Help Me Find My Ideal City (low crime, school, safest)

[benedicta33]

I'm looking for my ideal city to hopefully retire to one day. Here's what I'm looking for:


1. Affordable town within at least 2 hours travel time to large city or metro area.

2. Low crime rate.

4. Low humidity, (no scorching hot summers!) want rain in the summer and snow in the winter (NO windy climate either).

4. Large Catholic population.

5. Close to coast or large body of water as possible.

6. Historic area w/ large population of ethnic groups (or atleast ethnically diverse).

7. Near mountains would be very nice, too, but not a must.



Any suggestions?

[livefromwi]

Well, I can only speak for what I'm familiar with, so I'll recommend southeastern WI, near Milwaukee. It's got 1-5, maybe 6, and no 7. It's a nice place.

[dullnboring]

You may want to try Western or Central Massachusetts. While Massachusetts is thought of to be expensive, this is largely confined to the Boston area. Western Massachusetts is within a short drive to the Berkshires, around two hours or less (depending where you are) from Boston, and within an hour of both Albany and Springfield (not bustling metropolises but metro areas nonetheless. There is a large Catholic population everywhere in Massachusetts. I believe it's one of only a handful of states where Catholicism has the highest number of adherents in the state. As far as ethnic diversity goes, well, ethnically it's diverse, but not so much racially. There are lots of Irish, Italians, French, French Canadians, Germans, Poles, Greeks, etc. but relatively few racial minorities although this can vary by town as some communities have sizable Puerto Rican, Dominican, Black, Cape Verdean, and Brazilian communities, but the smaller towns will generally by very white and the areas in the Eastern portion of the state are more diverse. You are also not incredibly far from the coast. Again, possibly as little as two hours depending on where in the state you'd be. Crime is low, there tends to be lots of history around, and while summers can and do get humid, it's certainly not as pronounced as it is in most of the Eastern U.S. and it gets large amounts of snow and a decent amount of rain per year as well.

[MagpiesMagpiesMagpies]

Originally Posted by benedicta33

I'm looking for my ideal city to hopefully retire to one day. Here's what I'm looking for:


1. Affordable town within at least 2 hours travel time to large city or metro area.

2. Low crime rate.

4. Low humidity, (no scorching hot summers!) want rain in the summer and snow in the winter (NO windy climate either).

4. Large Catholic population.

5. Close to coast or large body of water as possible.

6. Historic area w/ large population of ethnic groups (or atleast ethnically diverse).

7. Near mountains would be very nice, too, but not a must.



Any suggestions?

Ditto SE Wisconsin/Milwaukee. It meets most of your criteria. The other suggestion would be something near Pittsburgh.

Magpies

[benedicta33]

Thanks all! I'm going to go to check out the suggestions you gave me and look up the city data.

Pittsburgh was already on my list as a matter of fact.

Thanks again!

[mbmouse]

You could also check into Tri-cities TN area, has all on your list actually.

[colleen wolf]

my husband and i are white and have adopted 3 afrtican american children.we are looking for a diverse ,safe community,with a good school system

[BPerone201]

Toms River, NJ

It's one of the safest cities in the country, it's close to the coast, it's ethnically diverse (A lot of Italians/Irish/Germans/Polish), It has a large catholic population (I'm pretty sure)

The humidity levels can be high in the summer time, but it's definitely not the worst.

[loveautumn]

Denver