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I am currently living in Brooklyn, NY, and I have wanted to move Southward for quite some time. I was originally enchanted by and visited Savannah (twice), but the crime factor is worrying me. Charleston, kind of the same deal. A big part of me moving down is the weather and wanting to be outdoors (nighttime included), but I don't know how great of an idea that is in a place as dangerous as I've heard Savannah/Charleston can be. Let me reiterate: I grew up 2 mins outside of Manhattan and now live in Crown Heights, Brooklyn- I am no stranger to diversity, and probably a lot of people would assume my neighborhood is a bad one. I think I'm smart enough to avoid obviously sketchy situations, and to keep to myself and stay out of other people's business, but I can't move somewhere thinking I'm going to get robbed at gunpoint in a crowded park at noon! Here is a link to some Northern towns whose look I love:
dream town haaay - a set on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/27274058@N07/sets/72157610383657667/ - broken link)
Is there anything similar down south that is as lovely and innocent as those places look? Here's some other stuff about me: I'm 21, I'm tattooed with big funny glasses and I'd prefer to wear vintage housedresses all year-round if possible (and I'm not saying that junk for cool points- I'm just sure some towns wouldn't take to that, really, and if you're someone with similar interests, maybe you know), I'm not terribly interested in bar culture so that's not a must, though art and music spaces are both great; I love animals and bike riding, bodies of water are cool (or not), I'd love to live in an historic house with lots of sunlight and wood floors and probably a porch of some sort, I work in visual display/merchandising and sell crafts, antiques and flea markets and farmers markets and bookstores and libraries are super, aaaaand if my cost of living could be proportionate/low in comparison to the kind of living I'm making, that'd be sweet. And I'm not religious, but just hanging out with family/friends/community ranks higher on my lists than drunken hijinks most nights. Most nights.
Because not everybody is looking for that completely impossible criteria, I'm sure.
Look, I'm just trying to get the German Shepherd of the South: not necessarily the best of anything, but that is pretty good in several of the categories I mentioned. Aside from Savannah and Charleston, I've considered Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Nashville, Louisville and Lexington (a little cooler weather-wise, but I could probably deal as long as it's not NYC).
Location: New Albany, Indiana (Greater Louisville)
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Around Lexington I would recommending avoiding the actual city (terrible traffic, high taxes) and looking to Versailles, a picturesque town surrounded by horse farms
I am currently living in Brooklyn, NY, and I have wanted to move Southward for quite some time. I was originally enchanted by and visited Savannah (twice), but the crime factor is worrying me. Charleston, kind of the same deal. A big part of me moving down is the weather and wanting to be outdoors (nighttime included), but I don't know how great of an idea that is in a place as dangerous as I've heard Savannah/Charleston can be. Let me reiterate: I grew up 2 mins outside of Manhattan and now live in Crown Heights, Brooklyn- I am no stranger to diversity, and probably a lot of people would assume my neighborhood is a bad one. I think I'm smart enough to avoid obviously sketchy situations, and to keep to myself and stay out of other people's business, but I can't move somewhere thinking I'm going to get robbed at gunpoint in a crowded park at noon! Here is a link to some Northern towns whose look I love:
dream town haaay - a set on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/27274058@N07/sets/72157610383657667/ - broken link)
Is there anything similar down south that is as lovely and innocent as those places look? Here's some other stuff about me: I'm 21, I'm tattooed with big funny glasses and I'd prefer to wear vintage housedresses all year-round if possible (and I'm not saying that junk for cool points- I'm just sure some towns wouldn't take to that, really, and if you're someone with similar interests, maybe you know), I'm not terribly interested in bar culture so that's not a must, though art and music spaces are both great; I love animals and bike riding, bodies of water are cool (or not), I'd love to live in an historic house with lots of sunlight and wood floors and probably a porch of some sort, I work in visual display/merchandising and sell crafts, antiques and flea markets and farmers markets and bookstores and libraries are super, aaaaand if my cost of living could be proportionate/low in comparison to the kind of living I'm making, that'd be sweet. And I'm not religious, but just hanging out with family/friends/community ranks higher on my lists than drunken hijinks most nights. Most nights.
Because not everybody is looking for that completely impossible criteria, I'm sure.
Look, I'm just trying to get the German Shepherd of the South: not necessarily the best of anything, but that is pretty good in several of the categories I mentioned. Aside from Savannah and Charleston, I've considered Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Nashville, Louisville and Lexington (a little cooler weather-wise, but I could probably deal as long as it's not NYC).
Let me know! Thanks!
