When we were making the decision to relocate we looked at a few things:
- what is the general risk of flooding and is that likely to change as the climate shifts? - is there access to a reasonably robust food supply? - what kind of job market is there? - what is the cost of living like? if it's higher, are there public services and/or a safety net that offset that somewhat? - what is the climate like? what do projections say the climate will be like in thirty years? - what is the risk of other disasters?
Where we ended up is a small town in upstate New York about an hour north of Albany city center. It is a little past the edge of anything that could be considered urban/suburban sprawl but comfortable commuting distance to some of the nearer suburbs, which is where I am currently working. This also means that we have good access to most city amenities within an hour drive but we also live close to a number of working farms and orchards and the local food situation is quite robust. The next town over has an independent butcher and grocery that sells all kinds of local products and that is where we do a significant amount of our shopping (including awesome local milk in returnable glass bottles!) but another couple miles down the road are big box groceries for everything else. There is some risk of flood here because the town we are in is on the the Hudson River but we are also upstream far enough that the risk is relatively limited (and certainly significantly less than what we were facing in Houston!) There is snow here and occasionally it dumps a significant amount (we had a storm the second week of December where we got thirty inches in eight hours) but overall we feel we found a good balance between risks and benefits. It's definitely a good bit better than what we left in Texas in many ways. (There are still bugs other than mosquitoes here, which our neighborhood in Houston had lost most of due to proximity to the ship channel).
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dancing_serpent
(no subject)
Date: 2021-04-30 11:30 pm (UTC)- what is the general risk of flooding and is that likely to change as the climate shifts?
- is there access to a reasonably robust food supply?
- what kind of job market is there?
- what is the cost of living like? if it's higher, are there public services and/or a safety net that offset that somewhat?
- what is the climate like? what do projections say the climate will be like in thirty years?
- what is the risk of other disasters?
Where we ended up is a small town in upstate New York about an hour north of Albany city center. It is a little past the edge of anything that could be considered urban/suburban sprawl but comfortable commuting distance to some of the nearer suburbs, which is where I am currently working. This also means that we have good access to most city amenities within an hour drive but we also live close to a number of working farms and orchards and the local food situation is quite robust. The next town over has an independent butcher and grocery that sells all kinds of local products and that is where we do a significant amount of our shopping (including awesome local milk in returnable glass bottles!) but another couple miles down the road are big box groceries for everything else. There is some risk of flood here because the town we are in is on the the Hudson River but we are also upstream far enough that the risk is relatively limited (and certainly significantly less than what we were facing in Houston!) There is snow here and occasionally it dumps a significant amount (we had a storm the second week of December where we got thirty inches in eight hours) but overall we feel we found a good balance between risks and benefits. It's definitely a good bit better than what we left in Texas in many ways. (There are still bugs other than mosquitoes here, which our neighborhood in Houston had lost most of due to proximity to the ship channel).