If you could chose between Tacoma, Springfield MA, San Antonio, DC, Riverside CA

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m considering Air Force Reserves (please don’t derail this thread into a ‘No don’t join the military!’ pile-on, open your own thread for that) and I could chose between several bases all across the country in different states. I have no desire to remain here in Gulfport MS; I’m a city girl. I want lots of people and things to do. I’ve tentatively narrowed it down to Tacoma WA, Springfield MA, San Antonio TX, Riverside CA, and Washington DC. If possible, I’d like to hear opinions on them and the pluses and minuses of the cities (obviously I’m not expecting people to have been to all of them, but if you know of problems like soul-killing gridlock or astronomical rape rates or something, I’d like to hear it). I’m mostly interested in cultural opportunities, the dating scene, the friendliness of natives, activities, etc.

Tacoma WA (196,532) is one I’m really interested in, as everyone I know who’s lived in WA loved it there. I have never been to WA myself. From what I was able to ascertain on city-data.com, Tacoma is talked about as sort of the ‘redheaded step-child’ of WA. Considering my other choice of place to live is New Orleans, Tacoma’s crime rate doesn’t even faze me. It really sounds like a nice city and got high ratings on livability.

Washington DC (pop: 588,292) is also in the runnings because I’ve lived in the general vicinity before (Baltimore and Annapolis), I know the area, and I have lots of friends in MD.

Riverside CA (pop: 311,575) isn’t too far from Los Angeles, where I lived for the summer last year. I would also know people in the area and hey, the weather’s nice.

San Antonio TX (pop: 1,328,984) is by far the biggest city on the list, and the only Southern city. It would put me within reasonable proximity (ie a visit a few times a year) of my family and friends in MS. The Tejano culture is appealing for food and music.

Springfield MA (pop: 682,657) isn’t too, too far from my friends in the MD area, and it seems like a really nice city. I have never been there.

2

insert obligatory “No! Go Active!” comment here:smiley:

First off, a geography nitpick: San Antonio (Lackland or Randolph?) is not located in the South. It’s located in Texas. :smiley:

Why is Texas not in the South? I dunno. :cool:

I’ve actually lived around three of those places on your list. My dad was stationed at McChord for a while, and we lived in Lakewood. The area is rather nice from what I remember, but it played mery hob with my alergies (some kind of tree allergy… go figure!) Afraid I can’t remember much else about this, other than that you’ll want to invest in some winter clothing. Oh, and from what I recall, around Tacoma they prefer “The Cinderella City” rather than “Red-headed Stepchild” :smiley:

San Antonio is the choice of those I’d probably go for, but I’m from Texas and I’ve got lots of friends and family there. If you’re not already in the military, then you will spend at least eight weeks here anyways for Basic Military Training at Lackland AFB. Lots of things to do, lots of people to do it with, and even if you get tired of San Antonio, Dallas and Houston are both around four or five hours drive away, with several other places to visit being closer. Texas is a lovely and interesting place, with historic thingies and friendly people and Shiner Bock etc. etc. (I’ll spare you the sales pitch:p)

Riverside: Uhm… I’ve got some cousins and such there. I can’t actually remember much of it. It’s California, so it’s kinda nice there, climate wise. They had some forest fires nearish there a year or two ago, but those things can flare up anywhere you have trees or brush I guess.

From what you listed, San Antonio, Springfield, and DC actually sound like your best bets, if you don’t feel like building a social network from the ground up. Otherwise I think all of the places have things in their favor.

3

I’m in Hartford, which is about 30 minutes south of Springfield. Hartford is a dump. We make fun of Springfield, so that should tell you all you need to know.

OK, but seriously, if you’d said you’d like to be somewhere artsy and that you like the outdoors and that you don’t care about being in/near a city, then Springfield would be a good choice. And Maryland is a hellish 6-7 hour drive so it isn’t all that close, although you would be close to Bradley Airport and could, perhaps, find cheap flights to DC. Boston and NYC are both about 2 hour drives from Springfield.

Based on your OP, I think Springfield would be a poor choice for you.

4

I’m from the Washington, DC metropolitan area (Northern Virginia) and I love it here! I have also lived in metro-area Maryland. It’s beautiful and lots of stuff to do. I wouldn’t recommend living in the actual city of Wash DC… The 'burbs are much better. Anywhere in Montgomery County, MD, or Arlington County, Alexandria, or Fairfax County, Virginia, is great. I’m especially fond of anywhere in Arlington, and the small City of Falls Church (VA). In MD, Bethesda, Silver Spring, and Rockville are all nice.

5

Springfield is smaller than you think. Your other population figures are for the cities themselves, but your figure for Springfield is for the entire Springfield Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses three counties. The population of the city itself is around 150,000.

My overall impression of Springfield is that of a slowly declining medium-sized industrial city. If you like the climate of Mississippi, you’re going to be miserable in New England. Springfield’s average daily low this time of year is about 15 degrees F.

6

Okay, so I’m taking Springfield off the list. I want to live in an actual city, and proximity to my MD friends is only part of it, I was also enticed by its proximity to New York City. What about Brunswick, NJ?

7

I’ve lived in Washington for almost ten years, and I do not love it here. There are things I like (it’s nice and green, easy drive to lots of activities, good wineries), but I despise the climate. It really gets to me. This is really a personal thing – I know many people here who don’t mind it, or actually like it. But I hate that aspect of living here. It isn’t really the rain, or even the grey that annoys me. It’s the lack of warmth. I like hot weather (80 is probably my ideal temperature, and I don’t mind 85). It very rarely gets that warm here. The average high in July and August (the warmest months) is 75. By my definition (sunny more than half the time, shorts weather most days), it is often really only “summer” here from mid-July through August. So basically a month and a half of weather I like and ten and a half months of weather I don’t. Most of spring, fall and winter are cool, cloudy and sometimes rainy. It’s depressing to me. I spend most of my vacation time and money going away several times a year to be warm.

