Author: I-70 Scout

Witches are among us. You just won’t find them wearing pointy hats, riding broomsticks, or boiling eye of newt in a cauldron — not the real ones, at least.

Unfortunately, not every city encourages a charmed lifestyle, so where should you live if you want to cast spells and brew potions?

With Halloween shaping up to be extra enchanting this year, Lawn Love did a little data magick to conjure up 2021’s Best Cities for Witches.

We compared the 200 biggest U.S. cities based on access to tarot readers, astrology classes, and, of course, covens. We also looked for cities brimming with natural healers, herbalists, and metaphysical supply stores.

Check out the 10 witchiest (and 10 most cursed) cities below, followed by surprising findings from our report.

2021’s Best Cities for Witches

1. New York, NY
2. Los Angeles, CA
3. Pasadena, CA
4. Jersey City, NJ
5. San Francisco, CA
6. Orange, CA
7. Hollywood, FL
8. Seattle, WA
9. Torrance, CA
10. Fullerton, CA

2021’s Worst Cities for Witches

1. (191) Sunrise Manor, NV
2. (192) Enterprise, NV
3. (193) Olathe, KS
4. (194) Toledo, OH
5. (195) Brownsville, TX
6. (196) Jackson, MS
7. (196) Amarillo, TX
8. (198) Lubbock, TX
9. (199) Moreno Valley, CA
10. (200) Laredo, TX

Surprising findings:

• Bewitched in The Big Apple: The City That Never Sleeps is also the city of spells and sorcery: New York City bubbled up to the top spot in our ranking. As No. 1 overall, as well as No. 1 in both Covens and Supplies, it’s not hard to see why “The Witches of New York” flew ahead of other magickal cities. The Big Apple has plenty of witchy groups to join and supply shops to help you brew potions and cast spells. NYC is also home to Witchsfest USA, an annual festival where witches from around the country meet and participate in local workshops.
• Spellbound in SoCal: Los Angeles has more than movie magic. With more than 3,800 members in its Pagans & Witches Network and growing, the City of Angels takes silver in this ranking, while its suburb, Pasadena, claims bronze. LA ranked high in Covens (No. 2) and Supplies (No. 3), meaning there are plenty of fellow witches to meet and supply stores to provide for all your witchcraft needs. On the other hand, Pasadena ranked second in both Health and Spirituality, thanks to the city’s abundance of healers, herbalists, tarot readers, and supernatural experts. 

  Nearby Orange (No. 6 overall) also ranked high in Spirituality (No. 4) and Health (No. 5) with plenty of psychics to consult and reiki healers to restore your energy. Torrance (No. 9) and Fullerton (No. 10) round out our top 10, with Torrance placing first in the Health category, owing to its many healers and yoga classes. 

• Pacific Coast Paganism: San Francisco (No. 5) continues the witchy vibes of the West Coast. The Golden City ranked high for its Supplies (No. 2) due to a high number of mineral, herb, and candle shops.San Fran isn’t the only city in the West that’s suitable for seasoned witches, though. Its northern neighbor Seattle (No. 8) ranked high for its number of Covens, reaching No. 3 in that category with more than 1,600 members in its local Witches Meetup group.

Our full ranking and analysis can be found here: https://lawnlove.com/blog/best-cities-for-witches/   

Thankfully, you don’t need magic to have a nice lawn. Lawn Love pros across the country are ready to cast a spell on your landscape and transform your backyard into a haven for relaxation or your favorite late-night rituals.

More from Lawn Love:

• 2021’s Best Cities for Vampires
• 2021’s Best Cities for Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse
• 2021’s Best Cities for Yard and Garage Sales
• 2021’s Best Cities for Outdoor Yoga
• 2021’s Best Cities for Outdoor Movies
• 2021’s Best Cities to Resell Clothes
• 2021’s Best Cities for Beer Lovers

Kids three times more likely to be struck by a car on Halloween

DENVER (Oct. 28, 2021) – Halloween is one of the top three most dangerous days of the year for overall pedestrian injuries and fatalities, according to a AAA analysis of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) data. Moreover, it is is the single deadliest day of the year for child pedestrians, who are three times more likely to be struck and killed by a car on Halloween than any other day of the year, per NHTSA.

A 2019 study in Jama Pediatrics previously found that children between the ages of four and eight are 10 times more likely to be killed on Halloween than any other fall evening – and that 6 to 7 p.m. is the holiday’s single deadliest hour. With upwards of ninety percent of crashes caused by human error, including drinking and texting while driving, Halloween presents an important opportunity for drivers to remember that vulnerable lives are in their hands whenever they’re behind the wheel.

“You can prevent Halloween from becoming a nightmare with a few steps to keep our kids and community safe,” said AAA Colorado spokesman Skyler McKinley. “Parents should take the time to make their children’s costumes highly visible to drivers. Motorists, for their part, must slow down and watch for children. And don’t plan on drinking at a Halloween celebration unless you have a designated driver or safe ride home.”

