I’ve lived in the Boston area (off and on) for the better part of the last 9 years and I’m done. Too many cold winters and too many cold people have me looking for a new city in which to live. The criteria are a bit nebulous and the standard “statistics” that are used to rate cities seem so… off the mark. So here’s the general idea.
There’s got to be culture. Not operas and museums (though those are cool too), but more intangible culture: good ethnic restaurants, pubs and clubs of different stripes, outdoor space in which people actually congregate.
A stable and/or growing job market in technology and related fields.
Housing that doesn’t cost 50% of my income and/or look like Soviet block apartments.
Neighborhoods with an identity and residents who care about them.
Open-minded, warm-hearted people.
Weather that doesn’t completely suck 6+ months out of the year.
Educational institutions are usually a good thing too. Particularly ones that feel like a member of their community. You know what I mean.
I’m not looking for perfection here (ok, I am), but there has to be something out there that meets at least most of these criteria and has that intangible “rightness” to it.
By way of example, I’m thinking of cities like:
Portland, OR
Santa Fe, NM
Burlington, VT
Portland, ME
Seattle, WA
San Fran, CA
Vancouver, BC
Toronto, ON
Yes, this is Northeast and West Coast focused. I grew up in Ohio and have a bit of a bias against the heartland and the bible belt. But maybe I’m wrong? Have I missed a real gem? Are some of the cities I’m considering not what they seem?
My wife has a thing for Madison WI. Its beautiful, has a major university and the cost of living ish’t outrageous, like it is here in the Bay Area. I don’t know about the job market since we are just thinking about this move ourselves. Good luck though
I can vouch for Toronto as being a nice place to live, with almost everything on your list - but you’d still have that cold winter thing to deal with. Good luck!
My vote is for Burlington, VT. I lived in Montreal for many years and spent many summer weekends cycling and winter weekends skiing in that area. Great University and just a peaceful and rejeuvenating place to live because of the mountains, lake and city itself. Mind you, the job market is pretty weak and you’ve got colder/longer winters than Boston… wher I lived for two years as well.
A very close second is San Francisco. I lived there as well for almost two years.
I think most people can be happy most places if they try to look at their surroundings without bias. No place you move to is going to be like the place you grew up, or exactly like any place you have previously lived.
I think almost every city/region on earth has a certain beauty to it and that people could probably find themselves happy in places they’d never imagine if they were willing to put aside their hang ups about things.
As it is though considering the things you’re looking for, no the bible belt really isn’t the best idea. Though Columbus, OH IMO meets a lot of the criteria you list, St. Louis isn’t a bad city for the mid west, New Orleans is a great city and it’s in the deep south.
One that might be off your radar that I can heartily recommend is Houston, Texas. It has tons of culture of all varieties, from high brow through low, and meets all of your criteria with a caveat for number 6, that being that some people consider it hot during the summer. It doesn’t bother me, and our winters are certainly mild by most standards.
I recently noted in another thread, I didn’t know I had it so good (cost of living), that, to my surprise, that the cost of living here is surprisingly low for such a huge city. We have a robust economy, bustling nightlife, several universities (I live next door to both St. Thomas University and the Menil, which is the outer edge of the Museum District), and you’d be close to the meeting point of three distinct ecospheres. Austin and Galveston are a hop, skip and a jump away.
While I’ll readily admit I may be biased, I find the people here to be great - if I walk into a pub alone and sit down at the bar, I’m going to wind up talking to somebody, and if I get on an elevator with someone, there’s at least a 50% chance I’m going to have some kind of conversation with them. Maybe that’s just me.
You don’t have to pay a lot to live in the Bay Area. I have a great 1 bedroom joint near downtown Oakland for 900 bucks. It’s a lot colder for a lot longer in Burlington, but otherwise it’s a pretty great place to live.
Obviously, you and I have different definitions of “paying a lot.” $900 for a one-bedroom is outrageous to me.
Pittsburgh fulfills all of the requirements except for the tech market one. I don’t think Pgh is a big tech area, at least not in the way the Bay Area or Seattle is. But it does have colorful, distinct neighborhoods, good weather (if you like cold and overcast days–and I do, I couldn’t live somewhere where it was sunny 24/7), and cheap rents. I pay $390/mo for half of a large two-bedroom apt located in a house (I don’t like complexes) that is right on a bus line. I’ve been researching Denver for awhile since it may be the next place I move, and from what I’ve read it sounds like it could be a match for you, though it snows a lot there.
Really, the West Coast isn’t the best place to move if you don’t want to pay a lot in rent, though being from Boston you might be used to shelling out a lot. All of my research into San Francisco (it was one of the places I wanted to move to once upon a time) didn’t turn up any rents for one-person apts that were any less than $650/mo, and the square footage was way less than a comparably priced apartment in a less trendy city.
Have you considered Minneapolis? Again, it’s in the Midwest, but from what I’ve heard the rents are decent (you can get a good-sized one-bedroom for $500) and there’s a fairly decent cultural climate. Based on the few I’ve met, Upper Midwesterners seem like some of the nicest people in America. Don’t know if they have many tech jobs though.
What about the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill “Triangle” in North Carolina? Sounds exactly like what you want, with probably much nicer weather than Vermont, Seattle, or Canada, and a hell of a lot less expensive than San Francisco.