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hi. i'm a single 33 year old female. born, raised and living(dying) in a suburb (queens) outside of manhattan (nyc). i want far away from concrete and buildings! and mass amounts of people. the town in which i live has a population of about 37,000. too much.
i've had the idea of kansas (or surrounding) in my head, though i've never been there or anywhere off the east coast! i don't care about tornadoes, in fact i long to be in the midst of one (i'm sure i say that now)!
however, i've recently found out that winter can be pretty harsh. i hate hate hate the cold!!! i'm not a fan of high heat either.
i just really want to be amongst fields and farms and dirt roads!
BUT, i guess i dont wan't to live all that far away from somewhere i can go out and meet people, being i am single. also, cost of living should be as low as possible, with low crime (is that possible?!) i'd need to be renting but i'm not sure how that factors into anything. ha.
i realize what i'm looking for probably more imagined than exisiting, but any help would be much appreciated.
but remember, no city, no harsh winter.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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I would first recommend Wyoming, SD, or North Dakota as it is very hard to beat the nice folks and advantageous taxes there. BUT... you don't like cold, so... Southern New Mexico, AZ (SE) or TX for you.
I really like KS and NE, too (As I'm a prairie kid), but they get pretty cold.
OK is a good choice if you like tornadoes.
There would be chances to rent a room from elderly folks who could use a little help shopping and driving, and enjoy the company. You will learn a lot from them and your experience. Plug into a senior center in a rural area, they'll fix you up! this will be fun.
Farmers often have live-in help too. Check some ag sites.
I just took a road trip from Denver, CO to Tulsa,OK. If you can google Salinas, KS. we drove around there a little I don't know the crime rate. BuT i can tell you it was a little strange, doors on building left wide open. we drove by a hotel they were remodeling, all the doors left open, the carpet rolls where left outside. no gaurds no one it was crazy. I have never seen anything like it before. And it was some of the most beautiful country I have seen, green corn fields everywhere, rivers, streams, etc. hope this helps some
if you are serious about this, do some research on states that may interest you. read online papers to get some idea of jobs, cost of living and how their economy is doing. plan a trip to areas you might want to consider living. you didnt mention what you plan on doing for work, but thats always a consideration.
as far as your requirements, im sure you are aware the midwest gets its share of both winter and summer weather, some years worse than others. if you dislike winters, cold temps, wind, perhaps thats not the place for you. texas also gets beastly hot in the summer, as does arizona and new mexico. if you want a rural environment in any of those places, plan on getting used to seeing an assortment of snakes and other reptiles if you plan to be round the fields and farms. i dont know how far you would like to be from a larger place [or how large?] with an active singles life, but that alone could limit your search.
you seek a rural paradise, a place of moderate climate...no nasty winters or brutal summers, with little crime, low cost of living, decent economy and available jobs, near enough a larger city for convenience and a social life. so take that criteria, do some research and see how close you can come to your idea of utopia. when ya find it, let us all know!
except for the summer heat you dislike, almost sounds like you are looking for mayberry, north carolina. paradise is having good friends/family that care. to me thats the difference between living and just existing. good luck.
Location: Oklahoma(formerly SoCalif) Originally Mich,
13,387 posts, read 19,428,052 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by oookbye
hi. i'm a single 33 year old female. born, raised and living(dying) in a suburb (queens) outside of manhattan (nyc). i want far away from concrete and buildings! and mass amounts of people. the town in which i live has a population of about 37,000. too much.
i've had the idea of kansas (or surrounding) in my head, though i've never been there or anywhere off the east coast! i don't care about tornadoes, in fact i long to be in the midst of one (i'm sure i say that now)!
however, i've recently found out that winter can be pretty harsh. i hate hate hate the cold!!! i'm not a fan of high heat either.
i just really want to be amongst fields and farms and dirt roads!
BUT, i guess i dont wan't to live all that far away from somewhere i can go out and meet people, being i am single. also, cost of living should be as low as possible, with low crime (is that possible?!) i'd need to be renting but i'm not sure how that factors into anything. ha.
i realize what i'm looking for probably more imagined than exisiting, but any help would be much appreciated.
but remember, no city, no harsh winter.
Ask your question on the Oklahoma forum.
There are plenty of small rural/farming towns with most of what your asking.
I rent a 1 bdrm house(just renovated) for $250.00 a Mo. //www.city-data.com/forum/oklahoma/
I'm from NYC also and let me tell you, you THINK you want to live in the country ... slow down. Maybe you want to live in a truer suburban area? I used to call Queens the faux suburbs because the land is so limited there. What I have discovered to be the true country is something I'm not ready to deal with. Do you really want cattle and fowl and other wildlife for neighbors? Because that's what you get in the TRUE country. Did you read the forum where the guy was complaining about his neighbor's cows getting on his land and destroying his landscaping? EEEEK!
Anyway, I moved to southern Virginia then to South Carolina, where I currently reside.
South Carolina's Midlands offer a medium-sized city, Columbia, with plenty of surrounding areas that will probably meet your needs. The reason I suggest the Carolinas is because the winters are much less harsh than in NYC. Snow is an event for us--one that can easily shut down the entire city. The people are nice and you can easily live somewhere that's quiet at night (except for those durn CSX trains). There are also plenty of places there for 30-somethings to mingle.
North Carolina has bigger cities--Raleigh, Charlotte--and the people there, as in all of the South, are nice. These cities also have lots of suburban outlying areas you could live in and lots of places to meet people and make friends. The winters are more harsh than in South Carolina, but still don't compare to New York's snow and ice events.
You've got lots of choices. The entire country offers places like what you describe. I guess you just have to figure out what kind of weather you're willing to deal with and what the job market is like there. Good luck.
hi. i'm a single 33 year old female. born, raised and living(dying) in a suburb (queens) outside of manhattan (nyc). i want far away from concrete and buildings! and mass amounts of people. the town in which i live has a population of about 37,000. too much.
i've had the idea of kansas (or surrounding) in my head, though i've never been there or anywhere off the east coast! i don't care about tornadoes, in fact i long to be in the midst of one (i'm sure i say that now)!
however, i've recently found out that winter can be pretty harsh. i hate hate hate the cold!!! i'm not a fan of high heat either.
i just really want to be amongst fields and farms and dirt roads!
BUT, i guess i dont wan't to live all that far away from somewhere i can go out and meet people, being i am single. also, cost of living should be as low as possible, with low crime (is that possible?!) i'd need to be renting but i'm not sure how that factors into anything. ha.
i realize what i'm looking for probably more imagined than exisiting, but any help would be much appreciated.
but remember, no city, no harsh winter.
And what will you be doing for a living in that small town? Are you a freelancer? That helps so much. Since I became one I can move anywhere I want to.
I will be making the same move soon, tired of all those cars, the noise, the students, the high costs, the dirty air...
My new town has about 10,000 souls. I hope I will not get bored after some time there. I guess if one is used city life - as much as one thinks one hates it - it takes some time to calm down and get used to the slower pace, the lack of events apart from the seasons etc.
I have never lived in a town so small before, so I wonder if everybody knows everybody as the cliche goes I don't like to force myself upon a closed community
Heck, I know people who live in towns of about 5,000 and the people on their square block don't even know each other.
In a city of 10,000-----it is laughable to use that phrase- " everybody knows everybody".
Heck, I commuted to a town of 7,000 for my job and most of the employees who were from that town had never heard of their fellow employees who were from that same town before they got hired.
I believethat phrase--" everybody knows everybody"--only holds true if you have a bad reputation and get your name in the paper's court section a lot.
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Try the South
I don't like to force myself upon a closed community 
