If you could live in any city in the world, which would it be?

Barcelona, Sydney or San Francisco.

Anyway my choice would go London = NYC > Bristol > Exeter > don't really fancy the field. Thinking: if I can't have it all then I might as well go home.

Not so. Buying property there is expensive, but renting is about half London, alcohol reasonably priced, eating out considerably cheaper... books and clothes are more expensive. The main difference, though, is that it's easy to entertain yourself at little or no expense: going to the beach, sailing, bushwalking etc., whereas in London you always have to cough up to do anything. Main problem: as someone commented above, it's so damn far from anywhere.

I have yet to see much of NYC that's made me want to LIVE there for a long time, but then as far as the long-term goes I'm perfectly happy in London.

NYC is also my choice, btw.

Only person in this huge crowd who wants to live anywhere close to where I live already lives sorta close to where I live -- that would be Sam! I like the Austin choice. I think Austin would be an amazing place to live in, despite its relatively small population.

Me? I already live in a place I'm happy and comfortable with. If I could afford it, I would buy a secondary residence in London, seeing as though it left a tremendous impression on me, but I could never give Texas up wholesale. I am stuck to this state permanently.

I was so hoping you'd suggest that, Aaron! We're like in the same mind!

I'd like mild-to-cool temperatures, a decent-sized population (at least 500k+ people in the area), some culture/nightlife (being able to find a good movie theatre or concert or record store without having to drive to the closest city - ie Dallas, right now), good mass transit (I wouldn't cry if I never had to drive most of the time), not insanely expensive to live there.

Now finding that place is the hard part.

My zip code has a high of 104 with 27% humidity.

Oh, baby.

I'm not much for big cities, but my only experience with cities I consider "big" is in the northeast. New Orleans isn't a city in the same sense, nor's San Antonio. Even Denver's not quite the same. They all had a lot more room to work with, and less industry.

Have heard great things about living in Barcelona and in Dakar. What about Istanbul?

else:
Kyoto/Osaka
Sydney
NYC

but soon!

it's true! it's true! take note, tourists. unless you're coming to visit me.

True, that. We're not 1.4 million people living in a tiny 15 square mile area or anything like that. We're spread out over 333 square miles of land, land, land galore. The good part about this is that this gives us plenty of breathing and growing room and allows for the large spread-out feeling of living in a suburb or rural area. The bad part about this is that it always takes a rather great amount of effort to get from point A to point B. Heaven help you if you don't have a driver's license and a vehicle. But you know what? If it weren't for all that driving (ALONE, that is) I wouldn't get that wonderful feeling of being surrounded by my favorite music.

Also, yes, we don't have that much of a history in terms of industry (I think 100 years ago the neighborhood I live in now was farm land), but that's good, because that means our environment is cleaner and the soil isn't as contaminated. Of course, we're really trying hard to lure in industry (we've just won the bid for a new Toyota plant, and we're trying to nurture a good relationship with Boeing, for examples), but the environmental impact will be little due to local and federal legislation.

Um, so yeah. :)

And yeah, the 333 square miles? That's a defining characteristic of my experience of San Antonio, as much as New Orleans's water-locked status is. You really have to plan ahead to go out to the movies, if you don't live right by that one great AMC theater with the stadium seating. But it means everything's much more open, too, much less claustrophobic. (Again, my measuring stick for cities is Boston, so a linen closet full of nails seems less claustrophobic to me...)

my next choice after t.o is glasgow. i only went there for a weekend, but the vibe there is so amazing. it felt like sort of a mix of t.o and london, but with it's own thing going on. also, boys in kilts make me swoon.

It does have excellent bus coverage... when you're downtown. Close to downtown, you've still got good bus coverage. Out of the area Loop 410 encircles? *laughs* Yeah, good luck. Though the Medical Center, which is less than a mile away, is heavily covered.

And yeah, the 333 square miles? That's a defining characteristic of my experience of San Antonio, as much as New Orleans's water-locked status is. You really have to plan ahead to go out to the movies, if you don't live right by that one great AMC theater with the stadium seating.

I know what you're talking about! AMC Huebner Oaks 24! I live a reasonably short distance away from there. That was the theater I went to to see Velvet Goldmine, one of those movies that changed my life, at.

Yes, you do have to plan ahead, but that goes for almost everything in general. Mapquest is my best friend. Without it I'd be going, "Oh dear sweet Jesus, how am I going to get to these five places today?" I do have to confess -- when the sun is blinding the way it usually is during the summer, I drive around cursing the sun for existing and wishing I lived somewhere incredibly cloudy and darker and not so BRIGHT.

But it means everything's much more open, too, much less claustrophobic. (Again, my measuring stick for cities is Boston, so a linen closet full of nails seems less claustrophobic to me...)

*laugh* Ok, understandable. And yes, everything is more open. Sometimes this is a good thing (as in the case of housing and opportunities for parks). Sometimes this is a bad thing (I'm sure you can think of plenty of examples here, Milo). All in all, though, I'm used to this setup and think of it as just normal.

Many thanks, Tep, for making me ponder more about my surroundings.

But I can never remember where anything is, so I usually say "Uh ... near Bandera ... maybe."

I DO TOOOOOOOO. I love that theater and the Regal (Cinemas) Fiesta 16 Theater, which incidentally is in that same general vicinity (in the area bordered by I-10, Huebner, Vance Jackson, and De Zavala). Lucky bunch of ducks. Mom and I really *should* move out to that area.

