If you were going to emigrate to another State in the USA, where would you go?

Or emigrating there from another country.

Me: NYC, without a shadow of a doubt. But if they unfreeze the death penalty there, I'd be going to... I don't know, perhaps somewhere in Maine (I like the cold), Michigan, or Rhode Island. No, I don't plan to murder anyone, but I have my principles.

If I left this state, it would be to either California (where I have family) or Oregon.

Maybe upstate New York - but really anyplace remote on the Canadian border, where one may be able to slip across undetected in the middle of the night.

You know, just in case.

I grew up there and moved away as an adult, so it's a natural. The other choices would be in the New England states near the coastline.

I currently live in FL, and have a condo in Toronto.
My plan is to swap that around in the next couple years.
Primary residence in Toronto, with winter in FL.

Until then, I will remain in beautiful Massachusetts.

I was leaning towards getting a vacation home in SC (my home state) but the politics are too red for me.

I am with one of the other posters regarding Toronto. Great city. Tough to choose between Montreal and Toronto.

"Northern Montana" spans everything from the Rocky Mts to the Great Plains.

I consider MT my "second home"

My wife and I fell in love with the place, I am a retired E-8 and we have seriously given much thought to moving there.

we took a roadtrip through GNP on the way to Banff, and drove through Cut Bank. That side of the mountains is really stark as the huge klippens of the Lewis Thrust stand out.

i want the west coast to secede from the union and form our own country!

and would not consider moving elsewhere in U.S. I am considering retiring
to Panama (where we are building a house) especially if the Dems don't regain
control of WH and Congress and f*cking start undoing all the damage Bushco
have done last 7 years.

PS on edit: I wouldn't suggest Michigan. I have a friend who finally was able
to get out of there after being laid off twice, hubby laid off, filing bankruptcy, and losing their house. They've moved to Las Vegas (not me) where he's working
and she has joined the stage hand's union and will do support graphics for conventions.

Short drive from here (Idaho), beautiful country, 180 degree difference in politics. And close to Canada if things really heat up.

From L.A. to Oregon, then to Washington. We love it and have no desire to move...unless Canada was to open it's border to us.

Preferably Vermont if I could find work there.

I can't stand texas

Are you kidding? I like my mountains, beaches, ag land and desserts too much. I'm not going anywhere. Besides, people in other states don't like Californians. I'm not sure why.

The state to your north does not like californians because:

It was a quiet little state, mostly rural, beautiful, until the neighbors to the south discovered it. All those wide-open, quiet forests drew them, with their big real estate checks, to the north. As they began buying up land and houses, locals got priced out of the market, so that, if you were born here, you could no longer afford to live here.

I've always had family up here. In the 90s, my CA license plate made me nervous. It got me evil stares. In the new millenium, so many people are transplanted californians that it doesn't matter. I'm now one of them.

Unfortunately, the rapid growth and skyrocketing prices hasn't slowed down any. The quality of life people moved here to get is eroding.

about that argument. Oregonians had to sell the land to Californians, no? No one forced them to sell their property at inflated prices. Shouldn't Oregonians be angry at the sellers? It just doesn't make sense to be angry at the buyers.

I've often heard of how beautiful Oregon is but I've been reluctant to travel there because of the animosity towards Californians. I mean, I'd just want to VISIT but I figure there are lots of other states that would welcome my tourista dollars, so I go there. :shrug:

And I have to wonder about a state full of people that would dislike someone because of their license plate. I'm sorry, I just don't get it.

you won't find that level of animosity any more. Half the population seems to be former californians.

The animosity? From what I've gleaned, it has to do with Californians bringing CHANGE. Coming for the beauty, the quiet, the rural atomosphere, and destroying the "rural" qualities with overcrowding and "city" attitudes.

I think that kind of change will happen in any area that experiences excessive growth, as long as the human population keeps increasing and needing to gobble up more space.

Sellers vs buyers? Some of those who are angry have never owned anything to sell. Rents were low, though, and aren't any more. Others sold to move to more remote places that hadn't been "discovered" yet. Most of the "selling" is when a rancher retires or gets too old to ranch, and his kids sell off the land to developers, who turn it into housing tracts. That makes ME angry; I left that exact situation ruining a rural little town in CA behind.

