What You Like (and Dislike) About Where You Live

[vdeane]

Whereabouts do you live (in general terms) including nearby major metro areas?

New York's Capital District, specifically near Latham, a few minutes north of Albany.

How long you lived there?

About eight years, since May 2014.

What you like about where you live now?

The area is a medium-sized metro area, a good compromise between large cities and small towns/rural areas.  It's large enough to have all the services I'm used to but small enough to not be too unaffordable or congested.  Housing, though more expensive than it used to be, and more expensive than the other similarly-sized metro areas of upstate NY, is still cheaper than what one would expect around the NYC area or another large city.  Moreover, the land use patters of the area are a little weird - instead of one central city with suburbs around it, the Capital District is multiple smaller cities with suburbs in between.  This means that I'm fairly centrally located despite being in a 70s-era suburb.  Outside of the evening rush during 4-5 months, my commute isn't bad - just 15-20 minutes on roads that move around the speed limit (the traffic around here is arguably light even by the standards of Rochester or Buffalo, at least outside of tourist season).  The Capital District itself is also very centrally located with excellent roadtrip opportunities, and closer to most of the places I'm interested in roadgeeking than Rochester, but that's another question.  I also have better job prospects here than I would elsewhere in the state, both within the state or if I wanted to try working for a consultant (though I might need to get a master's in Planning if I wanted to go that route).  I also like the local media market, with News10 ABC in particular being one of my favorite local news stations in the country.  The local area is fairly scenic too; this view is right along my morning commute (here it is up close), and Cohoes Falls is just a ten minute drive from my apartment.

What you dislike about where you live now?

Traffic can be annoying if you live/work in the wrong area and during tourist season (both the summer and leaf peepers), especially the month and a half when the Saratoga Racetrack is open and approaching the summer holidays (Travers weekend is nearly as bad as Labor Day).  I'm south enough on the Northway to not deal with the morning rush unless there's a crash (thankfully, this hasn't happened much since COVID hit), but I do get the evening traffic in tourist season.  I-787 can be bad too, along with the NY 7 freeway approaching the Northway, I-90, and the Thruway between exits 25-24 (the latter was even shut down earlier this week due to a truck fire).  We're also the only metro area of this size or larger in the state to not have a Wegmans, though I mainly miss the bakery from there - Hannaford and Market Bistro (the flagship Price Chopper/Market32 location) serve my needs, and I think there are a couple things I regularly buy that Wegmans doesn't sell anyways (like my bread).  Housing has also been historically more expensive than Rochester/Buffalo/Syracuse, and prices have been going up like they have been in the rest of the country, especially as telecommuting has resulted in us beginning to be subsumed into the NYC sphere of influence (although we always were compared to the rest of upstate).  It's also a three and a half hour drive each way whenever I want to visit my parents and extended family (which can get annoying, especially since it's nearly all Thruway, with eight charges on my E-ZPass statement each direction now that everything is AET), which I do to attend family gatherings at least seven times each year.  Also, though I'm not personally affected since I don't fly, Albany International is a smaller airport with more limited opportunities for direct flights; on the other hand, if one is willing to drive a couple hours, the NYC airports have many such opportunities (and many Capital District people fly out of NYC for exactly this reason).  Regarding local driving habits, it's annoying how people always cut across too early when making a left turn (like this), and how people insist on merging onto the freeway at 40 and only once they've forced everyone to slow down for them do they bother to accelerate up to speed.  Often this is accompanied by moving into the middle lane just because.  They behave as if acceleration lanes (and also auxiliary lanes) don't exist.

Hows the road trip opportunities?

Excellent - probably my favorite thing about living here, in fact.  The Capital District is very much a hub area in the road system, and places like Montréal, Boston, the NYC area, Syracuse, Binghamton, and Vermont are all within a couple hours of driving.  The Adirondacks, Catskills, Berkshires, Green Mountains, Lake George, etc. are all a short drive away.  The area is very well connected to the interstate system too, with the only major areas of the country where I'd have to go out of my way to stay on the interstate (or equivalent roads like the New Jersey Turnpike) being Vermont and Rhode Island (honestly, this mostly holds true for Canada too, depending on whether you consider taking I-95/NB 95 to NB 2 rather than ME 9 and NB 1 to be out of the way; time time is equivalent, even if the mileage is longer).  The Capital District's position also means that I'm usually driving the non-peak direction of the Thruway on trips.

