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.
Tip a Few is still there and thriving. My wife said they just bought the building next door. I love their wet burritos with that super acidic green spicy sauce that stains the cheese!
Petoskey, MI ~ 9 months
pros:
- absolutely beautiful anytime of the year
- decent beer and wine scene that is very accessible
- great number and variety of outdoor activities for you and the kids
- vacation traffic sucks but it’s nothing like going through 696 out of Detroit after 5 pm. Pretty much anything you need is close by and won’t take that long if you know how to get around
cons:
- will get dumped on by snow tornadoes that hit no where else
- if weather sucks, no mall or other place to take the kids
- very remote, TC is a 1.5 hour drive
- housing market is limited
NJ
Pros:
Proximity to NYC, DC, Philly, Boston
Cons:
NJ
Cost of living
Redondo Beach. It’s all cons according to XtraMelanin, but I don’t mind the 72 degree temperature.
Burlington, WA
Pros:
Small town, I can walk to the bars
So many bald eagles. Like pigeons here.
Almost never snows
I can go see/play in snow any time I want.
Fishing, mostly salmon and ling cod. Some halibut. Crabbing. Shrimping.
Rarely too hot or cold to golf. We golf every New Year's Day.
Cons:
Rain November through February.
So much rain.
Fucking rain.
Connecticut
pros: uh the changes in season are nice in New England and oh yeah there are casino’s.
cons: honestly it is a dying state litterally (fentanyl epidemic) and figureativley (high taxes, no jobs, stunted at best economic outlook).
Austin, Texas
Pros:
-There is a lot to do. Living here can facilitate many different interests.
-No state income tax.
-Winters are not very cold and there is sun here pretty much year round.
-Strong economy.
-Good food and bar scene.
Cons:
-Miserable from May - August/September
-I miss fall in Michigan.
-Kind of far from most of my friends.
-Traffic is rough with how much the population has expanded in the last 10 years.
Here is the full lineage - Born in Youngstown, raised in Detroit, and now live in New Jersey - many have said "Isn't that the definition of a 3 time loser" In all 3 places, few pros and a lot of cons.
fh maven
Naperville, IL
Pros:
Chicago is accessible in less than an hour and you can use the Metra train to avoid the roads. Many things to do in Chicago. Love the city.
Family friendly town with good schools. People move here just for the schools.
Founded in the 1830s and has maintained the original downtown area. Some redevelopment has brought in new restaurants that are pretty good.
Solemn Oath Brewery is a great local brewer. Chicago area in general is full of great breweries.
Ale Fest, Rib Fest, Last Fling...all good summer events. Morton Arboretum has good events and is beautiful in the fall. I love fall weather and the changing of the leaves. It’s why I will never head for the sunbelt.
And...I can get to Ann Arbor for football games in about 4 hours which is tolerable.
Cons:
Property taxes are a bit steep, but that’s what pays for the schools until the state figures out how to make things more balanced.
If you want to travel east-west, many road options. North-south, not so many because Chicago is east of Naperville. This makes local traffic a bit crazy at times. It can take 20 minutes to get from south Naperville to north Naperville which used to be my daily commute (about 10 miles). Traffic in and out of Chicago usually horrible except for Sunday mornings at 6am.
Because we have fall, winter does follow. My driveway is in just the right place that the snow plow driver buries the end of my driveway after I clear it. [shakes fist at damn snow plow driver]
Bradenton/Sarasota FL
Pros:
- Close to the beach
- Fantastic weather Oct-May
- No State income tax
- Great place to develop really good baseball players
- No more freezing your ass off or scraping the ice off your windshield
- Spring training baseball very nearby. And then minor league baseball after that.
Cons:
- Gets too crowded during winter from the snow-birds coming from the North
- Like living on the equator from June-Sept. Hot and humid every single day. Today was a nice cool summer day with the heat index currently sitting at only 101 as of 5pm.
- Old folks that can barely see and have the reflexes of a sloth, yet still drive.
- You have to put up with the whiny Gator fans
I live in Vegas, and have for about theee years.
Pros: cost of living is pretty low, as are home prices. Restaurants are good, both at the high end and in terms of affordable quality for date nights. You have cheap flights in from everywhere. The existence of air conditioning.
con: Losing the ability to walk outside comfortably for four to five months. As a resident and an introvert, the Strip, especially in weekends, and especially on fight/UFC weekends, is a nightmare.
I live down deep inside my head,
where long ago I made my bed.
I get my mail in Tennessee,
my wife, my dog my family. Uh-huh.
