Category: Daily Living
Hi. I currently live in Co, and am looking for alternatives. Denver is reasonably accessible, but I hate the weather for the most part, along with a few other irritations. I'd just like to get out of the state. I'm right now looking into colleges, and haven't applied to any yet.
I'm too lazy to post the direct link, but on the AFB website, I read this list they created called the most livable cities. Their top 5 (best to worst) were Charlotte NC, Berkeley CA, some city in Michigan, New York city, and Louis Ville KY. What's your opinion (if any) on these, or other blind-friendly cities? What would you suggest? I was thinking of Austin, TX. What say you? Thanks.
I've heard many good things about Austin, Tx. and am planning on visiting there some time. My favorite city I have been to so far is Chicago. There are several ways to get around transportation wise, or by walking. Plus, there is always something to do or see there.
I loved Austin when I lived there. It's expensive though.
Usually that's how it goes with cities. The places downtown tend to be a bit pricy. Apartments in New York City are relatively expensive. Another benefit of Chicago is there are a lot of suburban neighborhoods that have cheaper housing, and most of those areas have access to a train that goes in to downtown. You just have to be careful of which suburb you pick, because some of them are grimey and have higher crime rates.
Apartments in New York City are incredibly expensive. But I did like the city when I was there. I can see it being very good for a blind person, because so much of it is designed with pedestrians in mind, rather than just cars. Never been to Austin, but have several friends who have, and they all say it's a really good place. I have a good friend who lives in Boston, and is constantly saying how good the transit and accessibility are there. Ryan is right, Chicago is good, too. As an aside, I personally liked the Denver weather.
I think Manchester and Concord NH are very good cities. People are nice and its a union state to top it off.
Then there's Portland Oregon. Rains a lot, yes, but if you live in the city of Portland you can be either on a good bus / Streetcar / train route or within walking distance of a lot of things.
Skip Beaverton, though: not very transportation ready.
Besides, if you come out here, there's tons of microbrew beer for you to drink. You're blind; You're not gonna be doing any driving. lol
Portland is very cool. I trained with one of my guide dogs there and enjoyed it allot.
I really, really enjoyed New York City when I was there. Also Boston. I'm off to Boston tomorrow, come to think of it.
I've lived in Seattle and Portland—Portland is excellent for transit. Some neighborhoods of Seattle are, but stray too far out into the suburbs and it's a nightmare. The problem is that, where the transit is, so are the expensive rents.
I'd definitely avoid Nashville (that entire metropolitan area, really). Unless things have changed significantly, their bus system doesn't win a lot of awards for frequency.
I find it interesting that in those cities the transit is located near all the high rent. In our city, if you're on a transit line, you're likely living in a really crappy part of town. Why is it that transit can't be available to the average middle class schmo? That's a retorical question by the way.
I figured I ought to correct, or at least explain, something I said in an earlier post. When I said that Austin Texas is an expensive place to live, that's relative to other places in Texas. When visiting Oregon, and describing the house we lived in at the time, I was told that the same house there would go for about a half million dollars. The house we lived in was 2840 square feet. The house in which we currently live is a 3200 squarefoot 4-bedroom 2.5 bath, 2-story house. The same house in Austin would go for twice what we paid in the Fort Worth area. All that to say, if you're coming from another state like Oregon or California where the cost of living is fairly high already, Austin might not be such a stretch. One of the things you'll want to check into though is their energy company. I believe they still have a MUD, Municiple Utility District. Basically that means there's no competition for electricity and their prices are significantly higher than ours in an unregulated utility district.
Plus, if you don't have kids and good schools aren't a concern, that opens up allot of doors. There's a large comunity of people who are blind there and I have to admit, I do envy their ability to get around via public transit.
I've heard that Arizona has some of the cheapest housing costs in the country. Are there any users on here who can attest to that who are familiar with the Touson or Phoenix areas?
I was an Austin Resident for many years. Transportation, and access are both very good as long as you stick with in the down town to mid town area. Once you get to far out in to the suburbs, you're screwed though. Roundrock is a no go transportation wise.
My favorite cities i've seen/stayed in are probably washington DC and the sf bay area. Both extremely expensive, but both with a lot of good transport options and good enough cab prices.
