Tucson consistently votes Democratic. Pima county as a whole usually has a 10 point lean on presidential elections, and that’s likely more extreme in the city center. It was also one of the first cities in the state to move in domestic partnerships/civil unions. It’s not Seattle, but it’s also not small town Kentucky.
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Tucson is not conservative! Arizona is a conservative state, in general, and Phoenix used to be conservative but it is becoming less so all the time. But Tucson has always been hippiesville compared to most of Arizona. Tucson prides itself on not being conservative like the rest of Arizona. Actually, Tucson prides itself most on being nothing like Phoenix. ;-p But no, definitely not a conservative place.
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TrisPrior, you happened to be in Tucson during the monsoon season! Yes, it is weird, but it’s a real thing. http://www.tucsonforbeginners.com/Tucson%20Monsoon%20Storms.html Do you happen to remember how it smelled when it rained there in August? God, I love that smell. I’d never move back, and I’m loathe to visit in August, but boy do I wish I could get a whiff of that desert rain smell. It’s like nothing else and I miss it.
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The desert rain smell is literally on my list of reasons I want to live in Tucson. Is that silly? Monsoon season is so refreshing in the hottest part of the year, and makes everything smell amazing. Also, Spring in the desert, when it is millions of different greens, with blooming cactus and perfect 70-80 degree temperatures. Sigh. The Sonoran desert is pretty spectacular.
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My willingness to live in a blue city in a red state has taken a SERIOUS hit in light of current events. I can’t live somewhere where women’s bodily autonomy is under attack, and as I understand it, if something’s illegal in a state then that’s that, it doesn’t matter if the city is blue. T/F? What do? 
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Correct. If it’s illegal, it’s illegal. Whether or not it’s a priority enforcement will depend, but I’d assume the current assault on bodily autonomy is priority enforcement.
Argh. So, what now? I mean, given my timeframe and my age, it’s possible that this won’t be an issue for me personally, but honestly that doesn’t matter to me. I don’t want to live somewhere like that.
Hm. WA state, then? They seem pretty progressive. I have never been, though, and as one online acquaintance of mine put it, (TW CRASS HUMOR) “you really have to choke down a lot of D to live here, and I’m not sure that you’d want to choke down that much D.” (I do forget regularly to take my Vitamin D, she’s not wrong…) I dunno if I could take that much gray, and if there’s no sun, I imagine I couldn’t grow my tomatoes and peppers.
Life in abject poverty in CA? We could be beach bums! Or hippie farmers! I can come up with better cosplay than most of the folks taking money for selfies in front of the Chinese theater… 
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What are your job/city size requirements if you were to move to CA? What’s the max you would be willing to spend on rent/mortgage? Most affordable places here tend to be red areas in a blue state…but not all of them!
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City size - large, ideally with some walkability (yes, I know I would need a car but do not want to be trapped in a subdivision like on “Weeds” or anything, I would hate that).
Job requirements - see, this is the hard one because I know it’s likely that I’m looking at a career change and have no idea what I’d be changing to. This is what makes my head explode every time I sit down and try to think through how to make this happen - picking a place to live AND figuring out what sort of non-publishing job I could get in a different city seems to be just too much for me. I suppose it’s possible to find publishing work in the larger cities in CA? Just not textbook publishing, as that’s mostly here or on the East Coast.
Max rent depends on what I end up making. I’m unclear on how much higher, if at all, the salaries would be. Right now we’re paying $1,500 and I expect that in CA that would get us a roach-infested closet in an unsafe neighborhood.
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I do want to say that the PacNW actually has a pretty solid tomato and pepper season, but it isn’t as long as it is in hotter places. But with climate change it’s actually been pretty gangbusters the past few years.
That being said, it is gray for 9 months. It does get into your bones.
Not necessarily, if you consider someplace like Sacramento.
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Like, how long of a season? Here, we usually put plants into the ground in late May, and we get frost in October. So, 4-5 months max? Doesn’t the lack of sun impact tomato/pepper production?
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We get sun all summer - usually we’re technically in a drought by rainfall (but not by supply) during the summer, we just get a lot of water during the winter. The dry starts later here - late June or early July.
In the Cascadia bioregion, on this side of the Cascades (where vancouver/portland/seattle are) usually we get about 6 months of mostly-gray, low-enthusiasm wetness, and, 3 months of shoulder season, and by end of June there’s usually no rain until late September or October. We don’t really get summer storms or thunderstorms. It’s rarely overcast in the summer, usually nice and clear.
Also worth noting we have extremely long days here, so close to summer solstice, depending on which city you’re in, sun comes up at 4 or so and goes to bed after 9:30 or 10.
We have a lot of microclimates so the planting time varies, but when I worked on a farm, tomatoes went in mid-June and usually flourished by mid-July, and I was sick of them by September.
I will say without the humidity, peppers are definitely less hot here than they are in the south. For hot sauce I still mostly use imported peppers (still cheap because CA is right there.)
One risk that’s more and more a problem, is of course, smoke during the fire season covering/muting the sun. But that’s just as much a risk in CA as it is here.
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Wizard is very intrigued by the PNW and honestly reading your post makes me consider it a lot more. I struggled with depression during the winter in the northeast, and the idea of returning to anything that grey scares me – the idea of at least getting a few months of Serious Sun makes me a lot more likely to consider the PNW.
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Really. Huh. I guess I always assumed that gray rainy PNW = no warm weather crops possible.
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Not at all. We grow nearly everything here. Even avocados and olive trees do okay.
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Yup, my friends have olives, figs, citrus in their SE PDX yard.
For a while I lived just east of the time zone border in Idaho and July 4th was always light until close to midnight.
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YES MOVE TO PORTLAND.
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Yeah I was going to suggest Sacramento! Pretty much as long as you avoid anywhere within 200 miles of SF and the coastal cities you should be able to find an apartments in that price range. When I lived the the Bay Are I had a silverfish infested closet for $2200/month…would not recommend 
I’ve recently lived in Riverside, CA where we rented a 2bd/2bth for $900/month. It’s not a super walk-able city but there are a few parts that would be ok! I expected it to be more conservative but it’s a college town so it leans fairly liberal. The congress person is an openly gay man and the Mayor has done really great things for the homeless population in the area.
A few other CA cities that come to mind:
- Claremont
- La Verne We're Exploring LA County's 88 Cities. Here's Your Guide To La Verne | LAist
- Redlands
- Monrovia
- San Diego https://www.rentcafe.com/average-rent-market-trends/us/ca/san-diego/ (my friend has a 1Br within walking distance of the beach for $1500/month…if you need two bedrooms you could probably find something for that price range further inland)
- Sacramento (already discussed above, but its downtown is cute and walk-able and HOT during the summer)
- Oxnard or Ventura?
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I think it’s extra overwhelming because you figure you’re going to have to switch careers at the same time. And it’s so open-ended, not just A, B, or C. The paradox of choice and all. Then it all becomes too much.
Since you said that you could potentially work out of Orlando or Austin and keep your job and manager… could you do that for 6-8 weeks in the winter? Pros: You could overcome the inertia that has you stuck. Your BF could keep his job, the apt and watch the cats. You could miss out on the worst that Illinois has to offer. You aren’t making a major political/health commitment to a red state. It might open up the possibility of a true WFH set up, which could really free you. Cons: Obviously you would miss BF and kitties for that time period. It would cost to house/transport you for that time as well as the Illinois. It would not solve the tomato planting problems.
Action is the antidote to anxiety. Taking a step, even if it turns out to be not perfect, could help you home in on what you really want to do.
Just trying to think outside the box.
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