I’m pondering a move, and I’m interested in what things people like and what factors y’all consider important.
I would only intentionally live somewhere with good mass transit. I don’t want to own a car. I don’t want to feel like owning a car is playing on hard mode.
That’s a big factor in why I’m in New York City. There’s good transit that runs 24/7.
There’s also places to go. Things to do. Saw like five bands play this summer. If a band is going on tour they’ll almost certainly play here. There’s beaches. There’s parks. You can take the train and hike up a mountain.
Some stuff is expensive but there’s deals. My favorite bar has $5 beers. My favorite grocer has $1 fruit. My friend lives in a house with a bunch of fellow queer weirdos and pays like $1k rent for their room.
I’m not really involved but there’s a lot of queer content here, too. My friend really found their people and filled a void they didn’t realize they had when they lived in suburban Midwest.
Beirut
New York fucking city. There’s no goddamn place like it.
I’ve lived here most of my life, and I would never live anywhere else.
New York is life New York is love
The crowds kind of overwhelmed me last time I was there, but there’s certainly a lot to like in terms of resources, culture, etc. No way would I be able to afford it, though.
There is lots of ways to live cheap in the city, especially if you don’t live in Manhattan, which most people in NYC don’t
I get the feeling that when most people talk about sky-high housing costs in NYC, they’re not particularly talking about Manhattan, but what do I know.
It’s true that rent is often more expensive in NYC compared to other cities, but lots of other stuff is a lot cheaper, especially if you know where to look. Plus, you don’t have to own a car and pay for gas and insurance and stuff like that. So that’s a big cost savings right there.
I’m paying well under $1K for a single bedroom in a pretty nice area, in a major Midwestern city. Public transport is literally at my doorstep. What might the equivalent cost be in a non-Manhattan NYC area?
Probably twice that, but you’d also be in New York City. Which means your job would probably pay a lot more. But maybe not.
If that major Midwestern city happens to be, say, Minneapolis or Chicago, I might consider staying put. Minneapolis is a pretty cool city. and so is Chicago, although, personally, I’d take NYC over Chicago.
But the value in living in NYC is the city itself. You’re very rarely at home, because you’re out and about enjoying the city, taking advantage of so much of what it has to offer, most of which is free.
Yeah I’m middle-aged and significantly disabled, so it was always just a theoretical. Not that I’m not jealous of everything NYC has to offer. This direct area could certainly use more interesting stores and a good pizza-by-the slice shop!
Thanks for the replies, and have a good 'un!
You can get studio apartments in the Bronx for cheaper than most cities in the USA. People don’t believe me, but NYC is way cheaper than Seattle or SF in terms of housing & groceries
Kinda controversial opinion, but I found living in NYC to be cheaper than living in most of America, because you don’t need a car… no car payment, no gas, no insurance goes a long way.
Probably New York because of Zohran
It’s funny because DC is also about to elect a DSA mayor and literally nobody knows about it or cares.
I care! I didn’t know about it until just now though. That’s great news!
Great point
I grew up just outside of Boston, really enjoyed that. It’s a very small city relative to NYC or sf or the like. It never felt like I was running out of stuff to do there though. Good mix of young people cause of the colleges and rich old people and basically everything in between.
I personally don’t mind owning a car and living in the suburbs though, which isn’t I think the trend. At least not based on what I’ve seen on lemmy.
I like having a big shed and garage to work on cars and other stuff but still being able toget the city life when I’m meeting up with people or going in for dinner with my wife.
There is no such thing. What’s better for one person will be worse for another. In general, the less developed an area is, the more affordable it is for the working class. However, that comes with the trade off of fewer services, self-reliance by necessity, not much to do, and lower education standards. The US is generally a capitalist hellscape for the lower classes. You have to be very realistic about whether you can afford to live in the nicer cities, and also realistic about the dangers and lower of quality of life if you choose to live in a poor area in an economically stratified city.
This. I was gonna suggest Los Angeles, but I happened to move there at a time that the cost of living was great, I lucked into a nice place in a rent-controlled part of town on the west side, and I had a decent income. But the situation could very easily be much worse now or in different circumstances. I definitely would NOT move to LA without a job, without friends to fall back on.
Likewise, when I lived in Pittsburgh the cost of living was also really good, but idk about now.
LA is probably bad, because of the traffic in the city
Controversial opinion but LA traffic is less bad than many cities because the average driver is more skilled.
Like, LA traffic is bad, but you’re much more likely to get in a car crash in Boston, if that makes sense. NYC drivers are much more pointlessly aggressive, LA drivers understand traffic flows better.
LA has not only some of the worst drivers, but also they think they can drive 90mph on the 105 and 405 so I would disagree on the more skilled portion.
Lived about “21 minutes” (16 miles) from DT LA and the drive home from work events were always a wildcard of 20 minutes to 1 hour. It might not sound like a high worst case, but as a result people would only attend an event if it was on their general vicinity.
This ensured people always factored the traffic when deciding if they wanted to hang out (both for work or after hours). Most people kept to their existing friend groups on their city or neighborhood, which meant a very lonely and transient existence for people that moved there for work.
There are some truly great people there that would go the extra mile to include you, but I found the Bay and Sacramento regions to he much more welcoming traffic and all (on the bay). It made me turn from a car enthusiast to someone that hates everything they stand for (well not fully, but you get the idea).
Again I lucked out for most the time I was there. But yeah I knew some folks with nightmare commutes.
Carmel, illinois
Chicago
Toronto
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I love SF, but I hope OP inherited generational wealth.
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Minneapolis has to be up there.
