Best major city for a young, religious, conservative, and outdoorsy homeschooling family?

[sacramento916]

Berkeley, CA should be a good match. It's fairly conservative by Soviet standards.

[glamatomic]

We're in our 20s and we're looking for a big city with a sizable religious population. We're conservative in our politics, but we also want a city that is generally well-educated, cultured, but ultimately down-to-earth. I am not into hipster culture, either. We're looking to homeschool, so we'd like a supportive, sizable homeschooling community, too. I'm Catholic, but I'd like a community with a lot of evangelicals and more conservative Catholics. I'm very much into professional sports. Good public transit is a bonus, but not a requirement. I enjoy cross-country skiing and a lot of hiking, and it's essential that the city has a lot of park spaces. We're looking into suburban neighborhoods--architecture doesn't matter, and neither does price (though a lower COL is an inevitable high point). Likewise, low taxes is something I've grown used to, and probably wouldn't much enjoy a high-tax, high-government services sort of place. It is crucial that the city is family friendly, family-centered, and very community-oriented. I love the snow and cool, crisp autumn weather. But cold weather isn't essential, either. Ultimately, I think we'd really like a fairly traditional place that isn't edgy, but still interesting and dynamic and vibrant.

Do any of the above cities fit well? Should I knock any off the list?

I think that St. Louis, Denver, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Dallas, and Kansas City are probably at the top of the list, but that is by no means definite.

Hi There!

As St. Louis is the only place on your list that I've actually lived (and am moving back to very, very soon!) it's the only one I'll comment on. I've visited all of the others, but as I haven't lived in any of them I don't feel that I'm in a position to judge.

DISCLAIMER: I've got a love affair with St. Louis. For all of its ills, I think the benefits far outweigh any cons. Because I am yet again making it my home town, I'm also biased

So here we go!!!

----------------------------------------------------

You're in your 20s: I was 22 when I moved to St. Louis and loved it. I'm now 28 and after a few years away, my husband and I are looking forward to calling it home again. We haven't started a family yet, but if/when we do, I think St. Louis would be an amazing place to raise kids.

Big City: Although St. Louis City only has a shade over 300k in population, the greater metro area has 2.8 million. You get all of the big city benefits in St. Louis with a lot of awesome 'small town' atmospheres (Webster Groves, Kirkwood, just to name a couple).

Religious Population: I'm sorry that I'm not very well versed on religion in St. Louis. My husband was raised as a Catholic though. There is a beautiful Catholic Cathedral, the Cathedral Basilica in St. Louis with the largest example of mosaic in the world though. According to Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowedhowever, St. Louis Metro Area has 47.84% of it's population identifying as religious. 23.3% of the population identify as Catholic which is slightly above the National Average. In the county (I prefer West County) I would assume that you would easily find a solid religious community.

Homeschooling: Despite the fact that we haven't started a family yet, my husband and I have made the decision to homeschool when we do. Therefore, I have actually looked into the possibilities extensively, and in the town I used to live in (Maryland Heights, about 25 minutes from Downtown St. Louis) there is a place called Day Spring School (link here) which offers support and classes for homeschooled children. It looks like a great option- they have a flexible program and full program (which includes a Christian homeschooling curriculum) to supplement your child's education. They also have a location in Crestwood which is in South County.

Politics I believe that St. Louis voted Democratic during the 2008 elections, but from my personal experience there I found there to be a pretty even split between Conservative / Republicans and Democrats. It depends somewhat on which area you live in.

Professional Sports: St. Louis definitely fits the bill if you're into spectator sports! St. Louis Cardinals, St. Louis Rams and St. Louis Blues! St. Louisans LOVE their sporting events!

Skiing / Hiking: Skiing in St. Louis isn't fantastic, although there is Hidden Valley which is a ski slope with a number of runs of varying difficulties only half an hour from the city. From their website, it looks like they're extending their operation further around the mountain to add more runs and another chairlift so it is probably set to improve As for hiking, South and West of St. Louis have some beautiful areas, especially along the Meramec River. Additionally, if you're into bicycle riding, Katy Trail extends all the way from St Charles (30 mins from St. Louis) all the way across the state!

Parks Forest Park is one of the largest urban parks in the country. It's just gorgeous no matter what time of year! In addition to Forest Park, Tower Grove Park is also wonderful. Areas out in the county too, have their fair share. Creve Coeur Lake Park is another stunning example!

Public Transport: I never used public transport when I lived in St. Louis, but the Metrolink (light rail system) is very popular, and they're looking to extend the tracks further into the county within the next few years.

Suburbia This is where my husband and I will end up as well. There are PLENTY of nice, pleasant, suburban subdivisions within 25 miles or less of St. Louis City. If you're into mid century modern architecture, St. Louis has a lot of 'Mid Century Modest' ranches sprawling over the county.

