Easy living

[hippypants]

I was curious if you enjoyed the area where you are living? If you could live anywhere else where would it be?

I live in Texas and it's okay, but summers are brutal, the other seasons,depending on where you live, are fine. However, there are things about the state that I'm indifferent too (small towns are boring). We don't have a lot of tornadoes/hurricanes to worry about. It's decent.

I'm not sure where I'd rather live. Cost would be a factor, I feel like Texas is pretty cheap overall. However, I think somewhere in Colorado would be fun, though more expensive.

[Yanks2014]

I live in central NJ, and it's actually very pretty around here. But most of my friends and family are an hour + away, so it's not ideal. It's about the same distance from NY and Phily, a good thing, and not far from the shore and even AC. BUT, there is always a but, it's NJ afterall, land of high taxes, political coruption and just too damn many people crowding all the roadways. And we have "lovely" places in the state like Newark, Trenton and Camden. Oh well, I'm likely a NJ lifer. Years ago before I had heart issues, I thought Nevada, just outside Vegas would be ideal. I love the Nevada desert, and love the dry heat. But the 100 + degree heat in the summer would literally kill me now. So much for living there. Florida? Too humid, too many insects, another place I thought I'd love to live in since it's warm, but not any more.

[UnephenStephen]

i never want to live down south (no offense) because of the heat and humidity something i can't stand even up here in CT. i like it here - it's home (born and raised) and quite beautiful - but the taxes and cost of living tend to be a bit high. i actually prefer cooler weather so places like Chicago i wouldn't mind at all. it's a beautiful city with plenty to do unlike Hartford. Colorado would be nice too. lots of photo opps in both places. but i stay here because this is where the family is (except for my brother who lives in VA and has for 30+ yrs).
the only other places i've lived are LINY (2 yrs) and Mass (6 yrs). LI is way too crowded with tons of traffic and Mass was Ok but 2 things happened up there that never happened anywhere else - got arrested for something not my fault (charges were dropped) and had my car broken into where my sound system was stolen. both tainted my otherwise pleasant time up there.

[Yves]

Montreal is a great city but it does have problems inherent to any city. Quebec, as a province, is gorgeous but the taxes man, the taxes!! If I were to move, it would either be on Canada's east coast (Newfoundland or PEI would be nice) or on the west coast (Vancouver, Victoria). I'd never move out of Canada though! This is a damned good country to live in!

[rcarlberg]

Texas is a shithole, both culturally (outside Austin) and weatherwise. Same with the rest of the South, broadly speaking. Virginia is gorgeous, as are parts of Tennessee but I couldn't live there.

The Eastern Seaboard is pretty too, and New England is gorgeous but the weather is too extreme.

Midwest is too flat and dry, and tornados scare the shit out of me. Hawaii is too expensive and Alaska is too remote.

For me the only choice is the Pacific Northwest, which is both gorgeous and mild weather. Seattle is awfully nice but Portland is cheaper and almost as good. Outside the major cities you can find all the land and solitude you could ask for.

[wideopenears]

I continue to be a fan of the San Francisco Bay Area, which is good, because I live here. However, I like New England quite a bit, as well...except for the sometimes brutal winters.

[rcarlberg]

SF is great but more expensive than Hawaii.

[hippypants]

rcarlberg--Texas, in the larger cities: Houston, Dallas, Ft. Worth, San Antonio--they all have just about as diverse a culture center as any big city. They have concerts, music, art galleries, etc. plenty of places to eat, whatever. And the weather is fine, except for the summers. Our winter/autumns are for the most part are mild, no heavy snow to contend with.

I wondered if others saw the snow factor as a negative, or, you get used to it.

[UnderAGlassMoon]

Having spent 20 years in the Navy, I have lived a lot of different places in the US and have seen a lot of the world. I am originally from the Los Angeles area and love the weather there, but way too many people for me now.

I spent about 10 years in the Puget Sound area, and though it is beautiful, the weather really tends to suck. I would go back there though.

