If you could live in any small artsy, cultural town in America where would you choose to live and why?

Boulder, CO. I love going up there. Yeah, it is a college town, but there is so much art, and so many friendly people. There are a lot of antique shops up there too.

http://www.findyourspot.com/ is a great site to help you find a community that you would like. I took the quiz and found that it is very accurate and helpful. The first town on my list was the town that we vacation at each year! It gives you a list of communities with links for real estate, job openings and any other info you may need.

Portland!

Seattle!
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I’ve heard Santa Fe, NM is lovely.

Portland’s gorgeous. Grand Rapids, Mich, is nice, too. There’s an art college there and it has tons of character.

I know that you said that Cali is not an option, but, if I could pick (although, it’s expensive to live there), I’d go with San Francisco (well, it’s not exactly small, either, but, lovely nonetheless).

If you do consider Portland, be sure to visit Powell’s Books, the largest new and used bookstore in the world.

Frederick, Maryland. It has just about everything on your list. Arts district; a great old book store, Wonder Book (and a fabulous library), less than an hour from Washington, DC. Full of great old architecture and history. Quirky restaurants, public arts projects all over the place, live music every night of the week.

This is my old hometown, and I miss it terribly. :(

Lawrence, Kansas

I have lived I Portland for the last 10 years and all I can say is, this place rocks. I travel to major cities all the time for work and Portland is the best.
Best food, best bars, best art scene, best music scene, best bike scene, great artists, galleries, etc. And it’s easy to live here.

Alright, don’t laugh, but have you ever considered Brooklyn or Jersey, right outside of Manhattan?

I’d look into that, seriously.

But if all else fails, I hear Boulder is nice.

@virtualist my mommy is from Lawrence!

@Grisaille I love it, it is my home away from home

I’m going to second (third?) Boulder. Winters can be rough, but put up with it for some kick ass skiing really close, and you’re good to go.

Ok, you’re opposed to the coast, but most of the cool places are on the coast. Here’s a surprising choice: Norfolk, Virginia. Has a little independent bookstore called Prince’s Books, an old one screen movie theater called the Naro that shows independent and foreign films, as well as old movies and the occasional major release. This is also associated with a video store that has pretty much every movie ever made. There’s an opera company, a small but decent professional theatre company, great restaurants (including vegetarian fare, art fairs, mild climate, antique shops, at least one little organic/vegetarian store, Old Dominion University. Plus around an hour from Richmond if you really need a bigger city. The Ghent/West Ghent neighborhoods are totally hip.

Oh, and Austin’s a great city, as well! I went there a few times last year and the music scene is awesome!

For me it would be either Port Townsend, WA, or Portsmouth, NH. Both of these places are fairly liberal, have lots of arts, independent movies, are historic, Ma & Pa shops, veggie foods, great restaurants, breweries, are on the water, are not far from mountains and near big cities but still have the small town feel.

I also really like Flagstaff, AZ, though it’s not near the ocean, which is important to me in a hometown.

Lurve for Santa Fe and Grand Rapids, love both those cities!

Incidentally, I almost moved to Boulder this summer…perhaps it is something I should reconsider.

Laguna Beach, CA is nice.
editI didn’t read the affordability clause. Better stick to the East Coast.

Haven’t been there yet but I’ve been hearing great things about Asheville, North Carolina from a friend who moved there. It would seem to meet all your critera. Chapel Hill, NC might be another one.

Eugene or Ashland Oregon. They are a bit different in culture and in size. Both fullfill the requirements listed above in big ways. With one exception they are on a coastal state. But both are at least a two hour drive from the coast.

I’d say since Portland is on your list go for that. Oregon is beautiful!! Us Oregon dwellers would be happy to answer questions for you about it :)

Austin, TX! Although it doesn’t match your requirement 5, it meets the rest. I lived there for six years and thoroughly enjoyed it. Austin is not like the rest of Texas. The combination of culture, friendliness, great music, low cost of living, and easily accessible outdoor activities (particularly boating and waterskiing) is hard to beat.

@OnaBoat My only complaint would be that it’s hot, hot, hot in the summer. Last year, it was a good 113 F (when you factored in the humidex).

@jmah Yeah – my sons were in Austin for a few days last summer and absolutely wilted.

Portland is the happening place for not only art, but music. Before long, it will eclipse Seattle’s impact on the modern music scene. It has all the factors you identify as important and you have family there…..looks like a natural solution to me. Plus it’s home to fluither’s own @johnpowell so you know the place has to have something special going for it.
See ya….Gary/wtf

@jmah No doubt – July & August are very hot in Austin and can be humid. Austin is not nearly as extreme in terms of heat & humidity as, say, Houston, but it’s still hot in the summer. Bring your swimsuit – and your flippy-floppies ;-)

Portland does actually sound perfect for you, and a lot of others seem to agree. I love this city and don’t know if I ever want to move.

Richmond, VA is one of my favorite places ever. They have VCU, a big state school and also one of the best art schools in the country. Most everyone you will meet there is friendly, quirky, and outgoing, because the alternative/ art student atmosphere kind of takes over the whole city. Most of the houses there are Victorian, so they’ll have hardwood floors and nifty architectural details, but they’re pretty cheap. $400 per month seems to be a pretty standard rent there, but you can definitely go cheaper. In the city itself, there are plenty of brick sidewalks and cobbled streets, but there is also a certain gritty or industrial aesthetic mixed in that I really love. Most people get around on bikes, because it’s only a few miles from end to end. There is a decent level of crime, but when I lived there nobody I knew experienced any, which I can’t say for where I live now (DC). One of the best restaurants in the city is a vegetarian place called Ipanema, where the menu is just whatever they come up with and write on the board that day. There are tons of small businesses everywhere with an artsy/ alternative edge, but they have all the big chains in the suburbs.