Low Cost of Living: Taxes aren't as high as they are in other parts of the U.S. and the overall cost of living in St. Louis is quite low. In fact, St. Louis just got ranked #1 City for Cheapskates by Kiplingers! You definitely get more bang for your buck in St. Louis, without having to forego any amenities! (there are more galleries, museums and libraries in St. Louis per capita than any other city in the country)

Snow & Cool Weather: St. Louis has lovely cool temperatures starting as early as October and oftentimes stretching through til April/ May. I realize this year was a 'fluke' though with abnormally high temperatures and an early Spring! St. Louis definitely gets a nice winter under usual circumstances though! I'm not a Summer person by any means, so I love it!

Edgy/Dynamic/Vibrant: You've asked for somewhere that's not edgy- and although some neighborhoods in St. Louis could mildly be described as such, it's definitely not as 'edgy' as Portland, Seattle or even parts of Chicago. When I first moved to the STL, what initially hit me was the feeling of Nostalgia, Old Fashioned Manners, and friendly, kind, welcoming people to be found everywhere I went. St. Louis isn't sleepy though by any means. There is plenty to do- the museums, theaters, restaurants, etc are fantastic and there are always a lot of urban renewal projects going on- particularly in the Central West End, Downtown and South City. If you did ever need something "extra" though, you're only a few hours from Chicago, a few hours from Kansas City and a few hours from Nashville- great trips for a family weekend!

Crime: You didn't mention anything about this but to avoid the naysayers I'll touch on it. St. Louis has been frequently pegged #1 city for crime in the nation. This statistic though is skewed. When they look at the crime rate, they are only looking at St. Louis City Limits (which are actually quite small compared to other cities). If you only look at the central core of the majority of major cities in America, the crime would be just as high if not higher. As the Greater St. Louis metro area isn't counted, the crime rate is made out to be worse than it really is. In actuality, if you include the whole metro area, the crime is far less than Atlanta.

Overall: Like I said before, I LOVE St. Louis. There is decay in parts, yes, but I have a lot of faith in the city. There are a lot of areas of St. Louis County which would make wonderful places to raise a family. I have lived in Australia, the UK, St. Louis and North Carolina and St. Louis is my favorite place to live in the world, hands down. The cost of living, like I before mentioned, is so low, yet you get so much for your money.

St. Louis has great people, great food, great amenities, and it's a beautiful city in a beautiful state.

Good Luck in your search! I hope that helped!

Amitiés,
Amber

[northbound74]

Originally Posted by GoneNative

Isn't Milwaukee a mostly blue-collar, industrial sort of city? We've considered it, but I've always had the impression that it was sort of like Cleveland--more liberal, blue-collar, pro-union, high-tax, etc. I guess we'll see what happens with the recall, right?

Um, no, it's not mostly blue-collar industrial anymore. There still is plenty of that, but the economy is much more diverse now.
Politically, it's a lot more moderate than you'd think. There are many areas of conservatism, with pockets of liberalism in the typical midtown sections.
Taxes are on the high side, but some municipalities and counties are more affordable than others. I've heard that property taxes are trickling down with the reforms in place.

Madison is the only extreme die-hard, liberal-at-all-cost even against common-sense place in Wisconsin. That town is annoying just to think about sometimes. Thankfully, it's a nice arms-length hour or so drive from Milwaukee. There are probably a couple of neighborhoods in MKE like that, but you rarely encounter it unless you hang out in those places all the time.
The vast majority of suburbs are quite conservative or moderate. Only a few are otherwise.

A few funny things about the recall: Walker is running against the same guy he defeated two years ago.
The union favorite got knocked out easily in the recall primary.
Walker got almost as many votes by himself as all the dems put together in the primary, even though he was essentially uncontested and had no get-out-the-vote campaign for his bid against a token contender.
The polls predict a close race with Walker ahead, and they could be right, but something closer to a 58/42 landslide in his favor wouldn't surprise me at all... just a gut feeling based on what I've seen going on.

[lukevoigt]

OK, so I'm about as conservative as they come (self-described as: Christian first, conservative second, republican third).

I live in a beautiful wealthy suburb of Houston (roughly 45 minutes North of Houston), where I was born. My ancestors settled Galveston way-back-when, so we have a rich family history here in South-East Texas.

My parents started home-schooling nearly three decades ago, so we've seen the change in the mainstream opinions on home-schoolers, especially in Houston. There are myriad programs for "outside classes"; when I was 16, I took high-school biology from a co-op, finished the course, and the next day I took the CLEP exam and was awarded 8 hours of college science. Those opportunities are endless.

Houston suburbs are not the place to raise your kids if you want to shield them from morals, ethics, Christianity, respectful behavior, or social and fiscal conservatives. However, if you want to raise your kids according to the Bible and common sense in a community where the vast majority of families go to church, Houston is definitely a top contender.

My top recommendation is The Woodlands. It was deemed the second smartest city in Texas (College Station was the smartest), routinely wins award for one of the highest household incomes in Texas, and has an insanely low crime rate. We have Lake Woodlands that is great for Kayaking, and we have Jones State Forest a stone's-throw away for hiking. We're not Denver, so our weather isn't as nice and we don't have mountains, but we also don't have pot-heads at such an epic proportion.