Outside of Pittsburgh, I have been to most major US cities. I love Chicago and New Orleans and San Fran and San Antonio, but the only place I would actually move to in a hearbeat is San Diego. Its the weather, period. No idea about population or prices, but man the weather.
In reply to Ovid_and_Flem :
Never lived further South than New Jersey, I think? Atlantic City lines up roughly with Baltimore, for example.
Mostly big cities: Philly, NY, Boston, Chicago, SF and smaller cities too. The exurbs and first ring suburbs might be the right balance for us now or maybe a smaller city with the right vibe.
In reply to szeis4cookie :
Where in Mississippi? Curious to hear your experience
I get the urge to move around all the time however, for now I’m in Pittsburgh until my kids are grown.
Agree with Pinchy that Pittsburgh is a great town. That is, if you’ve lived in the north most of your life. The weather here sucks. Bad. IMO. Most, or close to the cloudiest days of any major city. Drives me crazy in the winter/spring when it just won’t end. Most locals will say “huh, didn’t even realize it’s cloudy outside”. Also the lack of any flat land gets to me. Not sure why.
In reply to tb :
you need to rethink taxes. Let your first concern be income. Taxes are a relatively small percentage of income.
High tax states also tend to have high incomes. Look at Connecticut for example even with taxes you will be way ahead of a no tax state.
Your next real concern should be health. Some states have really healthy environment as measured by projected life span.
Again most no tax states have real short life spans. The sole exception ? North Dakota. Long life span no taxes but well poor income and not much culture.
You mentioned airport. Trouble is airports in the 4 corners of the country and Hawaii or Alaska have long flights to other places. So someplace near the center will greatly shorten travel time.
Education is certainly important. Should be at least the Big 10 with a well funded college system
Culture high art? Modern art? Expensive art? Classical art? etc etc etc
Then there is dance, orchestra, ensembles, Jazz, POP, Etc etc etc Theater-modern contemporary neighborhood and even a few places are where they refine and perfect stage theater before it goes to Broadway in New York .
Museums, well funded diverse museums where kids can interact with exhibits. And not just a couple. At least a dozen or better two dozen. Something to do on days where you aren’t doing something else
Don't forget sports. All the Major league sports, Baseball Football Basketball, Hockey, Soccer, etc
Oh and boating, fishing hunting plus auto sports like stock car racing sports car racing drag racing.
Variety? Like 4 real seasons! Kids like variety. Spring summer fall and winter! Ever see kids play in snow? Sled or skate, toss snowballs and build a fort? Bundle them up and just let them be kids?
But it’s really about water. Beaches, lakes, (15,000). rivers that go north to Hudson Bay, South to the Gulf. East to the Atlantic. streams, wetlands, pools, ponds. Surrounded by big city mansions or wild forests. Look up a pine tree over 200 feet tall? And play with a turtle
Try Minnesota.
I think you're talking about Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Tiny old downtown core, bounded by rivers and mountains.
Major airport (ex-hub).
Relatively low cost of living.
Probably the best driving of any American city.
Didn't read all the posts, but you and I are very similar. After college my (now ex) wife lived in a Travel Trailer and went wherever we wanted to try. Here is where I have lived:
New Orleans (just outside NO in Slidell). Fantastic town. Airport is a big destination so its cheap and flies everywhere, but somehow small. I hate huge airports; long security lines and more delays. The vibe is relatively conservative on the political spectrum, but southern LA conservatives are pretty liberal by comparison. Close to one of my favorite towns.
Los Angeles. Massive airport that is a pain, but you're right close to Burbank and Long Beach airports which are both small but fly everywhere. Weather is amazing, tons to do, but you have to love cities. Getting out of the city can be a 2 hour ordeal and then you're just in desert for two hours.
Tampa/St. Pete. Nice town. Outskirts are a wee bit depressed. I lived there when I was in my 20s, so I didn't really appreciate that the average age there was "deceased"
Austin TX. Super sweet town. Cost of living was a tad high, but no income tax. Once a year you paid a consolidated school, property, municipal tax to the county tax office and they took care of everything else. One check, and not a big one at that. Most of the town is super liberal, but 5 miles out of town is all Trump signs. I loved Austin. Their motto is "keep austin weird." That pretty much sums it up. Also a great airport that flies everywhere but isn't big and annoying.
