Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I need to move out of Kansas City and am looking for something new and hopefully exciting. Planning to move by Feb. and wanting to figure out where to travel in the limited time I have. I will keep my existing job, budget of up to $1700 for rent. Feeling pretty unsure what I want, advice appreciated!
Things I value:
- Large enough city for thing to do and a notable LGBT community (open to smaller IF it works demographically and has things going on anyway, or is very close to somewhere larger). Safety/progressive culture along with this is important but I am used to liberal city, red state.
- Big priority of having a great food and diverse food culture
- Being able to easily drive to the ocean is a hugeee plus. I love going to every type of coast, love fresh seafood.
- Safety for a solo woman is something I'm nervous about
- Access to nature and beautiful places to explore in general is a pro, I also love lakes, mountains, forests
- I deal better with hot weather than cold, but could be flexible for the right place
- Walkable neighborhoods are great but not top of the priorities. I also really love neighborhood character and cool/historic architecture
- More of an art scene the better
Some places I've considered that I would love feedback on related to my criteria or in general:
Portland OR - checks a lot of my boxes but I haven't visited. How hard is it to find somewhere affordable? Also concerned that nowhere has AC even though does get hot because that seems dangerous
Providence RI - beautiful, love the ocean access, seems hard to find a place there. Have visited.
Richmond VA - like it for the walkable neighborhoods, weather. Not sure about the food scene? It's a lot smaller than I'd ideally like, but I've heard it doesn't feel that way?
Chicago - love the big city transportation, walkability, food scene, events, lgbt community, etc. Nervous about crime and winter mostly; less excited about it's distance from the ocean. Have visited.
Raleigh - mostly crossed off due to being sooo spread out and seems to lack character, but love the weather, size, affordability. Haven't visited and not sure if it's worth a visit.
Minneapolis - love affordability, walkability of many neighborhoods, size is good, parks and lakes. Don't love the cold and how far it is from other cities and the ocean. Have visited.
Sacramento - ? Know very little about it but like that it's cheaper and in California. Haven't visited, should I?
Columbus - Love the food scene, affordability, cute neighborhoods, don't love general Ohio vibes/weather/nature/distance from ocean. Probably a no for now.
Any advice on where based on my criteria from these, or any new suggestions I've overlooked is very welcome. Thanks for reading.
Your post is interesting. My situation is similar to yours in some ways. I am a remote worker living in the Dallas, TX area and am looking to move someplace new and exciting. I want to be in an area that is more affordable, not overpopulated, quiet, not brutally hot and has at least some diversity. I am actually considering moving to the Kansas City area. I am curious as to why you want to leave KC since I heard good things about it from several people.
Oh I want to leave because I've been here my whole life and I'm sick of being reminded of my past everywhere I go, I want new surroundings and things to explore (I've been to like every restaurant!), and I would like somewhere with more beautiful nature access.
That said, I 100% recommend KC to someone who is interested in a mid size affordable city; I love so much about it here. If you have any questions lemme know.
You should add Seattle to your list, you can definitely make it work with that budget. I'm renting a 1BR in the city limits for under $1200 --- granted, I found a good deal, but $1700 will get you into most parts of the city.
Columbia City is one of the big LGBTQ+ neighborhoods, particularly for WLW, you might start looking there. It's only a few blocks from the light rail. Pretty much the entire city is walkable. The winters around here aren't bad at all, just rainy. The open Pacific Ocean is 2.5 hours away, but you can get all over Puget Sound (and to Lake Washington or Lake Sammamish) much faster than that. You can be on the Olympic Peninsula, in the deserts and canyons of Eastern Washington, or on the San Juan Islands in 3 hours.
Sacramento is okay, I'd say it's a tier below Seattle and Portland for your criteria. There are some walkable, urban neighborhoods but also a lot of suburbia within the city limits. I'm sure it has at least an average-sized LGBTQ+ community but it's not really known for that. The county only voted 61% for Biden, for what that's worth. The nature access is superb, you'd be 2 hours from not only the Pacific but also Reno/Tahoe, and 5 hours from Sequoia/Kings Canyon and the misty redwood forests up by Eureka. Crime (in South Sac) will be higher than in Seattle/Portland though not as bad as many other cities.
I say lop Columbus off your list, it doesn't fit most of your criteria.
Chicago could potentially work. The thing about the crime rate is that Chicago is a highly segregated city, which means that the bad neighborhoods are worse off because they're so isolated from investment and tourism, but also that the crime is mostly localized to the bad neighborhoods --- people who know each other --- rather than random crime all over the city.
Chicago does have the advantage of being close to a lot of other cities. Within a few hours you can get to Milwaukee, Madison, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Detroit, Springfield IL, or Louisville. Lake Michigan isn't the ocean, but you can actually swim in it all summer, which is never really doable on the Pacific coast in Washington and Oregon (to get warmer water in those places, you'd be looking at local lakes or going east of the Cascades). The Lake Michigan coast once you get far enough north into Wisconsin or Michigan feels reminiscent of the New England or PNW coast. There are no real mountains until you get east into West Virginia and Pennsylvania, so it depends how often you'd want to do that. Illinois does have some nice, milder topography in a few spots like the Mississippi River and Starved Rock.
The city's main draw, though, would be its diversity. If you're in the mood for any obscure nationality's cuisine --- Armenian, Cambodian, Uzbek, Nigerian --- you can find it. It's more of an authentic, East-Coast-style diversity where it's just how things are and no one cares, vs. in Seattle or Portland where the non-white population is celebrated but proportionally small. As for the LGBTQ+ scene, the big WLW hotspot would be Andersonville, although like Seattle there are several other LGBTQ+ areas.
Your post is interesting. My situation is similar to yours in some ways. I am a remote worker living in the Dallas, TX area and am looking to move someplace new and exciting. I want to be in an area that is more affordable, not overpopulated, quiet, not brutally hot and has at least some diversity. I am actually considering moving to the Kansas City area. I am curious as to why you want to leave KC since I heard good things about it from several people.
Providence, Richmond then Raleigh if I was in your position. And I think many that have lived in one place feel exactly like you do. But the cities that I selected I chose because I know more about them and they have everything I would want or need. Richmond has great food options in the metro and outside of it plus it’s nearby DC, the ocean and the mountains and is pretty much still affordable and has a decent airport. Good luck I’m sure whatever you do it’ll be a positive and fun adventure.
Maybe check out Mobile, a smaller metro than what you listed for checking out but definitely checks a lot of boxes. Mobile has some of the best food in the country. Just likes New Orleans, it shares a lot of the Creole culture. Mobile is also one of the safest major cities in South (especially the Deep South lol). Mobile is not a progressive city but politically it is moderate. Mobile does have a good size LGBT community for its size, but again it is a smaller city (although it does have the state’s only Lesbian Bar). Mobile has direct access to beaches, with Dauphin Island, Fort Morgan, Gulf Shores, and Orange Beach. Access to nature is fairly easy, especially if you love to kayak. Mobile is full of history and architecture given how old the city is. With you budget you can get yourself just about everywhere in Mobile, especially Midtown (among the safest and most walkable places in the city) as well as downtown
If you're considering Columbus, you might as well look at Cleveland, which is more diverse, more liberal/open-minded, cultural and more neighborhoods (and close-in suburbs) with the kind of architectural character you're talking about...
... no, it is not near an ocean, but it is on Lake Erie, which has been substantially cleaned up and can be quite romantic, esp during sunrise/sunset.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
