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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

Hope that helps.  Please let me know what your priorities are in a city and I can try to give you some suggestions.[/quote]

You're amazing - really grateful for the thorough answers.

What I'm looking for in a city: non-car dependent, social, four seasons (but not crazy like a minnesota winter or anything), friendly, and a good mix of racial/ethnic diversity. I don't mind hipsters at all and I love a good coffee. I'd like a city with some history and more 'traditional' architecture, a congenial atmosphere - farmers markets etc, with an awesome downtown or historic district, and not in the Southwest.

The idea of Newport, Rhode Island really draws me but at the same time it looks so small that I wonder if its a 'families who've lived here for generations type deal' and everyone else is outsiders, you know?

Basically I think I'll end up on a coast somewhere, I just have to *find* the magic place. I did a mini-road trip to Asheville, SC and to Charlotte, NC - but the former was much too small for me. I saw most of downtown in a day and then you need to get on the freeway to go anywhere else. As for Charlotte, its also really car dependent. Charleston really made me fall in love  - it had everything on the wish list except for the four seasons.

[/quote]

Yes, definitely.  Sounds like you are looking for a lot of the same things I am looking for (with some difference) and it's truly amazing how going to a city can change your whole idea of it.  Places you thought you'd love you end up  hating and places you had never thought of you end up loving!

I wonder if I had an intuition that you would like Portland, and that's why i threw it out there, because it really seems to fit all your criteria so perfectly, funnily enough.   :)  For a city in the west it's shockingly walkable- they have this incredible trolley system so you can really go anywhere and be totally carless.  A lot of the neighborhoods are also incredibly photogenic and cute so walking through them is a treat.  People are pretty friendly (especially when you compare it to other cities in the PNW).  It kind of leans white in terms of racial diversity but there also seems to be a lot of mixing and openness- it's not a city that seems racially divided.  It gets all four seasons and fall is particularly amazing and vivid there- but it does stay pretty temperate.  The coffee is AMAZING there and the architecture is surprisingly historical and beautiful- though much of it is from the early 1900s versus the older buildings you will find in DC.  Definitely a lot of farmers markets and those kinds of events, and the COL is much lower than here.

I feel like cities in Tennessee might really fit your criteria also.  Nashville or Knoxville.  I have spent some time in the Roanoke area of Virginia, which I think would be too small for what you've described.  Have yet to spend time in the cities of Tennessee, but it's where I plan to visit next, to get a sense of them.

Another city I would throw out there is Reno NV.  Walkability is less overall, but they get all 4 seasons, a low COL, and a really cool vibe. Definitely a hipster population, with cool places to eat and closeness to the beauty of Lake Tahoe.  People are really friendly and it just has a cool vibe.

San Francisco is wonderful, if you can afford it.  It is sooooooo shockingly expensive though- for me, I couldn't justify paying what people pay to live there.  I have a friend who rents a loft for $4000 a month, and there is a homeless encampment outside her front door.  That's a problem all over the west, both in Los Angeles and Portland, though IMO it's markedly worse in both Seattle and San Francisco, where the situation seems almost completely out of control.  But on the rest of your criteria, San Francisco definitely fits the bill- beautiful seasons (but fairly mild temps), can be totally carless, hipsters, great farmers markets, and so historic.

Seattle might also work, although i find the people to be insufferably rude.  You also kind of need a car there, as the public transit system is downright God-awful.  You could ostensibly live without a car if you never left the city, but you would need one if you want to go anywhere you can't walk to.  Or you could take the bus, but they are always crazy crowded and have to drive down the HOV lane of the highway since there is no rail system  :shock:

I hope that helps.  I definitely recommend taking a road trip if you can, and spending a couple days in each place to get a read for the vibe.  Sometime some place will have all the features you want, but there will be one thing that's a dealbreaker, as was the case for me in Seattle with the people there.  It's good to go someplace for a while and feel it out- wake up and walk to get coffee, imagine how you would spend your day.  We should keep each other updated on where we end up cause it will probably be similar places, haha [/quote]

We're like twins! I swear I've been considering Seattle or Portland (mainly because I fell in love with the cityscapes on NBC's Grimm). I happen to really enjoy rainy weather so the Washington cities have been of interest to me for awhile. I just haven't visited an area that far Northwest before and my family happens to be on the East Coast - so the idea is a bit scary. I think I will need to spend a few weeks out there and see if it gives me an even better vibe than Charleston, SC.

Then there's the question of if I want to move to a city that's basically as expensive as DC or just stay where I am. I was considering smaller cities which I also knew I'd be comfortable semi-retired in - though I'm not even mid-thirties. It's just a weird dynamic of planning ahead and looking for a vibrant culture.[/quote]

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