Where are would you love to move to?

I'm fairly happy here and love the location, so I'm not really interested in moving.  If I were to move, it would most likely be to Rochester to be around family again.  Maybe Syracuse or even Buffalo if the stars aligned that way, though I'm not looking to move outside of the Capital District or Rochester in the foreseeable future, and I don't feel like moving further from Rochester than I already am.

[index]

   
• Whereabouts do you live (in general terms) including nearby major metro areas?

I live in Boone, NC for college.

   
• How long you lived there?

Since May 31, 2021. I would have lived here full time, but due to developing a disability in August, my living arrangement didn't work out. I had to move from unincorporated Watauga County into the dorms that month.

   
• What you like about where you live now?

The scenery is good. I don't have to rely on my car and I can walk or take the bus most places. You can usually find something to do most days, primarily recreation-wise. Beech Mountain is nice. You have access to the Tri-Cities in a short drive if you run out of things to do and you want to look somewhere else, or you're just bored. The springs and summers aren't nearly as hot and humid as they are in lower elevations.

   
• What you dislike about where you live now?

Sometimes it just gets boring, being a small town. You can run out of people to meet pretty fast. The traffic is pretty horrendous for a town this size. Sometimes the winters can drag on. Snow is cool and all for a few days, but I get sick of it after there's been a foot on the ground for three weeks, you're trudging through snow-covered sidewalks, you're bundling up in tons of layers for 15 degree weather, only to have to take them all off so you don't sweat profusely indoors, and your pantlegs are always wet. The parking situation is terrible, and if the buses aren't running I have to walk up a massive hill just to get to my car. Sometimes I have to drive to Lenoir or Morganton to do something I can't get done here.

   
• Hows the road trip opportunities?

We have plenty of scenic routes. The famous Blue Ridge Parkway, and plenty of backroads to look around. I like to drive around aimlessly, and Boone is an excellent starting point for excursions deeper into the mountains and into Tennessee. I've found myself in Kentucky twice. You're only 1.5-2.5 hours from places like Asheville.

   
• Where are would you love to move to?

I want to settle down in the Tri-Cities when I finish college. The cost of living is cheap compared to other places and there's plenty of job opportunities for what I'll have finished studying. I'm honestly not a fan of cities that are too big (I never liked the sprawl, size, and lack of things to do in Charlotte), so they seem like the right size for me. You still have a lot of the advantages of Boone. Access to the mountains, scenic areas, ski areas, etc.

[kphoger]

One thing I've learned from this thread is that most people consider road trip opportunities to be fairly abundant, no matter where they live.  Some consider being able to get to a lot of places within one or two days to be "good", whereas others consider being able to see a variety of locations within a few hours to be "good".  I guess it's all in one's perspective, and people on here seem to have a perspective that appreciates what they have.

The exception is (1) people who live in some corner of the country, such that a large amount of the country is far away, or (2) people who have to deal with bad city traffic whenever they start out on a road trip.

[webny99]

We're also the only metro area of this size or larger to not have a Wegmans ...

In New York, at least - not nationwide yet! 

But unlike many grocery chains, they are actively expanding (mostly southward into VA/NC) and I'm hoping they will start expanding west someday as well.

[kkt]

One thing I've learned from this thread is that most people consider road trip opportunities to be fairly abundant, no matter where they live.  Some consider being able to get to a lot of places within one or two days to be "good", whereas others consider being able to see a variety of locations within a few hours to be "good".  I guess it's all in one's perspective, and people on here seem to have a perspective that appreciates what they have.

The exception is (1) people who live in some corner of the country, such that a large amount of the country is far away, or (2) people who have to deal with bad city traffic whenever they start out on a road trip.

