Florida is kind of awful, so what other places would be good (preferably states with high diversity, liberal politics, LGBT rights, and little to no natural disasters would be best)?
Not considering future water wars, the southern border so you can go into Mexico for Healthcare more easily.
It is unfortunate that I do not understand Spanish, because it makes going down there not an option.
if you speak english it only takes a couple months of intense study to learn spanish. Do not use Duolingo.
well, as someone who doesn’t live in america, the less damaging places are new york, minneapolis, houston and minnesota (because it seems that those are the most active places against AI data centers ICE and stuff
Jealous that you do not live in America :<
Probably gonna stay away from Houston because Texas is kind of eh
I did not know those places were against AI data centers though
Minneapolis, MN. There is a reason the federal govt continues to attack MN. We have free health care for poor, free school lunches for kids, safest US city for LGBTQ+, low rate of housing cost increase, etc. And we have a surplus every year. The electoral college has not gone to a republican in decades. It’s not even close to socialism but people here do want some kind of functional sensible leaders, not weird demagogues whining about trans. Voting rate is highest in the country (not that I am a big electorialist or anything, but it’s a sign of a somewhat engaged public). Basically by US capitalist standards it’s one of the better places you could end up. Hit me up if you want more info. I live in a commune with 5 others right outside the city.
Hello! Minnesota sounds interesting, and might be a good option for me if what you mention about healthcare for the poor and it being a safe city for LGBT are anything to go by. I do want more information, though maybe we should talk through a different platform for privacy if you want or need?
There are a lot of cities that fit that description, but being the US, you’re not going to find a lot of good options that have a decent overall quality of life, and aren’t incredibly expensive.
The best metrics to look for IMO are:
- Bikability
- Usable public transportation (< 10 US cities have this)
- Good infrastructure / livability
- Green spaces / parks
That leaves only a few options, all of which are expensive, but still far better than any other alternative:
My top picks are:
- San Francisco / bay area
- Washington DC area
- Boston area
- Seattle area
I’ve lived in many of these places and can vouch for them.
I personally hate these below, because they’re grimy / filthy, have a ton of cops, and are filled with podcasters, but they do have good public transportation and a few other redeemable things.
- NYC area
- Chicago area
- Philadelphia area
are filled with podcasters
🤢
Thank you for the in-depth reply, comrade! It is unfortunate that the options you listed are expensive, but due to personal circumstances, I doubt they will matter much in the long-term. Honestly, many places would be better in Florida if I decided that I could be less strict, but I do want to make my move count.
Having good public transportation is definitely really important! I hate how I am basically stuck where I am without much in the way of acceptable public transportation (though living in a city might slightly remedy that problem).
Oregon and Washington.
Any specific reasons why? I have seen those two recommended occasionally, but I wonder what your reasons for them are.
- Good public transportation, including the MAX
- Lots of diversity
- Several shelters and food banks, altho funds have been cut
- There are close-knit groups ready to defend queer people
I don’t know much about Washington, but from what I’ve heard, it’s mostly the same. What I especially like is the solidarity here. Maybe I should not have written that, since other suggestions are more in-depth, but from what I’ve seen in Portland it isn’t bad.
Huh, I mostly heard bad things about Portland from people, but I hope that what they said was not true.
if you’re looking for queer community, I don’t think there’s a larger one than NYC. and personally the only place I would want to live in the U.S. is NYC, since most urban areas are just as expensive without good public transit.
I have heard pretty negative things about New York subways though, but I am unsure of the validity of those claims.
From all my travels and places I’ve lived while working, Lancaster Pennsylvania fits your criteria and is not exorbitantly expensive as are the major metropolitan areas.
Pro-LGBT, college town with a historic black college, major art college, the city has a high left leaning population, strong PSL branch, highly diverse with a healthy mix of various Black, Asian, Hispanic, and “ethnic” white populations. Fairly decent communal transport, good community support networks.
The Pennsylvanian valley area also has virtually no natural disasters. Maybe a tiny heavily weakened hurricane from down south will come through as a strong thunderstorm once every few years, but that’s all.
All around decent city. Reminded me a little of the smaller cities in Belarus.
In general, Pennsylvania is a commonly overlooked and very good choice, though some research is required as some areas are basically the Deep South, but those are easy to avoid.
Lancaster is great!
Never heard of this place before, but it sounds pretty nice. I have also not heard much about Pennsylvania, so I ought to research it more (and I dig the lack of tornados).
