Town to live in Suggestions

[Maxspeedwell]

TaylorJ...

Do (did) we know each other?
Did you live in Washington in the '70's?

-"Mad" Max Speedwell who is investigating Ft. Collins.
Santa Barbara, and Terra Linda are out. $$ & people!

[verbs4us]

This may be a whacky criterion, but I have often thought about retiring near a track, to try out my own hour record and to finally get that purple track Pogliaghi I saw once when I was 14 (a kind of Rosebud). In mind are the Lehigh Valley, Pa., near the Lehigh Valley Velodrome, and Northbrook, Illinois. Neither are cycling meccas, but Lehigh Valley is pretty close to some stunning farmland and killer climbs. Both affordable and near tech centers.

[robin3mj]

This may be a whacky criterion, but I have often thought about retiring near a track, to try out my own hour record and to finally get that purple track Pogliaghi I saw once when I was 14 (a kind of Rosebud). In mind are the Lehigh Valley, Pa., near the Lehigh Valley Velodrome, and Northbrook, Illinois. Neither are cycling meccas, but Lehigh Valley is pretty close to some stunning farmland and killer climbs. Both affordable and near tech centers.

DO NOT retire to Northbrook. Trust me.

[rowdyhillrambler]

This may be a whacky criterion, but I have often thought about retiring near a track, to try out my own hour record and to finally get that purple track Pogliaghi I saw once when I was 14 (a kind of Rosebud). In mind are the Lehigh Valley, Pa., near the Lehigh Valley Velodrome, and Northbrook, Illinois. Neither are cycling meccas, but Lehigh Valley is pretty close to some stunning farmland and killer climbs. Both affordable and near tech centers.

How about Rock hill, SC? Would be a better choice.

[Mabouya]

Build it and they will come:

[false_aesthetic]

DO NOT retire to Northbrook. Trust me.

+1 gajillion.

I'm spoiled (30 minutes to LA's Home Depot Center + 40 minutes to Encino) but the Ed Rudolph velodrome is the balance bike of velodromes.
Your hilly rides will involve the overpasses on 41 + 94 ad nauseum.
Riding in the Skokie Lagoons is riding in mud that smells like rotting fish (Feb - July).

Benefits include access to Vienna Beef, Metra rides to Wisco., running up the Handcock building once a year, and a quick drive to Morton Grove to eat @ Burt's Pizza.

[dogrange]

+1 gajillion.

I'm spoiled (30 minutes to LA's Home Depot Center + 40 minutes to Encino) but the Ed Rudolph velodrome is the balance bike of velodromes.
Your hilly rides will involve the overpasses on 41 + 94 ad nauseum.
Riding in the Skokie Lagoons is riding in mud that smells like rotting fish (Feb - July).

Benefits include access to Vienna Beef, Metra rides to Wisco., running up the Handcock building once a year, and a quick drive to Morton Grove to eat @ Burt's Pizza.

I thought I saw an article about Burt's closing. If you are a cyclist and have choice, do not retire around here. The riding is OK at best, and might actually be described as not good. Cars, McMansions.

[Rich Beaudoin]

I can't recommend this highly enough:
Live now where you want to retire.
Seriously - don't you want to be near old friends and involved in your community long term?
We made this decision in our mid thirties and it was an insignificant impact on my career.
Maybe the fact that we moved every 2-3 years while I was growing up made this more appealing, but I feel like I'm living 'the dream'

[false_aesthetic]

I thought I saw an article about Burt's closing. If you are a cyclist and have choice, do not retire around here. The riding is OK at best, and might actually be described as not good. Cars, McMansions.

If Burt's is closed then there's no reason for me to go back to Chicago . . . E V E R!

[holliscx]

Visited Bozeman this summer and could definitely see living there if you can work. Heard great things about Missoula and Helena too. Montana's an awesome state, fly fishing, skiing, biking, friendly down-to-earth folks, and very trucker cap friendly - what's up with all the trucker caps is that a DH bike thing?

