My hometown is Kansas City (though I now live in Barcelona, you can take everything I say with a grain of salt).
My take on KC is that it’s a nice place to live but you wouldn’t want to visit there.
Pluses: The economy is booming, unemployment is very low, there are a lot of high-tech companies to get into while the manufacturing sector is solid, it’s safe (except for certain delimited areas where you’re not going to go anyway.) The art museum, science museum, symphony, and theater scene are good anywhere outside Chicago. The zoo is nice. We got pro sports. Good live music. good bar scene. Good schools in the suburbs of Johnson County, Kansas. The weather’s not too awful and spring and fall are wonderful.
Cons: The same as Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, St.Louis, Indianapolis, etc. If you wanna move to the Midwest any of those cities would be worth checking out. If you’re a Right or Left Coaster, you might be happier where you are.
Pro: You can still buy a decent house in a decent school district in KC for less than $100,000.
Providence is nice. Cheap rents, lots of artsy stuff. Good architecture. The winters are rough, and the nightlife isn’t great, but it is within commuting distance of Boston.
Amherst or Northampton, Mass, same thing (except the proximity to Boston).
I was hoping someone would bring up Providence. The city itself is beautiful, and its getting better by the day. Urban renewal has truly taken hold there.
Just outside of Providence is great, too. Just be careful of which suburb you go to (some are much worse than the rest). I reccommend crossing into Massachusetts to the east. I’ve lived here all my life, and I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. (No bias in that view…)
The western half of our wonderful Commonwealth is great, too. To some extents better than the eastern half of the state. The cities (ie, Holyoke) can be tough, but the rural areas are damn near perfect.
Oh, I like Maine, too.
Jeremy…
Nobody ever calls me after they’ve done something smart.