What You Like (and Dislike) About Where You Live

Started by ZLoth, April 02, 2022, 11:53:18 PM

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ZLoth

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.
I'm an Engineer. That means I solve problems. Not problems like "What is beauty?", because that would fall within the purview of your conundrums of philosophy. I solve practical problems and call them "paychecks".


ZLoth

#1
Whereabouts do you live (in general terms) including nearby major metro areas? North Dallas, Texas

How long you lived there? Three years now after living most of my life in Sacramento, CA.

What you like about where you live now? Having moved to DFW which is the fourth largest Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) and living near the ninth largest city in the United States certainly has it advantages, such as...

  • DFW is a growing metro area which is attracting business. This provides some good opportunities for career growth.
  • I was able to locate and own a home that is not only near my workplace, but also the DART light rail station to downtown Dallas as well as the one of the stations for the upcoming "Silver Line" project to the DFW International Airport.
  • Multiple museums, theaters, and entertainment options in the DFW area.
  • It is also a destination city for major touring entertainment events. Sacramento often served as a "also-ran" for entertainment tours, which meant that some shows meant a drive to the San Francisco Bay Area which is at least a two hour drive in each direction.
  • DFW is located in the geographic "middle" of the United States and is the home and major hubs of both American Airlines and Southwest Airlines. This means that most destinations within the continental United States are less than a four hour non-stop flight from either DFW International and Dallas Love Field, not to mention some international travel. If only Covid didn't throw a monkey wrench to the best laid travel plans.
  • As a bonus, the DFW International Airport is one of the interview centers for the Global Entry which also includes TSA Pre-Check. In California, the nearest interview center was in San Francisco.
  • I get a kick in that I just live about 30 minutes away from Southfork Ranch. Also nearby is where they filmed Robocop and Fort Worth Water Gardens.
  • I love that I was able to be able to afford a home that is within 20 minutes of my workplace... by foot. It just sucks that for around 720 consecutive days (March 12th, 2020 until February 28th, 2022), I had to work from home.
  • The lower cost of living as compared to very expensive California. Gas prices and car registration is much lower here, although it is offset somewhat by the toll roads (which I rarely use). Although there is no personal income tax, that is made up by the higher property taxes.

What you dislike about where you live now? The DFW MSA has grown in population by 19.96% from the 2010 Census to the 2020 Census. This has lead to some of the challenges listed below.

  • Due to multiple factors, the housing inventory is at very low levels causing the home prices to dramatically rise. I recognize that this is a nationwide issue, not a DFW issue, but it is still insane to see the value of my home go up 38% to 57% in the three years since I purchased it. I'm not looking forward to the property tax statement.
  • Thank goodness I don't have to deal with the commute traffic, but I identify it as a challenge and something that is actively worked on, but it is a multi-year process. The nearby Interstate 635 project is running from spring 2020 to 2024, US-75 in Grayson County is running from January 2020 until March 2024, Interstate 35 in Waco is running from April 2019 to 2020, and the Southern Gateway project is running from early 2018 to summer, 2022 are all active projects to improve safety and capacity. At least Texas is better than California on improving traffic flow.
  • Some of the drivers here in Texas are nuts, and the higher speeds does not help. I made sure that I have a dashcam installed in both of my vehicles.
  • The Texas weather is definitely more interesting than the Sacramento weather, and it doesn't help that DFW is at the intersection of the wet warm air from the Gulf and the cold dry air from the mid-West. Whenever there is thunderstorms in the forecast, I pay attention because of the possibility of high winds, large-sized hail, and maybe tornadoes. While a light dusting of snow is expected once a year, 2021 and 2022 had some significant snowfall which is of a concern because snow is not a expected regular weather condition.

Hows the road trip opportunities? Great not only for the DFW area, but for places north, south and east as well. Want to visit the world's largest casino in terms of gaming floor space? That's in... Thackerville, Oklahoma on Interstate 35 near the Texas border. I have destinations that I want to visit in Oklahoma, Kansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

Where are would you love to move to? I'm fine where I'm living now, and have no desire to move again. The job relocation from California to Texas was a stressful experience made worse by the short time window from approval to relocate (day before Thanksgiving, 2018) to the actual move date (mid-January, 2019). I'm lucky to have a small home in a good neighborhood, and have no desire to move again, especially not back to California.
I'm an Engineer. That means I solve problems. Not problems like "What is beauty?", because that would fall within the purview of your conundrums of philosophy. I solve practical problems and call them "paychecks".

bandit957

Whereabouts do you live (in general terms) including nearby major metro areas?
Bellevue, Ky. (near Cincinnati).

