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Gay Meccas and moving to them! [Seattle Thread?]
Frosty the Snow Plow
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I received the first paycheck of my life a few days ago. The reality of actual moneydollars in sums larger than a twenty had me reflecting on what I'd even do with it, briefly, before I remembered exactly what I should be saving up for. No disrespect to Indiana but, even if I wasn't a fag, I wouldn't want to stay here.
So, let's just cut to it:
I suppose the two questions moving forward are Where am I moving, and How?
As for Where, I'm looking for the gay meccas: Chicago is all of a two hour drive away. There's always the obvious answers of a New York or a San Francisco. Atlanta, New Orleans, Austin, all strong contenders. Seattle especially has held my interest thanks to a love for nerdy things and persistent drizzling. I've never been outside of the cross-section of Indiana that is suburbs and corn fields so I can't really go wrong, but if anyone can personally vouch for any city as both rad and gay-friendly, I'd love to hear it.
The How is just run of the mill "moving to a new city"-type stuff though. For context, I am currently living with a friend's family and have neither possessions or responsibilities to worry about when it comes time to move. There's basically nothing tying me down and nothing to bring with me besides a bundle of money and essentials. Concerns for this would be things like: How much money should I bring, can I line up a job beforehand as an unskilled worker, how to best handle living accommodations, stuff like that.
I'm not so worried about the how part, to be frank. No matter what, I'll be hitting the ground running wherever I end up and basically starting from scratch, but I'd be stupid not to heed advice and warnings from you fine folk. Yes, I have plans for the future, college, career and the like. At this point in my life, estranged from family with nothing to my name academically or financially, a fresh start in a new city is the beginning of that, not a substitute for it.
Also, well, gay sex. :whistle:
So, let's just cut to it:
I suppose the two questions moving forward are Where am I moving, and How?
As for Where, I'm looking for the gay meccas: Chicago is all of a two hour drive away. There's always the obvious answers of a New York or a San Francisco. Atlanta, New Orleans, Austin, all strong contenders. Seattle especially has held my interest thanks to a love for nerdy things and persistent drizzling. I've never been outside of the cross-section of Indiana that is suburbs and corn fields so I can't really go wrong, but if anyone can personally vouch for any city as both rad and gay-friendly, I'd love to hear it.
The How is just run of the mill "moving to a new city"-type stuff though. For context, I am currently living with a friend's family and have neither possessions or responsibilities to worry about when it comes time to move. There's basically nothing tying me down and nothing to bring with me besides a bundle of money and essentials. Concerns for this would be things like: How much money should I bring, can I line up a job beforehand as an unskilled worker, how to best handle living accommodations, stuff like that.
I'm not so worried about the how part, to be frank. No matter what, I'll be hitting the ground running wherever I end up and basically starting from scratch, but I'd be stupid not to heed advice and warnings from you fine folk. Yes, I have plans for the future, college, career and the like. At this point in my life, estranged from family with nothing to my name academically or financially, a fresh start in a new city is the beginning of that, not a substitute for it.
Also, well, gay sex. :whistle:
Frosty the Snow Plow on
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So you should bring as much money as you can. If you can arrange a motel stay or something for a month, that should give you enough time, but it'll be super expensive. Oh yeah, Seattle is EXPENSIVE. Not as bad as NY or SF, but about on par with Chicago. You're basically not going to be able to line up a job before you get out there. You can try on craigslist or something, but the kind of jobs you're going to get with your skills (if you are indeed unskilled) are more the "walk in and ask for an application" type of job or "show up for a big group interview so we can see that you're a human being and not a walrus" sort of thing.
Get ready to be a member of the working poor. Get ready to be worried about getting enough hours at your job, and get ready to suck up to some power-tripping asshole so he doesn't cut your hours at the sandwich shop. You might not be able to afford such luxuries as "doctor's appointments" or "breakfast" but whatever. I ended up losing my mind juggling 3 part-time jobs to make ends meet but there are probably better ways to go about it.
Anyway, just fucking do it. Move away. DO IT. It's difficult, but there's nothing (NOTHING) like making it on your own.
Is there a particular kind of advice you're looking for on living accomodations? Like, part of town or general info about looking at/moving into apartments or what?
Especially since I'll be arriving alone with no connections, the best way I could think to compensate for it is a bundle of cash (Esh read my mind). My current plan is to stay in Indy and build up both work experience plus more than a few thousand in cash. The biggest pain is going to be hunting for work again, especially so soon after doing it in Indy.
I don't really know what questions to ask specifically. My priority for living accomodations would be whatever is nearest to work since I don't own a car, but that's pretty circumstantial.
Pretty much cost-wise is whatever else has said. Not cheap. Apartments without/with few rodents are $800+. If you stayed in the city & surrounding areas, you could probably get by without a car. Suburbs, forget it.
I guess in the northwest it's pretty much just seattle and portland, but still.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
That said, not being of the persuasion but having clocked more than a night or two at 4am stumbling out of the Oz or whatnot, my friends of said persuasion wouldn't live anywhere else, and they swear so vehemently and happily.
