Oh! Move to Winnipeg! I saw your list, and everything fits.
1. A city of at least 250k people.
Population is 619,544
2. Clean air/water, lots of greenspace. Lakes and/or ocean presence is a plus.
Loads of lakes within easy drive, tons of green space, central neighbourhoods have loads of mature trees.
3. Low crime
Sorry, crime rate's not that great... but the crime I've experienced locally has all been the vandalism/petty crime sort of stuff.
4. LOTS of cultural opportunities. I have to live in a city with a ballet company and a real dance scene and theatre scene, and art galleries/museums. This is not negotiable.
We have the
Royal Winnipeg Ballet former home of Evelyn Hart, as well at the
Winnipeg Contemporary Dancers, Two
major theatres, the
largest children's theatre in Canada, a
local theatre , dozens of amateur companies, the 2nd largest
Fringe Theatre Festival in
North America.
5. Lots of excellent restaurants. I have to live in a "foodie" city. Also not negotiable.
We've got major, major
cultural diversity, and a restaurant for every culture to prove it. I am walking distance from extremely high quality yet affordable Japanese, Chinese, Italian, Middle Eastern and Greek Restaurants. More importantly, we have ethnic food marts of almost every variety, making it possible to cook any type of food you want.
6. Progressive/liberal vibe. I don't need to live in hippie-town, but Mr. Muse and I are both lefties so it would be nice to be in a place that is at least tolerant of "blue" folks.
The New Democrat Party has run the province since 1999 - the NDP are sort of like a mix between the American Democrats and the Green Party - a little more left than your Democrats, but not as extreme as the Greens.
7. High value on education. A university town or at least a place with really good schools and/or a high percentage of people with college degrees and beyond.
We have four universities and one major college. If you're asking about the situation from a teacher's perspective, there are tons of teaching jobs - most schools are in an intersting transition period with a wave of teachers about to retire, and a new wave of teachers in their late 20's/early 30's moving in. It's the nature of almost every school I deal with. There are so many teaching jobs locally that you would instantly be hired and have a work Visa.
8. Strong economy/positive job market.
See note above, also just search Winnipeg jobs - you'll find a huge list. Unemployment is at an all-time low, there's lots and lots of work to be had.
9. Good housing market/growth (we want to eventually buy a condo in an urban area)
With the income level you're at now, you could actually buy a house in my neigbourhood. We did, and our income is basically the same.
10. Jobs for a dedicated, progressive teacher; and an attorney who specializes in contracts, business law, and copyright.
Basically as a young teacher, Winnipeg is a prime employer. Right now there is still a glut of older teachers, some of whom are crusty and stuck in their ways, but this group is being crowded out by new teachers with very progressive teaching theory. My oldest friend and the dozens of teachers like her who are currently taking over Manitoba schools believe passionately in arts integration into the classroom, and work very hard to create innovative and creative classroom culture. I never fail to be impressed by the teachers I meet. Of course, it's a school-by-school thing (some schools struggle with major problems, others thrive), but the general thrust is toward very positive learning/teaching opportunities. As for law, all I can do is point you to the
Manitoba Bar Association. I don't know anything about the legal field here.
11. Smoking bans are a plus, but not required.
Indoor smoking is banned through out the entire Provence, except on reserves.
12. Vibrant "fitness" culture: lots of gyms, yoga studios, bike and jogging trails, etc.
There's lots of private gyms and many fancy new YMCA's through out the city, there's loads of yoga studios, bike and jogging trails. In winter the river is turned into a huge skating path (2nd longest in the country) every year. Beside the skating path is a foot/skiing path, and in summer we have the river walk - a series of paths that follow the river for miles and miles. The only thing I would caution is that roads are most definitely not bike friendly. This is one of the most contentious political issues in the city.
Critical Mass is a leaderless organization that coordinates mass group cycle rides to create awareness and protest car culture. This doesn't sound like much, but the rides are normally organized on Friday afternoons during rush hour. This is incredibly subversive, and the issue is
highly contentious because many motorists don't want cyclists on the road. Critical Mass rides get top headline coverage through out the summer, and people gather to both boo and cheer on the riders - fights break out, and last year there were arrests and fines during these peaceful protests.
13: High number of average days of sunlight per year. This is *critical* because I have a mood disorder.
From wikipedia: "Winnipeg is one of Canada's sunniest cities, and the weather in all seasons is characterized by an abundance of sunshine. The city receives an average of 2,372 hours of sunshine per year."
This raises the most important issue: climate. We get the heavy duty winter, and the heavy duty summer and everything in-between.
Average maximum and minimum temperatures for each month are as follows (shown as average maximum, average minimum — source Environment Canada):
January -12.7 °C (9.1 °F), -22.8 °C (-9.0 °F)
February -8.5 °C (16.7 °F), -18.7 °C (-1.7 °F)
March -1.1 °C (30.0 °F), -11.0 °C (12.2°F)
April 10.3 °C (50.5 °F), -2.4 °C (27.7 °F)
May 19.2 °C (66.6 °F), 4.8 °C (40.6 °F)
June 23.3 °C (73.9 °F), 10.7 °C (51.3 °F)
July 25.8 °C (78.4 °F), 13.3 °C (55.9°F)
August 25.0 °C (77.0 °F), 11.9 °C (53.4 °F)
September 18.6 °C (65.5 °F), 6.0 °C (42.8 °F)
October 10.8 °C (51.4 °F), -0.3 °C (31.5 °F)
November -0.9 °C (30.4 °F), -9.6 °C (14.7 °F)
December -9.7°C (14.5 °F), -19.1 °C (-2.4 °F)
This is the big up
and down side of life in Winnipeg. Personally I love the variation, though I'd like it if winter was a little milder.
Some background: Our current household income is about $30k and on that we are able to afford a just-under-1000 sq-foot 2BR/2 Bath apartment in a nice area, the occasional night out, relatively upscale meals at home once or twice a week. We generally don't spend money on things like new clothes very often. I'd like to have a little more in my pocket at the end of the pay period but we're certainly not uncomfortable. We have two cars (newest one is a 2004, the older one is paid for), and about $100k in student loan debt between us. So we'd like to go somewhere where the cost of living will be comparable.
You basically just described my own household, except that housing costs are so low here that we
own a two bedroom two bath home in a lower-middle class neighbourhood. You could rent a classy 2 BDR apartment somewhere hip for around $700 month. Comperably, our mortgage is less than $700 a month, so if you're willing to live in a slightly lowerclass neighbourhood you can own a house, which is pretty kick ass if I do say so myself. The primary reason we have such a huge arts and culture community here is because people can actually afford to be artists and live here. The theatre school director at our theatre is married to a dance/musical theatre instructor from the ballet, and they also own a house near by (and they can afford to raise their two children too!). It's da' shit.
I can't tell you how happy I am to live here, nevermind my SO and I being in our mid 20's and owning a house. You can come here and we'll hang out and not have babies. It'll be swell.
Also, the work Visa stuff is very easy to deal with - I hired a friend of mine who was a US citizen at the time, and got her a work permit in under a month.
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Topic: Where should I move to? (Read 15538 times)