I want to set my urban fantasy story in a real city as opposed to making it in a fictional city in a real state. One of my big main characters is a 3/4 black, 1/4 japanese werewolf girl. So I want the city to be diverse. I also need the city to be comparatively large, but be located near a forested area because the main characters are all werewolves. I'd also like it to be up north because it gets colder there and I can't see werewolves living somewhere hot like Georgia, Florida, Texas, or Southern California. So does anyone have any suggestions for northern cities that meet my criteria: racially diverse population, large city, located near a forest or national park, and not hot and humid. I was toying with Seattle for a while, but Seattle is known to be one of the "biggest white cities" and has a considerable lack of racial diversity. I know my criteria list is long, but if you think that I should just make a fictional city instead, where should I locate it?
Seattle. And yes, I read your entire post. Edit: Or NYC; have your pack of wolves hangout in Central Park.
Or you could go the route I do and never actually name the city. Most of my stories in my urban fantasy series take place in cities that can be assumed to be somewhere in US or Canada, but it's never stated where. (I also make up a few cities, for my single character who travels between cities during the story.) Edit: Toronto is another possibility. There's a large immigrant population in Toronto. Not as many blacks as in US (and about a third are African immigrants and a third are Carribean immigrants, so the cultural mix is different) but certainly enough that a part-black person wouldn't be too unexpected. And there's plenty of Asians. (The most common ethnic minority, though, from what I saw when I visited, were Native Americans.)
It's not as sexy as a place like New York but Baltimore could work. It's fairly diverse and not too far from rural areas.
Orlando, Florida is considered to be very diverse, as are many places in Hawaii, including Honolulu. Plus, both places are beautiful, which could further contribute to your setting!
Just because it's not that diverse overall doesn't mean that no black people live there. A 3/4 black, 1/4 Japanese person is plausible anywhere, esp. in 2012. Seattle fits the description, btw. I've been there and it seems like what you're looking for.
Your description reminded me of where I live. Which is in Canada. Toronto would be perfect (Though it's not where I live). When you say forested, I think of the area under the subway bridge, heading south on Don Valley Parkway (I know you have no idea what I'm talking about). If you looked it up, you'd be happy with what you find. It's a sort of forested valley area. But Toronto itself is hella ugly so.... yea.
Wow and here I was thinking I was going to be the white knight coming in to say Seattle. I guess go for canada its cold and has lots of woods but I have no clue how diverse they are.
Thanks for all of the advice. I decided to use Seattle. It does seem to be the perfect place for my story now that I think about it.
I live in Orlando. It is pretty diverse, but the only heavily wooded areas are on Disney property. So unless you're gonna have your werewolves terrorizing families of vacation or "drinking around the world" in Epcot -- I'd say it's not the best choice.
I also live in a major city in Florida, and there basically only palm trees. If you're somewhere rural, you'll get swamps with alligators. Wouldn't recommend using Orlando as your setting.
