Heading Westward. Where to go?

Off-topic
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Aye, it goes as the title states. This November/December I should be relocating myself to the western part of the united states. No plans in specific, just tired of the east and much luck is running uncomfortably thin in Pennsylvania. So the question is where to move? I have no idea, but would like a city. Just looking for some suggestions form people who have been to the far west KalifornIaye, Nevada, New Mexico, Washington, Orygon.

So yeah, big town, college town. Looking to attend university, only community since I’m poor, no need for big names. Low cost of living with plenty of jobs for unskilled young-in’s.

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join me and johnfoss in Sacramento, CA! there are a few community and a couple state colleges in town. washington and oregon get a lot of rain but nevada and new mexico dont get enough. and, happy cows come from california

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Well, do they have less than well to do places? I mean, I’m not looking to live in the ghetto, but I’m probably going to be desperately poor, living off of ramen. Seriously though, I’m looking for places with low rent.

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well there must be a lot of cheap housing meant for college students. otherwise, look for a website that can help you. i bet there is a website in which you enter a general area and your desires, and it lists places.

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Stay out of the big towns and you can find fairly affordable housing. But remember that californial has one of the worst, if not the worst budget problems so there is high demand for low cost housing, and a glut of high-end houses for rent. Roomate/room rental is one option because a lot of people are looking for help with the mortgage anyway then can get it.

The job market is dismal just about anywhere in the state. I think the state unemployment rate is like 12%.

I would put in Placerville as a great place to live. Not as hot as Sac and does not get as much fog. The motto of Placerville is above the fog and below the snow. But there is a shortage of low cost housing but no real ghetto areas. But compared to say LA of SF the cost of housing is low. I rent a very cute little 2 bedroom 2 bath for $1070 which right now is a little over priced but i live on a quiet little street and my landlords stay out of my business, so I don’t move to save $100 a month. But high demand for 1 bedroom apts.

SF has some ‘colorful’ areas with a mix of people but don’t qualify as ghettos. It’s been a long time since I lived in SF so not sure how those areas are priced these days.

I love california and within its boarders you can find just about any kind of environment you want. You got Fresno which is a hundred miles from anywhere and hot all summer to San Diego which has the lowest difference between hot and cold of any city in California. All coastal cities in CA have foggy spring and it’s a crap shoot which days stay foggy and which days will clear up and get sunny. There are little ‘artist’ communities like Mendocino and Cayucos. Cayucos is one of my favorite cities in CA but affordable housing it isn’t.

There is Reno which has it’s own vibe since it has casinos and legalized prostitution. Plenty of cool places to live like Mamoth mountain. Where just about anyone with a pulse can get a job during winter. It’s summer thats a bit tough for work.

A lot of people love Vancouver/British Columbia. Some people like the pacific Northwest Oregon and Washington but not everyone can take how often it is grey, cloudy and rainy.

There is Santa Cruz which is colorful city with lots of things to do since its a coastal college town. No idea what housing or jobs are like there.

If you can’t tell I’m just thinking out loud.

Venice, CA is kind of a cool place to live as long as you don’t mind parking two blocks away from where you live.

South Lake Tahoe area. Very nice place to live as long as you don’t mind 9 months of the year being tourist seasons. Lots of roomate situations in South Lake. But lots of hella cool people of all ages living there.

Oakhurst is nice. Not too big, not too small and gateway to Yosemite one of the coolest places in the United States. There is a whole bunch of towns of various sizes up and down Hwy 49. http://www.historichwy49.com/mainmap.html Oakhurst is at the southern end of 49. Anywhere on 49 is going to be close to good Muni somewhere nearby.

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Awesome post, exactly what I wanted plus much, much more. Great info.

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another benefit to california: i was on a plane ride from texas back to sacramento. not too long, maybe 3 hours. ugly ugly ugly brown ugly low rocky crap the entire way until we reached the sierra nevadas. i realized why california is so awesome on that flight. to sum up: everything between texas and california is dry and boring.

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Dry maybe, but I don’t know about boring.

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from thousands of feet up in the air, anyway.