Vermont has all of those things except high diversity, but it does offer easy access to getting outside of the US quickly. It’s also incredibly pretty, there are no billboards, and the cost of living is very high.
First time I have ever heard of Vermont as a good option. What makes it unique (in both good and bad ways)?
The population is around 650k, which means it’s usually at the best end of statistical data, the most people with secondary education, largest yards, but it also means the crime rate seems high, especially with data calculated per capita. It’s absolutely gorgeous, it has more than four seasons, the snow is great, it doesn’t generally get too hot during the summer, the people are very nice, it’s a bit of a food desert, but there’s also a strong reliance on local farm to table food. The beer is some of the best in the country, the cheese is fantastic, the drivers aren’t horrible, it’s relatively close to three major cities, it’s a great place to work remotely, there’s a strong focus on local government, the gun culture is more on the leftist side, and it’s the bluest state, even if far more work is needed to get it to be actually leftist.
“Best end”? I guess a somewhat medium-sized population (I think?) can be good in some ways, though I am not sure of the specifics right now. Basically, from what you said, it is a state based on farming and is somewhat rural (which would be a different experience for my self).
“Best end” as opposed to a state like Mississippi. Highest literacy, that sort of thing.
Colorado, Oregon, Washington, and California have good pro-trans laws. Oregon and Washington are very rainy though, and Southern California is very hot. EDIT: So I looked it up and apparently SoCal is cooler than Denver in the summer :O.
Would not have expected that from southern California. Not sure if I want to deal with the high cost of living over there regardless.
I think it’s the Pacific winds. Cost of living is typically higher in states with stronger pro trans laws v.v I think it’s way worth it tho
The way you phrased it sounds like having stronger trans laws in place increases cost of living (even though that might not be what you meant), but it is definitely worth it to move to such states than staying where I am.
Denver CO is very LGBTQ friendly from my understanding. The NE area typically ranks high on LGBTQ protections, but you’ll have to deal with the winters, but some of the NE states can be pretty segregated.
Interesting recommendation (Colorado). What do you mean by “segregated”?
CT for example is the 6th most segregated state in the country. Their white and non-white populations are not intermixed at all, they collected together, and in many cases it’s because of the housing market works and the way they create low income housing zones. So instead of mixing low income housing across the towns and cities they will concentrate them in specific locations which effectively segregates the population.
How very unfortunate, but that might still be better than Florida sadly.
My guess would be de facto racial segregation
There is really nowhere that fits your description.
No states are fully liberal politics, only metropolitan areas and some hamlets are like that but the majority of rural areas even in so called blue states are conservative. The same can be said about LGBTQ+ rights, these might exist to some degree in big cities but outside of cities it is usually very hostile. Most of the areas that are relatively liberal and pro LGBTQ+ are also usually lacking in diversity. Finally, natural disasters are everywhere and getting worse. Even areas that are supposedly better off from climate change like great lakes area suffer greatly from wildfires and smoke. You really would need to dial in your priorities and go from there.
If you want ethnic diversity and relative progressive politics including for LGBTQ+ people you have NYC, LA, SF, maybe Chicago, maybe Philly.
Most other cities and states are very conservative even if progressive elements exist there, they are not gaining any ground and are often under threat
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I was not asking for a state that had all of them, and I do recognize that there is not any state with fully liberal politics or rights for the LGBT community. It comes off as a bit rude to basically snub my question when I said “preferably” and did not imply “fully” anything.
Edit: On second thought, I misread what you said and assumed you meant all of the listed traits (or I mistyped), but I still stand by the fact that your answer confused me.
I answered your question thoroughly and gave several options of cities that might fit the bill. Good luck
Everywhere will have more natural disasters going forward but the upper Midwest will be affected somewhat less. I think Minnesota and Michigan are both worth looking into I have spent a fair amount of time there as some of my family lives there and had fairly positive experiences. Personally I find the cold winters relatively pleasant (as someone who has spent most of my life on the west coast) but ymmv. Personally I live in Washington, and I’d definitely recommend most of Western Washington. There are also some very friendly areas throughout Oregon and California, though we have wildfires in the rural areas (will make an effort post about wildfire myths, misconceptions and how to not get as fucked by them at some point in the near future when I have time). Don’t bother with trying to move to Seattle, Portland, San Francisco or Los Angeles, they are all very unaffordable. Id recommend many second and third tier cities of Washington, Oregon and even California though, especially if the weather of the Midwest is gnarly for you.
What is life in Washington like? It is not a state that tends to get much attention (in comparison to Florida, California, and New York).
