[blparent] Intro and question about city accessibility

[Sarah Clark]

I realize it doesn't exactly fit all that you asked for, but I would highly recommend considering either the Los Angeles area or the bay area in northern California.  I'm in Los Angeles, and IMO the weather in California couldn't be any better.  (I left suburban Ohio 10 years ago to get away from the snow and I couldn't be any happier here.) True that California is obviously suseptible to earthquakes, but earthquakes seem to be occuring in many more places these days, and I'd rather be in an earthquake in Cali than one in the east where the buildings are not designed to withstand them.
Transportation in the bay area is more extensive than LA, but LA is definately manageable with extensive busses, and many areas also have subways/trains. And paratransit is pretty good too if you need that.
The bay area is very safe in most areas.  In LA, crime is very dependent on where you are, but in general its not bad and you can easily find safe areas.  
In both places, affordability varies a lot depending on where you are, you would need to check into section 8 availability. But worst case scenario, many people in Cali have a roommate which helps a lot with rent expenses. The extensive BART system in northern California probably makes it a little easier to live a little farther away in less expensive areas and still be able to get anywhere you need to go, though I cannot say that LA would be a problem living farther out, I just don't know since I basically live in the middle of LA.
In LA there are a lot of colleges around, so something would be accessible to you no matter where you are -- whether UC Northridge, Cal State LA, UCLA etc etc.
I'm not sure what all the colleges are in the bay area but of course there would be quite a few of them as well.
In terms of attitudes of people, I think both areas are good, but the bay area strikes me as especially open minded.  They are also very concerned about the environment up there so you're likely to find areas where they don't allow smoking etc in public areas.

Hope this helps.

Sarah