Quote from: TRyan on March 31, 2014, 12:46:27 PM
Sir John Tristan--I used to live in SF and loved it. So many trans and non binary people it was amazing. I wish I could still afford it. I'm considering Chico and/or Sacramento. i wonder about Las Vegas or the Palm Springs area also (warmer, lol).
Portland Oregon is an interesting option too although it sounds a big too expensive for me. I tend towards the blues in the rain. I'll have to check craigslist to compare rental situations. Thanks man!
No problem!
Yeah, Portland is a bit expensive, but Vancouver on the other hand has cheap housing and it's not far away. We're looking to move there in about a year from now because I'm a musician and would like to start pursuing a professional career there. It's about $600 a month. Though, if you get blues in the rain than I'd stay away from there.
Funny enough, I've lived in Las Vegas and Palm Springs as well, so I can add some input there.
Palm Springs as you can expect is very hot and humid in the summer. Beware of the Salton Sea smell. Every summer, there seems to be a leak of a dead fish smell that covers the area for a couple months. It's awful and caused me migraines. I lived there for about a year and it personally drained me. It's a funny place because most of the residents are conservative and Christian but there's an occasional "odd ball" in the crowd (artsy, other religion, liberal, transgender, gay-- anything different from the PS stereotype). The people are usually kind, but they can be a bit pretentious which isn't my cup of tea. There's a lot to do there though and especially for people who are over the age of 45. Great for swimming and sunshine. It hardly ever rains.
Las Vegas. What can I say about Las Vegas? It's unemployment rate is awful right now and has been for several years. It doesn't matter what degree you have or how young you are, there's just a lot of competition there to get work. The housing is also really expensive, most of the apartments start off at over $1000 and renting a house can be over $1700 a month. You're not under 21 years old, so fun wise, I'm sure you'd have a blast but it's definitely pricey there and little secret, most of the slot machines are rigged so you don't win. It's a party city. It's beautiful at night when you're driving downtown and looking at all the lights, but it eventually gets old and when you live there, you tend to avoid it. The crime scene isn't good and there's areas that I'd have to duck in to keep from getting shot. When I lived there, I lived in an upper class neighbourhood that had no crime rate but we woke up to one of our neighbours having a gun standoff with the police and I was almost shot (it flew right passed my chest). It has a good school system, if you have any kids or planning to have any kids, but the downside it almost every kid who grows up there loses their innocence early. There's porn on the sidewalks, for crying out loud. The weather is bipolar. It's sunny one moment and then it's storming the next. It's snowed randomly a few times which was wonderful, but then it never came again. It can be really cold or really hot and you won't know how to prepare for it until midday. Ah, I'm ranting at this point. My apologies.
TL;DR: a fun place to visit, but living there, I wouldn't recommend it.
Chico is actually pretty sunny and warm all year round surprisingly. It rains once in awhile, but it's really not all that common. The apartments range from $500-950 a month, so it's pretty cheap. The employment situation is better than the other cities that I went over, but because it's California, you can imagine that the employment rate is iffy. It really depends on your background though. I'm younger and partly disabled, so I'm not able to find work and my girlfriend is going to college part time, so it's also difficult for her to have the time to find work. Also, I forgot to mention that there's a lot of transgender workers here. One of the bartenders here is a transman & equal rights activist who's really cool. There's anti-discrimination laws against gay and transgender people & the Mayor proclaimed a TRANS* week annually to celebrate them. It's definitely my strongest recommendation for you.
I hope that helps even more. There's a lot of places though, so keep an open mind about all of them. I would avoid the Southern/Middle states if you can afford it. They're really behind on the times and the discrimination there makes me sick. Again, good luck finding the place that's right for you.
