META/OT - Where do you currently live? What are some pros/cons of living there?
I live in Seattle, and have lived there since October.
PROS:
- Very little snow
- It might be the very best place in the US if you like the outdoors.
- There are a lot of Michigan grads/transplants out here.
- A company out here gave me a job.
CONS:
- There are so many Michigan grads that alumni watch parties become a zoo quickly (Buckley's is way too crowded on gamedays)
- People here can't Drive
- Cost of living is way too expensive
- The Seattle Freeze is real. Its a little bit harder to make friends here than other areas that I moved to.
Is the baseball team still the Sand Gnats?
No more Sand Gnats. Cool stadium though..
The Sand Gnats are no more. They moved to Columbia, SC, I believe. What we have now are the Savannah Bananas. Yes...the Savannah Bananas. I think they are a collegiate summer league team, as opposed to the regular minor league that the Sand Gnats were in.
Dubai (Abu Dhabi).
Pros
- Amazing weather ~6 months of the year
- Sandy beaches and breathtaking deserts
- Great salaries
- Center of the world
- Amazing time off (for Americans)
- Booming cities, excitement and lots to do
- Tons of opportunity
- Extremely diverse and quite easy to find a group of friends.
- Great food, choices and costs are good.
CONs
- The other ~6 months of weather (sorry phoenix, had a friend visit from there, we've got summer worse than you. Hotter, more humid, and often dusty)
- Cost of living and taxes/fees are getting out of hand
- Culture of entitlement.
So we are trying to make a move to Slovenia. Still keeping my UAE options but Slovenia balances out the limitations there.
I am ignorant when it comes to the UAE. How safe is Dubai (and other areas in that country) for non-Middle Easterners?
It's safe. Swiss safe. Like life in a staypuff marshmallow safe.
Oregon here. Take all the Pros of Seattle, add a lower cost of living and it's pretty much it.
Pros of Portland v Seattle:
better food
better coffee
better cycling culture
less traffic, MUCH less traffic
better, more livable neighborhoods
flies under the snooty Seattle radar
more walkable downtown
less rain
better music
no sales tax
cons of Pdx v Sea:
less major sport teams
no major collegiate sport team w/in 100 miles
worse schools
lower wages
higher state taxes
Western suburbs of Cleveland.
Pros:
Low cost of living
easy access to downtown
Ann Arbor is only 2 hrs away
not a Browns fan, so I've been enjoying Schadenfreude Sundays for years.
Cons:
Buckeyes, obv.
too close to my mother in law.
Browns fans (no offense Mgrowold). Seriously, you have a perennially contending baseball team and all you want to talk about in the summer is how their QB looked at minicamp or whatever.
I live in Detroit and have for about 5 years now
Pros: 1.Cheap houses. My home is free and clear even though I am under 30. I also own a few rentals that allow me to actually make money even after factoring taxes, insurance, loan cost, and annual upkeep.
2. Ability to see your impact. I've watched the downtown area change dramatically since I have lived here, and the neighborhood has been changing rapidly as well. My friends have been able to open business and thrive that would have been 100% impossible other places
3. Less concern over minor legal things like speeding, having a joint on you, stupid permits. I have had some rip-roaring bonfires and no one calls the cops on me like they would if I lived in a place like Grosse Pointe. I can play my music loud and I don't get noise violations (btw A2 might be worst of all time with noise violations). I don't feel like I am going to get pulled over and hassled for being a younger guy like I do whenever I am in Oakland county.
4. Close to tons of events. I'm a big sports fan and music fan. Detroit is great for sporting events obviously and I love Techno music the most, so being by multiple clubs that actually play it is great for me.
5. Sort of linked to #4. I like to party and have a drink. Detroit has a new bar opening seemingly every week. They all want to be local places serving local beer. I just checked out Eastern Market Brewing Co the other weekend after leaving Detroit City Distillery and loved it. Can't believe I hadn't been before
Cons: 1. Potential for crime. My area is pretty safe, but if you drive a little bit it isn't super nice. Decent amount of abandonment and squatters. I've heard of some break-ins a few streets over. I've never had any issues.
