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Columbus is fine, but it really isn't that comparable with Denver, Austin, and Portland. When it comes to things that make a city "cool" such as the local music scenes, culinary scenes, local art scene, etc., it really falls short of those three cities. This may be due to Denver, Austin, and Portland being able to attract people from all over the country, whereas Columbus largely just attracts people from the rest of Ohio and some bordering states. Columbus has not in any way established itself as an "it" city the way Denver, Austin, and Portland have. For the most part Columbus is far more similar to Indianapolis, which is why I would not include Columbus as a suggestion for someone who wants to live in a cool urban environment.
But if you are talking about $11.00 an hour you are going to have to get yourself a couple of roommates and be willing to share all expenses if you want to survive in Portland.
The OP should ask himself why the places he wants to live are so expensive.
I've known people who'd rather have five roommates in San Francisco than rent a house in somewhere like Fresno or Redding or wherever. I wouldn't do what they do but I sure can't blame them. I fully understand why they would. You only live once.
The OP should ask himself why the places he wants to live are so expensive.
I would guess simply because he wants to live in a cool urban environment with all the other people who think that's the thing to do and those are never inexpensive. If he thinks he will find something at wage slave earnings, there is no such thing.
If he thinks he will find something at wage slave earnings, there is no such thing.
There used to be, before everything got gentrified. Patti Smith recently said that New York is pretty much nothing doing for starving artists these days.
I would guess simply because he wants to live in a cool urban environment with all the other people who think that's the thing to do and those are never inexpensive. If he thinks he will find something at wage slave earnings, there is no such thing.
Not true it's just that the fantasy is definitely not going to match the reality. The OP can come to NYC and learn what it's like to live like a poor NYC resident. There are people living in this city that make less than 22k and they're living alright but it's not the friend's lifestyle that most transplants think they will be living.
Where do the poor live? In public housing...at home with the parents...with multiple roommates... in rented rooms in the outer-boroughs etc. There is constant entertainment here...grab a time out ny magazine and figure out what is free or cheap to do. Get a citi bike membership and ride around the city and you can just people watch and be entertained here. For $11/hour though there will be no fun times at the club...drinks at the trendiest bars...eating out? For $11/hour that will be a gyro, a slice, or a falafel sandwich from a street cart. Lol.
The op said he wanted to live in a cool urban environment and he can do that but the question is how does he want to live? For a young single person who is from someplace boring that may be enough for them temporarily. If I was 22 again I would do it for a year or two for kicks...if I was 32? No way! I would go someplace with a cheaper col and try to make a life.
As I mentioned before, I was hovering around the poverty line in Las Vegas and still managed to have fun. I avoided the Strip, but most locals do because it's overpriced to begin with and the happy hooting tourists get to be grating after a short while. Unless you really have to go to clubs where it's nothing but Top40 and EuroDisco while dining on the latest nouveau riche fad cuisine, you're not missing much by skipping the Strip. All the hipster urbanist type people head to Downtown anyways (such as it is), and at least when I was there, it's a lot easier on the wallet.
The cost of living in Vegas is exactly at the national average last I checked. If you're from Hooterville, Indiana, the rent will seem expensive, but if you're from NYC or the L.A. area you'll literally jump for joy at how cheap the rent is. That's certainly what I did (no joke), as I had been expecting it to be the same as L.A. And just by virtue of it being Sin City, you feel cooler for living there than you would in Columbus or KC. You can go anywhere in the world and mention you live in Vegas and people will go "OMG really!?" It's like you're some kind of mythic creature that stepped out of modern legend.
When the OP says "cool urban environment" I take it to mean he is talking about more trendy neighborhoods rather than the mean streets of public housing. Cool urban environments usually don't have public housing at least not in my city. Maybe though, they do in others.
Actually be this way in Portland, but those were converted to high rents or condos long ago as the neighborhoods became more urban and more cool. I imagine this is typical of other cities as well.
The Northside neighborhood of Cincinnati would fit the bill. Plenty of starving artists/musicians call it home and somehow scrape by. Hip, cheap, urban.
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It's like you're some kind of mythic creature that stepped out of modern legend.
