I might move soon.... where should I go?

Hey everyone.

Recently, I have been considering moving.
My girlfriend casualy made a comment to wanting to move somewhere else. We currently both live in Los Angeles.
I asked her "Do you want to move to another city wity me?" and she replied with "Maybe."
Im figuring, at this point, that we are going to move in together very soon. Either in LA (once I can afford to move out, I am going to) or somewhere else.
We are both pretty much ready to leave LA and go anywhere.

So the question is, where the hell do we go?

I dont know exactly what shes looking for in a city... but I know what I want.

Here are my requirements:

1. This place MUST have broadband.
Im a computer geek. I need my broadband fix. And I figure, if the place doesnt have broadband, then how well developed of an area could it really be?
The more tech savvy the area, the better. Major bonus points if they have City-Wide broadband or other "tech" public services.

2. This place MUST have atleast, decent herb, with a decent price.
This is just plain common sense.
The cheaper it is, and the better the stuff it is, the better, of course.
Also, the more relaxed the weed laws are there, the better.

3. This place MUST not be super expensive.
LA is really expensive, NY is really expensive, San Fransisco is really expensive. Anywhere in Idaho? Not that expensive. It doesnt have to be "cheap" just not as expensive as LA, okay?

4. I would prefer a "warm" climate, but it doesnt HAVE to be one... Just as long as I dont have to shovel snow all the time.
I grew up in LA, and this is the only city I have lived in. Moving to another place with similier weather is nice, but it doesnt have to be that way. In fact, I took a trip up to seattle with my girlfriend several months ago, and it was really nice up there. I might beable to get used to it...
But I donno how expensive it is up there... so...

5. I want to live somewhere with cleaner air.
I figure, LA is one of the worst offenders. So, finding another place with better Air shouldnt be TOO hard.

6. Having some nice nature around the city would be really nice...
Especialy some woods or something.

7. the city should have, at the very least one of the following things.
movie theater
a nice head shop
a big book shop (like a boarders or barns and noble)
a best buy (or whatever other kind of electronics stores)
a video game store (like EB)
a video store
a music shop
a bar/night club

8. Bonus points if the city has any of the following things..
a hydroponics shop
a video rental place with "Cult" movies, Indie stuff, and other rare and hard to find things
a greek restraunt
a good japanese restraunt (there are alot of bad ones)
any other selection of really good restraunts
"ethnic" parts of the city, (i.e. Little Tokyo, China Town, Little Italy)
Any other specialty food shops (like deli's, gourmet food, imported food, etc)

9. Id also like it, if the place I went to, was atleast somewhat racialy mixed. Places where people are blatently racist are not tollerable by me.

10. Also bonus points if there is a community college there.

11. Id also like to live somewhere that is more liberal, rather than conservitive.

And finaly, id rather move somewhere that has more of a smaller town fealing to it, rather than a larger town fealing.
But dont rule out big cities right off the bat.
Like for example, Seattle, I went up there, I loved it.. I would seriously consider moving up there. Its not as big of a City as LA, so its okay...

I havent asked her about the possibilities of moving to other countries. But the option is open with me. Canada is an option as well, I dont know what parts are really relaxed with the weed stuff, but id like to know...
(My girlfriend is Anti-Pot, but she puts up with it for with me. But she doesnt like it much at all. As much as I would LooOOOooOoOoooooOooooove to move to Amsterdam, I know there would be no way in hell, that it would ever happen.)


If you know any places that fit my description, please let me know!

 

i would suggest vancouver, as it's pretty much everything u have listed and more

but..it's also more expensive then any of the places u listed as being "too expensive"

 

chicago! chicagooo!! (that wonderful town)

close to belmont and broadway...there are at least seven headshops within three blocks of there.

fits all yer other needs, too.

 

i sugest vancouver also... great place

 

Im gunna do more research on Vancouver, but the thing is tho, both me and my girlfriend are basicly broke at the moment.
We are both young (im turning 24 in a week and shes turning 22 in two weeks)
and dont have alot of money. Unless we could get jobs up there for sure, then move there, i donno if that would work. Are there any towns around Vancouver that are nice, but dont cost an arm and a leg?

 

Digital would be the one to ask

 

well what do u do for work currently?

if u moved up here and had enough money to rent somthing, u could get a job in construction [if u are willing to] the first day u are here, it's that much in demand due to the olympics

but..like i said, Downtown Vancouver is the 2nd most expensive Metropolitan Area to live in in north america only 2nd to like 5th Avenue Manhattan.

u can move like outside of van, and the further u get from the downtown core, the cheaper it gets, movign say 1.5 hours outside of downtown u will be looking at 250,000$ homes

where i live, about 25 minutes from the downtown core, the houses in my area range from 550,000$ - 2 mill. but it's a fairly high end area, 5 minutes away is much cheaper real estate.