Pittsburgh. Not my kind of town. I really hated Pittsburgh. No offense to any of you who live there, but it is a depressing, grey, angry, complacent place for a guy like me. It is getting better, but not fast enough for me. I prefer progressive, hopeful, happy, enlightened. Pittsburgh is one of those places where the secret to happiness is lowering your standards to the point where they're already met. Just don't have any dreams of bettering yourself and you'll never be disappointed.
Kalispell MT. For a small town, this place really held my interest. I was only there for a short time but so lovely. Progressive, fun, and one of the most picturesque places on the planet. Regional airport that could get you to Billings or Boise.
Evansville IN. What a cute city. Temperatures can be a little extreme both ways but not bad. Good, small airport.
Places I've visited and liked:
Asheville NC. Gem of the south. I need a little bigger city to keep me happy. When I was in Asheville I found it to be remarkably vacant, but I was there during the first week of January. It just seemed like there weren't very many people there. On a wednesday I recall driving downtown and I was the only person on some streets. Strange.
Santa Fe NM. Just visit. Its smaller than you think but so quaint and neat.
Places I really don't like:
Houston. The whole town smells like you're inside a crude oil tank. The skyline is smoking towers. One time I was there it was 98 degrees and foggy. Not just hazy. Foggy.
Dallas. Yawn. Good for food, banking, and oil companies.
Miami. I don't like it but part of it is my fault. I grew up worshipping the show Miami Vice so I saw it as this glamorous, fun, party town. Its really just a town of old Manhattanites. I did really appreciate the Cuban influence.
Chicago. Nice to visit, wouldn't like living there.
tb said:In reply to 914Driver :
I like Oregon, but not sure if I like it enough to move there or not...
Portland is great and I have friends and family there. Probably a good place to raise a child and the climate agrees with me in general. Being driving distance to places like Seattle and Ashland and Eugene is nice.
I wonder about the airport and the general stuff like crime, taxes and all the other stuff I don't know.
PDX airport is rated one of the best Airports in the US and has been several years in a row. Lots of international and national flights, parking, light rail that runs right up to the terminal, great food options in the terminals, etc.
Portland is suffering with a homeless problem right now, but its really no worse than other big cities, its just that Portland is having to grow up quickly to manage it since its always considered itself a big small town and now its growing into a "big" city. Many of the people who grew up here are unhappy about the changes, but honestly its long overdue.
Our weather is pretty gray during the winter and this is hard for many transplants to deal with, especially when mixed with the rain that we get. Summers can be a little humid, but manageable for the couple of weeks that lasts. Lots of great places to go hiking/biking/camping/hunting, great waterways for boating/fishing, fun roads, race tracks, museums, cultural events, excellent food/drinks, schools are pretty decent.
There's income tax, but no sales tax and you can't pump your own gas. So it has its pluses and minuses.
In reply to Stefan :
We don't pump our own gas in Jersey either, it is actually kind of nice.
Good to know about the airport; I've been there just never researched it.
My Uncle lives there and he is a farmer/naturalist/perpetual student and we get along well so he could be a valuable resource; I should call him. The food trucks downtown alone might be enough to sway me in that direction and we are coffee snobs that were always satisfied there. Could work!
Note:
I think that her income would be taxed in PA since that is where her physical office is? She is only there like 3 times a year but she does have one. I think there are even additional taxes due to it being in Philadelphia, too. Wrong time of year to bother my accountant with unimportant stuff but I will look that up later.
tb said:In reply to Stefan :
We don't pump our own gas in Jersey either, it is actually kind of nice.
Good to know about the airport; I've been there just never researched it.
My Uncle lives there and he is a farmer/naturalist/perpetual student and we get along well so he could be a valuable resource; I should call him. The food trucks downtown alone might be enough to sway me in that direction and we are coffee snobs that were always satisfied there. Could work!
