Why do you live where you do? Doesn't it suck?

In My Humble Opinion
21

Houston, Texas here.

I love the whole damn state. So much to do and see. From the triple point of the Big Thicket, meeting point for three ecospheres: the coastal swamps of southern Louisiana, the piney woods of East Texas and North Louisiana and the coastal plains, go down the Gulf Coast along the miles and miles of beaches and take a right through the Valley. Catch a lift over the Balcones Escarpment and check out the Davis Mountains. Soon enough you can taste the West Texas/Panhandle part of the Great Plains and then plunge back toward the middle and kick back in the Hill Country.

We’ve got 3 of the 10 biggest cities in the country, and Austin’s liable to bust those ranks pretty damn soon.

While much can be said about Dallas and San Antone, Houston, after a lifetime, remains a wonderland to me. I love this city.

Houston is a dynamic city with a usually pulsating economy. Cosmopolitan? International commerce is a major pursuit here, I think there’s somebody here, if not several somebodies, from just about every cultural/ethnic/national group you can imagine and we’ve got the Houston Grand Opera and its affiliates (which I admittedly rarely attend), the Houston Symphony (which I do attend several times a year, and they’re first rate) museums, a theater scene and nightlife, with music, to suit any taste.

When I have visitors, there’s no shortage of things to do, one being just taking a driving tour to let 'em soak up some of the amazing architecture. Which reminds me - of all the big cities I’ve moved about in, this is one of the easiest for its size to get around in. Sure, you can get stuck in traffic, but that doesn’t happen to me very often.

The climate is moderate most of the year. We cook a little bit around the end of July and start of August, but conversely, you can live here for decades without owning any decent cold weather gear. It was 72º when I came inside about an hour ago.

The cost of living is escalating, but it just doesn’t compare to other big cities yet. I live in a nice part of town, in the center of Houston, in a 450 sq. ft. duplex that I pay $450 a month for.

Another cool thing - no zoning! When it last came up in about 1991 it was the first thing that had ever stirred me to grass roots activism. I had a bunch of “NO ZONING” bumper stickers printed up and started giving them away. Eventually the Houston Property Rights Association got wind of me and we hooked up. The electorate rejected zoning and embraced our death-to-zoning-forever amendment to the city charter with a plurality of 61%. Landslide! Yeeeehaw!

Makes for an interesting city.

And one more thing that I fear won’t last. It’s not a tourist destination. We’re one of the best kept secrets in North America. I like it that way.

I’ve lived in the Montrose almost all of my adult life, adjacent to the Museum District. I can’t imagine anywhere else I’d rather live.

René Magritte’s The Rape is 28.8 miles away from the grain elevator that dominates Katy, Texas, but it is also, in the Menil Collection, hanging a mere 80 yards away from me right now, along with many other famous surrealist works.

You’ve got all of the above and, not only that, it’s Texas, babes.

22

We live in Detroit and it sucks just as much as you would think. The weather is horrible in the winter, the traffic is bad, housing is expensive and the average IQ is 90 (honest!). I moved here because I work in a very specialized field and there was a good job for me here. At various points in my life, I have lived in TN, IN, NC, WI, and MA. Only Terre Haute, IN and Richmond, IN were worse than Detroit. I would love to live in TN again–mainly because family is there, but also because it is not here.

23

I’ve lived in So Cal all of my life and I do love it. I live in a semi-rural area, close to the San Gabriel Mountians. Close to the conveniences and fun of the city, with not so many getto-birds. I love living near the mountains and can’t imagine living in say, Kansas. Quite a few years back I visited my brother who lived in Kansas, and I had quite the bout of heebie-jeebies when confronted with all of that flat earth.

24

Apart from the overly dense forest and the excessive number of smelly, tattooed and multiply pierced people, I like living in Santa Cruz.

25

Well, I grew up in a town where the Cattlemen’s Association once had a raffle. First prize was a week in Los Angeles.

Second prize was two weeks in Los Angeles.