How long you lived there?
I've lived in northern Kentucky my whole life.

What you like about where you live now?
I was impressed that the area didn't go too big into the mass hysteria of the past 2 years compared to huge cities. At least this was true in most organizations and places around here (though the usual suspects were of course pretty bad).

What you dislike about where you live now?
It has a bad track record on certain matters of public interest, the economy has been chronically depressed for 40 years, and the weather is usually bad.

Hows the road trip opportunities?
Not good right now, since I don't have a car.

Where are would you love to move to?
Someplace more rural.
Might as well face it, pooing is cool

Max Rockatansky

#3
  • Whereabouts do you live (in general terms) including nearby major metro areas?
-  Fresno, California

  • How long you lived there?
-  Fresno since December 2017 and before that it nearby Hanford from January 2016.  I transferred after a three year stint in multiple places in Florida (Spring Hill, Key West and Orlando).

  • What you like about where you live now?
-  Access to four National Parks in less than three hours.
-  Access to four National Forests within three hours.
-  Access to some of the best driving roads in the country within three hours (CA 1 in Big Sur, CA 198 in the Diablo Range, CA 33 Maricopa Highway, CA 180 in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the Generals Highway, etc).
-  The city and area is easy to get around and has its entire freeway network built. 
-  A very low cost of living.  Very low by California standards and overall favorable to Orlando and Phoenix (where I lived previously).  Largely this is driven by lower home prices which we (my wife and I) took advantage of.
-  Fresno isn't a miserable traffic slog like Los Angeles and the Bay Area. 
-  The weather is pleasant 9/12 months out of the year and tolerable the rest of it.

  • What you dislike about where you live now?
-  Polarizing state politics.  All the same Florida and Arizona got equally as bad in another direction by the time I was leaving. 
-  The locally driven agricultural economy.  Agriculture doesn't bother me, but I would likely need to move if I became ambitious with career development over padding my pension. 
-  High gas prices.  The prices aren't as bad as the big cities but compare poorly to other states. 
-  High income taxes. 
-  Wild fire season.

  • Hows the road trip opportunities?
-  Outstanding, see above.  I don't think four National Parks in a three hour radius can be replicated anywhere else in the United States.

  • Where are would you love to move to?
-  The Sierra Nevada Foothills, Northern California coast or southern Oregon.  I tried living east of the Rockies this last decade and I was bored out my mind.  I wouldn't mind having a second home in Jalisco near my wife's family.  That always seems like paradise whenever I'm down in Jalisco, certainly a slower pace of life. 
-  Really I've come to dislike urban life after living in larger cities.  Fresno is tolerable was urban area but I can see it becoming too big for its own good given how affordable it is compared to the other big California cities.  The furthest I can get away from people and maintain my recreational opportunities would be ideal. 

Bruce

#4
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.

jeffandnicole

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

In NJ, outside Philly

QuoteHow long you lived there?

In the same county all my life.  Closest I lived elsewhere was when I went to college in Delaware, but I was only 40 minutes away & still home every weekend.

QuoteWhat you like about where you live now?

Almost nowhere else in the country can you live within 3 hours of at least 4 major cities and about a dozen more minor cities.  If I want to go to a grocery store, or a mall, or a larger retailer, I have several within 15 minutes.  Hell, I have 3 Walmarts I can get to within 15 minutes. 

QuoteWhat you dislike about where you live now?

Congestion is so commonplace, if there isn't congestion, I have to question if I'm not realizing the day of the week it should be.

QuoteHows the road trip opportunities?

Unlimited.  As long as I don't mind staying off the highways, I can get to a road I've never been on relatively easily.

QuoteWhere are would you love to move to?