Maybe I'm reading too much into that, but I've seen in mentioned a few times before in other H/A threads. Seattle might be where Microsoft was founded, and there is that Science Fiction Museum, but by and large it's not any geekier than anywhere else in the nation. If I had to describe the culture, "nerdy" would be rather far down the list.
I mean, I don't think there are a lot of other cities with Portal 2 ads all over their bus system.
Relative to most places in the country, Seattle pretty much is nerd central. You just never leave Cap Hill, where everyone likes to pretend they aren't huge nerds, or that they're just being nerds ironically. :P
DID YOU FORGET THAT MY STATE IS CALLED GAYSREAL FOR A REASON?
Pretty much all of Massachusetts is gay friendly at this point.
Maybe before you jump off the deep-end and move across the country, look at Bloomington?
Disclaimer: I was born in the UK and lived in Kokomo for 2 years before going to school at IU for 4. I love, love, love IU and Bloomington so I'm probably a little biased. I was an ally for the GLBTQ community in Bloomington, but I'm straight, so I might not have a 100% accurate story to tell when it comes to the gay community in Bloomington.
It is HARD to get a job right now. Not trying to discourage you but make sure you have some savings, or a car, or SOMETHING so you don't end up homeless. It's hard enough with a car, and some friend's couches to crash on occasionally, trust me.
San Francisco has the same ad campaign going on right now so, maybe?
And having just moved out of that state I couldn't recommended NOT moving there enough. There is fuck all in P-Town by way of work or living cheaply and Boston is an ungodly expensive city with not the greatest job market for the uneducated and unskilled. A one bedroom in Boston not in a shit-hole with heat & hot water is going to start at $1000 and he'd be lucky to find a job paying him $10/hr in his circumstances.
I thought this was every city right now. LA is packed full of billboards and bus ads.
But, not very nerd friendly, ultimately. Super gay friend, obviously. I grew up outside of Ogunquit, Maine and West Hollywood on a Friday is WAY more homo than anything I saw in Ogunquit (which is reportedly American Gay vacation spot #2, after P-town).
Have some money in the bank first, and a couch to sleep on if you can. Don't let yourself get discouraged or depressed, and don't stumble drunk down Denny Hill and break your leg.
Spend some time at any and all coffee shops on Cap Hill. Pick up a copy of The Stranger. Hang out at the Library, on the increasingly rare occasions it is open. Eat at Dick's and Than Bros.
DO IT.
You could almost instantly get a job at some local pizza place or restaurant. It's a college town and during the year, that kind of work is always up for people who don't suck.
Well yeah, if you want to live in the Back Bay or something. Dorchester will always by somewhat affordable, though. For the gay villages, though, the trend seems to be rising hellholes like JP and Sommerville (Davis Square, specifically). Northampton is far enough from civilization that I have no idea what the place is like.
Huh. All the reporting I've seen has been indicating that the economy has been doing better than the rest of the country, although I've also seen quite a bit about how regulation in Texas was able to keep off much of the trouble (although Krugman seems to think most of the claims about Texas having a good economy are illusion and wishful thinking). As for rent, yeah, that's how we avoided the bubble (no room for one).
Still no jobs though.
I won't lie - I still have Seattle on the mind, but I'd gladly live and go to college elsewhere in the meanwhile if it meant a great job market.
Where you at because I'm still looking at around $1k/mo. for a 1 bedroom apartment when I move (job's in the South Bay)?
Also, jobs out here pay almost as much as jobs in much more expensive places, in my experience, but you get to save more.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
Sure kid, move to the affordable part of Dorchester. Why not recommended Mattapan or Lynn while you're at it? Allston/Brighton costs a minimum of $1k for a decent one bedroom, the one I had in a nice bulding with no college students started at $1295. The Back Bay would run you twice that easy. Shit, JP and Somerville are roughly the same prices thanks to the influx of college students and young professionals. Unless you want to live in a shit hole. If he lives further out, sure it will be cheaper, but it's less likely to include heat/hot water (tack an additional $200/month on in the winter easy), he'll have to pay for commuter rail (starts at $165/month), or try and find a job in the burbs (good luck with that one unless you like minimum wage).
AmeriCorps! Take this with a grain of salt since I recruit for Habitat for Humanity VISTA and National AmeriCorps opportunities so I'm super into this program.
If you're accepted into National you get $12,100 in living allowance and a $5550 education award at the end of your year of service. You can also do VISTA which is more intense (you work a minimum of 40 hours a week but are on call at all times) but will provide more learning experience. You get a living allowance based on where you serve and an education award or cash at the end of your service.
Some programs offer more and some host sites offer more. All offer health benefits and some even offer free housing. I'd look into it if I were you.
This. My apartment here in Vancouver doesn't come with electricity and I pay BC Hydro like $35 every two months for electricity over the winter.
I do have a unusually high tolerance for cold though, so maybe I'm a little biased :P
Honestly I think Portland sounds like a great move for you. But then again, also biased, because I love Portland to pieces