[deano]

I can't recommend this highly enough:
Live now where you want to retire.
Seriously - don't you want to be near old friends and involved in your community long term?
We made this decision in our mid thirties and it was an insignificant impact on my career.

+a lot of points. Jobs/cities? Gag. Despite admittedly not moving back home to Ohio partially due to job outlook (but really because I married a Kentucky girl), I would say cities and jobs are overrated life-decision-making factors. I'd opt for less $$ and more time with friends & family any day. Unless work is somehow benefiting humanity and necessary to making the world a decent place, what's the point??

Our city seems economically pretty great right now and real estate is hot hot hot year round. But it's a little too fast, too uppity, etc. I tell people we've reached peak artisanal doughnut. I'm also told you can't go to a local brewery without running into someone's workplace networking event and everyone handing out business cards. Egads. Stop it!

[bcm119]

I can't figure out why people retire to somewhere else if they don't have to. Many people around here (bay area) say they are trying to work another X years and then retire to a small town. I think a small town would be the last place I'd want to grow old in. I want to be able to walk to all amenities when I get old, not drive. I want food and culture and medical facilities close by, etc. Cities seem to me the ideal place to be after retirement, because they offer amenities and social life, while the stress level of working/commuting in a city would be drastically reduced in retirement. I watched my parents grow old in their low density exurb, slowly losing their ability to keep up on the house, yard work, snow removal etc., having to get bigger more comfortable cars... yeah, no thanks.

[holliscx]

I can't figure out why people retire to somewhere else if they don't have to. Many people around here (bay area) say they are trying to work another X years and then retire to a small town. I think a small town would be the last place I'd want to grow old in. I want to be able to walk to all amenities when I get old, not drive. I want food and culture and medical facilities close by, etc. Cities seem to me the ideal place to be after retirement, because they offer amenities and social life, while the stress level of working/commuting in a city would be drastically reduced in retirement. I watched my parents grow old in their low density exurb, slowly losing their ability to keep up on the house, yard work, snow removal etc., having to get bigger more comfortable cars... yeah, no thanks.

Probably like when you're young there are pluses and minuses anywhere. Most places in the States if you don't have a car your life air quotes is limited. I observed the elderly in New York for 4 years and they seemed like fish out of water in a city whose frustrations many of which don't exist elsewhere. Barcelona the past 8 years it seems ok as far as walkability but a city's a city and I think it's hard on older folks. Opposite end of the spectrum my grandparents grew old together in their home in an older section of Montgomery, Ala. When my grandmother broke her hip and had to live in a nursing home she refused to eat and drink for that's not how she wanted to live. My mind was blown for that's basically a form of suicide but she went out on her own terms. I think a lot of people in care situations speed their rate of death up. City or country anything but an old folks' home please.

[caleb]

Visited Bozeman this summer and could definitely see living there if you can work. Heard great things about Missoula and Helena too. Montana's an awesome state, fly fishing, skiing, biking, friendly down-to-earth folks, and very trucker cap friendly - what's up with all the trucker caps is that a DH bike thing?

I have friends who live in a new development on the southeast corner of Bozeman. She works for the city government about 20 miles away, and he works remotely for a company because he's on the road three weeks out of every month. Great town, but they mainly live there because her parents are there.

Anyway, I wast talking to her mom about how I'd love to move to Bozeman. Her response was that I shouldn't move to Bozeman without a trust fund because, "this town is full of people your age (mid 30s) who are buying half million dollar houses without actually having a job." How representative it is, I don't know. But it's a real feeling.

For what it's worth, she said she though Helena had become a much better town for people who wake up and go to work.

[holliscx]

<snip>For what it's worth, she said she though Helena had become a much better town for people who wake up and go to work.

Got the same feeling too. I left Bozeman wanting to visit Helena.

[dogrange]

I have friends who live in a new development on the southeast corner of Bozeman. She works for the city government about 20 miles away, and he works remotely for a company because he's on the road three weeks out of every month. Great town, but they mainly live there because her parents are there.

