Best of the Top 50 Best Places To Live 2012 according to Money Magazine

They really like generic Dallas suburban towns. They're nice, and people seem to like them, but they're pretty standard rich suburbs.

4 different places in Maryland! all perfectly nice if unremarkable in my experience, which makes me view the whole list with suspicion.

I've got nothing against Gaithersburg but the people I know from there sure as hell aren't moving back there

cupertino prob bc if you live there you have fuckyou money

Yorba Linda has the Dick Museum, which is admittedly a treat

can't believe they list TWO phoenix suburbs.

hello hello folks this is according to money fucking magazine!

the only place on that entire list i think i've actually ever been to is cupertino and iirc it was fucking boring there and there's no reason why anybody would ever want to live there, except it's quiet and low crime & has good weather and there are lots of jobs and it has good schools for your children and a lot of chain mall places with good parking where you can buy many many things to fill your mcmansion

also a high per capita number of mercedes dealerships, clearly this would be important as well

I wish they would qualify these lists. It'd be a bit bulky, but a list that actually said "if you're a boring upper-middle class empty nester couple who is frightened to death of any urbanized area" or some such.

pretty sure covers like this already get that point across
http://www.whichmagazine.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/money-magazine-august.jpg

Nothing in northern california, thumbs down. Are those numbers the median house prices or?

chandler? ha

Parsippany New Jersey is the most colorless, soul-less place I could imagine.

And they list "Franklin,NJ". There are about 7 Franklin, NJs. If it is the one near New Brunswick, I used to live there, and if so, this list has to be some sort of joke.

the only place on that entire list i think i've actually ever been to is cupertino and iirc it was fucking boring there and there's no reason why anybody would ever want to live there, except it's quiet and low crime & has good weather and there are lots of jobs and it has good schools for your children

okay lol

"there's no reason to live there except for these five reasons that are massively important to most people"

These are all chosen based on arbitrary metrics that have little to do with the intangibles that actually make a place liveable. They're all soulless "air conditioned nightmares" that anyone with any sense would avoid like the plague.

agree with Brookline, dunno about the rest of these though

tbf Brookline has a ton of shit to do in it and is right next to the city, so it probably sticks out like a sore thumb on this list

lol xpost

btw don't forget

Best state to not have a city place in Money's 2012 "Best Small Cities To Live" list

Cupertino is snoozetown usa

i'm at my parents' house in one place about to go to bar trivia in another LIVIN THE HIGH LIFE

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

chino hills? DIAMOND BAR??

this is chapel hill very easily right?

framingham???

framingham massachusetts??

Parsippany-Troy Hills, NJ 53,200

WTF

And they list "Franklin,NJ". There are about 7 Franklin, NJs. If it is the one near New Brunswick, I used to live there, and if so, this list has to be some sort of joke.

― One Way Ticket on the 1277 Express (Bill Magill), Tuesday, August 21, 2012 9:57 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is also WTF, even if it is one of the nice Franklins (like Franklin Lakes).

this article is trolling of the highest magnitude

white plains also WTF ... the parts of that city that aren't soulless are outright shitholes.

half the glossies in america write this article every six months, it's like the us news & world report college rankings for small city chambers of commerce.

so are there any cities on this lists that aren't either college towns (which are usually ringers for these things) or large historyless suburbs and mcmansionvilles? like a place w/o a large college AND the local cheesecake factory or pf changs aren't frontrunners on local 'best of' lists?

parsippany/troy hills isn't a college town. and none of the franklins in NJ that i know of are college towns, either (there's a franklin that's the next town over from Rutgers and is also a 20 minute drive to Princeton, but it doesn't actually house either the Rutgers or Princeton campuses).

yeah, some of these might have community colleges or weird for-profit devry-style institutions.

and christian colleges.

well yeah any decent sized city will have a community college or technical school or maybe a small private school, i was thinking more cities where the school doesn't define the city/isn't one of the three or four largest employers. last night on twitter sarah silverman asked if there were any progressive small towns where the mom and pop shop was run by a couple of lesbians, etc and she was flooded w/ responses...all of which (that i saw at least) were college towns. would actually be vaguely interested (way more interest than i have in the rest of these gimmick lists) in a list of small cities that aren't primarily college towns (no chapel hill, athens, etc) and aren't soulless mcmansionvilles or within a two hour drive of a city w/ a major league franchise. eg cities like savannah.

They're all soulless "air conditioned nightmares" that anyone with any sense would avoid like the plague.

