Where do you live and why? Why don't you live elsewhere? Where instead might you live?

[westwall]

The answers to the two title questions are for most folks overlapped, but I suspect they aren't entirely the same.

Where I live and why:

• Where: Washington, D.C. -- downtown
• Why:
  • Because I like cities where I can walk to much of what I want to do and where, when I don't walk, it rarely takes more than ten minutes to get where I want to go.
  • Because D.C. is, to my eyes, a beautiful city (the parts people live in as well as the federal part of the city) with an abundance of trees and parks.
  • I grew up in D.C. and insofar as nothing has militated that I move elsewhere, I just haven't.
  • It's reasonably close to both the shore and the mountains.
  • D.C. is fairly well insulated from natural disasters.
  • D.C. has good public transportation and decent access to the rest of the world via air travel.
  • D.C. is one of the nation's intellectual hubs.
  • D.C. is a small city.
  • D.C. is diverse -- there are people of (nearly?) all races, creeds, nationalities, and lifestyles in D.C.
  • The weather is temperate.
  • The variety of dining options is awesome.
  • There're decent performing arts.

Why I don't live elsewhere:

• Mostly because living in D.C. isn't, for me, "broken," so there's no point in my trying to "fix" it by moving elsewhere.
• The type of work I undertook to pursue as a career has no physical location constraints.

Where else do I think I could live happily?

• In the U.S.
  • Chicago
  • Austin, TX
  • Denver, CO -- provided I didn't think Yellowstone would erupt during my lifetime
  • Columbus, OH
  • Philly
  • Minneapolis-St. Paul
  • Nashville
  • Any number of "old word" style cities -- downtown is a nice place and one can walk to "everything" -- on the East Coast Piedmont plateau or Mountain Northwest (well north and/or west of Yellowstone) that is far enough from the ocean not to have to worry about hurricane storm surge and having a topography that is varied enough to keep tornados to a minimum and that doesn't generally have earthquakes.
• Outside the U.S.
  • Any major European city -- capital cities are my preference -- that doesn't need a wall of some sort to keep out the ocean and that isn't prone to quakes and volcanic eruptions. I would love to live in Amsterdam, but there's no way I would live in A-dam. Paris would be my first choice.

If there's any central theme to why I live where I do and don't live where I don't, it's that I have no desire to live in places where nature's unforeseen "drama" can "reach out and touch" me and my family in our home.

I live here. Why? Look at the place and ask yourself why not!

 

[westwall]

I live in Austria. Im content and dont want to live anywhere else. Its a beautiful country. As a immigrant and romani (gypsy) I might one day be forced to go somewhere else if there is a new Hitler or like that. But now everything is fine.

I can understand why. I've only been to Vienna, but I've a great time there everytime I've gone, and it's a gorgeous city with tons of cool history. There's plenty to like about Vienna. I would have no trouble living there, especially upon learning German.

One evening there, we'd been out sightseeing and had forgotten to make reservations for dinner. We happened upon Cafe Lanzman (sp?) they had a table, so that's where we ate. Walking back to the hotel, we passed a small bar that was about to close and were invited in to hang out with the owners and some of their friends. We played a card game that to this day I could not tell you what it was or how to play it. I recall it was a partnership game and it had trump. (It wasn't bridge and it wasn't pinochle.) We had a blast.

That sort of thing is quite common, or so it seems to me. I've developed some good and enduring relationships -- and, of course, the usual smattering of "one night stands" and the like -- with people in several European and Asian cities as a result of similarly serendipitous encounters.

Probably Skat.

 

[Darkwind]

The answers to the two title questions are for most folks overlapped, but I suspect they aren't entirely the same.

Where I live and why:

• Where: Washington, D.C. -- downtown
• Why:
  • Because I like cities where I can walk to much of what I want to do and where, when I don't walk, it rarely takes more than ten minutes to get where I want to go.
  • Because D.C. is, to my eyes, a beautiful city (the parts people live in as well as the federal part of the city) with an abundance of trees and parks.
  • I grew up in D.C. and insofar as nothing has militated that I move elsewhere, I just haven't.
  • It's reasonably close to both the shore and the mountains.
  • D.C. is fairly well insulated from natural disasters.
  • D.C. has good public transportation and decent access to the rest of the world via air travel.
  • D.C. is one of the nation's intellectual hubs.
  • D.C. is a small city.
  • D.C. is diverse -- there are people of (nearly?) all races, creeds, nationalities, and lifestyles in D.C.
  • The weather is temperate.
  • The variety of dining options is awesome.
  • There're decent performing arts.