Austin isn't quite as expensive as sf or dc in some ways, rent is a little cheeper there on average, but its still expensive. Utilities seem to be more expensive there than in California, as well. the busses and trains are a little more expensive in dc, compared to sf and even sacramento but its still a nice place.
Even Sacramento isn't bad, if you live along the rail lines.
I'd love to go see Portland at some point. .
Been to Arizona many times and I'd say no. It is the same as anyplace else.
I like L.A. You don't have to live in L.A proper, but you can get anyplace in S Cal on public transit, and that for use is great.
The cost of living is equal to the money you have, and you have lots of things to do all the time day or night.
Weather's good as well.
So it seems as though the larger cities are the best choice, because you have more choices and places to choose from. With the acception of Detroit, of course. Lol.
Thanks for your guys's help. It seems that the trend is bigger cities tend to be more pedestrian-friendly, but therefore more expensive. It's kind of a win-lose situation in many cases. :)
Why I was considering Austin is because I like the weather that they get down there. I love sunny days and warm to hot days. I get depressed to the point of near break-down every winter and fall season, which is very ridiculous. I also like the music capital of the world thing. But thinking in terms of a soon-to-be college student, I don't want to get stuck somewhere too expensive, obviously. I also hear that their transoporttion is great and they're pedestrian-friendly, and also gay-friendly, which is something I need to take into consideration.
Taking all of that into account, it sounds like you'd really like Austin. It's certainly hotter than hell in the summer. lol Hope you don't like rain much. lol
For college, you'd have U T or Austin Community College as options. Both are very friendly to students who are blind. I never attended either but I have many many friends who have and they've had great experiences.
I'd recommend looking at apartments.com or something like it to see if the rent is something you could manage. Maybe you could even find something that's all bills paid, if they still do that. It's been so many years since I've looked at apartments.
Good luck!
I also lived in Austin for 3 or 4 years, and the transportation is pretty good as long as you stay in the main areas rather than living on the outskirts of Austin. There are places around Austin, such as Round Rock, Cedar Park, and Flugerville that do not have any public transportation though, so I usually avoided those areas. The rent on main bus lines seemed to be more expensive, but it varies. As far as all bills paid, that is difficult to get cheaply, since most of the ones I looked into were around $1000 monthly, although they do have student housing complexes where you can share an apartment with another student with the rooms being individually leased and pay $400 or $500 for all bills paid, including internet and cable I think. I looked into doing that, but I didn't have a roommate at the time so had no one to share it with, and the rent is cheaper if there are three or four people sharing it if it is a three or four bedroom. If you are a student, it can be worth looking into, because there are a lot of those in the University of Texas at Austin area.
Bus routes 1, 3, and 5 are the routes that usually run more frequently than others, and routes like the 392 and other feeder routes tend to run as little as once an hour when it is not rush hour. If you find a place at a good price that you can afford, then it is a good place, and it does have a large blindness community. If you are a student and get into UT, the housing around that area is usually off of the bus line, since there are so many students, and it is close to downtown where most of the buses go. In my experience, there seems to be more transportation in north and central Austin than in South Austin, but then again I only lived in South Austin for a short time, so someone else who has lived there longer may want to correct me on that.
Anyway, that is my experience with Austin. I now live in Greensboro, North Carolina, and it is a lot smaller and a lot less developed transportation wise, but it is doable still. They only have one transfer center downtown in Greensboro, whereas in Austin there are several, so the systems are a lot different. Also, Austin now has a light rail system, although it only goes certain places at certain times and doesn't cover all of Austin.
Hey guys!! I am looking at moving to the Dallas area within the next few months. Can anyone who is familar with that particular area of TX give me some pointers as far as services, transportation, etc etc...??? I'm not looking to go to school, but I am however looking for work... I've got a few friends near the Dallas area, too, and they all say it's pretty good... and that the VOC/Rehab is pretty good, too... I probably should've started my own topic on this, but oh well... oops lol. I was gonna move to the Nashville area, but didn't even research any ferther when I had heard that the transportation wasn't great, nor are the services... (at least that's what a friend of mine told me) and from what I've read on here as well... Thanks to anyone who could help me out on this!!
