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Xanathos, I'm still not understanding why you thought Omaha would be a good fit for the OP. He clearly stated that he didn't want to live anywhere that recieves snowfall. Omaha receives snowfall. Almost 27 inches of it a year. It's not that difficult to understand that Omaha is in the Midwest. The Midwest gets snow. The OP doesn't like snow. Get it? If I said that I didn't want to live somewhere that receives much, if any, rainfall would you recommend Portland? Because after all, Miami and Atlanta receive more rainfall than Portland right? I think you suggested Omaha to the OP because you've decided in your mind that he and his family are lame and boring and you, obviously, feel the same way about Omaha. So you weren't trying to be helpful. You were being smug and mean spirited.
I'm sitting in Omaha right now with snow on my lawn and my heat running non-stop. The one thing I'm most excited about in moving to Portland from Omaha is getting away from the harsh winters and humid summers. Other than that, Omaha is a great family city. Also, Omaha homeschoolers are definitely not detached from the masses. I homeschool and my child knows more people in our community than her schooled peers. It is very easy to make friends here and housing is insanely cheap. Omaha is not bike-friendly. You can't bike with 6 foot drifts covering the sidewalks and street edges with a wind child of -20. There are NO bike lanes anywhere in the city. There are several large hospitals and unemployment is low with nurses very much in demand.
Last edited by IndigoIris; 11-15-2010 at 06:03 PM..
If you want easy weather then you're likely moving south...Jacksonville FL and Austin TX come to mind. The south or anywhere else in TX might be a bad fit politically from what I gather from your comments, and anywhere in norcal/bay area is going to be expensive.
You are going to have a very hard time finding a place that meets all your needs. I would recommend a smaller city, like Tuscon or Flagstaff in Arizona. Or, check out Charleston, SC or Savannah, GA.. both are very cool little cities.
First, I really like City-Data. Glad it exists [as a family we used it to great effect when looking for info on our moving concerns -weather related- as we approached moving from Minneapolis to Portland in mid-October of 2008... re: concerns about mountain passes/the weather/us in a rented moving truck].
Next:
I know that people naturally get their ire up about their preferences & provincial feelings about where it is they reside [particularly life long residents of any given area], so I am not interested in stirring up that at all.
Our Background:
We are a family of three... me [husband, dad], my wife and our 11yr old daughter.
We do not relocate for jobs, family, better houses or more money. We are, I guess, sort of odd. We are simply trying to find a few basic things:
1. A place that doesn't have snow or rain [hardly at all, if ever: Minneapolis & Portland being two extremes].
2. It needs to be near a hospital [wife is highly employable as an RN in trauma, ICU, PACU & Burn Units].
3. Needs to be a reasonable rental climate... we rent single family dwellings and can afford 14-1500/month [at the absolute top end of our budget].
4. Needs to be extremely bicycle-friendly [we ride bikes everyday -the reason weather is very important for us... PDX, while great with bike infrastructure, has simply depressed us with its weather].
5. Some sort of bike/coffee 'scene' would be an added bonus [we had a fantastic one we left behind -along with the extremely LONG winters- in Minneapolis... and here in Portland, for some reason, we as a family cannot find one: our age [mid-40's], our level of fashion or hipness [we aren't too terribly either of those] or something else [we do not know]... but we, after 2+ years here just cannot find folks to ride and hang out with].
Schools don't matter as we homeschool our daughter.
6. We are really nice folks... we aren't hippies, we aren't luxury car driving people, we don't want to climb any more ladders or buy bigger and better things, we just don't bother people... we just want to live our small little life and enjoy it as much as possible. Nice year-round weather, be able to rent a little house, ride our bikes, pay our bills, etc. [reading that, I just fear someone is going to slam me here... but I am really trying to be absolutely honest]
So, that's it really...
we need to relocate soon, we originally thought that Year Two would acclimate us [locals told us it takes 1 winter to acclimate and 2 years to find friends... nope], and then many of those same folks said "it takes 3 years... " so we intended to stay through this winter, but now that the gray and rain have begun, we are just miserable and devoid of energy, so we are hoping to bump up our plans to leave soon.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be extremely appreciated.
Some of our thoughts have been:
San Diego [very worried about traffic/car culture though], Austin, TX [very worried about how we would be viewed as a family there though... Texas to me has always been a VERY conservative place -at least in my mind], we love the idea of Northern California but originally starting this whole adventure from New York City [before relocating to Minnesota] we aren't really too excited about big city life again & the money that takes, and finally, somewhere in the Deep South [but we haven't a clue where]...
Thanks again.
