It’s not stealing if you get permission. So, no.
Columbia, SC is where the Secession Convention was held. You can go see the Ordinance of Secession, which is, what, maybe the fifth most important document in American history? Anyway, all the others you go to DC for, this one’s behind the desk at the State Archives down on Parklane.
ETA - we also have Congaree National Park, which preserves the largest tract of old growth bottomland in the US, including some of the tallest trees in the eastern half of the country. It’s totally and absolutely free - no admission fee, no parking fee, even the canoe trips they do are free.
Fishers, Indiana, a bedroom community about 15-20 minutes north/north-east of downtown Indianapolis, which is the state capital and biggest city close to me.
Fishers isn’t much of anything, other than an extremely quiet – crimewise – town of about 78,000 or so souls. It is - or was - the second fastest growing municipality in the United States back when I worked for the Town several years ago.
In my immediate vicinity, traffic is a PITA during the two rush hours, but I have an easy commute to my job in Carmel, which is another bedroom community to Indianapolis.
There are a number of restaurants and bars in Fishers (including a couple of excellent sushi and thai places), and a decent shopping center and a multiplex cinema about five minutes either south and east of my location.
My biggest complaint is that there is nowhere to walk or bike without being overcome by exhaust emissions. What paths there are, border heavily-traveled roads which make both activities unpleasant.
On a wider scale, Indianapolis has come up leaps and bounds since the dark days of the 1970s when I moved here. Jebus, but this place was a joke!
There has always been the Indianapolis 500, but it appeals to a much smaller cross section. Cultural options of all kinds are incredibly varied today, with at least a couple of world-class museums available and of course the city hosts the Superbowl this year – no small feat!
I’ve noticed more than a few posters mentioning they live in Vegas. We might be able to put on a pretty good dopefest!
I was going to post about where I lived, but I thought I’d check first on the off-chance that someone else posted. I live in Elgin, just north of South Elgin.
It’s a bit different than South Elgin in that it’s larger. I’ve lived here all my life. There are a lot of neat Victorian-era houses downtown on the east side that are really nice. I think they’re part of some kind of preservation thing. I live on the far northwest side of town, where I grew up.
The town itself is nice; it’s been greatly revitalized in my lifetime. When I was a kid, there were a lot of old factory and warehouse-type buildings by the river, and the downtown was mostly deserted. They’ve put in a rec center and a new library which is, to be honest, probably the best library in the area. The schools used to be pretty good, but seem to be subject to more and more budget cuts; I hear they’re worse than when I went.
You’re close enough to the city to feel like you’re still connected to Chicago, but far enough away that it doesn’t feel like you’re in Chicago. I like it a lot more than I did when I was a kid, but it still suffers from the suburb feel–not a whole lot is walkable, and there’s a lot of sprawl.
The Fox River is nice, though, and so is the center part of downtown. The weather sucks, except for a couple of months in fall.
This is really a really interesting thread.
I live in a suburb of an expensive city on Vancouver Island, BC, Canada. The municipality where I live was certainly looked down on in the past–okay, it’s Langford, BC. I work in a very nice section of town–Oak Bay. I live in a trailer park. Yep, a trailer park. However, it’s quite nice, and 99% of the residents take pride in their dwellings, and the 1% that don’t aren’t kind of tsk-tsked by the rest. It’s quiet. We used to live in a rented condo on a main intersection, and lord, I love the quiet. I’ve got a single woman on one side and a single man on the other. Both are great neighbours. The best of all–we abut on a regional park. I can literally not tell where my back yard ends and Mill Hill Park starts. That means should I feel the urge to commune with nature–and I do, often–I just walk into the woods. Of course, everybody that lives in the woods–deer, raccoons, bunnies, birds, and so on, just walk into the back yard as well. That’s okay. What plants live, live, and what don’t, get eaten. One time we had a white peacock hang around for a summer.
This has become the big-box store area of the greater Victoria area, so I have a Costco and super Wal-Mart a few minutes away, or the untamed woods a five minute walk away.
