a short amount of time in Fort Collins but we immediately fell in love with it. Was very reminiscent of Bloomington as it is also a college town, but with lots more to do outside. We also really liked all the local breweries as we're big fans of good beer.
I should have stated, that both our families live in the midewest (southern Indiana) so we are also looking to move a bit closer... which is why we've ruled out the West coast.
As I had mentioned, we're generally happy here, however Utah has a way of wearing on you. Park City is beautiful, and we literally have endless skiing and biking out our front door, but no diversity and no culture to speak of. Also, the cost of living is relatively high for a town of it's size given it's resort town status, so buying anything other than a 2 BR condo is out of the question. Salt Lake on the other hand has a little more culture, but regardless of what people say, still has a heavy mormon influence and really isn't that vibrant of a city for it's size.
I've heard that Chattanooga has a strong local economy and is up and coming. There is also lots of access to biking/climbing/kayaking which is why it's on the list. However, it seems that everybody that comments on Chattanooga has lived there their whole life and might not have the viewpoint as a transplant might. I'm also wary of living in the south as it's fully entrenched in the bible belt. I don't have anything against the conservative church-going type, but I do like being able to make adult choices for myself, hence some of my frustrations with living in Utah.
St. George, UT? I know it's still Utah but it's a metro of 140,000, it's by all the National parks with amazing scenery, and it's only a little more than an hour from Vegas
Perhaps Chapel Hill NC, Charlottesville VA, Clemson SC, Athens GA, Morgantown WV, Blacksburg VA and perhaps slightly bigger Knoxville TN and even bigger Lexington KY.
A few years ago my girlfriend and I headed West from Bloomington, IN to live in the mountains. We settled in Salt Lake City, and then shortly moved to Park City. With some exceptions, we've been generally happy here, but have started to feel like it's time to move on. We're both extremely active, into music and art, and really want to find a town with a strong local vibe and community that has a nice climate and is bikeable. I'm a graphic designer and my girlfriends a teacher.
Some towns we are considering: Chattanooga, Asheville, Fort Collins
I'm already well aware of all the redeeming qualities of places like Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, & Austin so please try to steer the conversation away from those cities.
Here's what we've liked about the past places we lived:
Bloomington:
Strong bike culture
Diverse/college town
Strong Local Economy
Good music and restaurants for it's size
Fairly Active
Salt Lake / Park City:
Endless outdoor recreation opportunities
Tons of biking/skiing
So what do you all think?
Boise, ID fits all of your wish's. It is a very active city, ranked tops for mountain biking and outdoor recreation, strong arts community, progressive, cosmopolitan, there is a popular "buy local" campaign and mindset, great local restaurants, wine bars, galleries, and a lot of civic pride. You also have close access to a lot more forested mountain areas, rivers, natural hot springs then in the SLC, Park City area.
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