But I can never remember where anything is, so I usually say "Uh ... near Bandera ... maybe."

*laugh* In this example, if you mean Bandera the road, oh dear. If you mean Bandera the TOWN, OH DEAR. Really, you need to pick up a map of the city -- Mapsco's (formerly Ferguson's) map book is the best for this, especially if you take the time to browse through all of it. Just in case you want to come back here for future trips. (Which I wouldn't mind, really.)

But Chacho's is on Bandera, and hence, Bandera is great.

probably raleigh,
it looks like, or else austin
(I'm hoping austin)

Though I suppose that if I needed an address somewhere it would be on the west coast.

Right! So you sorta know what my part of town looks like then. Did you ever get a chance to go to Ryan's? That is my favorite buffet place, bar none. *thinking* In fact, you could even get to my neighborhood from Bandera! Just either turn right (if you're heading north) or turn left (if you're heading south) on Wurzbach and just pass Evers. Ta-da, you've got my neighborhood!

But Chacho's is on Bandera, and hence, Bandera is great.

Oh yes. You know what, though? There's another Chacho's location, on Callaghan and I-10! I've actually tried out that one before. Am assuming the food is similar in both locations (i.e. delicious). Mom told me she's heard that the margaritas there are wonderful. Did you say the same thing? My memory's horrible.

As a matter of fact, I did pass the Bandera Chacho's yesterday! We were going to get some handicapped parking decals for Mom over at the tax assessor's office and we went to that shopping center right behind Chacho's. I saw it and immediately thought of you.

Ryan's ... I don't think so, but I know where Wurzbach is. Not sure about Evers, but I don't drive, so I'm impressed I remember as much as I do :)

Go home, dad, you're drunk. ;)

And Brooklyn is a city, matter of fact.
http://encarta.ancestry.com/search/rectype/inddbs/6736.htm

Gotta educate and keep the San Juan clique in check, ya know.

New York, London, or Paris if I could find and afford a neighborhood that both is as relatively low-density as my current DC neighborhood (midrise apartment buidlings and rowhouses; a large park nearby) and has good public transportation links to the rest of town.

I've never been to Seattle, but everything I do know about the place is positive.

1. Puget Sound & the islands in it like Whidbey, Vashon, Bainbridge, San Juans
   
2. Cascade mountains within a 45 min drive & more mountains on the other side of the sound
   
3. the most amazing sunsets I've ever seen anywhere
   
4. excellent coffee & lots of live music
   
5. very moderate climate- low 40s in the winter and low 70s/no humidity in the summer
   
6. Vancouver & Portland- which both have beautiful downtowns- very short drives away
   
7. Pike Place Market
   
8. Film Festival & Bumbershoot can be fun
   
9. rents are not too bad right now, we're coming off a 13% vacancy rate in Belltown abt 2 years ago
   
10. lots of great, cheap sushi, Thai, Vietnamese food
    
11. quite a few good bookstores & lots of good music stores
    

1. minumum 8.8% sales tax in the city
   
2. Public transportation consists of a lousy, useless bus system
   
3. takes YEARS to even decide on how to replace a broken highway (ie Viaduct, 25%+ chance of collapsing in next earthquake, pieces of it regularly crash to the ground), let alone build it
   
4. good Indian food is hard to find unless you go to the Eastside
   
5. EARTHQUAKES
   
6. VOLCANOS, baby
   
7. I-5 and 520 are woefully inadequate for the amt of traffic on them- you get creeping-at-5mph traffic jams on them at 11 AM on Sundays
   
8. locals are insular, to say the least (on the other hand, everyone I know from work & my neighborhood moved here from elsewhere, so who cares abt the locals)
   
9. art museums are really tiny
   
10. no one out here knows how to dress (it sometimes seems jeans that are too short + white socks + tevas + a baggy fleece jacket is the required uniform out here)
    
11. too many hipsters in some sections
    
12. many of the interesting parts of town (see Broadway) are dying
    
13. houses are super expensive, thanks to microsoft
    
14. our downtown is ugly, boring, inefficient to walk or drive in, dirty, and has really no right to call itself a real city
    
15. Belltown is full of Range Rover-driving yuppies
    

I'm in Portland right now, and like it a lot for a city so small. Was marvelling at the brilliant thrifting-by-weight opportunities today, the fabulous club I just played (Holocene), the pure plain poetry of the industrial architecture on the east side (stark, severe bottling plants and paint factories with 40s lettering on the wall), and the excellent book and record stores (Powell's, Ozone). Plus clean air, liberal politics and striking scenery. And free trams!

let's see...

It's a fairly young and very fashionably hip city in a nice location right between the mountains and sea. There is great food (especially beef). Osaka, Kyoto and Nara are very near. The public transportation can get you pretty much anywhere. The hyogo prefectural art musem is pretty good. (Kobe is where Gutai was based.) It's also much more relaxed then Tokyo, and very slightly less westernized.

Glasgow as it was the only place I wanted to move to when I was young, and if I moved back there now I would either save myself a fortune on taxis, see my friends more, or not have to impose myself chez Ally C and RJG because I can't afford a taxi (note, I only live ten miles away, but it is a hassle getting home at night).

wanna go somewhere