(sorry, just now saw your question)
Yep, Central Oregon is MUCH more expensive than Austin is, at least as far as house prices are concerned. It was a bit of a shock when I moved here.
Huntsville is indeed a neat place to live. It is small enough to feel at ease, yet big enough to have something to do. There is a lot of old Huntsville around (pre 50’s southern charm) with lots and lots of “brains”(Red Stone Arsenal started up in the 50’s) We do have LOTS of aerospace engineers. The downtown park is absolutely beautiful, and home to two large events Panoply in the spring and Big Spring Jam late summer. There has been quite a few good resturants opening up in the area as well. Real Estate prices here are quite reasonable as well. If your into hiking there are trails on Monte Sano and Green mountian. Depending on what your into there is something here.If you crave the hustle and bustle of a larger city Nashville and Birmingham are 2 hours away and Atlanta is 4 hours away.
Crime is not that big an issue here other than your day to day stuff. Public transportation is not that great, but traffic here even at rush hour is not much of an issue.
Aesthetics speaking it is a southern city with lots of charm.
Any other questions I can answer at your leasure.
Osip
If you’re worried about crime rates, consider moving to a Canadian city! Very low crime rates here, relatively speaking.
I know you didn’t ask about housing but the Northeast Ohio housing market is still “good” in my eyes. I see homes on TV (House Hunters, Flip that House, etc) out west that are 2 and 3 times more expensive than what you’d pay here for the same thing. My relatives live in Phoenix and were floored that I got such a “nice” house for $150k. Would have easily been $300k in Phoenix.
Also don’t forget that when you work in Cleveland there’s a huge metropolitan area in which you could live - all along the lake east and west, and south as far as Canton.
That would be a bargain basement price in Las Vegas!
I lived in Chicago a few years, and was born and raised 80 miles south west of Chicago.
I cannot think of a single bad thing to say about the city - but I have lots of bad things to say about the weather; freezing cold winters with wind chill factors that can kill ya, and in the summer the humidity is unbearable and the mosquitoes are the size of ponies. Other than than, a pleasant place to live.
Athens, Ga has a pretty fun downtown and nightlife what with being the home of University of Georgia. I’ve only really ever gone there to party with friends that go to school, so aside from that I’m not sure about the day to day life. As far as Atlanta you could live in the suburbs outside of it and crime wouldn’t really be an issue. Augusta, Georgia where I am from is not that bad a place to live. It is the second largest city in Georgia, though still about half the size of Atlanta, the living expenses are cheap, some good hospitals and restaurants.
Chicago’s a wonderful city! We moved here from Kansas City and I never want to go back there. If you’re going to move to Chicago though, live in Chicago, not “Chicagoland” which means the suburbs. Not that I can speak from much experience, since the burbs are a foreign country to me, but I’d think that the burbs of Chicago are just like the burbs around any other big city. Bland. Beige. Boring. Blah. You might as well be in a burb near Cleveland. If you’re going to come to Chicago (and I think everyone should experience it for a while), come to CHICAGO. There’s much to see and do.
If you’re thinking you’re going to leave in a few years, rent. We live on the northwest side and pay $900 a month for a very nice 3-bedroom in an old 2-flat (2-story house with 2 apartments, one on each floor), with lots of ethnic markets nearby and a block from the “el” (train to downtown). Our neighborhood is uber-ethnic, with several different flavors of Middle Eastern, Japanese, Thai, Korean and several different flavors of Hispanics all living together peacefully.
Like any city, there’s crime, more in some areas than others, but I’ll tell you what. I got mugged twice in Kansas City within the space of a year, and we’ve lived here 16 years and I’ve not only never been a victim of crime, I’ve never felt unsafe. I know other people have and it only takes once, but my experience, in ethnic neighborhoods of the type that freaked out my Iowa born and bred, Kansas farmer father, has been completely crime-free.
The past several years it hasn’t been too bad at all.
That’s why god made central air conditioning.
Now that’s odd. I have never had a mosquito bite. Not when we lived in Rogers Park, 6 blocks from the lake, and not when we’ve been to Ravinia (an upscale outdoor music festival for those who don’t know). Maybe I just repel them or somthing. You want mosquitos the size of ponies, go to Winnipeg!
Columbus may appear to be “white bread”, but it is anything but. Ohio State is one of the largest universities in the country, which brings along a large international population. The city has large ethnic groups ranging from Hispanic to Somali. During the summer months almost every weekend has some sort of festival along the riverfront.
The crime rate is low, but as with any city there are neighborhoods that have a higher rate than others.
