Best Cities to Live, Work and Play

wtf these are all awful! except austin and raleigh maybe? haven't heard much about raleigh.

That's an awful awful list.

Pro_v_O ?

Houston might top my list of worst places to live.

Houston, TX - Been to the airport there. Got ripped off at currency exchange.
Raleigh, NC - Drove through it. Maybe that was Durham.
Omaha, NE - Drove through it. Once applied for a job in Council Bluffs. Dodged a bullet.
Austin, TX - Spent a week there. Wasn't turned off completely. Still, it's surrounded by Texans.
Fayetteville, AR - Hippies and jocks. Pretty chill all considering. Surrounded by Duggars.
Des Moines, IA - Drove through it. Pretty skyline.

it's obviously "Provo, Utah".

jesus fucking christ

Well, from that list, Austin kinda wins this easily.

i love these lists because they pop up once per week on yahoo and they're always along the lines of "best places to live affordably!" or "best places to raise a family!" and they're always filled with nightmare destinations like oklahoma city or scranton.

Raleigh is so awesome. It's changing really fast.

Don't know about the others. At least Houston has baseball.

Oh yeah, Austin. Never been there but I am sure I would love it.

Scranton. Scranton. Makes me laugh every time.
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Scranton. Yep!

the next list will include rockford, erie, and grand junction

Don't forget Stamford.

actually i like rockford, it's got some good pool halls and dive bars.

Grand Junction is pretty. Also, it's home to Mark Mathis.

My brother lives in Des Moines. He's bored out of his skull. When your main cultural touchstone is Slipknot, your town's a backwater.

It sure can get cold in Des Moines.

I used to live in iowa city, that's at least a fun town. Cold as hell there too

The University of Houston has one of the best MFA programs for my goals, and I was seriously considering it as an option.

Then I remembered it was in Houston.

Voted Austin.

Also I live here. So. You know.

you can hang w/ warren buffett in omaha, tho'.

Austin by default

durham > chapel hill > raleigh

boostin' houston got crazy hoods

These lists are always fun. I've started a coupla threads about them, myself.

seriously:
1) Austin, TX
2) Sacramento, CA
3) Colorado Springs, CO
4) Boise, ID

Fayettville is hell on earth.

durham > chapel hill > raleigh

Ah man. Now you had to go and bring the ACC into this shit.

Duke can go choke on a bag of dicks. Really.

I've been in all 48 contiguous states, but have never spent time in any of these places, except for Sacramento and maybe Raleigh. I think I passed through Des Moines once.

Regardless of all that, I want to move to Boise someday. It's the city of the future. Austin is possibly the best city on the list, though? Give Boise half a decade or so, though...

Provo, Utah is my shit

and, what the fuck does "creative class" mean? Richard Florida must hang for introducing that into the douche lexicon (douchicon).

I was actually wondering that myself.

It refers to people like you, burt. It means people just like you...

Spent the night in Boise a few weeks ago. It was nice. The library had a sign on it that said, "LIBRARY!" complete with exclamation point.

"People in creative fields -- scientists, engineers, architects, educators, writers, artists and entertainers -- are catalysts of vitality and livability in a city."

ENGINEERS haha oh please.

i thought boise would be disqualified due to its weather, but it's apparently it's actually not too frigid there.

Having tried to enjoy the Boise nightlife the one night I stayed there, it seemed like a teeny simulation of Dallas in a gorgeous valley. It didn't seem like a "creative" city per se. What the hell does that mean anyway?

Also, Boise is temperate because it's just north of northern California.. it's south of most of Oregon, just east of it in fact.

Great record store in downtown Boise, though. Hopefully it's still around.

i'd fuck with either boise or austin, despite having been to neither one.

I was in Boise once but it was after being in Portland, Seattle and Eugene for two weeks and it really didn't compare - too shiny and new and de-centralized deserty. Two friends lived there for 8 years and loved it though, lots of nature stuff and mountain biking and kayaking and close to ski hills and such. They just moved north to Coeur d'Alene mostly because they got sick of the heat and dryness in the summer.

I kind of want to visit again though. And I can kind of see the "city of the future" thing just due to it growing so much and is relatively cheap.

Boise is a great city to Live, Work, and Play (if you're a businessperson/entrepreneur type who thinks "work ethics" are tools of the devil.)

Fayettville is hell on earth.