Fort Collins for 20 years
PROS:
- Easy access to great outdoor activity
- Lots of action in college town
- Good restaurants, bars, music venues
- Tons of midwesterners
- Easy access to Denver
- We legalized it
- Weather is great most of the year
CONS:
- Getting pretty crowded (was 80,000 in 1998 now over 160,000)
- Housing costs are really high.
I've lived in Bozeman, Montana for the past 12 years
Pros:
* being outdoors: hunting, fishing, hiking, skiing, camping, lots of stuff to do outdoors
* college town feel: kinda reminds me of a much smaller Ann Arbor
* people are super nice and for the most part are very pleasant
* growing very fast: new buildings everywhere, this is important to me because I'm a construction sub contractor and that equals money to me
Cons:
* cost of living is really high, especially for a city of around 50,000 people
* winters can be long: it starts snowing in late October and doesn't melt until mid April
* not that many golf courses locally
Its hard to think of cons, Bozeman is a great place, so happy I found it in my early 20s!
Starts smowing in late October and melting by mid April! Sign me up!
Los Angeles
Pros: Great weather, great food, diverse population, beautiful women, tons of Michigan alumni, great indoor and outdoor activities, lots of Sports options
Cons: Traffic, ridiculous taxes, crappy public schools that force many to shell out for insanely expensive private schools
LA here too. Via GR, Ann Arbor, Chicago, etc.
The pros are too many to list: world class city (LA) with anything and everything you could imagine to do. world class industry. limitless professional talent and opportunity, all the things you said, etc.
Any con anyone could ever have is a direct result of how great it is here and thus how high the demand is to live here (cost of living, traffic, etc.). And even still, the cost of living and traffic is quite a bit better than SF and NYC.
Actually I do have an actual con: as a Michigander, I do miss having an abundance of accessible inland, freshwater lakes and rivers in Southern CA.
Fair enough...Lake Castaic and Pyramid are gross. At least you have the Ocean to balance out.
The ocean is great and I live within biking distance but it's totally different than a peaceful inland lake or river on which I miss being able to boat, fish, etc.
The traffic in LA is NOT better than in NYC. LA traffic is the worst I have ever seen.
i'm in the east SFV. Heat, Traffic, & quality of construction of roads are the cons beyond the typical cost of living/everything is too damn expensive complaint.
that being said i like the commissions i get when i sell a $900+k house.
if anyone needs a taste of Michigan my restaurant usually has Bell's or Founders on tap.
Ah yeah, heat is an issue where you are. I live in in Venice. 70 degrees in the winter. 80 degrees in the summer. I don't even have AC and it hasn't bothered me one bit this summer (luckily, I'm leaving before the heat wave this weekend and heading to MI where there is supposed to be a break from the heat they've been having).
Hey I might have to stop by here, not too far from where I live, right down the street from where I work, and the Mrs. loves bottomless mimosas.
Minneapolis;
pros summer is awesome,
gopher fans only bother me once every 15 years.
no snakes
cons;
4-8 months of winter
GRAND RAPIDS
Pros: close enough to Lake Michigan . City good at putting politics aside for the most part to make the city succeed. Downtown has been booming significantly the last decade - great night life too if you're younger. Growing economy. Good local news stations.
Cons: Construction but I admit that I realize that you get that anywhere. Close to East Grand Rapids . No good radio station if you're into Indie music (anyone remember the old 96.1 before espn radio? That was the best and hasn't been replaced since).
Grew up a Romulus Eagle.
I live in Troy now and formerly Royal Oak for a total of 37 years.
Pros
-Central location.
-Great schools
Cons
-Folks not that friendly.
-Smaller yeads.
NYC
Pros:
1. Public transit. Forget about having a car. $121/month gets me an unlimited Metrocard that can get me most anywhere I need to go. There's even a plan where you can get the money taken from your paycheck pre-tax to buy the fare. Want to have an extra drink at dinner? Go ahead! You're not driving!
2. So many things to do that you miss most of them, but you can sit in your apartment knowing you could be doing so much!
3. The city is alive with people.
4. The choices for eating, shopping... there are so many choices.
5. Dating has pros & cons, but the good thing is there are a lot more choices to pick from. You may find on a dating site a few dozen who catch your eye instead of just a few.
6. Central Park.
7. In summer, the beaches are just a subway ride away.
8. In winter, they actually plow the streets.
9. NYC gets a bad rap as a "rude" city. People have their moments, but overall they can be a lot more friendly and helpful than anywhere else I have lived. My mother was shocked when visiting at how when a woman has a stroller at the subway stairs several men quickly volunteered to help carry it up for her. When I had a bad fall rollerskating in the park, people came & helped until the ambulance arrived.
