looking to relocate in the near future, have a 5yo son
with cp using a walker, i'm in NJ and do not want him
to deal with winter as he gets older.

any suggestions, lists anywhere?

thanks,
kris

Well, I'm in California and the weather is definitely great here (except it was 114 today!). The only thing is you have to deal with mountainous terrain, but I guess that depends on where you live. I also live in Texas, and, while I love it there, I would not recommend it to someone with CP because the humidity is a killer.

What effects does the humidity have on people with CP? I've never heard that...and would be interested to know. I live in Portland, Oregon...it's a cool town, and medical care would be very close for your son to get to.

I've lived in Albuquerque (hometown), Tulsa (college) and Denver (now). Tulsa is the most humid of the three, and it is just harder to breathe and move around during summer without sweating like crazy (eventually I acclimated). I don't know that humidity is actually bad for persons with CP (nice for skin - no lotion needed). I visited Tampa one Labor Day weekend and was amazed how people could live there because I was sweating fresh out of the shower! Phoenix is very hot, but it is dry, so 110 there is not as bad as 90 in Tampa, in my opinion. My wife and I have toyed with moving to Florida since we have family there and none here, but the summers would just make life miserable. Winter there is fantastic!

~66~

The humidity just makes my spasticity increase, makes me ache more and just generally makes it harder to move. My doc confirmed this is fairly common. and I have a "mild" case of quad CP.

looking to relocate in the near future, have a 5yo son
with cp using a walker, i'm in NJ and do not want him
to deal with winter as he gets older.

any suggestions, lists anywhere?

thanks,
kris

Hi Kris!

I'm really torn about this whole where to live what's good and bad weather wise.

I have lived all my life in Michigan. It's cold and damp in fall and spring (which is horrible on my spastisicity!) and it snows, and snows during winter. It's also not unheard of to see a freak snow or ice storm in April or even late March. The ice and the cold and damp are not my most favorite things but I deal with it (layers of clothing, blankets, hot tea, hot showers, hot tubs and not a lot of outdoor walking in winter.)

The spasticity, gets the worst around the fall (When the weather changes from hot to cold.) and about the third week of below zero temps in the dead of winter.

I've thought about moving somewhere without the cold and damp (hot humidity doesn't bother my spasticity) but I like having my family around. Do you have family anywhere you might consider living near?

As long as it doesn't have a lot of ice and snow, and a lot of really damp long rains I think anywhere is good!

What effects does the humidity have on people with CP? I've never heard that...and would be interested to know. I live in Portland, Oregon.

Hey Midget, what's the weather like in Portland? I have no idea, when I think Portland, Oregon, I think Seattle - and I'm stuck on believing that it's perpetually 50° F and raining in Seattle. LOL

Anyway, it's the cool temp. and the rain that kills me... my whole body just spasms like nuts and and eventually everything will just hurt through and through all the way to the tips of my pinky fingers. Atleast that only happens for a month or two every year!)

Hey Midget, what's the weather like in Portland? I have no idea, when I think Portland, Oregon, I think Seattle - and I'm stuck on believing that it's perpetually 50° F and raining in Seattle. LOL



The weather here is rainy, but I believe we get less rain than Seattle. I'd have to check though. ;) But it's not rainy all the time. The summers are nice. Although, now we are in this heat wave--just like everyone else. But it's suposed to start cooling down, and did so a bit today. We don't get snow/ice, at least not very much. Although the last few winters we've had a lot (a lot for Portland, anyway :p). The great thing about Portland is you can drive to the snow, drive to the beach, etc...and have a change of climate and scenery within a short driving distance. :)

The humidity just makes my spasticity increase, makes me ache more and just generally makes it harder to move. My doc confirmed this is fairly common. and I have a "mild" case of quad CP.
wow...what different experiences we all have. i've lived most of my life in fl and never had a problem with the humidity(except my asthma). i am thinking of moving to chicago for grad school, but i'm kinda nervous about the winters. i dunno.

I like Georgia... we have only had two horrible snow/ice storms since I've lived here for 25 years. The rest of the time it doesn't snow much or at all, which is good because I can only walk on the grass if it's snowy or icy. It doesn't rain too much, but when it does, my right hip throbs from the humidity. It does get hot in the summer, but most subdivisions have swimming pools.
I have been to Michigan once in April for a swim meet. It snowed while we were there. The locals said it was sunny and 70 the week before. I was at another swim meet in South Ga, the power went out because of an ice storm.

