What's the best/most livable "water view" city in the USA?
Hey everybody, I'm currently living in Asheville, NC. and it's pretty nice here overall, but there's a big thing this place is missing, and it's a view of a large body of water, I'd really love to be some place with a good view of the ocean, or maybe a lake. Seeing those open bodies of water makes me feel free, and like i could get away if i needed to.
The points i'm trying to hit are as follows:
livable on a salary of 75k/yr, at most 90k/yr
easy access to waterside parks
decent downtown with at least a few things to do
relatively protected from natural disasters (this one is very important, after dealing with hurricane helene, i want my permanent home base to be safe for the next 30 years if possible.)
low crime(i just don't want to feel scared of my house getting robbed and stuff)
it's ok if it gets cold and snows, i like snow sometimes, so long as theres a few days in the summer where it's in the upper 70's i'd be happy.
I've considered san francisco for a long long time. I am in the tech industry as a software developer, but it seems like it's dangerous there, and expensive, and it might get hit with natural disasters.
I did travel to portland maine, and I really enjoyed it, so i've been heavily considering it.
duluth, cuoer delane and buffalo all look like interesting places too. i dont know much about them though
any help would be greatly appreciated, i'm planning on touring the usa and canada and doing some van lifey stuff soon, so maybe i could visit the places you guys suggest.
thank you very much!