tell me where to live

AFAIK nowhere in TX is really bikeable due to massive urban sprawl, but I've only ever visited

you should add gainesville, fl to this list. In some ways my favorite city I've ever inhabited.

really why

island of liberalism within a region of fascinating schizo crazayness. Perfect size. Flat (bikey!). Warm but not quite tropical, more like a savannah climate. But NATURE OMG with lizards, flora explosion, alligators, spanish moss. Deep-rooted scene of grownup punk rock townies.

and CHEAP.

my gf is from gville and seems to have had a different experience w/ its climate

This is tough, because it's such a personal choice. I used to think I'd love to live in San Fran, but now I've decided against it, not that I like the opposite, which is living in Los Angeles.

Can you be more specific with the weather factor? As I see it, if you mean not extremes (super hot and/or super cold), you can narrow it down to Portland or SF, relatively speaking.

If we narrow it down from those two with regard to affordability, it'd be Portland. But I have a feeling you know all this already. It seems to have everything you're looking for, if I've made the right assumptions. The only thing it doesn't have is a highly ranked university, compared to the other cities, but it depends on what you're studying.

I've not voted for any yet, just so you know.

If it were up to me, I would move out of the US, if that's an option and you've not done that already.

portland seems like a pretty bad place to look for a job

you should move to new york

Yeah that's the big debit re: portland IMO. Really, I don't know if I would have a decent job anywhere else but here (NYC). But then, anywhere else I might not NEED a decent job.

SF is the only one i'd consider moving to, also prob the most expensive

portland seems like a pretty bad place to look for a job

you should move to new york

― iatee, Wednesday, April 3, 2013 11:22 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

looool

SF to me seems like NYC except beautiful (+), but without the jobs (-).

i love NYC and SF tons but wouldn't advise moving to either at this point

i was going to stump for the twin cities but then i saw weather on your list of desires and whoops

nyc is a better place to be poor than sf

move to la

If ur wite dayo sez china fyi

is dayo banned?

wait does ny really have a lot of jobs? I thought it was sorta kicked

a huge factor, if I were to consider changing states right now, would be: do they have any kind of state health program a la MA or MN?

If we narrow it down from those two with regard to affordability, it'd be Portland. But I have a feeling you know all this already. It seems to have everything you're looking for, if I've made the right assumptions. The only thing it doesn't have is a highly ranked university, compared to the other cities, but it depends on what you're studying.

reed and louis and clark are both in portland, depending on how strictly we are defining university here. pretty sure reed does at least masters stuff, if thats what yer going for.

the overall unemployment rate is still pretty bad but there are a lot more theoretical jobs to apply for as it is 10x the size of everywhere else, also you can get to all of these theoretical jobs anywhere in the metro area w/o a car

xp

I don't know if Reed is different now but back in '94, stepping onto campus caused the student body to practically force joints on you

reed is full of very smart very free-living types, yes, unless something changed

does reed even have graduate programs?

we stayed with the high school buddy of a friend of mine; said buddy was RA of the hall of his dorm and the first thing he did was proudly show us the giant gravity bong some freshmen on his hall had made

I was basically expecting Allan Funt to pop up from behind a wall at any second

I don't think reed has grad programs and here is all you need to know about their undergrad:

http://www.reed.edu/apply/tuition.html

dear god

sf is if possible more expensive than nyc. la isn't a bad place to go but it's also expensive. Portland is great but the job market isn't. I don't know much about it but folks rep for Pittsburgh too. Not sure abt the weather though. I'll always rep for Chicago which has everything but the good weather.

Pittsburgh is going through a resurgence at the moment, every time I go there I am startled/surprised by how much nicer the city is becoming

didnt reed recently get rid of their artisinal lsd making class or something

Pittsburgh is the new Portland! Either that or the other Portland is the new Portland. Burlington vt is cool too iirc.