It’s the kind of neighbourhood where if I take the dog out for the last pee of the night, and happen to be wearing my nightgown at the same time, there’s half a chance I’ll find a neighbour doing the same in her pyjamas. It’s also the kind of neighbourhood where I can have a brain glitch and leave the screen door closed but the front door wide open behind it, go shopping, and come back, and all we own is still intact. It’s so quiet sitting in the back yard that I can hear the sound of birds’ wings flapping as they fly overhead.
And yet, I can drive into town and go see **La Ministre **in an opera, if I so choose. It’s okay. I never thought I’d be living in a double-wide, but, hey, where a singularly crappy house on a singularly crappy lot costs $600,000, it’s okay. We have a yard, we have the regional park, we have the quiet. I can even see the milky way at night when it’s clear.
I live in a small country town in Australia. Located in the southern part of the ‘Riverina’, it’s home to about 5,000 people who service a HUGE agricultural region with farms ranging from 500 to >300,000Ha in size.
It’s a nice place to live. Previously I lived in Melbourne which is one of Australia’s capitals…busy, bustling and buggered-up. Now I can drive to the supermarket and almost always get a carpark right outside! The local crime-scene is confined to the occasional biffo outside the pub on a Saturday night, or maybe a break-in at the footy clubrooms to knock-off a slab. Kids here walk to school or catch the bus if they live out in the sticks.
It’s stinking hot in summer (often getting over 35c) and we get frosts in the winter, but the days then are mild, 'round 14-17c. Bushfires are a regular threat, but locals take such threats seriously and have prepared their properties and/or organised a plan to deal with high-risk days.
The cost of housing here is probably half what it is in the major capitals. Petrol costs more. Most other things are probably on par I guess. What I miss most of all from the city is the diversity of ethnic foods: here it’s basically white anglo-saxon food, with the odd thing available from the supermarket. Tough titties if you are needing something a little bit exotic Thank OG the trip to multicultural Melbourne is only 3.5 hours away…I make the excuse it’s a reason to visit the kids, but actually I’m replenishing the larder with all the stuff I can’t get up here…don’t tell the kids though!! 
Nice spot…the Murray River is five minutes walk away, and we launch the ‘tinny’ down at the boatramp often…more often than we actually catch a fish of course! Murray Cod are a reputed delicacy, alas they are notoriously hard to catch, and they have to be 60cm before you can bag them. We’ve only ever caught ONE over the limit, but it’s fun trying.
It’s the middle of summer here now. The cicadas are thrumming in the peppercorn tree out the back, chooks are off the lay 'cos it’s too hot I think, and there’s frogs hanging out in the outside dunny trying to keep cool.
Yep, nice spot. I like it here!
I’d be down!
I live in Rosebank, a suburb of Cape Town. Where I live is mostly blocks of flats, though a little further east it’s mostly detached houses. Most of the flats are rented by students at the University of Cape Town, and indeed I live only 200m from the edge of campus. Right now, with the university on summer holiday, the area is pretty quiet; but in a month’s time when the students come back it’ll be much busier.
It’s about 5 minutes by car or train from the shopping district of Claremont, and 10 minutes drive (or 15 by train) from the city centre. It’s reasonably walkable - I lived here for a year before getting a car - but driving does make life much easier. About six or seven years ago it had something of a crime problem, but increased policing along with security patrols funded by the university have improved things a lot.
We have excellent views of Devil’s Peak, which is an adjunct of Table Mountain, and the Table Mountain National Park lies just on the other side of the university campus. About half a kilometre from where I live is Rondebosch Common, a large tract of fynbos parkland.
