Good place to live?
I'm pretty sure this was done a while back, but now we have some new folks who might have some input. I'm looking at new places in which to relocate within the next few months. I'd like some input from all of y'all - what would you recommend based on these criteria (feel free to explain your answer in detail):
-- lower cost of living since I don't anticipate having the highest paying job
-- reasonable rent
-- veggie friendly
-- either good & safe public transportation or close proximity if driving
-- not too cold (I'm from South Texas, I can't handle 10 inches of snow on a daily basis)
-- healthy environment (I suffer from horrendous allergies and I want to get healthier)
-- located in the US, since I don't think I have enough $ to get myself out of the country ;D
In California, the Monterey Bay area is nice. It includes Santa Cruz, Watsonville, and Monterey. There are also small communities in the forest north of Santa Cruz. If I moved there as a working professional, I'd most likely look to rent a house with other working professionals. Or maybe a 3-bedroom house with one other person.
Santa Cruz has a University of California so there's student money in the economy. The Watonsville area has food co-ops, which is cool. Monterey has the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Cannery Row (think Steinbeck), so there's a tourist economy there. I'm not sure how hard jobs are to come by, but it's a vegan friendly area (especially Santa Cruz). I'd think it's bustling enough for you to find something.
I was thinking, "ooooh, Missoula is nice and pretty..." BUT, I think we only meet like two of those criteria:
-- lower cost of living since I don't anticipate having the highest paying job: Negative-cost of living is fairly high here (not low), and it's MEGA hard to find a job
-- reasonable rent: Our rent is very reasonable, but we live in University apartments, and they're old..I'm sure apartments vary, but I know even houses for like 200,000 are pretty dumpy..
-- veggie friendly: So-so..the area is very environmentally friendly, but we only have one kind of mostly vegan restaurant, but great organic markets
-- either good & safe public transportation or close proximity if driving: We have this! but bad traffic..for such a small area (very odd city planning..STRANGE street layout)
-- not too cold (I'm from South Texas, I can't handle 10 inches of snow on a daily basis): Um, it's cold here.
-- healthy environment (I suffer from horrendous allergies and I want to get healthier): We have this! summer time brings fires though..it can get really smokey..
-- located in the US, since I don't think I have enough $ to get myself out of the country: YESSSSS; ding ding ding
Ok, so you're not going to move here..but..it's very pretty! :>
I can tell you where NOT to consider: Tampa Florida
-- lower cost of living: Tampa is moderate
-- reasonable rent: Nope
-- veggie friendly: Grocers somewhat, restaurants no
-- good & safe public transportation or close proximity: public transport in Tampa sucks
-- not too cold: got that
-- healthy environment (I suffer from horrendous allergies): Tampa is a big pollen factory!
-- located in the US: got that
Final assessment: avoid south Florida!
hmm... well, kind of along what humboldt was saying, the central california coast is really awesome in terms of weather and "healthy environment"
MOVE TO SAN LUIS OBISPO!
in terms of cost of living i just found a pretty damn large place (1bd 1 ba) for $750/mo., you need to know how to look but it's doable.
in terms of veggie friendlyness i would say we are very. no, we aren't portland or the bay area, but we have a couple health food stores, a nice co-op, a farmers market, a large year-round CSA, a bunch of places that you can find vegan stuff, one place that is completely vegan (12ish miles north of downtown, though, it's in the county), and an all vegan both at farmers market (thisisroger works there) that the owner apparently would like to expand into a restaurant/cafe (eventually, when she makes more $$), it's also great weather for growing your own food! basically, it is very easy to be vegan here, you can find pretty much any alternative you want and have tons of local, organic produce.
in terms of transportation, i ride my bike everywhere... i find that the town is pretty nice in terms of not feeling like a congested city but still having things in a reasonable distance of one another. The public transportation basically consists of the bus which is very safe and usually on time BUT only comes about once every half hour (depending on the route). If you are into bikes at all, though, it is awesome to get around with a bike here.
anyway, it's really awesome here and if you want to come visit me and see first hand you can.
You should move to Fort Collins, Colorado! We're moving there in less than a month and I'm so freakin' excited! The town meets these criteria of yours:
-- lower cost of living since I don't anticipate having the highest paying job
-- reasonable rent
-- veggie friendly
-- either good & safe public transportation or close proximity if driving
-- healthy environment (I suffer from horrendous allergies and I want to get healthier)
-- located in the US, since I don't think I have enough $ to get myself out of the country ;D
It does get cold there, but not like other parts of Colorado. Here's a synopsis from their Chamber of Commerce website: "Fort Collins, with an average of 300 days of sunshine per year, low humidity, and moderate winters, enjoys a mild climate year-round. The area receives approximately 18 inches of rain and 55 inches of snow per year. The average high temperature during the summer months is 85 degrees. In the winter months, it is 42 degrees."
Here's some more info on them: http://www.fcchamber.org/Sub_snapshot.asp
There's a good recycling program and their city recycling website has tons of info on composting. Fort Collins has their own "freecycle" type of thing (they have an actual freecycle and then something like it that is just a Fort Collins thing). You're close enough to Denver that if you needed anything in the "big city", you could take a day and spent time there (I hear it's pretty veg friendly). Boulder is also really close and is super veg-friendly. There are a couple vegetarian restaurants in Fort Collins, they have a Sunflower Market (my fav. grocery chain!), a Whole Foods, and a local co-op. If you're into beer, it's home to the New Belgium Brewery (that only brews vegan beer).
It's a super bike-friendly city. Their bus system kind of sucks (buses stop running at 6:30pm), but it's good until 6:30. And biking is good exercise :)
To give you an idea of rent, we're moving into an apartment that is part of an old 1920s house in Old Town. It's the ground floor and basement, 2 bd, 1 ba, $850/month with ALL utilities included (gas, electric, sewer, water, trash), no pet rent/deposit.
