What do you think about where you live now?

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)
#1

And this is for those of us who live in a very different place from where you grew up, the wife and I grew up in Baltimore, I went to a private school in Baltimore, but lived in the country, about 40 minutes north…my wife grew up in the city…

And because of a job opportunity, we moved to upstate NY, across the river from Schenectady, in the Capital District of NY (Albany/Schenectady/Troy)…we’ve been here for almost 19 years…

It’s very different from whence we came, we will not stay here when we retire (too cold, too expensive, too many taxes, no family), BUT, it’s been a good place to raise our kids, the quality of life is good, we’re suburban but can get rural quickly, yes, the winters SUCK, but for about 4 months of the year, it’s really, really nice, the Adirondacks are close, absolutely beautiful, as are multiple lakes…our neighborhood is beautiful, tree lined streets, houses set back, we can sit in our three-season room (the house sits on a hill) and just look over the neighborhood…

What is your experience as to where you were raised as compared to where you’ve ended up?

#2

Hmmm…I am living in the house I grew up in. I moved out in 1978 and moved back in 2014-ish. Things are definitely changing here. Ever since This Neighbor moved in, my end of the city has been going crazy real estate-wise. Crazy health care money building mansions and estates. Lots more traffic, a lot of farmland turned in to housing additions or shopping. I’m happy with what I have but wish it was more like the old times.

That said, close proximity to the hospital saved my life last year.

#3

Mr.Wrekker has owned this land most of his adult life. He grew up and went to school in the small town we are near-ish. I was a military brat. Lived allover. When we married and moved out here I immediately loved it. I will never live anywhere else. Unless he boots me to the curb;)

#4

I grew up in one of the nicest places on Earth southern San Luis Obispo County and I’d move back tomorrow if ai could. I miss it never getting hot or cold. I miss the beach and the ocean with the mountains rising out of them. I miss the fresh strawberries and good bar-b-que but I don’t miss the 700k tract homes and while I could find work there Mrs. Digger would lose her career so unless my salary quadruples there is no chance.

Right now I live in a very nice mountain town outside of Denver with lots of elk and deer running through my yard every day.it doesn’t get as hot here as Denver but the winter will be worse. Job prospects are great for both of us and the community has been a lot of fun to get involved with as of now were planning on living here for the next 20 years but I doubt I’ll retire here.

#5

I grew up in Philadelphia and my wife in Brooklyn and southern NJ (exit 1) and we have lived in Montreal for a month short of 50 years. I would love to move to a warmer climate, but there is much here to love. Not to mention medicare which, for us, is the deciding factor. We were seriously thinking of moving to Brooklyn (where our daughter lives) two years and said, “Let’s wait till after the election to decide (ha ha).” So we waited and we are still here. Seriously considering selling our house and buying a condo. At least snow clearance would no longer be our problem and several other problems would do away (like schlepping laundry up two flights of stairs).

#6

Small town boy from the northern edge of Appalachia. Moved to Silicon Valley after the Army and before it got crazy. To Seattle at 40, again before it got too crazy. Still there.

So, big changes but can’t imagine living anywhere else.

(Like oredigger77, 1970s California was amazing but now income taxes and housing would be too big a hit)

#7

I grew up where the OP is now. My dad worked in Troy NY, near Albany, and we lived across the Hudson River from Troy, in the town of Latham — my home town. After growing up in the northeast, I moved with my family (my parents and siblings) to San Francisco. After a few years in the Marines, and college, I settled down in San Francisco for a while, and then for the last 25 years I’ve been living about 30 minutes south of San Francisco. Silicon Valley.

So… rural Upstate NY vs San Francisco & Silicon Valley — dramatically different. The weather here is great. The weather in Latham was rough winters. The traffic here, and the rat race, are pretty intense. I work for a tech startup. The cost of living here is nuts. People here take many things for granted, like freedoms that were fought for and defended by others. There’s a fair amount of conspicuous consumption here. The geography is great here — next to the ocean, close to mountains, and snowy winter weather is only a few hours’ drive. Yosemite is virtually in my back yard. I can wear shorts and flip flops 24/7/365 here.

I’ll probably retire here, and live out my years here. My wife’s family is here. But, boy, I could live out in the quiet country…

#8

I grew up in a suburb of Green Bay, WI – technically a metropolitan area, but not a very big one, and the culture there revolved around the Packers (it still does, really). I went to college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and while I wouldn’t have been opposed to moving back to Green Bay after school, I knew that the opportunities would be limited (I’d majored in marketing and market research).