I am pretty sure that if I had gone to Reed, I would have had a "homeless drug addict" phase

I have a friend who tried to be a pittsburgh bikehipster for a while, I think he liked the city but said he'd probably have to get a car if he stayed, which he didn't

very smart very free-living types

Austin is bikeable if you live in the right area, except that it's disgustingly hot a good chunk of the year. If you want to bike to work or school any time between May and mid-September (sometimes April to October), your work had better have a shower on the premises. Biking for fun, it's fine.

reed has at least some master component: http://www.reed.edu/mals/

i mean YMMV, i dont know shit about it

To be quite honest, you can't talk about job market unless you talk about what types of jobs, especially if it is within the humanities and arts.

If you're studying something like Computer Science, it doesn't really matter that much.

And...I just moved to Los Angeles. I would not recommend it. It does seem like anybody can get a job in various things here, though, to be fair. But it's just the conditions in which you will be working and living that really puts a damper on things. If you want to live a decent life, you're back to "There are no jobs!", which really means many sectors are filled with extremely competitive people/hard competition, just like any major city. You can move to a place where the numbers are slightly in your favour, however.

having looked up my former colleges comprehensive fees recently, that reed tuition info doesnt even slightly shock me

that reed site won't even give projected total costs for their skeezy masters of liberal arts, you have to calculate it yourself http://www.reed.edu/mals/financial_info/costs.html

sorry this is sorta off subject. anyway portland also has portland state and new york has tons of CUNY programs.

Los Angeles has its drawbacks, primarily the traffic and the cost of living. The city is much much less pleasant to deal w driving wise than it was when I first moved here in 1999. Despite public transit improvements I feel like it won't get any better if you have to drive.

Will be following this thread closely...I'm thinking about moving to Portland or Seattle as soon as feasible. Gotta get out of this bible belt -- the misery/conservatism/undereducation quotient is killing me.

For pedastrian- or walking-friendly neighbourhoods, have a look here: http://www.walkscore.com

ehhh walkscore drops the ball a lot, i think we've had this discussion on ilx before tho

I was kinda kidding about la just felt like it was sort of required in some way. The city's pretty w/e, it's great if you figure out how to make it alright but like there's nothing inherently interesting? this is probably a horrible post.

for example the closest grocery store to me is somebodys house that they have labelled "Gordy's Onion Ring Mix." xpost

it doesn't matter that much if you have a walking-friendly neighborhood if you can only find a job 5 miles away and the city has shitty public transport and no bike lanes etc

im totally walking to gordys onion ring mix tonight and demanding groceries until he kicks the crap out of me

It is quite horrible, in my very humble opinion. I can't believe Simon Reynolds lives here. I won't say where, but I guess when you reach a certain age, you just want to live in a very calm, peaceful area, despite the pollution.

Same, all the bodegas around here come up as "food" stores when really they are beer and TP stores. Which is fine, I like having beer and TP on every corner, just in case. They're just not groceries.

funny thing abt l.a. is while I like it--when not hating it--even then I can only think of a few neighborhoods I could tolerate living in. also the city is designed for maximum misery imo.

I wouldn't want to live anywhere else @ this point tho, I am a fan

if you can get a job up in northern california in the humboldt area or something do that for a while, go live in the redwoods, go live my dream

walkscore is more useful for looking at places top down than for getting info about one particular address

I stopped complaining about LA whilst here, because Angelenos get extremely touchy. But yes, I can't picture myself living here for another year or two.

is dayo banned?

― ❏❐❑❒ (gr8080), Wednesday, April 3, 2013 12:30 PM (30 minutes ago) Bookmark

unban me

I banned dayo

I do like LA don't get me wrong. Amazing food (esp ethnic fare, a lot of the touted fancypants newer spots are not that good imo). Great record stores. New frontier sensibility. LAX is a pretty cool airport. Nice houses if you can get one. If you have enough money it's understandable why people would want to live out their days here. It is amazingly how defensive ppl who live here can be abt the city though. It still has a weird inferiority complex.

la will be the coolest city in america in like 25 years probably

but a lot of the bad things are pretty objectively bad

no one will be able to afford to live here though, it'll just be Ryan gosling and Rihanna at that point.

there are not many jobs in asheville either btw, my sister and her family moved there a year or two to live near my parents, and my brother-in-law has had trouble finding good waiting/bartending jobs. they say it's pretty insular and jobs tend to go to the people with the connections (ie people who've lived there for a while) though i guess that's probably the case lots of places

ctrl+f 'philadelphia'

goddammit not again

no one will be able to afford to live here though, it'll just be Ryan gosling and Rihanna at that point.

exactly

also it's really hippy-dippyish and i don't think that's what clouds is into?