We are kind of a self-selecting sample of people who identify as road geeks.  If where we live didn't offer road trip opportunities that we considered good, we'd either move or give up "road geek" as part of our identity.

[SkyPesos]

... most trips to major destinations involve connecting through a hub like Chicago O'Hare or Dallas/Fort Worth.

Are there any mid-size cities that this is not true of? None immediately come to mind.

...

CVG's a good example. Despite being much smaller than the Delta hub's peak in 2005, Delta still flies to a bunch of non-hub destinations from CVG, including a transatlantic flight to Paris.

That's an interesting one, although Cincinnati is right on the border of "large city" IMO, at least in terms of the metro area size. It's a larger metro area than Jacksonville and comparable to Columbus and Indianapolis, all of which are top-20 cities in the US.

Personally, I go with 3 million metro area population to be considered large. This does leave out some other cities I would normally consider large, like Charlotte, which is one of the largest financial centers in the US despite having a metro population of "only" 2.7 million.

But I thought of a much better example than CVG for the mid-sized city with a large airport: SLC. Still a Delta hub, and have the number of destinations (including 3(!) transatlantic routes) that a lot of much larger cities can only dream of, all for a metro area of 1.25 million.

[Scott5114]

I have a lot of good recommendations if you're interested.

I would be. I'm in Kansas City at least once a year, so it'd be nice to have suggestions of places to eat that aren't the chain places at the Legends my family tends to gravitate toward. (Bonus points if you know any around that part of Wyandotte County, since that's usually where we stay.)

[CtrlAltDel]

Whereabouts do you live (in general terms) including nearby major metro areas?  Wichita, Kansas.

Just out of idle curiosity, do you still have a connection to Oxford?

[J N Winkler]

One thing I've learned from this thread is that most people consider road trip opportunities to be fairly abundant, no matter where they live.  Some consider being able to get to a lot of places within one or two days to be "good", whereas others consider being able to see a variety of locations within a few hours to be "good".  I guess it's all in one's perspective, and people on here seem to have a perspective that appreciates what they have.

The exception is (1) people who live in some corner of the country, such that a large amount of the country is far away, or (2) people who have to deal with bad city traffic whenever they start out on a road trip.

I've noticed the same thing too--I was among the people who cited driving distance to daytrip/citybreak destinations, recognizing that this plays up dimensions of the travel experience that may not be as relevant to those living in parts of the country with denser networks of primary state highways.

Holiday congestion also varies greatly from region to region.  Taking Thanksgiving as an example, in Kansas the Turnpike is busy but flows well, while I've heard stories of having to drive in the middle of the night to avoid gridlock if a trip involves travel in the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

We are kind of a self-selecting sample of people who identify as road geeks.  If where we live didn't offer road trip opportunities that we considered good, we'd either move or give up "road geek" as part of our identity.

I think the hobby also has a way of finding its own level--there are ways to engage with roads as a cultural fixture that come into play even in large cities where driving brings more trouble to the typical leisure traveler than it is worth (Manhattan comes to mind).

Whereabouts do you live (in general terms) including nearby major metro areas?  Wichita, Kansas.

Just out of idle curiosity, do you still have a connection to Oxford?

It's actually been ten years since I was last there!  I need to update the location in my profile . . .

[vdeane]

We're also the only metro area of this size or larger to not have a Wegmans ...

In New York, at least - not nationwide yet! 

But unlike many grocery chains, they are actively expanding (mostly southward into VA/NC) and I'm hoping they will start expanding west someday as well.

Ah, yes, I was thinking specifically of New York when I wrote that sentence.  Evidently I forgot to specify that.

Also forgotten: I was going to mention a couple of annoying Capital District driving habits in my "things I dislike" part.  Specifically, the way people always cut across too early when making a left turn (like this), and how people insist on merging onto the freeway at 40 and only once they've forced everyone to slow down for them do they bother to accelerate up to speed.  Often this is accompanied by moving into the middle lane just because.  They behave as if acceleration lanes (and also auxiliary lanes) don't exist.

