The Ideal City To Live In

I've lived in:

Derby (UK)
St Petersburg (Russia)
Izmir (Turkey)
Antalya (Turkey)
Lyon (France)

 

I'd have a place in San Francisco if I were rich.

 

My home city is pretty cool.

1.2 million people, so not tooooo big.

Right on the coast, terrific beaches.

30 minutes into the hills.

Sadly it is sport-obsessed, especially by a quaintly absurd game called Australian Football, which Bill Bryson describes as organised mayhem where burly men bloody each others' noses.

Apart from that, it's great.

 

One ideal would be my childhood hometown of Chicago, IL. There are times when I visit and drive around the Northwest side and connecting suburbs that I get powerfully homesick.

The other ideal would be;

• a place in New England/ Red Sox nation
• proximity to a a large University for all the cultural benefits and top notch health care.
• A walkable neighboorhood with lots of good ethnic restaurants and cheap eats
  

So that means;

Cambridge, MA
New Haven, CT
Burlington, VT

 

Me too!^^^

 

I've been to Cozumel, and it was incredible. Spanish is pretty easy to pick up, the people are super kind and welcoming, it's a different kind of life down there. Maybe one day when I feel I have found the perfect city to settle down in I will, but I plan to travel a lot, hopefully each city will be better than the last.

 

Nyc

 

Tijuana

 

I've heard that most of New Haven isn't very nice.

 

Anywhere in Oregon please! The weather is perfect, natural disasters are almost nonexistent, the crime is minuscule, there's no property tax, and just across the boarder to the north there's no sales tax. To top it off, you've got Portland, tiny houses, lots of romantic rain, the ocean, a huge woodland area, homesteading, organic farmers all over the place, and just an overall beautiful environment. I couldn't ask for more.

 

I love Oregon. Portland, the coast, Southern, Central and Eastern. But I lie and tell everyone Oregon sucks and stay away from Medford, Bend, Ashland, and Portland because I don't want everyone to move here in mass numbers, build subdivisions, and raise rent prices. I can't afford to live in downtown Portland anymore and it sucks that I had to move. It used to be a very affordable city. I blame the media and TV shows like Grimm and Portlandia for making Portland popular.

 

I like my city. Physically it is one of the more beautiful American cities I've seen. The mayor in the 70s, an Austrian Jew who fled here during the Holocaust, hired a landscape architect to completely redesign the city to resemble his hometown of Vienna so it has wide sidewalks, lots of pedestrian walkways, narrow streets, and flowers and trees planted everywhere. It has the highest concentration of international business in the US as well which adds to its European vibe.

tons of great restaurants and bars. A gorgeous park in the middle of downtown.

its 3 hours from the coast, an hour from the mountains. Hot humid summers and mild winters.

my only complaint is all the apartments and houses in the downtown area are really expensive. The best and most diverse cities should be able to offer affordable living in a central location.

 

I love NY

 

It's a forty five minute drive to NH. Not to the mountains, but you're out of state. If you leave Boston before 3:30 PM anyway.

I grew up in Boston (Mattapan and Hyde Park) and spent 12 years in Nashua. If I left downtown by 3:30 I'd be home in Nashua by 4:15. If I left at 3:40 I'd get home around 5:30. Ten minutes made all the difference in the world.

Now I'm in Southern California......the traffic here really, really, over the top sucks. A fifty mile drive into LA can take 2-3 hours sometimes.

But Boston is a kickass city. I lived in Boston, NH, AR, CA, HI, and two years in Germany and visited 18 foreign countries and 42 states. Despite growing up in shitty Mattapan, Boston is still my favorite American city.