Why I like living in Montana:
People are friendly. I grew up here and there is only one degree of seperation. If I meet someone else from Montana, we will know someone in common. I like that kind of connectedness. We get four seasons. I like warm weather, but I also like the change of seasons.

Why I like living in Helena:
It’s kind of small (40K) and still friendly. I live 6 blocks from the state capitol building, 8 blocks from work and 8 blocks from downtown. I can also walk out my front door and be on mountain trails in 8 minutes. I can hike all day and if I see 5 people, it’s a crowded day. Helena is also in the center of the state, so if I want to go to a concert (U2, Taj Mahal, Ween, Tori Amos, Van’s tour) I only have to drive for about two hours.

But we don’t have a ton of restaurants, concerts, cultural opportunities,etc. But if I lived in Los Angeles I’d have more than an hour’s drive to use my cross-country skis, showshoes, kayak, raft, mountain bike, etc. Heck, I can go fly-fishing 10 minutes away, run me and my dog, climb a mountain and still be 100 yards from my health club to where I parked the truck.

I’ve been headhunted to move to big cities, but I have no desire to give up my sports or have to drive two hours and have to deal with a bunch of people.

But none of you want to move here, right?

Whistlepig

26

I moved to West Virginia because my husband was from here, and when we married, his grandmother said we could stay at her place because she was living in Florida at the time. A few months later we got our house and now we’re in school.

We stay because we want our daughter to be near her grandparents, and WV is beautiful and one of the safest states in the nation. The people here are the best you’d ever want to meet. The economy sucks but even if we didn’t have family ties, I think we would probably still stay here. I’ll never be able to live in flat land again and I can’t name any other place I’d rather live.

27

When I’m not at school in Ann Arbor, I live in a small town in west Michigan right on the lake.

I could never, ever live somewhere like LA. I mean, warm weather year round? Dear lord. I love the cold weather and snow we get here, I don’t know what I’d do without it. I get more depressed in a year like this one where the cold weather is seemingly taking forever to get here and we keep getting these 50 degree days every once in a while.

My town used to be nicer (they’re putting condos everywhere there’s 10 square feet of land to build them on), but it’s still a pretty good place to live most of the time (although I could do without a lot of the residents, admitedly), and living right on the lake is definitely a plus (particularly in the summer).

28

I will likely be living in Rockford, Illinois after I graduate. It’s been called the screw capitol of the world. . .but most people just think it’s screwed. The town–well, city, as it has over 150,000 people–is very industrial and blue-collar. The average income isn’t much, and some of the areas leave a lot to be desired.

That being said, the cost of living is very low, it’s on several main roads, and doesn’t get as much traffic as the Chicago area does. It’s within daily driving distance of much of the Chicago area and it has a lot of trees. I also like that the surrounding area isn’t all suburbs…you don’t have to go very far to be out in the middle of nowhere, which is nice.

I wouldn’t want to live there my entire life, but it’s a good place to live if I’m going to attend grad school. Cheap rent ($550 a month for a frickin’ house), low gas and staples cost, and it’s got some stuff to do. So it doesn’t totally suck, and it’s the best place for me right now. All of those idyllic Seattle/SanFran/NYC hip-type places cost WAY more than I can afford.

29

Why are so many people against warm weather year-round? I grew up in a tropical country, and I certainly never found it boring, climate-wise, what with annual typhoons and such. And warmer places tend to be more interesting people-wise, too.

I’ve found that people from countries with winter have some kind of weird fixation with the weather. I find it rather peculiar, since in the tropics, if it’s hot, it’s hot, and if it’s raining, it’s raining. Que sera, sera. Nothing to obsessively check the Weather Channel over. In fact, the very existence of a Weather Channel is odd to me. And when I was little, I sometimes asked my parents why people who could afford otherwise still lived in cold countries.

And cherry, Toronto isn’t cold. Please come up to Northern Ontario sometime, I’m writing this while the snow outside my window is planning how to ambush me tomorrow. I’d kill to be going to school in Southern Ontario.