2. Explaining to people that Detroit isn't that bad when they give me the crazy look.
3. City is full of pockets. I have a few grocery stores near my house that are great(Kroger, Trader Joes, local market) all 5 min away or less. However, when I lived downtown, it was a pain in the ass to go shopping. No grocery stores anywhere. I know this is an issue for lots of folks depending where you live in the city
4. Car insurance. If I didn't have a perfect driving record with spotless credit I shudder to think what I'd pay. As it stands I at about $2,500 a year for a 2017 Fusion
5. Dealing with city services. The city can be super dumb and you have to stay on top of things. Shit is routinely lost, city employees telling you two different things, etc. I keep good records and I am borderline OCD with ensuring things are paid with no issues. This can lead me to waste time, but has never caused me major distress.
I love the city. The things that aren't so good are getting better. I am fully on my way to living the life I wanted to live before I even went to college. It would not have been possible in any other city. If I had bounced to Chicago like many of my friends, I know financially my life would be completely different. 100k in Detroit vs 100k in Chicago is the difference between night and day on what it gets you.
I actually miss many things about living in Detroit. I'd still be there if I had had any hope of finding a decent job that could pay the bills & have benefits. It's a shame too, as I had to sell a condo I had rebuilt and made gorgeous... which is now apparently worth about $100,000 more than I sold it for (It resold a year ago for ($60k more than I sold it in 2013.)
Fredericksburg, VA
Pros:
- Close to Washington, DC, and all of its trappings
- Small town, rural living
- Good employment opportunities if you don't mind driving
Cons:
- Close to Wash DC, and all of its traffic
- Lots of meth and friends
- Horrible schools
- Long, hot, humid summers
As I think about it, this place has more cons than pros. Thanks, man...
Ann Arbor, MI. It's awesome.
Ann Arbor
Pros:
- I'm sure you know them all.
Cons:
- I'm sure you know all of these even moreso.
San Diego, CA
Pros:
Weather is perfect pretty much year round
Ready access to beach and other outdoorsy things
Short drive to mountains if you want those kinds of outdoorsy things
College football starts at 9 AM, and football brunch is awesome
Fantastic craft beer (and mead, and cider) scene
Taco shops
Cons:
Cost of living oh god cost of living
San Diego sports fans are, on the whole, pretty crappy
Down to 1 local pro team, and they suck
I miss seasons changing some times
The entire city is set up for sunny weather, so when it's not sunny, there's not much to do
Austin, TX for 4 years
Pros:
- Excellent music and food (best BBQ anywhere)
- Still feels like a "small" city, even though it's the 11th largest
- Friendly people
- Lot of lakes and water activities
- Huge amount of Michigan fans
- Very little crime for a large city
- Much less concrete-y and strip mallish than Dallas and Houston. Lot of green spaces
Cons:
- No sports teams outside of minor league baseball and hockey
- Airport has few direct flights to anything besides hubs, and is small
- Lot of people moving here, so housing is getting expensive
Cons: It's hot as balls. I can't take it anymore. Maybe if I had a pool.
Pros: Feels like a "young" city. I started working full time a little more than a year ago and there are lots of people around my age
Cons:
- More true of Texas in general, but it's quite flat from a hiking perspective and Big Bend is about 7-8 hours away.
- The heat. Worth mentioning twice.
That being said, I love living in Austin in general.
Look out your window and you’ll find UT, if you need a sports fix.
I think he wants to see good sports teams.
(The Sooner in me couldn't resist that.)
I absolutely love Austin and all of the hole in the wall foody places. I try to make it in at least 4x per year.
The JW Marriott downtown is my favorite hotel and Sunday funday on Rainey St is a great time.
Round Rock checking in here.
Austin traffic is absolutely horrendous!!!!!!!
Los Angeles checking in here. Austin traffic is great.
Huntsville, Alabama
PROS
- Nice weather in the Spring, Fall, and Winter
- Driving distance to the Gulf of Mexico
- Huntsville is a rapidly growing tech city with folks from all other the country
- College football is a year round obsession
CONS
- Summers get ridiculous (although, like in Michigan when you adapt to cold, here you adapt to heat)
- Hearing and seeing "Roll Tide!" All. The. Time. (When I first moved here in 2005 I pitied the Crimson Tide for not winning anything in decades. I felt so bad I cheered for them. Now their fans are so smug its insufferable.)
