Do you like where you live?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Not all of us get to choose where we live…so do you like where you live? What are some of the good/bad things about where you live?

OK, I gotta admit. Kansas can be quite boring. Small towns in Kansas can be even more boring. My town of 9000 seems kind of small to me.

I would live here forever if I could, but that’s not possible. I’ll be out of here in less than 2 years, for college. Sometimes it seems like no one ever leaves this town, and if they do they always come back.

I love this small town. I love the people in it. I love the atmosphere. Kind of a hick town, if you ask me, but it may be just because I hang around those kinds of pople. Its easy to get from place to place, and none of my friends or family are more than a 2-minute drive away. Sure some people complain that it’s boring, but sometimes you have to be creative! “Make your own fun” Is what I tell people.
The line from a Hank Williams song that goes " These dusty roads ain’t streets of gold, but I’m happy right where I’m at" very much describes how I feel.

Anybody else?

2

Im from the lovely city of winnipeg, in canada eh? I like winnipeg…sure its raided with bums, drunks, etc…but its cute…it has everything a big city has, but its about 20 times smaller
i can make it from one end to the other n using main roads in the city, in 45 mins, id like to see toronto pull that off :stuck_out_tongue:
we apparently have the nicest people in canada, it shows alot of the time

I guess this is just about our actual cities but
as for my own area in winnipeg, i used to love it…its quiet and pretty… but now that all the teens are growing up, all u hear is boomboomboomboomboom till 2 in the morning from cars driving by…i always considered it to be crime free until someone attempted to break into my car ( a chevette for god sakes, of all cars to break into in the area) i didnt think such low-lifes lived here until that happened…

i would like to stay here, cuz everyone i know is here, but i always have this urge to get up n leave for uni or college or something shrugs

3

I grew up in rural towns. Age 21, first time out of the country, I moved to a small city of about 5 million. Taipei, Taiwan. I have since lived in Hong Kong (8 million), Tokyo (around 10 million) and Shanghai (maybe 12 million).

I really like Shanghai. May live most of my life here.

Small towns suck if you don’t fit in.

4

I guess with a moniker like mine, I’d have to say, yep, I am – even though I don’t live in the town where I grew up, it’s only 20 miles away, and a similarly small town.

As with all choices, there are advantages and disadvantages along the rural/small town/medium town/city/metropolis spectrum. Yes, it can be hard if you don’t fit in, but also incredibly comforting to make your way in a place to the point that you are recognized and waved at by a goodly chunk of the people you run into walking down the street or driving through town.

There are some small town values about which I hesitate to generalize to broadly, but felt strongly enough that I wanted to raise my kids in such an environment. It must have worked, because they both turned out great. Not for everybody, I know, but it works well for us.

BTW, it doesn’t hurt to be 90 minutes from a moderately large city for cultural opportunities, and to be at a place that transitions from modest mountain range to high desert country, yet less than three hours from the ocean. Lots of choices of scenery and environment may help from feeling constricted or isolated.

5

I live in Calgary and I love it. Our weather is…odd, but that’s ok. 1 hour drive from some of the best skiing in the world, almost no buggies of any sort, and well built, steer-wrassling men wearing tight jeans and boots.

Really, how could a girl complain? :smiley:

6

I’ve lived in Maryland all my life. It’s OK, but I’m finding it harder and harder to deal with winter (I suffer terribly from SAD). I need constant warmth and sunshine.

We’re seriously thinking of relocating to Texas. My dad lives there, and I’ve always been drawn to it myself. I know it gets chilly, but it doesn’t last as long.

It was 40 degrees here just two weeks ago; I almost froze at an outdoor wedding. Anything below 65 degrees makes me completely miserable.

Sheri

7

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia is the best place to live (IMHO)

Weather goes from around 41F in winter to 100F at the height of summer (I hope I got the C to F conversion right).

Traffic is cool. I work in town and live 30km (damn you imperial bastards, I think that’s about 18 miles) and takes 25 minutes to commute.

Oz is a dry continent, so water gets restricted every 10 or so years, during El Nino, but generally only restricted to hand watering rather than sprinklers.

$AUD sucks compared to $USD, so imports tend to cost a little more, but you get used to it.

There are no loonies with guns.

There are no gangs (or if there are I’ve never seen them).

Feel perfectly safe walking through the suburbs at night. Friendly people. Will stop and help you on the road if your in distress.

Australian drama on TV is pathetic, so we get US shows (well, the ones we can afford with the $ conversion around $0.52).

Mobile (cell) phones don’t get charged for incoming calls, only outgoing. So, telemarketers, call all you like.

It costs around 20 cents for a local call (up to 165km).

A letter costs 45 cents to anywhere in the country.

Petrol is around $1 per litre (which I simply will not try to convert to gallons).