Some of me has already eyed up The Villages in Florida when I retire. But after a trip to rural Tennessee during the pandemic, my wife really liked that area.  So when I retire, which is the most likely time I'll move, I don't really know where I'll go yet.  If I had to move *today*, I would stay relatively in the same place - just like a bigger place, bigger yard, and most importantly a 2 to 3 car garage.

gonealookin

Whereabouts do you live (in general terms) including nearby major metro areas?
Nevada side of Lake Tahoe, a couple miles north of the casinos (Harrahs, Harveys etc.) at Stateline.

How long you lived there?
Since 2009.  I lived in various places in the San Francisco Bay Area for 30 years before then.

What you like about where you live now?
It's scenically gorgeous.  Outdoor recreational opportunities are enormous.  National Forest is literally right out the front door.  Also as California residents can appreciate, no state income tax in Nevada.

What you dislike about where you live now?
Too many tourists.  This has always been an issue, but honestly it seemed magnified enormously in 2020 with Covid-19.  As soon as the hotels and campgrounds opened up, it seemed like everybody decided Tahoe would be a perfect place to "take a break".  AirBNB and VRBO have also spread this beyond the hotels into the neighborhoods.

Hows the road trip opportunities?
Nevada, California, Oregon.  Tons of fantastic places within a one-day drive.

Where are would you love to move to?
As I get older snow is less appealing.  I'm thinking of places on the Gulf Coast of Florida.  That has the same tourist drawback though.  A lot of thought has gone into this but a decision is quite a ways off.  There are some college towns with less snow and fewer tourists that have appeal as well.

LilianaUwU

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

I'm in downtown Québec City.

How long you lived there?

Since 2012.

What you like about where you live now?

I can easily access everything I need from either a short walk or a bus ride.

What you dislike about where you live now?

During winter, snow plowing is often insufficient.

How's the road trip opportunities?

They would be endless if I had a car. I occasionally go on bus trips, though.

Where would you love to move to?

I don't know. Probably to another town in the province of Québec.
"Volcano with no fire... Not volcano... Just mountain."
—Mr. Thwomp

My pronouns are she/her. Also, I'm an admin on the AARoads Wiki.

kevinb1994

Outside of Jacksonville.

2017.

The people here are generally friendlier.

Florida Weather.

Not bad.

Don't know yet.

MATraveler128

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

I'm in North Reading, Massachusetts just north of Boston.

How long have you lived there?

Since Summer 2003

What do you like about where you live now?

Friendly people and everyone knows each other.

What do you dislike about where you live now?

No public transit and is one of the more expensive towns in the state.

Hows the road trip opportunities?

Not directly served by any Interstates or US highways, but not far from I-93 and I-95.

Where would you like to move to?

Probably Salem, New Hampshire because it's less expensive and there's no taxes.

Decommission 128 south of Peabody!

Lowest untraveled number: 56

Takumi

Whereabouts do you live (in general terms) including nearby major metro areas?
Southside Richmond metro, Virginia

How long you lived there?
My entire life

What you like about where you live now?
Richmond has plenty to do, and within two hours are Hampton Roads, the Blue Ridge, Raleigh, and the DC metro area, and other places such as Williamsburg and Charlottesville in between. Also plenty of back roads. The weather is good year round, if a bit unpredictable outside of summer.

What you dislike about where you live now?
Not much. The continued growth of the area adds more traffic.

Hows the road trip opportunities?
Good, as listed above.

Where would you love to move to?
Maybe somewhere in North Carolina, but otherwise I'm fine where I am.
Quote from: Rothman on July 15, 2021, 07:52:59 AM
Olive Garden must be stopped.  I must stop them.

Don't @ me. Seriously.

kernals12

I live in suburban Boston

I like the job opportunities we have here

I don't like the snow

The best road trip opportunity by far is Cape Cod

I'd love to move to Phoenix

WillWeaverRVA

Whereabouts do you live (in general terms) including nearby major metro areas? Richmond, VA metro area.

How long you lived there? 20 years; I moved down here when I attended college and stuck around because I liked the area.

What do you like about where you live now? A lot. There's plenty to do, and as Takumi said earlier Richmond is a fairly convenient drive to anywhere - you can get to DC, Hampton Roads, the Outer Banks, or the mountains within two hours. I'm also a history buff and there's a lot of history to be found here. Plenty of back roads in Hanover, eastern Henrico, and Chesterfield Counties, and some of them are quite scenic (SR 655 in Chesterfield, SR 711 in Chesterfield and Powhatan, and VA 36/SR 602 in Chesterfield are among my favorites).

