Inspired by this thread, what’s the best place to live in America? Let’s start out state by state.
My nominations:
MA: Edgartown
NH: Manchester
FL: Amelia Island
GA: Jekyll Island
TX: Austin. No other city in Texas even competes.
Well, maybe. But Houston has a baseball team, a football team, a basketball team, a well-regarded symphony and opera, the only school in Texas that’s better than UT, the medical center, and a wealth of museums. And inside the loop, it’s a lot more user-friendly than Austin. Too bad most of it is outside the loop, but I’d submit that Austin’s sprawl is almost as annoying as Houston’s.
On the whole, I’d live in Houston over Austin any day.
LA - New Orleans (still)
RI - Newport
WA - Seedro Woolley
Okay, but do we get to express incredulity at other people’s suggestions. As in… “Manchester?”
Kansas has to be Kansas City, without a doubt. The Kansas side if far and away nicer than the Missouri side and Johnson County is amoung the wealthiest counties in the counrty.
Oklahoma is probably Tulsa, although I liked living in OKC better, I guess “best” is hard to pin down.
Houston? Man, if that’s the nominee it doesn’t say much for the state of Texas. Every decent size city has culture and sports - Houston is a poorly designed city full of billboards. Not a pretty place. Austin, on the other hand, is.
For Colorado, I’d vote for Boulder. Not too big, surrounded by undeveloped land, college town, and it’s only 45 minutes to all the amenities that Denver has. Beautiful, too.
If the city stuff isn’t a factor, then Telluride or Durango.
From Austin, moved to Houston for two years, moving back to Austin soon.
These things are all true, but do they really make a place nicer to live in? The biggest sports stories out of Texas this year were Colt McCoy and Kevin Durant. And they play in Austin. I’m not a huge arts aficionado, but unless that’s what makes you tick, you can find many forms of artistic expression. Austin is the live music capital of the world, remember?
Surely you jest. What an oUTrageous statement!
Excellent point. The medical center has something like the largest concentration of hospitals in the world. And yes, museums are great. (I lived near the Menil, right behind it in fact.)
Not sure what you mean here. User friendly in what respect? I would disqualify Houston just for the monstrosity that is the 59 construction project. It’s been like that for years! What the hell are they doing?
I also don’t think Austin has sprawl. You have Round Rock, Pflugerville, Manor, Lakeway, Leander, Westlake, Dripping Springs, Kyle, and Buda surrounding the city. They’re all distinct communities much different than Austin.
Hey, I’m appreciative of the fact that someone doesn’t want to move to Austin. And if Houston holds special sentiment to you, that obviously can’t be measured. Austin’s biggest problem is traffic. Houston has some scary neighborhoods (Southpark, Third Ward around U of H, as well as air pollution issues). I loved living in Houston, but Austin wins this contest pretty easily!
IA: I’d say Iowa City, with Ames (my hometown) a close second.
I live in Houston, have a degree from OU, and have to admit Austin residents probably have a better quality of life than Houstonians.
Hospitals aren’t much use to me (fortunately), and while museums are great, I don’t really need to go more than once a year. Contrast that to Austin where one can take advantage of the live music scene practically every night.
And those damn hippies aren’t as thick as you might think.
Houston does win in the airport category.
California is difficult because it is so vast. For example, there are those who would probably say that someplace like Carmel is the best place. Others may argue someplace like La Jolla. If want bigger cities there is San Diego and San Francisco.
Really? Cuz I hated Austin, and absolutely loved San Antonio.
I’m gonna nominated Carson City for Nevada. I, personally, love it here. I could definitely see why people wouldn’t like it, but everyone I know who’s come out to see it has fallen in love with it and decided to stay. It’s gorgeous; give me the sunset going over the mountains here over any tropical paradise.
~Tasha
Beats my ass. The did a bunch of work, then quit, then tore the whole thing up again. I’m hoping it doesn’t last as long as the I-45 South work, though (and that road’s still a POS; wrecks every day).
I’m not saying Austin isn’t a nice place, and if you take Houston as a whole, and Austin as a whole, Austin’s much nicer. But I’m kind of miffed with the place, because once it was really wonderful. It sold its soul years ago, and never looked back. I think that when they tore down the Armadillo and put a Hyatt in its place, that was the turning point.
The user friendly part: getting around inside the loop is a lot easier than getting around Austin. Moreover, if it’s worth bothering with, it’s inside the loop.
For Maine I’m going to nominate Camden. It’s the most literate small town I’ve ever been in. The view of Penobscot Bay from the top of Mt. Battie is perfect. A cabin on the lake in summer must be wonderful.
For a glimpse, see the 1950s movie Peyton Place.
I loved living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Big enough to suit my big-city Jones and close to mountains and Indian cultures.
Honolulu, Hawaii, is expensive as hell, but it’s really the only place I would ever consider living in again if we moved back to America, which we have no plans to. But if we DID …
Colorado: Boulder.
Fantastic in every sense of the word.
I think that’s the tension that Austin has always wrestled with. It’s an ambitious city. In the 80s we pursued every financial and banking company out there. The bottom fell out of the market. Late 80s, early 90s it was high-tech.
I think it was an interesting coincidence that The Clash filmed their last video (Rock The Casbah) in Austin. They were a band that was at once lauded for their street cred and not selling out, yet still had intense ambition and did a number of things “counter” to their indie roots, like signing to CBS and selling the rights to their songs for TV adverts. Austin is The Clash of cities. It’s not as if every move the city has made is a great one, and there’s been some massive cock-ups (mainly with not investing in transportation planning in the late 80s). The old railyards are now trendy high-rise condos. Night Hawk, Quack’s, G&M Steakhouse, and of course the Armadillo, they’re all gone. But we still have Mt. Bonnell, Hippie Hollow, the Broken Spoke, Sixth Street, bats, Zilker Park, SoCo…
I do like H-town, but congestion and weather drove me away. Neither is quite as bad in the Third Coast.
Yeah there’s nothing like hippies, homeless people, and a ghetto area every other 10 miles. I-35! Bumper to bumper for no good reason! Who knows how to drive? Not Austinites! Broken car windows are totally awesome too. Who took your stereo this week? Maybe it was the guy who ran me off the road and broke my face after cutting me off, cuz the cops sure didn’t try to catch him!
The music scene is totally kicking - if you like bands from out of town!
Illinois: Chicago. It’s got its downs, but it’s still a hell of a city.
Ohio: Oh, ye horrific wasteland of a state. How did you produce a town with as much character as Dayton?
Michigan: Ann Arbor. Go Blue!
South Dakota: Sioux Falls.