St Pete FL explore. Although I must warn you, they are trying to be the next SF. Homeless everywhere like Portland, sunny, bike friendly in the downtown area. overall liberal. Restaurants have gotten really expensive though.
As someone who is currently living in Ellicott City/Columbia area, Maryland(lived in different parts of Maryland-Baltimore City, Anne Arundel County) for 9 years and has also lived in Portland, Oregon for 3 years I unfortunately would not recommend moving to Maryland.
Yes parts of Columbia Maryland has "villages" or neighborhoods that have walking trails that one can bike it's pretty limited to just those areas. Biking on the street seems suicidal as there are hardly any bike lanes and it is definitely more of a car culture here in this state. There are people who bike here but it seems more for exercise than like the day to day living biking that is possible in Portland. One positive of Howard County is that it has a really great school system which you won't be able to take advantage of since you're homeschooling (We are homeschooling as well). Another positive is that it is very ethnically diverse, in fact from what I gather some people move here because of that reason-especially families that are interracial like my family. Lastly, another positive is that there does seem to be more jobs available than other parts of the country right now.
Maybe because of that reason (jobs) Columbia, Maryland is very overcrowded with people which makes driving a not very pleasant experience (Columbia is a good driving distance to Washington DC and Baltimore). Actually the drivers over here are pretty aggressive. Just my opinion as someone who only drives the speed limit and in all honesty hates to drive!
What else? I have to say it but I'm no longer a big fan of Baltimore like I used to be when I first moved here years ago. Now that I have a family I have to honestly say that it does not feel safe here compared to other places, especially Portland which despite it's homeless population still felt safer than Baltimore and even parts of Columbia. There are just some areas you don't drive around in Baltimore which I feel is really sad. In fact the way some highways and streets are planned make it possible to avoid the "bad" parts of town. It's a very segregated feeling and I never liked that aspect of Baltimore.
On a positive note, I actually feel the weather is great regardless of the 7 feet of snow we had last winter. The summers can be humid but tolerable. The fall is beautiful in terms of the change in leaves. The one thing I noticed when coming back to Maryland after living in Portland for 3 years was how bright it is here on a nice sunny day. It was really nice to experience four seasons again over here on the east coast. Caution though the beaches are about 3.5 hours away and they are crazy busy in the summers, people plan a year in advance to get hotel reservations, etc..
Anyway, I don't mean to rag on Maryland but after moving back we realized that yes we were able to find jobs pretty easily(considering how bad other parts of the country is with unemployment) and the weather to us was more manageable than Portland weather but we do miss the quality of life that Portland has to offer.
By the way I also lived in San Diego for a few years (went to college there) and my extended family lives there and I would not recommend living there either. Biking is very difficult as again it is more of a car culture and it has gotten very crowded through the years. San Diego County just seems to go on forever in terms of sprawl. Don't get me wrong it's beautiful there with the weather and being a very close proximity to the beach though. However again the drivers are aggresive and I feel that it is a fairly conservative area.
Anyway, just my two cents not sure what a good fit would be for your family since my family is still trying to decide where to finally settle down! Good luck in whatever you decide to do! Guess you have to weigh the pros and cons and figure what is the most important to your family's quality of life.
You are going to have a very hard time finding a place that meets all your needs. I would recommend a smaller city, like Tuscon or Flagstaff in Arizona. Or, check out Charleston, SC or Savannah, GA.. both are very cool little cities.
lived there for 6 yrs, about 106 inches of snow the years we were there.better to try Kingman Az.
OP: I'm sorry you haven't found a cafe/scene you guys like. We moved to Portland a few months ago and are in your basic demographic (mid/late 40s, not trendy at all, hike-y/bike-y, same age kid) and we've found a great bunch of folks through our neighborhood and kid's progressive school. But I can get what you're saying about the weather.
I second (and third, fourth, etc.) what folks have said about Austin. It's not really TX. A good buddy lived there for years for grad school and after and, after visiting her, I was ready to move there.
We moved from NYC to the Hudson Valley. Doesn't fit your search perimeters regarding snow (and, like NYC, it actually gets *more* rain than Portland), but, wow, there's a big biking community. But you're not in a city -- it's the country w/organic farms, back-to-the land sorts, an assortment of hippies, runners, writers, artists, musicians, new age folks and many who can't be classified.
We drove through Bozeman, MT and fell in love with it. It only gets abt 7" more snow, on average, than the Hudson Valley. Lots of sun. But you're in MT and all that open space would honestly frighten me. (But I'm not you.)
Have you considered moving overseas? What about Honduras or Costa Rica? With homeschooling and your wife's skills, you could probably go anywhere for a chunk of time.