Also lived on the Gulf Coast, Biloxi MS, for three years. The heat and humidity sucked and it didn't help being there when Katrina hit. Some of the nicest people I have ever met and I would live there again, just not anywhere near the water.

Living in Rochester, MN now and it is not too bad. Never lived somewhere having all four seasons, but the winters are starting to wear on me.

If I had my choice of anywhere in the world, hands down it would be New Zealand. More specifically the Christchurch area. I lived there on and off for five years and love just about everything. The weather can suck sometimes, but it is kind of like the Pacific Northwest. I got to travel a bit around the country too, saw Wellington and Auckland, but like the Christchurch area the most.

As far as the place with the best weather in the US, maybe the world...San Diego by a mile.

[davis]

I've lived in the Clark County, Indiana portion of Kentuckiana for about 20 years. We're (my wife & I) here permanently because, a. my wife has friends she does not want to leave behind, b. I don't want to have a mortgage when I retire/our humble abode will be paid off by then, and c. we want to stay with our present employers until we retire. Besides, we're planted here and we dig the area.

[UnderAGlassMoon]

I wondered if others saw the snow factor as a negative, or, you get used to it.

I have not gotten used to it. It didn't help having 16 inches on May 2nd this year! That tends to make one ask oneself, "why am I living here, again?"

[klothos]

Im in Florida -- our statewide idiot population appears to have grown substantially over the last decade

[Thing Of The Past]

I live on Long Island......would rather be in Ireland

[bill g]

I live in Buckley, Washington, a small beautiful town near the cascade foothills. The town is beautiful, with nature walks and a small town atmosphere. Conducive for writing music for sure. I would prefer a little more, I don't know the right word, culture perhaps? I'd like to live on Vancouver Island. Sooke perhaps, or Ireland. As much, or more so, there are areas in Northern California and Oregon that are super nice, but California is so dang expensive. My mom lives in a town called Orinda that's gorgeous but way way out of my price range.

[polmico]

As an adult, this is where I've lived (I'll leave off the other four or five places I lived as a kid).

Atlanta, GA (less than one year). Hated it. Couldn't adjust to the congestion and traffic. My parents still live in a suburb of Atlanta.

Athens, GA (five plus years). Great college town. Lots of fond memories. You either outgrow the town or never leave. I outgrew it.

Belmar, NJ (one year). Quaint Jersey shore town. We were far enough (10 blocks or so) from the summer crowd to not be affected by it. I worked in Red Bank and got to visit friends in Brooklyn. I had a lot of fun there.

College Station, TX (three years). Very small, insulated college town. It was obvious that I didn't drink the A&M Kool-Ade: I couldn't get a job in the area and had to work on Houston.

Scottsdale, AZ (two years). Fuckin' loved it. While there, we drove to: Las Vegas, Sedona, Flagstaff/Grand Canyon, San Diego, the Rockies (forget the name of the town). Beautiful weather 7 or so months of the year. We had a pool for the summers. You sure could tell you were in a valley. The people were all really nice (visitors always remarked on this), traffic was not an issue and everything (baseball stadium, restaurants, airport) was super easy to get to. I was afraid about living in a big town again after having lived and hated ATL, but PHX brought me around.

Charleston, SC (one year). Hated it. Worst place I have ever lived. Belmar may have been a tourist town, but the tourists weren't there year round, and the locals were super nice. Locals in Charleston? Fucking snobs. Traffic is miserable because there's no place to go. The obvious poverty/socio-economic disparity was very depressing. People think it's a great, Southern hospitality town. It's not. (The restaurants and beaches, however, are nice--just crowded.)

Charlotte, NC (a few months). Really digging it so far. We live in a tiny neighborhood (Feel free to check it out at http://www.noda.org/) in town. We can walk everywhere except work. Three breweries in walking distance, a bodega, quality restaurants, bars and theaters. Big city stuff (sports, shows, restaurants), but our 'hood is quaint. Dr. Wifey and I both work in the 'burbs, so we have to deal with traffic, but, on the weekends, we don't have to drive anywhere (or not far if we're driving into uptown). Good jobs, great 'hood, loving it so far.

