What major city would you NOT want to live in?

In My Humble Opinion
61

Minneapolis

There’s no “there” there. Downtown is like a giant Habitrail for humans with a zany skyway system that links office buildings at the second floor level. Unfortunately, the routes are not terribly direct, and you may wind up walking five blocks in the climate-controlled walkways for a trip that might be just three blocks along the sidewalk.

Street-level facades of buildings are boring - with the exception of a large red metal sculpture at the "Northern Operations Center: and a waterfall on the side of another building a few blocks away (think it was either AT&T or Qwest) there’s not much to look at.

I’d say they roll up the sidewalks at night, but nobody uses the sidewalks except for smokers and any odd characters that like fresh air. But most places close at 7 PM or so - even their “City Center” mall, replete with all the typical mall stores like Radio shack and Office Max and a gaggle of restaurants in the food court. Pretty much all that I could find open past 7 were syndicated restaurants like Chevys and the Olive Garden.

The only nice thing about downtown Minneapolis is that it’s compact - the blocks are short, so it didn’t take me much time to get around on foot. The other nice thing was that I’ll only be there for five nights per month.

62

The City of Houston has NO zoning ordinance. That’s why it is such a jumble.

63

Miami. I can’t think of one thing that would draw me to visit there, much less live there. The idea of Miami just makes my skin crawl.

And, of course, I hate Columbus, Ohio.

64

You’ve got to be kidding. I admit there are problems with the appearance of my town (suburban sprawl, strip malls, flat), but a lack of trees isn’t one of them.

My vote goes to Lagos, Nigeria. I’ve never been, but I’ve never heard anything good about it.

In the U.S., I’d say Cleveland. I grew up 40 miles from there, and every time we had to go into Cleveland, I couldn’t stand it. Still can’t. It’s nothing I can put into words, but the feel of the place is just wrong to me.

65

Let me clarify: I grew up in Atlanta, the city of trees. It’s basically a forest with a city in it. So, yes, to me Houston looks like they’ve replaced everywhere trees would be with concrete. Sure, in the residential areas, there are trees. But everywhere else, it looks like it’s been clearcut. I’m sure Houston isn’t the only city like that, but it’s the only one that I’ve been to.

66

Undoubtedly, you’ll be cheering for the Yanks, too. Stay gone, we don’t need you or want you here in Charm City. As for the Valium, take two if it’ll shut you up. Oh, and BTW, Craig Kilborn was ripping off H.L. Menken, and not doing a very good job of it. Menken of course was witty and inteligent, Kilborn is neither.

67

That “SF Bay Area” you’re from wouldn’t be Oakland, would it? If so, Mr. Kettle, there’s a call from Mr. Pot, line 2.

:dubious:
Well? Pick one. Too long of a walk or not? Oh, and you did seem to be giving a bit of a nod with the “climate-controlled” bit… I’d rather walk 5 blocks in the skyways than 3 blocks in the driving snow. One block, actually.

For my money, I’d not live in San Francisco. Nowhere near enough parking, yet everybody and his office assistant insist on driving to the city. The BART trains don’t cover enough of the city for it to be a reasonable commute system; average commute time to a job in SF is about an hour, last I checked. It’s not much better for people living in the city, but again, parking = nightmare. Expensive one.

68

Absolutely worst area I’ve lived: Ft.Myers / Naples Florida.
Hot-Hot and when not so hot still humid as hell.
Beaches aren’t even nice soft sand, they are crushed shells that are painful on the feet.
The jist of the whole cities is one main highway running north to south for miles on end with strip malls and entrances to gated communities the entire length.
The “season” is when this highway is jam-packed with the retirees from the north that migrate down for the winter. Overpopulation hell.
The “off-season” is the damn hot summer months where the place turns to a ghost town.
The school system is bottom of the barrel so finding any intelligent teens to help run your retail business is impossible.
Scarce parks and public areas. Everything is privately owned so there is nowhere to walk or bike.
Hours away from Tampa and Miami where there might be something fun to do.