Note: The Food trucks are everywhere in the Portland Metro area and constantly changing, so don't fixate on Downtown as some of the best ones aren't found there.
The local coffee roasters are pretty good and while Starbucks is everywhere, there are plenty of independant coffee shops around still.
Of course lots of local beer, wine and spirit companies.
As for the taxes, I believe it is based on where your primary residence is. So if you live full time in Oregon, that's where you are taxed and its why many move across the river to Vancouver to avoid that (which has its own set of challenges), which is something we're considering since I work from home more often than not and the wife currently works in Vancouver. Based on our incomes, we'd save about $8k in annual taxes doing that.
My family is mixed as well (I'm basically clear and the wife is Filipina, so our daughter is mixed) and we've not had any issues. Our families have been very open and accepting and we've not experienced any issues with the people we've met around town. We have friends of all backgrounds and generally as long as you're not an complete shiny happy person to people around you, most people leave you alone and are pretty friendly if you need help, etc.
As for car stuff, there's Portland International Raceway, which is actually a public park and is hosting an IndyCar race this year, plus lots of amateur road racing, historica road racing, motorcylcle races, bicycle races, autocross, driver's training, drag racing. Nearby tracks include Oregon Raceway Park (which is new and very swoopy), Pacific Raceways (aka Kent or Seattle International), The Ridge in Shelton Washington, Spokane Raceway and Woodburn dragstrip. There's several active autocross groups, Pro Solo events and hillclimb events. A great Cars and Coffee group that meets every Saturday morning at the World of Speed museum in Wilsonville (30 minutes south). Driving tours, TSD and Stage Rally as well.
docwyte said:I live in Denver now, moved here in 2004. It's no longer a cheap place to buy a house, most decent homes are anywhere from $500-750k or more.
Well there goes that idea.
tb said:FWIW
My wife is a naturalized US citizen for 20 years but was born in China. I'm white so that makes my daughter obviously biracial and our marriage interracial. These are just my facts of life, I never think about it at all but sometimes it occurs to me that this is not the case for everyone else...
That I can understand. My wife is Korean, I'm classified as white so I'm also in an interracial marriage and our 2 daughters are biracial. Have run across some issue with that but not where I live at now. Go a 30 minute drive and there could be but haven't really ran across it here. I have what I call a truly American family. One of my biracial daughters husband is black and they have 2 sons. Does that make them multiracial? They spend a lot of time at my house as grandma babysits them. Wife is teaching them Korean.
This is turning into one of the best 'where to live' threads we've had. Love the input from people about their own current locations.
Burlington VT. Often reported as a good place to live. College town, lots of activities and then you have the lake. Lots of small towns and farms. Never lived there but visit a couple times a year.
In reply to Curtis :
Holy E36 M3, you’re paragraph about Pitt is the perfect summary of my time in Binghamton after years of being in Ithaca. The best I could come up with to describe it was a quote from Bojack “People are too stupid to realize how miserable they should be.”
frenchyd said:In reply to tb :
you need to rethink taxes. Let your first concern be income. Taxes are a relatively small percentage of income.
High tax states also tend to have high incomes. Look at Connecticut for example even with taxes you will be way ahead of a no tax state.
Your next real concern should be health. Some states have really healthy environment as measured by projected life span.
Again most no tax states have real short life spans. The sole exception ? North Dakota. Long life span no taxes but well poor income and not much culture.
You mentioned airport. Trouble is airports in the 4 corners of the country and Hawaii or Alaska have long flights to other places. So someplace near the center will greatly shorten travel time.
Education is certainly important. Should be at least the Big 10 with a well funded college system
Culture high art? Modern art? Expensive art? Classical art? etc etc etc
Then there is dance, orchestra, ensembles, Jazz, POP, Etc etc etc Theater-modern contemporary neighborhood and even a few places are where they refine and perfect stage theater before it goes to Broadway in New York .
Museums, well funded diverse museums where kids can interact with exhibits. And not just a couple. At least a dozen or better two dozen. Something to do on days where you aren’t doing something else
Don't forget sports. All the Major league sports, Baseball Football Basketball, Hockey, Soccer, etc
Oh and boating, fishing hunting plus auto sports like stock car racing sports car racing drag racing.