I moved my daughter from Alb to Phoenix in 93 when she was 12, she has spastic cp, in a walker, is now 25 with her degree from ASU ,she loves it here and with the dry weather and no snow, there isnt a better place.

I guess a question similar to this would be, are there major cities that have good public transportation systems for someone in a wheelchair? Anyone know about Boston. or San Francisco?

I would think SF would be a hard city to live in. Isn't it all those huge hills? Or is that just something the television makes us think?

Well, I live in PA so I'm used to hills :)

I meant in terms of getting rides to places...I know that here, all of the buses have wheelchair lifts, but 80% of the drivers will tell you theirs is broken because it takes time to unload the lift.

Anyone have any details about the BART thing in San Fracisco? What about getting on the Subway in New York in a wheelchair? (eek...lol)

Hey,

Interestingly, after I posted my question I was doing research for one of my classes. ("Persons with Disabilities"--mostly dealing with Special Education. Last class I wanted to explain that total inclusion/removal from other disabled people isn't a good thing, but I chickened out.) Anyways, I was doing research, and the one book had a list of the "top 10 disability friendly cities." Based on: a lack of physical or architechtural barriers, personal assistance and transportation systems, support and advocacy programs, and recreational/cultural opportunities.

1. Denver, Colorado
2. Berkeley, California
3. Seattle, Washington
4. Sioux Falls, South Dakota
5. Raleigh, North Carolina
6. San Jose, California
7. Salt Lake City, Utah
8. Rochester, Minnesota
9. Madison, Wisconsin
10. Albuquerque, New Mexico

Almost made it-- Topeka, Kansas; Gainsville, Sarasota, and St. Petersburg, Florida; Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota; Ithaca, New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania


Thought it was interesting...anyone live in any of these cities? :)

my sister lives in Madison and I have visited quite a lot :)

My name is Samantha and I live near Tampa FL. I moved there three years ago from New Jersey, but I really want to move back to NJ because I think that the schools are better there and once I moved to FL my SSI got decreased by alot.

Hey,

Interestingly, after I posted my question I was doing research for one of my classes. ("Persons with Disabilities"--mostly dealing with Special Education. Last class I wanted to explain that total inclusion/removal from other disabled people isn't a good thing, but I chickened out.) Anyways, I was doing research, and the one book had a list of the "top 10 disability friendly cities." Based on: a lack of physical or architechtural barriers, personal assistance and transportation systems, support and advocacy programs, and recreational/cultural opportunities.

1. Denver, Colorado
2. Berkeley, California
3. Seattle, Washington
4. Sioux Falls, South Dakota
5. Raleigh, North Carolina
6. San Jose, California
7. Salt Lake City, Utah
8. Rochester, Minnesota
9. Madison, Wisconsin
10. Albuquerque, New Mexico

Almost made it-- Topeka, Kansas; Gainsville, Sarasota, and St. Petersburg, Florida; Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota; Ithaca, New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania


Thought it was interesting...anyone live in any of these cities? :)

Right now, my hubby and i live in boise, idaho. The climate here is pretty good. It only gets really really hot for about 10 days in the summer. The winters can get cold. However, none of this is any fun to my husband, who is sensitive to temperatures at both extremes. Anyway, the access to medical help here is good, althoug I am surprised at how much dr.'s don't seem to know about CP, given that there are a bunch of agencies here that help people with developmental disabilities. As far as getting any services or help, the help here is good once you can find a program that offers what you're looking for. However, finding the programs is what has proved hard for me, as they always have different names whereever you go. as far as the bus system here, well. we mored here from eastern idaho because hubby like the bus system here ( it was, and still is, better that what we had there). Were we live, the bus comes by once an hour from 6 am to 6 pm. Our route used to run on sAturdays also, but it just got cut about 6 months ago. So the system here isn't great.
As far as places on the list, My husband has lived in denver and we both grew up in salt lake.
When I told my hubby that denver was at the top of the list, he wasn't surprised. He says the bus/ light rail system there is the best and most wheelchair accessible/ friendly he's seen. He was there for 9 months to recieve training to help him learn to live with his visual disability. He didn't need much as far as other services, so he doesn't know what denver has as far as that. He does say that the winter he spent there was pretty cold.
Salt Lake, well the bus system isn't all that great, but it's better than here. I know they have a lot of programs for anyone who meeds assitance, though. The weather there seems to be a bit more extreme than here in boise (hotter in summer, colder in winter). I know ty had no problems getting the help he needed in school there. However, while we were living in Ogden (45 miles north of Salt Lake), ty was kicked off of medicaide 'becuase he missed his yearly review', and we, who were very poor, stuggling, newlywed college students at the timewere expected to take a day and ride the bus (we had no car) all the way to Salt Lake to meet with someone to help him get his medicaide back. WEll, we weren't able to do that. We fought with them to get him back on for 1-1/2 years. Finally, ty caught a calod that I had. I got over my cold, but his developed into neumonia and the flu. He was sick for 1-1/2 months. poor thing. he could only go see the campus dr (becuase it was free for students). His mom, who lived in eastern idaho at the time, offered to help him get back on medicaide if we moved in with her, so we did. He was back on medicaide within a month!!!
Also, I have heard that for some services in Utah, there is a long waiting list.