Amber
What part of Dallas are you looking at? I lived in dallas from 1998 to 2004 so my info may be a bit out dated. The buses and rail lines are great! From what I understand, they're revitalizing downtown so if you're single and looking for that lifestyle, you should be in good luck. If you're looking for more of a family atmosphere, good schools, etc, you'll want to look at the suburbs.
Check out the crime stats where ever you look. Also, the city counsel and county commissioneres are all nutjobs. Sorry. lol
This area is tricky. Ft. Worth is a much better atmosphere but transpo sucks. I wouldn't live in Dallas if you paid me because I'm a raging conservtive and I have a child in need of good schools. Having said that though, their transpo is hands down, one of the best systems in Texas.
If I were single and kidless, I would definitely do Dallas for access's sake.
I used to work for the Dallas office of DBS and if most of the same people are still there, they're very good and very dedicated.
Good luck!
Yes, Dallas is good. I live about 3 hours from fort worth and my family and i does shopping over there and from what i can tell, you should be ok.
Does anyone know anything about Tampa and in dc, what's the weather like?
Hey guys! I was looking at living in the suburbs more spacificly the Frisco/Plano areas.... I'm not looking to live in the city of Dallas itself though... thanks for all your help- glad to know that the transport and everything are good out there! Thanks again for everyones input on this! It's much appreciated. If anyone has anything else to add, please go ahead and do so! Thanks again!
Amber
Stay away from Tampa or that area as far as transportation goes.
As to the convenience vs. expense? I look at it like this: what cost am I gonna put on my freedom? I've lost it twice in my life and I'm gonna get it back in a month or so, and honestly I am never going back. It was necessary to put the daughter through school. But one's freedom is better than one's ideology, religion, or anything else. I'm done livin' like a one-ball man in a month or so, and that is forever.
Ah, ok. I think transpo will be better in Plano than in Frisco. Frisco is still pretty far north. It's very nice.
I'm not sure of their website but do a google search for Dallas Area Rapid Transit. That's the transpo company in the Dallas area. I wanna say it's dart.org or dart.com or something like that. If you want to call them, I'm pretty sure the phone number is 214 979 1111. They can answer your questions about Plano versus Frisco.
Best of luck to you!
Thanks so much! I'll definitely look into that!! The apartments I looked at in Frisco were pretty close to the mall/different places to eat etc etc etc... so we'll see. Thanks again for all your help, I really appreciate it!! :) Amber
Oh wow, I was always told dallas's transit was really sucky, lol. I've never stayed in dallas for long periods of time so yeah it's just what I was told.
As for Austin, I've lived in just about every part of austin accept far west and to the person that said south austin doesn't have transportation, it depends which side of south austin. For example, pretty much anywhere around riverside, south congress, south lamar, even ben white and william cannon or stasney are not too bad, but once you get further south and west and more into housing developments, not apartment complexes then yes the transportation seems to thin out a bit. This is also true of far north austin as well, which sort of sucks because it's also the cheapest part of austin since it is newer in development. Absolutely don't go to floogerville, cedar park or roundrock though because those suburbs are not transportation friendly at all. there is supposed to be a lightrail coming in from leander and george town I guess but I really try not to live in suburbia if I can help it since I find it harder to get into the city a lot of times.
I've also lived in san francisco, and I'll tell you one of the really neat things about san francisco is not only the crazy amount of ways to get around, but the fact that bart will pretty much take you to just about any city in the bay area. Even some of those bay area cities such as oakland, san leandro, and hayward have pretty decent bus transportation within the city as well.
I've also lived in chicago, and the people who have mentioned it are absolutely right, transportation there is absolutely amazing. It's another place that pretty much has transportation 24-7, like san francisco and new york, so no matter what time of night or day, if you're lost you can eventually find your way back or if you need public transit. I haven't had as great of luck with chicago's suburbia though, though truthfully I've mostly spent my time in the city and the one suburb I spent time in was the only experience I had.
Dallas wasn't too bad transportationwise when I was down there in June/July last year. The transit authority people were friendly when I called to ask them a question, and I lucked out with a good cabby who offered to take me and my friends out to eat if we wanted to during the week.