One thing I've learned from this thread is that most people consider road trip opportunities to be fairly abundant, no matter where they live.  Some consider being able to get to a lot of places within one or two days to be "good", whereas others consider being able to see a variety of locations within a few hours to be "good".  I guess it's all in one's perspective, and people on here seem to have a perspective that appreciates what they have.

The exception is (1) people who live in some corner of the country, such that a large amount of the country is far away, or (2) people who have to deal with bad city traffic whenever they start out on a road trip.

Come to think of it, the northeast is arguably a corner, but it doesn't feel like one (outside of Maine) because there's so much here, especially in terms of number of cities and population density.

[elsmere241]

This should prove to be an interesting topic leading to some interesting discussion and perspectives. Lets have everyone discuss where they live, and answer the following questions:

• Whereabouts do you live (in general terms) including nearby major metro areas?
• How long you lived there?
• What you like about where you live now?
• What you dislike about where you live now?
• Hows the road trip opportunities?
• Where are would you love to move to?

Yes, this is going to be very subjective questionnaire, but something that I would really enjoy reading the answers on.

Wilmington, DE, near Philadelphia and Baltimore, and not to far from New York and Washington.

I first came to Newark, DE in 1982.  I left for college in 1990 but was back some summers, and for a year and a half in 1997-98.  I came back to Newark in 2002, moved near New Castle later that year, to Elsmere in 2006, and Wilmington in 2018.

I like being close to everything, with plenty of trees and the ease of getting off the beaten path.

I dislike the one-way streets and having to make sure my car is locked because it will get ransacked if I don't.

Plenty of road trip opportunities - when I was single I'd often just jump in the car and go.

I'd love to move back to Raleigh-Cary, NC.  I came to see it as a neutral corner between here and Nashville, TN, where I'd lived before.  My homesick wife, from rural south-central Washington, has other ideas.  We've settled on retiring either in Yakima Valley or someplace like Moses Lake, WA, depending on where she can get a job.

[epzik8]

• Harford County, Maryland, in the Baltimore metro area. Currently I live in Aberdeen.
• My entire life, going on 27 years, excepting six months in Provo, Utah in 2018 and another six months in Baltimore itself from December 2019 to June 2020.
• Plenty of bedroom communties to the south, and farmland to the north. I-95 passes through on its way between DC/Baltimore and Wilmington/Philly/NYC. In Aberdeen, I can walk onto APG, or to our Amtrak/MARC station. Havre de Grace, a touristy area, is a few minutes' drive up 40.
• Nothing. Aberdeen is one of Harford's more convenient and walkable areas.
• Once again, 95 and 40 provide road trip opportunities. You can also follow MD 22 toward Bel Air and make your way to US 1 to see a different corridor.
• Would not want to live anywhere else as of right now.

[kkt]

I dislike the one-way streets and having to make sure my car is locked because it will get ransacked if I don't.

At one time, I lived with the flip situation that was even worse:  I had to leave my car unlocked, because if I didn't it would get a window broken and ransacked.

[Rothman]

I dislike the one-way streets and having to make sure my car is locked because it will get ransacked if I don't.

At one time, I lived with the flip situation that was even worse:  I had to leave my car unlocked, because if I didn't it would get a window broken and ransacked.

When my sister lived on Maui, she had this rule.

[skluth]

One thing I've learned from this thread is that most people consider road trip opportunities to be fairly abundant, no matter where they live.  Some consider being able to get to a lot of places within one or two days to be "good", whereas others consider being able to see a variety of locations within a few hours to be "good".  I guess it's all in one's perspective, and people on here seem to have a perspective that appreciates what they have.

The exception is (1) people who live in some corner of the country, such that a large amount of the country is far away, or (2) people who have to deal with bad city traffic whenever they start out on a road trip.

We are kind of a self-selecting sample of people who identify as road geeks.  If where we live didn't offer road trip opportunities that we considered good, we'd either move or give up "road geek" as part of our identity.

I've been around much of the country and believe most places in the US offer decent road trip possibilities. I think anyone's personal viewpoint depends on what they're looking for in a road trip. I enjoy cities because there are always interesting places to visit from parks to museums to shopping centers. I also look for interesting geology and plant life everywhere along with weird destinations like Salvation Mountain.

