Poly-Friendly Places to live... I suck at google search. :(

Any thoughts on North Carolina?

The four of us did a quiz on "findyourspot.com" and came up with the same places in North Carolina (Raleigh, Ashville, Hickory, Charlotte).....

Did some research, the area is nice, weather suits our purposes, the homeschool laws are reasonable.... can't find much regarding the open-mindness of the area, whether being Poly might cause signficant issues or no...
 
Out of those NC cities, I've only been to Asheville - love it! It's a beautiful, somewhat diverse, walkable city. Big arts and artisan community there, and great restaurants. Very pretty views of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and there are other interesting cities and natural resources within driving distance. And the weather is great! It has become an increasingly more liberal place, as it has attracted lots of people from New York City (which is also pretty liberal) over the years. I think it's the #3 destination for people relocating from NYC. There's a variety of alternative stuff there, just not on a huge scale. For example, they have a drumming circle in downtown Asheville on Friday nights. So homeschooling and alternative lifestyles might be more accepted there than other places in the south. Home prices have gone up, according to the longtime NCers, but they're still reasonable by Northeast standards, so a lot of Northerners move to Asheville. I've also heard good things about Wilmington, on the coast. It's apparently a very vibrant city, with the largest film studio outside of Hollywood. Electricians can always find work on film productions. And, usually, wherever film folk or artists are, more open attitudes might be found.

Check out: http://www.exploreasheville.com/index.aspx and

http://www.carolinaliving.com/relocating/

I do recall hearing that NC has better air quality than SC.

Also, have you ever visited City-Data.com? You can post really specific questions in their forums and get demographic info from their main site. The forums are a great resource where you can ask about real estate, neighborhoods, attitudes, etc., and pinpoint a target area or town. Posters there are not timid with their opinions. Here's the NC forum (cities are in child forums according to region): http://www.city-data.com/forum/north-carolina/
 
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I can say that Western Washington is VERY accepting of different lifestyles.

There are LOTS of home school activities and opportunities within the school districts near Olympia. I might be a bit biased but I can say I went to an alternative high school and didn't have to explain what that was because of the surrounding school districts, there was not one that did not have their own, a couple even had alternative style elementary and middle schools. After high school I was active in Americorps and worked within the community in that area. More often then not my students introduced me to mom and mom or dad and dad and mom or any combination you can think of. There's a vast mix of urban and country choices and you aren't far from Portland (+/-2hrs depending on how you drive) and about an hr from Seattle depending on traffic.

I might be a little biased as this is home to me (though I don't plan to move back anytime soon due to inlaws) but it really is a great community! :)
 
Any thoughts on North Carolina?

The four of us did a quiz on "findyourspot.com" and came up with the same places in North Carolina (Raleigh, Ashville, Hickory, Charlotte).....

Did some research, the area is nice, weather suits our purposes, the homeschool laws are reasonable.... can't find much regarding the open-mindness of the area, whether being Poly might cause signficant issues or no...

Well, I guess places that are usually gay-friendly tend to also be as close to poly-friendly as you can get, so I'd definitely stick to the major cities. Raleigh, Durham, Asheville, Chapel Hill and Carrboro are the top of "progressive" or "open-minded" areas. I think in a previous post, you mentioned one in your family isn't big on cities so maybe Carrboro (or nearby Hillsborough) would be the best of those.

I don't know why you mentioned Hickory, that's bible-thumper heaven there! I drive through very fast and don't stop! LOL
Charlotte is ok but probably way too big for you...it's a traffic nightmare for starters, and not as open-minded as you'd think for a city that size.

You might like Asheville, since you're from Alaska, but be careful...the city itself is friendly but once you step outside the city limits, you're quickly in "Deliverance Country" if you know what I mean! :eek: Big downside is economic....jobs are not plentiful there and the ones they do have tend to be tourism-based (hotels, restaurants, etc).

At least with the Chapel Hill/Carrboro/Hillsborough/Durham region, you can be sorta on the outskirts of the cities and still not be in bigot territory, necessarily. (Though exceptions happen of course.) One downside though is those areas can be pricey...cheap homes are something you kinda hafta hunt down.

There is a statewide poly email list (See www.ncpoly.org), which is an umbrella for some local groups including Triangle Polyamory Network which meets regularly in Durham (includes Raleigh, Chapel Hill and Carrboro folks). Also there's a group in Asheville called "WNC Poly", if you decide the mountains is more for you.

As far as laws and policies go, well, it's a southern state so you can figure the rest out. But there are a lot of good lawyers in the Raleigh/Durham area who specialize in LGBT family law that can write a very good will to make sure varous partners can circumnavigate custody laws and such....I'm sure they can work with you on poly issues similarly.
 
As far as laws and policies go, well, it's a southern state so you can figure the rest out.
Hey....It doesn't get much further south that Floriduh. :p And Florida has the most "swingers" in it of all the states. At least that's what I heard. ;) Lots of gay, and gay friendly ppl here. At least in the Tampa bay area anyway.;)
 
i just heard that isreal is supposedly the worlds most LGBT friendly country in the world (immagine that) but i think the final frunteer is poly for any flavor of relationship :(
 
Madison, WI is a very liberal city with a decent kink community, and I'm guessing, poly community as well. It typically wins many awards as a top place in the nation to live. Middleton (suburb of Madison) also gets ranked very highly.

http://www.visitmadison.com/news/rankings/

Best educated city in the US: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/14/us-cities-usa-educated-idUSTRE78D4PS20110914

Most Secure U.S. Places to Live rankings from Farmers Insurance Group of Companies®, Madison, Wis., is the most secure U.S. community among large metropolitan areas (population of 500,000 or greater). http://www.bestplaces.net/docs/studies/secure.aspx

2011 Best Places to Live #8, Middleton, WI: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bplive/2011/snapshots/PL5551575.html

Our governor sucks, though.
 
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