I'm pondering a move, and I'm interested in what things people like and what factors y'all consider important.

Beirut

I'm an hour away from New York City and because of that I get New York traffic but not gridlock. Mostly companies want to be in this radius and you get pretty fast delivery for things. I'm fortunate enough to be in an area that has the countryside only minutes away. Why are you asking? The only major downside is there's a lot of billionaire bunkers and the cost can be kind of out of control for certain things.

Probably New York because of Zohran

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.

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

Carmel, illinois

Chicago

I want to move somewhere, and I'm interested in what people like and what they consider important.

Great point

Toronto

I was pleasantly surprised at Mobile, AL, of all places. Probably wouldn't want to live there, but it seemed better than the other US cities I've been to

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.

Minneapolis has to be up there.

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.

Imperial Beach, California. Just for the weather though. COL is out of control, just like every other coastal city on the West Coast.

I chose to move to IB after having lived in 49/50 states.

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.

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.

Rochester, MN. When you need it, you'll know why.

I love the Seattle area but I'm biased because I grew up there. Decent public transit including a light rail, great weather, nice-ish people, great culture. Wish I could go back.

(there is a LOT of crime and homelessness though...)

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.

I'm definitely considering COL.

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 can't handle cold weather. I really like where we are in Tampa, because I can walk or bike to work, and my husband works from home, we have great food, a nice downtown, just yesterday went to a free music festival. We are in a house with a yard but still an easy bike ride to downtown, there is a mix of housing inside the city.

The buses suck - I set us up on purpose at a place where we can get most anywhere on one bus but some of them only run once an hour!

Anyway - if you have a car & don't like winter, Tampa and St. Pete are nice. (ETA: Good to live IN, not near. What people consider 'suburbs' here are more properly exurbs, and there is not a train system and again, buses are starved of funding and suck) If you don't like summer, no way, it's still summer here and has been since April. I love our typical summer, it's the rainy season, afternoon thunderstorms then this really cool lightning in the evening. And we see alligators sometimes, that's exciting. This guy, he lived in a mitigation pond at my work office park, I took a daily picture on my way in, but after he reached 6 feet they removed him :(

One of my kids moved to San Jose in California and loves it so much, she also made sure to live close to her job, and one went to Raleigh in North Carolina and really likes it there.

I do like NYC too, but no way could we afford it. And I would freeze and die.

ETA: where are you now & what do you like and dislike about it? That would probably help people make suggestions.

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 don't live in Chicago, but I work there a lot and have for many years. I love Chicago.
People are friendly, it is an active city, it is an interesting blend of old and new. I haven't run across the douchenozzle vibes that I endured when I worked in NYC and gross ass new jersey. Most people from Chicago have a lovely sense of self. They're cool if you are. It isn't perfect and winter is.pretty rough, but there is a lot to like.

I have only been one time, but I really liked Denver. Same friendly vibe as Chicago, mountains are stunning, city is fun, walkable, feels like a very active population.

San Diego/La Jolla if cost is no issue. Perfect weather 24/7/365, beautiful beaches, no slow drivers, a proper walkable downtown area with an actual nightlife, legal weed; what more could one need?

If I could afford it, I would move there and never leave.

Edit: If money is an issue, then I'd pick somewhere in the woods near Boulder/Denver.

I used https://www.movemap.io/explore/us after moving cross country, and after narrowing all of the criteria I cared about I ended up with only two counties left, one of which I had moved to! All of the confirmation bias in the world in that anecdote, but I stand by it being a good tool.

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 or cheap. And there are so many people to enjoy it with! Another major benefit about NYC is the sense of community with the people who live there. Contrary to popular belief, New Yorkers are pretty nice people. ( for the most part)

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!

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.

Rochester: it'll cure what ails ya.

It’s great if you’re cool with junkies yelling at you all the time. But then again, all the NIMBYs made sure to keep them corralled to the areas where only the poor people live. You know- the areas with the $2-3,000/month apartments.

But the weather is delightful!

You’d be surprised at how incredibly accommodating NYC could be to a disabled person. Visiting there and everything you see in here on TV movies is extremely full of misinformation. Absolutely living there is an entirely different experience.

I meant the affordability issue, in case that wasn't clear. It's not an issue of me getting paid more for the work I do, because I'm not working anymore, and am on a fixed income that's probably going to be crippled anyway by Fed cuts under the Orange administration.

Please chill with the sales pitch, buddy. I'm not moving to NYC.

VilniUS, because it's not inside Usa.

You seem nice. Anyway, I lived in south King County and visited Seattle so rent/mortgage was actually not too bad.

That's a hard pass. The amount of my ex's friends that died of lung cancer is impressive... and before they even graduated high school. Oh yeah and drive by shootings. I could barely breathe driving through there.

LA is probably bad, because of the traffic in the city

None

Affordability is an issue everywhere, not just in NYC. And it’s not a “sales pitch,” either. Any city in the country, there are probably more and better safety nets for someone who has lost work and is on disability in New York City than anywhere else. That’s what I was trying to say, if you’re preconceptions fed by huge amounts of misinformation hadn’t led you to think otherwise…

If I were gonna be poor, anywhere, I’d wanna be poor in New York City. Because it’s a city that you can always rely on to take care of you a lot better than any other place in the United States. and you’d only really know that if you’d actually lived there for any period of time.

You know how I know that? Because I’ve been poor living in a lot of different cities in this country, and my life living as a poor person in New York City was orders of magnitude better than it could ever be anywhere else in this country. That’s a big part of why I love it so much.

I've been all over the country, but there's no place I'd rather be than California. City, wise, tho? I'm partial to somewhere near Mariposa. Or Carmel by the Sea if I had hella money.

Thanks!

I forgot that junkies are a protected class around here. But that’s only the case until they are in your back yard moaning all night. Then they’re an issue.

My junkie eldest brother spent many a night sleeping on my couch, I know how it goes.

My two junkie best friends of over 30+ years offed themselves via the needle.

I have zero sympathy for them. This is a chosen path. No ignorance to claim, no fault but their own. I know people have some weird soft-spot for them, but I can tell you from witnessing it myself- they won’t ever even try to help themselves as long they are coddled by everyone.

Ok? Why are you acting like I'm sympathizing with them? Just because my brother is one doesn't mean I don't hate them.

Oh I’m not. I’m just expanding on my reasoning.