I’m about to graduate from college, and I’m interested in finding a really good place to live. I’ve got two options: a really big city or a medium sized city with a lot to do. Also, I’m not at all wealthy so san francisco is out the window. I have been looking at Madison, WI and it looks amazing. Except the weather. I’m looking for something a bit less freezing. Anyone know a great place to live, or any opinions on Madison?
Well, I live near SF now (just moved from Seattle), and while it is expensive, you can do pretty well if you find a few roommates, though I suppose that would apply almost anywhere.
Speaking of Seattle, that can be a great place to live with a lot of job opportunities. Downtown can be relatively inexpensive, or one of the many suburbs can offer affordable housing. It’s a very nice area
A lot of the best places aren’t going to be cheap, pretty much by definition. Southern California is/was paradise, but unfortunately millions of people have already figured that out already.
My vote would be for Portland, Oregon.
Runners up:
Asheville, NC
Lexington, KY
Fort Collins, CO
Ten years ago I would have added Austin to this list, but it’s gotten too big.
You realize the irony of your post when it’s -18 degrees, right?
I just have to say wow, that’s quite the unique username! I think that’s the first name I’ve seen with no letters/numbers in it.
But how do you pronounce it? Throatwarbler Mangrove? 
“The Artist Formerly Known as Prince.”
"The poster formerly known as a poster. "
Just a thought. Consider going wherever you can get the best career advancement and/or pay vs. cost of living. Tough it out in a boring/lousy city for a few years, then go wherever you desire using the superior job experience and savings you’ve built up. I know several people who live in really great cities that they can’t enjoy because they are stuck in bad financial situations and miserable jobs.
Portland, Oregon is great – I wish my job hadn’t required me to move away. Downtown Portland is beautiful, as are most of the suburbs, especially to the West and South. I lived in Beaverton for two years and I’d love to go back someday.
The only drawback is the rain – it’s not quite as bad as Seattle, but the winter months can be a little tiresome, especially when you haven’t seen the sun for six weeks and your patio starts growing a coat of moss. The summers make up for it though.
Furious_Marmot is right – I moved to Portland because I loved the city, but I had a hell of a time finding a steady job and I eventually had to move to a place with more work (i.e. SoCal). Most cities have their good areas and bad areas – worry about the job first.
Having lived in a great city with a bad job and a not-so-great city with an excellent job, I’d choose the latter every time, especially since I’m young and my industry experience is limited. I can always move back to my dream city once I’ve beefed up my resume.
I’m often told that Madison, WI has a lot in common with Austin, TX. Of course, now you’ve exchanged freezing for 100+ degree days in the summer.
Just my two cents on Madison, Wisconsin:
While I do find it to be a really great place, if you live and/or hang around in the downtown area, it will pretty much seem like a somewhat large college town. I’m not sure what the prospects are for a recent college graduate when there are probably tons of those here already.
And the temperature is well below zero right now. But the free-flowing alcohol in this town can help you forget about that. 
Isn’t Charlotte, NC supposed to be the up-and-coming “it” town? Lots of jobs, lots of realty, lots of young people.
Kansas City. Affordable, friendly, reasonably cosmopolitan, diverse economic base. On the downside, poor public transportation, a bit provincial. Weather is nicely in between that of Madison and that of Austin.
I’m going to give a shout out to a town that’s overlooked in lists like these, Knoxville, TN.
Where do I start? Well, the valley and the river.
Knoxville is based at the junction of the Holston and French Broad rivers, where they combine to form the Tennessee, which has spent the past few million years helping to carve out a valley between the Columbian Plateau and the Appalachian mountains.
The valley, given its southeast orientation, funnels a fair amount of warmth and humidty up to Knoxville (and, yes, their pollution as well), meaning that our weather is very mild given our latitude. Having lived here since 1999, there has been only two instances of snow that was truly serious enough here in the valley to close school… and one happened on Sunday, the other on Christmas Day.
The biodiversity is incredible. I live in the burbs and I have rabbits, groundhogs, deer, about 12 bird species, oak, pine, flowers in March… and the Great Smoky Mountains a mere 60 minutes away. Aren’t they lovely?