What you dislike about where you live now? Richmond seems to have an abnormally high amount of traffic despite being a smaller metro area. Rush hours tend to be more annoying than they should be.

How's the road trip opportunities? Again, they're good as Richmond is conveniently located and it's easy to get pretty much anywhere.

Where would you love to move to? Meh, I'm happy here.
Will Weaver
WillWeaverRVA Photography | Twitter

"But how will the oxen know where to drown if we renumber the Oregon Trail?" - NE2

NWI_Irish96


Whereabouts do you live (in general terms) including nearby major metro areas?
I live in the Indiana portion of the Chicago metro area

How long you lived there?
Almost 4 years here. 34 years total in various parts of Indiana

What you like about where you live now?
I like being near Chicago as it's my favorite American city.
I like not paying Illinois taxes
I like not being in the Eastern Time Zone
I like not having long period of oppressive heat in the summer

What you dislike about where you live now?
I dislike the traffic
I dislike how long winter lasts (though not as much as I dislike oppressive heat in the summer)
I dislike that my town has a large percentage of white people aged 45+ who grew up here when the town was almost completely white and are dealing with the increasing diversity by often displaying veiled racism and sometimes displaying open racism.

How are the road trip opportunities?
I'm near five long interstates, so I can get pretty far pretty quickly. Only downside is that the scenery is all flat

Where would you love to move to?
I'd love to live in Colorado for a few years after the kids are through high school. If finances allow, in retirement I'd like to winter in Kingman, AZ, and summer in Berrien County, MI
Indiana: counties 100%, highways 100%
Illinois: counties 100%, highways 61%
Michigan: counties 100%, highways 56%
Wisconsin: counties 86%, highways 23%

7/8

    Whereabouts do you live (in general terms) including nearby major metro areas?: Kitchener, ON (in the Waterloo Region, pop. approx. 650 000) which is roughly an hour west of Toronto.

    How long you lived there?: Since 2009 (13 years). Before that, I grew up in Brampton (only an hour away).

    What you like about where you live now?:

    • I think the weather here is decent for Canadian standards. We get winters with snow (which I like), but are also not too cold. I think our summers are also nice with most days in the 20's (though it'd be nice if it was a little less humid).
    • I think Kitchener-Waterloo has decent downtown areas for the size of our cities and we even have an LRT! The universities and colleges also add excitement (particularly to Waterloo) with lots of restaurants, bars, and dense student housing.
    • Our city has a decent trail network and is improving its cycling facilities (pretty good for Canadian standards).
    • The Grand River is a nice spot to go canoeing/kayaking.
    • Our Oktoberfest is the largest outside of Germany which brings good tourism for a few weeks.
    What you dislike about where you live now?:
    • The cost of real estate! The average home price here has reached $1 million. How the hell am I supposed to move out and buy something? Southern Ontario and Lower Mainland BC are particularly brutal for housing and those are two places I'd like to live the most :-(. At least Toronto and Vancouver are world class cities (feels more justified to have those prices), but Kitchener? No offense, but it's not worth these kind of prices.
    • November and December are particularly cloudy, and since the snow doesn't stay consistently until the end of December, it's also ugly with the bare trees and dead grass. Early spring is also ugly for that, but I find there's a better balance of sunny days. The sunlight's also longer in the spring which helps.
    • I still wish the city was denser (i.e. more comparable to Toronto or Vancouver), though I appreciate they're working on those goals, particularly around the LRT stops. Still, it's sad to see the cities continuing to build so many sprawling developments on the edges.
    • The lack of good skiing! Our local hill Chicopee is incredibly small with a vertical drop of only 200 ft/61 m. The biggest hill in Ontario, Blue Mountain, is still only 720 ft/220 m, and is almost 2.5 hours away. The snow is also mediocre here since we get plenty of rain days in the winter to screw up the snow and then that also turns into ice when it cools. :pan:. Even driving out east to say Quebec or Vermont is still a good 6+ hours, so you have to do a week-long trip to make it worth it.
    • I wish Kitchener was closer to any of the Great Lakes. It's right in the middle between Lake Ontario, Erie, and Huron, meaning it's at least a 1.5 hour drive to any of the Great Lakes beaches. Not bad, but could be better for a province that borders four of them. :-D
    How's the road trip opportunities?: I'd say the location is decent for road trips. It's only a few hours from NY state and MI, which are two good access points to the US. Northern and Central Ontario have their fair share of scenic drives. The freeway network (400-series) is good in Southern Ontario to get around quickly (as long as you can afford the 407 to bypass Toronto!)