30

Just to chime in with the OP – Southern California is one of the best places to live on Earth, with all the conveniences of civilization conveniently close. We just throw out all those news reports of riots/earthquakes/floods/fires to keep the rest of you riff-raff out of here. :smiley:

31

I’ve lived in L.A. for a little over nine months. I like it, but it’s not home yet. If one is surrounded by friends and family, then inconveniences may not be as glaring. The traffic can be horrendous, and there’s very little one can do without a car (unlike NYC, Chicago, Boston, San Fran).

32

Basically, I’ve found where I belong. There are probably lots of other places in the world where I’d be happy, but I can’t see going back to where I used to live.

Pretty much the only drawback here is that things can be very expensive. Well, there are also idiot politicians, but that’s a universal constant, from what I’ve seen.

33

Well, if you want to see a shit hole come to Luanda. It really really sucks. I would swap with virtually any of you if the only reason I was here was I was looking for a nice place to live.

The traffic is awful, the driver are awful, the roads are worse, we have power cuts and water cuts and street crime and I am sharing a flat at present. We have endemic deceases that have been wiped out in the West, and a unknown but very high rate of AIDS infection (probably 25%). We have more landmines than population, we have lots of amputees come in from the rural areas to beg in the big city. It is terribly expensive for anything but the most basic commodities.

And I am having a cakewalk though compared to 95% of the population in the city.

OK the weather is not too bad, but come the big rains in March and April and the whole city will be overrun with “outflow” and the streets downtown will be littered with the belongings of the poor of the Barrio which have been washed away out of their homes on the hills around by the flood waters passing through their dwellings.

Why am I here? Reconstruction has to start somewhere and I have some skills to help the Angolan company I work for try to retain at least some of the money sloshing around from the oil boom running amoke here. And I am well paid for the privilage - which makes me a guilty as hell much of the time.

I guess I also know I have an out - and should only be here two years anyway. This is where I live so I qualify to post under the OP but it is not, of course, home.

34

Why am I at West Point? This is where the Army sent me. Do I like it? I suppose it’s all right. It’s quiet at least. Reaaaal quiet. So quiet there is nothing to do. It is a downright boring place to be. The nearest Subway and Burger King are more than 20 minutes away.

Otherwise, I’m actually only 2 hours aweay from home in eastern Pennsylvania. Not that I care much, because I’m not really close to my family.

Where would I like to live? Not really sure. I’ve been too broke to do any traveling, though I’ve been from North Carolina to Toronto and liked them both.

35

I live right outside DC and I love it. I love being able to walk to a nice clean subway, be downtown in 20 minutes and have a vast array of activities open to me. I love all the marble buildings. I love that people here are politically aware. I love being able to go to world-class museums for free. I love that the city is small enough that it’s not overwhelming–but still has diversity out the ying-yang. I love that we get good rock concerts, good plays, good opera, that we have umpteen festivals, that there’s always some protest of something going on on the Mall. I love being nearish my family. I love having all the seasons, but a winter that’s short and warm enough to not be unbearable. I love my job.

Sure, the weather in August is awful, the traffic is getting worse, there’s starting to be some problems with gangs, and we have our share of self-involved people. But I wouldn’t change it for the world.

And you couldn’t pay me enough to live in So-Cal. LA is what I think of when asked to name an ugly town in an ugly location. It’s all relative to what you’re used to and what your personal preference is.

36

Why I Live in Richmond, VA

My family is here. We’ve always lived in Virginia and my family is very dear to me. I don’t want to have to drive a horrendous distance, or board a plane to go see my parents or my brothers.

The cost of living is very reasonable. I have a brand spanking new 2500 square foot home, with an inground pool, on a beautful 5 acre lot. For this I paid slightly more than $200,000.

I’m roughly equidistant to the beach or the mountains. I’m a beach person. I like hot weather (good thing, as summers here can be hazy, hot, and humid). I also like to take occasional trips to the mountains (mostly to Monticello).

My daughter will be able to get a fine education here should she decide to go to college in state. Tuition for in-state is very reasonable.

