Oklahoma to (likely Western) Massachusetts - Beginning Research (real estate, community college)
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I'm pretty adamant on the Northeast US as opposed to the midwest or the west coast. It's very possible that I could enjoy the coastal Northwest, but from what I've seen it's kinda mild versus the Northeast. Seattle's reputation as cloudy, rainy, and cool is a very desirable thing to me (I hate the sun). It's just that the West coast has issues from being earthquake prone to wildfire prone.
St Louis I will not think about. I don't mean to be rude and throw suggestions back at people, but Missouri is a red state not too different from Oklahoma. I know that St Louis itself is probably really blue, but you need rights on a state level. Missouri is just not on the table.
In addition, Missouri and Illinois both have the issues of being right in tornado alley and just as prone to that nonsense as we are where I live. I can not emphasize how much I want to get away from tornado alley. I am well aware that tornadoes do happen in the Northeast, but not anywhere near the frequency of my state. I am also well aware of the W Springfield/Springfield tornado from 2011 that makes me wary of that area of MA, but it may be unfair to judge it by that too much.
Oklahoma has its freak weather events, too, like 2011 where it got down to -30F. Does that mean that warm weather lovers should hate it here or be worried about that kind of weather happening anywhere near as much as, say, Minnesota? Absolutely not.
My career trajectory is a bit of an open slate, as I have said. I can adapt to get me to somewhere better to live if need-be. But I know that's just a lot of words and is not helpful. Obviously I'm not going to have a six figure career to go to MA with. =/
If Providence, RI is actually a good option, I will definitely take a better look at that. Providence, RI is even relatively close to Boston and is very much still New England. I could roll with that. I determined MA to be the sweet spot of the country, but I don't think the Providence, RI area would be too far from that mark.
I'll say it: I have not visited New England. It's on my list to do as soon as I can, though. In reality, the closest I have been was Maryland and that was back in 2004. Visiting NE has been on the list for years now, but the last several years have been really bumpy financially with me not working most of that time (or working very little). That is beginning to change now, so I hope we can start getting serious about the trip now. But if I'm visiting with the intention of seeing everywhere I would want to see about moving to, that would be a very wide scope. I'd have to narrow it down.
I live in suburban Tulsa (Jenks) and have spent a good deal of time in New England and I grew up in Maryland. I can tell you that you should NOT discount the winters up in New England. As bad as summers in Oklahoma are, winters up there are exponentially worse.
I've been to Springfield (Meh), Providence (pretty nice) and actually like Hartford quite a bit. I've never been to upstate New York but understand the winters to be really harsh.
For a disabled woman with no car, winter would be murder on you in New England outside of Boston. You will need transportation and I've seen little to no mass transit that would be better than Tulsa in these cities you are talking about. Getting out and about would be very hard. And often dangerous. Winter weather up there kills many more people than tornados in Oklahoma. It's just not as dramatic on TV.
I would actually recommend Philly. Now much of the city itself is pretty scary but the Philly area isn't all that expensive and does have real functional mass transit. Philly probably has the cheapest living expenses of all the major metro areas and the winters there are much closer to what you see in Tulsa. Winter is worse than in Tulsa, but nothing like you would see in New England.
Yes it was a pretty chilly April I thought. I was disappointed by the lack of warmer days as we got to the end of it. It’s still in the 50s and it’s may! Looks like next week is supposed to warm up.
I would actually recommend Philly. Now much of the city itself is pretty scary but the Philly area isn't all that expensive and does have real functional mass transit. Philly probably has the cheapest living expenses of all the major metro areas and the winters there are much closer to what you see in Tulsa. Winter is worse than in Tulsa, but nothing like you would see in New England.
Snowfall depends on where in Massachusetts. I’ve worked a ton in Philadelphia Center City and spent more time than I’d like to think about in suburban Downingtown PA and Moorestown NJ. I get about the same snowfall as those places. I’m walking distance from salt water on the Massachusetts South Coast. The annual snowfall in my driveway is the same as the Cape. 20-ish inches. The snow pack rarely lasts more than a few days before it’s back to green grass. The ocean temperatures here average a degree or two cooler than Cape May NJ. The climate is similar.
I’ve also lived in Northampton where the driveway had 6 foot snowbanks a lot of years. I’ve worked in Westborough and Marlborough. Those get a lot of snow. Andover almost as much.
I know lots of people who do the daily Center City commute from metro Philly suburbia. It has good commuter rail and the setup is far superior to Boston. I haven’t encountered an area where you could get by without a car but someone with more local knowledge might be able to cherry pick a town. I used to take PATCO in from New Jersey if I had to drive to Philly. I never encountered anything on that line where you have a ton of retail and high density housing at a PATCO stop. I lived in Center City midweek for some months. It’s really easy to be car-free there.
In Europe, this would be a pretty trivial exercise. There are tons of places you can live without a car. Somewhere affordable in the US, it’s far more difficult because affordable places don’t fund public transportation very well. West Springfield on that PVTA bus route has deep pockets metro Boston subsidizing service. Most affordable places don’t have that.
I wouldn't exactly lump in a place being red or blue and assuming that's how your whole life is going to be. In California you can make the argument that it's more of a left-wing state but their lack of quality of public transportation is pretty low. With respect to Philadelphia their transit system seems to go on strike every 2 to 3 years.