    Where are would you love to move to?: If I had more money, I'd strongly consider Vancouver, BC. It'd be amazing to have multiple great ski resorts so close to the city, and I'd also love to live right in downtown and be able to walk and take transit for regular trips. The views of the mountains and ocean right in the city are also impressive. The weather is a bit of mixed bag, comfortably warm year-round (by Canadian standards), but also quite wet and cloudy in the colder months. Still, I could head to the mountains to escape the rain for snow instead, and I think that's more than a good tradeoff :). Really the two things holding me back are friends and family around Kitchener and the brutal cost of real estate in Vancouver (right now living at home is helping me "save" for a down payment, but when prices went up 30% last year, does that really matter? :meh:).

    TheHighwayMan3561

    #15
    Where do you live?
    Twin Cities metro area

    How long?
    Except for ages 19-23, my entire life has been spent in the metro.

    What do you like?
    -Mostly tolerable summers, beautiful fall weather.
    -Lots of easy outdoor opportunities.
    -Within day trip range of northern MN, my favorite place to visit.
    -Two distinct major cities instead of just one with different offerings and opportunities.

    What don't you like?
    -Like other major cities in the Midwest like Milwaukee and Chicago, the tension and antagonism between rural-minded residents and urban-minded residents is very high, and likely played a large role in the events of spring 2020 and subsequent nationally embarrassing police incidents.
    -I feel there is a stronger sense of collective provincialism here than in similarly-sized metro areas.
    -Winter generally gives last gasps until the end of April before it finally goes away for good.
    -Because of the long winters, stuff is generally crowded in the nice months because we're all trying to get everything in before the next winter cycle.
    -Cost of living is higher than you would think for a Midwestern city with an undesirable climate.

    Road trip opportunities?
    I-94 and I-35 will take you to wherever you want to go. There are a few scenic drives within easy access, but once you've exhausted those, there's not much more.

    Where would you move to?
    Maine, or up to the rural northern Great Lakes.
    self-certified as the dumbest person on this board for 5 years running

    SectorZ


    SkyPesos

    Quote from: ZLoth on April 02, 2022, 11:53:18 PM
    • Whereabouts do you live (in general terms) including nearby major metro areas?
    Suburban Cincinnati

    Quote from: ZLoth on April 02, 2022, 11:53:18 PM
    • How long you lived there?
    8 years. Before that, I lived in Columbus and two St Louis suburbs.

    Quote from: ZLoth on April 02, 2022, 11:53:18 PM
    • What you like about where you live now?
    - Although I'm not paying for our house, the cost of living here is cheap
    - Lots of local brands here. Skyline Chili, Graeter's Ice Cream, UDF, etc.
    - Lots of nearby cities to spend a day in. More on that below.

    Quote from: ZLoth on April 02, 2022, 11:53:18 PM
    • What you dislike about where you live now?
    - Lack of public transport/alternative ways to get around.
    - Airport is too small for someone like myself that likes traveling internationally.

    Quote from: ZLoth on April 02, 2022, 11:53:18 PM
    • Hows the road trip opportunities?
    Pretty good location for road trips, with 3 interstates (I-71, I-74, I-75) and a 4 lane expressway (OH 32) that radiate out of the city in various directions). 5 major cities within a 2 hour drive from here, and even more (including Chicago) within a 5 hour drive. Ohio is generally portrayed as a "flat" state, but there's some pretty nice drives once you drive into Appalachian Ohio and continue into nearby states.

    Quote from: ZLoth on April 02, 2022, 11:53:18 PM
    • Where are would you love to move to?
    Preferably a larger metro area in the US or Canada, with a large airport and decent public transit.

    tchafe1978

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

    I live in a small town in Southwest Wisconsin. Nearest big-ish city is Dubuque, IA, about 20 minutes down US 151. Madison is about an hour in the other direction on US 151. Milwaukee is about 2 hours away, Chicago about 3 hours.