Variety? Like 4 real seasons! Kids like variety. Spring summer fall and winter! Ever see kids play in snow? Sled or skate, toss snowballs and build a fort? Bundle them up and just let them be kids?
But it’s really about water. Beaches, lakes, (15,000). rivers that go north to Hudson Bay, South to the Gulf. East to the Atlantic. streams, wetlands, pools, ponds. Surrounded by big city mansions or wild forests. Look up a pine tree over 200 feet tall? And play with a turtle
Try Minnesota.
Minnesota is extremely nice all that. I loved it there. But berkeley winter, and berkeley Minnesota winter in particular.
Adrian_Thompson said:This is turning into one of the best 'where to live' threads we've had. Love the input from people about their own current locations.
Agreed, and appreciated! Too much to reply to it all right now but I am reading every post several times.
I live in the Macon / Warner Robins GA area, 90 miles south of Atlanta, and pretty much always have. It's becoming a great area but probably isn't close enough to the airport in Atlanta or have enough cultural interests (unless you count live music) for what you're looking for. I'll agree with what some of the other guys have said about the South - plusses and minuses, but overall it's a pretty nice place to live.
There are some places outside Atlanta proper that might work well for you, but driving into that airport on a regular basis can be a clusterberkeley. I travel 8 or 10 times a year and I have to allow about 3 hours for the 90 mile drive, just to be safe. Once in the airport it's usually pretty quick even though it's huge.
What's your acceptable drive time to get to the airport? I really like the mountains north of Atlanta, but it puts you on the opposite side of the metro area from the airport. That's probably not a good idea.
8valve, yeah, property values here are nuts now. I bought my house in '08, not quite at the bottom, its appreciated more than 50% now. I don't think I could afford to buy it today, or any other house in my neighborhood.
In reply to Mndsm :
Two ways to approach winter, you can hole up in the walkways downtown and go all over without any exposure to the cold.
Or you can dress for it, embrace it, and enjoy the vitality that winter adds to your life. ( all the while looking at posters of Hawaii).
I'll throw in another nod to the New Orleans area. Food and culture in spades. Stay on the Northshore or head a little west to avoid flooding.
scardeal said:I'll throw in another nod to the New Orleans area. Food and culture in spades. Stay on the Northshore or head a little west to avoid flooding.
I love NOLA and actually kept a pied a Terre in the Quarter the for 5 years before katrina. While worderful for visiting as I lived 3 hours away and it punches almost all the button big time, the heat, humidity might be a bit much for someone from NE. Plus the crime issue and not best place for raising a small child.
But definitely a wonderful place. It's the closest thing to living in a foreign country in the U.S.
In reply to frenchyd :
Oh trust me I know. Born and raised Minnesotan. I looked at winter driving as a sport. I often looked upon the roads with a glint of challenge in my eye. But as dusk drew on my youth and winter became more about damn I need to dig the car out and take the kid to school and blah blah blah, it lost its appeal. Shovelling became a chore, not an exit to fun. It's gotten to the point where I can't stand snow. I'll miss the e brake corners and ice racing and watching 75k land rovers flounder helplessly as I plow though without a second thought in whatever 350$ beater that happened to fall within my reach, but man, I'm over it. I like the beach. The water calms me. I sink like a berkeleying rock, but I am a peaceful rock.
14 years ago, I retired from City service. My son was out of high school, ready for college, my daughter starting high school. My wife was in early education. Perfect, Florida here we come. No more snow, decent weather. Well here I am, still in NY. So now, wife and I are finally retired. Thinking about upstate NY. Easy on our Pensions, doable on Social Security. This winter, has painted a different picture for me. We have a vacation residence in upstate NY, 25 acres with a 1/4 mile driveway. But, being older require Doctors, Hospitals, and the ability to maintain the property. Pa is an option, but same weather. Thinking about North Carolina, fairly gentle on income. Would love to look at New Mexico, or Texas, but now there are Grandchildren. Got to stay short hop, due SWMBO does not enjoy flying.
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