The town is really dog friendly--3 large, nice dog parks--and pretty pet friendly in general. There is also the Horsetooth Reservoir, which seems like it would be a nice summer retreat. Also lots of nice city parks and I've heard they have a good local music scene.
Oh, and the best part ::) , I'm going to live there and well, potlucks are inevitable 8)
You should move to Fort Collins, Colorado! We're moving there in less than a month and I'm so freakin' excited!
I wanted to live in Fort Collins for a long time, when I was younger. I wanted to go to CSU when I wanted to be a Vet. But none of that worked out..good to know all those things about it though! I loved visiting there.
Okay, so NOT Missoula or Tampa, good to know - lol!
I'll look at Ft. Collins, San Luis Obispo and the Monterey Bay area . . . they sound great!
I was going to include SLO in my post, but I knew hesp was going to mention it. ;D
Both are great places. SLO also has colleges: Cuesta (a party JC) and Cal Poly (big on engineering), so the economy there is a bit more stable. I think the SLO area would be more affordable. If you were around Monterey Bay you'd definitely be sharing with someone, whereas in SLO you could swing an apartment by yourself. I wouldn't mind sharing a house, though.
Good or bad, SLO is kind of on it's own, halfway between the Bay Area and SoCal. Monterey Bay is just south of the Bay Area, and the Bay Area has lots of good music. Music store wise, SLO has Boo Boo Records and San Francisco has Ameoba Music, so they're kind of tied there (although Ameoba wins in any real competition).
Sonoma County in California is absolutely beautiful! It's not cheap though....pretty expensive actually :(
But, I'm a lucky girl to live here. The weather is great, the beach is nearby, there's hiking trails nearby....It's nice
You should move to Fort Collins, Colorado! We're moving there in less than a month and I'm so freakin' excited! The town meets these criteria of yours:
Ooh! Go there! My friend lives there and loves it! She always tells me to move there.
Portland, OR has the #1 ranked public transit system in the US.
Depending on where you live, you can get a 400sqft studio in the heart of downtown for $600/mo including utilities and internet, or further out, where I am, you can find 2bd townhouses for $575/mo including garbage/water/sewer, houses (2+bds) tend to run around $900-$1700/month, utility coverage varies there.
As for cost of living, temporarily forgetting my student loan payments, I am able to live comfortably alone in my 2 bd townhouse only spending $1100/summer months and $1200/winter months on avg. (I'm living miserly on $1000/mo right now, and don't think I could do that anywhere else).
We will have a few days of snow, but never more than an inch or two sticks.
It is VERY veg*n friendly!!! We have an all vegan strip mall (which hosts an all vegan grocery store, vegan bakery, vegan/natural fibers/free trade clothing boutique, even a vegan tattoo parlor!) right by my church now! There are several restaurants that advertise as being "vegetarian", and most (barring a steak/seafood house/national chain like Olive Garden) have vegan/vegetarian options.
Allergies are funny here, people who have allergies at other places won't have them when they come up here; then there are those who've never had allergies until they come up. It rains a lot here, so with that, in the summer, you have lots of green things growing.....
i'd be so excited if you moved to slo!
i'm planning on running the meetup.com vegan group when i get back from my bike tour. hahaha.
the music scene isn't bad here if you know people. i used to hang out with a bunch of DJs and i went to shows all the time and boo boos is a pretty sweet place.
anyway, do look!
Storm, this made me laugh. ;D
I moved away from Punta Gorda (south of you) about 2 years ago. I could go on and on about reasons to avoid florida!
I still have relatives in Tampa.....
have you been to the vegetarian chinese place in orlando? worth the drive!
I can tell you where NOT to consider: Tampa Florida
-- lower cost of living: Tampa is moderate
-- reasonable rent: Nope
-- veggie friendly: Grocers somewhat, restaurants no
-- good & safe public transportation or close proximity: public transport in Tampa sucks
-- not too cold: got that
-- healthy environment (I suffer from horrendous allergies): Tampa is a big pollen factory!
-- located in the US: got that
Final assessment: avoid south Florida!
I moved away from Punta Gorda (south of you) about 2 years ago. I could go on and on about reasons to avoid florida!
I still have relatives in Tampa.....
have you been to the vegetarian chinese place in orlando? worth the drive!
No, I haven't been there but thanks for the tip. I'm on the east side of Tampa so it really isn't that much of a drive to Orlando.
Monterey Bay is beautiful and one of our VERY favorite places. We would live there if we could! Housing prices there are quite high, but I'm not sure about rents. With the housing market what it is, perhaps you could find something affordable.
We moved from San Jose to Oakley, which is in the East Bay. We really like it here, the prices are right (homes and rents) and the weather is too. We don't have a health food store in our city, but we do in one of the neighboring towns, about 20 minutes away. We do have a nice Farmer's Market every Saturday, rain or shine.
In California, Berkeley and Long Beach are veggie friendly, near public transportation and still have affordable rents. I have tight budget friends who live there. Beautiful weather.
Southeast Minnesota!
reasonable cost of living - actually pretty cheap cost of living - where else in the world could a single teacher afford a house?
vegan or veg-friendly - ummmm, the pineappleprincess diner? And I'm slowly making friends with some local farmers...
public transportation - I can walk or bike anywhere in town. Lots of bike trails!
not too cold - I foresee a possible problem here...
allergies - ???
in the U.S. - yup.
allright, so it was a nice thought. You could always come visit in the summer when it's 200 degrees in south texas.
PP - I've been to North Dakota in the summer to visit my uncle and it's a nice respite from the 200 degree weather. Unfortunately it's the 200 below weather in the winter that is a bit of a drawback ;D