Tell me where to live! Cold, rainy, grey edition.
August 9, 2021 12:41 PM Subscribe
I currently live in Denver, and I am fully over it. Things I am seeking in my new home: overcast skies, rain, colder weather, clean air, liberal, has queer community, not ridiculously expensive.
(This would seem to rule out Seattle, an otherwise top contender. I need to be able to afford this place on a single librarian's income. I can afford something similar to Denver at the moment; cheaper would be better). I'd like there to be at least one museum in this town/city, and some cultural events. Likely needs to be in the U.S., since my skills are not in such high demand that other countries would be vying for me. I have no other things to consider--I live alone and have no kids. Please speak to me of the verdant, grey, cozy utopia of my future.
(This would seem to rule out Seattle, an otherwise top contender. I need to be able to afford this place on a single librarian's income. I can afford something similar to Denver at the moment; cheaper would be better). I'd like there to be at least one museum in this town/city, and some cultural events. Likely needs to be in the U.S., since my skills are not in such high demand that other countries would be vying for me. I have no other things to consider--I live alone and have no kids. Please speak to me of the verdant, grey, cozy utopia of my future.
As mentioned above, getting outside the fancier neighborhoods in Seattle might be just fine.
Certain parts of Vermont or Maine might work...
the capital area of New York is one of the cloudier gray-er places in the country. Around Syracuse as well.
posted by jander03 at 12:46 PM on August 9, 2021 [5 favorites]
Certain parts of Vermont or Maine might work...
the capital area of New York is one of the cloudier gray-er places in the country. Around Syracuse as well.
posted by jander03 at 12:46 PM on August 9, 2021 [5 favorites]
Providence, RI. Or lots of places in RI actually. Fantastic variety of weather, it has everything. My sister makes 68K and as a single mortgage applicant, was looking exclusively at condos when she was looking to buy.
posted by DarlingBri at 12:49 PM on August 9, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by DarlingBri at 12:49 PM on August 9, 2021 [3 favorites]
Buffalo, NY has all those things (although we get more days of sun than many "sunny" cities). The winters aren't anywhere near as bad as people still continue to think (plus, we handle them very well, both in terms of snow removal equipment and positive outlook), but we do, of course, have colder weather. We also have two great art museums, all sorts of cultural stuff, and it's cheap.
posted by jonathanhughes at 12:51 PM on August 9, 2021 [8 favorites]
posted by jonathanhughes at 12:51 PM on August 9, 2021 [8 favorites]
Eureka/Arcata, CA?
posted by aws17576 at 12:57 PM on August 9, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by aws17576 at 12:57 PM on August 9, 2021 [3 favorites]
If you really like cold and gray, Ann Arbor, Michigan, might work for you. In terms of real estate at least, I think it's less expensive than Denver (as I find when I look through Zillow for my own relocation fantasies). Definitely liberal, with a few museums connected to the university (and more in the nearby Detroit area). Strong arts/cultural scene in non-pandemic times. Unfortunately, the LGBTQ bookstore closed a few years ago, but I would expect a strong queer community here, though I can't speak to it personally.
posted by FencingGal at 12:59 PM on August 9, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by FencingGal at 12:59 PM on August 9, 2021 [4 favorites]
Bellingham, WA? Lots going on for a small town, hits all of your other points, and a shortish drive to Seattle/Vancouver for bigger cultural stuff. Downside, remote working is probably going to cause (even more of an) influx from Seattleites wanting a bigger place where they can still get into the city for important meetings, so it'll probably get more expensive. I know people who live there on modest salaries though.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 1:00 PM on August 9, 2021 [11 favorites]
posted by Jon Mitchell at 1:00 PM on August 9, 2021 [11 favorites]
Keep in mind that climate change is more than trivially affecting the climate. So Seattle has been blastedly sunny, dry and warm for far more days than I am personally comfortable with, even as someone who is very affected by the weather and finds the sun much preferable to clouds.
posted by wotsac at 1:02 PM on August 9, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by wotsac at 1:02 PM on August 9, 2021 [4 favorites]
Ithaca, NY. Has pretty much everything you listed.
posted by mareli at 1:03 PM on August 9, 2021 [9 favorites]
posted by mareli at 1:03 PM on August 9, 2021 [9 favorites]
I saw a list that ranked Buffalo the cloudiest city in America. Not sure if I buy that; it’s been beautifully sunny almost every time I’ve been there. But who am I to argue? Especially if it means talking someone into liking Buffalo, which is beautiful and charming (and sickeningly cheap, and quite cultural).
posted by kevinbelt at 1:10 PM on August 9, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by kevinbelt at 1:10 PM on August 9, 2021 [5 favorites]
Milwaukee, WI? Not sure about queer community (though I assume it's there), and admittedly in the depth of winter it gets cold and not as verdant. But, nice lake front, cultural activities, and Cheap!
posted by knownfossils at 1:24 PM on August 9, 2021
posted by knownfossils at 1:24 PM on August 9, 2021
Rochester, NY, my hometown! Ohmygoodness, I was just holding off responding to someone else looking for a place to live, wanting them to warn them off of the precipitousness of ROC. But if you (like me), LOVE pearly-grey skies and snow and thunderstorms (and also a fair number of sunny days!).....
