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Old 04-24-2012, 02:55 PM
 
12 posts, read 31,736 times
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I grew up in New Paltz, NY and lived for a year in Ithaca, NY. I absolutely love the nature and scenery of upstate NY, but can't handle the winters. If I could have Ithaca as it is in the summer year round, this would be perfect - gorgeous weather, tons of parks and waterfalls, great food with many fresh options, cute downtown area, festivals and lots of grad students and post-docs. I love to hike, take photos, basically just enjoy being outside. While I like the areas that are typically "hippie towns", I'm far from what I would consider a hippie. I can't stand smokers, tye-dye or birkenstocks, though the last two I'm perfectly fine with others liking. I mostly just like to live a healthy lifestyle and appreciate nature. I also would like to be around many intellectual people, preferably some single 30-somethings. I love the water so anything with water is an added bonus.

Most of my family now lives in South Carolina and I'm looking for a job somewhere closer to them (and with warmer weather). I wanted some advice on cities that would be closest to what I'm looking for. Areas I'm considering right now (based on known job availability) are: Charleston, SC, Sarasota, FL, Nashville, TN. Many have suggested the Raleigh/Durham area, but unfortunately my job market is pretty maxed out there. Chattanooga, TN was another suggestion that I will be looking into for job possibilities.

Any input on the areas I'm considering? Any other suggestions? Thanks for your help!
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Old 04-24-2012, 03:09 PM
 
Location: Portland, Oregon
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First town that came to mind is Asheville, NC.
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Old 04-24-2012, 03:13 PM
 
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A friend of mine just moved from Ithaca, NY to Sacramento and he loves it here. Walkable streets, charming Victorian, liberal/granola center city, cafes, art galleries, restaurants, indie stuff.
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Old 04-24-2012, 03:17 PM
 
Location: Bellingham, WA
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Nashville still gets plenty cold in the winter, though not much snow and it's still a lot warmer than Ithaca. Summer weather in Ithaca would probably be more like spring and fall weather in Nashville. And it may have pockets/neighborhoods sort of like what you describe, but overall it's not really like that at all.
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Old 04-24-2012, 03:49 PM
 
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Asheville is the consumate hippie town but the university presence isn't huge. There are intellectuals from elsewhere but I don't think that many grad students. What about Charlottesville VA? That's what jumps out for me.

If Chattannooga is intellectual enough for you you might consider Knoxville. Plenty of smart people - but they are blended in with lots of ordinary folks and a few idiots.
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Old 04-24-2012, 05:08 PM
 
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Go Sarasota for the water! Beautiful beaches at that. No granolas, just wealthier people and the people who wait on them, it seems. Your granola vibe in the Southeast will be more inland, with Asheville NC at the top of the heap. Also, granolas are more "pseudo-intellectual" than really intellectual, or they'd be on the college faculties of those towns they love to populate.
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Old 04-24-2012, 06:12 PM
 
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Athens, GA. it's a college town like Ithica. I swear, everything people told me about this grungy, hippie, "fight the power" town is all true. And It's pretty damn cool.

Check out our most recent battle with Wal-Mart. It's been intense.

There's also a lot of cool nature stuff to do here. We have an amazing botanical garden just outside of town, you can kayak on the broad and oconee rivers, and the mountains are just a couple hours away.

This is our downtown. It's great but, full disclosure, it's usually a lot crazier at night


This is the kind of stuff that happens at our christmas parade
http://athenscms.com/oa/zenphoto/cache/120310-athens-clarke-downtown-parade-of-lights/120210-christmas-parade-01rh_w800_h583_onlineathens.jpg (broken link)

The botanical gardens


Floating the Broad River. Every Athenian should do it at least once


Residents: Walk through town on a gameday at your own peril


The fabled UGA arch on a snowday. Athens seems to be hotter in the summer and colder in the winter than Atlanta, don't know why


Opposition to a proposed wal mart near downtown. Can you taste that granola crunch? Also, Harry Potter lives in Athens now.
http://athenscms.com/oa/zenphoto/cache/030312-Hundreds-Gather-to-Protest-Downtown-Walmart/030412%20Walmart%20Protest%20RH10_w606_h800_online athens.jpg (broken link)

The newly renovated Georgia Theatre music venue

Last edited by cope1989; 04-24-2012 at 06:30 PM..
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Old 04-24-2012, 07:12 PM
 
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robertpolyglot, you bring up a good point about the "pseudo-intellectuals". I would say that means I'm moreso looking for the real intellectuals and the "psuedo-granolas". I was on faculty when I lived in Ithaca.

Sacramento sounds great, just too far from family I'm afraid.

Athens, GA and Asheville, NC are considerations..... I will look into them further.
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Old 04-24-2012, 08:18 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jaqua22 View Post
robertpolyglot, you bring up a good point about the "pseudo-intellectuals". I would say that means I'm moreso looking for the real intellectuals and the "psuedo-granolas".
While Charleston is a lovely town for sure, it doesn't really give off that type of vibe but singles, specifically college grads, do flock to the place. Columbia, being the big college town in the state, comes a bit closer to that vibe although overall it's more varied than that. I'm not sure how much you know about Columbia, but I do think it's worth looking into though as it meets a good bit of your criteria. The weather is mild year round except in the summer when it gets pretty hot. However, the city sits on three rivers and Lake Murray is in the vicinity with Lake Wateree a short distance away. The Congaree National Park (an international biosphere reserve), which offers several opportunities for hiking, and Congaree River Blue Trail are the top natural amenities in the area and there's also the Three Rivers Greenway. As for fresh/organic food, there's Earth Fare Rosewood Market; Whole Foods and Trader Joe's are on the way. Downtown isn't as historic and celebrated as Charleston's (very few cities Charleston's size are), but it definitely has much to offer. There's the revitalized warehouse district known as the Congaree Vista which is one of two main nightlife areas, the other being the village of Five Points which caters more to the USC college crowd. Main Street is in the midst of revitalization with new retail and restaurants, as well as artsy destinations (Columbia Museum of Art, Nickelodeon Theater [relocating to Main this summer], Tapp's Arts Center). As a matter of fact, the arts is a silent strong suit for the city. There are lots of festivals that take place, including River Rocks Festival, St. Pat's in Five Points (one of the largest St. Patrick's Day festivals in the South), Indie Grits Festival, Artista Vista, Southeastern Piano Festival, Main Street Latin Festival, World Beer Festival, SC Book Festival, Oktoberfest, Viva La Vista, Congaree Art Festival, Greek Festival, Columbia International Festival, and the SC State Fair. Due to the presence of USC and smaller colleges, the city has a fairly educated populace and solid singles population, although the proportion won't be quite as high as a quintessential small college town like Ithaca.
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Old 04-24-2012, 09:11 PM
 
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I'm not doubting your story, Cope, but it is so ironic for me to read this about Athens as I moved there in 1974 when the vibe was old south and all about the Greek scene. I had left the hippie dippie environs of UT and it was a huge culture shock. I understand Athens started getting cool right afer I moved away in 1977. And now UT is all about the preppies. How things change.
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