As long as you are a woman wearing the housedresses you should be fine
I looked at the pictures on the link you provided. They're reminiscent of places like Nyack (which I saw on one of the signs, actually,) or parts of the White Plains or Albany areas. Or even kinda like City Island which is *technically* part of The Bronx.
Anyway, I digress. The VERY FIRST example of a Kentucky town that jumped to mind was Danville. It has a population of 16,000, is 45 mi. SW of Lexington, on the verge of the Appalachian foothills, Kentucky's first capital, and the home of prestigious Centre College (Kentucky's absolute best college without argument.) Safe, low COL, and picturesque are all synonymous with Danville-Boyle County. HOWEVER, people from the surrounding and, well, more "rednecky" counties like Mercer, Garrard, Lincoln, and Casey use Danville as a regional shopping center, so there's that element. Plus, you have to travel to Lexington, Louisville, or Cincinnati for ANY kind of nightlife.
Other examples that immediately came to mind were Covington and Newport...more in just a second.
Your best bets in Kentucky, given your description, are Louisville and extreme Northern Kentucky (Cov/New). Coming from NYC, these areas will still have a kind of "country" feel to you, I'm sure, but I can promise that they're not "too country" or "rednecky." In particular, consider urban areas in Louisville like Old Louisville or the Highlands, or maybe even Clifton, Crescent Hill, Butchertown, or St. Matthews (a first ring suburb only five miles from downtown.) In N. Ky., consider Covington's Mainstrasse or West Covington, or Newport's East Row Historic District.
Louisville's Highlands is the best place in Kentucky for aspiring artists or people that just "live and breathe" all kinds of art, craft, etc. It's safe, and you're only 1-1/2 miles from a rapidly gentrifying downtown. The city still has quite a few ozone alert days during the summer. On the plus side, though, Louisville dubs itself "City of Parks" for very good reason!
Covington and Newport, though, has the most charming old Victorian, English and German architecture in this region (what of it's been preserved, anyway,) and you can see a booming, very artsy, and IMO more exciting and interesting Cincinnati practically from your doorstep. The COL in N. Ky. is cheaper than in Louisville, too. The Cincy/NKY region is overall less "redneck" than parts of the Louisville metro area.
Admittedly, select parts of Seattle, L.A., S.F., Houston, Chicago, Boston, Hoboken, and Philly can give NYC (Manhattan and even Brooklyn, no less) a run for its money in terms of dense urbanity. I guess you could say that the sky might feel much "bigger" to you in Kentucky.
By the way, I've entertained the thought of attending grad school at Hunter College or even Rutgers-New Brunswick.
Last edited by EclecticEars; 11-29-2008 at 10:46 PM..
I find it funny you keep complaining about rednecks when your have called yourself redneck in your status JCM.
Hehe! My status is there to mock the ultra-liberals like...President-Elect Barack Hussein Obama that state clearly that those of us in middle America bitterly cling to our guns and religion. I'm a proud conservative who does believe in the Second Amendment, preservation but not sanctioned infringement of civil liberties, fiscal and tax constraints, and does not believe in abortion; if that makes me a redneck in the eyes of certain people in Haight-Ashbury or the Upper West Side, so be it.
The rednecks I make fun of here, however, are the ones that have rebel flags on their pickups, wear shirts that say something to the effect of "The South Will Rise Again," wear camouflage 24/7 "just 'cuz"...things of that nature. Places where high school basketball is the way of life and everybody chuckles to the song "Hick Town" by Jason Aldean. I am a native of small-town rural Kentucky and I still get culture shock sometimes by this (which is in part why I enjoyed living near Cincy,) so I can only imagine the culture shock a Brooklynite will experience.
Hehe! My status is there to mock the ultra-liberals like...President-Elect Barack Hussein Obama that state clearly that those of us in middle America bitterly cling to our guns and religion. I'm a proud conservative who does believe in the Second Amendment, preservation but not sanctioned infringement of civil liberties, fiscal and tax constraints, and does not believe in abortion; if that makes me a redneck in the eyes of certain people in Haight-Ashbury or the Upper West Side, so be it.
The rednecks I make fun of here, however, are the ones that have rebel flags on their pickups, wear shirts that say something to the effect of "The South Will Rise Again," wear camouflage 24/7 "just 'cuz"...things of that nature. Places where high school basketball is the way of life and everybody chuckles to the song "Hick Town" by Jason Aldean. I am a native of small-town rural Kentucky and I still get culture shock sometimes by this (which is in part why I enjoyed living near Cincy,) so I can only imagine the culture shock a Brooklynite will experience.
I don't find anything wrong with any of those things as long as they are not blatently hateful and nasty to other people. AND there is a BIIIIIIIIIG difference between redneck and white trash.
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