If you're looking for a "gay friendly" place to live, the Bay area is probably a good choice if you can afford it. Austin, from what Ive heard and now read on here, may also be a good choice. the SF area gets a lot of cloudy weather, but it's certainly more mild than a lot of places. As for Burkley, I'll be going there in June, so will no more about that specific part of the bay area once I do.
I agree with those on here who have no desire to live in the suburbs that are out too far. For me, I'd rather pay a bit more and live where I can get places independently. Paratransit hardly counts imho. I suppose the Michigan city on there was probably Kalamazoo, but that's more a suburb anyway. Decent transportation yes, but if you don't like snow, avoid that area for sure.
As far as Dallas, has anyone ever lived in Irving, which is close to Dallas? Is the transportation good there? I was also looking into the Dallas area, but was mostly interested in Irving, since there is a school that I like for my daughter there.
I lived in Irving in 1998 and found transportation pretty good. They use the same paratransit system as Dallas and ar a part of DART. The area around Northgate drive between Esters Rd. and Beltline was pretty accessible for walking as well. Again, this was 15 years ago and allot has changed since then, I'm sure but I liked it there.
I am also looking into the Dallas area in general. Specifically, I was looking into Irving, Richardson, and Arlington. Which parts of the Dallas area are most accessible as far as transportation as well as for parents and affordable rent? I am looking at Richardson and Arlington because the University of Texas has campuses there in those two places, and I am looking to transfer from a community college to probably UT. I would not be living on campus though, since I have a child, so I would be looking to rent an apartment, and I would have to be around pretty decent schools for my daughter, who will be in elementary school. Has anyone lived anywhere within the Dallas area or surrounding cities that knows about the area? I hear that transportation in Dallas and Fort Worth are really good, but I am not sure about how apartments are there, and also I couldn't find a university there that was a public one rather than a private one. I am also majoring in social work and education, so I am curious about how jobs are in the area and if jobs are hard to find or not in either field.
I got a Social Work degree at UTA and it's a great program.
Arlington does not have any form of public transportation though other than para transit. I only had myself to worry about so para transit worked fine for me back then. Now that I have a kiddo, life without public transpo is challenging.
Richardson does have public transportation through DART, Dallas Area Rapid Transit. I've never lived there so can't speak to the quality of schools or prices of apartments.
Fort Worth has public transportation but honestly, the schools aren't that great. That's why we moved to a suburb just south and are stuck in the land of no transpo. lol
Anyway, hope that's somewhat helpful.
Another area of Dallas yall might look at is Garland. It was nice when we lived there about 10 years ago. It's on the east side of the metroplex just east of Dallas. Stay away from Mesquite, Lancaster, De Soto, Duncanville, Cedar Hill, and Grand Prairie, as they do not have public transpo.
Dallas, Garland, Plano, Richardson, Carolton, Farmer's Branch, and Irving are going to be the best bets for good transit.
DART has buses and lightrail service that is good. We also have the Trenity Rail service that is a commuter train from Ft. Worth to Dallas. It makes stops in North Richland Hills, DFW Airport, Hurst, Irving, and Dallas. NRH, and Hurst are park and ride stations with no bus service in the area. Of course, I already mentioned in a previous post that Arlington does not offer public transport. There is a campus shuttle bus on the UTA campus and Para Transit services around the city. The para transit was actually not bad at all but then again, this was almost 20 years ago when I was using it. Fort Worth does have buses and depending on where you are located they're ok, not great, or even good, but just ok.
I have moved around allot, can ya tell? lol
Hope this helps.
Hi,
Thank you for all of this info. I will definitely look into the places that have transportation that you mentioned.
Hi,
I'm in Oregon and I don't find it to be bad transportation wise, though Vancouver, Wa, is better, in my opinion. I grew up in WA and would love to move back. I live in a pretty densely populated area of Oregon and the buses still only run once every hour and 20 minutes during the week and that's only until six at night. They don't run at all on weekends. I find the bus system to be confusing. A lot of lines go sort of the same places from what I've been able to find. You just have to figure out which one you want or you could either end up missing your stop or getting close, but not getting to your stop.
