I’m pondering a move, and I’m interested in what things people like and what factors y’all consider important.
I grew up just outside of Boston, really enjoyed that. It’s a very small city relative to NYC or sf or the like. It never felt like I was running out of stuff to do there though. Good mix of young people cause of the colleges and rich old people and basically everything in between.
I personally don’t mind owning a car and living in the suburbs though, which isn’t I think the trend. At least not based on what I’ve seen on lemmy.
I like having a big shed and garage to work on cars and other stuff but still being able toget the city life when I’m meeting up with people or going in for dinner with my wife.
I don’t live in Chicago, but I work there a lot and have for many years. I love Chicago. People are friendly, it is an active city, it is an interesting blend of old and new. I haven’t run across the douchenozzle vibes that I endured when I worked in NYC and gross ass new jersey. Most people from Chicago have a lovely sense of self. They’re cool if you are. It isn’t perfect and winter is.pretty rough, but there is a lot to like.
I have only been one time, but I really liked Denver. Same friendly vibe as Chicago, mountains are stunning, city is fun, walkable, feels like a very active population.
I would only intentionally live somewhere with good mass transit. I don’t want to own a car. I don’t want to feel like owning a car is playing on hard mode.
That’s a big factor in why I’m in New York City. There’s good transit that runs 24/7.
There’s also places to go. Things to do. Saw like five bands play this summer. If a band is going on tour they’ll almost certainly play here. There’s beaches. There’s parks. You can take the train and hike up a mountain.
Some stuff is expensive but there’s deals. My favorite bar has $5 beers. My favorite grocer has $1 fruit. My friend lives in a house with a bunch of fellow queer weirdos and pays like $1k rent for their room.
I’m not really involved but there’s a lot of queer content here, too. My friend really found their people and filled a void they didn’t realize they had when they lived in suburban Midwest.
Detroit, east side of the river. (Yes, that’s canada)
I love the Seattle area but I’m biased because I grew up there. Decent public transit including a light rail, great weather, nice-ish people, great culture. Wish I could go back.
(there is a LOT of crime and homelessness though…)
In reality the crime rate in Seattle is still far lower than it was in the 90’s (just like everywhere else in the USA)
I live and have lived in the chicago metro my whole life. There are few places I could imagine moving to if I could go anywhere. Obviously im biased. One thing is I need good public transit. I never thought how good ours may or may not be till I went to a job interview in dc. I swear it was middle of the day and the trains ran like every 20 mins. In chicago they only run that unoften at like 2am. then like getting off and going on a buss you paid basically full fare. got a 25 cent discount or something. here you pay your fair and you can transfer twice outside the system (bus to diff bus or bus to train or train to bus. transfers train to train are always free and don’t use a formal transfer). I think maybe only new york might have a system that is adequate enough for me in the us outside of chicago. add to this great bike lane infrastructure and the divy bike program and the extended train network with metra and its central location to amtrack plus two major airports. then like the lakefront, parks, forest preserves often around the rivers. its not bad for nature spaces for such a big city. then like you can find food from anywhere between the city and the suburbs. also four seasons which can be a plus or minus but is a plus for me. when you have nice weather in chicago you effing appreciate the heck out of it.
Lived in and around Chicago most of my life, and this is also my answer.
Having a winter hobby to look forward to takes the edge of the cold weather for me.
You mentioned the lake, but another benefit often overlooked is access to one of the largest bodies of fresh water on the planet.
yeah to go further the water reclamation district and not just water source but like the deep tunnel. There were so many articles suggesting it was a boon dogle as it got expanded and expanded but even though they plan for abundanza by the time they have it. It turns out to be just enough. Its looking pretty genius now with the crazy storms we have nowadays. I was talking to people this year how when growing up most rain was from rainy days rather than always seeming to be a storm. ironically this last summer we actually had closer to the rainy days I remember as a kid. much like last winter that everyone said was so bad just reminded me a typical one before the 90’s.
You are right that Chicago’s system doesn’t get enough love, but you’ve always got a free train to bus transfer on the DC system. I remember when you actually got a little slip of paper from the train station to give to the bus driver. These days trains are 3-10m headways during peak times, at least down town, but that definitely hasn’t always been the case.
I swear it was like a 25 cent discount train to bus. this was just after 2010 I think.
It’s $2.25 today which is the full fare of a metrobus ride. I am like 90% sure the credit has always been full fare but it’s possible at some point it might not have been.
Hey was just looking at transit and apparently dc started doing the sensible free transfer thing after covid in 2021. As I said my experience was way back around 2010. That would make dc a much more acceptable place if the trains run all night and frequently during the day. I will say there was another aspect though. At that time there seemed to be no like middle level living. When I was contemplating working at the place it felt like I had to choose between a place I would get shot or ritz high end stuff. Like maybe I could afford a condo but it would be hard to make ends meat but I would be getting all these perks I don’t necessarily want. Not sure if that has changed.
yeah its possible I was reading the machines wrong. I got off at reagan and was like. wtf. then after waiting 20 mins for a train and waiting another 20 when I transfered to the line going to the univeristy I was again like. wtf.