Gaithersburg isn't, so I voted for it just to push back on this comment

why isn't there a poll option NO TO ALL OF THESE PLACES THAT SEEM KINDA BORING

hey cmon now - since its renovation the chicken bone saloon has brought a newfound respectability to downtown framingham

let's be real what american non-major cities could they possibly list that people wouldn't go "oh that place seems boring" over and over and over

38 Framingham, MA 68,800

lmao @ worcester-lite placing

"the only place on that entire list i think i've actually ever been to is cupertino and iirc it was fucking boring there and there's no reason why anybody would ever want to live there, except it's quiet and low crime & has good weather and there are lots of jobs and it has good schools for your children

okay lol

"there's no reason to live there except for these five reasons that are massively important to most people""

just for the record i was aware of the irony inherent in that statement when i wrote it.

... and also, duh! i was born and raised in chapel hill! how did i miss that! after growing up there i couldn't wait to leave, but now that i've spent time living in san fran, koh phanang, bali & rio de jainero i kind of want to retire there. last visit home i saw louis ck, kanye & jay-z, the monks of shaolin doing modern ballet, and some totally random indie acts on a random thursday night that were all quite good. also c.hill goes all out for halloween, and has some decent-to-good ethnic food. raleigh and durham, both 1/2 hour drive away, have scenic downtown areas, gay bars, and several good karaoke options. rtp has jobs galore. duke has a monthly world music series with visiting tuvan throat singers and shit.

next visit home i think nick lowe and robyn hitchcock will be double billing at a mini festival in town, and i'll be missing dead can dance by a couple weeks. dunno if cupertino gets those kinda acts in? i feel like no. college towns for the win!

let's be real what american non-major cities could they possibly list that people wouldn't go "oh that place seems boring" over and over and over

― some dude, Tuesday, August 21, 2012 10:32 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm, pretty much everywhere is interesting in some way unless you're intransigent or from there

Cupertino is a typical Silcoval slimebucket

Best is so subjective my gosh

i swear this almost feels like a payola scam, because maple grove in MN is a total failed exurb, was supposed to blow up in uh 2006 so you can guess how that went, when we were shopping for houses in 2008 our realtor told us that (not that he needed to because that place is horrible to begin with) maple grove was one of the locations that he wouldn't even show us listings from because the foreclsure rate was the second highest in the major metro area. like 25+%! woodbury was in the same boat but fared slightly better, but both of them are places where mn people just sorta shake their heads knowingly when peeps say they live there.

Dated a girl from Maple Grove back in highschool... her and the other local punks/goths called it Maple Grave

The MN choices are all pretty goddamn WTF

castle rock is total far exurb with factory outlets lol. highlands ranch is fine if u just need to keep ur urchins safe in middle-middle franchiseville and you are on painkillers all the time. centennial isn't even a town, it's scraps of non-contiguous, previously unincorporated strip malls, unified to hoard commercial tax receipts.

also, my eyes did goggle at framingham idgi

Amherst NY is dull and weirdly not all that posh/affluent-looking for a city that tends to end up on these lists. I guess it's all about the low crime rate. Has a great microbrew/cigar pub though.

Also, the public transportation sucks. I've been told this by design to keep out the Buffalo riff-raff.

Money commenters on Castle Rock, very much in character:

"When my company was transferring me from Southern California to the Denver area I had to find a home. We chose Castle Rock. I do remember going to a festival downtown while we were home shopping and noticing that it was all white people. Then I saw a black guy, but it turned out he was in the band that was performing.
I've been in Castle Rock 5 years now and I've now lost my ability to understand people who speak broken english.
Local teenagers work at the car washes and fast food joints rather than adults who don't speak english well or at all. The lack of diversity doesn't bother me anymore when the upside is that kids can actually get jobs here."

"'There's not much diversity' is a downside?"

Also, the public transportation sucks. I've been told this by design to keep out the Buffalo riff-raff.

― EveningStar (Sund4r), Wednesday, August 22, 2012 1:58 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

LOL, hello Marietta, GA

Am from Arlington, VA; voting for it

I Voted for Arlington too. Not from there, but it's the best DC suburb by a fair distance.

of the places I know, this is Brookline vs Arlington

heard great things about Chapel Hill, and Newton is totally boring family mcboresville but in a manner where if you had the cash, it wouldn't suck to live there

south jordan, ut is hell on earth

feel like there are a lot of instantly recognizable characteristics that group these places together but i'd be hard-pressed to name concrete universals. i suspect deep down it's, like, ontological or something. they are quite different than college towns.

you can find a marriott brand hotel in almost all of them.

