I thought I would start a thread about cities people would not want to move to. Pick a place that you have either been to or lived in and would not recommend to someone as a place to live.
I think I’d pick Houston, Texas as the city I would least like to move to. I usually dislike sprawling Sunbelt cities. From the times I’ve been there, it has seemed a mess of traffic, freeways, and confusing surface streets. The weather is hot and humid most of the year with storms and a risk for hurricanes. The bizzare zoning makes for an unappealing cityscape in my opinion. There seems to be a never ending series of suburbs with too much of the “cookie cutter” and McMansion look.
I second Houston. When I first visited it took me a while to realize that what was bothering me was the complete lack of trees and the omnipresence of concrete.
I’d also add NYC. It’s a great place to visit and there is no place else even remotely like it. But I couldn’t live there. I don’t think I could ever relax. I’d always feel like there was something more cultured, more cosmopolitan I should be doing. :dubious:
I don’t know Houston well enough to not want to live there. I’d live in most any major city for a year or so, I think. But if forced to choose maybe Dallas because it’s so Texan and that just wouldn’t fit too well for me. I’d inevitably be beaten to a pulp by an enraged resident for making some crass remark.
I’ll take a pass on living in any major city. I know, I know, the “convenience” of everything is what people like - but the harried pace, the crowds everywhere make me wanna live at the end of the road. Even the Jackson Metro area, where I’ve been for the past sixteen years, is too big for me (pop. 400,000 +). To each his own, I reckon.
I wouldn’t move back to Atlanta for anything. I spent 2.5 years there and they were some of the worst years of my adult life.
I’ve never wanted to live in any of the major cities anyway. I’m really a lot happier in a smaller city/large town. Knoxville has been a good size for me, and Jackson, MS was as well. I think this upcoming move to Youngstown, OH is also going to be good - the town feels like it’s about the right size, with the benefits of major cities relatively close by.
Diff’rent strokes for diff’rent folks I guess; But Seattle was “hell-on-earth” to me.
:: pauses for gasps/vapors::
A few caveats: One of the prettiest cities I’ve ever seen. Inhabitants were delightful (and boy-oh-boy do they know beer :)). But… It rained. Often. OK, always. I think there were 290+ days with precip the first year we were there. Gray skies, overcast, drizzle, day after day of photon deprivation. I had to flee (for my very survival). So, as wierd as it sounds, Seattle tops the list of major cities I would NOT want to live in.
PS. Did you know there is no speed limit when you’re headed South on I-5 with a U-Haul? Especially if you’ve got Texas plates ::p.
…Los Angeles. Blech. I hate LA. Sucks, cause most of my family lives there, as well as some good friends. It’s ugly, crowded, bland, and I’m allergic to whatever the heck is in the air.
There are some cities I don’t think I’d like based on their reputations, but I think LA is the only one I’ve actually been to that I hate.
On the other side of things, I love LA, but it wouldn’t bother me a bit if New York City slip into the East River. How anyone can live in that hive is beyond me. But then, I’m sure most New Yorkers feel the same way about LA.
Maybe Big Applites and Angelenos can unite in their mutual dislike of …oh, say…St. Louis.
Every big city I have been to for a while has some nice stuff and some bad stuff.
I do have to admit that as to Dallas- I could only find that they have a fairly nice light rail system, and some of the best strip clubs I have ever been to. Counting SF. That’s not all that much, I have to admit.
La has many attractions, and the beach and mountians are RIGHT there, so it’s still not so bad. Etc.
Baltimore is truly the armpit of America, and now that I’m gone, I’m never going back (with the possible exception of seeing a Yankee’s v O’s game at Camden yards when the O’s have a decent team, and when I do I’ll be taking a Valium the size of a hamburger when I reach the city limits)
Craig Kilborn summed it up best: “Baltimore, the city that combines the casual racism of the south with the industrial blight of the north.”