Fair pt xp

if there is one thing la is not, its one thing

I love posting about la

I've thought about the whole LA thing a lot, and the truth is, it is a very easy target. I started feeling bad for it. It is probably a city that was built in the least ideal way, as in, it has developed in a very lop-sided way. The nice stuff is very expensive, but what type of city/society is that? I used to love sushi until I got here. Now they tell me "Yes you can like totally get good sushi!" "Oh yah? Where?" "Oh this place, but it's like $600 per person." That basically sums up LA. But hey, I'm not from the US so I guess I see things differently....

When I was going to move down here people gave me a strange look and asked, "Why?"

The other day at the bank this Iranian fellow was helping me out, and I asked him why he moved here. Boy, that was a mistake. He gave me a look that looked like he was disgusted by what I said and said matter-of-factly, "Why wouldn't I?"

philly imho but the weather is awful (nice today tho)

dang so many answers!

i hadn't considered gainesville cuz i basically lived 50 miles from there in citrus county, which is hell on earth apart from the wildlife and nature.

i'm in chicago now and the weather is the main factor for wanting to leave, as well as the general lack of green and griminess of the neighborhoods outside of the loop and the north side.

i'm not a professional and not in any kind of industry and fine w/ min wage jobs until i get through school.

if you want a change in the weather you should just move up to the twin cities so that you appreciate what you left behind

when yr in north central florida, 50 miles makes a big, BIG diff :)

new orleans has been overrun by undesirables (urban planners, contemporary artists, artisanal sandwich makers) since the storm, can't recommend it.

should've added santa fe, they have a graduate program at st. john's college that i'd be interested in — plus i think i'd love new mexico weather.

san francisco > san diego >> LA

I like Santa Fe and Albuquerque but the crime rates for both are pretty rough IIRC.

generally speaking late great otm there

I lived in Boulder, CO, a long time ago.

Good universities. Walkability depends on where you live. I didn't have a car and made out okay relying on the bus system and a bike and a roommate with a car who took me grocery shopping. It was affordable when I lived there because I lived in flop houses full of hippies so our divided rent was like $200/month but I understand that it's really expensive now. I liked the weather. The people made me crazy, frankly, but that very well could have been the company I kept. Can't speak to jobs at all.

somewhere in the southwest states if you insist on leaving (but also consider a move to the far north side!)
NC is hell on earth if you are looking for a job

if (when????) we move to Chicago it'll be Evanston probs.

Yesssssss Chicago (or Evanston probs).

i'm trying to get my bf to move up to rogers park or edgewater while we're here. we probably won't move for a while yet.

In cars

Moving to Portland and living in a car is the definition of irony.

I love SF but it isn't cheap

can def get around without a car tho, I did for years (pre-kids)

and seems like there are jobs galore at the moment

the min wage in sf is the highest in america but finding a place to live in the city is a non-trivial challenge and living in the east bay is not like living in outer brooklyn

I know where you can get a room for $900 in a house with a family w/ a 5 yo hit me up yo

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Seattle? Jobs are ok here, relatively speaking. Not cheap, although cheaper than some.

u of washington has what looks like a really great asian languages program. i've been thinking abt it.

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

my 'somewhere else' was seattle, the other 5 of you saywhere please

the east bay is pretty much perfect, weather-wise, imo - never gets too hot, never gets too cold, never have to really think ahead about the weather when making any kind of plans

ytth commutes into SF from the east bay and doesn't mind it at all (bike+train+walk= approx. 45mins each way), but would probably be more of a hassle if you were trying to juggle weird school hours + work hours

not maine