    How long you lived there?

    About 22-23 years, since I graduated college.

    What you like about where you live now?

    Quiet and peaceful, less hectic than big cities, no traffic, little crime, people are friendly, low cost of living, low property taxes, the weather runs the whole gamut, we have everything but hurricanes at some point during the year, the Driftless Area of Southwest Wisconsin is beautiful year round. The hilliness of the region alone makes it better than Illinois :D

    What you dislike about where you live now?

    The area is pretty ecomically depressed, job opportunities are limited, and wages are lower than bigger cities. It is also a road trip in and of itself if you want to do any kind of activities like shopping, sporting events, concerts, etc outside of going to Walmart or watching the local high school teams.

    Hows the road trip opportunities?

    US 151 makes for easy trips to the southwest and east. Any other direction is a beautiful drive through the hills on 2 lane highways, though trips do sometimes take longer as a result.

    Where are would you love to move to?

    If I was to move anywhere again it would be back to the Milwaukee area where I grew up to be back near my family. Otherwise, I hate moving, so my wife and I are probably staying put for as long as possible.

    webny99

    Interesting thread so far! (I had typed my whole reply and it somehow got deleted when posting. I could have cried. But anyways, here goes again... :coffee:)




    Whereabouts do you live (in general terms) including nearby major metro areas?
    Monroe County, NY, just outside Rochester. An hour east of Buffalo, and an hour west of Syracuse, the classic "rose between two thorns"  :-P

    How long you lived there?
    22 years and counting.

    What you like about where you live now?
    -Four seasons. Winter can be tiring, but the changing seasons are always welcome and all four seasons have their own beauty.
    -Spectacular fall foliage! Fall is beautiful in this area, and we have the best foliage around aside from maybe New England.
    -No natural disasters - other than snow, which we're adept at handling, there's no hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, etc.
    -No traffic! Unless there's an accident, waiting for an extra light cycle at peak times is about as bad as it gets. The freeways are virtually congestion-free outside a few slow ramps/merges.
    -Good people. The lifestyle is much slower-paced here than the east coast, and everyone you might meet is usually pretty friendly/neighborly and often with a good sense of humor. Not much aggressive driving, road rage, or encounters with rude people (although still plenty of fast drivers, which is fine by me!)
    -Great food. The best pizza and wings of course, and also local specialties like trash plates (better than they sound), donut shops, Italian, some great local burger joints, etc.
    -Wegmans, the best grocery store in the world, which originated right here in Rochester.
    -Affordability. Until recently, this area was very affordable. Even now, you can get an extremely nice house for under $500k.
    -Proximity to a little of everything: urban, suburban, rural, lakes, rivers, beaches, forests, farms, mountains. This area has something for everyone, the only thing we truly don't have is desert.
    -Proximity to the rest of the Northeast and lower Great Lakes region. Rochester's central location will always be underappreciated. We are within a 6-hour drive of the entire Bos-Wash corridor, Toronto and environs, Ottawa, Montreal, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Columbus, and Detroit. How many places can say that? This is also huge for business, as any company that ships product out can reach all of those places with a 1-day transit time. Likewise, ROC airport has early AM flights to almost all those places, so business travelers can reach their destination by 8-9AM and easily be home the same day.

    What you dislike about where you live now?
    -Winter can be a slog, and we don't get much sunlight from November to April. How many consecutive days can you wake up to new snowfall (even if it's just enough to create a nuisance)? Add a few dozen and you'll be getting close (thanks to the lake effect).
    -Winter also takes a beating on the roads, so sometimes they're in pretty bad shape before they're even on the DOT's radar.
    -Humidity. Summer is usually beautiful temperature-wise, but the humidity can be almost unbearable at its peak. The humidity also makes the cold feel colder in the winter.
    -High property taxes. Exorbitantly high by most standards.
    -Lack of pro sports teams (not an issue for me personally). There's none here and only the Bills and Sabres in Buffalo, but what we lack in quantity we try to make up for in quality - the Bills are HUGE here!
    -Downtown Rochester isn't very big and is pretty much a ghost town outside normal business hours, but it's being invested in and seems to be getting more lively (slowly).
    -Lack of a N/S interstate connection to points south. The CSVT project will help with the worst of it and can't be completed soon enough!