Parts of the Columbus area are flat, acre after acre of farmland. But there is also quite a bit of land that is not flat. The Scioto and Olentangy rivers run through Columbus and have some well spoken of bike trails.
I think of Columbus as being a lot like Austin. Different weather, and smaller hipster scene. It is a great place to raise a family.
Here are two of the best reasons to live in Columbus: The Metroparks and The CAPA theaters (the summer movie series at the Ohio is my favorite part of summer)
I think everyone’s covered the three that I could chime in on (Charleston, Columbus and Cleveland.) The one thing I’d add about Columbus is that I would not want to drive I-270 as part of my daily commute. That would be a factor for me in looking for housing.
WVmom, I grew up in Charleston, too! I sent you an e-mail.
I second the love for Columbus. I lived there for about 15 years.
Columbus has some major things going for it–the cost of living is low, the wages are high, and there are some real hidden gems and a suprising amount of diversity. If you live in some of the suburbs, or the newer exurbs, Columbus can seem like a very white-bread, bland, dully strip-malled place. But if you’re living in Clintonville, or Victorian Village, or German Village, you’d feel very different about the city.
Ohio State has something interesting going on almost all the time. If you’re into the arts, check out The Wexner Center.
As howye mentioned, there are some great street festivals in the summer. These include (but aren’t limited to) Comfest, Jazz and Rib Fest, and the Arts Festival. Not to mention the Asian Festival, the Indian Festival, and lots of other, smaller fun things in summer–the Dublin Irish Festival, the Doo Dah parade on the 4th of July, and others. Oh, and there are really wonderful bluegrass festivals that happen in and around central Ohio for about 5 or 6 months of the year.
Ohio has a lot of very beautiful natural places, beyond the Columbus-area metroparks (which are great.) You can get to any of them within a few hours from Columbus. We have the gorgeous Old Man’s Cave, in the Hocking Hills, about 1.5 to 2 hours southeast. There are the Oak Openings, which you should definitely visit. And don’t miss the islands in Lake Erie, especially Kelley’s island, which has aalvar, a strikingly beautiful type of biome not found anywhere else on Earth except some rocky places on Scandinavian coastline. I’m not making that up.
You’ll need a car; public transit is pretty rudimentary. And it may take you a bit to find the really great restaurants and to make your friends. You may find that you don’t like Ohio winters; I can’t say I ever liked them. But those are the only real downsides to the city for most people. I’d recommend it to almost anyone, especially to people with families.
If you want recommendations for restaurants or other fun stuff to do, feel free to send me an e-mail.
Oh, and another thing about Columbus–if you decide to go back to school as a so-called “non-traditional” student, Columbus is definitely the place to do it.
Unlike with many universities, there is almost no “town vs. gown” distinction at OSU. The student body is very diverse, and the university is pretty good about offering night classes, summer sessions, continuing education credits, etc. It also coordinates its schedules with the major community college, Columbus State, and I’ve been told OSU is great about awarding transfer credit.
The general public is absolutely welcome at almost all university-wide events (with a few exceptions, most of which you probably won’t care about, anyway.) And at most movie screenings, public lectures, etc. in the evenings, you’ll find a pretty diverse crowd, much of which is made up of Columbusites who don’t have all that much to do with OSU.
Let’s not leave Houston, Tx out of the mix. A wonderful place for the most part: great theater district, bustling economy, fascinating museums, NASA, the Astros, and a whole lot more.
I lived in the People’s Republic of Austin for 12 years. Nice place, but I was glad to get back to Houston.
Here’s what I can tell you about Boise, Idaho:
[ul]
[li]Crime rates- According to city-data.com Boise has a lower crime rate than average. Murders are very rare (none at all in 2004).[/li][li]Economy- There are several high-tech employers here such as Hewlett-Packard and Micron Technology. The overall economic health here is stable.[/li][li]Transportation- Like most cities, the traffic sucks, the streets are overcrowded and congested and a lot of streets are in need of repair. Boise has a bus system, but I don’t use it so I can’t really say much about it.[/li][li]Recreation (any and all)- Lots of recreational opportunities abound! Bogus Basin is just 45 minutes away if you’re into snow skiing. Other ski areas can be reached within a few hours’ drive time. There are plenty of lakes and reservoirs in the nearby mountains, which provide hiking, biking, hunting and fishing opportunities. The Boise River runs right through the city and has a nice bike path all along it, called the Greenbelt.[/li][li]Aesthetics- Boise is a clean, well-kept city, plenty of nice architecture and an abundance of trees and landscaping (Boise is derived from the French word for tree). There are a few shoddy run-down buildings here and there, but this will be found in any city.[/li][/ul]