69

Chicago: Despite the great culture and the relatively friendly, big city excitement, I wouldn’t live there, unless I lived in the loop and didn’t have to drive 1 1/2 hours each way to work through hellacious traffic everyday (like virtually every other Chicagoan); and had a winter home in Somewhere Else so that I could escape some of the brutal winters.

Houston: Since I grew up there, I like it, mostly because of all the wonderful restaurants and lots of things to do and people I know. Also a nice beach just 45 minutes away. But if I had moved there as an adult, I wouldn’t like it because of the insanely high heat and humidity and the worst traffic around and no real city center to identify with.

New York: Unless I had enough money for a VERY nice place and a hired limo at my beck and call. The culture/arts are outstanding, but it’s such an unfriendly, forbidding, and expensive city that it would be hard to remember the good stuff if I lived there.

Los Angeles: traffic, heat, strip malls, and people obsessed with their appearance and ‘stuff’–fuhgetaboudit.

Looking at my list, I see I’ve eliminated the four biggest cities in the US. Sorry 'bout that.
Others I would rule out (but haven’t actually lived in) are
Phoenix (too hot, too desertlike, too modern-feeling)
Detroit (decrepit burned out hull of an industrial city past its prime [and its prime wasn’t something I would have liked anyway])
Dallas (see Houston, minus the good eating and and the beach access and plus a few too many glassy skyscrapers)
Cleveland (never actually been there, but puhleease . . .)

The ones I’ve liked living in are
Austin
Kansas City
Columbia, SC
(Please don’t tell anyone about these. Why ruin a good thing with too many people?)

70

[QUOTE=PablitoHouston: Since I grew up there, I like it, mostly because of all the wonderful restaurants and lots of things to do and people I know. Also a nice beach just 45 minutes away. But if I had moved there as an adult, I wouldn’t like it because of the insanely high heat and humidity and the worst traffic around and no real city center to identify with.

Dallas (see Houston, minus the good eating and and the beach access and plus a few too many glassy skyscrapers)

[/QUOTE]

I grew up in Houston, and will say that I think it beats the D/FW area hands down (except that my friends all live up here). Dallas traffic is too awful, it’s 70% suburban sprawl, it’s got some serious de-facto segregation going on, and every jerk-water suburban town has to have their own rules on a zillion things. At least in Houston, this stuff’s centralized. Plus, you run into all sorts of people no matter where you go.

FWIW, Houston’s put some real effort into rebuilding the downtown area into something pretty neat. Bayou Place, Toyota Center, Minute-Maid Field, George R. Brown convention center, all the bars & nightclubs have made it about the biggest place to go out at night.

And, I think Houston’s got zoning now, but IIRC, they grandfathered in existing businesses. In other words, if you were running your muffler shop in a residential area before the zoning came into effect, they didn’t make you move.

As for me, I think I’ll pass on living in any of the small-medium sized white-bread midwestern cities. I’ve been to Kansas City, and thought it was the dullest place on earth, and can’t imagine that Omaha, Des Moines, Indianapolis, etc… are any better.

71

Hmmm, Alaskan here, currently living in Texas (but only for the next 17 days, or something like that). TexAS is way too hot and muggy and the bugs and spiders are REALLY yucky. But TexANS seem to be really nice people, a lot of them anyway. And yeah, we’ve got some REAL idiots up north, don’t let Chefguy try to fool you, after all, that’s where many the dregs of society frequently go because they think they can “escape” there. Or at the very least fall into the less desireable Alaskan attitude of “we don’t give a damn how you do it outside (meaning the lower48) this is Alaska, we’ll do what we damn well please”. No matter how tacky or socially unacceptable that may be.

And even though I’m anxious to get back to where I can walk and/or bike and hike any time of year, without dying of heat stroke. Um yeah, what you said about digging 10 feet of snow off of your car for 5 months out of the year. And Fairbanks, or Prudhoe??? Oh yeah, it’s REAL fun trying to work outside at 60+ below zero, in the dark, at NOON. I’m sure I’ll miss some of the nicer days of summer once I get back and get sent up north on investigations and such.