Rochester has an ambitious art museum, one of the best regional orchestras in the country, VERY low house prices, arty and activist queer communities and spaces, third-wave coffee places, beautiful city parks including an Olmstead gem that is overrun by lilacs in spring, proximity to the gorgeous greenness of the Catskills and Adirondacks and Finger Lakes district (and just a bit further to enjoy VT/NH/MA/ME), a diverse population including ethnic groups from many waves of immigration, a Great Lake and a river with gorgeous gigantic waterfalls running right through the middle of town, cheapish flights to NYC, direct flights to DC/Atlanta/Chicago/Boston/others (also is on the Amtrak NE Regional)...
Feel free to message me if you want to hear more or ask questions! It doesn't have the industry I work in (which is not really into remote work), and my partner needs sun, so I am not there, but I love it more and more each time I go home.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 1:31 PM on August 9, 2021 [15 favorites]
Rochester has an ambitious art museum, one of the best regional orchestras in the country, VERY low house prices, arty and activist queer communities and spaces, third-wave coffee places, beautiful city parks including an Olmstead gem that is overrun by lilacs in spring, proximity to the gorgeous greenness of the Catskills and Adirondacks and Finger Lakes district (and just a bit further to enjoy VT/NH/MA/ME), a diverse population including ethnic groups from many waves of immigration, a Great Lake and a river with gorgeous gigantic waterfalls running right through the middle of town, cheapish flights to NYC, direct flights to DC/Atlanta/Chicago/Boston/others (also is on the Amtrak NE Regional)...
Feel free to message me if you want to hear more or ask questions! It doesn't have the industry I work in (which is not really into remote work), and my partner needs sun, so I am not there, but I love it more and more each time I go home.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 1:31 PM on August 9, 2021 [15 favorites]
Ok, the PNW, or at least Western WA-- the summers are crazy dry and sunny. Cool, though; really quite beautiful. This was a shock to me. We just ended something like a 50-day no-precip streak. In winter you have mild temps with constant medium-light precipitation.
I'm in Bellingham. It's already very expensive for a town its size, and the overall job market is a little tight. Other towns in Whatcom like Ferndale are more conservative but cheaper.
Maybe other I-5 towns? Olympia is more affordable than Seattle. Maybe some of the towns south of Portland?
posted by supercres at 1:47 PM on August 9, 2021
I'm in Bellingham. It's already very expensive for a town its size, and the overall job market is a little tight. Other towns in Whatcom like Ferndale are more conservative but cheaper.
Maybe other I-5 towns? Olympia is more affordable than Seattle. Maybe some of the towns south of Portland?
posted by supercres at 1:47 PM on August 9, 2021
philly .. boston .. or the five college area in western Massachusetts, so northampton/amherst and surrounding towns to all sides ... brattleboro vt .. I would think pretty much anywhere midatlantic and north would satisfy the requirement for rainy and cloudy enough.. Pittsburgh? Baltimore? too many options to list really. there are many many progressive small arts towns in the northeast that might work for you ..it sounds from your question like maybe youve never gotten to experience the bleakness of a new england winter ..which for you would be perhaps the opposite of bleak : )
posted by elgee at 1:52 PM on August 9, 2021
posted by elgee at 1:52 PM on August 9, 2021
Arcata, California. Has all the things you listed. Actually, I'm just inferring about the queer community, but I'd be surprised if they didn't.
posted by aniola at 2:37 PM on August 9, 2021
posted by aniola at 2:37 PM on August 9, 2021
Hmmmm. As suggested by this article, my brown-person experience with western/upstate New York did not line up super well with it being liberal/queer friendly, though it is indeed politically democratic. (YMMV if you have lighter skin? And maybe this is just how things are in a lot of places now.)
posted by BlueBlueElectricBlue at 3:07 PM on August 9, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by BlueBlueElectricBlue at 3:07 PM on August 9, 2021 [3 favorites]
Maybe Rochester, New York? I can't speak to Buffalo's politics, but Rochester might be a bit more liberal. And it's super affordable relative to Denver and certainly Seattle and Portland. You can buy a house in good shape for $200,000 or less. The University of Rochester and Rochester Institute of Technology are some of the bigger games in town, and U of R seems to be investing a lot in the city the last few decades.
