Robert Foster

Or they are happy where ever they go. The OP seems to be looking for work so it would seem the best thing to do is go where things look more prosperous. There is very little reason not to use all of the resources available to someone like the internet, job finding services, want adds or anything else.
Once the anchor of employment is broken then the search for a better place to live opens up and we don’t have to settle for where we are now and can look to find work in a better place where we want to be.
If I were in the OP’s position a list of the best cycling areas would seem like a good place to start. And if those areas were also recovering faster than where I lived a list of those places would be helpful as well. But moving for employment seems to be a worldwide constant. It was one of the many reasons people started coming to this country and it seems to be the reason so many are still coming.

In the OP's case it would seem the perfect time to find a better place.

Roody

This is true, eswpecially if a bike is your main transportation. A lot of city centers are just too congested for happy bike riding, IMO, many downtowns are better suited for walking, taxis and transit rather than bicycling. Also, downtown areas often don't have practical amenities like grocery stores, hardware stores, pharmacies, elementary schools, etc.

If you want to find a good suburb for carfree, look at an old map of your city from the 1920s or 1930s. Wherever you find an old commuter rail station or trolley line, you'll probably find good carfree territory today. Areas that were initially developed for cars in the late 1940s to mid-1950s (pre-freeway era)) are often good bicycling areas also.

Osborn

I'll chime in about Portland. The most bike friendly parts of the city are close in, and relatively expensive to live in. The job market here is as bad as just about anywhere in the country and worse than most. At least in terms of raw unemployment statistics. It is beautiful here though, and the seasons are pretty mild. People talk about all the rain we get but what we really have is a lot of cloudy weather. Seattle and the Olympic peninsula in Washington get a lot more rain. Summers can spike in temperature but rarely stays hotter than 100 degrees for more than a week. Lows do get below freezing but we rarely get much snow or ice. Maybe once a year. No sales tax. Reasonably flat depending on where you live.

newenglandbike

I think that while there are good reasons for a dedicated cyclist to want to move to a city that is more bicycling friendly than the average US town, it might be better if those of us who live in towns that are 'behind the times' to make our best effort to create a bicycle friendly environment. Chances are, there are are other cyclists in your town who feel exactly the way you & I do, and if we band together, it is possible to effect change. What happened in Portland didn't happen because the carheads said, "you know, there really ought to be a bicycle lane right in the middle of the street, so that cyclists will be safer..."

Personally, I think there are good changes afoot in a lot of places across the US. People's attitudes reach a tipping point on things and a wave of change occurs. It happened with things like civil rights, and it's happening now with the connection between energy consumption and pollution, foreign policy, quality of life.

That being said, lately there are a lot of 'greenwashing' advertisements from Big Oil, such as Exxon and Chevron, trying to tell us that they're investing in green energy to make us all feel warm & fuzzy. Needless to say it's a lie, but tell everyone you can not to believe it. Less than 3% of the the money they re-invest goes into alternative fuel exploration, and THAT goes to natural gas, which has all the same problems as oil*. The rest, of course, goes into oil exploration such as shale-oil in the west, oil sands in Alberta, the good ol' middle east, and the oceans, as the world was so rudely reminded this year.


If you haven't already, check out Antonia Juhasz's "Tyranny of Oil" or "Crude World" by Peter Maass.

Robert Foster

Very true if you have reason to stay in the place, like because of work or because your house is paid for but the OP is out of work and looking for a place that meets a few criteria. It would seem to be the very best time to look at a place to move to that has better cycling opportunities. There is the fact that not all areas of the US are recovering at the same rate.

Roody

Anyway, let me put in a word for my own city, Lansing, MI. Regulars here know how much I love lansing. It's a Bronze Level bike-friendly city, and should be Silver by 2012. Kiplingers just named it one of the 10 best cities for young adults in North America. Although GM is still a big employer, Lansing was one of the first cities to adopt a Complete Streets Ordinance. The bus system was awarded best in America a couple years ago. We have an extensive trail system, which we continue to expand.

Lansing has just over 100,000 people and next-door East Lansing is a college town that's almost as big. The terrain is flat as a pancake and the climate is nice with four distinct seasons. We are very actively improving arts and culture and deveolping a diverse employment base that includes many high-tech startup companies. We're in the center of one of the most beautiful states in the nation, with many outdoor recreational activities.

Jeeze, I feel like one of those blowhards from the Chamber of Commerce. But it really is a nice place to live, that oesn't get the recognition it deserves.

Artkansas 

Sounds like there is an active group of Bicycle Activists in Lansing. They deserve a shout out. Have you been helping them?

