If you had the opportunity to live anywhere in the Continental US, where would you be? Why?

What are the pros and cons of where you live now?

I could ask a whole lot more questions, and might do so later, but those are the two main things I'd like to hear your opinion on...

~Ang

We are living where we want to,South Florida.

The Sunshine State.

Pros: We live on vacation
Cons: Hurricanes and Snow Birds.

Fact:The summers are 94' from June to October. The winters are a non humid 75'

The ocean is awesome. Schools suck. String bikinis are awesome.

When we moved here housing was really reasonable. Now I could not afford to buy my own house.
Life in general is pretty dam good.

If we were able to live somewhere else it would be Costa Rica.

Right Here in the Shenanadoah Valley -- Mild Winters -- Inexpensive land -- Wild and wooded areas -- and LOTS OF WINERIES!

Ah, somehow I missed this one...

I'm not sure where I'd live, that's why I posted mine in Platonically Speaking . But as for where I live now (northern az),

Pros - good schools, nice balance between small town and city, growing rapidly so lots of work, good horse-riding country (flat, dry, etc), sweeping, harsh, wide-open views, monsoons (mmmm, love the lightning shows)

Cons - housing prices climbing rapidly, cold winters/no snow, not much precipitation at all except in monsoons, wildfires, the big winds, and hot summers (but it's a dry heat...yeah. Great for promoting nosebleeds)

I'm not sure where I would live if I could go anywhere. Probably somewhere on the west coast. Currently I live in Michigan

Pro's: have all 4 seasons and the fall is beautiful when all the trees change, I grew up on Lake Michigan, now I live about an hour away. I love being close to the lake watching the sunsets, playing in the sand and water, boating, fishing, all that fun stuff. Pick and choose good and bad schools - depends. Housing prices are a little high I think, but nothing compared to a lot of high priced places.

Con's: Snow - lot's of snow, cold, ice, high humidity, short summers, long winters, snow, higher unemployment rate, snow, lot's of factories closing up, did I forget to mention snow??

Sorry, I hate the snow!! It's pretty to look at - out the window! And we have been getting a lot of it! Thursday night we just got dumped on - we got like 8 or 9" and with it blowing around - it actually covered the thing on the roof for our furnace. We woke up to no heat!! Hubby had to get on the roof and shovel snow up there!! I am a warm weather person. If anyone finds a place that stays pretty consistent with 73-85 or so without hurricanes, floods or earthquakes, or tornadoes I would love to hear about it!

I love living here in Portland. I moved from Southern CA six years ago, and to be honest, I can't think of another place I would want to live.

I always had a romantic notion of moving to some fishing village in New England--like in Maine or Massachussettes, where I would move into "the old so-and-so house" and wear sweaters and watch the men on the docks unloading their bounty from the sea...

I second Portland. See the On the lookout post in Platonically Speaking.

I love Portland as well, but having already lived there I'd like to try something different for a while... we used to talk about retiring there or Montana (oh, how I love Montana except for the lack of big cities which I wouldn't wish on the state to save my life).

One of the great things about Portland is its ability to mesh so many different lifestyles into one big melting pot without intermingling them too much. There's little havens for the underground sort all over, but there's plenty for the more conservatively dressed as well.

Looks like we'll be about 5 hours south of Portland at least for a while pretty soon.

~Ang

I give a vote to Nashville. Unfortunately, everyone views it as Hicksville because of country music but that's just not the case. It has a diverse economy which tends to make it recession proof. Auto, publishing, banking, insurance, tourism, among many others.

Beautiful rolling hills, four distinct seasons, major league sports, numerous colleges and universities. Great reataurants from meat and 3, BBQ, Italian, to fine dining. Besides country there are fantastic rock, jazz, blues, and R&B clubs. And for you guys, plenty of strip clubs since the NFL arrived.

Right where I'm living now even with all the rain...near Seattle, Washington. Beautiful mountains, beautiful water, great small-venue music, and you can do just about anything you want to; hike, fish, boat, you name it, you just have to work around the rainy season.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by CelticFrog:
If you had the opportunity to live anywhere in the Continental US, where would you be? Why?

If we had unlimited funds and didn't have to rely on high-paying jobs just to survive, I think W. and I would move someplace very rural to give us an experience very different from what we're used to. I would love to live in the woods, to smell the wonderful smell that is the outdoors in the summer, on a hot rainy night, to see the beauty of many inches of newly fallen snow. I would love to vacation somewhere that would allow us the opportunity to experience this.


What are the pros and cons of where you live now?

We currently live in New York City. Everything we love about mecca of pollution and diversity and non-stop living is what we wouldn't have if we moved to a rural area. We lived in suburbia before we moved here and hated it, and now we're thinking this is likely what we'll end up calling home. We live in an apartment in Manhattan right now, but we have our hearts set on settling down in a hip Brooklyn neighborhood and buying a brownstone as soon as our finances allow.

Pros of living here? The culture, the diversity, the ability to get fabulous food at any hour of the day, the Manhattan Skyline, the shopping, the schools (if you have the money to send your children to private schools), Central Park, pizza, not having to rely on a car to get to places within the city, never running out of things to do, Broadway shows, being able to sit next to celebs in restaurants or coffee shops and have casual conversations with them, seeing Angelina Jolie in the grocery store and trying not to drool (the highlight of my summer, let me tell you)....

The cons? No fresh air, the garbage, the smell of the subway on a hot summer day, the schools if you can't afford private schools, the lack of respect many of the different cultures seem to have for each other, our neighboors and this neighborhood, too many tourists, overpriced grocery stores, slumlords, crime...

We do love it here. It was most definitely an adjustment but we honestly can't see ourselves living anywhere else for now.

Hey, SexyWife...I'm from NYC! I moved out to Portland two years ago, after 17 years in the city. I lived in Manhattan for the first few years (went to Barnard) and in Brooklyn (Williamsburg) after that. I *love* New York and think I will always feel like a New Yorker (especially out here on the west coast). I moved out here when I fell in love with Portland while on a business trip and thought it was time to make a change in my life. I'm very happy out here, Portland has treated me VERY well (met my guy) and I plan to stay...but there are things I miss about NYC, especially the diversity of people. And delivery...NO ONE freakin' delivers anything out here! And a decent egg and cheese on a bagel. As much as I love New York, I always realized it is not for everyone. It takes a lot of energy to live there, something which I didn't truly grasp until I moved to Portland. The flip side is that I still find myself getting impatient even after two years in the more mellow PNW. Guess it takes a while to sink in! Anyway, thanks for reminding me of what I consider my hometown!

Hey guys, if you really want to see a wonderful place visit Western Australia!

quote:

Looks like we'll be about 5 hours south of Portland at least for a while pretty soon.

~Ang

Hey Ang! We live just about 5 hours south of Portland in Medford. Would that be where you're headed? If you'd like to make a new friend when you get down here then PM me and I'll give you my info. It'd be fun to hang out.

S

Not quite - we'll be about an hour east of you in KFalls. My mom lives there, and we're going to start going back to school.

We'll be coming through Medford quite a bit though, as it's the best way to I5. And it's a heck of a lot cheaper to fly out of that airport than where we'll be...

Still, it will be good to know people in the area, I don't have many friends that stayed in southern OR.

~Ang