10. Jobs. There are actually jobs here. And they pay more than elsewhere. (they need to, because of...)
Cons:
1. Housing prices. Jimmy McMillan is right. The rent is too damn high! (Though the cost of living can be offset a bit by not having the expenses associated with owning a car)
2. Weekends can be a bit crowded when it comes to eating out.
3. There is a large enough amount of the population that is homeless and/or mentally unstable where a short run somewhere can at times be a constant barrage of people begging for money. I've even been assaulted twice in the last few years by women. (One begging for change to get a sandwich who tried forcing her way into my building and offered to perform oral sex for 85 cents... NO and another who grabbed me on the street begging for sex.)
Overall I have found NYC can be what you make it. It's not perfect by any means, but I haven't found a city that actually does things better.
I think the rude New Yorker thing has sort of passed as a product of the 80s and early 90s and the growth of the city in that time.
I travel there for work frequently, and post 911 I can definitely detect a different tenor to the city and residence. They're certainly still edgy and out there, but the superiority complex is largely gone.
Residents..... Speech-to-text is my mortal enemy
"who tried forcing her way into my building and offered to perform oral sex for 85 cents"
That is SO below market value.
I live in Seoul
Pros:
- best public transportation system in the world
- pretty cheap for a wealthy city of 10 million people
- mountains here aren't huge but it's really the only thing missing from Michigan in my opinion
- being a foreigner is an advantage sometimes
Cons:
- air pollution is bad and getting worse, easily the worst thing here now
- time difference is awful for watching sports, sucks when Michigan starts at 1 or 2am or 430 or 530am (depending on DST)
- now that I don't go out as much being mid 30's I'd prefer not to live in such a big crowded city
- being a foreigner is a disadvantage sometimes
Pittsburgh
Pros:
cons: everything
I live a half hour south of Pittsburgh. Love the Fall. Everything else sucks.
Sacramento, CA
Pros:
1. excellent weather from October to May, and even from June to September the mornings and evenings are ok.
2. the coast and the mountains are both an easy day trip.
3. very diverse, and people are mostly pretty laid back
Cons:
1. flat
2. housing costs are high by national standards (but much lower than CA's coastal metros)
Beach town outside of LA
Pros:
- Weather; I still feel like I'm on vacation 20 years after moving here from Atlanta
- The beach; visit it nearly every weekend, go for runs along the beach, and it has a cool factor to it with everyone outside always doing stuff
- Good looking ladies; see previous bullet point
- Lots of job opportunities in tech and entertainment coming together
- Schools are very good for my kids and the area is very safe
- Lots of Midwesterners here surprisingly (ton of Michgan grads); people in general are very nice; this is still a small town where people know one another
- I have LA's food scene and entertainment if I want it a short drive away
- I can truly catch a non-stop flight to nearly everywhere from here including Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America
- Diversity; our friends are from many different countries and backgrounds
Cons:
- Cost of living; good God it's expensive, unless you were lucky to buy at the trough 7- 8 years ago, and it's still expensive
- LA traffic is brutal; Atlanta was actually worse believe it or not; a lot of people live here
- Houses are on top of one another; not a lot of land, and most people younger than 50 live in townhomes or apartments because of cost.
- Zoning sucks. LA is a developer's dream.
- The Dodgers. I don't like them.
Bartlett, Tennessee
Pros:
Cost of Living
No Income Tax
Friendly Neighbors (I'm in a neighborhood with many transplants but everyone's very friendly. Memphis Football is not a big deal here, but basketball is. Yard flags by me are Alabama, Notre Dame, Arkansas, Florida, Penn State, and Purdue.)
Cons:
Summer (Hot and Humid) I always say, in Michigan we were inside in the winter because it was too cold, here, your inside in the summer because it's too HOT.
Miss summers in Michigan and being 1 hour and 15 minutes from Ann Arbor.
My 3 brothers and I have a small business here and one of our key employees in a big Ohio State fan. (Please win this year in the big game as I'm tired of hearing it.)
Road system is atrocious, laid our like a spider web rather than a grid. I don't know where the engineers went to school down here, but even parking lots have the craziest entrance and exit designs.
I grew up outside Atlanta. Live in it now. There are a lot of Bible thumpers in the rural areas. City is great and spread out. Things to add:
The food is great. I've never traveled to visit friends in New York or Chicago, LA or San Fran and thought that something they had there was better than here (Tuna in Hawaii, lobster in New England and Dungeness crab in San Fran being the exceptions).
People are pretty tolerant ITP, not so much the further out you go.
Need a car to do anything here.
Too many transplants leaves the city with a lot of shitty fans for the sports teams. Everyone's on the Atlanta united bandwagon now.
Too hot and humid in July and August.