Thanks for sharing your opinion, Stan Heath.

what the fuck with these lists, every single time

but at least the demog researchers who come up with this cockamamie shit are clearly indie as fuck compared to all the magazine listmakers ILM pisses on every couple of months

provo/houston/des moines is like if you did top ten albums of all time and stuck smack dab in there were major force west, chocolate synthesizer and jet generation

austin is clearly the lou reed transformer of this list

wow. i was gonna say yesterday that boise as a city of the (distant) future is otm, but i'm most interested in what houston does with transit. and now the mayor of houston says on npr this AM that the city will be the most aggressive in the country over the next three years in building more light rail.

no wolverhampton, no credibility

mayor of houston says on npr this AM that the city will be the most aggressive in the country over the next three years in building more light rail

Interested in this. Does Houston have too much catching up to do? Its one of the worst served by mass transit? And very low density? Lot of challenges ahead for Houston if it doesn't adapt

Now you had to go and bring the ACC into this shit.

haha i was talking about the cities, but really, either way:

durham > chapel hill > raleighwood >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> college park

wow. i was gonna say yesterday that boise as a city of the (distant) future is otm, but i'm most interested in what houston does with transit. and now the mayor of houston says on npr this AM that the city will be the most aggressive in the country over the next three years in building more light rail.

If that happens, then I would consider moving there. Houston has some cool shit, from what I understand, and maybe has gotten an unfair rep at times

why don't you just marry it

gabbnepedia

Hahaha

gabby, have you ever have actually set foot in the city of Houston?

it's great that you are handy at copying and pasting off of the internet though, good job.

i really have no idea which city to choose, maybe houston because it would have to be more interesting to live there than any of the other places. but i need places with a body of water in close proximity or a lot of precipitation (though I guess houston isn't any further from the gulf than l.a. is from the pacific).

Also the air in Houston is 90% water.

gabby, have you ever have actually set foot in the city of Houston?

yes, more than once

Houston has a river and is the only town on the list an hour from the ocean

what is the most underrated city on the list?

should we be dividing these up into live, work, or play like a game of marry, boff, kill?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/Mars_Hubble.jpg/665px-Mars_Hubble.jpg

oh well it's probably not a great place to raise your kids. in fact it's cold as hell

ORALEIGH?

ive never been there but ive got a feeling salt lake city kind of rules

What you're missing in Houston:

http://english.people.com.cn/200509/29/images/0928_C19.jpg

http://english.people.com.cn/200509/29/images/0928_C37.jpg

and here's that hot ocean everyone wants to live near:

http://english.people.com.cn/200509/29/images/0928_C23.jpg

hmmm

well, i knew someone who was going to acupuncture school there, but that was years ago and i lost touch w/him, so i dunno if he ended up staying there or what

also, isn't there supposed to be some great "arts" district there or something?

The Menil Collection is fucking AWESOME, particularly the Twombly Gallery and the Rothko Chapel.

my stepmother lives outside of houston and has mentioned that too many of 'those people' moved there after katrina

The Menil Collection is one of the best museums in the United States.

Houston has a river and is the only town on the list an hour from the ocean

Not ocean worth visiting on a regular basis, trust me.

The Menil Collection is one of the best museums in the United States.

This statement is ridiculous.

quincie, have you ever visited the Menil?

YES

Best museum in Houston, maybe.

never question the qs, sucka

http://www.listsofbests.com/list/10509

Well then. Are you aware of the difference between "one of the best" and "the best"?

Travel Holiday (now defunct) magazine published this list in November 2000.

I have to admit, including 'shopping' and 'food' on that list of criteria is pretty idiotic.

the Menil Collection has no food, and the only shopping is in a tiny store selling only books in a small building adjacent to the collection

From "1000 Places To See Before You Die":

The Menil Collection can be found in a leafy residential neighborhood southwest of downtown Houston. Widely esteemed as one of the greatest and most eclectic private museums in the United States, it is a magnificent assemblage of some 15,000 objects (a revolving number are on display) amassed by the late Paris-born Dominique de Menil and her husband John. Sometimes described as American Medicis, the de Menils (whose fortunes derived from the oil-services firm Schlumberger, Ltd., founded by Dominique's father and uncle) were legendary as Houston's patron of the arts.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/jan-june05/apple_3-22.html

JEFFREY BROWN: Favorite building -- I mean, in terms of architecture?

