Tell me about your (small) town!

[rawffle]

I want to live somewhere new. I have lived in OK, TX, and CA - near San Francisco and in OC.

Here's what I'm looking for -

sense of community
jobs for a massage therapist or raw food teacher :)
suburb of a cool city
good (and cheap) community college
dog-friendly
I don't really like cold weather
affordable rents, etc
able to garden!
lots of hills, instead of flat
a balance of conservative/progressive citizens - or just nice people in general!
I like to take photos
must have chiropractors
public transport would be a plus.


That's about all I can think of right now. I feel the need to start over. Tell me about where you live! :) It doesn't necessarily have to be a small town - it would be nice not to have to buy gasoline.

[rawnhealthy]

I know of a couple places that fit everything but the cold weather.

[annavon]

I live in Gold Canyon Arizona which is sort of a suburb of Phoenix. You can garden spring and summer, but the dirt is hard. We have some cold weather in December and January, but no snow. Most of the time it is warm and HOT in the summer. Public transport is severely lacking. Tempe is better for that. Tempe is a college town so pretty fun. I really like Tuscon. Smaller city and more sense of community etc. If I had visited there before I moved to Arizona, I would have lived there. But alas, I have a good job in Mesa (just east of Tempe) and don't want to change jobs.

[rawffle]

I'm daydreaming about living in Ireland s lot, lately. :eek:

I guess I've never let myself venture that this could be a possibility!

[juliebove]

Here in Bothell we have some of that stuff. Got the hills for sure! Suburb of a cool city, yes. Great for gardening and although we do get some snow, not a lot compared to places like NY, and not too much really cold weather. Not too much hot weather either. People here are really into health foods and although there are a lot of massage therapists around, one more probably wouldn't hurt. I suppose we have a sense of community. Don't know. Not really sure what that means. The people are nice. Got plenty of chiropractors and the one I go to is very reasonable in price. Not sure if it is dog friendly. I am a cat person. Not sure about photos. I'm not a photo person.

As for the rest of your list, pretty much no. Prices are very high. No community college in this city, but there is a UW campus here. And it's not cheap. There is public transportation to some but only some places and it's limited.

[rawffle]

Thank you for the reply! I just don't feel like I've found "my place". I've moved a lot. Maybe I'm not finished moving around.

[juliebove]

Thank you for the reply! I just don't feel like I've found "my place". I've moved a lot. Maybe I'm not finished moving around.

Maybe you should try an astrological chart to see where is best suited to you. I am where I should be. Even if it is expensive!

[rawffle]

Wow, can you tell me how that works?? (I love that stuff)

[freespirit]

I live in New Smyrna Beach florida. definite sense of community, warm weather, have public transport but i dont know how it is as i hvae never used it...but everything is within a 5 minute drive. i dont know how rent is, i own, but the market is flooded w houses for sale, so rent may be cheap. community college, we have a dog park on the inlet. beautiful scenery, very nice and friendly people. no hills- but it is very quaint and charming. i love it. i do bikram yoga so no need for a chiro, and massage therapists are all around.

[petaltothemetal]

I want to live somewhere new. I have lived in OK, TX, and CA - near San Francisco and in OC.

Here's what I'm looking for -

sense of community
jobs for a massage therapist or raw food teacher :)
suburb of a cool city
good (and cheap) community college
dog-friendly
I don't really like cold weather
affordable rents, etc
able to garden!
lots of hills, instead of flat
a balance of conservative/progressive citizens - or just nice people in general!
I like to take photos
must have chiropractors
public transport would be a plus.




Sounds to me like you're looking for the suburbs of Eugene Oregon... everything you want is on that list except public transportation once you get out of town. Rent in town is high for Oregon, but low compared to where I used to live in Virginia.

[RawKnitster]

Here in Bothell we have some of that stuff.

I second that! We do have 4 seasons. And rent is not so cheap $800-$900 for a one bedroom apt. Everything else on your list....YES! There is Cascadia Community College. It shares a campus with the University of Washington's Bothell campus. I don't think it's cheap but then have nothing to compare it to. Bothell is definitely dog friendly. There are lots of parks and miles of paved trails. The city even provides doggy scooper bags at most of the parks and trail heads.

Good luck with your search! :)

[juliebove]

I second that! We do have 4 seasons. And rent is not so cheap $800-$900 for a one bedroom apt. Everything else on your list....YES! There is Cascadia Community College. It shares a campus with the University of Washington's Bothell campus. I don't think it's cheap but then have nothing to compare it to. Bothell is definitely dog friendly. There are lots of parks and miles of paved trails. The city even provides doggy scooper bags at most of the parks and trail heads.

Good luck with your search! :)

Really? I didn't know that. I stand corrected!

[juliebove]

Wow, can you tell me how that works?? (I love that stuff)

I sent away for one many years ago. These days you can get them online, but I don't know about the location one. You might have to pay for it.