Huntsville (Madison) is where I lived from 1989-1996
I had a great job, great friends, and I loved the public clay court tennis center. I absolutely despised the weather. Winter in Denver is better than winter in Huntsville! Trips to the Redneck Riviera were fun, and I like Greenbriar BBQ.
I also did not like the fact that Huntsville is on the eastern edge of the central time zone. By the time evenings were cool enough to enjoy, it was getting dark at 4:45.
Come to Colorado. We have room for one more.
Also in Denver by way of Grand Rapids.
Pros:
- All the outdoor stuff you could ask for... Great hiking/camping 15 minutes into the mountains. Skiing/Snowboarding 30-45 minutes.
- Weather. It can dump 7-8 inches in a day and by the time you leave work at night, it's melted. Not a permanent fucking ice world like W Michigan can be.
- Great drinking/bar/concert town. LoDo is cool but every smaller neighborhood has it's own distinctive bars and breweries. Do it by bike. Oh, and Red Rocks is like... right there.
- Lastly: Lots of Midwest/Michigan transplants. No need to feel homesick when you can honestly run into someone you probably know through a friend of a friend in a matter of minutes.
Cons:
- Housing. I'm not claiming it's as expensive as LA, SF, Seattle or Manhattan but it's getting brutal for people who are first time homebuyers in a sellers market. A lot of people from out of state driving up prices.
- Transportation. There's a light rail system here except no one can use it because it doesn't go where you need it to and subsequently down when you do need it.
- Water. I absolutely miss the lakes and being able to spend a day out by the water. You can try to swim in mountain lakes but your penis inverts like a scared turtle because it's so cold. Think George Costanza in the pool.
I lived in Athens, Alabama for most of my childhood from 2001-2016 and graduated from the University of North Alabama. Huntsville is really starting to grow and modernize!
Denver area, 1982-1989 and 1996-present
Pros:
- Great weather, tons of sunshine (even in the winter) low humidity
- Great skiing
- Great outdoor stuff in general, hiking, biking, camping etc
- Very few bugs
Cons:
- Can't drive to Ann Arbor for games
- I miss summer cottages on the lakes (I'm originally from Grand Haven)
If you like a 4 season climate it does not get much better than this.
Also, see PoseyHipster's comment.
Where are you located? We're in the western part of Arvada, so not that close to downtown but much closer to the mountains, Boulder, etc. My wife is a native who was moving back to Colorado, so I gained admission through a loophole... ;-)
I used to live in Northern New England and was born near Detroit, so this climate is a godsend for me.
I'm near Parker Rd and Orchard Rd, just east of Cherry Creek State Park. Picked this spot for the schools, but wish I was a bit closer to the mountains.
Also Denver area (Centennial).
Would add to Pros:
- Booming economy
- Excellent trails, parks, and open spaces in the city area itself (and all the great outdoor opportunities of the west within driving distance
Would add to Cons:
- Infrequent, but crazy hailstorms
- Traffic and highway system
Crazy hail (to the Victors) storm is right. It's about the only severe weather we get.
This came through my skylight two weeks ago, two layers of plexiglass. I'm getting a new roof. That's a quarter at the bottom of the picture for scale.
Yep. I was actually concerned my office window might break. The force of the hail hitting the twelfth Story was insane. Also dented my car something fierce.
- Kalamazoo
Pros:
- I don’t have kids, but the Promise is pretty cool
- West Michigan economy is on the rise
- Not a large downtown but the ‘mall’ has several great eating locations and bars.
- Brewery selection can only be bested by GR
- Rarely are there traffic problems
- mother in law lives 2.5 hours away
- great golf selection within a 30 minute drive
Cons:
- In the Snow-belt. No further discussion needed
- too many Sparties and Irish in town
- due to the uptick in the economy, downtown living prices are going upgreatly
- Above national average for crime in Kalamazoo proper
- Airport only flys to three cities (at least they have one)
All in all, not a bad place to live.
