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In terms of radio listening, the Thruway cities typically have a couple of NPR affiliates (maybe one more newsy or jazzy and the other more classical music), several rock-ish stations, maybe a couple of country stations and some religious. In Buffalo (and if you try hard enough Rochester and Syracuse) you can also get Canadian radio. It's definitely not the type of area where you only find country and religious on scanning the dial.
Basically and you can find urban radio in each of those 3 areas too. You will perhaps find an international radio station(usually from the Toronto area)/ethnic show on a radio station along the way as well. Tons of college radio for sure.
^ Given what the OP has said in the past, I don't think the South will work outside of a few cities/areas. That's if he is really going to move.
As for Upstate NY, I'd say that certain suburbs and city neighborhoods would work for you, nep. There are areas of these metros that get people from all over and that are fine living in the area. This can go for small towns up here as well, if you know where to look. Overall cost of living will be on par with VA and NC, as will pay, ironically. As for average annual income in Upstate NY, according to the latest information I could find, Albany, Ithaca, Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo is the order in terms of the top 5 in that regard and in that order. That may give you an idea in terms of pay, if you are serious about moving up here.
What I read was:
-high salary
-low amount of rednecks
-nice topography (likes treed areas)
-gay friendly
-reasonable cost of living
-hot summers, warmer winter
-close to family / CT
Northern VA seems to check all those boxes. I don't think Upstate will work. Like you said, that's even if any of this isn't an exercise in futility anyway.
-high salary
-low amount of rednecks
-nice topography (likes treed areas)
-gay friendly
-reasonable cost of living
-hot summers, warmer winter
-close to family / CT
Northern VA seems to check all those boxes. I don't think Upstate will work. Like you said, that's even if any of this isn't an exercise in futility anyway.
If you are familiar with his other threads, there are a lot of assumptions and changing of criteria. He alsi mentions a cultural component at times as well(he's Italian). With the exception of the weather, he could find everything else up here, but there needs to be more information given. I don't know if I'd call Northern VA a low COL area either.
If you are familiar with his other threads, there are a lot of assumptions and changing of criteria. He alsi mentions a cultural component at times as well(he's Italian). With the exception of the weather, he could find everything else up here, but there needs to be more information given. I don't know if I'd call Northern VA a low COL area either.
As Italians are predominately concentrated in a few northeastern states, getting Italian areas and warm weather is not possible. Other locations with a sizeable Italian population are very small by comparison and overshadowed by many other nationalities, or far away from his family (San Francisco comes to mind, as well as New Orleans). I've personally been down that road, and its not easy to find.
Like I mentioned in my post, its impossible to find a low cost of living and all the other things (high pay, great weather, low numbers of country people / music). NOVA comes close, IMO. Its not cheap but further out areas like the counties I mentioned, you can find cheaper homes there.
Philly works well too, and is a high % Italian area as well. I also don't think he'd feel out of place in NOVA as an Italian, as he might in more Deep South locations.
As Italians are predominately concentrated in a few northeastern states, getting Italian areas and warm weather is not possible. Other locations with a sizeable Italian population are very small by comparison and overshadowed by many other nationalities, or far away from his family (San Francisco comes to mind, as well as New Orleans). I've personally been down that road, and its not easy to find.
Like I mentioned in my post, its impossible to find a low cost of living and all the other things (high pay, great weather, low numbers of country people / music). NOVA comes close, IMO. Its not cheap but further out areas like the counties I mentioned, you can find cheaper homes there.
Philly works well too, and is a high % Italian area as well. I also don't think he'd feel out of place in NOVA as an Italian, as he might in more Deep South locations.
If he doesn't mind Deep South, Tampa and New Orleans are the 2 areas that may work. There are communities even places like Birmingham and Memphis, but they are smaller. Same with some of the other major metros there too.
What may hurt those outer NOVA counties is the increased likelihood of running into people might not want to be around, but like anything else, it is a matter of finding that area/community/place that fits.
Last edited by ckhthankgod; 01-22-2014 at 10:29 AM..
So I'm someone whose entire Italian-American family has lived in CT for just over 100 years, but who has ended up not living in the state since college, and has lived and spent a lot of time upstate in that time (My in-laws are in Buffalo, I currently live in Ithaca). CT is unique in a lot of ways (note I didn't say better), and I don't think you're going to get every single thing you're looking for outside of the state. But I'm going to answer what I can, mostly generally.
The geography of upstate NY cities is such that the population density drops off rapidly past the city limits. That's a thing that is significantly different than CT, where pretty much every area has significant development. CT does sport a thin veneer of "wooded New England town" wherever it can unlike the developed highways in New Jersey, but there are condos and malls and highways in those woods.
