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Minnesota or northern New England are two of the few places where rural areas aren't ruby red Republican.
Liberal places are increasingly only dense places, which will have crowds. International flights are only profitable to/from larger metros which will have crowds. In my experience, crowds are pretty easily avoided at most parks just by not going on prime holiday weekends.
I'm not sure, but for NorCal I suspect being within 2 hours of an international airport
but not within day trip range of the Bay Area's ~8M people may be difficult.
SF Bay area of course checks the "airport," "liberal" and "food" boxes, although
not the "no natural disasters" box. And as to hiking, if OP has a work schedule
that leaves some weekdays free, I can vouch from experience that even some of
the best-known places can be surprisingly uncrowded if you're able to go
at off-peak times. Case in point: I went hiking at the famous Mt Tamalpais
("Mt Tam") this past Thursday, a lovely day, and yet for the first couple of hours
I saw no one else on the trail. Later it got a little bit busy, but not too bad.
OP, Sacramento/Sacramento Area absolutely checks everyone one of your boxes.
1. Hiking in riparian areas and Sierra Foothills within 15mins to 1hr. Large mountains with lots of snow should you like winter environments is within 45mins to 1.5hrs. Coastal mountains are 1hr to 2hrs away.
2. It's not super busy like the larger cities/metros for outdoor activities, but busy enough, Sacramento is not a small town like Anchorage.
3. Sacramento proper is very liberal. Its city-burbs, Davis, West Sacramento, Elk Grove are liberal. The whole county is one of the most ethnically/racially diverse, liberal counties in the nation. Outer burbs and counties are purple to red. Davis is home to the University of California by far one of the most liberal universities in the nation.
4. Sacramento In'tl airport is rated the best in the nation for medium sized airports. Non-stop/direct flights to all major hubs in the nation, Canada, Mexico.
5. Sacramento proper has 2 Michelin-rated restaurants. and decent amount of other high quality restaurants.
6. Very rare for "crazy natural disasters".
7. Sacramento is in that sweet spot, not the PNW, nor the Southwest, it's definitely greener than the Southwest.
Do you know if I’d have to encounter roaches living in Asheville? I have an actual phobia. It’s awful. Idk if it’s warm enough there where it’d automatically be an issue like it would be in more southern states…?
There are very few bugs in the Denver area, even less in the mountains. I've not seen any roach since I moved here and have only seen mosquitos a handful of times. That for me is one of the best things about living in this area. Mountain towns just west of Denver like Silverthorne has a food hall and a Whole Foods near by. If you can afford it it should check your boxes.
Albuquerque is almost a perfect fit but is in the southwest. The high desert offers near perfect 4-season weather. The mountains (Sandia, Jemez, and Sangre de Cristo) are Ponderosa Pine, Douglas Fir, and Pinon Pine forested. Lower hills are Juniper. ABQ is slightly higher than Denver but with better weather. The state population is 2 million in the 5th largest state so most often you will be alone on the trails. The desert outback is seductive in its own way once you experience it. Santa Fe is an hour north. Taos about an hour farther north. The Sunport airport is in town and Amtrak's Southwest Chief services ABQ and Santa Fe (@Lamy, NM). There are no natural disasters as found in other areas. The COL is relatively low.
Colorado Springs is not as politically conservative as it was 20-30 years ago. 43% in El Paso County voted Democratic in 2020 Presidential election.
There are still prominent religious conservative groups in area but only 35% of adults self-identified as religiously affiliated in the leading national religious survey. Though "in" / not in May be too sharp a distinction.Projections are that self-identified "Christian" will become a minority nationally in next few decades to "none".
Considering that Christians are the majority in the U.S. and are the most represented religion across all socio-economic groups in the country, I highly doubt that.
For "easy / affordable" international travel, you may want one from the first / short list and maybe only a subsection of it, but it depends where you want to go (more Europe, Asia or elsewhere?) and your definitions of easy and affordable.
Wanting multiple desirable trailhead within 20 minutes will be less common than mostly 30-45 or 45-90 minutes out. If hiking is far more common than international travel, I'd emphasize this criteria over the other.
Upstate New York (what about Ithaca?), maybe spots in New Hampshire (Haverhill?), Portland (Hillsboro?) and Seattle (Issaquah?) areas would be leading options. Sacramento area might work (Davis)
You didn't say what size town, city or metro you prefer. That would be important to get right sized recommendations.
"Very liberal" is less common than liberal. Are you talking must be 70%plus vote Democratic for President in that town / city or whole region or state? Almost total one party rule at state level all the time? That is rarer than just specific 60% Dem. places. The specific places I mentioned above generally meet that very liberal criteria, but not Haverhill (just liberal).
I couldn't rep you, but Ithaca NY comes to mind right away, as it pretty much fits what the OP is looking for. The only thing is that you would have to drive for an airport, but you have a few options within your drive time(Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse) are all within less than a few hours, with Syracuse/Hancock being about an hour away, Rochester/Frederick Douglass a couple of hours away and Buffalo Int'l being maybe 2 and a half hours away, if that. Ithaca has its own, but flights only got to Newark or JFK.
I couldn't rep you, but Ithaca NY comes to mind right away, as it pretty much fits what the OP is looking for. The only thing is that you would have to drive for an airport, but you have a few options within your drive time(Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse) are all within less than a few hours, with Syracuse/Hancock being about an hour away, Rochester/Frederick Douglass a couple of hours away and Buffalo Int'l being maybe 2 and a half hours away, if that. Ithaca has its own, but flights only got to Newark or JFK.
There are 70 species of cockroaches in America. No place will be completely free of cockroaches, but some common types seem to prefer warm and humid, and almost tropical areas. They are less common in the arid parts of the west.
Article on religious affiliation trend with lots of scenarios considered: https://www.pewresearch.org/religion...on-in-america/
3 of the 4 main scenarios have Christians becoming a minority in total population. But I should have said minority to "none & other" generally, though one scenario has none becoming a majority by itself. It likely will be a relatively close split but any substantial change could have major political consequences based on current religious / political linkages. 2070 is a long time off but reactions to whatever the future trendline is will come sooner, is already here to some degree.
(ckhthankgod, I couldn't rep you either... but this is other way to do it.)
Last edited by NW Crow; 01-30-2023 at 06:47 PM..
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