Ex Midwesterner, but if I was forced to go back it would be Chicago or Minneapolis. MSP has done so much to let you get around via transit, I could consider it. I’ve kept up on all the new BRTs, the light rail extensions, its looking very nice. You should be proud of your city for sure.
Oh, I never said I lived in Minneapolis. I just had heard lots of good things about it from people who have lived there.
I don’t think the city I live in (in the Midwest) is one I’d recommend. It’s certainly not the worst city in the U.S., but it’s definitely not among the best. Call it 40th percentile-ish just based on my completely unscientific gut feeling.
I live and have lived in the chicago metro my whole life. There are few places I could imagine moving to if I could go anywhere. Obviously im biased. One thing is I need good public transit. I never thought how good ours may or may not be till I went to a job interview in dc. I swear it was middle of the day and the trains ran like every 20 mins. In chicago they only run that unoften at like 2am. then like getting off and going on a buss you paid basically full fare. got a 25 cent discount or something. here you pay your fair and you can transfer twice outside the system (bus to diff bus or bus to train or train to bus. transfers train to train are always free and don’t use a formal transfer). I think maybe only new york might have a system that is adequate enough for me in the us outside of chicago. add to this great bike lane infrastructure and the divy bike program and the extended train network with metra and its central location to amtrack plus two major airports. then like the lakefront, parks, forest preserves often around the rivers. its not bad for nature spaces for such a big city. then like you can find food from anywhere between the city and the suburbs. also four seasons which can be a plus or minus but is a plus for me. when you have nice weather in chicago you effing appreciate the heck out of it.
You are right that Chicago’s system doesn’t get enough love, but you’ve always got a free train to bus transfer on the DC system. I remember when you actually got a little slip of paper from the train station to give to the bus driver. These days trains are 3-10m headways during peak times, at least down town, but that definitely hasn’t always been the case.
I swear it was like a 25 cent discount train to bus. this was just after 2010 I think.
It’s $2.25 today which is the full fare of a metrobus ride. I am like 90% sure the credit has always been full fare but it’s possible at some point it might not have been.
yeah its possible I was reading the machines wrong. I got off at reagan and was like. wtf. then after waiting 20 mins for a train and waiting another 20 when I transfered to the line going to the univeristy I was again like. wtf.
A 20 minute wait at DCA would make me pretty upset as well. Early 2010s was the “trains keep catching on fire” era, which meant they would single-track for weeks after the incident to make repairs. These days the trains don’t catch on fire nearly as often.
Lived in and around Chicago most of my life, and this is also my answer.
Having a winter hobby to look forward to takes the edge of the cold weather for me.
You mentioned the lake, but another benefit often overlooked is access to one of the largest bodies of fresh water on the planet.
yeah to go further the water reclamation district and not just water source but like the deep tunnel. There were so many articles suggesting it was a boon dogle as it got expanded and expanded but even though they plan for abundanza by the time they have it. It turns out to be just enough. Its looking pretty genius now with the crazy storms we have nowadays. I was talking to people this year how when growing up most rain was from rainy days rather than always seeming to be a storm. ironically this last summer we actually had closer to the rainy days I remember as a kid. much like last winter that everyone said was so bad just reminded me a typical one before the 90’s.
I grew up across the river from Philadelphia and I loved it. I could take a train into the city to see concerts, get good food, or go sightseeing. Getting in by train and using the subway made things a lot easier, lots of folks do that for work and school. I just love Philly!
It’s on my short list. I lived in center city for a year back in 2009(?) or so, and I really loved the city. Honestly, it’s between there and Pittsburgh for me. This time I’m buying a house though.
I get it. Philly is great! Pittsburgh is nice too, but it’s too landlocked for my taste.
Are we considering cost of living? If not, probably the cities in close vicinity to San Francisco for the weather, and the areas in and around New York for the public transportation. Being not quite in the thick of it gives you more room to breathe but they are easily reachable. DC is pretty good too if you can actually live inside it.
Depends on what you like.
I’ve ended up in Hampton Roads, VA. Specifically on the Peninsula side, in Newport News.
I like the seasons - it’s hot in summer but not as hot as other places I’ve lived. We get snow basically every year, although not for long. The trees lose their leaves for longer than I like, but we actually have some spring and fall, not just summer and winter. Trees are nice. Being close to water is nice.
We don’t have the international food that NYC has, but how could we? But we do have a pretty good selection here.
Traffic isn’t bad even during rush hour compared to other places I’ve lived, although the bridge-tunnels back up, and there are a few pain points mainly southside, but none that are really bad.
It’s not as blue as I’d like, but it is solidly blue in the cities. We’re considered the southernmost tip of the Northeast Megalopolis. We do have Amtrak here.
I’d also take a gander at Richmond as it’s got a lot going for it as well.
Mountains are not too far to the west - they are accessible.
Thank you, that was a great breakdown. How’s the humidity?
Not as bad as Florida, but definitely worse than semi-dry like DFW and no comparison to very dry like Arizona. :)
I’ve found that shade often makes a strong difference, except when it’s near the peak of our heat. We do get up to 100° but it’s pretty uncommon. Upper 90s is about where we generally top out, with low-to-mid-90s typical for the hottest part of summer.
We are on the Atlantic (and lower part of the Chesapeake Bay), so we do get humidity from being on the coast. But our heat season makes it more bearable than Florida because we’re not at that peak heat for quite as long.
June-July-August is definitely hot, but in Texas, that’s like May-September easily. Here, if anything, this past winter I just got so done with the damn cold, but it was a bit unusually cold with a bunch of days below freezing lows. Usually winter gets cold but it’s bearable.
Of course, it’s all subjective and what you’re used to and what you can get used to. heh
