[jboggan]

Athens, GA. It's a college town with a rather remarkable density of culture (music, arts, food) and a very low cost of living. I've been gone a little over a year, but you can live in very nice areas with roommates for under $400 a month. Hell, a lot of folks rent entire houses for under four figures a month. It's also in the middle of a large swath of country (despite having a walkable urban center) and has high quality organic/local produce and meats for very little compared to similar quality food on the West Coast. It also has one of the liveliest downtowns in the country and has an incredible density and variety of bars and nightlife.

Dating pool? There's about 25k undergrads and almost another 10k grad students. It's a very lovely place. Southern gentlemen and Southern belles live up to their reputation.

[Tloewald]

Avoid the South if you're black, Hispanic, or mediterranean in appearance. (Or have kids you'd prefer not to be taught racism by their peers.) I lived im Tuscaloosa, AL — another college town — 2006-2012. We came with open minds.

My wife, a half Puerto Rican professor, was nearly arrested for driving while Hispanic, my mother (who is vietnamese) had racist epithets screamed at her while walking our kids in an upscale neighborhood. There were major racist incidents on campus every year we were there. The frats are still segregated.

[jboggan]

Whoa, whoa, whoa. I take issue with that blanket characterization. And comparing Tuscaloosa to Athens as college towns would be like examining the immediate environs of USC and extrapolating that UCLA and Westwood are not nice places to be either. I don't doubt that you had a bad experience there - but encountering prejudice in one town doesn't justify saying "Avoid the South if you're black, Hispanic, or mediterranean in appearance." Have you been to Atlanta recently or walked around the Georgia Tech campus?

I didn't say "go to a Southern college town". I said look at Athens.

[gtank]

As a former longtime resident of the south, including a few years in Tuscaloosa (we seem to have overlapped - 2008-2010), I'd advise against judging the region by the standard of Tuscaloosa. I know it's a huge college town and that seems like it should be a positive influence, but it's not. The University of Alabama is a lingering bastion of negative southern stereotype.

I suggest Atlanta as a counterexample - a real city, full of educated and inclusive people, art, culture, a nascent modern tech scene, and several good schools which notably lack racism as a cultural touchstone.

[reggie_n_DC]

Spending 6 years in a place like Tuscaloosa pretty much spoils any interest in spending more time in the south. I've heard lovely things about Athens but after my daughter came home from the University of Alabama preschool and announced that she did not like black people, I quit my job and moved my family to a Union state.

[jdc0589]

hell...Birmingham is better than Tuscaloosa. (To be honest, Birmingham isn't bad at all any more)

[Tloewald]

Birmingham is better but only in comparison.

[pstuart]

I'm guessing being a Good Christian is required too.

[jboggan]

Nope. Actually in Athens it may be more important to be a good hipster. Mission hipsters are amateurs compared to those I knew and loved in Athens.

[Falling3]

Bad Christian also seems acceptable.

[Tloewald]

But catholics are barely tolerated.

[jboggan]

Having been friends and intimately involved with several Catholics in Georgia I'm really curious where this statement comes from - because it's literally the first time I've heard it.

[gte525u]

I'll back GP up. I'm in GA but not in ATL. At my current employer, it's acceptable/funny to post the 95 thesis on other employee's doors/desks if they are a known catholic. At my previous employee, printing/posting jack trick's cartoons was considered acceptable.

[Tloewald]

It's an exaggeration on my part. I'd far rather be a Catholic in the south than non-white.

I am told (by my Catholic friends who live[d] in Alabama) that Alabama is considered a missionary region for Catholics. The local Books-a-millions have any Catholic literature in -- I am not making this up -- "World Religion" (not enough space in the third of the store devoted to Christian books.

[reggie_n_DC]

I remember how shocked one of catholic friends was when she found books on Catholicism in the "World Religion" section instead of the "Christianity" section. At first I didn't believe it so I went to the Books-a-million in Tuscaloosa and checked it myself. She was not joking.

[reggie_n_DC]

And Atheists, homosexuals, and non-Christians are treated like criminals.

[jboggan]

This is a popular annual event in Athens, GA: http://boybutante.org/

I fail to comprehend how they've operated for 25 years without being arrested or run out of town. Or maybe your statements are just groundless.

[jboggan]

This statement is completely ridiculous. Go to Midtown Atlanta on Pride Weekend and get back to me on that opinion, if you ever escape from the traffic jam.

[Tloewald]

Atlanta is an island of civilization compared to most of the south (including decent sized cities like birmingham which are not). Don't excuse GA by citing Atlanta.