 

Oh, also, how hard is it to get a canadian citizenship?

 

in my dog house hes getting pretty lonely

 

well if your not planning on moving out of state, i would prefer up north in Sacramento. most of what you said has it. it has the little town feeling to it(like it's open and has nature in the outskirts) but it is quite big and has everything LA would have(except a china town or something). there are all races here like asians, blacks, whites, mexicans. plenty of really really nice resturants(i don't know if any of them are greek though lol) but there are alot of other towns around the area so if Sacramento doesn't have it then take a 15-30 minute drive to another town that would have it. AND OF COURSE THE HERB. north california is famouse for its herb so thats deffinatly no problem. we have an 'old sacramento' that has alot of headshops. plenty of electronics shops and music/video stores like all cities should have. of course libraries. your from california so you would know the weather. mabye a little warmer than southern cal but has deffinatly cleaner air than LA. might rain a little too much in the winter and spring but i cant complain. lots of bars and clubs. movie theaters and other types of theaters if you are into that stuff. i dont know what liberal and conservative means so fill me in on that lol.

the only problems i would say is that sacramento isnt "cheap" AND there are alot of people here more and more seem to come every 6 months since we are building more around it plus the towns around. another problem i would say is the ghettos and punks around. expecially asians that steel everything(not labeling a specific race but most of them seem to be asian) but if you are into street racing like i am then its cool for it. so all in all Sacramento(or any other city around it like medesto or rosevile) seems like a place you would really like. just my opinion.

 

well if its in the states, i have no idea. but manchester, uk, is awesome, so cultural, liberal, next-to-legal (cant get arreested for possesion weed) and very vibrant, awesome club scene, has stuff like a mile of authentic indian curry restaurants and china town and stuff, headshops gallore, basically everythin, except the weather... but hey, its the UK, great country, shit wheather, wherver ya go

 

Im currently unemployed, which is why its a perfect opportunity to move!
I doubt im in well enough shape to do construction. LOL.
Altho if I did do it for a month, id probably be in the best shape of my life. How much are apartments about 30-45 minutes from downtown?

 

How hard is it to get citizenship in the UK?
Is it expensive over in Manchester? I might be kinda worried about cultershock, but hey, I think it would be totaly awsome to move over seas.

Also, as a side note, if your gunna recomend another country to me, lemme know how hard it is to get citizenship there, because thats an issue....
And also how long someone can live there on a Visa is important as well.

 

your dog house has broadband? lucky dog.

 

not hard at all. i have lived in the UK all my life, so i cant vouch for that, but i would guess so. probably a very welcoming country, specially to americans. some americans have metioned they hear about all this anti-america stuff over here, from what i have read - but its just the government we dislike, and certain stereotypes. folk here will be as welcoming as you could wish, and as for culture shock - no worries. its a pretty much open-to-anyone place. not like, braggin about the place just cos i live in the UK, just really love manchester, my brother lives there and it's where i'm heading.

Expensive? well, its a pretty huge city, so it has it's expensive areas, its dirt-cheap areas, and it's areas in-between. It's not as expensive as london, but I prefer it to london easy.

I say go for it. If you do, just stay away from soapbar lol. But you can get awesome weed there for pretty cheap, would take you a while to get the best contacts, but its really easy to get some decent stuff straight away.

 

Move to Boulder! Its really liberal, great bud here, we have a few community colleges (including naropa, which is an uber-hippy college), its pretty small, but everything you need is here, great restaurants on our pedestrian mall pearl street, its expensive, but apartments, condos and townhomes are pretty cheap still, and tight headshops because of the university here. Bud laws aren't more lax, but the fuzz is a little more accepting. We even have a sandwich store called cheba hut, and it sells sandwiches that are all named after different strains of bud! ... i don't remember what else u wanted... but its awesome! come live here

 

Who does like the American Government anyway? I certainly dont.
Im gunna look into Manchester some more... sounds interesting.

 

how cold does it get there? Is there snow?
The laws out there are pretty lax actualy...
http://www.norml.com/index.cfm?wtm_view=&Group_ID=4526

Ill look into Boulder some more...

 

BC baby!

nice clean air there, and the weed is nice.

ohh but they get a lot of snow! soo hmm.

 

Head for Eureka, in Humboldt County, 750 miles north of L.A.
In the heart of The Emerald Triangle, it meets all of your requirements.
It tends to be a bit overcast in the spring, which you can easily solve by moving a few miles inland.
Surrounded by redwoods, mellow hippies and pot--my kind of place.
Eureka is big enough (pop. aprox. 20k) to have all of the advantages of a city but small enough to be laid back.
I moved up here 6 years ago after living my entire life in the L.A. area. It will take a bit of adjusting to get used to.
And if you MUST get to a big city you're just a few hours by car to Sacramento and San Francisco.