Letters to the Editor
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Why not Portland, OR? If moving to the midwest, make sure you are white, Christian, native-born American
If you're sick of the spillover from LA into your life, you don't need to sequester yourself somewhere completely homogenous "in the middle of nowhere."
Portland, for example, is in the process of building up its downtown area, which is still small and friendly and affordable, but urban, diverse in people and cuisine and cultures, and is not provincial.
There are other places like it, where you can have the best of both worlds.
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Not heaven
Whoa, there, Spanky! A short visit to the Midwest does not guarantee that you'll love it. I'm from the Midwest and it's not heaven here. Things that annoy me about living in the Midwest:
There are a lot of Christians here and if you're not religious, it can be hard to make connections in a new community because you don't go to church, which is where everyone else is making their social connections.
Smaller Midwestern cities like St. Louis and Minneapolis have a small number of immigrants and a large number of natives. That means people have the same friends for 10 or 20 years. That's great if you're a native but hard to deal with if you're new in town and trying to make new friends. They're not necessarily open to new friends.
Midwesterners are a bit provincial and skeptical and not always open to new experiences. That can be healthy. It can also be frustrating. How do you KNOW that you don't like ____________ (fill in the blank) if you've never tried it.
Midwesterners in smaller cities (not Chicago) are socially conservative and many are somewhat racist, classist, sexist and homophobic. The homophobia and classism can be pretty open. There's a lot of politeness to your face and a lot of snickering behind your back if you're different.
The weather in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Chicago sucks. They have harsh winters. You might not think it matters, but you won't know until you try it for a year. I lived in Minnesota for four years (south of the Twin Cities) and thought I was never going to be warm again. I gained 30 pounds because I couldn't walk, run or bike outside for 5 months of the year. The earliest snow was 13 inches on October 31. The latest snow was 3 inches on Memorial Day weekend. I kid you not.
If you move to Kansas City or St. Louis or more Southern cities in the Midwest, you need to know that the summers are sweltering. We get as hot and humid as Atlanta or New Orleans. It totally sucks.
That said the cost of living is very reasonable here and Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota have excellent public school systems in most places. Housing is cheap, cheap, cheap, when you compare it to the coasts. Many Midwestern cities have good professional job markets. (Detroit --- not so much.)
Chicago is a wonderful city. It's both sophisticated and friendly, with an exceptional arts community. A lot of people move to Chicago, so it doesn't have the same type of closed-off social structure that other Midwestern cities can have.
Do your research. Good luck.
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To: anonymous at 7:10 AM
You might find it useful to actually visit the "midwest" [hate that term, so unspecific].
Up here in the Upper Midwest, home of Minneapolis-St. Paul [WHAT?!? you've heard of them?!? and you're a COASTIE? amazing. Now please stay there permanently-come to visit if you wish, but then leave.] Take your prejudices back with you, too.
There is as much variety here as anywhere on the coasts, and not all white. Jeeze, use your computer. Read about places. Skip Chicago? St. Louis? Madison? Minneapolis? et alia? No culture there.
Oh, coasties, how we in the center love to disparage you, while we continue to live our relatively inexpensive, relatively safe, culturally enriched lives. Oh yeah, we really do know our espresso and ethnic foods. Must be all the Mexicans and Asians and Africans who live here and delight us with their cuisine.
You reveal your ignorance and shallowness. Stay where you are, enjoy the rain rain rain. [Yawn]
Yeah, I'm anon-ing this, so what.
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Not quite what you asked, but here's another suggestion...
You could move to Austin, TX. Austin is a small-ish city of about half a million; it's very affordable compared to southern California, and the people here are great. Because of the colleges and universities, Austin is very diverse and tolerant. It completely defies the stereotype people have of Texans. (Think "Seattle, but hotter".) People here aren't so obsessed with being 'trendy' or eating at the new, cool chain restaurants and such. It's very laid back, and people here enjoy supporting local and privately-owned businesses. There is also a very active music, art, and theatre scene here. I've lived in Austin for almost 8 years, and I love it.
You and your husband will be able to afford a house here. There are lots of nice safe neighborhoods for your future kids to enjoy, and there are always plenty of fun things to do.
Not what you asked....but think about it.
Finally: good luck with your decision. If you want to move, now is a great time to do it. All the best!
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I heart Columbus
No one has mentioned Columbus, OH among the nice midwestern cities. I moved here from San Antonio and Austin, TX a few years ago and really, really love it, even the weather. Getting to actually see leaves change color is awesome!
And unlike those who have said that smaller midwestern cities tend to be homogenous, overly Christian, conservative, homophobic, etc., I would say that Columbus (or at least the Columbus I know thus far) is none of those things. We have one of the largest and most well-represented gay populations outside of the two coasts, have the largest university in the US, a huge, thriving arts community, and unlike Texas, when I see bumper stickers on the backs of cars, they usually say something like "Evolve" rather than "In case of rapture, car will be unmanned."
And even this San Antonio girl has been able to find some honest-to-god good Mexican food here. Plus, like Austin, there are a TON of transplants here because of all the large businesses based here (Limited, Abercrombie, Nationwide, etc.). It's just a cool place to be and I hope you find someplace like it.