[Apasaraw]

The Antelope Valley of California has all of the above. But it is the High Desert so Summer gets HOT. I used to live in the Bay Area and San Diego and I find I love it here. Small town feel, history and super nice folk but all the grandeurs of a city if and when you want them. LA is an hour away...and that's great! Clean air here too. Antelope Valley Jr College is here. Great classes and teachers and rather large.
http://www.avc.edu/

Rolling hills, a few mountains, Joshua trees etc. and we have the poppies that we are know for. http://www.avacres.com/av3_lrg.jpg

Market for massage therapist for sure! Hollywood types live in one area and that's your market for that...as well as nearby Air Force. Pilots and race car drivers as well. No raw food teachers out here at all really...at least none tooting their horn. So the market is there for this too. Plus with L.A. raw is not unusual here. We have a hub health food store as well that's a mini whole foods as well as Trader Joe's for raw nuts and such. Also have organic veggie and fruits as farms are near by. Horses are allowed all over...but it's got Target, malls, and all the goods and services.

I love eating from a farm, riding a bike in the hills and then going to a movie or shopping in town..and even heading "down below" to Pasadena or L.A. for fun events too. (1 hr) Best of both worlds for me...and I feel safe here. :) (I'm in Rosamond which has grand plans to create parks, trails etc and our own water plans as well)


The market crashed so you could probably get a great house for cheap if ya wanted. (90-120k all the way up to 250k) Rents are 800-900.

Burbs are:
Quartz Hill
Palmdale
Lancaster
Rosamond


Pix here:
http://www.radicalurbantheory.com/_img/mjalbert/AntelopeValley32.jpg

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=antelope%20valley&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

[Apasaraw]

Sounds to me like you're looking for the suburbs of Eugene Oregon... everything you want is on that list except public transportation once you get out of town. Rent in town is high for Oregon, but low compared to where I used to live in Virginia.

Eugene is gorgeous!!!

[sport]

I'm daydreaming about living in Ireland s lot, lately. :eek:

I guess I've never let myself venture that this could be a possibility!

http://www.kinsale.ie/
This is where I live
You are welcome to come for a visit.

[fjernsyn]

sense of community
jobs for a massage therapist or raw food teacher :)
suburb of a cool city
good (and cheap) community college
dog-friendly
I don't really like cold weather
affordable rents, etc
able to garden!
lots of hills, instead of flat
a balance of conservative/progressive citizens - or just nice people in general!
I like to take photos
must have chiropractors
public transport would be a plus.



My hometown of Port Townsend, Washington seems to fit that bill.
-It certainly has a sense of community - lots of events, people know each other and get involved.
-There is a massage school there, which could mean the market is saturated with massage therapists. There is a raw food center there called Annapurna. -It's not a suburb of anywhere, which I really appreciate about it. But it is less than two hours from Seattle.
-There is a branch of Peninsula Community College there, which I attended my last year of high school. It's in a beautiful old building in a state park, and I loved it!
-Definitely dog friendly. It's a tiny peninsula with beaches on every side. Lots of paths for walking. There are also two dog parks, and lots of stores have water for dogs.
-Summers are usually in the 70's, winters usually in the 40's. It does get hotter in the summers and colder in the winters sometimes. It usually snows once a year, and it lasts for about a day - just long enough for everyone to take the day off work and enjoy it. Snow never becomes a hassle there.
-Houses themselves are expensive in Port Townsend, but there are a lot of mother-in-law apartments and such for what I consider to be reasonable prices.
-Definitely able to garden.
-Very hilly. Downtown is the lowest point and from there, everything is up! Also, it's surrounded by the Olympic mountains.
-Definitely progressive-leaning. Farmer's markets, co-op with lots of local produce, Port Townsend Peace Movement, big fights to keep box stores out, etc. Definitely conservatives there too, though. Most people seem to mesh well.
-Water on three sides, lots of Victorian buildings, mountains and people - lots of things to take pictures of.
-There are several chiropracters.
-And finally, there is a bus system. It's nothing like a big-city system in terms of frequency of buses, but it'll take you to the beaches, grocery stores, uptown, downtown, etc.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1268/1194029059_7f60554764.jpg?v=0

Good luck in your search!

