Jewish communities out West?

amother

Thu, Jun 09 2022, 10:12 am

miami85 wrote:

With inflation everything has shot up in the last year, we live in one of the "cheaper cities" and I know our property value has gone up 100K in the last year. You may have to re-think what "affordable is"

You're definitely right about that. We were hoping to find some small town in the middle of "nowhere" where prices haven't shot up all that much.

amother

Gold

Thu, Jun 09 2022, 10:16 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

You're definitely right about that. We were hoping to find some small town in the middle of "nowhere" where prices haven't shot up all that much.

There are lots of those, but they generally don't come with Jewish infrastructure.

amother

Almond

Thu, Jun 09 2022, 10:18 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

You're definitely right about that. We were hoping to find some small town in the middle of "nowhere" where prices haven't shot up all that much.

Any place that has enough infrastructure for a Jewish day school is going to be more expensive than the middle of nowhere Wyoming.

amother

Thu, Jun 09 2022, 10:22 am

amother [ Gold ] wrote:

There are lots of those, but they generally don't come with Jewish infrastructure.

Yeah, that's what we've been realizing Sad

amother

Thu, Jun 09 2022, 10:25 am

amother [ Almond ] wrote:

Any place that has enough infrastructure for a Jewish day school is going to be more expensive than the middle of nowhere Wyoming.

Agreed, though I feel that it doesn't have to be that way. Historically, yes, Jewish communities have built up wherever there were cities with plenty of job opportunities and amenities to make it feasible. But today's world is so different, so many jobs can be done remotely and there are so many more small, growing towns all over the place because people want to leave the big cities.

amother

Eggplant

Thu, Jun 09 2022, 10:25 am

There is a very small CC Kiruv type community in Louisville, KY. They keep adding grades to the school, not sure what they're up to. I have no clue what the geography is like there but maybe it's something worth looking into?

amother

Thu, Jun 09 2022, 10:32 am

amother [ Eggplant ] wrote:

Definitely interesting to hear and worth looking into, thanks! Though yeah, the geography isn't quite what we're looking for, but it seems we can't be too picky about that Smile

amother

Thu, Jun 09 2022, 10:38 am

I'm basically trying to find a small-ish town out west that is affordable yet has at least some Jewish infrastructure.

Places like these:
Eugene, OR
Klamath Falls, OR
Boise/Nampa, ID
Colorado Springs, CO
St George, UT
Las Cruces, NM
Many others..

These are all small, quite inexpensive places, but none of these have a solid Jewish presence as far as I know. Yet they are large enough towns to support a Jewish community and day school, if enough people were to live there.

amother

Eggplant

Thu, Jun 09 2022, 10:41 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

I know Eugene has a shul! My husband has gone there I'll ask him for more info.

Don't know anything about the others.

amother

Gold

Thu, Jun 09 2022, 10:56 am

If you're willing to have your kids learn online, you'll have many more options. I know for sure that Chabad in Boise and Las Cruces have their kids learning online.

srbmom

Thu, Jun 09 2022, 11:05 am

Quote:

These are all small, quite inexpensive places, but none of these have a solid Jewish presence as far as I know. Yet they are large enough towns to support a Jewish community and day school, if enough people were to live there.

And none of them have the kind of job market that can attract frum families. Frum life is super expensive, and up until very recently frum communities needed to be built around big cities so that we could have employment opportunities that could support our lifestyle. Now that remote work has become so common, I'm interested to see if new communities will be able to be started in more quiet locations

Iymnok

Thu, Jun 09 2022, 11:13 am

Eugene, OR has a community that ebbs and flows. As I knew it, it was a more hippy/college town. Everyone I met from there was very friendly. But I met them because they moved to Seattle for a more solid community.
There are some decent basement apartments in Seattle.
Look into Multnomah village on Portland Oregon, it's the neighborhood next to the shul. It's in the eruv.

amother

DarkViolet

Thu, Jun 09 2022, 11:15 am

Colorado Springs 100% doesn't have the infrastructure you are looking for. They don't even get a minyan on Shabbos unless there are enough tourists.

amother

Blueberry

Thu, Jun 09 2022, 11:18 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Kingston NY? I don't think it has much going on there. Scranton seems good though not quite near the mountains or open land, but could be worth looking into.

Scranton is in or near the Alleghenies and Poconos.

Not the Rockies, but it's mountainous up there.

What do you want you do in the open land here? There is open farmland around there.

amother

Thu, Jun 09 2022, 11:46 am

dydn11402 wrote:

Don't know housing prices but what about Henderson, nevada?

We've looked into it, it's cheaper than many west coast cities and has the amenities, though we aren't thrilled about the overall Vegas vibes of the place, as it's pretty much part of the greater Vegas area.

amother

Thu, Jun 09 2022, 11:48 am

amother [ Gold ] wrote:

If you're willing to have your kids learn online, you'll have many more options. I know for sure that Chabad in Boise and Las Cruces have their kids learning online.

That's for sure, but at this point we are looking for a place that has at least a small Jewish day school. Maybe eventually some of those places will get to that point.

amother

Thu, Jun 09 2022, 11:50 am

srbmom wrote:

Quote:

For sure, I'm hoping to see that happen! I was just wondering if there were already places that have a head start on that.

Not_in_my_town

Thu, Jun 09 2022, 12:02 pm

Iymnok wrote:

You're from Oregon? I used to live in Bend. Hiya neighbor.