Too much pollen spring and fall.
Most people have manners.
Traffic is fine if you don't move to a part of town where your commute leaves you stuck in it.
Housing values are going way up. Couldn't afford to buy our house now . May sell to move out to the sticks for more land.
And regarding the racial diversity, I've always felt like other "progressive" cities never really had to deal with it because there doesn't seem to be that much ethnic diversity when I've traveled. There is a lot of mixing here with large "minority" populations that makes me feel good when I see most people treating each other with respect and manners.
Too many osu, psu, and msu fans/transplants.
Our former goalie (Mitch Hildebrandt) signed with Atlanta in the offseason, hated to see him go. "Mitch Says No" was always a popular chant here for FCC fans whenever he made a save
Honolulu, HI
Pro: It's Hawaii
Con: It's expensive
I live in Arizona, right near Phoenix:
Pros:
Great weather 10 months of the year
Beautiful women (or men if that's your thing)
Unlimited things to do
Cons:
The summer temperatures are hotter than the surface of the sun.
Yeah, but the summer temps are DRY. I would much rather deal with 115° and 5% humidity than 85° and 85% humidity. I was just in Chicago (where I lived for 15 years) and it was way more comfortable in AZ.
Other pros:
Reasonable cost of living
Currently not near the ocean, but it is a quick flight to San Diego, LA, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Denver, etc.
No Daylight Saving Time
Wenatchee, WA
Pros:
300 days of sunshine
Amazing outdoors and mountains
Prime whitewater rivers just a short drive
All of the Pacific NW is within driving distance (Seattle/Vancouver/Portland, Oregon Coast, etc)
Great fruit
Great wine
Great beer
Legal marijuana (if you’re into that)
Fiber to most homes (1GB symmetrical, yes please!) thanks to PUD
No state income tax
Cons:
Pretty hot summers/cold winters (I miss my Seattle temperate zone)
Way overpriced housing (seems to be universal to Washington)
Davis, California
Pros:
awesome little college town
most bikable city in the U.S.
weather for majority of the year is amazing
short trips to the Bay Area or national parks
Cons:
cost of living (increasing but not Bay Area bad)
pretty flat, lots of farmland
Such an underrated College Town. Had the privilege to visit on the way back from Napa with a townie. Really great place.
I grew up in Davis. I agree with your list. It's a great town to bike or run in. I think a lot of the developments were built with exercise in mind.
I like to joke that it has central valley scenery with Marin county attitude.
Live in Lexington, SC and have been here 3 years.
Pros:
1. It never snows here, well I have heard tales of snow and ice but have yet to see any.
2. HUGE Lake Murray only about 2 miles away from my house.
3. Winters are short and not unbearable
4. One of cheapest gas prices in the country due to low gas taxes
5. The ocean is only 2 hours away
6. The Mrs and I LOVE Charleston, which again is only 2 hours away.
7. Florida and all its vacation spots are only a few hours away.
8. Did I mention there is a short winter?
9. I like Clemson, anywhere I live I adopt a team. Previously in Cincinnati it was Xavier (least offensive team in that area), here I liked Clemson because like UM they have history and tradition.
Cons:
1. They can't drive here, everyday I-20 and I-26 have an accident that shuts them down. Lexington is the busiest traffic I've ever encountered short of Houston or Atlanta.
2. The summer heat and humidity is brutal. The Midlands of SC are known for their humidity.
3. Hurricanes
4. SEC
5. SEC
6. SEC
7. Again bad drivers. Slowest turners in the world and they haven't seen a red light they won't run. I actually wait 5 seconds on a green and look both ways.
8. Did I mention the bloody hot and humid summers?
Orlando, FL
Pros:
- Decent weather October-April
- Lots of Michigan transplants
- Detroit Tigers Spring Training and AA club nearby
- We have a hockey team (ish)
- If you like theme parks, there's quite a few of them
- Lots of food/drink options
- Generally friendly people
- No state income tax
- Good arts/culture options
Cons:
- Weather is pretty unbearable May-September
- Traffic is awful. Unless you like toll roads. And even then, it's still pretty bad.
- People are dumb enough to actually spend money to go see the Orlando Magic
- Weird obsession with soccer
- Lots of cookie-cutter neighborhoods with no real character. Pretty much everywhere is governed by a HOA
- Cockroaches that fly
- Gators - the ones with a football team
- Gators - the ones with sharp teeth
- Schools in some areas are pretty bad.
Pros:
Extremely affordable housing
Great golf everywhere
Great beaches 1-1.5 hours away on the gulf and Atlantic
Cons:
Theme parks
Hmmm. Your username totally had me fooled.