If you moved, where to and why

MTB Aussie

Member
Since Will's departure thread has spun up the Jersey devotees with the vote to shut him out, I thought I would ask this and see what the consensus is.

Given available employment, family (where applicable) authorization etc. Where would you move within the US given your choice of anywhere. Consider you still need to work in the same biz as you do today assuming it is viable at the new locale.

State the pros and cons of your choice.

My choice - Southern CA. Pros: more like where I grew up, doesn't freeze below 4000 ft. Tons of mountain biking and snowboarding available nearby. Almost year round swimming and surfing. Good schools and colleges for the kids. Good tech biz. A little more "chilled out" on the west coast. Cons - high price of real estate. Taxes. Congestion.
 

clarkenstein

JORBA Board Member/Chapter Leader
JORBA.ORG
i think about this a lot. i think the only thing that would make me move is a job opportunity. i don't mind where i live as far as access to jobs and stuff to do. NJ doesn't really have any one off-the-charts GREAT thing (like montana has scenery), but we have lots of 'good' things here. ok... maybe one GREAT thing - NYC and all that it brings.

but...

we have good riding - sure its no fruita, its no BC, its no moab, but we sure can toot our horns when it comes to technical riding. and no one can ride in sand like a central/south jersey rider... no one.

i have good surf... sometimes. most of the time its eh... but i can surf, and its only a half hour away. sure its not costa rica or hawaii, but it gets the job done.

i have good skiing. upstate and VT delivers. sure the powder isnt steamboat, and we dont have the views of lake tahoe, but i have had some great powder-ish days here... none that compare to the 2.5 foot dump i had out at steamboat two years ago, but again... it gets the job done.

i have a majority of my family here - sure family is not a word, its a sentence, but family makes bringing up a newborn a little easier.

we do have bad stuff - congestion, high taxes, corruption... but anywhere there is money, jobs, and a relatively decent place to live, you're gonna have that. the coasts are littered with congestion and taxes - its part of the deal of living where people want to have a decent job and have available services that are relatively convenient.

so i'll keep jersey unless someone offers me some serious bucks to move... or a job that requires me to play all day... i have a job here, that would be difficult to have in other places, that allows me to travel to them... so i dont think i would uproot just to uproot.
 
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BiknBen

Well-Known Member
Given available employment, family (where applicable) authorization etc...

Dude are you 12 years old? Hey lady, Can Aussie come out for a bike ride? :p


I have never had an address outside of Jersey. I actually like it. I find it has many of the things people prefer to have without the bad things about all those other popular, hip places. No Hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, severe cold, heat, humid, etc. Good Job opps, education, QoL, etc.

I would choose to live somewhere along the mid-Atlantic region. Maybe a little further south but Jersey is fine.
 

stb222

Love Drunk
Jerk Squad
Being from where Glancing Aft is moving to (literally 4 miles from where his apt will be), I had all kind of misconceptions about jersey and my parents and sibiling still think I live in a highly urbanized area even though I tell them if you drive 10 min from my house, you have nothing but rolling hills and countryside...

I have been to alot of places in the US and one conclusion I have made is that I am an east coast kinda person. Sure the riding and liefstyle around southern cali is killer but real estate and taxes make NJ seem cheap and the traffic is wack.

I this CO would be a good option around the Denver area, which has a nice downtown and world class riding and snowboarding really close. The company I would for actually has an office there, but unless my in-laws move there too, my wife wouldnt think about it....I could stand to be further from my parents though...:eek:

All in all, I think NJ is a great place to live. NYC and Philly are damn close for any urban fix you need and I can ride all backroads within 2 miles of my house. I could use more trails with hills closer to me, but if I really want them, I juts need to drive an hour...
 
D

DANSPANK

Guest
So far I've lived in Dallas, Atlanta and now NNJ. I really like the affordability and climate of the South. Atlanta especially. But I have to admit that the sheer number of trails within a couple of hours drive is immense here.

The only two bad things really are my drive to work (as I need to take 1/9 and drive through Union City a bit), and the cost of property and associated taxes.