posted by bluedaisy at 3:56 PM on August 9, 2021
posted by bluedaisy at 3:56 PM on August 9, 2021
Madison, WI and Milwaukee, WI have a low cost of living, liberal atmosphere, and a cultural scene. It's not super-overcast here, but it definitely gets cold enough to be in cozy/woolen clothing more than 50% of the year, and the summers are full of green, lush vegetation.
posted by christinetheslp at 4:02 PM on August 9, 2021
posted by christinetheslp at 4:02 PM on August 9, 2021
Tacoma, WA? It’s like the Oakland of the Seattle area.
posted by vunder at 4:12 PM on August 9, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by vunder at 4:12 PM on August 9, 2021 [6 favorites]
Came here to suggest Bellingham, WA, saw it was already mentioned. So +1 to Bellingham.
posted by cgg at 5:02 PM on August 9, 2021
posted by cgg at 5:02 PM on August 9, 2021
Like, how cold?
Missoula, Montana is pretty gray from November to May, but a lot of that has snow on the ground and daily highs in the 30's, at best, from Halloween to mid-April. Then it is gray and rainy until mid-June.
It meets all of your other requirements for liberal, etc. but the rental vacancy rate is below 1% and average home prices are in the mid 400k.
posted by ITravelMontana at 5:53 PM on August 9, 2021
Missoula, Montana is pretty gray from November to May, but a lot of that has snow on the ground and daily highs in the 30's, at best, from Halloween to mid-April. Then it is gray and rainy until mid-June.
It meets all of your other requirements for liberal, etc. but the rental vacancy rate is below 1% and average home prices are in the mid 400k.
posted by ITravelMontana at 5:53 PM on August 9, 2021
Response by poster: Like, how cold?
My most ideal weather is 40s-50s, overcast, light drizzle. I do like snow as well! The coldest place I've lived was around -20 with windchill; that was fine for me although I'd probably like to stick more in the 0-30 range in winters. My ideal summer never gets above 70, but I think that's a pipe dream.
posted by sugarbomb at 6:32 PM on August 9, 2021
My most ideal weather is 40s-50s, overcast, light drizzle. I do like snow as well! The coldest place I've lived was around -20 with windchill; that was fine for me although I'd probably like to stick more in the 0-30 range in winters. My ideal summer never gets above 70, but I think that's a pipe dream.
posted by sugarbomb at 6:32 PM on August 9, 2021
Nevermind, I misread your question and thought you were in demand elsewhere in the world.
posted by aniola at 6:50 PM on August 9, 2021
posted by aniola at 6:50 PM on August 9, 2021
Anchorage, Alaska? It was at the top of a listicle for places in Alaska for queer families, it's cheaper than Juneau, and its highest recorded temperature ever is 90f per wikipedia.
posted by aniola at 6:57 PM on August 9, 2021
posted by aniola at 6:57 PM on August 9, 2021
Piling on to the western Washington bandwagon, please consider my adopted town of Bremerton. There’s a passenger only ferry to Seattle, that takes 40 minutes, a car ferry (you can also walk on) that takes an hour, so you’re close-ish to big city stuff.
Bremerton is getting gayer by the moment - in my council district, the top vote-getters in a recent primary are all gay. It’s going to come down to one of two: the gay, married man with a child, or the indigenous, married lesbian. This is quite the contrast to 8 years ago, when the winner was a thinly disguised Republican old white guy.
A sampling of stuff that goes on here.
Feel free to email me with questions. I really love my town.
posted by dbmcd at 8:04 PM on August 9, 2021 [4 favorites]
Bremerton is getting gayer by the moment - in my council district, the top vote-getters in a recent primary are all gay. It’s going to come down to one of two: the gay, married man with a child, or the indigenous, married lesbian. This is quite the contrast to 8 years ago, when the winner was a thinly disguised Republican old white guy.
A sampling of stuff that goes on here.
Feel free to email me with questions. I really love my town.
posted by dbmcd at 8:04 PM on August 9, 2021 [4 favorites]
Oregon coast / coast range? Colder, damper, and less expensive than Portland, not sure about queer community but the culture seems to be accepting of offbeat folks, at least.
