I knew I’d get you to admit it one day. 
Actually, if I was rich enough to afford a harbourside home, and young enough to enjoy the wonderful lifestyle opportunities, I’d do Sidders in a flash.
But I’m poor and old. 
Yeesh. I knew you’d come sniffing about…
Seriously, the Sydney / Melbourne thing is like this. For the wealthy, Sydney is a great place. For the rest of us that only see the famous bits once or twice a year, the suburbs of both cities are identical. Identical that is, until Sydney’s infrastructure starts to collapse under the population pressure, which is happening already. Things are going to get dodgy here in the next few decades. That’s where Melbourne has a slight edge (also I prefer the cooler weather these days ).
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- I want to live near (~30-60 minutes) a major city, but not in it. And I like warm-weather outdoor activities, so nowhere that has snow, thanks. Aiming for Texas later this year.
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- I want to live near (~30-60 minutes) a major city, but not in it. And I like warm-weather outdoor activities, so nowhere that has snow, thanks. Aiming for Texas later this year.
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Probably Manchester. I don’t like the football team(s) or the accent.
If I can avoid it, I will never, ever move back to Atlanta.
I’ve never had any desire to live in New York, although I’ve enjoyed visits there.
I don’t even want to visit LA, much less live there.
Houston is another one that doesn’t appeal, although I couldn’t come up with any specifics why.
Chicago - although I’ll be visiting there for the first time this summer, so my mind could change.
New York City - way, way too crowded.
D.C. is just right, though. 
Atlanta, GA - My parents lived there and I hated visiting them there. It’s like taking all the worst parts of Houston with none of the good.
Los Angelas, CA - Lived there once already. Too many people.
Houston, TX - Born near there, lived there as an adult for quite some time. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Houston, but I would never move back. Too crowded.
Dallas, TX - I have yet to find anything I might even come close to liking about this city.
Draw a line from the North border of Oklahoma and extend it to the Atlantic, draw another line from the East border and extend it North to Canada. Anything North and East of those lines will never include me in any census. I have worked and vacation all over that area of the country and have rarely found anything other than scenery to enjoy there. That may sound like just another Damn Yankee rant, and maybe it is, but virtually any experience I’ve had in this area has been negative. With the exception of New York, NY. That place is awesome. My brother lived there for several years and I’ve spent a lot of time there, not merely on vacation. I almost moved out there myself. I wouldn’t have stayed, but I bet I would have enjoyed it while I was there. The over crowding and poor attitudes which color most of my NE experiences simply don’t apply to NYC. Yeah, it IS crowded, and it does have its share of ingrown toenails, but something about NYC as a whole makes up for that in a very large way.
Miami, FL - Fun to visit. But, almost as bad as Atlanta as far as traffic and people’s generally lousy attitudes. Let’s face it, Dallas, Atlanta, and Miami are Southern by virtue of geography only.
I really like the West and the South and Texas, with the previously noted exceptions.
I’m sure there are probably notable exceptions in a positive vein concerning individuals in the NE USA, but I haven’t met you. So, my apologies to those who may feel unfairly catagorised. It’s nothing personal. It’s me.
Phoenix. “Dry heat” my foot. It’s too darn hot.
Of the cities I’ve lived in, near or spent enough time in to make a judgement, I’d have to say Houston is the #1 place you couldn’t pay me to live. Humid, crowded, dirty and smelly. It’s the armpit of Texas and that’s insulting to armpits.
I would take significant inducement to get me to live in Dallas or Atlanta again; but that applies to anywhere in the South.
I hated Atlanta. Lived there while I was in grad school and after…in 4 years I met exactly ONE person who was FROM Atlanta. So where do all those people come from? And where do all the natives GO?
Last time I was in New Orleans, I was shocked! Local people I talked to were telling me how awful the city was, and how they dreamed of moving away! A NO cop told me that he was waiting out jhis retirement, so that he could “escape” to Florida.
I think there is something seriously wrong with a city, if locals tell you these sort of sentiments!
Detroit: I used to go there often on business, and NONE of the people I knew (who lived in the outlying suburbs) EVER went into Detroit!
But the place that really fits the definition of hell: Houston, TX! Smelly oil refineries, smoke, and 100% humidity for most of the year-what a freakin dump! And to top it off, a decaying city center, with high crime and precious little else.
L.A. Have family there, so I know. Just ugh.
Houston or Dallas.
Any city in Florida.
It’d take a lot to get me to move to Philadelphia, but I wouldn’t utterly rule it out.
I love big cities, in general, though. Chicago (where I grew up), New York, London, and Berlin (and San Francisco, if you think it counts as a big city ;)) are all places I’d be delighted to live if I could (job and money being somewhat seriously required for all these except Berlin).
Anything south of Washington DC over to about California. I am not a hot weather person. Humidity does bad things to my hair and my allergies. Maybe the southwest, but I’ve never been there.
In defense of Vegas, it would be a terrible place to live if you lived right on The Strip. Away from The Strip, Vegas is basically like any other town. You have your suburbs, and your trashy areas. There’s plenty to do in Vegas besides gambling and drinking.
Yeah, gambling is a big industry but so is construction work. Getting a job in a casino is your best bet, but there’s a ton of other jobs besides “dealing Blackjack”, like IT departments, etc. I’m not too familar with jobs there, as I moved away when I was fourteen.
As for the heat, it’s a dry heat. It’s not that bad. I used to think it was horrible, as I was born and raised there. But then I moved to Kansas City and found out the true meaning of horrible summers because of the humidity.
So that’s my little defense of Vegas.
As for my picks of major cities I would not want to move to: New York City, Miami, Houston, Detroit, L.A., Atlanta, and Memphis.
Dallas, Houston, Miami, Atlanta, OKC
Places you will never find me having an address:
Chicago (I’d pick Houston 100 times over Chicago)
NYC
Philadelphia
Washington DC
Detroit
Cleveland
Dallas
Phoenix
LA
San Francisco (love to visit, can’t afford to stay)
200K for a one bedroom in NYC?! It must not have had walls! Seriously, for a one bedroom in NYC you are looking MINIMUM 300K. And for that you are getting 600 square feet in a bad neighborhood.
First of all, I would think really, really hard about moving anywhere that had sweltering weather for longer than Baltimore/D.C. (which I only tolerate because I grew up in Maryland and love it there for reasons of familiarity). That being said:
Atlanta, GA: One of my friends lives there, so if I (or my SO at the time) were offered a good job there–not that we’d seek it out–it might happen. Still, it sucks that the city has no actual center. I like to be able to walk from place to place.
Chicago, IL: I live here now, and wish I didn’t. Everyone said I would love it, but my experiences have just led me to feel like it’s a good place to visit, but not somewhere I particularly want to set up house. I plan to leave at the end of August, and I won’t ever be coming back to live.
New York, NY/San Francisco, CA/Boston, MA: All three are great cities and I intend to visit them each several more times in my life, but the cost of living scares me.
Brisbane. Sydney’s bad enough in summer but Brisbane would be diabolical. Ideally, I’d have a summer residence in Hobart and a winter abode in Brisbane.
Despite the defense, I would still never want to live in Las Vegas, even though I love to visit often. The whole desert thing would really bring me down, long-term.