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I find this fascinating. It really does take a variety of people to make up a culture. My ideal living situation includes being able to see someone I know every

I find this fascinating. It really does take a variety of people to make up a culture. My ideal living situation includes being able to see someone I know every time I walk out side my home, being able to walk to a bagel shop, a grocery store, a post office, a train station, and ideally a library and bike shop and parks. It would be boring if we were all like me and clumped together.

caymanjim 2y ago
I've lived like that. I lived in the Mission in San Francisco with four of my closest friends (all from NJ) within walking distance. It was great being able to meet up for lunch or drinks or go out clubbing, it was always a pleasant surprise to run into them randomly on the street or in a park. I lived in midtown Manhattan and I loved being able to go out at 3am in the middle of the winter and find a fresh produce stand on the corner outside my apartment, get falafel wraps and Ethiopian and Thai and sushi and all the other great food during my lunch break, and have museums and concerts and Broadway shows within walking distance. I lived in the Cayman Islands and had a roommate, could walk to the beach and to my favorite bars, my house was the primary hangout spot for all my friends. I was socializing daily there, and it was a small community where I knew just about everyone everywhere I went. I'm old now. I don't drink anymore. I have no interest in parties. Even when I live in or near a city, I don't take advantage of much of anything it has to offer. I'm sick of the noise and filth and crowds, the crime and homelessness, the lack of privacy that comes with urban living. All my friends are older, have kids, live in the suburbs and are scattered all over the country. The eight months of the year that I'm not on the road in my RV, I'm living in a cookie-cutter suburban house and have no local friends at all. I exchange pleasantries with the neighbors. My entire social life is online now, and when I can, I'm traveling. I want maximum peace and quiet. I'll go visit friends and family every couple months if I want to socialize. If/when I do settle down at my far-from-civilization objective, I may very well start feeling lonely and seek out social clubs or social hobbies. But I'll be glad to have my seclusion to return to.
- hattmall 2y ago
  Why are you looking at such cold places for the off grid living? Lots of remote forested areas in Georgia and Alabama, but I can also understand opposition to the heat. I would give a lot consideration to TN and NC mountains.
  - caymanjim 2y ago
    Politics and culture play an outsized part. If I could easily move to Canada I would. Barring that, I'm more inclined to stick to blue states than red states. Montana is a bit of an outlier in my list. Cannabis legality is a factor (Wisconsin is the oddball here), but increasingly less so as I expect that problem to go away within a few years nationwide (and certainly in Wisconsin). Climate is a big factor. I grew up in NJ, and while I've lived in tropical places and tend to spend my summer traveling to a lot of hot places, I don't want to live in a hot, humid southern state. There are parts of NC and TN that are more more mountainous and less oppressive, but it's still pretty sticky there. I still plan to spend much of the year traveling in an RV even after I settle somewhere. I'd be happy to spend the winter holed up in a cabin with a wood stove though.
    - redandblack 2y ago
      Underscoring MY personal politics/cultural views, I just returned from a NC trip and was thinking it will take another decade of development for social change to take hold. Just insane amount of economic development is happening there, and hopefully the younger crowd will be more open for changes. I noticed that there was a lot of mobility into NC, not just the northern states that has been well documented, but also from TN, AL, GA, FL and even TX Coming back to NJ, a neighbor mentioned that they are still fighting the civil war in the south, which the media seems to also resonate well. Just a based view from a NJ resident
    - whynotminot 2y ago
      I certainly understand political and cultural considerations when moving to a place. But since you seem to be trying to stay away from anyone wherever you settle, I’m a little surprised the politics and culture of a place would matter much to your circumstances.
renewiltord 2y ago
This is why I live in SOMA where my friends are next door. But I also want a roughly remote but not too remote experience because I want my children to explore freely without cars around and busybodies who don't appreciate children being free. They may climb trees when they are seven and fall off and break their noses. They may fall off their bicycles and scrape their flesh to the bone. I want them to have my childhood because I think that's what makes me so resilient compared to so many other people.

caymanjim 2y ago

I've lived like that. I lived in the Mission in San Francisco with four of my closest friends (all from NJ) within walking distance. It was great being able to meet up for lunch or drinks or go out clubbing, it was always a pleasant surprise to run into them randomly on the street or in a park. I lived in midtown Manhattan and I loved being able to go out at 3am in the middle of the winter and find a fresh produce stand on the corner outside my apartment, get falafel wraps and Ethiopian and Thai and sushi and all the other great food during my lunch break, and have museums and concerts and Broadway shows within walking distance. I lived in the Cayman Islands and had a roommate, could walk to the beach and to my favorite bars, my house was the primary hangout spot for all my friends. I was socializing daily there, and it was a small community where I knew just about everyone everywhere I went. I'm old now. I don't drink anymore. I have no interest in parties. Even when I live in or near a city, I don't take advantage of much of anything it has to offer. I'm sick of the noise and filth and crowds, the crime and homelessness, the lack of privacy that comes with urban living. All my friends are older, have kids, live in the suburbs and are scattered all over the country. The eight months of the year that I'm not on the road in my RV, I'm living in a cookie-cutter suburban house and have no local friends at all. I exchange pleasantries with the neighbors. My entire social life is online now, and when I can, I'm traveling. I want maximum peace and quiet. I'll go visit friends and family every couple months if I want to socialize. If/when I do settle down at my far-from-civilization objective, I may very well start feeling lonely and seek out social clubs or social hobbies. But I'll be glad to have my seclusion to return to.

hattmall 2y ago
Why are you looking at such cold places for the off grid living? Lots of remote forested areas in Georgia and Alabama, but I can also understand opposition to the heat. I would give a lot consideration to TN and NC mountains.
- caymanjim 2y ago
  Politics and culture play an outsized part. If I could easily move to Canada I would. Barring that, I'm more inclined to stick to blue states than red states. Montana is a bit of an outlier in my list. Cannabis legality is a factor (Wisconsin is the oddball here), but increasingly less so as I expect that problem to go away within a few years nationwide (and certainly in Wisconsin). Climate is a big factor. I grew up in NJ, and while I've lived in tropical places and tend to spend my summer traveling to a lot of hot places, I don't want to live in a hot, humid southern state. There are parts of NC and TN that are more more mountainous and less oppressive, but it's still pretty sticky there. I still plan to spend much of the year traveling in an RV even after I settle somewhere. I'd be happy to spend the winter holed up in a cabin with a wood stove though.
  - redandblack 2y ago
    Underscoring MY personal politics/cultural views, I just returned from a NC trip and was thinking it will take another decade of development for social change to take hold. Just insane amount of economic development is happening there, and hopefully the younger crowd will be more open for changes. I noticed that there was a lot of mobility into NC, not just the northern states that has been well documented, but also from TN, AL, GA, FL and even TX Coming back to NJ, a neighbor mentioned that they are still fighting the civil war in the south, which the media seems to also resonate well. Just a based view from a NJ resident
  - whynotminot 2y ago
    I certainly understand political and cultural considerations when moving to a place. But since you seem to be trying to stay away from anyone wherever you settle, I’m a little surprised the politics and culture of a place would matter much to your circumstances.

renewiltord 2y ago

This is why I live in SOMA where my friends are next door. But I also want a roughly remote but not too remote experience because I want my children to explore freely without cars around and busybodies who don't appreciate children being free. They may climb trees when they are seven and fall off and break their noses. They may fall off their bicycles and scrape their flesh to the bone. I want them to have my childhood because I think that's what makes me so resilient compared to so many other people.