By the numbers:

• Children are three times more likely to be struck by a motor vehicle on Halloween than any other day of the year. This is especially alarming considering an estimated 41 million children between the ages of five and 14 trick-or-treated in the United States in 2019.

• Halloween ranks as the third-deadliest day of the year for all pedestrians.

• Nearly half of fatal crashes on Halloween night involve a drunk driver.

• One-third of Halloween crash fatalities involve a pedestrian.

AAA Halloween Safety Tips

Motorists

• Slow down in residential neighborhoods and obey all traffic signs and signals. Drive at least 5 mph below the posted speed limit to give yourself extra time to react to children who may dart into the street. Drive even slower than that if confronted by snow-covered or icy streets from recent winter storms.

• Look for children crossing the street. They may not be paying attention to traffic and may cross the street mid-block or between parked cars.

• Carefully enter and exit driveways and alleys.

• Turn your headlights on to make yourself more visible – even in the daylight.
Broaden your scanning by looking for children left and right into yards and on front porches.

• Never drive impaired. Never text and drive.

Parents

• Make sure Halloween costumes are flame-retardant and light in color to improve visibility.

• Be bright at night – wear retro-reflective tape on costumes and on treat buckets.

• Wear disguises that don’t obstruct vision, and avoid face masks. Instead, use non-toxic face paint. Also, watch the length of billowy costumes to help avoid tripping.

• Ensure any props are flexible and blunt-tipped to avoid injury from tripping or horseplay.

• Ask an adult or older child to supervise children under age 12.

• Instruct children to travel only in familiar areas and along established routes.

• Teach children to stop only at well-lit houses and to never to enter a stranger’s home or garage.

• Review trick-or-treating safety precautions, including pedestrian and traffic safety rules.

Trick-or-Treaters

• Stay on sidewalks and avoid walking in streets if possible.

• If there are no sidewalks, walk on the left side of the road, facing traffic.

• Look both ways and listen for traffic before crossing the street.

• Cross streets only at the corner, and never cross between parked vehicles or mid-block.

• Trick-or-treat in a group if someone older cannot go with you. Tell your parents where you are going.

• Carry a flashlight containing fresh batteries, and place it face down in the treat bucket to free up one hand. Never shine flashlights into the eyes of oncoming drivers.

Party Goers

• Arrange a safe ride home and/or designate a driver before partaking in any festivities.

• Always designate a sober driver.

• If you are drunk, take a taxi or ride-hailing vehicle, call a sober friend or family member, or use public transportation.

• Walking impaired can be as dangerous as drunk driving. Designate a sober friend to walk you home.

• If you see a drunk driver on the road, contact local law enforcement.

• If you know someone who is about to drive impaired, take their keys and help them make safe travel arrangements to where they are going.

Want to live a truly “remote” lifestyle? By “remote,” we don’t mean working wherever there’s Wi-Fi — we mean living off the grid. 

With the pandemic far from over, there’s no better time to isolate yourself. But a self-reliant lifestyle isn’t possible everywhere in America. 

To help you find your remote slice of heaven, LawnStarter ranked 2022’s Best States to Live Off the Grid.

We compared all 50 states across 21 key factors — from off-grid legality and average per-acre cost of farmland to climate and crime rate.

See the five best (and five worst) states for remote living below, followed by highlights and lowlights from our analysis.

 

Highlights and Lowlights:

• Great Plains, Great for Getting Away: Flyover states, it turns out, are indeed an ideal place to land and live off the grid. Nine of our top 10 are fully or partly in the Great Plains region of the U.S. Texas claims the No. 1 spot, while Missouri finishes in 10th place.
  
  All of these states ranked in the top 20 of the Feasibility and Infrastructure categories — except for Missouri, which slips to No. 21 in the latter. 
  
  Self-sufficiency is critical to an off-grid lifestyle, and our ranking of the Best States to Start a Farm or Ranch shows there’s no better place to grow your own crops than in the Great Plains.

• Alaska, the ‘Silence Is Golden’ State: Not into small talk? America’s northernmost state will happily indulge your anti-social tendencies.
  
  Alaska might not be the most off-grid lifestyle-friendly state at No. 42 overall, but it’s the least densely populated and the least connected by phone. Even Henry David Thoreau would have felt lonely here.
  
  You’d have to be very intentional about running into another human in The Last Frontier — that’s what makes Alaska such a magnet for ex-convicts.

• Claustrophobia Coast: Bright lights plus big cities equals a very small chance of truly unplugging. 
  
  East Coast states — particularly in New England and the Mid-Atlantic — make up half of our bottom 10, owing to their collectively poor performance in Feasibility and Safety. They include Massachusetts at No. 44, New Hampshire at No. 45, New York at No. 47, and Pennsylvania at No. 48. New Jersey finishes dead last.
  
  This should come as no surprise, considering these states are also among the 10 most densely populated states. That means close encounters with the human kind are more likely — not ideal for those seeking isolation.

The full ranking and analysis can be found here: https://www.lawnstarter.com/blog/studies/best-and-worst-states-for-living-off-the-grid/ 

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