There are pretty good cultural amenities here for a city of Richmond’s size. Music, arts, theater, and dance are all represented (as are the Atlanta Braves). If I want something extra, I’m only a couple hours away from DC.

Do I have gripes? Sure - when I do want to travel, Richmond is an expensive and inconvenient airport to use. For reasonable fares you have to travel to National, Dulles, or BWI. There is a very strong conservative streak here - I’m a liberal Democrat. On the other hand, there is a sizable liberal and progressive community that works on smaller, grass roots issues. We don’t have a big impact, but we have an immediate impact. I suppose it is a trade-off.

All in all, I’m pefectly happy here. No, it doesn’t suck.

37

I live in Northern New Jersey, the Embroidery Capital of the World. (I’m not kidding, there’s a sign and everything.) I have lived in Boston, Maine, and out of the back of my car, but I keep coming back to Jersey. I grew up here, and even though my immediate family have all moved to other states now, this area is still home. And I can think of only one reason:

Diners.

If I have a sudden hankering for a taylor ham, egg and cheese on a hard roll at 4 in the morning, there are at least ten places within twenty miles I can get it.

Other than that, I can’t really think of much of a reason for living here. :slight_smile:

38

Central Colorado Rockies here. Hoosier Pass, north of the town of Alma. About 12 miles south of Breckenridge CO.

11,200 feet.

For myself, I don’t need the city. I’ve got two 14,000 foot peaks not more than 3 miles (as the crow flies) from my deck. Clearest deep blue skies you could ever want.

It never gets too hot. Air conditioning isn’t needed.

Yes the winters are long, but the summers are just beautiful.

No neighboors, no traffic, lots of space. ‘Town’ is 20 minutes away. ‘City’ is two hours.

Sometimes I don’t believe I live where I do. It can be hard, and harsh. But it is also somewhat … stunning. I should take more pictures, but, why. I live here.

39

I thought about this question for a while, and even posed it to the users of the bulletin board that I run.

The main reasons why people stay in regions that have a poor quality of life:

  • Family. This is especially true in cities and towns in the Northeast US, where there is a large concentration of ethnic groups where having strong family ties are part of the culture. Thus, the ensured survival of cities like Erie, Pennsylvania and Niagara Falls, New York, both generally considered crappy places to live, but both having very large Italian-American populations.

  • Folks don’t know better. Many people aren’t very well-travelled, and haven’t seen much beyond their home states. It’s possible that quite a few people who were born and raised in Pine Bluff, Arkansas never left the area, except maybe to go to the “big city,” Little Rock, for shopping.

  • Lack of skills or talent. It’s harder for unskilled labor to move to another city; financial barriers to relocation, a lack of connections, and a lack of job opportunities in another city will hold them back. Many laborers just care about one thing … survival. They don’t worry about the fact that they’re in Cordelle, Georgia or Ocala, Florida, as long as they get a paycheck every week.

  • Cost of living. Lots of young, educated professionals would like to live in the San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle or Washington. The cost of living scares them off, though. It’s very difficult to afford the rent on an apartment, much less buy a house, in an otherwise very desirable city. It’s easier to get the American Dream of home ownership in Fort Wayne or Topeka than in New York or Boston.

  • Different priorities. I could never live in most Texas cities, because I find them to be incredibly ugly; strip commercial development along frontage roads, excessive high-rise signs and billboards, lots of concrete, and so on. The visual environment is chaotic, distracting, and downright ugly, in my opinion. Others might think differently; they don’t consider the ugliness of a built environment, but rather the economic opportunities the area offers. The visual clutter of Atlanta or Houston might not register; they just see boomtowns.

40

Actually, that sounds right up my alley. I love outdoor activities, and I don’t mind snow a bit. I can’t stand a lot of people, bad traffic, or smog. I could never live in a big city. The town I live in has been growing quickly, and the population has passed 10,000 since I moved here (it was at 5,000 when I moved here) and it is starting to feel crowded to me.