Finding our place

[Lillitu]

My family and another one are looking to relocate together, and we are investigating places for us to settle. We have specific criteria and I wanted to ask if anyplace that you know of fits most of what we want.

1. Safe places for kids to play outside. Not just supervised by adults, all the time either.

2. Green space, particularly forest.

3. State is good for midwives to practice in (law-wise)

4. City is good for new businesses opening up (not tons of red tape)

5. At least one university nearby

6. A population of people dedicated to sustainability and permaculture who could support a business like that.

7. Active arts and culture- for the grown ups as well as the kids.

I think I know the answer to this, but do you happen to know if it is queer friendly as well as friendly to pagans and Jews? We have minority religions in our crew, and also want to be sure that sexual orientation is a diverse value people are more than OK with.

What are the adoption laws in your state in terms of same sex couples? Our friends are lesbians.

I personally love New England, and in this tribe I thought of Burlington and Brattleboro. Am I missing anything? Anything I should know?

Edited by Lillitu - 12/28/10 at 4:02pm

[junipervt]

Burlington sounds like the place for you. We love it here! We live in a housing co-operative & love that it is safe for DD to play outside w/ the other kids here. We are 1/2 mile from the lake & a great park. A good amount of our friends are queer. Burlington is VERY queer friendly (part of the reason we moved here). There is a pretty active Jewish community here. 

It fits all of your criteria. The only thing I'd be concerned about is which neighborhood you pick in regards to the safely of kids playing outside unsupervised. If you have any specific questions feel free to pm me

[nicolian]

I would think not Brattleboro. Burlington seems like it would be a good fit. Also where I live in Concord, NH seems it would be a good fit. Good luck with your choice.

[nhoutdoormama]

I have not checked for other posts, but have you considered exploring western MA?  Northhampton, etc.  Best of luck!

[DeborahLD]

I agree that Concord seems to be a good fit.  If you want to talk to midwives in the area about practice, look up www.birthcottage.org.

[BroodyWoodsgal]

Concord NH would be an excellent fit for you, I think. Up here in NH we have a lot of crunchy folk around...especially in Concord and also in Portsmouth, which I think has a large gay and lesbian community. There are a fair amount of Pagan "happenings", too...I can think off the top of my head of a couple of really great shops and I know they have pretty thriving communities and a lot of events. Concord has an EXCELLENT birth center, too, Concord Birth and Wellness Center: http://www.concordbirthcenter.com/birthcenter.php  <--- click around the site. The MWs are WONDERFUL...they do home births or birth in their GORGEOUS birth center. They have a fabulous Moms group that we hold every Thursday and it's a REALLY awesome group of mamas.

[Sillything]

I know if you chose Vermont Burlington area is pretty diverse :) Like someone else said though depends on the neighborhood as far as safety for kids outside. Burlington has a good mix of people and it's always fun to walk the Church street area and check out what everyone is up to :)

[hikingmommy]

Originally Posted by nicolian 

I would think not Brattleboro. Burlington seems like it would be a good fit. Also where I live in Concord, NH seems it would be a good fit. Good luck with your choice.

Would you mind explaining why you say "not Brattleboro"? We don't have as many criteria, but are looking to move to the area and are considering Brattleboro and Burlington, too. I didn't realize Concord was so crunchy. I thought Keene was the crunchy place to be in NH.

[nicolian]

I have family in Brattleboro and from what I have seen and heard it seems to be a smaller minded mentality there. As well as lower income. Not that lower income is necessarily bad. It just comes with some bad side-effects sometimes. I can't really speak to the crunchy community there though, so I could be way off base when it comes to that.

[hikingmommy]

Interesting. It makes sense that salaries would be lower, since the cost of living is. I spent a few days there about 3 years ago and thought it was pretty nice - local stores with fair trade, natural materials, etc., a good selection of restaurants, nice people, etc.

Can you tell me more about Concord? We're pretty Liberal, crunchy, and Jewish. We'll send our kids to public schools, but are of a "Waldorf-y" mindset on many things, so we'd love to have a similar community. We're done having kids, but would like to live someplace where people won't look at me like I have two heads if I tell them we had a homebirth with our second. I'd also love a community where there are local CSAs, other people gardening, with chickens in their yard, etc.

Sorry if I'm threadjacking, Lillitu. We have similar criteria so your thread appealed to me.