A 20 minute wait at DCA would make me pretty upset as well. Early 2010s was the “trains keep catching on fire” era, which meant they would single-track for weeks after the incident to make repairs. These days the trains don’t catch on fire nearly as often.
yeah it was funny because I had heard good things about the system and was massively disapointed. I mean I like the cleanliness. I mean I only experienced it once but left a rather sour taste in my mouth. I had actually hoped to take the opportunity to get out to the mall for an hour but had to put a kybosh on that. I don’t travel a lot so missing the opportunity to see a place I go to kinda stunk.
Depends on what you like.
I’ve ended up in Hampton Roads, VA. Specifically on the Peninsula side, in Newport News.
I like the seasons - it’s hot in summer but not as hot as other places I’ve lived. We get snow basically every year, although not for long. The trees lose their leaves for longer than I like, but we actually have some spring and fall, not just summer and winter. Trees are nice. Being close to water is nice.
We don’t have the international food that NYC has, but how could we? But we do have a pretty good selection here.
Traffic isn’t bad even during rush hour compared to other places I’ve lived, although the bridge-tunnels back up, and there are a few pain points mainly southside, but none that are really bad.
It’s not as blue as I’d like, but it is solidly blue in the cities. We’re considered the southernmost tip of the Northeast Megalopolis. We do have Amtrak here.
I’d also take a gander at Richmond as it’s got a lot going for it as well.
Mountains are not too far to the west - they are accessible.
Thank you, that was a great breakdown. How’s the humidity?
Not as bad as Florida, but definitely worse than semi-dry like DFW and no comparison to very dry like Arizona. :)
I’ve found that shade often makes a strong difference, except when it’s near the peak of our heat. We do get up to 100° but it’s pretty uncommon. Upper 90s is about where we generally top out, with low-to-mid-90s typical for the hottest part of summer.
We are on the Atlantic (and lower part of the Chesapeake Bay), so we do get humidity from being on the coast. But our heat season makes it more bearable than Florida because we’re not at that peak heat for quite as long.
June-July-August is definitely hot, but in Texas, that’s like May-September easily. Here, if anything, this past winter I just got so done with the damn cold, but it was a bit unusually cold with a bunch of days below freezing lows. Usually winter gets cold but it’s bearable.
Of course, it’s all subjective and what you’re used to and what you can get used to. heh
San Diego/La Jolla if cost is no issue. Perfect weather 24/7/365, beautiful beaches, no slow drivers, a proper walkable downtown area with an actual nightlife, legal weed; what more could one need?
If I could afford it, I would move there and never leave.
Edit: If money is an issue, then I’d pick somewhere in the woods near Boulder/Denver.
Minneapolis has to be up there.
I grew up across the river from Philadelphia and I loved it. I could take a train into the city to see concerts, get good food, or go sightseeing. Getting in by train and using the subway made things a lot easier, lots of folks do that for work and school. I just love Philly!
It’s on my short list. I lived in center city for a year back in 2009(?) or so, and I really loved the city. Honestly, it’s between there and Pittsburgh for me. This time I’m buying a house though.
I get it. Philly is great! Pittsburgh is nice too, but it’s too landlocked for my taste.
San Francisco
I love SF, but I hope OP inherited generational wealth.
Agree, SF is amazing
Chicago
I used https://www.movemap.io/explore/us after moving cross country, and after narrowing all of the criteria I cared about I ended up with only two counties left, one of which I had moved to! All of the confirmation bias in the world in that anecdote, but I stand by it being a good tool.
Currently planning a cross-country move as well and I just put in the criteria I’d like and sure enough the places I’m planning to move to match up too! That’s a neat tool
Thanks!
I can’t handle cold weather. I really like where we are in Tampa, because I can walk or bike to work, and my husband works from home, we have great food, a nice downtown, just yesterday went to a free music festival. We are in a house with a yard but still an easy bike ride to downtown, there is a mix of housing inside the city.
The buses suck - I set us up on purpose at a place where we can get most anywhere on one bus but some of them only run once an hour!
Anyway - if you have a car & don’t like winter, Tampa and St. Pete are nice. (ETA: Good to live IN, not near. What people consider ‘suburbs’ here are more properly exurbs, and there is not a train system and again, buses are starved of funding and suck) If you don’t like summer, no way, it’s still summer here and has been since April. I love our typical summer, it’s the rainy season, afternoon thunderstorms then this really cool lightning in the evening. And we see alligators sometimes, that’s exciting. This guy, he lived in a mitigation pond at my work office park, I took a daily picture on my way in, but after he reached 6 feet they removed him :(
One of my kids moved to San Jose in California and loves it so much, she also made sure to live close to her job, and one went to Raleigh in North Carolina and really likes it there.
I do like NYC too, but no way could we afford it. And I would freeze and die.
ETA: where are you now & what do you like and dislike about it? That would probably help people make suggestions.
Toronto
