I want to move, just not sure where to...

You described Cleveland except the cold part.  I’m darn near ready to become a snow bird.  berkeley this cold

cheap cost of living, low taxes, excellent museums and theaters, nice areas to walk, but once again, berkeley winter 

tb said

Must be near to a major airport (so much flying)

High quality of living without breaking the bank (low taxes!)

Nothing too cold; done enough of that

Good cultural scene; we like museums, theater, dining out and walkable neighborhoods

Family friendly and all that

Ever spent time on the MS Gulf Coast?

While Gulfport International isn't major, it's a nice place to fly in/out of and has a surprising number of direct flights. 

We definitely have low taxes, as well as a low cost of living. 

While this winter has been long & cold for us, we still were above freezing every day and only dropped below about a dozen nights. 

There is certainly plenty of great food here, museums too, and with NOLA just over an hour away anything else you'd likely be interested in could probably be found there. 

Its very much a family-friendly area, and feels small-town(in a positive way), despite having about 250,000 people in the combined area. 

PM me if you want more details & I'll send you my #.

We've been in Texas for a couple years now and it, by far, is my favorite out of the places I've lived. The only thing I'm disappointed in is the roads. I used to get a ton of enjoyment out of just driving around, seeing the scenery and finding fun pieces of road. Out here it's just straight, flat and uninteresting (and the actual roads are E36 M3, but don't tell that to a native Texan because they take it personally). Yes the hill country is neat but it's a little too far from where we are without making it a day trip. I'm the opposite of you though, I couldn't stand to be in a city. I'm an hour and a half from Austin and a couple hours from Dallas and  that's plenty close enough for me.  I don't think we will ever move again but if we do it will have to be a place with scenic fun roads, like Appalachia but without all the meth.

tb said:

In reply to 8valve :

I'm a beach bum at heart, what can I say?

 

We really love Oregon; Portland and Ashland are awesome. It just feels so far away from the rest of the country and a little too small for my tastes.

And you expect low taxes and cost of living?  

In reply to spitfirebill :

nah, it would be nice to have it all but I know that it isn't terribly realistic.

Gulf coast west of Fla.

tb said:

My wife and I (plus daughter, now) tend to be fairly nomadic and have moved all over the country every couple of years. We seem to have the itch again and will be moving on from the beach life of South Jersey before too long... but we really are not sure where we want to go next.

 

Do you like where you live? Dream about moving to somewhere specific? Maybe just hate some place really passionately? Please, I am all ears.

 

Our thoughts are that this would be a good time to have fun with our 3 year old and introduce her more to some culture and such. Perhaps a smaller city with good food and arts. Maybe west Coast beach bums somewhere fancy in soCal? Down in the heat of big Texas? I really am open to ideas and would be thankful for any input.

 

Some criteria:

Must be near to a major airport (so much flying)

High quality of living without breaking the bank (low taxes!)

Nothing too cold; done enough of that

Good cultural scene; we like museums, theater, dining out and walkable neighborhoods

Family friendly and all that

 

Denver is awesome, and not quite as cold as Chicago or Boston... Malibu seems like to easy answer to all of life's questions, right? Houston - too close to New Orleans? Charlotte sounds awesome but is it just too deep into the south?

 

Thanks

What is your take on your current location? I know nothing about it  but have kind of always been a little curious what it's actually like.

I’ve lived in every section of the country so far.  Minnesota. While cold makes my wife happier than any other part of the country.  What a great place to raise kids. 

I moved to Albuquerque six years ago after living in rural Upstate NY for the first 46 years of my life and I love it here.  I love the culture, climate and having a road course, dirt track and drag strip all in the city is nice as well. 

There are three big negatives to living here from my perspective. 

We have a large homeless population.  I've never lived in a city before so I'm not used to that at all and it's my understanding that it's a bigger problem here than most cities.

There's a huge amount of property crime, even for a city.  There's a large amount of violent crime as well but that's mostly isolated to the poorer sections of the city and that population.  Not that, that's not horrible but I don't fear for my wife's safety.