[nicolian]

Let's see. I'm not really a politically-minded person so it's hard for me to speak about politics in the area from a personal perspective. However, most all of my friends are liberal and I have never heard a complaint about Concord from them. I'm not Jewish either, and have no Jewish friends so it's very hard for me to speak to that point. From what I have seen the religion of this area can be very varied. I would say most of my friends are Christian but it's not really a topic of every day conversation. Everyone I have met has been very tolerant of my lack of religion, if that matters. ;)

I can speak somewhat to the crunchy aspect - I guess it would depend on what exactly you would be looking for in a crunchy community to be able to 'rate'  Concord. If it matters, it's fairly common and definitely normal to see a mama with dreads and unshaven legs. The breastfeeding community is great here. I have even met many a cloth-diapering mom! Nature childbirth is not out of the norm here. Our hospital is pretty amazing when it comes to that! We also have a local birth center and the ladies there do homebirths. I was hoping for a homebirth and never got a strange look when I shared my hopes. There are CSA's in the area, and I have seen a few chickens. ;) Most people I know garden. Our recycling program is pretty great. Local shopping is plentiful. We have a cooperative grocery store and many locally owned stores and restaurants - especially downtown. There is the city, if that's what you're looking for. It's not huge but you can usually find what you're looking for or something to do. And there's also lots of nature to be found. And beautiful scenery. We are about an hour from the ocean and an hour from Boston.

The public schools are good, from what I know, but Concord High School is pretty huge.

Can you tell I really like it here? There's not too much I would complain about. Let me know if you  have any other specific questions. :)

[hikingmommy]

Thanks so much for your detailed reply. It's very helpful. I mention our religion just because I don't want to move someplace where no one else is Jewish. We expect to be well in the minority moving to northern New England and are OK with it as long as there is an organized Jewish community/temple in the area. We're... moderately crunchy? No dreads or unshaven legs, but we encourage our kids to play outside year round, homebirth, extended BF, cloth diaper, try to eat organic/local, etc. So, we don't want to end up someplace where all the kids eat bologna on Wonder bread with their Doritos and Capri Sun for lunch everyday, you know? We used to stop in Concord sometimes for dinner on the way home from day hikes when we were crazy hikers. It looked like a nice town, and we liked the Mexican restaurant that looks like (is?) an old jail. I guess I hadn't considered it because everyone just talks about Keene as the crunchy/liberal part of NH. Thanks for giving us another place to consider.

[nhoutdoormama]

I would also encourage you to check out the Seacoast of NH.  Portsmouth is fantastic, we're in Durham (where UNH is located) and like it quite a bit.  Feel free to PM me if I can answer any more questions.  Best of luck!

[Saco]

The Seacoast is great! I live in Exeter and love it. I think any of the towns on the Seacoast would be a great choice and southern Maine as well. And I wanted to mention that Temple Israel in Portsmouth has an awesome preschool. I looked at it for my son but ultimately chose something very similar that was in Exeter. If I lived in Portsmouth I would send him there. I have two friends who send their children there. I also get the sense that Temple Israel is a wonderful community. Good luck!

[nicolian]

Originally Posted by hikingmommy 

Thanks so much for your detailed reply. It's very helpful. I mention our religion just because I don't want to move someplace where no one else is Jewish. We expect to be well in the minority moving to northern New England and are OK with it as long as there is an organized Jewish community/temple in the area. We're... moderately crunchy? No dreads or unshaven legs, but we encourage our kids to play outside year round, homebirth, extended BF, cloth diaper, try to eat organic/local, etc. So, we don't want to end up someplace where all the kids eat bologna on Wonder bread with their Doritos and Capri Sun for lunch everyday, you know? We used to stop in Concord sometimes for dinner on the way home from day hikes when we were crazy hikers. It looked like a nice town, and we liked the Mexican restaurant that looks like (is?) an old jail. I guess I hadn't considered it because everyone just talks about Keene as the crunchy/liberal part of NH. Thanks for giving us another place to consider.

Margarita's! And that's not even the best Mexican restaurant! Hermano's is way better, imo.

I think most NH kids play outside year-round. We have no choice or we'd go crazy! lol I do all the things you listed so you'd have one friend with common interests here, at least. :D
 

[michiganfarmmama]

It isn't on the east coast, but Portland, oregon sounds like a perfect fit for your criteria! we lived there for  a few years and loved it!