Take $350k and you can buy a really nice 3bd townhome in a great town in Atlanta. That doesn't get you anything where I live, and you're not taking in to account taxes.

Does anyone know anybody at the company Panalpina? They're HQ'd in Morristown and if I could move there and work with them then I'd be happy here!
 

Stocky

Member
I've lived in Morris County since we moved here from Brooklyn when I was 4. I live literally around the corner from my parents in a small lake community.

I own a business with my father and our shop is 3 minutes from our homes. I 've never had to deal with a commute.

My property taxes are outrageous ---> 15k a year. Yes it's a nice house and it's on the lake , but that's an insane number. That's my one knock on New Jersey and it's major one.

I like that I can be in NYC for a Ranger or Yankee game in an hour. I can head to PA or North to Hunter for Skiing. I'm just over an hour to the shore or a bit more to LBI.

NJ is very centrally located to alot of good things along with all the things it has to offer.

If I could pick a spot I would pick Newport , CA specifically Balboa Island for it's peacefullness , and also it's close proximity to the beaches and everything else. I could probably continue my business without any trouble in CA.
2nd choice would be the North Shore of Ohau, I could never make a living on Ohau doing what I do , but I'd like to retire there .... not gonna happen.
 

idbrian

Crotch Rot
Have been looking into a move for a long time. My main gripe is that NJ and the NYC metro is just too expensive. I wouldn't be too against moving further into NJ. I'm interested in living in a place where i can walk to a decent amount of nightlife, but ever place i've seen in NJ like that costs at least as much as Weehawken, only doesn't include 24 hour buses in and out of Manhattan.

Raliegh/Durham/Chapel Hill is at the moment my strongest consideration. I work in commercial construction sales so i need to be near a city that grows.
 

Shaggz

A strong 7
Brian, Springfield/Westfield is a great town for that. My wife and I lived in Westwood and Nyack, prior to having kids, which were also awesome towns. Commute to NYC from Nyack is a bit rough though...
 

Fogerson

Former Resident Nerd
Assuming I could maintain my work from home gig indefinitely: Bend Oregon.

Pros:
- It is home.
- Mom and sis nearby.
- It is a gorgeous little town. Vail/Aspen flavor.
- The summer weather there is almost always perfect (80-ish, low humidity)
- Some of the best mountain biking on the planet.
- The culture is a healthy/outdoorsy one. Seems like everybody there is healthy, tan, in shape.
- Great bike culture; both in the community and local government.
- Local culture is very involved...lotsa' cool stuff going on all the time.
- If you like beer, there are microbrews everywhere.
- If you like winter sports too, there is a *real* mountain 20 miles up the road (Mt. Bachelor). Also great xc skiing (US XC Ski Team's Home base...or least it used to be). Sometimes alpine skiing goes into late spring/early summer.
- Property tax is dirt cheap compared to here...and near as I can tell the infrastructure is better.
- No sales tax.

Cons:
- If you have to make a living there (e.g. not a WFH/telecommute job), there is not a lot of decent paying gigs. Mostly service oriented stuff.
- Real-estate is STUPID....though I hear things are crashing pretty hard.
- Often, those gorgeous summer days are screwed up by smoke from forest fires.
- My wife refuses to move there. I made the mistake of showing her a picture of my dad on the back patio with a 6 ft snow drift behind him. Even though I told her I'd only seen more than 3 ft of snow on the ground there a few times in my entire life, the damage was done. Which is pretty amazing as it isn't unusual to have 30-40 feet of snow just up the road at the mountain.
- It is BROWN east of town. Bend sits on the edge of high desert. Go east, you're in sagebrush, junipers, and manzanita. Go west you're in pine forest and mountains. Depending on how diverse your outdoor lifestyle is, this could be a big plus.
- You're 128 miles from a "larger" town (Eugene) and 175 miles from a "major" town (Portland) and you have to drive through mountain passes to get there (great fun in the winter). Cramps your concert going...
- It is a tourist destination. It gets pretty damn crowded sometimes, especially during ski season.
 