Upstate has a lot more farmland and a lot more truly undeveloped land. That changes the feel of the place a lot. In the fall you'll see people at Walmart with their faces painted up in camo for hunting. My mom's moving here to Ithaca from central CT and she is hearing a LOT of surprised comments from people about going to the middle of nowhere--but from other CT folks, not from people here.
The Italian population is much lower. I get my fix of rum cake and amaretti when I go visit the family. Buffalo has a slightly higher Italian population (my inlaws are in Buffalo) but it's a lot lower than I grew up with. It's better than Wisconsin was, at least.
The geographic flatness starts north of the Fingerlakes and a bit past Syracuse; I think of Rochester as being the easternmost point of the midwest. What's good about it? Western NY is GREAT for biking; the flat topography doesn't register one way or the other with me, otherwise, and I have no particular feelings about PA.
Upstate NY is more politically conservative than much of CT. I think the class structure is broader and less tall, though. As someone who grew up poor, I think I'd hate rich people a lot less if I'd grown up here. If you've got opinions that strong about clothing style, I think it'd be a hard transition for you to be around folks who don't care or notice.
Spring comes about two weeks later and winter arrives about two weeks earlier. Temps are usually about 5 degrees lower than at my family's in New Britain. The cities along the thruway get significantly more snow. Significantly. As I mentioned, my mom's moving up here and after checking the weather every day, is starting to believe me when I tell her that we will have three-week periods where it snows a little bit every day. This site gives you averages if you're interested in more science, but be aware that my in-laws in Buffalo sometimes get half of what they do in other parts of the city; it's pretty variable from location to location.
In the city, less country music. Outside the cities (which as I've mentioned is closer than it is in Hartford or New Haven), quite a bit more. Of the friends I grew up with in CT, almost none of them live there any more, and a number of them live in upstate NY (most of these folks have college degrees, a not-insignificant percentage have postgraduate degrees). So anecdotally, there seems to be less of a brain drain here, again particularly around the universities.
With your criteria, I'd say live in Buffalo or Albany with a job closely associated with one of the universities.
For the record, I know that NOVA would be one of the worst places for me. It's very fast paced, very expensive, and in general it just doesn't appeal to me. Really, it's not much different than where I currently live.
Second, I never asked for warm winters. I like extremes. I like hot summers and cold winters. But the summer can't be TOO short. I'd like at least 3-4 months of temps in the 70's and 80's.
And yes, I don't like places that have numerous Christian or country radio stations, as I don't relate to any of those lifestyles (no offense if others do).
I prefer untouched natural country land over farm land any day. I like to see lots of trees, brooks, ponds, hills, cliffs, etc. But the whole farm house and corn field look bores me to tears. From what I've observed, it seems that Buffalo and Rochester are just as flat as Florida, quite frankly. I'm not sure that's a deal breaker. Syracuse seems to have nice, low mountains.
In my opinion, Buffalo seems to appear rather run-down, and the neighborhoods and houses appear to be very middle class (not a bad thing). The whole area just has a bland look. I also went to the Niagara Falls area and honestly thought it was a DUMP! I only spent about two days in Buffalo over the past two years. It was decent. It actually has a large gay population for a city of its size, and a little culture, too. I LOVE the old architecture of Buffalo.
In my opinion, the Rochester area appears cleaner and has a good blend of middle class and upper middle class neighborhoods and towns. It's also not as flat as Buffalo.
From my research, it appears that Buffalo summers only peak at 80 degrees on average, and the summers don't quite last as long as down here in CT which peak at 85 degrees. That sucks. I love to wear shorts, open the windows, go swimming, take a walk outside on a warm night. Can these things even be done there?!
As you can see, the Upstate metros have pretty large Italian American populations on par, if not greater than CT metros.
Yes, you can swim up here and walk around in shorts during the summer.
In Rochester, I'd say to look in and around Spencerport, if you don't mind a suburb.
Yeah I already knew that WNY has a significant Italian ancestry, despite what others on here have claimed. It's a simple statistic to look up.
With that said, I have spent a LOT of time looking around on Google Street View in WNY. It appears that the vast majority of the rural landscape is covered in flat farm land with corn fields, farm houses, horses, etc. That type of scenery is not appealing to me, especially if it's combined with a Christian/conservative/country music culture. It reminds me of PA or OH.
Yeah I already knew that WNY has a significant Italian ancestry, despite what others on here have claimed. It's a simple statistic to look up.
With that said, I have spent a LOT of time looking around on Google Street View in WNY. It appears that the vast majority of the rural landscape is covered in flat farm land with corn fields, farm houses, horses, etc. That type of scenery is not appealing to me, especially if it's combined with a Christian/conservative/country music culture. It reminds me of PA or OH.
South of Rochester and Syracuse aren't flat though. What is also interesting is that you have small towns with high Italian population and many small towns with colleges tend to be more liberal. So, it depends on what you are looking for.
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