[bsqmurphy]

I second the mention of Eugene, OR. You might also consider Bellingham, WA. We are known as the "city of subdued excitement"



Here's what I'm looking for -

sense of community Definately
jobs for a massage therapist or raw food teacher :) Probably - there are a lot of thriving massage practices and I've seen mention of 2 raw food teachers, but I think the community is ready for more
suburb of a cool city Not really a suburb. We're 90 minutes from Seattle, WA and 90 minutes from Vancouver, BC - both great cities for day/weekend trips, but too much traffic & noise for me to live
good (and cheap) community collegeYep - technical college and community college and state university
dog-friendlyTotally - several off leash dog parks
I don't really like cold weatherI don't know what you define as cold. We are considered "temperate" - summer is 70's, winter is 40's & 50's. We get one week each year of "heat wave" in the summer in the 80's and one week per year of a "cold snap" in the winter around 30.
affordable rents Yep - $300-$400/mo for a room; $400-$600 for 1/2 a larger house or for a studio apt.; $600-$1000 for 2bedroom apt or small house
able to garden! Absolutely in the spring/summer/fall - ground's too hard & too much frost at night in the winter
lots of hills, instead of flat WE have amazing landscape & foothills to the cascade mountains - tons of trails - and puget sound for beach & island access.
a balance of conservative/progressive citizens - or just nice people in general!-- The town is pretty progressive & the county residents are more conservative, so we have an interesting mix.
I like to take photos
must have chiropractors --Yep
public transport would be a plus. -- Easy to use (everything goes through downtown for easy transfers) and $20 for a monthly pass.



More Details:
http://www.bellingham.org/
http://www.cob.org/

Good luck on your search!

[Ilse W.]

I can vouch for Pt. Townsend. It's not very far from where I live, and I used to have to catch the ferry there to go to Whidbey Island to visit my daughter when they were stationed there. It is absolutely beautiful and things are just the way fjersyn said. I wish I had moved there instead of Sequim (although I love my little house here), because the people here are more right leaning and not as tolerant with each other as in PT. I can take the bus from here to PT for $1.25 roundtrip to shop at the co-op. Pretty cool. Sequim itself is in a beautiful location, between the Olympic Mountains and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. I can see the mountains out my living area windows, and the water is to the other side and the waves lull me to sleep at night. It's a retirement community and lots of people like to get massages here. Most of the people who live here came from elsewhere, a lot from California. They have the money to spend on massages. I frequently see want ads for therapists in the classifieds.

[RawKnitster]

Am I doing the math correctly on this....5 out of the 10 answers on this thread are in Washington State?

[fjernsyn]

haha! Well, I think a lot of us are proud of our places. On the other hand, it's still a semi-reasonable hour here. Maybe that's a factor as well?

[rawffle]

Wow, so much information! Thank you all so much! I'm really not surprised to see so many posts about Washington and Oregon. What to do, what to do? :D

[Eva]

Go wherever you dream. Just 4-5 months ago I was really wanting to come to Budapest but was worried it would cause problems for my marriage. Well, I realized that if I was unhappy and/or unfulfilled, that would cause more problems in the long run. Life is meant to be lived. This is a temporary move for me anyways, as moves can be. Next up for me (us! not just me) might be Brazil (husband is Brazilian, and uh, it's paradise. Hmmm. Lots of cities in Brazil would fit your description very well!!!) or the Jacksonville Beaches (grew up there, love it, husband just visited my mom and also apparently loves it now...)

If you want to go to WA/OR, go for it. If you really are dreaming of Ireland -- go for it! You're young, YOU don't have kids or a marriage, and even if you WEREN'T all of those things, no problem would be too big to figure out how to go where your heart leads you.

By the way -- I think Austin, TX fits your description, as does St. Augustine, FL.
Both have:
-community colleges
-sense of community
-thriving raw communities with thriving raw teachers
-haven't looked into chiropractors but would imagine yes
-public transport in Austin but hmmm, not sure about St. Augustine b/c never lived there. Actually, I never lived in Austin either but have visited enough and have friends there who just won't leave. Except one. She hated it and moved to NYC.
-neither place is cheap or super expensive
-warm weather year round
-pretty places
-nice people, etc.

[rawffle]

I absolutely love Austin. You're so insightful! Thank you for encouraging me! :)

[oshnlovr]

I absolutely suggest Srpingfield, Oregon, a suburb of Eugene. There is a bit of rain but temperate, coooooool city, progressive people, University, great growing season, wonderful friendly people, walking/running/biking paths. Great parks, dog firendly. Awesome Farmer's Market. If my husband would go I would be there. I lived up the McKenzie River in Leaburg for a while and it really is a great area!!!!

[rawffle]

That sounds so nice!

For now, I may hang around here to do my prerequisite classes. I'm now trying to decide between Chiropractic and Naturopathy. Whichever I decide will determine where I end up! I hope the 60 semester hours ZOOM by...

[oshnlovr]

THere are great schools in Portland for both and nice little towns around Portland. People seem to love Portland.

[rawffle]

I've never been there, but Portland always seemed like a really cool place. At least, I've met a lot of cool people from there.

[cavany]

I live 10 minutes down the road from sport in www.clonakilty.ie it doesn't fit the bill completly. The weather its not very cold but overcast and wet a lot, and the public transport would be a problem.

I think you should travel a little and experience the world no reason why you can't live a short time in all the places mentioned above. As for the career the choices you have made are good and you will always find employment in this profession.

You mentioned photos. so I encluded one from my garden looking at Red Strand.