NJ-XC-Justin

KY-DH-Freddy
i would like to move somewhere else and then move back again in a few years. never really lived outside the NYC and NJ area and I wouldn't mind living in massachusetts, maine, wisconsin, oregon, arizona, texas, north dakota, canada, belgium, greenland or pretty much anywhere else -- for a few years anyway. make me appreciate what we have around here and then come home and love it. owning the one grandchild in the family, my folks would of course die a thousand deaths but in this dream i have enough moolah to buy them a seasonal home a half hour away.
 

Glancing Aft

Active Member
That's a simple question. York Pennsylvania :D Duhhhh.
Take $350k and you can buy a really nice 3bd townhome in a great town in Atlanta. That doesn't get you anything where I live, and you're not taking in to account taxes.
$350k gets you this out in York, http://www.century21.com/idxproperty/index.jsp?id=ERA2516464 Not that I'm a McMansion fan, but to give you an idea...

Where I'd really actually love to live is Vancouver. There is one con holding me back, the rain. Other than that you have a great big city feel with a short drive to killer mountains for biking and skiing. You have a great government with a healthcare and education that work! And from what I've heard from friends fairly good employment oportunities.

Other locals I'd love to live - Summit County Colorado and the Rutland area of Vermont. For now it's York PA Baby.
 

Fogerson

Former Resident Nerd
Where I'd really actually love to live is Vancouver. There is one con holding me back, the rain. Other than that you have a great big city feel with a short drive to killer mountains for biking and skiing. You have a great government with a healthcare and education that work! And from what I've heard from friends fairly good employment oportunities.

You mean Vancouver B.C., right?

Check the rain fall totals. We get 48 inches per year. Portland Oregon, yeah rainy Portland, gets only 40.

The difference is when the rain comes. Here we get about the same amount of rain every month. In Portland, they get 55% of their rainfall from December through March...sometimes doubling the monthly average of NJ. However, for many months during the year, we more than double the rainfall of Portland (3 to 4x in the summer for instance).

Much of the PNW isn't as *wet* as everyone thinks. It is the pattern of rainfall, and number of sun days, that give it the reputation.
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
San Francisco or Taiwan are probably the only 2 places we would really consider, and SF is pretty unlikely due to zero family and high cost. We both grew up in, and like, NJ. Taiwan is somewhere we'd both live for a year or 2. We like the availability of Asian culture in NY/NJ, SF, and Taiwan. It's not really very strong anywhere else other than China. And I think my wife's parents would disown her if she moved to China.
 

walter

Fourth Party
San Francisco or Taiwan are probably the only 2 places we would really consider, and SF is pretty unlikely due to zero family and high cost. We both grew up in, and like, NJ. Taiwan is somewhere we'd both live for a year or 2. We like the availability of Asian culture in NY/NJ, SF, and Taiwan. It's not really very strong anywhere else other than China. And I think my wife's parents would disown her if she moved to China.

I think Norm and I figured it out that I would bring my family to Taiwan, to keep everyone occupied. I could work there, my wife has an office there, Norm could eat there.
 

chemgirl

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
As a kid I lived in California, Alaska, Montana, Pennsylvania and Cape May County. I then ventured to Bergen and Hudson for college and grad school, then Monmouth county. We have since settled in Hunterdon County which I love. Yeah, property tax is outrageous, but we are close enough to civilization that it's at our beck and call, and spread out enough that we feel like we live in the country. We are nestled right between Philly and NY. Great roads to ride on, and not too far from good mtbiking. Not too much congestion relatively speaking. But if we could have afforded the same house we have now in Monmouth county we probably would have stayed there, I think Monmouth is the nicest place in Jersey to live (well parts of it).

Our dream is to move to Vancouver, Northern California, anywhere North. Maine, Vermont. Alaska has great laid back people and it's absolutely beautiful, but it is isolated (sounds similar to Bend Oregon). Montana is too far from the ocean. North of San Fran and Oregon have great people, biking and skiing...but no jobs. Colorado would be ideal I guess even though it gets hot there. I don't like the south simply because of the heat. Anything above 75 degrees is too hot for me. Anywhere we can ride all summer and ski all winter.