Obviously, as much as I hate it, it hasn’t been enough to drive me away permanently, but it does make me fairly unhappy.

I’ve never lived in Tacoma (I live in the Seattle area), so I can’t directly address that. Tacoma is sometimes looked down upon and made fun of by people up here, but I honestly can’t say whether or not it’s deserved. I think some of it is historical – I know Tacoma has changed significantly in recent years. I have known people who have lived there and liked it. As far as I know, Lakewood and the areas around the military bases are some of the higher crime neighborhoods. And Tacoma supposedly has the worst crime of any city in the Northwest. Such statistics have to be taken in context, of course.

Whenever I talk about Tacoma, I think of Neko Case’s song Thrice All American.

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The thing is, Springfield is an actual city in the sense that it is dense and walkable. The main problem is that Springfield is a pretty depressed place. I’m also from the Hartford area, and while I don’t think Hartford is awful, Springfield is definitely a second rate version of Hartford.

The main plus about Springfield, imho, is that it’s sort of a gateway to Western Mass, which is a great place if you’re into outdoor recreation and the like because there really isn’t much of anything out there.

9

I wouldn’t agree with the last part of this assessment. The Inland Empire can get really, really hot in the summer. Average high temps are above 90 throughout July, August, and September (according to Wikipedia), and when I was there in July 2002 the temperature was well above 105 with no clouds in sight.

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I have lived in SoCal my whole life, and I would not live in Riverside. Hot in the summer, smoggy as hell, lots of crime, middle of nowhere.

Not quite as bad as San Bernardino (city/county next door) but still, no way.

11

To expand on this I think the main plus of Springfield is it is within reasonable distance of NYC, Boston, the rest of New England, and upstate NY. Even Montreal is only a 5 hour drive.

Western MA is lovely. Springfield proper is not.

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I know it is already off your list but Springfield is bad and depressing but it does have a Six Flags. I wouldn’t recommend it either.

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Although you have taken it off the list already, a bit more about Springfield, since I was actually involved in a short analysis of the place for work.

The pluses: It is home to the Basketball Hall of Fame, it is really close to a Six Flags, and West Springfield (across the river) is the site of the Big E - which is basically the state fair for all six New England states. It is also right along the Connecticut River and two major highways, allowing for quick access to the Mountains of NH and VT, western MA or the Connecticut shore. It is also about 90 minutes to Boston.

The minuses: Just about everything else. The city’s economy took a big dive when the Springfield Amory shut down in 1968, which provided thousands of high paying, high skilled jobs. Things haven’t come up since then. About 5 years ago, the state appointed a special board to run the city’s finances, and in the current climate I don’t see that changing any time soon.

14

Six Flags Over Massachusetts? Doesn’t have the same ring, does it?

15

Go to San Antonio. Good food, stuff to do, nice people. I wouldn’t pick March ARB (Riverside) under any circumstances.

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I’d say Tacoma (not too far from Seattle) or San Antonio.

My friends went to UCR, and I visited more than a handful of times, so I can say with some authority Riverside is an absolute shithole. It smells like cow, it’s 400°, and on the table at Carrow’s, you’ll find packets of sugar, Splenda, and meth.

There’s plenty of drive-thru fast food, though.

I’d apologize to anyone who’s from there, but in my experience, they agree.

17

There’s also a six-flags right outside of DC, plus a King’s Dominion about an hour or so south of it. Another good things about DC, as you’ve noted, is that you can live in many different places aside from downtown DC and still get the vibe you’re looking for. The main problem is that you’re going to pay for that with traffic nightmares and cost of living. I live in Northern Va now and can’t wait to get out of here.

I spent half a year in San Antonio and wasn’t too impressed. It’s cheap, which was great, but not much else noteworthy about it. Too hot in the summer there for me and too brown. Austin wasn’t far away, and if I could have lived there, I would have been much happier. Austin is, IMO, the best city in the state (take that for what it’s worth, though–I’ve only seen a few TX cities).

Personally, I’d be leaning toward the Tacoma location and living in downtown Seattle. I found the weather up there to be fantastic from around May to October. And you just can’t beat the scenery.

18

I would really recommend against this. The commute between downtown Seattle and Tacoma (or worse, Lakewood) can stretch to nearly two hours. Worse if there’s an accident (my record between Seattle and Tacoma is 2.5 hours). Even in the best case (miraculous lack of traffic), you’d be looking at 45 minutes each way. You’d probably be better off than most since you’d be doing a reverse commute, but you’d certainly not be home free. You could ride the train (Sounder) but that takes about an hour, and you have to add on any time it takes you to get to and from the train station, and also count on occasional delays and cancellations.

Living in downtown Seattle is great – I did for five years. I’d recommend that to anyone. But I don’t think it’s good enough to warrant a 45+ minute commute…

19

I concur about Springfield proper. But the surrounding areas are fabulous. Depending on what you’re into.

It’s probably not close enough to make it worth it. If you’re interested in cities, then DC might be a better choice. So you have DC itself and Baltimore is an hour away. Philly isn’t much further. I think NYC is about 3.5 hours away, but there’s a lot of public transportation.

There is no such place.

Do you mean New Brunswick, East Brunswick, North Brunswick, or South Brunswick?

20

I feel like I’m exiled from California and biding my time in Utah until I can return to my right and proper place. If somebody came to me today and offered me a great job in Riverside, and a home that’s mine free and clear, I would turn them down. There are areas that are actually quite nice, and UCR is there, of course, but I don’t know why anybody would want to live there. It’s about sixty miles from Riverside to LA, and trust me, that sixty miles makes all the difference.