Find me a good place to live for cycling

[Gummee]

Originally Posted by marciero

Am following with interest. I used to live in Flagstaff and Sedona many years ago but was not a cyclist. I did love it though. Albuquerque sounds tempting. I did a cycling vacation around Boone and Asheville two years ago and was great. This past Spring break was in South Carolina between Greenville and Asheville. Some great cycling there, for sure.

IME if you're road only, Flag sucks for riding. 3 roads outta town with 2 of the 3 being fast highways. The one towards the Rez has drunk Navajo on it. The one towards the GC has lots of RVs

Now, having said that... if you ride the forest service roads, things open up in an amazing way. Many many many more miles of dirt/gravel/off-roading than road riding.

Didn't live in Sedona. Visited a few times, but was running more than riding back then

HTH

M

[BobO]

Originally Posted by .RJ

Background: grew up in the DC area & currently live in the VA suburbs. Things are pretty good, but looking for a change of scenery soon.

Needs: good area for cycling (mtb/gravel riding and season of CX racing a plus - DC area has spoiled me on those things), availability of cleared jobs for my wife (DoD/Intelligence program/projecdt management), IT or software industry jobs for myself, fewer assholes than the east coast rat race.

Wants: winters not any worse than DC (preferably warmer climate), same or preferably lower cost of living in an area that you'd want to live in that's close to jobs, being able to live in an urban/walkable/bike friendly place, smaller community even if its in a large city/sprawl.

Places on my radar are Charlottesville VA, Charlotte NC, Denver and somewhere in SoCal - I realize thats impossibly vague given the sprawl, but either in OC on the coast or maybe closer to the mountains near Pasadena.

Go.

Tucson checks all of those boxes, even the walkable lifestyle depending on where in town you live.

Though admittedly,... it does get a bit warm in the summer.

[FlashUNC]

Not Charlotte.

[velofinds]

I don't know about your mid-Atlantic choices, but Denver sounds like it meets the vast majority of your presented criteria. The cycling in Colorado is top notch.

Originally Posted by .RJ

Needs: good area for cycling (mtb/gravel riding and season of CX racing a plus

Check.

Originally Posted by .RJ

availability of cleared jobs for my wife (DoD/Intelligence program/projecdt management), IT or software industry jobs for myself

Check.

Originally Posted by .RJ

fewer assholes than the east coast rat race.

Questionable. Denver attracts transplants from both coasts as well as from Texas.

Originally Posted by .RJ

Wants: winters not any worse than DC (preferably warmer climate)

It's colder, to be sure, but subjectively doesn't feel worse due to the relative lack of humidity. Probably more days of sunshine in a year. In my experience, snow tends to melt fairly quickly; accumulation doesn't linger, and there isn't a ton of salt dumped on the road. These things impact one's perception of winter.

Originally Posted by .RJ

same or preferably lower cost of living in an area that you'd want to live in that's close to jobs, being able to live in an urban/walkable/bike friendly place, smaller community even if its in a large city/sprawl.

Check (especially if you decide to live downtown, or in nearby Boulder).

[Clean39T]

Originally Posted by velofinds

I don't know about your mid-Atlantic choices, but Denver sounds like it meets the vast majority of your presented criteria. The cycling in Colorado is top notch.







Check.







Check.







Questionable. Denver attracts transplants from both coasts as well as from Texas.







It's colder, to be sure, but subjectively doesn't feel worse due to the relative lack of humidity. Probably more days of sunshine in a year. In my experience, snow tends to melt fairly quickly; accumulation doesn't linger, and there isn't a ton of salt dumped on the road. These things impact one's perception of winter.







Check (especially if you decide to live downtown, or in nearby Boulder).

+1 to all that, which is why I'm trying to get my wife and me back to the Front Range...if NorCal doesn't snag us first...still up in the air there, but if the job doesn't come through, it's all eyes on Coloradeee


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[cnighbor1]

Northern Oregon Portland, Bend all gets you in some nice riding
Bend does have a winter
Northern CA works also
Once out of high cost area like the SF bay area works like Chico

[Clean39T]

Originally Posted by cnighbor1

Northern Oregon Portland, Bend all gets you in some nice riding

Bend does have a winter

Northern CA works also

Once out of high cost area like the SF bay area works like Chico

Portland is good if you want to tool around the city, or if you want to race cross, but until you get way out of the city, or drive out to the good rides and endless gravel, the roads are pretty tough for roadies - traffic, rain, no bike lanes, bad surfaces, etc. all complicate things - it's not what it was 20yrs ago when riding up in the hills close to town was rural. It all depends on what you're benchmarking to though. I've lived in Boulder, so I have pretty high standards for what a "good" cycling city is...


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[Louis]

Originally Posted by .RJ

Needs: good area for cycling (mtb/gravel riding and season of CX racing a plus - DC area has spoiled me on those things), availability of cleared jobs for my wife (DoD/Intelligence program/projecdt management), IT or software industry jobs for myself, fewer assholes than the east coast rat race.

How about something near Vandenberg AFB?

[Clean39T]

NYC has 6 times the homeless population that Seattle does. It is what it is.

It's not the homeless in Seattle that are the issue - it's a big city that has gotten really expensive and working/service class folks are struggling to say the least, mostly invisibly in the close-in suburbs of Kent, Renton, etc. - what sucks about Seattle (and Portland) are the feral, professional homeless who have completely abrogated their role in the social contract and are only interested in drugs and crime. Google "the jungle Seattle".

For a cyclist, this matters. The feral population ends up living in tent encampments along cycling trails, in the woods, in areas we commute through - and that makes for a very unsafe situation.

There have been rapes and random attacks in Portland on cyclists and runners. Parts of the city are no-go zones at this point - parts that used to be what made Portland a great place to live. Now you can't go anywhere close to downtown without finding needles, feces, and trash.

I understand the laws of dependent origination that led these people to where they are today, and I donate to causes trying to help them, but I still have to think about my safety and that of my family/friends.



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