I was at WMU from 86 to 91 and my daughter is there now. I come back a couple times a year to visit. The things that strike me most are how little the town has changed and how much WMU has changed. How in the world has The Oasis stayed open for all these years? Nice to see Waldos still hanging in there. Miss Electric Avenue. The pub scene is great. Don't know what it was like back then because I couldn't afford it. Bilbos on Stadium seems weird- was close to campus back in the day. The dump I lived in for a year on West Walnut is still there, still a dump, and still housing students :)
I lived in 2 different dumps on W Walnut, both of which are still there. 832 in the 95-96 academic year and 814 the following.
Also live in Kalamazoo.
I second that there are too manu Irish and Spartan fans in the area. However all the MSU “fans” appeared in the last 5-6 years. There seemed to be very few most of my life and they only appeared during basketball season.
Rockville, MD:
PROS:
-Very close to Washington, D.C.
-Suburban living
-All the shops you could ever need are on Rockville Pike
-Easy to make friends -- especially if you are a young professional
-A decent sized Michigan community
CONS:
-Nobody knows how to drive in the winter
-No car? Good luck
-Have a car? Good luck finding parking
-Relatively expensive
Another (small) pro:
-Everybody works for NIH here, which means that I can learn about the latest in medicine and get free advice.
Bagel City?
Columbus, Ohio
Pros; awesome city to leave near, always stuff to do, great places to eat, nice neighborhoods, booming industries. Got really lucky to get our house when we did because the property values have been going through the roof.
Negatives; well duh, pretty much a given.
I spent a year in Columbus and will have to say having never been there it is a pretty kickass City if you enjoy midwestern towns. Loved that traffic was always smooth....
Salem, MA
Pros:
Close to enough to Boston to enjoy it without paying being as expensive.
Large enough of a city
Lots of history and culture in addition to the witch stuff.
Cons:
October gets pretty weird.
Seattle also. 10 years.
Pros:
1) proximity to outdoor activities. this is by far the biggest pro and why I love the city so much
2) temperate climate. See blow for cons, but climate is a net positive for me. Especially coming from Midwest.
3) love my job, which makes loving the city easier
Cons:
1) kinda pretentious.
2) winter gets really dark and very gray. Though rain isn’t nearly as big as it is made out to be. It’s the gray and short days that get to some people. I don’t mind them too much.
3) expensive. Though no income tax helps offset that.
4) far from family in Michigan.
5) traffic is brutal. I live close to downtown so I don’t feel it often but it is pretty bad for commuters.
I don't really find many people who "love" their job, so what is your job? What do you love about it?
Also in Seattle, since 1992.
Pros:
Doesn't get too cold in winter.
Great access to hiking, climbing, world-class skiing.
Beautiful on nice days.
Doesn't get super hot in summer (usually). Low humidity in summer.
Lots of money/jobs/employment opportunities.
Culture: Ballet, symphony, theaters, concerts, etc.
Cons:
Traffic is a complete shitshow and getting worse by the day with no end in sight. It's almost indescribable.
Extremely expensive cost of living compared to most other places (not NYC, San Fran or LA).
People here take pride is being stupidly over-booked. This, in my experience, is the root cause of what people call the "Seattle Freeze".
The winters are gray and damp.
Any snow in the lowlands causes a complete meltdown.
I live in the heart of Southern Taxifornia; Arcadia, Taxifornia.
Pros: Weather on January 1st is usually in the 70s-80s,
Snow is where God really meant it to be in the Mountains
Wifey of 36 years likes that we live in the Heart of Arcasia (she's Chinese)
Good and Fresh Sushi is readily available
I live 8 miles from the Rose Bowl and FB Games are easy to get to
Talented skilled workers shine above the lazy typically millenial crowds
Cons: I live in the Socialist State of Taxifornia; nuff said
Illegal Aliens are valued and treasured above all others
Traffic is horrendous pretty much all the time
Housing and gasoline costs are very high and continue upward
Lebron has now moved to Southern Taxifornia and I hate him
Our Politicians have not met a Tax they did not like and keep thinking of more
No one likes the folks from the fly over zone unless you are from there yourself
The media and fruits and nuts can't understand why anyone voted for Trump
Politicians believe they've solved the Homeless problem even though the numbers are up
The most pressing issue according to the leftist politicians is "global warming"
You're bad at the "no politics" rule.
You don't know what 'millennials' are.
You’re a Michigan grad?