[rcarlberg]

I spent about 10 years in the Puget Sound area, and though it is beautiful, the weather really tends to suck.

Yeah it helps to enjoy the rain. Seattle rain isn't like rain anywhere else, it's mostly a light drizzle where if you walk fast it evaporates off of you faster than it falls. You never get a gully-washer like in the Midwest or SoCal... But there are months when the drizzle is pretty constant.

And fucking traffic is going from bad to worse.

Rochester, MN ...the winters are starting to wear on me.

My wife grew up in Northern MN. None of her cats had ears. All froze off. No thanks.

If I had my choice of anywhere in the world, hands down it would be New Zealand. More specifically the Christchurch area. I lived there on and off for five years and love just about everything. The weather can suck sometimes, but it is kind of like the Pacific Northwest. I got to travel a bit around the country too, saw Wellington and Auckland, but like the Christchurch area the most.

Yeah I heard that before. Supposed to be quite nice it is.

[emperorken]

I thought Nevada, just outside Vegas would be ideal. I love the Nevada desert, and love the dry heat. But the 100 + degree heat in the summer would literally kill me now. So much for living there.

I moved to Vegas from Long Island in 1979. Been here ever since. Yes, it's hot in the summertime. But winters are mild and we have no volcanoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, or mosquitoes This was really a nice town when I moved here, but now it is just a mini L.A. I've liked it here for the past 34 years, but I would have no problem leaving, also. My place of choice if I left would probably be the Oregon coast.

[UnderAGlassMoon]

Yeah it helps to enjoy the rain. Seattle rain isn't like rain anywhere else, it's mostly a light drizzle where if you walk fast it evaporates off of you faster than it falls. You never get a gully-washer like in the Midwest or SoCal... But there are months when the drizzle is pretty constant.

For me it wasn't so much the rain, but the grey. Lots of days with just grey skies. Also, I didn't really like the years where we got six weeks of summer. I remember a few years back it was so miserable in June, people were calling it Juneuary. And yes, the traffic in the Seattle area was pretty bad, but most big cities are like that now. But I'd still go back, lots of positives about the PNW.

[Adrian]

We were lucky that we were able to choose where we wanted to move, with no serious commitments tying us down at the time -- and we chose the Seattle area. We came out here on vacation in the summer of 2008 and just fell in love. We were originally looking at the Portland area, but we took a side trip up to Seattle, and that was that. I heard a guy on the radio a year or so ago saying that Seattle looks like someone took a national park and sat a major city down in the middle of it. That just about sums it up. Water, trees, and mountains everywhere you look. Sometimes I still can't believe I actually live here.

Cost of living is about the only downside. Traffic can be heavy at rush, but we lived for seven years in D.C., and Seattle is a comparative cakewalk. The local politics are ridiculous, but that's the same just about anywhere you go. The weather is great -- mild most of the year. I don't miss the hot, sticky summers in D.C., nor do I miss the freezing cold and blizzards in Michigan, where I grew up. I do miss the Midwest thunderstorms, but that's about it. The sun just burns my skin and hurts my eyes, so it doesn't bother me a whit that it's gray and drizzly here nine months a year. All the moisture just makes everything green and beautiful. And if you do get tired of the drizzle, you get three months of spectacular blue summer skies, with temps ranging from the mid-70s to the low 80s. No complaints.

If I could go anywhere in the world, I'd probably pick New Zealand or Ireland. Costa Rica interests me as well. I've given serious consideration to expatriating one day (and since political discussions are off limits here, I won't get into the details of why), but my wife isn't too keen on the idea. So if we have to stay in the States, at least we're in a great part of the country.

[PotatoSolution]

Southern California is totally wasted on me. I don't surf, I don't like the sun, I don't like the heat between July and November, and though the beach is only 5 miles away, it's always so freakin' crowded there that I never go.