Although not on this list, the best DC suburb is Bethesda, Maryland. Excellent balance of urban and suburban attributes, close to DC, has Metro subway stops and easy access to major thoroughfares, full of unique, tasty restaurants, nightclubs, and stores that aren't the standard chain fare, very walkable, and just a great overall vibe. Downsides are sparse parking and expensive housing for detached houses, though it's still less expensive than nearby Potomac and older highrises are affordable. Great schools if you have kids. There's also the National Institutes of Health and their incomparable medical library amongst other things; great golf, swimming, and trails, two farmers' markets, and all manner of cultural events. The four MD cities that made this top-50 list by contrast could all be Anytown, USA.

The whole notion of "best places to live" is so ridiculous though, given the huge disparity in what ppl value in a home.

arlington sucks, bethesda sucks, WHEATON 4 LIFE. or downtown silver spring pre-"revival"

I liked old Silver Springs.

Me too. After several failed attempts at "reviving" the old downtown SS, they finally succeeded in turning it into..... another generic "power center" outdoor mall full of chain stores, masquerading as a "village" even though nobody lives there.

Same sort of proposed "revival" plans keep threatening Wheaton. Those opposing it have adopted the slogan "Keep Wheaton Weird!"

Keep South Jordan Crushingly Insipid!

all the big new moneyed towns in montgomery county are kind of creepy, bethesda is so ~-*new*-~ it feels like 'main street' at an amusement park, and places like gburg/rockville sort of weird me out bc they have literally every chain store ever. fond memories tho. hoco 4 life.

Not sure what's 'new' about Bethesda - it's probably the oldest MD suburb other than nearby Chevy Chase due to proximity to DC, judging by the available housing - it may be an old moneyed town but not a new one. Before Rockville, then Gaithersburg became built-up as close-into-the-city housing became too expensive and ppl settled further down the I-355 corridor, Bethesda wasn't even that "moneyed". But your impressions of RV and Gaithersburg are spot on.

a few years ago i was visiting family in dc and some chick told me she lived in "north bethesda" and i was like wtf is that and she described it and i was like oh lol rockville.

are there any cities left with weird old suburbs? new orleans has arabi but everything else is applebee's and subdivisions and lots of cops.

I used to live in North Bethesda. It wasn't just "like" Rockville; it used to be Rockville. About 20 years ago ppl living on the southern tip of Rockville successfully petitioned to have that area legally renamed "North Bethesda", ostensibly to emphasize it was more an extension of downtown Bethesda than of the north-of-Randolph-road industrial sector of Rockville, but really to associate themselves with upscale Bethesda rather than working-class northern Rockville to boost their home value.

when i say bethesda i mean specifically the mini-city part right around the metro stop. it seems very new to me anyway.

also the mormon church.

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

my hometown for the win! go heels! lol

After several failed attempts at "reviving" the old downtown SS, they finally succeeded in turning it into..... another generic "power center" outdoor mall full of chain stores, masquerading as a "village" even though nobody lives there.

And worst of all, they closed down Geppi's Comic World!

I used to live in North Bethesda. It wasn't just "like" Rockville; it used to be Rockville.

When I was a kid, that area was usually called "White Flint." What used to be "Travllah" is now denoted "North Potomac," I think.

Downtown Bethesda (let's say, everything near the Metro and north of Old Georgetown and E-W HWY) was a delight in the late 1980s and I hope it still is.

white flint mall is closing iirc

in 1985 that place read as "the future" compared to tired-ass montgomery mall, let me tell you

i would like to add that cabin john plaza kept it real

And worst of all, they closed down Geppi's Comic World!

!!!! i grew up a couple of blocks from there. last time i was home it was a place called "alliance comics" that didn't quite have geppi's' particular blend of surly and musty but was a perfectly serviceable comic shop. if even that's gone i'ma burn nu-silver spring to the fkn ground.

once upon a time i worked at the k3mp m1ll mus1c in city place mall in downtown ss, an earlier and gloriously failed attempt at "revitalization." is there a thread for aborted gentrification? there's something weird and snow crashy about the whole thing.

i love the parts of silver spring where "revitalization" didn't quite take btw - that whole stretch of georgia near the district line is the best. piratz tavern! the game exchange! the world building and all that decaying sixties architecture!