Take Care,
Dawnielle
I'm in Florida, and where I live it's pretty good! Transit isn't to bad and it's reasonable living.
Vancouver Wa is not a very safe place. there are a lot of drug use in and around the city and public transportation is good but not great. My parents own a house in longview, just outside of Vancouver and everytime we commute into town, there is always some sort of crime taking place in plain view. Not a safe place to raise children.
My favorite city that I've lived in was san diego ca. yes, its outrageously expensive but you pretty much have anything and everything you can ever imagine IE very good public transportation, ideal weather, a very safe place to raise children etc.
If you can afford it, definitely give it a shot. Its worth it in my opinion.
I used to live in Austin, and love their public transportation system to pieces. as others have said, though, it's incredibly expensive. not just downtown, but the city, at large.
I must correct this misconception that a bigger city means great access to transportation, though. I currently live in a huge city, and the transportation options are limited/next to impossible, especially when one is on a limited income.
my husband and I live in the DMV and we love it. the metro bus/rail is great but rent is extremely high. Also when taking trains the announcements are done live so half the time you can't understand what the train operators are saying. Good to remember schedules and stops.
south f l a baby! fort lauderdale, broward county offeres several modes of transprtation. the bus stops running at around eleven at night. so does the last tri rail train. the one real good thing i enjoy is the fact the weather is so wonderful. if you dont mind the occasional huricane that is. living down hereyou have many things to do. it is very gay friendly. wilton manors for example is all gay area. for the most part the bus drivers are decent folk who help you. taxi folk are too. i pay with tip for me and me dog about nine dollars for a mile and a half trip. this si when i go grocery shopping. plus we have para transit. a curbside service you can use for a cost of seven dollars round trip to whereever you wanna go to. they even take you over the county line. so, tri rail, city bus, para transit or taxi are your options. dont forget the beach baby!
To the last poster, can you tell me anything about Panama City Beach? I listen to a radio station out of there on tune-in and think it sounds awesome. I think it's on the north end of FLA, though.
I live near Tampa and I really enjoy it! Like I said transit's good, rent is reasonable etc..if you want more info feel free to message me. :) Good luck!
Hi there!! Thanks so much for all your help as far as good transet in North Texas is concerned! :) :) I checked out DART and I had the same similar thing when I lived in Minnesota--- their paratranset sucked IMO... it was terrible!! (so my friends and I just took taxi's everywhere lol) (it definitely wasn't an everyday thing-- but imo taking a taxi is a lot easier then taking a public bus--- cause what bus to take and etc etc can get quite challenging imo) and paratranset doesn't give you the option of scheduling on the moments notice- but with a taxi you can just call, and they'll just pick you up... My thing is if I live in a good neighborhood with maybe a shopping center across the street, and I can get a deasent vollunteer oppertunity and a job pretty close to where I live then I'd much rather do that then have to deal with para transet and/or messing/dealing with the bus lines what bus goes where etc etc etc... lol and+ I've got a lot of friends in the McKinney/Frisco areas and if I am correct, paratranset doesn't go out of it's service area... so if I lived in Plano they wouldn't be able to get me to McKinney/Frisco to visit my friends, and not only that, but I don't know how often I'll be going downtown Dallas by myself, cause according to my friends, it's not somewhere where I'd want to be walking around by myself.... that's just my take on things... if I can walk to places, (not at night of course) then I should be fine. :) How are the DARS (I believe there called?) in Dallas?? I've contacted them before to get set up and they seemed pretty okay.. the department of rehabilitation in California (at least Southern California) sucks, as well as the one in Minnesota, although in Minnesota, I did have a good counceller... anyways, I'm done rambling now... these are just my thoughts...
Amber
not sure about panama beach. sorry
Yeah I'm from a small town in the Midwest, but I honestly love it. My only complaint it our weather, but that's anywhere in the Midwest.
Many frown when mention of Missouri comes up, but honestly Missouri offers great benefits for those visually impaired.
I live in southwest Missouri, in the now known town of Joplin, population about 50.000. Although we do not have a greatly developed transportation system there are special programs to assist in getting a discount when using either the make-shift bus system or cabs. There is the tipical door to door service as well that is really reasonable.