Southern California is great for all of this. But I had no problems finding road trip destinations when I lived in St Louis (MO wine country, Hannibal, Lincoln sites) or Tidewater (Williamsburg, Outer Banks, Civil War battlefields), or when I was growing up in Green Bay (Door Co, Northwoods, Milwaukee). There are so many interesting places to check out in the US that there are few places in the US I wouldn't enjoy for the local destinations. The most boring for me would be the area just west of the 100th meridian but even there you can find interesting places like the Sand Hills and Carhenge; I hope to check this out the next time I head through Kansas. Then again, I really enjoy driving through empty spaces like the old US 66 through the Mojave, the bottom land roads along the Mississippi south of St Louis to the Gulf, and the coastal swamps along the Mid-Atlantic Coast.

[NWI_Irish96]

I dislike the one-way streets and having to make sure my car is locked because it will get ransacked if I don't.

At one time, I lived with the flip situation that was even worse:  I had to leave my car unlocked, because if I didn't it would get a window broken and ransacked.

Stealing catalytic converters is a big thing around here. When we were looking to buy our current house, the other option was one that was bigger and a little bit nicer inside but had no garage. We opted for this house with its two car garage and it's paid off as three cars on our block have had cat converters stolen in the past year.

[J N Winkler]

The most boring for me would be the area just west of the 100th meridian but even there you can find interesting places like the Sand Hills and Carhenge; I hope to check this out the next time I head through Kansas.

I liked Fort Robinson, the Chadron fur museum, and the Bowring ranch.  Supposedly there is a memorial to Mari Sandoz along Nebraska SR 27--I would like to check that out too.

The Chalk Pyramids are definitely worth a visit, as is Castle Rock (the former is west of K-23; the latter is east of that highway and about 12 miles south of Quinter).

Stealing catalytic converters is a big thing around here. When we were looking to buy our current house, the other option was one that was bigger and a little bit nicer inside but had no garage. We opted for this house with its two car garage and it's paid off as three cars on our block have had cat converters stolen in the past year.

It's been quite a while since I've been able to log in to Nextdoor without seeing a veritable flood of posts reporting catalytic converter thefts.  Recently there was a report of someone shooting a person he had caught under his vehicle with a Sawzall, and there was rejoicing in the venues that still allow anonymous commenting.

I struggle to understand parking a car outside while dedicating a perfectly good garage to the storage of household junk that, in the aggregate, comes to less than the resale value of even a ten-year-old car.

[skluth]

The most boring for me would be the area just west of the 100th meridian but even there you can find interesting places like the Sand Hills and Carhenge; I hope to check this out the next time I head through Kansas.

I liked Fort Robinson, the Chadron fur museum, and the Bowring ranch.  Supposedly there is a memorial to Mari Sandoz along Nebraska SR 27--I would like to check that out too.

The Chalk Pyramids are definitely worth a visit, as is Castle Rock (the former is west of K-23; the latter is east of that highway and about 12 miles south of Quinter).

Thanks for the suggestions. I admit I was surprised to find US 385 going north into Chadron a surprisingly green and hilly oasis hidden in western Nebraska.

[ZLoth]

At one time, I lived with the flip situation that was even worse:  I had to leave my car unlocked, because if I didn't it would get a window broken and ransacked.

Stealing catalytic converters is a big thing around here. When we were looking to buy our current house, the other option was one that was bigger and a little bit nicer inside but had no garage. We opted for this house with its two car garage and it's paid off as three cars on our block have had cat converters stolen in the past year.

When I moved to Dallas three years ago, I had to remind my 80yo mother that the garage is not a storage space, it is where the cars go. Part of this is for the times of the year when the Texas weather appears to be on a random number generator and there is the possibility of damaging hail. Also, garaging your vehicle helps with the insurance rates.

I also replaced the garage door opener with one that has a battery backup, can be operated remotely, and can automatically close after 5 minutes.

