Yes! The neighborhoods are relatively small. You could spend a week or two in the city and take day trips to all the little neighborhoods to see how you like them. You could also test drive your commute to UMMC from said neighborhood; as someone who works at UMMC I have heard my coworkers driving through the city to get to work can be such a hassle since UMMC is right next to the convention center, the football stadium and the baseball stadium so on event days traffic getting there is rough within the city

Yep, exactly. We just drive around, walking isn’t even really necessary. The goods and bads of a neighborhood are usually readily apparent. Before we explore, we check google maps to see what goods and services would become our go-tos. Depends on what’s important to you guys but we’d love to have some local bars/restaurants and a Trader Joe’s or Sprouts nearby. Nice wine shop nearby maybe (warning! You can’t buy booze in grocery/convenience stores here). Then we just cruise around. Bestneighborhood.org has some helpful maps showing different neighborhood parameters like income, politics, age, and desirability. We’ve been at it since December and I think we’ve narrowed it down to a handful of places we’d like to be. I also work with folks who live here and they’ve been very helpful in providing supplemental info. Feel free to DM me with questions about neighborhoods you’re looking at!