    How's the road trip opportunities?
    Top notch in my opinion... for 8 months of the year. It would take forever to exhaust the day trip opportunities just in New York state alone between the Great Lakes, Finger Lakes, Letchworth Park, Niagara Falls, the Alleganies, Adirondacks, Catskills, and so on. There's tons of state parks too, so plenty of places to explore or have a get together. For travel further away, it's basically unlimited within 5-6 hours. The Thruway (I-90 in my part of the state) is an extremely high quality albeit very boring road that serves as our primary connection to the rest of the country, so there's nowhere that's truly hard to reach. The scenery is much better if you head south on I-390, but the tradeoff is a lack of interstate-grade highways once you get into PA.

    Where are would you love to move to?
    I don't plan to leave this area anytime soon, but if I could move anywhere right now, probably Montana or Idaho.

    Bruce

    Addendum to my answer:

    Pro
    Relative lack of regular natural disasters...in the past

    Con
    Increasingly vulnerable to natural disasters, now including yearly wildfire seasons, heat waves (in a place without a culture of residential AC use), and ice storms.
    Possibility of major earthquakes from offshore or right below the city
    Being rather close to a large nuclear stockpile

    Henry

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

    How long you lived there?
    Since 2000

    What you like about where you live now?
    It has one of the most beautiful skylines, with the Space Needle as the centerpiece, and Mt. Rainier serves as a perfect backdrop to it

    What you dislike about where you live now?
    Rainy weather, bad traffic and earthquakes (but then again, I experienced the latter two in my previous home city of L.A. too!)

    Hows the road trip opportunities?
    I-5 and I-90 are great for long-distance traffic, leading to many other places on the West Coast and the Great Plains/Midwest/Northeast, respectively

    Where are would you love to move to?
    I'm done with relocating for now, but if I had to do it again, I'd certainly return home to Chicago
    Go Cubs Go! Go Cubs Go! Hey Chicago, what do you say? The Cubs are gonna win today!

    JayhawkCO

    #22
    Whereabouts do you live (in general terms) including nearby major metro areas?
    On the east side of the Denver metro.

    How long you lived there?
    I lived here for 7 years growing up and then moved back 6 years ago.

    What you like about where you live now?

    • Best climate in the U.S. if you want all 4 seasons. It doesn't rain very much; it doesn't snow very much. The sun shines here as much as San Diego. But we still get the seasons arriving distinctly.
    • Lack of humidity and bugs.
    • Mountains. Enough said.
    • The political atmosphere here caters to my tastes. Since we're not supposed to talk about politics, I'll leave it at that.
    • Highly educated populace overall.
    • I can be on "vacation" in an hour. When I lived in the Midwest, you had to drive for at least three hours to get to another city that was worth visiting. Here, I can just go up I-70 to Idaho Springs and feel like I'm in a different world.
    • Lots of non-stop connections (including internationally) from DIA.
    • Lots of great breweries and distilleries to visit.
    • Denver is a healthy town. People get out and do things outdoors. We're also an earlier town, where people are more likely to get up at 6:00 on a Saturday, go for a hike, and then hit up a brewery than they are likely to still be at a bar at midnight.
    • Five major sports teams. While I'm not a Rockies, Broncos, nor Rapids fan, it's still nice to have them.
    • Lots of national parks within a day's drive at most (both in Colorado as well as Wyoming and Utah).
    • In Aurora specifically, a lot of great restaurants from world cuisines that you wouldn't find in a smaller town.
    • Weed and sports betting are legal.
    • People are generally polite and friendly.
    • We're a growing area, with the vibrancy that comes along with that.

    What you dislike about where you live now?

    • Traffic is kinda shitty, although it doesn't affect me as much since I work from home.
    • Housing is expensive, although since I already own a house, not as concerning for me. Property taxes aren't too crazy here.
    • Summer wildfire smoke either from our own mountains or California's.
    • People aren't great drivers. I think it's because so many people are from elsewhere here, everyone drives with their own "driving culture" so you have speed demons as well as people going ten under.
    • Online poker is still illegal.
    • The homeless problem is growing. Lots of tent camps, although Aurora just passed a ban on urban camping, so we'll see what that does.
    • Downtown has had a downturn post-Covid, so it's not as vibrant as it was pre-2020.
    • Because we're growing so much, "getting away from the crowds" in the mountains becomes tougher. Campsites are reserved the day they become available.