[kphoger]

Stealing catalytic converters is a big thing around here. When we were looking to buy our current house, the other option was one that was bigger and a little bit nicer inside but had no garage. We opted for this house with its two car garage and it's paid off as three cars on our block have had cat converters stolen in the past year.

Our friends in Mexico (Kansas-plated vehicle) had at least three of their four catalytic converters stolen a couple of years ago.  While it was at the mechanic's.  He suspects it was even one of the workers there.

Everyone recommended that he not replace them because, if he does, they'll just get stolen again.

[TheGrassGuy]

Great idea for a thread.

Whereabouts do you live (in general terms) including nearby major metro areas?
The northern reaches of the Seattle metro area.

How long you lived there?
My entire life.

What you like about where you live now?
Temperate weather, including clear summers and minimal (but not zero) snow
Gorgeous scenery within reasonable range and plenty of recreational activities that aren't overcommercialized
A dynamic city with plenty of activities and interests
Good access to Canada for a change of pace (and to laugh at their silly names)
Agreeable politics, especially in regards to public health crises and acknowledging systematic racism
No income tax

What you dislike about where you live now?
Winter weather can be very hard to deal with, on a spiritual level.
Housing prices are depressingly out of reach, as is cost of living in many respects
The homelessness situation and untenable solutions from both sides
High gas prices, traffic congestion, transit expansion is happening too slowly
No income tax (for Jeff and Bill, among others)
Gentrification has robbed us of some pieces of local culture that can never be recreated
Increase in anti-Asian hate crimes, especially those from people migrating from out of the region
Lack of food/retail options that don't make it to the Northwest until they've already declined in quality

Hows the road trip opportunities?
Plenty of great scenic drives, but they get repetitive after a while. Being stuck in a corner of the country means repeating many drives just to reach new ground, and the other states are hours and hours away. The other option is to drive north into Canada, which has its own issues (high gas costs, limited lodging availability, until recently the extra COVID hassles). The long and dry summer days allow for great conditions, assuming you aren't unlucky enough to run into wildfire smoke, haze, or just a random overcast day.

Where are would you love to move to?
A mid-size city elsewhere in the Northwest or West. Need my mountains at the minimum or else I'll get lost.

Another Asian, cool. Honestly though, isn't the hate crime thing a nationwide thing? Cf. NY and Atlanta, likely others. Is it bigger in blue or red states?

[1995hoo]

Stealing catalytic converters is a big thing around here. When we were looking to buy our current house, the other option was one that was bigger and a little bit nicer inside but had no garage. We opted for this house with its two car garage and it's paid off as three cars on our block have had cat converters stolen in the past year.

There was a report on the news here the other night about thieves stealing Toyota Prius catalytic converters. The news report discussed a $500 device that looks sort of like a plate that fastens to the underside of the car to foil thieves; it struck me as conceptually similar to the steering wheel cover manufactured by the maker of the Club to guard against airbag theft. It looks like the device is available for a limited number of other vehicles besides certain Prius models.

[kphoger]

Looks like a glorified skid plate.  Couldn't thieves simply unbolt it, steal the cat, and then bolt the plate back on?

[1995hoo]

Looks like a glorified skid plate.  Couldn't thieves simply unbolt it, steal the cat, and then bolt the plate back on?

I assume so, although I also assume the intention is to make it more time-consuming such that they won't bother with that car and will look for easier pickings. One thing we always hear about car thieves is that they tend to opt for the past of least resistance so that they can get in and out quickly. I frankly didn't pay a ton of attention to how it attaches because the TV report was focused on the Prius, which we don't have, and my glance at the website indicated they don't have one for any of the cars we do have, so there wasn't much reason for me to pay further attention.

[J N Winkler]

Yes--the thinking behind the plate is to make the car a harder target, not to prevent theft in any absolute sense.  Thieves usually look to get the converter out in less than 30 seconds with a Sawzall.  A plate requires at minimum additional tools and time for the bolts.

This said, I have grave reservations about this particular anti-theft measure because it sounds like an excellent way to create new rust initiation points.  Garages über alles.