If you’re concerned about global warming and its impact on water supplies and/or coastal cities, Knoxille is the place to be as it is one of the most water-rich areas of the country (see above picture - those trees aren’t exactly desiccated), but well away from the shores. I have a feeling that if beaches do become eroded and the worst-case scenarios of losing cities comes to pass (unlikely in my opinion, but this isn’t the thread), mankind in general will come to re-appraise the value of living in the mountains… re-appraise it higher, that is.
Buy your land early.
But you’re coming to work and you don’t want to come to some podunk Southern town that’s gonna die when the paper mill wheezes to an end. Well… that’s not really Knoxville. Here’s a list of the top 20 employers, by employee count:
- US Department of Energy: 11,287
- Covenant Health: 8,187
- University of TN, Knoxville: 7,934
- Knox County Schools: 7,848
- Wal-Mart: 4,600
- St. Mary’s Health System: 3,497
- UT Medical Center: 3,276
- City of Knoxville: 2,858
- Baptist Health: 2,689
- Clayton Homes: 2,023
Cite: Book of Lists, vol 2: 2005, published by the Knoxville News Sentinel, page BL12.
So… Knoxville’s biggest industries are uranium, medical care, education, and mobile homes. It sounds like a pretty recession-proof mix. Knoxville is also the corporate home to Regal Cinemas, Sea Ray Boats, the TVA, Ruby Tuesday Restaurants, and Bush Beans.
Traffic is easy. Living is cheap and easy: I bought my house for under 6 figures in 2000 (you can buy a comparable home for slightly over 120,000 still), and still live within walking distance of 42 movie screens and four bookstores. (Though public transportation sucks, as it does in 99% of southern cities).
When you get bored, you’re within 4 hours driving of the following cities: Cincy, Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville, and an additional 2 hours gets you to the beach or Churchill Downs. Knoxville is at the junction of two major Interstates: I-75 and I-40, meaning that we get to siphon off the torrent of shipping that makes it’s way between Atlanta, Nashville, and Cincinnati, reducing transportation costs. (It’s all about the cost of living and every little bit helps. 
)
You do have a fair amount of idiots and hillbillies… this is still Appalachia, after all. If you’re the sort whose flesh crawls when exposed to the occasional Public Displays of Jesus Affection, you might want to avoid K’ville. There’s a lively underground here, at least they like to think they are, but having lived in Athens GA through the 80’s and 90’s, these people are rather tame. When the biggest alternative paper features an admiring front-page story about a former rocker, ex-druggie-now-turned-to-God, you want to say “Good for you” while simultaneously rolling your eyes at the idea of the far-edgier Athenian counterpart publishing the same article.
There are a large influx of educated immigrants in this town: in our neighborhood live a married Irish couple, she a cellular biologist of some sort, he working in nuclear physics. (Despite what we read on the net about the supposed irreligiosity of Europeans, they are kind of non-plussed that the church (Catholic) doesn’t take a more active role in Knoxville life. As is the Puerto Rican software engineer and his wife. Go figure.) But you’re not going to confuse Knoxville with NYC or Atlanta. It’s pretty lily-white around here.
But… there is no income tax. And the economy is diverse enough so that we can handle the influx of college students without depressing the job market (a big problem in Athens, GA).
I have the feeling that this place is going to boom in the next 30-years… this whole valley has the feeling of reaching a critical point in the next decade, where the variables of increased exposure, economic stability, global warming, education and medical availability, mild climate, transportation access, and water-wealth will create a spiraling effect. It’s hard to conceive of this valley home to 5-8 million people by 2050, but it could very well be.
I would have to disagree. Seattle is expensive (not as bad as SF, but still not by any means cheap), and downtown is very pricey, to the point of ridiculous. It’s easier to afford an apartment on your own, but its getting to the point where a roommate is needed. Seattle is a beautiful city, but its good to know that its not a cheap city to live in.
Depends entirley on where you live. Prices can vary greatly even around the downtown area. My friend had a studio apartment for just $300 a month, whereas I’m paying $1,000 for the same apartment in San Fran (though my place is a tad nicer).