The school system is a mess.  It's staffed by dedicated hard working professionals but there are very limited resources and the current governor of NM knows nothing about education and seems to be actively working to make it worse.  There are a lot of good private school options however.

The airport is small and doesn't have direct flights to very many places.  On the other hand it's one of the nicest airports for arriving and departing in the country.  My office is right near the airport and I often just walk over an hour before my flight is scheduled to leave.

That's perhaps another advantage to SLC and St. George over many other Mountain States Cities. Utah does a better job of making it cities feel/look safer.  My wife and I call it "Mormon Lawns and Fences" and it's the truth. 

Although as you move further north the problems of homeless magically disappear as the cities get colder and more inhospitible. 

In reply to drainoil :

South Jersey is nice, but not exceptional. The beaches are world class but there isn't much going on in the winter. Being 1 hour from Philly and 2 hour drive to NY is very convenient. Too quiet and too much baggage around here, though.

In reply to pheller :

I can imagine just how proper the lawns and fences must be; probably great neighbors. 

pheller said:

Although as you move further north the problems of homeless magically disappear as the cities get colder and more inhospitable. 

Well, not sure if that is always true.  Seattle has the largest homeless population I have seen, although that *may* be because so many of the encampments are adjacent to major streets and highways.  On the upside, Seattle has a good airport, many cultural activities, museums, and some great restaurants.  Traffic seems to be nuts all day, every day.  My brother lives about an hour north and he tells me that if you leave Seattle 20 minutes late, it can take three or four times as long to get out of town.  Home prices drop a bit when you get outside a reasonable commute range... of course 'reasonable' appears to be getting larger all the time.

We live a couple of hours from Ashland, Oregon.  Our granddaughter goes to college there at SOU.  The college hosts many live performances and Ashland is home to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which doesn't just perform the Bard's work.  The Britt Festival in Jacksonville is held in a natural amphitheater and holds shows from late spring through early fall - at some time or other, they have had performers from every genre you can imagine.  Home prices are silly if you are in Ashland proper.  Get away a bit and things get more reasonable.  Oregon has no sales tax, but the mill rate for real estate is higher than other places I have lived.

In reply to CJ :

Seattle isn’t cold. 

I like where I live. 

Please don't move here.

Nothing personal, but everyone and their brother seems to be moving here. It's getting crowded. 

In reply to Toyman01 :

I agree Toyman Same with Austin. Been here 15 years and hoping not to make it 16. It was great back then and has just become more and more crowded and less of the good stuff that made Austin great. The food scene was top notch now it's just overpriced and going down every year. Airport is now way too small for the size of the town. 

COTA is less of a race track and more of a country club now. They will only have 2 major races on the calendar after this year F1 and MotoGP. They drove off all of the other series and now are more interested in being an Audi and Mercedes driving experience track than anything else. 

I love to trail run and mountain bike and now the trails are so crowded it's not a lot of fun unless I go out after dark. 

There are a lot better places than Austin

mtn said:

I live in Chicagoland. I've spent enough time in enough places to know that this is not where I'd choose, although I do love the city. 

 

My choices would be somewhere in Wisconsin............

I too live in the Chicago area (Lockport) and I sometimes think of moving across the street from Road America.  In all seriousness, I really like the Door County, Wisconsin area.

My youngest brother lives south of Green Bay and has issues with not living the nightlife and activities that Chicago offers but the property you can buy compared to Chicago is killer.  

Aiken, SC

Its a small town with a huge arts footprint. Playground for liberal equestrian fans (the US Olympic equestrian team, among others, trains there)

Terrific funky downtown with cool restaurants, pubs, street cafes and vendors. 

Theatre, museums, etc. Arts are well supported by wealthy folks.

If you want to eat at the best bistro in town, expect a long wait, but you will meet some great people while waiting at the street cafe tables  

There are great farmettes available outside of town for under $200K, and massive horse farms worth millions. But there is also historic architecture, and lots of open 2 lane roads. 