R.W. "JOHNNY" APPLE, JR.: I'm not sure how much people are aware of it. We're in a very inventive and marvelous period in architecture in this country. I'll give you two, if I may. One: Renzo Piano's Menil collection in Houston, one of the best museums I've ever been in.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-menil-collection-houston

I've visited Houston once, and it's *kinda* like Los Angeles, good and bad. Take away Hollywood from L.A. and put it in Texas long enough away from a beach and fill it with Texans. shrug. A lot of the good things that can be said about Houston, weather aside, can be said about Los Angeles too.

"Tons of great things are in it, but you know, it still sucks ass, omg"

Even down to the schizo zoning, which is also a good/bad L.A. quality.

Yeah I guess my basic point is the relative awesomeness of the Menil is hardly enough to rescue Houston from A#1 ultimate suckassness.

I was glad to see Fayetteville on this list. I've been really satisfied with my move from San Diego two and a half years ago. I've met at least three other expatriate Californians who feel the same way (two of my co-workers are from Berkeley, Irvine). People I've met that have moved here from Texas, the midwest, New England all seem to really love it too. I'm finishing up a graduate program here (the program is shittier than I'd anticipated but it's already helped me get a good full-time job with the city so I'm not too concerned), my wife started as a lowly accounting tech in an engineering department at the University and got promoted to the chair's assistant within a year, we can afford to rent in a little historic district with tree-lined streets and a 10-minute walk to a grocery store, can walk to work downtown in 30 minutes, beautiful rolling hills all around, strict tree preservation plan enforced, zero traffic, interstate access, expansive network of multi-use trails winding through the entire city leading to ever-increasing walkability, plenty of good eats catering to our thriving immigrant and baked student population, and of course there's the relatively low cost of living which I understand is a factor in drawing lots of awful gentrifying yuppies like me here. Nobody has resented me to my face though, yet. The downside is that we in Washington County are adjacent to Benton County, the belly of the fucking beast, home to unbridled sprawl, megachurches, McMansions, peace/immigrant/reproductive rights hating congressman John Boozman, and the Waltons. I've also not yet grown accustomed to finding liquor stores closed on Sunday.

Houston sux

Houston, we have no problems

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

> Yeah I guess my basic point is the relative awesomeness of the Menil is hardly enough to rescue Houston from A#1 ultimate suckassness.

Jeez, just cause the entire place smells like rotten eggs and is full of the worst designed roads ever and may as well be underwater given the humidity...

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

CRYSTAL PALACE IN SHARDS

What you're missing in Houston:

http://www.visitusa.com/texas/images/samhouparkpic.jpg http://www.railonwestheimer.org/west_mulberry.jpg http://www.texasexplorer.com/hermannkids.jpg

http://www.trainweather.com/110304HOUsp982-15R.jpg http://farm1.static.flickr.com/188/386001545_0a46ecf62e.jpg http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/PTGPOD/528240~Saturn-Rocket-Johnson-Space-Center-Houston-Posters.jpg

http://www.iec-okc.com/portals/0/ProjGalleryImages/Rice.jpg http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1433/860805998_da2239ff58.jpg?v=0 http://nymag.com/travel/weekends/070530houston_do_560.jpg

http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pwb/06/0417/m/3Men__041.jpg http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h272/med7605/rothko.jpg http://freshphotography.org/photos/christine/CS_0012_sm.jpg

http://architecture.myninjaplease.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/dan_havel_dean_ruck_montrose_boulevard.jpg http://blogs.chron.com/bartab/archives/bartab005.jpg http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1064/812167740_10801e8a87.jpg?v=0

http://www.roadfood.com/photos/6041.jpg http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2215/1565060793_39ee4f71ff.jpg?v=0 http://mlb.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/pMLB2-4259651dt.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b0/Hobby_Center_Houston.jpg/800px-Hobby_Center_Houston.jpg

http://www.pjlighthouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/ants-in-red-car-pjlighthouse-03.jpg

those little dirt things are Crazy Ants, which have taken over Houston

and, what the fuck does "creative class" mean? Richard Florida must hang for introducing that into the douche lexicon (douchicon).

― burt_stanton, Thursday, June 19, 2008 6:52 PM (1 year ago)

lol @ richard florida http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_ruse_of_the_creative_class

oh wow i love all those pics of Houston. i have physically been to all those places. almost kinda miss the place now!