As someone who is currently living in Ellicott City/Columbia area, Maryland(lived in different parts of Maryland-Baltimore City, Anne Arundel County) for 9 years and has also lived in Portland, Oregon for 3 years I unfortunately would not recommend moving to Maryland.
Yes parts of Columbia Maryland has "villages" or neighborhoods that have walking trails that one can bike it's pretty limited to just those areas. Biking on the street seems suicidal as there are hardly any bike lanes and it is definitely more of a car culture here in this state. There are people who bike here but it seems more for exercise than like the day to day living biking that is possible in Portland. One positive of Howard County is that it has a really great school system which you won't be able to take advantage of since you're homeschooling (We are homeschooling as well). Another positive is that it is very ethnically diverse, in fact from what I gather some people move here because of that reason-especially families that are interracial like my family. Lastly, another positive is that there does seem to be more jobs available than other parts of the country right now.
Maybe because of that reason (jobs) Columbia, Maryland is very overcrowded with people which makes driving a not very pleasant experience (Columbia is a good driving distance to Washington DC and Baltimore). Actually the drivers over here are pretty aggressive. Just my opinion as someone who only drives the speed limit and in all honesty hates to drive!
What else? I have to say it but I'm no longer a big fan of Baltimore like I used to be when I first moved here years ago. Now that I have a family I have to honestly say that it does not feel safe here compared to other places, especially Portland which despite it's homeless population still felt safer than Baltimore and even parts of Columbia. There are just some areas you don't drive around in Baltimore which I feel is really sad. In fact the way some highways and streets are planned make it possible to avoid the "bad" parts of town. It's a very segregated feeling and I never liked that aspect of Baltimore.
On a positive note, I actually feel the weather is great regardless of the 7 feet of snow we had last winter. The summers can be humid but tolerable. The fall is beautiful in terms of the change in leaves. The one thing I noticed when coming back to Maryland after living in Portland for 3 years was how bright it is here on a nice sunny day. It was really nice to experience four seasons again over here on the east coast. Caution though the beaches are about 3.5 hours away and they are crazy busy in the summers, people plan a year in advance to get hotel reservations, etc..
Anyway, I don't mean to rag on Maryland but after moving back we realized that yes we were able to find jobs pretty easily(considering how bad other parts of the country is with unemployment) and the weather to us was more manageable than Portland weather but we do miss the quality of life that Portland has to offer.
By the way I also lived in San Diego for a few years (went to college there) and my extended family lives there and I would not recommend living there either. Biking is very difficult as again it is more of a car culture and it has gotten very crowded through the years. San Diego County just seems to go on forever in terms of sprawl. Don't get me wrong it's beautiful there with the weather and being a very close proximity to the beach though. However again the drivers are aggresive and I feel that it is a fairly conservative area.
Anyway, just my two cents not sure what a good fit would be for your family since my family is still trying to decide where to finally settle down! Good luck in whatever you decide to do! Guess you have to weigh the pros and cons and figure what is the most important to your family's quality of life.
p.s. ever consider parts of New England?
Please, PLEASE listen to this poster in regard to MD. I grew up in Baltimore County, visited the area very OFTEN and they are spot on. You will NOT like Columbia Maryland unless you like strip malls and large road ways. Besides this, as ereggie stated, there are very SMALL pocket/villages that have decent suburban settings, but after living in Portland and the like you will regard them as well planned suburbs (oxymoron, imo) rather than bikable city centers or even neighborhoods.
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I would suggest the South West if you're looking for no snow and/or rain. Best bet. Just about anywhere else in the country will give you either snow or rain or (and this is just my two cents) terrible humidity. I can't personally give you any suggestion, but I'd say go post some on the New Mexico, AZ or CA forums and see what cities start popping up.
Location: Still in Portland, Oregon, for some reason
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Quote:
Originally Posted by In_Need_Of_Assistance
Thank You...
I guess there is no real, actual, way to get thoughtful replies from some here.
When did, for instance, I mention that we desire "Boring"?
Hopefully he didn't drive you off....maybe I can help pick up the slack.
My dad's from Texas originally and by Texas standards, Austin is a fairly progressive city with a pretty hip downtown scene. Dallas and Houston are huge, sprawling giants with freeways covering pretty much every inch of spare land but like others have said, going to Austin you feel like you've stepped through a wormhole and wound up in some town outside Texas.
The climate is nice and you're not far from the Hill Country which has some spectacular scenery. My uncle lives outside Fredericksburg so I know the area fairly well. Give Austin a serious look and I think you'll find it's pretty much exactly what you're looking for.
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