Anyway, I wast talking to her mom about how I'd love to move to Bozeman. Her response was that I shouldn't move to Bozeman without a trust fund because, "this town is full of people your age (mid 30s) who are buying half million dollar houses without actually having a job." How representative it is, I don't know. But it's a real feeling.

For what it's worth, she said she though Helena had become a much better town for people who wake up and go to work.

Not surprising. I grew up in Missoula and my immediate family is all still there. It is a great town, much bigger and more interesting than Bozeman culturally. Bozeman's surroundings are prettier and I think they have better weather too. Missoula has grown a lot since the '80s and gotten much more expensive, but it is quite a bit cheaper than Bozeman just because there is a bigger housing stock, more people, etc. I haven't been to Helena since the '80s, but it was pretty cool, albiet small - wouldn't be surprised if it too is having a minor renaissance. Hard to find a job in any of the above that pays a living wage, but if that's not a problem for you, you are all set out there.

[Bob Ross]

I can't recommend this highly enough:
Live now where you want to retire.

Little late for that now (er, actually it's a lot late for that now) but that sounds like some excellent advice for the What Would 60-Year-Old Me Tell 20-Year-Old Me? hypothetical game. Along with "start a retirement fund!". And "don't bang the groupie with the Aqua-Net 'do!"

[rowdyhillrambler]

Let me help figure out why some people will NOT retire to a city..

I will retire right where I am, and I have all of the amenities. It seems like you equate aging with reliance on others for support, so do I, just differently. I can walk out my door and get the best food and culture of the ages. My grandfather raised a garden til he was 88, my wife's grandpops until he was 97! We have a lake to fish in, deer and turkey and huge garden. I don't want to rely on a restaurant or synthetic "cultural" experience.

Social life- We have about 15 neighbors within a half mile, we break bread together frequently, trade eggs chickens and get together to have firewood splitting parties. Help out in each other's garden, and are "on call" whenever needed, daily. We have a lot of friends that come up on the weekends to stay with us, camp out or just get away from the city/'burbs. We have a lake and 10 miles of ATB trails. My wife and our girl travel a lot, we aren't total homebodies, we love to travel, but love being at home.

As far as being old and close to medical facilities, no thanks. Miss Goldie, a neighbor passed away at 89, no kids or biological family. She lived the next house to us. It was our pleasure to help out, my mother in law took care of her, no blood relation, they were closer than that. She died on her front porch with her tennis racket in hand, she killed carpenter bees with it. That's the way I want to go..

Different strokes, I get that.... But, I got what I want, and to me it sounds better.

I can't figure out why people retire to somewhere else if they don't have to. Many people around here (bay area) say they are trying to work another X years and then retire to a small town. I think a small town would be the last place I'd want to grow old in. I want to be able to walk to all amenities when I get old, not drive. I want food and culture and medical facilities close by, etc. Cities seem to me the ideal place to be after retirement, because they offer amenities and social life, while the stress level of working/commuting in a city would be drastically reduced in retirement. I watched my parents grow old in their low density exurb, slowly losing their ability to keep up on the house, yard work, snow removal etc., having to get bigger more comfortable cars... yeah, no thanks.

[hidayanra]

I made the decision to move to Bend OR two years ago - and haven't (on the balance) regretted it yet.
There are bits I don't like, but this is where I want to live until I leave the US for the expat life again (if ever again), and that likely won't be until my parents pass in some decades.

The career options are quite a bit more limited, the dining out options are pretty poor in my mind (last cities of residence: Seattle, Madrid, Copenhagen), the social diversity is essentially nil (see previous locales), ... but the geography here is completely varied, the sky is incredible, and I can be happy living here & caring for my parents as they age.

Having moved every 18months for very much a majority of my life, I seriously questioned moving here as it makes moving again difficult - but it was the right decision.
I'd be earning 60% more had I stayed in seattle - but the life I wanted wasn't there anymore - so the money wouldn't really do me that much good, .... it's just money, eh?
Planning for the 50s & 60s years of life is hard - hard to know what I will want - but waiting until right before I need help to build those social networks & community is an entirely risky proposition.

"Live the life you want, and do it now"