When I was getting out of school, I’d wanted to move up to Minneapolis / St. Paul – I’d dated a girl from that area, I’d visited there often, and several of my friends were moving there. But, the job offer I got was in downtown Chicago. I said to myself, “well, I guess I’ll go to Chicago for a couple of years.” That was 1989; I’m still here. :wink: I married a Chicago girl, and my jobs have always been here.

I’ve never lived in the city proper (always in the suburbs), but, it took probably a decade or so before I really felt at home here. It’s still bigger, and a lot busier and more congested (traffic-wise) than I’d really like, and the cost of living (particularly housing and property taxes) is kind of high. So, I can still see moving to someplace not as big at some point.

Friends of mine who don’t live here ask me if the crime rate (particularly shootings and murders) worry me, but those are largely concentrated in areas of the city where I never go. What does concern me more is the fact that the City of Chicago, Cook County, and the State of Illinois are all in budget crisis (largely due to huge pension obligations), and that’s going to affect the quality of life here in the years to come.

Ironically, when my now-wife and I started dating, and in the first few years we were married, whenever we’d go up to Green Bay to visit my family (my parents still live in the house where I grew up), she would always make a point of saying to me, “I wouldn’t ever want to live up here.” In the past few years, she’s suddenly starting saying, “You know, I wouldn’t mind living in Green Bay”…and, meanwhile, I’m now at the point where I don’t know that I could picture moving back there. :smiley:

#9

I grew up in Chicagoland, and that will always be the center of the universe for me. Got married immediately after college and after living in New England and the Rocky Mountain west, I ended up in western Washington. I thought of moving back to Chicago when I took early retirement for health reasons, but friends and family were mostly moving away, plus my grown kids live out here.

I like it here, but no place will ever truly feel like home besides Chicago. Honestly, I envy those of you who still live in the town where you grew up, especially River Hippie.

#10

Born in Chicago, but really grew up on 5 acres in central Illinois, and then teen years in suburban Denver.

For the last 27 years We’ve (wife and I) at my current home. Way high in the Colorado Rockies (11,200 ft). We only have two acres, but it backs up to National Forest. No other full time residents on our road, and we can’t see any other houses.

It’s great. But you do have to get used to not just running to the store for something, or ordering pizza delivered (or anything else). Summers are short but just fantastic. Never over 80 degrees, dark blue skies because of the altitude. Winters are brutal and long. We measure any snowfall over an inch. Thirty feet in a season is not unusual. Twenty feet is a light year and causes worry about drought.

I love it.

#11

I think about the same things I thought about every place I’ve lived before.

#12

Grew up not too far from where I live now. Spent a few years in Georgia, not far from Savannah, and then a few years in Kansas, Topeka was the closest city.
I love where I live now. I can drive 20 minutes south from my house and be 97 or 98% isolated from civilization. There is a very small still functioning old observatory in the desert not too awful far from here, that on weekends does tours, or I can drive north for a bit and camp in the mountains. The outdoor recreation opportunities here are many and varied, I have a hard time imagining living elsewhere, except the area I lived in while in GA. I could very easily live there again, I think. I’d have to visit first and see how things have changed in the last 20 years.

#13

**Things that are worse where I currently am:
**

  1. At least a quarter of the year is cold, and there’s snow, and you have to shovel said snow.
  2. Notably higher taxes, and more stuff is taxed.
  3. Awful traffic, and despite 2 above, refuses to build or expand any more roads with that tax revenue to alleviate said traffic.
  4. Property and houses much more expensive.
  5. Craigslist is useless out here and (more) full of morons on both the selling (asking way too much) and buying (impossible to sell stuff) end.
  6. Shitty car scene here: harder to find cool / nice cars for sale, no custom scene, cars more likely to get dinged up in traffic / parking, snow routinely buries them.
  7. The people in general: although liberal in politics, in mores the people here are on average stuffy prudes who are more judgmental and less interesting as people.
  8. Less dog friendly.
    **Things that are better:
    **
  9. Air quality
  10. Trees / nature / environment
  11. Proximity to other major metro areas
  12. Jobs / startup culture / VC and funding culture / talent pool
  13. Consulting opportunities
  14. Museums
  15. Lots of grocery delivery services

Looking at that list actually enumerated, I really can’t wait to leave this place.
I just pray it’s sooner than I think it will be. :slight_smile:

#14

I spent my childhood in Baltimore county (Towson/Parkville area) but I left, coincidentally, 45 years ago today when I joined the Navy. My last duty station was Jacksonville, FL, where I married, got out of the Navy, and had my daughter. We lived there for about 18 years, with a 3-year move to Fredericksburg, VA breaking the time up.