Locally, North Little Rock has achieved a Bronze Level bike-friendly city and has a Complete Streets plan. Little Rock, however, due to a much more complex political picture has not. I'm part of the bike plan subcommittee which is just about to release our recommendations. Not coincidently, just about my entire commuting route somehow made it into the plan as places that should be signed and painted.

Though we are way behind Fayetteville in Northwest Arkansas, which even has a paid bicycle coordinator.

So really most of us on this forum should be participating with our local Bicycle Advocacy groups.

erbfarm

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I think the advice about taking the job wherever it is makes a lot of sense. I'm very active in our state wide bike advocacy group and would continue that type of work wherever I end up. It's just that I'd like to be able to live a very car lite life while doing so and that makes me want to end up someplace I can do that fairly easily. I'm a Pgh native so I do know about all those subtle taxes, but even so, it's a great place to live with a strong bike community and I have a lot of family there so it's very attractive to me.

poormanbiking

Just as Roody stated some people are never happy ! I'm going to say check out Detroit, low home prices and ready for a rebirth. I'm in Toledo,Ohio and have friends buying their first home for a whopping $10K. Toledo has a bike community,2 universities within 30 miles of each other and a few 'green businesses' including 3 solar panel manufacturers.

Roody

Yeah, anybody who counts out the midwest has some surprises coming. Especially when you consider that we hold a vast proportion of the world's fresh water. Of course there are going to be a couple more lean years before things get rolling again.

nigelbison

Eugene Oregon is great, as long as you have fenders on your bike. Its wet in the winter but very little snow and not that cold. Portland is the worst place if you dont like suburbs

Platy

It would be economic common sense for the US to rebuild its domestic industry, and what better place for it than a region that's done manufacturing very successfully in the past. All the elements of success were there a hundred years ago, what's to stop us from recreating them? It makes sense for Gen Y people to homestead the great old cities and start rebuilding them. The great thing about $10,000 houses is that people don't have to spend 30 years of their lives and 30% of their income paying interest on mega mortgages. Lower housing expenses could potentially allow more people the economic freedom to start small businesses. I think that's the spark that's needed to energize the success cycle. I'm keeping an optimistic lookout for news stories about little 3-person midwestern manufacturing companies starting on a shoestring in recycled factory buildings and starting to grow.

Roody

I'm hoping to see at least one of the huge abandoned auto plants turned into kind of a mall for small manufacturers. I'd love to see a shop making new steel bike frames, next to one making wind turbines, next to one making a new type of battery for cars and storage of locally produced power.

zonatandem

Tucson, AZ.
Snow twice in 33 years I've lived here.
Will get down on rare occasions to just below freezing in early A.M. in what we call 'winter.'
Bike friendly with over 400 miles of bikelanes/paths.
Affordable cost of living/housing/rent.
NO tax on groceries.
About 8 inches of rain per year.
Low humidity.
Sunshine? You occasionally get tired of it and wish fro a cloudy day!
Summer can be a challenge with many days of 100+ degrees.
Our greenery is different from your greenery . . . think cacti.
Have been in all 40 continental states; this is where we choose to live.

zonatandem

BTW Tucson, Arizona has been a Gold Level bicycle friendly commuynity for many years.

bragi

Are there tax or other incentives in MI for people who want to start small-scale manufacturing there? That kind of environment could be a promising start to something very positive in the long run.

I'm worried about us; any society that depends on consumption, yet leaves the production to others, can't last very long.

AdamDZ

+1000

Platy

Super idea. I'd imagine something set up like a science or engineering department at a university, with shared machine & model shops, payroll administration, regulatory compliance, IT facilities, etc. Many wonderful businesses have germinated by piggybacking their very early development on university facilities, sometimes surreptitiously and sometimes by formal arrangements. In any case I think the manufacturing mall idea is pretty good.

nish2575

with regards to teh discussion, i have 2 comments: northampton is awesome, your relatives are wrong. and i thought people who like best cities list are constantly unhappy was right on, but almost too close to home (:. there is a funny onion headline to that effect as well

northampton ma is my ideal, with portland and seattle being very close to top choice, but too far away

from what i've seen, add:
portland, me
somerville, ma (yes expensive, but lots of opportunities for houseshares)
providence, ri
new haven, ct
brooklyn, ny (ok, maybe stretching it on cost)
maryland around dc - suburbs, but very well planned, and metro access into dc for work