The best restaurants in Australia and one of the best places in Oz for live entertainment. Rivals Edinburgh for comedy.

Yeah, it’s a great place to live. Come visit one day (not me, but Melbourne in general).

8

How can you complain about Aust tv when we get great drama like Neighbours and Home and Away?

At least we’re better off than the British :).

9

Sorry Silentgoldfish I simply cannot stand the acting (or story lines for that matter) of Neighbours or Home and Away. I know we have laws that require a certain amount of home made drama, but this stuff sucks.

Moreso when you consider the rest of the homemade drama is either cops or doctors (hospitals).

Always Greener is a little different, but the majority is dreck.

Comedy by Australians comes and goes and is generally not funny as it’s mainly sketch comedy and I can see the punchlines coming from so far that I think they started in 1950.

Backberner is OK, but it is so political I get a little tired of it.

Gimme English humour and American drama over the crud we create virtually anytime.

Although I will admit that Melbourne gets a little chillier than Brisbane in winter (was up there for holidays recently), I like mornings where you can see your breath, but you don’t need to get into the snow shoes to get to work.

And … you guys are hosting Big Brother, so don’t pick on me :smiley:

10

I live in London, and don’t really like it.

Plus points:

Big, bustling, never short of things to see or do. No boring days in wondering what to do or where to go. Public transport is actually reliable and flexible (despite everything). People are generally polite, helpful and with a twisted sense of humour (except for staff at electrical stores, who can kiss my shiny metal ass). Constantly adding to what it can offer – adding museums, exhibits, upgrading Thames bridges, the range of restaurants and supermarket foods is always changing.

And the down side:

Noisy, dirty and smoggy in the summer. Big problem with youth crime; I never feel like I’m going to be murdered, but convinced I’m due a mugging by one of the gangs of kids that hang around street corners. Home to loud, aggressive drunks in the evenings, which makes the tube a very unpleasant place to be unless you’re one of them.

11

I live in Perth Western Australia and I love it. Maybe enough to live here all my life.

The weather is perfect. (Don’t take notice of Caught@Work: Melbourne is the butt of all Australian weather jokes. BTW, I think Silentgoldfish was joking about Neighbours mate. ;)) Summer is hot (above 100F) and long. Autumn and Spring are warm and largely dry. Winter is short and mild. I’ve never seen snow in my life.

The beaches are a 20 minute drive from my house. They’re sandy, clean and friendly (there’s shark-related deaths, but hardly ever!) The river is a 5 minute walk. During, summer I can sail almost every day on the river. (The sea breeze (the "Fremantle Doctor) comes in every afternoon and cools down the city. Within the hour, the river is crowded by white sails.)

There’s ethnic diversity. Half the people I know at uni were not born in Australia. Half of my high school leaving class too.

People are generally friendly and down-to-earth. There’s no hint of class barriers. I broke down a couple weeks ago and strangers stopped to help push my car off the road.

Perth is a fair-sized city (1 million+), but it doesn’t feel crowded. Big enough for a decent night-life (although it’s rather limited mid-week), but not yet big enough to suffer from heavy traffic conjestion. ('Course, the public transport sucks, but everyone drives anyway.) There’s crime, of course, but I’ve never been personally afraid for my safety.

This is the most isolated capital city in the world, or so I read. I could drive two hours (or less) out of Perth and be camping in the forests down south, or fishing on the coast up north. Yeah, I like it here. :slight_smile:

12

I went to Perth only once for dinner. Yes, I went for dinner. 3 or so hours in a plane for dinner. It’s a long story.
It came across as very nice, bit I would hate the sandy soil.
I love gardening and I just don’t know how you guys get a good garden with the sand.

And Melbourne is not the butt of all weather jokes. If we don’t like the weather, we wait a few minutes and it’s guaranteed to change !

13

Austin is great. There’s a good reason I haven’t bothered looking for a “real job” since I got out of college. I like it here too much. And over the past year, I’ve been doing a hell of a lot more with it, so I really don’t want to leave just yet.

As for where I’m actually living, I just moved into a new apartment. Really, I’m subletting from a friend, so I’m now in an apartment with furniture. And two adorable cats. I’m allergic to cats, but so far, things are going well. It’s got a great pool, a work out room, and now it doesn’t take me 20 minutes to visit most of my friends.

So yeah, I like where I live.

14

NO!

I hate cold winters(I’m in Ohio). but we’ll be moving south later this year.

15

I’ve lived in NY all my life, and getting quite tired of it. I’m so tired of the traffic, the crowds, the rude people… i admit, not all NYers are rude, but most of them are.
I just need a change of scenery, and a warmer climate… i hate cold!!! It is fun to go to ‘the village’ every once in awhile… and you can’t beat the bagels, pizza, and diverse foods here… but i’m so bored with it now. I don’t care for the whole “5th ave” shopping area… its not my style. there are great bars and clubs here too… but I don’t really do that anymore…
I don’t want to live and die in one state! Probably move to VA or MD in a couple years. A lot of our friends have moved down there… so we’ll probably join them since we are lonely. :slight_smile:

16

I live in the Adirondacks. This has to be the most beautiful place in the world.