I live in Texas–on the border with Mexico–the southernmost tip of Texas, the Rio Grande Valley. The gulf of Mexico is immediately to the east, and Mexico is to the south. The Rio Grande separates the two countries, but we are ultimately connected. Most people speak both English & Spanish, or at least the border lingo, “Spanglish”. The “Rio Grande Valley” encompasses a somewhat large area with smallish cities (20,000-120,000 pop each) that run into each other. Basically from Starr county Texas (Roma/Rio Grande City), Hidalgo county (McAllen/Mission/Edinburg), to Cameron county (Brownsville/Harlingen) Willacy county is also considered part of the “Valley”. We also have an annual influx of “Winter Texans”, people from the northern U.S. & Canada that come here from about October to April, to escape the cold weather up north. They tend to live in trailer parks during their time here. This is an area with very little “middle class”. You either are pretty well off, or have very little. The economy here is not like it is in other areas of the U.S. There is new construction going on all over the place, from new housing developments to new restaurants and retail stores. 20 years ago this area was not much more than citrus orchards and onion fields. The mall in McAllen (La Plaza Mall), is said to make more money per square foot than any other mall in the U.S. We have a large amount of affluent Mexican nationals who come here to shop, & they often have homes here just for the purpose of a place to stay while shopping… I live in a gated community that is primarily composed of 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th homes of Mexican nationals (I’m just a full-time American!). Sadly, we have been impacted by the drug/cartel war in Mexico. Not a day goes by without either a car chase, a kidnapping, or a home invasion. Consequently, most everyone I know has a concealed carry permit, which means they carry handguns wherever they go. One assumes most people you meet are also carrying weapons as well. So, in a way, that’s a deterrent. Almost everyone has video surveillance systems in their homes, too. And as long as you aren’t involved in the illegal activities, you remain fairly safe. There have been a few incidents of mistaken identity, but that’s uncommon. Today, the temps were in the low 80s. Palm trees are everywhere, and I have huge tropical ginger plants, hibiscus, palms, bouganvillea, and birds of paradise blooming right now in my garden. I love hearing about everyone’s homes, and yes, I am obsessed with HouseHunters International.
Basically, a nice, quiet, boring, fairly crime-free little town. I would love to move into NYC, but there is no way I could afford it (I have a large two-bedroom–for what I pay here, in NYC I could not rent a paper bag in the middle of the road).
Reply With Quote “We lived in a rolled up newspaper on the side of the road” Monty Python skit.
Anyway North Texas here far enough from Dallas to be nice and quiet.
I live in a village in County Cork, Ireland. My house is on a low hill that’s just high enough to have really nice views of the rolling countryside to the west, perfect for scenic sunsets. My backyard directly abuts a small enclosed pasturage, so that every few months I’m lucky enough to have some bovine visitors only a few meters from my house (I like cows, so this is a plus for me).
There’s not much to the village itself: a petrol station/post office, church, school, and two pubs (both of which are at the bottom of my hill, a 3-minute walk/stagger). Most people work in either Cork (20 minute drive to the north), or one of a half dozen other smaller towns nearby, particularly Kinsale (5 minute drive to the south). Cork (the Republic’s 2nd largest city) is a laid-back affair, big enough to have good restaurants, big-name concerts, a University, etc., but small enough to get into and out of easily and where you can walk around with not everyone in a rush. Kinsale is a pleasant little seaside port which is disproportionately popular with the tourists and well-known around the County as a good place for “the craic”. The weather is rather boring, with mild, wet summers and mild, wet winters (sense a common theme?). Near panic ensued last winter when snowfall of about an inch actually accumulated and hung around for a few days.
Like many non-local residents here can tell you, this is the kind of place that sucks you in. I only thought I’d be here temporarily when I moved from New Hampshire six years ago, but now there’s no place I’d rather be.
Plans a visit to Fuji’s gaff 
Come on down!
IIRC, you’re up in the North, right? (Assuming that I’m not mistaken, I just have to put in a plug for Belfast here. I’ve been there a half dozen times or so in the past couple years, and it’s nothing like the grim, depressing warzone I had imagined growing up Stateside. It’s an interesting, orderly city (much nicer than Dublin, IMHO) that really manages to feel both British and Irish.)
Small college town in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York. it’s like living in a huge Unitarian church, only with better coffee. For those who haven’t ever been in a Unitarian church, maybe the place can be equated to an ungentrified “what Boulder used to be like in the 1970s” kind of town.