Why I don't live elsewhere:

• Mostly because living in D.C. isn't, for me, "broken," so there's no point in my trying to "fix" it by moving elsewhere.
• The type of work I undertook to pursue as a career has no physical location constraints.

Where else do I think I could live happily?

• In the U.S.
  • Chicago
  • Austin, TX
  • Denver, CO -- provided I didn't think Yellowstone would erupt during my lifetime
  • Columbus, OH
  • Philly
  • Minneapolis-St. Paul
  • Nashville
  • Any number of "old word" style cities -- downtown is a nice place and one can walk to "everything" -- on the East Coast Piedmont plateau or Mountain Northwest (well north and/or west of Yellowstone) that is far enough from the ocean not to have to worry about hurricane storm surge and having a topography that is varied enough to keep tornados to a minimum and that doesn't generally have earthquakes.
• Outside the U.S.
  • Any major European city -- capital cities are my preference -- that doesn't need a wall of some sort to keep out the ocean and that isn't prone to quakes and volcanic eruptions. I would love to live in Amsterdam, but there's no way I would live in A-dam. Paris would be my first choice.

If there's any central theme to why I live where I do and don't live where I don't, it's that I have no desire to live in places where nature's unforeseen "drama" can "reach out and touch" me and my family in our home.

Well, I was born in Southeastern Iowa, but dad moved us to the San Francisco Bay area in 1970 and I lived in a number of ‘cities’ in the bay area until 1981 when I entered the Air Force. I was stationed in Sacramento after boot camp and tech training (that was in Denver, CO). I met My wife in an online chat room/RPG and in 1998 I moved to Newburgh, NY where she lived. She started her family later than I did and while My two sons were grown, she had children aged 5 up to 9 at that time. So it was easier for Me to move east than it was for her to come to California. A good choice too. I love everything about the state of California, but it has been rendered unlivable by the politics that happen there. When her father became ill in 2000, we moved to northeast Pennsylvania where I reside today.


I’ve lived in Arizona, Nevada, Iowa, Pennsylvania, and New York.


I really don’t like living here, but there are some serious advantages.

• · The crime rate is practically none existent. There have been two murders in the past 25 years.
• · There hasn’t been a burglary in 50 years or more.
• · Everyone looks after each other and very few people bother to even lock their doors.
• · The hardware store will leave their product on pallets on the sidewalk after closing hours.
• · The downtown area (if you can call it that) is a 5-minute walk from My front door.

There are some down sides too.

• · There is no real dining. What does exist is family style Italian (pizza, calzones, things like that) and one Chinese restaurant.
• · Entertainment is a forty minute drive away.
• · It’s a half hour to the nearest golf course and that course sucks.There is no real industry. My job is over an hour away. I put 520 miles a week on My car for work.

There are more downsides as well as upsides. It would take to long to list all of them.

Where would I like to live?

I loved California. But as I said, the politics and people have rendered it unlivable.

It's hard to say. I’ve lived in a number of places so I don’t fear moving or strange places. I’m a web developer by training and really, the best web jobs are in Pittsburgh or Philly in this state. Neither place appeals to Me.

I would like to either go to the far northeast (Maine) but really hate the cold; or south to some place like Virginia or North or South Carolina. I’d like to get to a climate that isn’t too hot in the summer (wife can’t do heat) but has little to no snow (Did I mention I hate the cold?). I was reading in another thread that the Shenandoah Valley is a nice place to live. I’d give that some serious thought but would need to see how the economy is there.

 

[usmbguest5318]

I’d like to get to a climate that isn’t too hot in the summer (wife can’t do heat) but has little to no snow (Did I mention I hate the cold?).