Bring Springfield again it's not on life support otherwise he wouldn't see new restaurants opening every month. The downtown is probably look the best than it has in the past 20 years if not 25. Union Station has been finished, MGM Springfield is open, the Marriott reopens next year, white lion Brewery does a pretty brisk business in the downtown etc fair amount of Western Massachusetts is consolidating to the Springfield because the population density makes it more economically viable. The Berkshires has been on the decline since the mid-1960s and Franklin County has been on a decline for maybe the past 10 years. And now it's starting to draw from Connecticut because Hartford is in rough shape. MassLive is the second largest news organization in Massachusetts after the Boston Globe. There's also a fair amount of diversity in the economy in the area with government, military, Finance, Health Care, education and so forth.
I also lean towards not worrying so much about whether a state is red or blue and ruling things out based on that particularly if you’re on a low budget and need certain things. I’m not that political and it sounds like the OP is though. I can see how a blue state might be important to a disabled LGBTQ woman. Unfortunately the blue cities are the more expensive ones so unless you qualify for assistance you need to have the money to live there. I would first think about things I will need in terms of a job, transportation and things to do before I think about who people voted for.
I live in suburban Tulsa (Jenks) and have spent a good deal of time in New England and I grew up in Maryland. I can tell you that you should NOT discount the winters up in New England. As bad as summers in Oklahoma are, winters up there are exponentially worse.
I've been to Springfield (Meh), Providence (pretty nice) and actually like Hartford quite a bit. I've never been to upstate New York but understand the winters to be really harsh.
For a disabled woman with no car, winter would be murder on you in New England outside of Boston. You will need transportation and I've seen little to no mass transit that would be better than Tulsa in these cities you are talking about. Getting out and about would be very hard. And often dangerous. Winter weather up there kills many more people than tornados in Oklahoma. It's just not as dramatic on TV.
I would actually recommend Philly. Now much of the city itself is pretty scary but the Philly area isn't all that expensive and does have real functional mass transit. Philly probably has the cheapest living expenses of all the major metro areas and the winters there are much closer to what you see in Tulsa. Winter is worse than in Tulsa, but nothing like you would see in New England.
Good luck.
Lol don't advertise somewhere and say the "winters are like Tulsa". I hear you, the dangers of a real winter should be taken very seriously. However, "winter" in Tulsa Oklahoma is so weak, it puts me out of balance. You live here. You know how last December was. It was in the 60s and 70s the vast majority of the month.
Cold weather is the exception here. Winters default to 60s and 70s. It isn't right. It feels wrong. It throws me off balance.
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You all talk down about Springs in MA, but here's the thing. I have a low tolerance for heat. When you say that it's been "chilly", that's my favorite kind of weather. 40s and 50s are delightful to me. Above that and things get iffy. The trees don't have leaves yet? Excellent. I would love that.
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As for seeking out blue areas, I do it not because I merely want to be around like-minded people or anything small like that, I do it because of rights. Surely we've all heard of the draft that shows that the SCOTUS is going to strike down Roe vs Wade? Well Gov BullStitt and the OK legislature (IIRC) have already made sure that abortion is gone in Oklahoma.
What's next, birth control? Do people even understand that birth control pills are more than just stopping pregnancy, but also for some of us are the difference between really painful periods and not?
I don't mean to go all slippery slope here, but the Republicans have their stated goals, and they have the Supreme Court, and they have my state. This is why I must get away. This is why I must got a BLUE state and not a state that's going to follow along. Some of the swing states might be okay, but it's hard to tell which (Florida and Ohio most certainly not - I'd consider them red states at this point). It's playing with fire.
Lol don't advertise somewhere and say the "winters are like Tulsa". I hear you, the dangers of a real winter should be taken very seriously. However, "winter" in Tulsa Oklahoma is so weak, it puts me out of balance. You live here. You know how last December was. It was in the 60s and 70s the vast majority of the month.
Cold weather is the exception here. Winters default to 60s and 70s. It isn't right. It feels wrong. It throws me off balance.
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You all talk down about Springs in MA, but here's the thing. I have a low tolerance for heat. When you say that it's been "chilly", that's my favorite kind of weather. 40s and 50s are delightful to me. Above that and things get iffy. The trees don't have leaves yet? Excellent. I would love that.
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As for seeking out blue areas, I do it not because I merely want to be around like-minded people or anything small like that, I do it because of rights. Surely we've all heard of the draft that shows that the SCOTUS is going to strike down Roe vs Wade? Well Gov BullStitt and the OK legislature (IIRC) have already made sure that abortion is gone in Oklahoma.
What's next, birth control? Do people even understand that birth control pills are more than just stopping pregnancy, but also for some of us are the difference between really painful periods and not?
I don't mean to go all slippery slope here, but the Republicans have their stated goals, and they have the Supreme Court, and they have my state. This is why I must get away. This is why I must got a BLUE state and not a state that's going to follow along. Some of the swing states might be okay, but it's hard to tell which (Florida and Ohio most certainly not - I'd consider them red states at this point). It's playing with fire.
Problem is both sides are heading full speed towards the outer fringes, with nutjobs like Taylor-Greene on one side and Omar on the other being the face of each party. And given the overall demographics of the US if things keep heading that way voters will ultimately choose the party of Taylor-Greene over the party of Omar.
We live in a profoundly deranged and hateful aspiring banana republic. Makes sense for the OP or anyone whose identity potentially puts them in the crosshairs of ignorant hate to get out of the American backwaters well ahead of January 2025 when the dystopia is likely to fully arrive and such states would have free reign to legislate that hate with no more rational guardrails of checks and balances left at the federal level.
Last edited by FCMA; 05-03-2022 at 08:30 AM..
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