The year 'round population is skewed heavily towards those in their 50s and up. Including the students, whose presence doubles the area’s population during the fall and winter semesters, there’s an odd hole in the demographics, with few people between 35 and 55 years old. During the school year, the population of the place doubles.
Among the non-student crowd, there’s lots of academic-types, lots of very crunchy people, lots of women that resemble Amy Goodman, and the highest percentage of lesbians of any community its size in the United States. With legal SSM, it’s common to hear a woman talk abut what she and her wife did over the weekend. Strangely, there’s only a very small population of gay men. The population as a whole is quite laid back and tolerant. People are sincerely nice here.
Downtown is vibrant, filled with a surprising array of restaurants and bars, the kinds of boutiques and galleries one might find in an well-off village, and more head shops than you can possibly imagine a place of this size needs. The sights and sounds of random people on the street holding forth on postmodern philosophy, ecofeminism, the post-Communist political structure in Romania, and other esoteric subjects is nothing out of the ordinary.
Housing is very expensive for upstate New York, thanks to student demand, high academic salaries, and, some claim, intense NIMBYism that limits the construction of new housing. A shockingly high percentage of the housing stock is run down for a place that is otherwise well-off, but many in the crunchy crowd like their housing “gritty” and “authentic”.
Despite the town’s small size, there’s quite a bit to do. There’s a lot of cultural opportunities for a place this size, much low-cost or free. The locavore movement is quite strong, and the local beer is wonderful. Lots of yoga studios, woo-woo practitioners, and for some strange reason, mental health professionals.
Crime is extremely low. Summer and fall are spectacular. Winter and spring are cold and dreary.
It’s an interesting place. I like it here.
I’m in Dublin. 
I’m actually thinking of relocating to Belfast soon enough though. I agree with your assessment to a certain degree, the centre of Belfast especially is kept much better than Dublin. However, Dublin’s nightlife is better by far.
Missed the edit window:
Ok I live in a large suburb of Dublin, approximately 10 miles from its city centre but right adjacent to Dublin’s rural hinterland. While not quite on the coast, there’s a nice estuary is walking distance of my home. This town has most things you could want from a town, with a few notable exceptions such as a theatre. In living memory it was a small village and now has 10,000s of people. Its main street and environs suffer from both the recession and the proximity of a large shopping mall that has really sucked the life out of the town proper. For an American frame of reference, it’s not that dissimilar to the suburban midwest, although lots tend to be smaller, more of the homes are what you would call cookiecutter, and of course all the homes are brick-made. Also property is more clearly delineated, most front and all back gardens are fenced off. For anyone who lives around Cleveland, OH, this town is probably most like Rocky River, albeit further from the centre of the city. The town has a 14th century castle, sometimes used in film shoots, and a similar vintage round tower and assorted other historical ruins. By the results of the last council and general election it’s probably the most leftwing area of the Republic. Although the town has seen better days, crime isn’t as big as issue as it is in a lot of other places, and I have shops, a cinema, pubs, restaurants and other amenities a five minute stroll away.
Ah, sorry about that!:smack:
You’re right that Dublin does have more nightlife than Cork or Belfast (presumably), but having been to Dublin many times over the years, it always strikes me as a run-down, crowded, shabby, somewhat seedy place. My strongest memory of Dublin is being with a couple American friends of mine and being shaken down on the street near Temple Bar (just on the other side of the Liffey) by a couple of hoods for some cigarettes after the pubs closed. That, and missing my connecting train to Cork coming back from Belfast because all the roads between Connolly and Heuston were closed for the bloody Dublin Marathon.
I’d still take it over Houston or Dallas any day (I went to college in Texas).
I live in north-western Ontario in a chaletby some lift and cross-country ski areas. I am in wilderness escarpment countryon the boundary between bush and farmland, with a small city about a twenty-five minute drive away. Aside from the many small lakes in the area, we have Lake Superior, which is massive, majestic, and mostly void of people, so in the summer I spend a lot of time paddling about on it with my friends. In short, I live in heaven on earth.
I have to admit that sometimes it gets a bit noisy at my place at night.