As for the entire state of Missouri, if visually impaired or blind, there is blind pension. Its a pension one receives, however their are guidelines you must meet.
There is Missouri assistive technology which is a company that provides technology like jaws or zoom text for free. I was told once there funding is from a grant they receive from the federal government and that every state has that funding but I have not been able to find that true unfortunately. Once part of the program, as long as you maintain in the state of Missouri regardless of income increase etc, you will receive jaws or your technology of choice for free.
As for VR or RSB, I have heard from people in other states Missouri's is very good. We get all of our technology, note takers etc when participating in the VR program.
Yeah Missouri has its small towns, a lot more than the big cities, but its not a bad place to live.
The weather just sucks!
Personally, I love both NYC and Minneapolis. Both are very gay-friendly, obviously, with Minneapolis being perhaps just a bit more hospitable, oddly enough. Transportation options are better in NYC; you’ve got buses, subways, the Path Train to NJ, the LIRR to Long Island/Brooklyn, Metro North to Poughkeepsie and places like that, and AMTRAK for everywhere else. Cabs, of course, are very easy to wave down/flag if you know how to do it, and of course there are the three airports. If you wanna go to Atlantic City, you can just go to the Port Authority and hop any old bus that leaves there every 23 minutes or so. At least as far as I can remember. There are also other buses to Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun as well. Lots of entertainment options including restaurants, which I dearly loved when I was there. Didn’t have to deal with either Paratransit there or most of the voc rehab. The drawbacks of NYC are that it’s mostly very expensive to live there because of the high rents, and sometimes the pedestrian traffic is nightmarish. I bought more folding canes there than anywhere else I’ve ever lived, so moving to Minneapolis was very nice.
In many ways though, I’d move back to Minneapolis first. The bus systems are iffier than in NYC, and I didn’t find Paratransit that bad if you can work with them. But you’re talking to someone who never used Paratransit until I had to, and it’s pretty good if you wanna go to the more outlying areas. Granted, it doesn’t do everything though. I happened to have loved the Skyway; my building was right on the system and you could just go to the second floor and walk to Target. Lots of little shops, restaurants, a couple banks, some hotels, even a couple malls and Macy’s was right there. It took a few weeks, but I got the hang of most of the skyway system, and believe me, the weather extremes in Minnesota made that particular feature a lifesaver. I did have to deal with voc rehab there, and my experiences were very mixed. Then again, I wasn’t in a very good place in some ways back then. Lots of restaurants, and I absolutely loved going to plays when I lived there. I never did get to any of the casinos nearby though.
As a sort of honorable mention, Albany, NY is okay. I didn’t get to know it as much when I was there because I mostly stayed on campus at SUNY, but I’d go back there and make a place for myself if I had to. The weather can be bad in winter though, but not quite as hot as NYC in summer, and not as extreme at any time of the year as in Minneapolis.
Right now my son is six. My wife is blind and what I see at least here in PA is there are many parents and familys, including my wife's family who tend to shelter and way way overprotect their blind children. As a result My wife's family convinced her to divorce me and file for custody. She lost I won custody. Once this whole custody stuff is over with in year 2025 or 2028 or so I plan on trying once more to move to Tampa Florida or somewhere about 5 or 10 blocks away from the beach and ocean. I would love to live in a city or even a small town near the ocean. My wife's famiy ruined that for me and the custody thing is only a minor setback. I read lots of good things about Tampa Florida and would love to live there someday and to someday make Tampa Florida or a warm weather state my permament home. I gotta wait 12 or so years if not a little more to make that happen though because of what my wife's family put me through.
I know that's a slight digression, but I'm sorry about the whole custody thing; it's too bad people can't divorce and remain friends, and that your wife's family interfered. Good luck on moving to/near the ocean. Speaking of the ocean, anybody have any thoughts about Hawaii? Because I'm thinking about it from time to time.
Does anyone live in or know about living in Denver, Colorado and the surrounding areas? What are your thoughts on Denver and surrounding towns in the Denver Metro area?
HI is pretty expensive. That's about all I know.
You should get good feedback on Denvor. I think we have several Zoners who live in or near there.