The U.S. locale I know of that perfectly fits that description is Hawaii. A place on the side of one of the mountains there would hit it right on the nose, and the rest of the islands would be be close enough so as to not matter. As goes real estate the prices for such properties range from very reasonable to as pricey as you want to have them be. There are also options for buying land and building what one wants.

Perhaps the other U.S. possessions in the Pacific also are that way. I can't say. I haven't been to any of them.

The rest of the places I know that are like that aren't in the U.S.

I loved California. But as I said, the politics and people have rendered it unlivable.

I think someone else mentioned the politics making a place unacceptable to them.

Short of an outright dictatorship like the DPRK, that wouldn't be a deal breaker if I just loved everything else about the place. I've lived as an expat in the PRC, and that was very surprisingly wonderful and other than knowing intellectually that the government is socialist it never even crossed my mind that it was. I worked, partied, traveled, entertained, was entertained, went to movies, enjoyed performing arts, went to amusement parks, never saw or heard about any crime, went to bars, malls, massage parlors, etc.

I think the worst thing about living in China would be doing so and having a Chinese passport, which I don't know if one absolutely would have to do that. (I never looked into whether one can be a resident while being a citizen of a different country.)

I figure if I can live there, I can live in any political environment.

 

[Gracie]

I live in the mountains. It is very beautiful here. Lots of trees. LOTS of very BIG trees. Trees everywhere. Big assed ponderosa pines. Stunningly gorgeous. Very green here. Did I mention LOTS of trees? So many, you can't find stores because trees are in the way? I moved here cuz its cheaper than where I want to be. Which is the beach. Central Cal coast, to be exact. Much as I try to be a mountain gal...I am a beach gal. Can't help it. It's just part of me, the sea.

 

[Gracie]

Westwall lives across the mountain there to my east, not very far away. He knows about these trees. See his pic. Looks like that here, too, but instead of a big assed lake, we have Oroville Damn.

I want my ocean back. Someday I might get back there.

 

[yiostheoy]

The answers to the two title questions are for most folks overlapped, but I suspect they aren't entirely the same.

Where I live and why:

• Where: Washington, D.C. -- downtown
• Why:
  • Because I like cities where I can walk to much of what I want to do and where, when I don't walk, it rarely takes more than ten minutes to get where I want to go.
  • Because D.C. is, to my eyes, a beautiful city (the parts people live in as well as the federal part of the city) with an abundance of trees and parks.
  • I grew up in D.C. and insofar as nothing has militated that I move elsewhere, I just haven't.
  • It's reasonably close to both the shore and the mountains.
  • D.C. is fairly well insulated from natural disasters.
  • D.C. has good public transportation and decent access to the rest of the world via air travel.
  • D.C. is one of the nation's intellectual hubs.
  • D.C. is a small city.
  • D.C. is diverse -- there are people of (nearly?) all races, creeds, nationalities, and lifestyles in D.C.
  • The weather is temperate.
  • The variety of dining options is awesome.
  • There're decent performing arts.

Why I don't live elsewhere:

• Mostly because living in D.C. isn't, for me, "broken," so there's no point in my trying to "fix" it by moving elsewhere.
• The type of work I undertook to pursue as a career has no physical location constraints.

Where else do I think I could live happily?

• In the U.S.
  • Chicago
  • Austin, TX
  • Denver, CO -- provided I didn't think Yellowstone would erupt during my lifetime
  • Columbus, OH
  • Philly
  • Minneapolis-St. Paul
  • Nashville
  • Any number of "old word" style cities -- downtown is a nice place and one can walk to "everything" -- on the East Coast Piedmont plateau or Mountain Northwest (well north and/or west of Yellowstone) that is far enough from the ocean not to have to worry about hurricane storm surge and having a topography that is varied enough to keep tornados to a minimum and that doesn't generally have earthquakes.
• Outside the U.S.
  • Any major European city -- capital cities are my preference -- that doesn't need a wall of some sort to keep out the ocean and that isn't prone to quakes and volcanic eruptions. I would love to live in Amsterdam, but there's no way I would live in A-dam. Paris would be my first choice.

If there's any central theme to why I live where I do and don't live where I don't, it's that I have no desire to live in places where nature's unforeseen "drama" can "reach out and touch" me and my family in our home.

What a sh!t hole !!