I gave some chickens to a guy 2 years ago who lived on the edge of the newly expanded "urban boundary." They were running out of room for housing tracts in town, so they expanded their boundaries into "unincorporated" areas so that they could rezone the farmland. This guy was really upset with the rezoning. He loved his little old farmhouse on a few acres, surrounded by much of the same. He'd already been approached by 3 different developers and offered ridiculously high prices, but refused. None of his neighbors refused, though, and he was now facing being surrounded by suburban housing, and wondering where he could afford to go that would be safe from encroachment. I know he ended up selling, because I drove down that road last week. His house is no longer there, and, in 2 years, housing tracts have already reached the edge of the new boundary.

My area is characterized by locals as "poverty with a view." We've got natural beauty and views, but the local working class can no longer afford to own anything here. Or they are hanging on to the place they bought 20-30 years ago, but can't afford to replace the ancient old trailer that sits on it. Meanwhile, there are plenty of mansions. Some of them are vacation homes that people don't even live in. We have tons of golf resorts, with more going in every day. I live down the road from one, and another is going in across the road, blocking my access to public land in the next year. The state has been selling/trading local public land to make room for more resorts, which has locals enraged.

Oregon is still beautiful. As long as people need lumber, I suppose the forests will be allowed to grow without making room for more housing developments. It's not as inviting as it was 20 years ago, though.

California has her own beauty. The problem is that there are just too damned many people. You can't go to CA's most beautiful spots without crowds. Peace and quiet is harder and harder to find. When I lived in CA, I made frequent trips to Yosemite valley in October. While the falls are quiet then, the autumn color is incredible, and it's much less crowded than during the summer. In California, you can get forests, mountains, deserts, lakes, rivers, and beaches. Every area has its own charm, if you can get there when the crowds aren't.

It isn't that anyone was forced to sell, exactly. The problem is that when a flood of people come in with lots of money for real estate, prices jump up. Oregon only has 2 state tax sources (income & property, no sales tax). When values jump up, taxes go up (services to support all the new people). A farmer with land that now is extremely valuable to developers isn't making any more from his crops, but in some cases may by paying 2-3 times the property tax. Often, that farm land isn't "economically viable" as a farm and the developers take over, reinforcing the cycle.
The anti-California sentiment was mostly humor, but there will always be a grain of truth. The reason so many Californians move here is because there are so few people here...the irony is obvious. Add in the factor that many of most anti-California Oregonians are themselves former Californians and you find the relationship even more ironic.

I have a lot of friends down there.

Or anywhere in Paradise Valley...

yeah, i know about some of the bass-ackward politics, but there is a lot to be said for:

1. clean air and stars you can see at night
2. peace, quiet, and being left alone
3. NO TRAFFIC

So KS would be my first choice, believe it or not...I have also lived in RI and would return in an instant if I could find work there...

Other than that, I've always had a glamorous, romantic notion about Miami and would love to give it a try (never been there)...I visited Philadelphia once and really loved it...Last choice is Detroit because I have friends there, and because of it's proximity to Ontario

Or up to Washington

If I could afford it, Kauai, Hawaii :loveya:

and don't have any desire to go anywhere else. I love it here. Second choice would be anywhere on the west coast north of San Francisco.

we have to live where my husband can get full employment with health insurance, which limits our choices

if he passed away, i would have to move to whatever state, if any remain, that requires affordable health insurance be available for middle aged women who are too young for medicare, used to be some options in tennessee and possibly washington state but i'm not sure if those options remain

"freedom" does not exist any longer in the land of the free, you have to go where the health care is

entrepreneurs who go out on their own had better hope they either become billionaires or that they can somehow get back into the job market again once they're 40, good luck on that one if you're female, because private health insurance...well...it isn't pretty

It reminds me a lot of my own beautiful northern Michigan but with fewer wingnuts.

Julie

Western Washington State, Northern Idaho, Western Montana or Northwest Oregon.