akohekohe

Well, I'll put in a word for where I live: O'ahu. People will argue that the cost of living is high and the cycling infrastructure is practically non-existent. The high cost of living here is driven mostly by the high cost of housing but this overlooks the fact that with our outdoor lifestyle you don't need a very big place. If you have your heart set on a big house in the suburbs, well forget it, but you can live quite reasonably in something smaller particularly when you consider you will need neither heat, air conditioning, nor a car (the price for groceries and other goods is comparable to the mainland). Although many people almost constantly complain about the lack of bike paths, lanes etc., I've been living here for over 20 years and ride my bike all over the island with no problem at all. In fact it is quite enjoyable. With the uniformly good weather you can bike year round - it doesn't get hot and it doesn't get cold (all time record high for the Honolulu airport is 95 F and record low is 53 F). I've never once bicycled in anything but short pants and short sleeves (you can save a lot on clothing by not having to buy warm weather cloths). The public bus system goes everywhere on the island and all the buses have bike racks. A monthly pass is $60 (it is a lot less if you are over 65 or disabled). So it is a very easy place to be car-free. Not to mention the beautiful scenery and beaches. Another plus is Honolulu is the most ethnically diverse city in the USA. This may not matter to you, but for me I really dislike living in a place that is over-run by white people and that covers large parts of the mainland including most of the places mentioned earlier in this thread.

Artkansas 

You might be surprised. Even Little Rock which in the 50's was a prime battle ground among the races now has a mix. That caused a white flight out to the suburbs, but Little Rock itself became more diverse. Admittedly, some parts are pretty white or black, but the neighborhood I live in is pretty mixed. You go into the stores there are whites, blacks, mexicans, chinese and indians, and the local pizzaria follows the Halal dietary code.

Mighty Melvin

Exactly correct. Summer is lovely but it lasts two months.

Everything else is unbelievably wonderful. Great radio, blue-collar food that you can't even dream of, free Eastman student concerts all school year, gorgeous parks. I live in a 1926 beauty full of hardwoods. You can buy it for $60k. Leisurely bike ride half an hour north and I'm on a beautiful beach in a beautiful park. Leisurely bike ride half an hour south and I'm at the Eastman Theatre.

But it's cold and grey just all the time.

MM

kayakplayer

Wanted to add Wisconsin's Fox River Valley to the mix...
Appleton's Performing Arts Center: hosted Lion King (large scale off-broadway ability)
MUT and Trestle Trail: boardwalks & MUT along many bike commutes
Low traffic routes through town: not painted, but easy to ride
Developing MUT system: Soon to be a full loop linked to regional trail system
Wisconsin: Lots of great town roads to get the milk out in winter
Farmer's Market: Local organic produce, meat, eggs, raw milk, CSA's, etc.
Shhhh! Kaukauna Surfing: Yes, waves! Also 1 1/2 hour drive to NE WI ww rivers.
Area Festivals: Art shows, Octoberfest, Bayfest, Sawdust Days & EAA Fly-in
XC Ski trails: at GB's Reforestation Camp & Iola Sports Club w Ski Jumps
Soccer facilities: Hosting Midwest Regional Championships at USA Sports Complex
St. Norberts U in DePere & Lawrence U in Appleton: excellent & cheap arts events
Inexpensive UW system schools in Oshkosh, Green Bay, & Menasha
Less expensive Fox Valley & NE Wis Tech Colleges in Oshkosh, Appleton, Green Bay
Fox River Canoe Trail: paddle Marquette's and Joliet's exploratory route, locks, etc.
Public schools: Still strong though shrinking, and depending upon recent politics
Neighborhoods with Parks: Not completely shredded by high volume traffic routes
Steady home values: dropped slightly, though some huge $1.5 mil homes
1 ridiculous Extreme Makeover Home: down the street from my Mom's
Paper industry hurting: But cleaner water and air & more diverse economy.
Appleton Boy Choir & Girl Choirs, Fox Valley Youth Symphony, Fox Valley Symphony
Museums & historical sites throughout area too many to list.
I'm almost 50, grew up here, and still haven't seen everything.

ScotteeD

We are starting to develop a strong bike community in Kansas City, Mo. Our local government has started to recognize a need to share the road, they are starting to create protected bike lanes on several bridges leading into the downtown area and bike lanes in the city. We also have a local mountain bike organization( Earthriders) along with Missouri conservation that helps create and maintain over 100 miles of off road riding. Our local leaders are planning a route from KC to link up with the Katy trail system all the way to St.Louis.

The weather is not as bad as some areas, local winter forcast is predicting around 13 to 16 inches of total snow fall for this winter. I have commuted 2500 plus miles so far this year with no complaints. No matter where your at in KC you are within riding distance to shops, food, and entertainment.

The job market is pretty stable as long as you are willing to work and your not an ex-felon .