Fresh clean air, lakes so clean you can drink from them. Bluebirds, moose, deer. Glorious Fall foliage, Crisp white Winters. And the most caring, friendly people I’ve ever met anywhere.

I lived in Boston for 4 years while working for an airline and I flew home nearly every weekend.

Honey

17

I dislike where I live. Luckily, I’m moving.

I live about ten miles outside of Boulder, CO, considered one of the nicest places in the country to live. It was - 20 years ago. Now, the front range of Colorado is becoming very much like Southern California. Tons of people, chain stores, traffic. Want to get away to the mountains for a weekend? Go ahead, but be prepared for traffic jams going out on Friday afternoon/Saturday morning, and jams coming back Sunday night. Want to go for a day hike? Go ahead, but go early so you can search for a parking spot, pay any fees, and make sure to say ‘hi’ to the other hikers on the trail that you’ll pass ever 1 or 2 minutes.

There’s just too many people here.

Which is why I’m moving back to my hometown, in the UP of Michigan. Sounds a lot like what Honey describes the adirondacks like - fresh clean air, lakes I drink out of, bluebirds, moose, deer. Two weeks ago I was visiting my parents, and had the ethereal experience of stumbling upon an albino deer on a dirt road near their home - in the middle of town. It was twilight, and it was like I was seeing a unicorn. This magnificent white beast appeared out of the woods, and stood looking at me for ten or fifteen minutes, until I left.

Crisp white winters, too. Very crisp, VERY white. Lake Superior, a ten minute walk from my new home.

I can’t wait.

18

I like my apartment—a big, airy one-bedroom in an 1820s house, with high ceilings and lots of windows. I do not like Northern NJ (or at least my little corner of it). I’m planning to move back to my hometown in Pennsylvania as soon as I can find a job there. There do not seem to be any publishing jobs in Phila., though . . . I would miss NYC, but I’d be close enough to visit friends every few weekends, and do necessary book research.

19

I live in Richmond, VA and enjoy it by and large. The metropolitan area is home to about 800,000 people and is getting more ethnically diverse (many, many more Latinos and East Asians than before). Traffic isn’t too bad by comparison to some other places I’ve visited, and there are plenty of entertainment and cultural activities to suit you if you look around and are willing to be adventurous.

The weather suits me to a “t,” even though many don’t care for the summers (hot and incredibly humid - imagine being wrapped in wet cotton). Winter tends to be wet with a few snows each year during which everyone runs to the grocery store and they close everything. Fine by me.

The city is located about mid-way between the Blue Ridge Mountains and the coast, so within an hour and a half you can be in either locale (I’m a beach person). We’re also about an hour and a hafl from DC, which is enteraining in and of itself.

Crime is not much of a problem if you remember that you’re living in an urban area and take reasonable precautions. That being said, if you aren’t careful you can find yourself in a dicey situation pretty quickly.

There are a couple of negatives: the area is extremely conservative (maybe even reactionary) in attitude. For those of us that lean to the left, we tend to either grin and bear it or ignore it and go about our business. The racial divide is still very much in evidence here. A few years ago a white City Council member said that putting a statue of MLK on Monument Avenue (a boulevard on which many statues of Confederate heroes stand) would be like “putting a toilet in your living room.” When a monument to Arthur Ashe was put there it took years to resolve all of the issues.

All in all, I’m happy with it. I have 5 acres of land, am building a 2,000 square foot house for around $200K, and have about a 20 minute commute. Prices aren’t particularly steep, commutes aren’t outrageous, and there’s plenty to see and do.

And trixie, if you do come down, make sure that you don’t complain about how things are different down here than they are in NY. As we like to say to transplated Northerners who do that, “Well, you know I-95 does run both ways.” Southern hospitality only goes so far.

20

Not really. I was born and raised here (GA), and I am always curious about people who choose to move here. Why? Why would you want to live here?

As most of you have said, it was okay 20 years ago, but there are just too many people for my tastes. Houses are jammed together with no room in-between, too much traffic, too much noise, just too much. Ideally, I would like to live in a place where I could look out my front door and see nothing but empty land. Or a deserted island would be nice.

The weather is okay, although it’s already hot as Hades by 9:30AM. The two seasons we do have (Summer and Winter) are not as extreme as some. And it is possible to be at a beach or in the mountains in a few hours, which is nice.

Okay, I have changed my mind. Yes, I do like where I live, but it is too crowded. After we hosted the “96” Olympics, things just got outta hand. I believe the population tripled during that time, and those folks didn’t go home.