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You can’t go wrong living in or near the Sierra Nevada mountains. Besides the MTB/Muni/Hiking, we have Yosemite, Mount Whitney, the tallest peak in the lower 48, states and the Rubicon Trail. The mecca of Rock Crawling. Need a romantic getaway? the Sierras are crawling with rustic to luxury mountain hideaways. Here is one that I’ve stayed at:

http://www.losttraillodge.com/index.htm (the white dog in the picture is monster huge).

And who wouldn’t want to live near a super volcano:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Valley_Caldera (skip down to Recent Activity)

Who needs Disneyland when you can do this (like all photographs of ‘hills’ it’s way steeper than it looks)

09-20-2008_mfa_tc_wet_i00010005_fs.jpg
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Amazing, I love white-water.

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i think we have you now. hahaha

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Quite possibly. I wanted to hit the gauley in wv, but that looks like it should do fine.

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It was 101 degrees in Sacramento today. :slight_smile:

But Summer is not our strong point. What’s amazing about this area is Spring and Fall. A lot of yukky weather where I grew up, they are the best times of the year here. And Winter is still great for riding! You could start at Sierra College in Rocklin, then transfer to California State University, Sacramento. That’s what Kaori Matsuzawa did…

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hey, its only 81 now! and sac is just an hour from everything! i just got back from my cabin, which is exactly an hour away.

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If you don’t mind wet weather and love the outdoors, Oregon’s your place. Eugene’s a college town with cheap rent, something of a night life, and plenty of rivers / lakes / campgrounds within an hour’s drive. Bend is also pretty cool, a resort town at the feet of some awesome mountains.

Lake Tahoe could be called paradise; it’s loaded with beautiful scenery, colorful locals and outdoor activities year round: climbing, hiking, riding, skiing, you name it. Night life is great, lots of live music, but it gets old quickly… it’s a pretty small community so you’ll see the same people at the same two spots over and over and over… could be good or bad depending on how you see it.

Santa Cruz is a super fun college town right on the ocean, but you’re gonna have to live in ghetto student housing to afford the place. Work isn’t the easiest to find… you’ll be waiting tables or swinging hammers to scrape by. And don’t think about surfing. The locals don’t take kindly to new faces… even if you’ve lived there for years. Ugh. Don’t get me started.

If you really love the outdoors, you can spend a season working for the National Park Service and live somewhere amazing: Yellowstone, Yosemite, Zion, etc. Can’t say there’ll be a community college there, but I can say you’ll have the time of your life.

Top three things to do on a weekend in Sacramento:

  1. Drive to San Francisco
  2. Drive to Lake Tahoe
  3. Drive to Yosemite National park
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[QUOTE=maestro8;1380967

Top three things to do on a weekend in Sacramento:

  1. Drive to San Francisco
  2. Drive to Lake Tahoe
  3. Drive to Yosemite National park[/QUOTE]

not cool. but really yu’d be happy almost anywhere in the golden state

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Do you have something against AZ? Flagstaff is a college town with lots of outdoor activities.

What maestro8 says about Sacramento is true for the rest of the central valley. The best part of living in the middle is getting to drive east to the mountains or west to the coast.

If you’re into muni and/or big wheel rides, Santa Cruz and the Bay Area have a fairly active community, and the weather is quite nice. Plenty of schools here, but the cost of living is generally pretty high.

Regarding schools in California–the Cal State University system is the cheaper one, and it seems there are always nearby community colleges that feed into the universities. If you know what you want to study, you might investigate which schools you’d be interested in to pick a place to go. Wherever you go you’ll want to establish residency so that you don’t have to pay out of state tuition.

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Oh SNAP! And that goes for you too, Phlegm. You guys have ridden our trails. Don’t forget them! I call Auburn the birthplace of organized MUni.

Yes, we can drive to Tahoe and the Bay area quickly, but we don’t need to if we want to have a great time.

That said, there are lots of awesome places to live out in the West. After a week in July of Berkeley and San Francisco, I’d describe them in one word: Cold. My body is still trying to adjust back to my local weather! And it’s not 100 every day; today topped out around 90, which is pretty nice with the low humidity. :slight_smile:

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Jason, great info. Thanks. What I need to here.

Thanks to the others as well. Can’t trust what you read on websites entirely, hearing from personal experience is great.