1.5 hours to the beach, 1.5 hours to the mountains. 1 hour to the capital, 30 minutes to Augusta Ga (want to check out the Master's?), 1.5 hours to Charleston. 

You know what place can't claim to be close to New Orleans?

New Orleans.

International airport. Amtrak. Low cost of living. Museums. Lots of entertainment venues. CENLA SCCA, Delta SCCA events. Cars and Coffee. NOLA Motorsports park.

tb said:

In reply to 93EXCivic :

I'm intrigued by Huntsville and will check it out more. I am a northerner by nature and am reserved about the deep south but am open minded. A smaller, developing city might be just right.

Huntsville can't be considered deep south anymore. Huntsville area is different than the rest of Alabama. Where else can you live and have friends that are rocket scientists, I mean real rocket scientist with NASA. There are a lot of transplants in this area. A lot of education facilities here and close by. A lot of high tech industry and more coming. Which is what brought the transplants in, including me. 93EXCivic is right about everything he said. I live on the opposite side of town from him so I have to drive to what he walks or bikes to. But the airport is 10 minutes from my house. It's now a small city and growing. May out grow this small town guy eventually which is why I live on the edge of town. When I go back to California to visit family, old friends that never left just don't understand why I would choose to live in Alabama and don't believe me when I tell them that Huntsville may be located in Alabama but it isn't stereotypical Alabama. I've lived here longer than I've lived any place, including growing up in California. Traveled the world and lived in several places around the country and Huntsville is the best place I've lived. Fairbanks, Alaska being second. A small developing city describes it to a T.

Malibu isn't really cheap and California taxes, just don't even go there. Cost of living and taxes are among the top reasons I don't go back to California to live. 

Huntsville is nothing like the rest of Alabama.  Thank God.  I've said more than once that if I had been allowed to move to Huntsville instead of Montgomery, I may still be there.  

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Datsun310Guy said:

mtn said:

I live in Chicagoland. I've spent enough time in enough places to know that this is not where I'd choose, although I do love the city. 

 

My choices would be somewhere in Wisconsin............

I too live in the Chicago area (Lockport) and I sometimes think of moving across the street from Road America.  In all seriousness, I really like the Door County, Wisconsin area.

My youngest brother lives south of Green Bay and has issues with not living the nightlife and activities that Chicago offers but the property you can buy compared to Chicago is killer.  

I thought you were in DG? We're in Elmhurt.

My wife and I have realized that for all the nightlife we hit up, it is mostly a dive-bar on the corner that is pretty similar to dive bars in Wisconsin. For the other events we actually go to (concerts, sports events) we can get it all in Milwaukee and/or Green Bay, other than the Blackhawks--but they're garbage now anyways. Besides, we'd save enough just on property taxes to take 10 weekend trips and stay in a nice hotel in the city.

I do love the Door County area when all the Chicagoans aren't there--yes I realize the irony in that statement. My wife's family just sold their place up there; it was very nice later in the summer after school had started. Would have been great without the rest of the in-laws having partial ownership of the damn place. We go across the Bay in Menominee/Marinette. 

All of this is very, very useful

Chicagoland probably will not be the answer this time, even though my wife is currently out in Lake county at the moment... We used to live on the south side and then for a while in wrigleyville plus frequent visits to the area as involved U Chicago alumni. We love it there but it has already been done.

In reply to SVreX :

Just googled it and will do some research. Sounds idyllic and probably a great part of the country too. Also sounds like my daughter will wind up with a pony not a junior cart...

I appreciate the input and always enjoy our conversations because of how thoughtful you tend to be. If not the right place for us to move to it certainly sounds like a nice get away for small weekend trips. Dangerous, though, getting so close to ATL and it's always tempting deals on CL!

In reply to tb :

Knowing you, it might be a good fit. 

Hey, maybe being close to ATL isn't so bad, if you've got a nice little farmette with a decent barn to put the stuff in!!  Lol!!