ditto with rj... humidity saps most people, disAbled or not, but the spasticity compounds the pain and tiredness, especially for cpers like myself (also 'mild' diagnosed with hemi but have bilateral brain damage, go figure... some days with my legs i wonder :dizzy: LOL

I guess a question similar to this would be, are there major cities that have good public transportation systems for someone in a wheelchair? Anyone know about Boston. or San Francisco?

I don't have CP (my nephew does) but I lived in SF for 13 years and had acquaintances there who were PWD. SF is not hilly everywhere, but the sidewalks are very narrow, especially compared to NYC where I live now. That can be a problem with a chair, and many many intersections don't have curb cuts. The public transportations is very accessible - the trolley car stops (MUNI) all have ramps and the most of the commuter train stations (BART) have elevators. However, most people get around by bus in the city, and not only is the service terrible (slow, overcrowding, doesn't run late at night) but often the bus wheelchair lifts are not working. I've often seen people in chairs wait 20 mins for a bus - and when it finally comes, it doesn't have a working lift. Cabs are extremely unreliable.

EDIT: Most of the housing in SF is in Victorians - lots of stairs and no place to put a lift, very narrow hallways, so that's an issue. Berkeley/Oakland have lots of ranch-style houses and newer construction, which tends to be more open.

I also saw ALOT of resentment from other passengers whenever the lift had to be used, probably because they'd already waited so long for the bus. I've never gotten dirty looks in NYC, and the bus lifts always work, although I've had to deal with bus drivers who don't help you secure the chair, and grimy, oily straps.

I imagine Berkeley is high on that list someone posted because of the BART trains, which is how most non-drivers get around the East Bay and which have places for wheelchairs. Also, being a college town, the campus and downtown area are very wheelchair friendly, with wide sidewalks, but the Berkeley and Oakland hills are very steep (and steeply priced).

The NYC subways and commuter trains are not very accessible - there are few stations with elevators and the trains are crowded and have narrow aisles. There is a program called Access-A-Ride that provides free door to door van service for the disabled. I'm sure it was created to prevent a class action lawsuit against the City/MTA over inaccessible public transport.

In general, in NYC there are many elevator buildings with accessible entryways, and doormen can help with doors and packages. Also, you can get just about anything picked up or delivered in NYC. I know a quad (spinal cord injury) who lives alone in Manhattan with a part-time aide (paid by Medicare) and he is very independent and even works part-time in the theater business (his job before his injury). He depends on cabs and has lots of restaurants and shops within wheeling distance of his apt. There are quite a few wheelchair users in my neighborhood (a quiet section of the Bronx with lots of condos and co-op buildings).

EDIT: The biggest problem with NYC apts is that the kitchens and bathrooms tend to be really small and often can't be renovated to accomodate a turning radius for a chair.

They are slowly renovating subways stations - adding elevators and more accessible platforms - but the system is too old for it to ever be truly accessible. I imagine Boston faces similar issues, but I haven't used public transport there in a long time.

Thanks so much for that! Really helpful! (I'm trying to decide if/where I want to move when I graduate college).

And about how you said

most people get around by bus in the city, and not only is the service terrible (slow, overcrowding, doesn't run late at night) but often the bus wheelchair lifts are not working. I've often seen people in chairs wait 20 mins for a bus - and when it finally comes, it doesn't have a working lift. Cabs are extremely unreliable.

I also saw ALOT of resentment from other passengers whenever the lift had to be used, probably because they'd already waited so long for the bus.

that's EXACTLY the problem with the buses here...I can't decide if the lifts don't work, or the drivers just say that so they don't have to stop.