@OnaBoat And, you could always go to Barton Springs! =)

If you move to porland note that our unemployment rate is 13%

Pittsburgh! Da Burgh is great!

I wanted to add some links, to help.

1. http://www.powells.com/info/briefhistory.html (plus hundreds of others)
2. http://foodfightgrocery.com/index.php/pdx-guide/
3. http://www.oldhouses.com/cf/archivelist.cfm?q_listingstate=OR&searchname=Located+in+Oregon
5. http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weather.php3?s=89627&refer=
6. http://www.stateoforegon.com/schools.php
7. I suggest googling that simply because Portland is so artsy that I would have to post a million links.
8. Again, google. Too many to list.
9. http://www.disastercenter.com/oregon/crime/10507.htm (Don’t know how accurate that is. Tried to find a more reliable website, but wasn’t able to.)
10. http://www.movingtoportland.net/oregon_taxes.htm – scroll down for “property taxes”.

@DrasticDreamer Heh, you really love the town, don’t ya? :)

@Grisaille Indeed, I do. :D

@DrasticDreamer I feel the same for NYC, ain’t no thang. :)

I’d love to head to Portland, though. Change of pace IS nice every now and again.

@aphilotus woop woop burgh!!!!!

My vote goes to Boulder too though.

@Grisaille: I am so ready to give Boston a break.

ew, boston

I kid.

Not really.

Kinda.

Hey now – I lurve Boston. Been here my whole life is all. Time for a change.

Come to New York?

Just, prepare for a little slack. But you know that already.

My niece lives in Brooklyn. Been there a bunch. I catch hell for my accent all the time.

pfft. I’ll be the first one to admit that our accents are more similar than we like to think, honestly.

Also, GO YANKEES

C’mon, you knew that was coming.

Gris, I heard you on RandomAss radio. Lurve the Bronx accent, dude.

@Grisaille: S’Okay. I don’t follow sports. :^P

Walnut Grove California has everything you want.

@jmah oh dear lord

Now I’m shy.

Seattle and many small towns surrounding it have 1–9 down. Your 10 is relative, and 11 is true for many close by towns although Seattle is right on the Sound. It’s not California. It’s so very not California.

If I had to choose somewhere else to live besides Seattle, it’d be Portland for a lot of the same reasons.

santa fe has all that. it is an expensive-ish place though.

albuquerque has all that stuff as well. and prices here are cheaper than many other places in the country. and its not pretentious (even though that is not on your list).

portland or eugene seem to be up your alley.

denver is pretty great.

It sounds like Portland is pretty much exactly what you want, but I’ll put in another vote for Pittsburgh too!

We’ve got pretty much everything on your list except for the low property taxes, but in reality, the housing prices are so low that higher property taxes aren’t a huge deal… There’s tons of arts, culture, universities, a fabulous library system, great restaurants and markets for every diet (I’m vegetarian and gluten-free, and I love it here), and the people here are friendlier than any other city I’ve ever lived in. Pittsburgh is an especially great place if you’re bringing your work with you – the lack of jobs is the number one reason that people don’t move here, but if you’re self-employed, you’re all set!

I haven’t been to Pittsburgh, except to the outskirts, but my wife, who hates Pittsburgh on general principle (mainly football related reasons) was there for a few weeks and gave a very good report, so it must be nice.

@gussnarp Lots of people hate Pittsburgh on general principle, or because they’ve heard its reputation and never actually been here. Once they come and see it for themselves, most of them change their minds! Is your wife from Cleveland?

@sdeutsch No, Cincinnati. She hates Cleveland too.

@gussnarp Oh, good – I was worried!

Hey you guys…......

THANK YOU! I had this long answer…to thank all of you…and it got erased! So, I will get to all of you individually….I couldn’t get to everyone tonight…but I am so very, very grateful for the overwhelming response and suggestions. I had a heck of a hard day today so this meant so much to me to hear from everyone!

Basically, I am an old house nut….I love houses built between 1895–1928. So that is driving a lot of my choices. Portland is a beautiful city ( I lived there for a decade until 2002). The houses that meet that criteria are in Laurelhurst and unfortunately are 350k so I have been looking at some of the smaller communities near it and in Washington. The same house in Laurelhurst for that amount would be 70k in the Midwest. Granted, it’s not Portland…and you may have to travel for culture. But honestly, old houses are a passion of mine….I study them, I read about them, I can identify the ball park age of American houses by looking at the outside.

What is funny is either I have lived in the town you suggested (Portland, Austin, Lawrence) or spent a good deal of time there (Ashland, Eugene, Santa Fe) or on my list of “lookies” or have looked at them and crossed them out.

Thank you and I will get a little thank you into your box ASAP!

Biiiigggggg hugs!

@DarlingRhadamanthus You could find an old house for the price you are looking for in Peoria, IL and it’s surrounding communities. Peoria is known for music, art and comedy. You also have the Illinois River and close proximity to Chicago and St. Louis. Weekly festivals and bands on the riverfront during the warmer months. It’s a nice area imo.

Check out Boone, NC or Ashville NC. Both towns have everything on your list. Boone is smaller but is getting more crowded. If I could move today I would head to the Boone area.

Good luck!

I would second Lawrence, KS but you said you’ve already lived there. In any case, it’s a beautiful town, and I lurved living there. I actually scrolled through the answers just to see if someone had mentioned it because it fit your criteria so well. I hear that Athens, Georgia has a similar quality to it.