But in 2004, we broke ties with Florida (except for my inlaws still living there) and moved to southern Maryland. As far as I’m concerned, I’m staying put till I have to be wheeled to Shady Pines, or wherever. I love the mostly rural area, I love getting fresh produce from various Amish farms, I love the proximity to the Chesapeake Bay. It’s my favorite place of all the places I’ve lived, bar none!

#15

Grew up in northeast Indiana, went to college in central Indiana, lived in Indy for a while, went back to the same college and then finally moved away about 5 years ago. Oh yeah, family trips were always in Wisconsin.

After a pit stop in Charlotte, I’m in Florida now and I looooooooove it.

I absolutely hate the cold. I hate being cold, I hate being around cold, I hate thinking about the cold and I just. hate. cold. I don’t get that here in sunny Florida. I don’t even mind the humidity. I’m perfectly happy wearing a cutoff shirt and basketball shorts and sweating buckets.

Visiting home during Christmas is fun and all, and there’s a fun winter-themed thing they do every year here in Orlando that’s all chilly and stuff, but I’m never moving back to cold ever.

#16

I live in the Boston area and I can’t stand it even though I live in one of the safest small cities in the country (and was ranked the safest a few years ago). The people are cold and standoffish and it is expensive as all fuck for not much. The winters are endless and the culture is bizarre. The work environments are a pressure cooker. Cape Cod is cold even during the summer. I absolutely hate the native accents and refuse to let my daughters use any type of local dialect because I consider it to be a disability.

My girlfriend and I are moving as soon as we can and the the only thing you will see is my middle finger in the rear view mirror. If you aren’t born and raised here, you will never fit in and why would you want to? I made a huge mistake by moving to the Boston area and getting trapped. The only good thing about it is the the history, hospitals and universities but most people have the sense to cut and run as soon as they are done. I got trapped but I am getting out eventually too.

#17

I grew up in the Chicago suburbs, and always hated the blandness, boredom, and homogeneity of the suburban wastelands. Now I live in the city of Chicago in a dynamic neighborhood and love it. The taxes are crazy, and the politics are crazier, but I still can’t imagine living anywhere else.

#18

I grew up in Atlanta (in the city, not a suburb). Born and raised on heavy traffic, elevated crime, comprehensive public transit, visible economic strafication, and big city culture. I love Atlanta and it will always have a special place in my heart. But it isn’t the easiest place to live.

Now I live in Richmond, VA. It is a medium-sized city that feels podunk compared to Atlanta. But it is more my pace. I still live in the city (suburbia will never be my thing), but my residential neighborhood is quiet and tree-lined and close enough to wilderness that I have deer keeping my backyard weeds in check. Richmond is big enough to support the cultural stuff I like, but the cost of living isn’t off the chain. The traffic here is minimal, but the walkability of the city means that I don’t usually have traffic on my mind anyway. Richmond is swelling in size everyday and I am bit worried it may become Atlanta No. 2. But it has another couple of decades of growth before that happens.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

#19

Went from very rural to very suburban to inner-city. There are actually some things I liked similar to my youth. In the city you really don’t need to drive because everything is close; on the farm you didn’t drive because everything was so far away. But all in all I would rather be back on the farm. I just can’t get used to seeing people and having people see me at almost every moment.

#20

I grew up in various places in the US and Europe but they were all relatively large or extremely large cities. I now live in a small university town in the eastern part of the US. It’s not a place I would choose to live given a completely free choice (a job brought me here). It’s fine in a lot of ways. The climate is good (neither too hot nor too cold), it’s a place of natural beauty with close proximity to national parks and trails, the cost of living is reasonable including housing prices. But it is very much a small town without access to the cultural opportunities of urban areas, though the university does its best and there is a decent independent movie theater, etc. It’s far from a major airport which is more annoying than I had expected. The regional airport is 45 minutes away and it tends to be much more expensive to fly anywhere than it would be from a larger airport. I miss decent grocery stores and a wider variety of restaurants. Barnes and Noble is the only bookstore (sob). And we are too far from the ocean for my liking. Especially too far from the Pacific Ocean (about 3000 miles).