Albuquerque, Santa Fe, or Taos, in northern NM. Skiing, hiking, mountain biking, rafting is just minutes away in all these cities in the adjacent National Forest lands. ABQ and SF have large tracts of green open space scattered throughout each city. SF has under 85,000 residents; ABQ metro are has around 700,000 counting the suburbs.
Las Cruces (it’s less than 15 minutes from El Paso and its border crossing) in the southern part of the state. More desert-y and further from skiing, but Cruces also has lots of adjacent open federal lands to explore.
ABQ and Las Cruces are college towns so lots of young people with plenty to do.
COL in Taos can be on the pricey side unless you’re willing to move away from The Plaza.
Low COL in most areas of the state. Diverse population/white minority state (mostly Hispanic and Native American–23 separate tribes make their home here.)
Tacoma, WA? New Mexico is also lovely and desperately needs great teachers. Same with Tucson.
I can’t believe anyone would even suggest Austin or any other city in Texas! While I love Texas with all my heart, there is hardly any public land here. And what there is available, is crowded beyond belief.
Albuquerque is not a desirable (or particularly safe) place to live. I have a lot of business dealings there and talk to a lot of people there and who have left there, including some family members. Yes, it is near beautiful places, but that’s about it.
Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis or St. Paul and Denver, were the first ones that came to mind for metro + jobs and proximity to the outdoors and healthy activities along with a “youth” oriented group of citizens. A real outlier is Grand Rapids in Michigan for a mid-size city and Madison, Wisconsin which came to mind for “smaller”.
I dunno. We lived their for a couple of years, and didn’t find it to be unsafe at all. There are many beautiful places in ABQ in which to live, as well as in the outskirts. Like any city, there are safe places and unsafe places.
CT resident here. It’s very expensive to live in this state. My 30 somethings are not interested in the high cost of living here. Sure, there are some less costly areas, but really, the COL in this state is high.
The Midwest…what about Columbus Ohio? There is tOSU there. Lots of culture, a decent foodie scene. Reasonable cost of living. Modest rentals and housing costs. Small airport, but fine enough. Great major university hospital.
Cincinnati would be good too.
Cleveland is great…not maybe the inner city itself, but look at western suburbs like Lakewood…lots of young people. And again…COL is modest.
Tucson is nice. Probably not as diverse a population as you want it seems.
Phoenix is great…but very hot in the summer. Might tick off the other boxes for this person.
I heard some statistics recently that apparently Louisville, Kentucky is quite diverse and continuing to move that direction. It would have nature and probably be reasonable living costs.
@rae1958. How green is green? If you mean “easy access to nature,” she will find that plus diversity and affordability in Tucson, AZ or Albuquerque, NM. If she wants more green in her outdoors, try Flagstaff, AZ. It’s the gateway to the Grand Canyon and there’s some green in the nearby mountains due to altitude and enough snow in the winter for skiing. Northern Arizona University is there. It’s a nice small city.
On the east coast, Reading, PA, has growing immigrant communities - Latin American and Asian - is not too expensive, and has outdoor recreation nearby. Poughkeepsie, NY, seemed diverse when we toured Vassar College (Marist and the Culinary Institute are also there). I can’t speak to the cost of living. There is train service to Manhattan.
@ FlyMeToTheMoon, for some people the job would definitely be the priority and all else would have to work around it. I don’t think my D feels that way (it wouldn’t work for me either, though of course these decisions will be hers).
@“Snowball City”. Nice play ?. By your name I can see why… Lol…
We visited and stayed with our friends mother (with them and their kids) in Puerto Rico a few years ago. Didn’t realize how nice it was there. Kinda dreamed of getting a place there then the disasters took place… But due to rebuilding it could be an interesting time to be there.
Yup, the VI too but people are working on what they can and jobs need doing. The situation is compounded by being a territory that does not get the same support that the states get.
However, there are jobs and on your day off there are parks and beaches to be explored. More than makes up for the lack of a Panera!
Grad student kid is about to change locations. Waiting to see where she ends up.