It’s pretty cool. The west is a temperate rainforest, which is a beautiful and interesting environment. I currently live in a rural part of western Washington which has a fair share of chuds, but they are simewhat less rabid/easier to reason with than those in other areas in my experience. Also some cool folks, several reservations, some queer communities etc.
Olympia is a neat place, pretty, good music and art scene, active queer scene. Pretty solid.
Outside Seattle-Tacoma, there are a bunch of towns and islands around puget sound with ferries between them which is kinda fun. Some of the places are neat.
Seattle-Tacoma area definitely has a lot of cool people and projects, and outside of Seattle proper you might be even be able to afford to exist there. Unfortunately a lot of the industry there is weapons manufacturing. Don’t have that much detail to go into Seattle because I don’t really like big cities so I don’t really spend time there
Eastern Washington is very different. The weather is hotter and dryer and the chuds are more rabid. Way more idaho style Christian nationalist militia guys with a smattering of white homeland insurrectionary Nazis. Still some decent people and places here and there, and very pretty. Also home to major reservations, a small wine making region and of course the mighty Columbia river
Oh, Washington sounds pretty interesting (especially with all the rainforests and stuff).
Are there any common natural disasters, specific areas to avoid, recommended places to settle, etc?
Im from Washington, I would study the geography of the area if youre interested in this state. Eastern Washington is a significantly dryer climate, hot summers, frigid winters and flowing plains and low hills. The middle seasons are typically mild with a decent amount of rain either in Spring or Fall.
Western Washington is considerably cooler, quite a bit more humid (though any East Coaster will tell you this is nothing and theyre probably right.) You will have year round rainfall, it is mostly light rain with occasional heavy rain and plenty of overcast days. The extreme seasons of Summer and Winter are fairly mild and snow is not nearly as common.
As far as natural disasters the state has increasingly suffered from severe fires that are rampant from July to September. Otherwise occasional flooding is a possibility on either side of the state. And rarely blizzard level events will hit the eastern side, though that is often relegated to the foothills of central Washington and the northern parts but not always. Thunderstorms, wind storms and dust storms are all major possibilities on the eastern side. We have seen wind storms in excess of 70+ MPH due to the rolling hills the region is known for.
As far as settlement goes, the more eastward in the state the more like Idaho it becomes rather quickly. On the eastern side of the cascades, key areas i would consider anything remotely friendly to us would be town’s and cities like Spokane, Cheney, Pullman. That doesn’t mean you are fully safe, northern Idaho (Coeur d’Alene area) has a history of white supremacy settlements. Pullman is a small sea of blue in an ocean of red and Moscow next door is home to a cult.
Avoid the larger central Washington cities typically. The Tri Cities (Pasco, Kennewick, Richland) and Yakima are some of the worst in terms of crime.
The west side is considered safer for anyone that is generally a liberal and left of that is also generally more welcome. Cost of living is significantly higher compared to the eastern side but economic development is far greater, more jobs, more places to go and talk with different communities. As with any large city in the US, crime has a tendency to increase and gang violence becomes more of a factor. To that end I’d leave you the responsibility of researching crime statistics.
I see. If I want to live in Washington, I should try and look into the the Western side due to the factors you mentioned. However, the fires are definitely something I want to be wary of if I decide to live there (I have zero experience with such fires).
I never knew that about Idaho! Seems like an awful place to be if you are a minority.
Thank you for the information! It has been very helpful!
Like everyone else said, Northeast to Midwest. CO, NM, Western seaboard. Detroit, Milwaukee, Chicago, Pittsburgh are all relatively more affordable progressive communities. Maine is highly rated for queer rights. FL is a pretty easy bar to clear.
Detroit? Also first time I have ever heard Maine be mentioned in a while.
Yeah, Florida is a low bar to clear but if I am going to move, I might as well move to a good place for me :>
Yeah, areas in and around Detroit have shit property values due to a lot of abandoned neighborhoods with condemned houses. Might not want to live on the edge of such places but there’s a lot of places being restored. I’ve visited friends in the queer progressive areas and it’s really nice. Good vibes, good culture.
I’ve looked at a lot of places and checked out equity scores for minorities around countries and states - Maine is pretty safe as far as laws go right now.
I was thinking of how Detroit was notorious for being a magnet for crime, but having awful property value is also a problem. Detroit has queer progressive areas?
Maine seems to be mostly white though, so I wonder how that works out.
All cities have “crime”, and yes there’s really nice neighborhoods in the greater Metro area. Good point on Maine, probably best to avoid mayo-ville.
new york