I really should be living somewhere that rains more and has big trees. But all my friends and family are here, and I'm not the kind of guy who can just pick up and move for no reason. If I got a killer job in Seattle or somewhere like that, I'd probably take it.

[SteveSly]

I am pretty happy with where I live in Kalamazoo Michigan. Other than a year in Albion MI, and a summer in New York City (a great experience, but I can’t imagine living there full time), I have lived here my whole life.

The Positives: Kalamazoo would be considered a small city and a college town. We have Western Michigan University (around 26,000 students) and Kalamazoo College here. The city is big enough to have culture, a 5,000 seat hockey arena, 30,000 seat football stadium and a 3000 seat theater and a 1500 seat theater for shows and sports. There is no traffic to speak of. I can drive to work in about 10 minutes. We are only 45 minutes from the larger city of Grand Rapids and 2 hours from Detroit and Chicago as Kalamazoo is exactly half way between the two cities. We are only 45 minutes from Lake Michigan and the summer resort towns are cool. I am a golfer and there are tons of golf courses around here. All different price ranges and skill levels. You normally don’t even have to call for a t-time. It is really a great place for golfers except that the season is only about 5 months long. Midwest people are generally friendly and nice, although Southwest Michigan has a large Dutch population that tends to be very conservative. The weather is usually pretty decent in the summer. Of course these days, one of the best things about Southwest Michigan is that it is becoming one of the Microbrew capitals of the United States. Bell’s, Founders, Dark Horse, Arcadia, Greenbush, New Holland, Saugatuck, and several others are all within an hour’s drive. Bell’s is about 10 minutes, and 5 more micro breweries are slated to open in town within the next 6 months.

Negatives: The winters can some years be brutal and some years are mild. We are close enough to the big lake that we get a lot of lake effect snow which some years is a real bitch. Occasional tornados too. In 1981 a tornado came right down the mainstreat in downtown Kalamazoo and wiped out a big chunk of the city. We have not had any direct hits since, but there have been several damaging ones in the area. Not much scenery around here. Michigan gets really pretty if you go up north, but here…..not so much.

Steve Sly

[progeezer's ghost]

Madison's tolerable but not ideal (for me at least). Wisconsin has two seasons: winter and (road) construction. That being said, there's a slight chance I may be moving to Chicago sometime next year, so I'd better get used to traffic congestion.

If finances weren't an issue/obstacle I'd likely move to somewhere on the west coast. I feel that I would enjoy living anywhere out there (whether it be southern CA, northern CA, Oregon, Washington). While the climate and culture varies from border to border, (almost) anything's better than driving in a blizzard.

[Yanks2014]

Texas is a shithole, both culturally (outside Austin) and weatherwise. Same with the rest of the South, broadly speaking. Virginia is gorgeous, as are parts of Tennessee but I couldn't live there.

Why would you describe Texas that way? The weather would keep me out of Texas, but its a state with a growing economy, one of the few places that can claim that. I know Austin is known for the arts and all, I do hope that is the reason, and not that it's a lone liberal city in Texas. If I were to decide where to live based on state or city politics or social views, I certainly wouldn't live in NJ! But it's home, and I can't see myself leaving unless all the family moved out. Besides, I'd really miss the full service only gas stations. Fill my own tank? How barbaric!

[NogbadTheBad]

In my adult life I've lived in :-

Newcastle UK - Great city, loved it there only moved for work, can be cold and wet & it can be a tough city. Great social city.

Stratford CT - Loved living there, good social scene, bit on the pricy side, good for access to NY, plenty of good shoreline & countryside

Cincinnati OH - Too Midwestern for me, it's the cheapest place I've lived and the standard of living if you have a family is very good. But there was no spark there for me. No atmosphere.

Boston, MA - Just moved here 4 months ago so it's a bit early to tell but I'm enjoying it a lot, bit on the pricey side but good bars, restaurants, music scene and living right on the water. It's wonderful.

[rapidfirerob]

Near Berkeley, California. What's not to like?