    How are the road trip opportunities?
    Amazing. Arguably the best in the country since any mountain road is going to be a fun drive. Basically everything west of I-25 isn't going to be terrible.

    Where would you love to move to?
    I love Colorado. If I moved, it would likely be either staying in state and going to Durango or I'd move internationally (South America or Southeast Asia would likely be at the top of my list). If I had to be elsewhere in the U.S., it'd probably be either Northern New Mexico, Northern New England, Minnesota, or Alaska.

    1995hoo

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

    Fairfax County, Virginia (DC suburbs).

    How long you lived there?

    Since 1974. I was born in Texas; at the time, my father was in the Army and he was transferred to the Pentagon when I was one year old. We stayed in the DC area after he was discharged. I did spend four years in Charlottesville attending UVA and three years in Durham, NC, attending Duke, but neither of those qualified as a "permanent address."

    What you like about where you live now?

    Obviously I'm very familiar with the area after living here for so many years. The sports teams I root for (especially the Capitals) are nearby. As a kid I don't think I appreciated how fortunate we were to have the Smithsonian museums and zoo, various cultural things like the Kennedy Center and National Theatre, lots of historic sites, and the US government all right here. Taking civics classes in school in which you're studying how Congress works and then going on a field trip to the US Capitol to watch them in action is not an opportunity most kids get. We're also close to both the Chesapeake and the mountains within an hour's drive in either direction. For me, high real estate values are a plus because I bought my house in 2001 and thus benefit from having a much lower mortgage balance than people buying now would have, though I recognize why many other people grouse about how real estate values and the resulting long commutes many of them endure to find more affordable properties further out.

    What you dislike about where you live now?

    Traffic, loads of extremely bad and aggressive drivers, out-of-control pedestrians/cyclists/scooter riders downtown, and generally increasing rudeness on behalf of the population generally. There's a difference between "New York rude" (born of impatience and low tolerance for stupidity) and "DC rude" (which is more the sort you see at, for example, the airport when someone mouths off to the airline personnel along the lines of "don't you know who I am!"). Also, while above I mentioned the proximity of the US government as a plus when I was growing up, it undoubtedly creates its share of headaches too due to security issues, parking restrictions, sudden random roadblocks, motorcades, etc.

    Hows the road trip opportunities?

    Generally terrific. In a single day's drive I can be in Canada or I can be in Florida. The only real mild nuisance is not necessarily having an ideal route west (you either go north to I-68/I-70 or south to I-64, or you deal with the gap in Corridor H between Thomas and Kerens).

    Where are would you love to move to?

    That's tough. I don't know. I liked Vancouver a lot, but obviously immigration would be a hassle and I would be unable to continue in my current job, which is a job I very much like. I can telecommute from anywhere in the United States, although for logistical reasons it works best for me to stay in the Eastern or Central Time Zones. I get a substantial salary bump in the form of locality pay, so even moving to a state with no state income tax would require careful thought because of the substantial pay cut I'd have to take. I'm highly unlikely to move any time soon anyway. In 2019 my brother moved away and then three months later our father died. If I moved away now for anything other than very compelling circumstances I'd feel like I'd be abandoning my mom since we don't have any other relatives in the DC area.
    "You know, you never have a guaranteed spot until you have a spot guaranteed."
    —Olaf Kolzig, as quoted in the Washington Times on March 28, 2003,
    commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

    "That sounded stupid, didn't it?"
    —Kolzig, to the same reporter a few seconds later.

    golden eagle

    Quote from: ZLoth on April 02, 2022, 11:53:18 PM
    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.

    Jackson, MS, halfway between Atlanta and DFW east and west (5-6 hours) and about three hours between Memphis and New Orleans north and south. I like that the cost of living is lower than many places. What I don't like? The murder rate is sky-high. Also not a lot of opportunities for high-paying jobs. As far as road trips, I mentioned being between Memphis and New Orleans. We're also about 2.5-3 hours from the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and about four from Alabama and Florida beaches.

    If there's somewhere else I wanted to move to, probably Nashville or Charlotte.



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