Outside of big cities, a lot of the PNW is surprisingly/frighteningly conservative, would not recommend the I-5 corridor, and Southern Oregon is hotter, sunnier, and more expensive than you’d guess, with the cost significantly due to former Californians who think it’s cheap.
posted by momus_window at 8:11 PM on August 9, 2021
Outside of big cities, a lot of the PNW is surprisingly/frighteningly conservative, would not recommend the I-5 corridor, and Southern Oregon is hotter, sunnier, and more expensive than you’d guess, with the cost significantly due to former Californians who think it’s cheap.
posted by momus_window at 8:11 PM on August 9, 2021
Aren't librarians eligible for TN visas? What about Halifax, NS?
posted by blerghamot at 8:12 PM on August 9, 2021
posted by blerghamot at 8:12 PM on August 9, 2021
Cooler summers are starting to be a thing of the past for most of Oregon (the coast stays cool, but is not grey all summer).
Bellingham, possibly Anacortes. It butts right up against the mountains, and gets tons of drizzle and oh my god it's amazing.
posted by furnace.heart at 8:15 PM on August 9, 2021 [1 favorite]
Bellingham, possibly Anacortes. It butts right up against the mountains, and gets tons of drizzle and oh my god it's amazing.
posted by furnace.heart at 8:15 PM on August 9, 2021 [1 favorite]
Pittsburgh has more overcast days of the year than Seattle, gets pretty cold, and has a strong queer community (although it’s a smaller sized city so it’s also a place where you’ll eventually get to know just about everybody who you could possibly connect with). Pittsburgh remains affordable relative to the rest of the country and really it’s a great city. The summers can be hot though.
posted by dis_integration at 9:11 PM on August 9, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by dis_integration at 9:11 PM on August 9, 2021 [2 favorites]
Chicago's not a great candidate for cold right this second, because in July/August we always have a bit of a hot stretch. But I've got photos in my phone of snow in October, and April, and every month in between. I find the air here to be remarkably clean for the size of the city; nothing whatsoever like NYC, for example, and we're not terribly wildfire prone due to...you know, lack of trees.
Like you I'm not a Sun Person, but all of my friends are, and they routinely lose their minds over the number of cloudy days we have. Large and diverse queer community, and while it's not as cheap as it used to be, it's still very livable compared to Seattle/LA/NYC/SF.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 7:29 AM on August 10, 2021 [3 favorites]
Like you I'm not a Sun Person, but all of my friends are, and they routinely lose their minds over the number of cloudy days we have. Large and diverse queer community, and while it's not as cheap as it used to be, it's still very livable compared to Seattle/LA/NYC/SF.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 7:29 AM on August 10, 2021 [3 favorites]
Oh also when I say "lack of trees" really it's "lack of forests." The neighborhoods here are thick with old-growth trees and our parks are abundant. But it is prairie, not rainforest, not like what you would find in the PNW or in a place like Vermont.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 7:31 AM on August 10, 2021
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 7:31 AM on August 10, 2021
I think Buffalo or Pittsburgh. I’ve lived in both and they check the box for you in many wonderful ways. Each city is fully unique with good people, great communities and a lot of potential with cheap real estate. Check them out!
posted by glaucon at 11:18 AM on August 10, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by glaucon at 11:18 AM on August 10, 2021 [1 favorite]
Honestly, it's probably worth keeping your eyes on Pacific Northwest library jobs and looking up more info for anywhere that looks promising. Generally anywhere west of the Cascades will do for weather and while larger is often better for queer community, plenty of small places are good too.
posted by blueberry monster at 6:20 PM on August 10, 2021
posted by blueberry monster at 6:20 PM on August 10, 2021
Anchorage, AK? Hits the “doesn’t get too hot” and “kinda rainy” and “has some amenities” buttons…
posted by leahwrenn at 10:45 PM on August 11, 2021
posted by leahwrenn at 10:45 PM on August 11, 2021
I dated a (liberal, vegetarian) guy in Denver who was forced to move to Buffalo for a job. It’s ridiculously cheap, he’s found a lot to love, and with climate change their weather is still meeting your needs, but not as brutal as decades ago.
posted by cyndigo at 8:26 AM on August 12, 2021
posted by cyndigo at 8:26 AM on August 12, 2021
Tacoma, WA has several wonderful museums and is a reasonable driving distance from Seattle for their cultural events as well. Pretty affordable. I'd definitely check it out.
In general, PNW climate aligns well with what you're describing. With climate change, though, there will probably be more heat and "fire season" and such. It's really unfortunate.
posted by mosst at 8:58 AM on August 12, 2021
In general, PNW climate aligns well with what you're describing. With climate change, though, there will probably be more heat and "fire season" and such. It's really unfortunate.
posted by mosst at 8:58 AM on August 12, 2021
This thread is closed to new comments.
Portland has a similar set up where there may be some outer areas that would work.
posted by amycup at 12:44 PM on August 9, 2021 [2 favorites]