Greetings Earthlings, this post is a continuation of my last blog post, entitled, “Why I left Portland”. So, to sum up, the last post, the main reason why my girlfriend, Erica, and I relocated is that we wanted to buy a house and Portland was too expensive. I still love my hometown, but it’s pricey and right now it sadly has a few problems.
The Pandemic really influenced our decision in that it made us question what was important to us. We are both artists and spend about 90 percent of our time at home working, so home ownership was a priority. Plus, we have both been sober for over five years and that really changes a lot of things. So, we were willing to forego living in a hip place with fun bars for a less-cool city where we could have a very cool and affordable house.
Why Fort Wayne?
Believe it or not, I had never even heard of Fort Wayne until I started the research. Yes, the housing prices are very affordable--one of the most affordable markets in the country--and it checked off a few other boxes like walkability, population size, traffic, crime, weather, climate, and distance to other cities. We also wanted to move to a city that wasn’t amazing now but had the potential to be amazing in the near future. Fort Wayne is growing and upon visiting, we could see possibilities.
Other cities we almost moved to:
This is the History Museum. There are quite a few buildings like this in downtown.
Milwaukee
St. Louis
Spokane
Des Moines
Pittsburgh
Charleston or Wheeling West Virginia
So, after visiting the Fort we decided this place seemed like a realistic option for us. We ended up buying an old folk victorian house that is across the street from a quaint park with a lake. We purchased the home sight unseen and our cross-country road trip was epic. We love the house and named her Moonbeam!
Lakeside park, which is across the street from out house. So pretty! People were getting married there every day last summer.
Things I dislike about the Fort:
Strip malls.
Food deserts. We can’t walk to the grocery store like we used to in Portland.
Also, public transportation sucks here.
In general, the restaurants are not very vegan-friendly.
It’s not outwardly the hippest place in the world, but there are definitely cool people and things here. You might just have to look a little harder to find them.
The bugs in August were insane. Literal clouds blood-drinking mosquitoes. I saw one that was seven inches long.
Things I like about the Fort:
We were able to buy an awesome house here and our place is within walking distance of downtown.
The downtown is actually pretty cool. There have been recent updates, and new murals, and the city has a lot of future plans. Definitely growing!
Lots of great parks, river trails, and access to nature spots.
Some fun Victorian architecture.
Fort Wayne is within driving distance of 10 major cities and is not all that far from the East Coast.
I actually enjoy the weather. The summer was milder than Portland (except for the occasional lightning death storm) and I loved the winter snow. The streets are plowed regularly too, which never happens in Portland and it doesn’t rain quite as much.
A surprising amount of good coffee shops.
Nice Library too.
It doesn’t feel like it suffers from the mental health/drug problems that plague a lot of the West Coast. Didn’t expect it to be any different here, but that’s a nice bonus.
Fort Wayne is very chill and the slow pace feeds my creativity.
Overall, I do miss Portland, but mainly family and friends. I am really liking it here though and I think Erica and I made the right decision.
Fort Wayne, Indiana: It’s not that bad! :)
Also, have you relocated recently? Where to? How are you liking it? Let me know in the comment