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I'm a restless person by nature and have a hard time settling anywhere, the traffic kills me and I hate driving (the Prov public transportation sucks), the basic cost of living is more than I can afford being a musician and studio hand full-time which is my biggest problem, and my job has dumped me in a really unpleasant state of anxiety for about the last 6 months.
I guess basically my feeling is that I'm trapped by my job, and I don't really have anything else that's holding me in a city that I'm not that in love with, and would rather get a fresh start.

EAST COAST SUCKS...

Move to Texas...

Ha! I did thoroughly enjoy my time in Austin last year!

Gotcha.

I know how you feel. I'm not sure I'd move in this economy unless I knew I had a job waiting for me. It may be nice to think about moving to Asheville, but I'd take a trip there before making any decisions. Public transportation there definitely isn't any better than Providence and while you could probably get by there without a car, having one'll make things easier. Yeah, it sucks living somewhere you don't love. My advice to you is to plan your move well. Info gathering on ILF is a good start. I'd like to move, but haven't the faintest idea where to.

Yeah, I've got a lot of job feelers out right now and feel confident that between my degree and experience I can pick one up (or at least sound pretty appealing to companies). I'm definitely planning this out well, particularly since I'm a compulsive planner already!
I have spent a bit of time in Asheville, and really enjoyed the area, but like you said, enjoying it on a trip and living there are two totally different beasts.
I do have a reliable car, and don't mind driving around when it's necessary, but places where walking is reasonable is definitely a plus!

Doesn't SPAAAACCCEEEERRIIIITTTUUUUAAAAAALLLLLLL live in/near Asheville?

I lived there in the mid 90's. it's a great place. Great music/food/outdoors. I painted houses, did farm work, played in bands, etc.
I marched in the infamous people's parade w/ the giant pink dragon and was the first one grabbed by the cops.
I did miss the big city, having moved there from Chicago. I like a bit more diversity. The lack of public transportation was a drag, too.
Definitely go visit- see if its right for you.

snipelfritz wrote:Doesn't SPAAAACCCEEEERRIIIITTTUUUUAAAAAALLLLLLL live in/near Asheville?

I guess, if you consider SPACE CAROLINA near Asheville.

Don't leave PVD before we can go out for beers or geek out about pedals at Empire!

Let's make it happen, dude! We need to assemble the RI crowd soon.

Chankgeez wrote:Asheville is pretty small compared to cities of the Northeastern megalopolis.

I liked it a lot, but just not enough to wanna move there. There is a lot of cool stuff going on there, I'm just used to bigger cities. I guess.

Asheville also relies pretty heavily on tourism. In larger cities it wouldn't've been so noticeable, but because Asheville's so much smaller, it stood out to me.

I think jobs are also kinda hard to find there. Many jobs are related to the tourist industry. While I have nothing against tourists, I also don't have a great love for them.

The people I met who live there were really nice.

I spent some time in West Asheville, which is just across the river and seemed to be where all the cool kids hang out. I kinda felt that if I lived in West Asheville, I'd need a car. Something I wasn't really willing to acquire. The roads really didn't seem well suited for cycling or walking and the public transit system is definitely small potatoes.

So, while it was a cute city, it wasn't ultimately for me.

this is a great assessment of the town. some years ago i really wanted to move to asheville after having visited there a few times and really enjoying it. then i did move there. a year later i moved away. it has a lot going for it as a place to hang out and visit, and i have some good friends there, but ultimately i didn't like living there. i had previously lived in some fairly small towns and even places much smaller and more rural than asheville. but all of them were places that had fairly easy access to decent sized cities within an hour or so. asheville does not have this. it's small and fairly touristy. the nearest city of any size really is knoxville, which doesn't offer much. much of the downtown scene there is focused on the tourists and doesn't provide much of substance for locals. i found it easy to feel stagnant and isolated.

i don't mean to insult the place at all. it does have a lot going for it and is in a really beautiful part of the country. there are lots of great people. i would just urge you to visit and stay for at least a week or two and try and see it with an eye towards what it would be like living there, rather than just trying to enjoy it as a visitor. if i had done that i may have seen that it was not the place for me. instead i moved there based on my good experiences on a couple of short visits, which was a mistake.

Thanks, misterstomach, I like to think I'm sometimes observant.

Yeah, I didn't mention proximity to larger metropolitan areas. Asheville's way out in western NC with nothing else around. I've thought of moving to other places like that, but've stuck close to big cities. One day I'll find a better place to live, until then, I'll keep looking.

As I said, I still like Asheville a lot. Just not well enough that I wanna live there.