Providence, RI vs Saint Petersburg, FL (living, best, cost, state)
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Where is the best place to live between the two? Please feel free to include areas surrounding the cities I mentioned. We are a gay couple currently living in Joshua Tree, California and we are looking to relocate somewhere where we can buy a home with a very modest portion of land. We cannot afford to buy a home in California currently so we are looking for greener pastures. We are hoping to be in an area with plenty of things to do with various types of cuisine, museums, gardens, trails and other outdoor recreation. I enjoy roller skating on slower streets in the bike lane, or on flat paved trails. I would prefer to be in an area best for starting a small business. My partner is a barber/hair stylist and I work with plants. We love to travel and camp, and we both absolutely love to be by the ocean. I am disabled and am hoping to live in an area with good healthcare including mental health care. Weather is undoubtedly better in Florida so let's just save us the few seconds and acknowledge this from the start. Access to legal cannabis is an absolute must. I would prefer to live in an area that socially and medicinally uses cannabis similarly as we do here in California.Thank you very much for taking your time to help me with this!
Last edited by vanillaviolet; 01-14-2022 at 10:56 AM..
Reason: Added something.
Where is the best place to live between the two? Please feel free to include areas surrounding the cities I mentioned. We are a gay couple currently living in Joshua Tree, California and we are looking to relocate somewhere where we can buy a home with a very modest portion of land. We cannot afford to buy a home in California currently so we are looking for greener pastures. We are hoping to be in an area with plenty of things to do with various types of cuisine, museums, gardens, trails and other outdoor recreation. I enjoy roller skating on slower streets in the bike lane, or on flat paved trails. I would prefer to be in an area best for starting a small business. My partner is a barber/hair stylist and I work with plants. We love to travel and camp, and we both absolutely love to be by the ocean. I am disabled and am hoping to live in an area with good healthcare including mental health care. Weather is undoubtedly better in Florida so let's just save us the few seconds and acknowledge this from the start. Thank you very much for taking your time to help me with this!
Florida has better weather, a better ocean, and a better small business environment.
Rhode Island might have more trails and museums. Probably better mental health care.
can you please give me a quick snippet as to why without bringing up weather?
I had a feeling a would be getting a fair amount of Florida answers, but was hoping for a little more reasoning besides weather. I used to live in the Fort Lauderdale area and I definitely enjoyed the winters, but I found the summers to be quite unpleasant.
Have you every lived in a place with bad winters? I'm not sure what your disability is, but if it's mobility related than having to navigate snowy/icy sidewalks could be a negative to RI.
Rhode Island is a good state and Providence is fun, funky, and more affordable than Boston. But considering your situation, I'd also lean more towards Florida for the business environment and (I think) cheaper cost of living on top of the better weather.
Edit: I guess if you enjoy rollerblading, then you can probably walk alright. Still, rollerblading will be difficult to impossible in RI for ~3.5-4months a year.
Have you every lived in a place with bad winters? I'm not sure what your disability is, but if it's mobility related than having to navigate snowy/icy sidewalks could be a negative to RI.
Rhode Island is a good state and Providence is fun, funky, and more affordable than Boston. But considering your situation, I'd also lean more towards Florida for the business environment and (I think) cheaper cost of living on top of the better weather.
Edit: I guess if you enjoy rollerblading, then you can probably walk alright. Still, rollerblading will be difficult to impossible in RI for ~3.5-4months a year.
I grew up in Detroit, Michigan so I was exposed to cold and snowy conditions yearly. I never enjoyed the winter growing up, and always looked forward to when the trees would once again show signs of life... in May I love living in Southern California where our winters are very mild. Our weather today is H66/L40, but were as low as H44/L23 a few weeks ago.
My partner is almost entirely against the idea of living in the state of Florida because of preconceived notions about the place, which I can partially understand. I lived in the Fort Lauderdale area for nearly two years after high school. I did not enjoy the prevalence of young people who lived in halfway houses and struggled with addictions. I did not make friends my short time in Florida, but I also did not have the appreciation for things that I do now.
We currently live in a place that is pretty backwards, without access to good healtchare and people don't tend to care about their yards. It's pretty drab in the high desert. The produce at all of our grocery stores is always less than par, and I would appreciate living in a place that has access to excellent fruits and vegetables year round. Walkability is also a huge plus, because I have two small dogs. I enjoy walking to see interesting stores, events, and to the park.
My partner is almost entirely against the idea of living in the state of Florida because of preconceived notions about the place, which I can partially understand. I lived in the Fort Lauderdale area for nearly two years after high school. I did not enjoy the prevalence of young people who lived in halfway houses and struggled with addictions..
I'll tell you right now...Providence is definitely the wrong place to be if you're looking to avoid people with addiction problems. But the colleges in Providence will offer a big alternative to that.
I mean, I love providence and Rhode Island in general. But if you are looking for relatively affordable property with a good sized yard(still easier to find than in the boston area), you aren’t really going to find that compared to St. Petersburg.
I mean, I love providence and Rhode Island in general. But if you are looking for relatively affordable property with a good sized yard(still easier to find than in the boston area), you aren’t really going to find that compared to St. Petersburg.
I'm not looking for anything larger than 0.25 acres, which is hard to acquire in Southern California unless you have millions, which I most definitely do not.
Have you every lived in a place with bad winters? I'm not sure what your disability is, but if it's mobility related than having to navigate snowy/icy sidewalks could be a negative to RI.
Rhode Island is a good state and Providence is fun, funky, and more affordable than Boston. But considering your situation, I'd also lean more towards Florida for the business environment and (I think) cheaper cost of living on top of the better weather.
Edit: I guess if you enjoy rollerblading, then you can probably walk alright. Still, rollerblading will be difficult to impossible in RI for ~3.5-4months a year.
I like this assessment.
But RI is AWFUL to start a business in. Its up there with nj and il.
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I love living in Southern California where our winters are very mild. Our weather today is H66/L40, but were as low as H44/L23 a few weeks ago. 