Not all Alaskans hate Texans, it’s just that well, if we cut Alaska in half, y’all would be the THIRD largest state :smiley:

Sorry, couldn’t resist.

72

PS, I LUUUUV all the shopping in Dallas. And the malls in Arlington are awesome. Anchorage, as modern as it is, can NOT top the shopping there!!! You guys rock when it comes to the best malls.

I am an Alaskan resident of about 34 years (except for 11 years prior to my moving there, and the last 8 months that I’ve spent here in Texas) and have lived and worked all over the state from the northernmost point, down to the Aleutians, so I know it pretty damn well, but “other” Alaskans tend to view “my kind” of Alaskan with some more wilderness than thou snootiness.

See, a more typical than “I love going outside and I love Dallas shopping” Alaskan, is one like Chefguy and they tend to disdainfully declare that the “nicest thing about ‘Los Anchorage’ is that it’s close to Alaska”.

So I’m kindof an “in the minority” Alaskan :smiley:

73

Little Rock, ARK: run down dump. Yes, there is a reason Bill Clinton won’t be going back here…the place looks like time stopped in 1936! Surely people, non-existent services…and summer is stifl ing hot.
Lawrence, MA: old industrial city with huge problems…half of the population is on welfare. The other half is on serious mind-altering substances.
Soth Providence, RI: horrible, dirtly little pimple off I-95…the place is old and run-down, with few prospects.
General Rules:
AVOID any city where the major employer is a prison or paper mill! Avoid cities where the average age is >65 (Woonsocket, RI), or under 25. Avoid rust-belt cities with declining populations (Detroit, Flint, MI) Avoid all cities with large ethnic ghettos (Newark, NJ, Camden, NJ). :stuck_out_tongue:

74

I can’t speak to Detroit or Flint, but I have to say this isn’t a good general rule. Buffalo, NY is a rust-belt city with a dwindling population, but it’s a great place to live. Before everyone jumps on me about that, I know it’s not perfect. However, it lacks most of the things cited as problems in the other posts (i.e.-traffic, snotty/racist citizens, urban sprawl, high costs). As this is the complete opposite of the OP, I’ll stop there. I just wanted to suggest a modification of your rules. :smiley:

75

I’m from the DC area, and I like Baltimore. But it’s a thread about what cities you wouldn’t want to live in. You gotta expect someone would hate Baltimore (I thought Kilborn was ripping off JFK’s dig at DC?).

I wouldn’t/couldn’t live in Boston. People struck me as very unfriendly, even xenophobic, and they think they can drive in snow but they can’t.

For that matter, they can’t drive in not snow either.

76

For me, probably any Sun Belt city. No good reason why.

77

I wouldn’t want to live in any major city. Apartment dwelling isn’t my cup of tea and I couldn’t afford anything swanky like a condo that overlooked Lake Michigan. But if I had to and I suddenly became rich, there are only a few cities I’d consider: Chicago or Geneva. I don’t really consider San Francisco to be a major city, but I’d move there, too.

When we lived in NYC for a bit in '91, I found that urban dwelling made me grumpy after 2 days. Too many people milling about, too much concrete, too much trash, and too much noise. At 2am, cabbies were STILL honking their horns at all the lights. WHY? Do they have something against quiet? I wanted to stick my head out the window and scream, QUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII-ET!" The sad thing is that no one would have batted an eye.

I also hated not being able to see the sky. All those skyscrapers made me feel claustrophobic.

Gawd I hate cities. Take Manhattan, just give me the countryside. Duh Duh Duh Duh DUH DUH.

78

:smack: Yes, of course, you are correct and I am wrong. J.F.K., H.L. Menken…they both have letters in their names don’t they? It’s a natural mistake!

/me is a dork