But in our professions we'll have the greatest income in NJ, and that's what pays the bills, and for the bikes and for the skis.......
I'm not a Jersey girl, and despite all the slack NJ gets, it really isn't a bad place to live. It's actually a very, very good place to live. I'm staying.
 

sixseven

New Member
1. Iceland. Un f'in believable landscape. Uncharted MTB territory that will take you across killer ancient sheepherder (is that a word?) singletrack down to glacial moraines and up into volcanic martian worlds with some of the most surreal bits of geography in between. Great people, great support of the arts and the outdoors, free heat, 24 hours of daylight in the summer, 24 hours of darkness and drinking in the winter. I spent several weeks there a few years back and it was beyond incredible, breathtaking from the minute the plane lands. Quirky people, places and times the WHOLE TIME. One drawback is the cost of living: 1 pint of beer at a regular type watering hole........12$. you have to bust out the credit card to pay for a round. But then again if time is money and I have to listen to people her complain about gas prices thats time...no one complains about the price of beer in Iceland.

2. Brazil. The coast is dreamy, laid back friendly, warm and its super cheap to live there. Mountains and jungle, rain forest and beach. Crazy massive San Paulo....flying into there makes LA look like a village. Cons: impossible to get any work done due to the pace of the place, my skin looks like shrimp meat there...


3. Bay Area. Sausalito in specific. What a place! Sits right on the bay for great sailing, windsurfing and kayaking. Minutes from Mt Tamalpais and a bunch of other great rides. A hundred spectacular places to see within an hours drive (not even including SF proper). Great culture of people making things, including bikes and anything having to do with bikes. Not sure who said it but sometimes it really rings true: " SF comes up with the ideas that the US exports. LA packages these ideas. NYC sells the packaged product"
Broad statement....no comment.
Cons: too many people doing nothing and talking about it. WAY TOO EXPENSIVE....but you gotta have dreams.

4. SOCAL. LA is so much fun and yeah there is a mall of wilderness fun within an hour or two depending on when you leave from there. but thats the thing, it all feels like a mall out there no matter where you go. who wants to be trapped in a mall, in a car? Its misleading to think everything is so close there, because in the end its just like here if you live near NYC...if you leave in rush hour its double the time it is normally, at best.

5 HERE. I love where i am right now. I do hate commuting to NYC. I am not happy about the taxes here, they are way too high and it seems like every year services are being cut. I haven't owned a car in years. I am extremely proud of the Sopranos as something that couldnt have come from anywhere else.
I get by but I spend a lot of time trying to figure out whats next. I dont want to stay here forever, and I dont want to move back to the city. There are a lot of great things to NJ, great trails, the Pine Barrens, the shore, killer state parks, access to cities, good schools....does everyone everywhere wish they could be elswhere if they could? I don't know. Does the Slurpee exist everywhere else?

Nice thread idea btw!!!
 

Fogerson

Former Resident Nerd
Our dream is to move to Vancouver, Northern California, anywhere North. Maine, Vermont. Alaska has great laid back people and it's absolutely beautiful, but it is isolated (sounds similar to Bend Oregon). Montana is too far from the ocean. North of San Fran and Oregon have great people, biking and skiing...but no jobs. Colorado would be ideal I guess even though it gets hot there. I don't like the south simply because of the heat. Anything above 75 degrees is too hot for me. Anywhere we can ride all summer and ski all winter.

Bend is isolated relative to most of NJ, but nowhere near as much as AK. Again, think Vail/Aspen...you'd be pretty close to what Bend is about. I'd wager that most people who'd move to Bend don't care they're 4 hours and a mountain pass away from a major city. I know I wouldn't.

There are jobs in Oregon, but they're concentrated mostly in the Portland area. If you head out to the western 'burbs of Portland there are tons of companies (mostly hi-tech...for instance Intel has 17,000+ employees there).
 
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