I grew up in a relaxed beach town in Florida, and hated it. My family all moved from NYC and fell in love in a heartbeat.
Something about not being in the same place for too long applies here, too.
"There's nothing to do here."
I just thought "seriously? We have everything but a theme park." Go carts, beaches, movies, skating rinks, arcades, everything!
I've since learned that kids say that no matter where they live, seemingly.
But teen angst aside, I got a really good education, and had a lot of fun and opportunities growing up. (I actually lived in the suburbs of Flint and my family was middle class, so that probably helped.) I hated it at the time, but I can see the good and the bad now that I'm removed from it. I don't think I could ever go back, but there were positives despite its problems.
Venice YMCA has a ton of offerings--rock wall, skate park, basketball gym, adult leagues, etc.
You have pretty much every other normal amenity, like theaters & community college.
Tampa isn't far for theme parks, concerts, etc.
You're missing having a hometown bar scene, but those aren't too far anyway (and the 20-somethings make do with what's available, anyway).
What do you feel like you're missing?
You can do this in the Bay Area itself, though in general the closer you want to be to a supermarket, bank, etc. the more you'll pay. If you're west of Palo Alto, Los Altos, Mountain View, Cupertino and cross the 280, you encounter rural areas very quickly. And if you head far enough into the hills, prices begin to fall rapidly relative to flatland prices.
Near Boulder Creek, for instance, you can get 2 acres for $52K that's three miles from a shopping area: https://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Lorenzo-Valley/0-HARMON-GULCH-...
That's 23 miles from Cupertino via route 17 and smaller roads. Of course it helps if you enjoy living in the middle of the woods!
I've posted about this concept on HN before: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9437492
But if you're willing to live that far from work and can find water and a nice lot, I'd give it a try. Also with a private pilot certificate you could fly an older ~$20K Cessna from South County or Hollister to KSQL pretty quickly on most days -- certainly a fraction of your effective groundspeed in 101 traffic -- and bike from there to work.
I don't own a plane but have in the post thought idly about commuting to the SF bay area from the Sierras. I've heard of pilots doing it from Pine Mountain Lake in the foothills, for instance, and a faster plane would make living in Nevada doable.
Trade-A-Plane lists 145 Cessnas for sale under $30K, though most in that range are 152s. There are a few older 172s: http://www.trade-a-plane.com/detail/aircraft/Single+Engine+P...
It would be nice to have the additional capacity of a 172, especially if you want to (a) fly with two friends, for three people total or (b) you're a large or heavy person yourself, which might exceed the maximum payload of a 152 with a similarly large or heavy flight instructor or passenger. Also I don't think 152s can be IFR certified.
It is kinda funny that these older Cessnas are now cheaper than the average car! Anyway, good luck on your project!
I've moved to larger, and larger, and larger cities since, pursuing academia and career, and they have their charms and I'm glad I went. But now I miss the beach town, and hope to get back. I guess we are the sum of our experiences. Maybe the feeling you're missing out helps by driving you to seek new things out.
I never moved back to the country. Okay to visit, but fuck that, I realized quickly that I much preferred the city over the country.
Even so, you don't hear as many kids hating on the big city as they hate on the suburbs or the countryside.
I mean, kids hatred for the suburbs have inspired tons of movies and songs, for the city, not so much.
>tons of movies and songs
...this seems like self-selection bias, similar to I don't know anyone who voted for "X" in the last election. I'd present the country and western music genre as a counter-point, where there is a preference for non-urban living.
Not many teenagers listen to "country and western"...
Who knows, maybe she will move back when she is 20 and love it.
They did exactly that in the US too, up until the eighties -- and at a time when cities had crime rates even higher than today.
There is this nice article from the Austin Chronicle about it (pdf):
http://michaelventura.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/This-Is...
Now living in a smaller town.. she can go up and down the block alone. Not worried about it. Chicago was different. We had drug dealers living a block away, and a shooting about once per week. (And this was in a middle of the road neighborhood)