 

[yiostheoy]

Rocky Mountains.

Why:

Born and raised in Florida on the coast.

College and grad school and career in California on the coast.

People who spend an excessive amount of time in their life on the coast tend to move to the mountains and vice versa.

 

[yiostheoy]

I’d like to get to a climate that isn’t too hot in the summer (wife can’t do heat) but has little to no snow (Did I mention I hate the cold?).

The U.S. locale I know of that perfectly fits that description is Hawaii. A place on the side of one of the mountains there would hit it right on the nose, and the rest of the islands would be be close enough so as to not matter. As goes real estate the prices for such properties range from very reasonable to as pricey as you want to have them be. There are also options for buying land and building what one wants.

Perhaps the other U.S. possessions in the Pacific also are that way. I can't say. I haven't been to any of them.

The rest of the places I know that are like that aren't in the U.S.

I loved California. But as I said, the politics and people have rendered it unlivable.

I think someone else mentioned the politics making a place unacceptable to them.

Short of an outright dictatorship like the DPRK, that wouldn't be a deal breaker if I just loved everything else about the place. I've lived as an expat in the PRC, and that was very surprisingly wonderful and other than knowing intellectually that the government is socialist it never even crossed my mind that it was. I worked, partied, traveled, entertained, was entertained, went to movies, enjoyed performing arts, went to amusement parks, never saw or heard about any crime, went to bars, malls, massage parlors, etc.

I think the worst thing about living in China would be doing so and having a Chinese passport, which I don't know if one absolutely would have to do that. (I never looked into whether one can be a resident while being a citizen of a different country.)

I figure if I can live there, I can live in any political environment.

Hawaii -- yet another sh!t hole but also with island fever to boot.

 

[yiostheoy]

The answers to the two title questions are for most folks overlapped, but I suspect they aren't entirely the same.

Where I live and why:

• Where: Washington, D.C. -- downtown
• Why:
  • Because I like cities where I can walk to much of what I want to do and where, when I don't walk, it rarely takes more than ten minutes to get where I want to go.
  • Because D.C. is, to my eyes, a beautiful city (the parts people live in as well as the federal part of the city) with an abundance of trees and parks.
  • I grew up in D.C. and insofar as nothing has militated that I move elsewhere, I just haven't.
  • It's reasonably close to both the shore and the mountains.
  • D.C. is fairly well insulated from natural disasters.
  • D.C. has good public transportation and decent access to the rest of the world via air travel.
  • D.C. is one of the nation's intellectual hubs.
  • D.C. is a small city.
  • D.C. is diverse -- there are people of (nearly?) all races, creeds, nationalities, and lifestyles in D.C.
  • The weather is temperate.
  • The variety of dining options is awesome.
  • There're decent performing arts.

Why I don't live elsewhere:

• Mostly because living in D.C. isn't, for me, "broken," so there's no point in my trying to "fix" it by moving elsewhere.
• The type of work I undertook to pursue as a career has no physical location constraints.

Where else do I think I could live happily?

• In the U.S.
  • Chicago
  • Austin, TX
  • Denver, CO -- provided I didn't think Yellowstone would erupt during my lifetime
  • Columbus, OH
  • Philly
  • Minneapolis-St. Paul
  • Nashville
  • Any number of "old word" style cities -- downtown is a nice place and one can walk to "everything" -- on the East Coast Piedmont plateau or Mountain Northwest (well north and/or west of Yellowstone) that is far enough from the ocean not to have to worry about hurricane storm surge and having a topography that is varied enough to keep tornados to a minimum and that doesn't generally have earthquakes.
• Outside the U.S.
  • Any major European city -- capital cities are my preference -- that doesn't need a wall of some sort to keep out the ocean and that isn't prone to quakes and volcanic eruptions. I would love to live in Amsterdam, but there's no way I would live in A-dam. Paris would be my first choice.

If there's any central theme to why I live where I do and don't live where I don't, it's that I have no desire to live in places where nature's unforeseen "drama" can "reach out and touch" me and my family in our home.

Well, I was born in Southeastern Iowa, but dad moved us to the San Francisco Bay area in 1970 and I lived in a number of ‘cities’ in the bay area until 1981 when I entered the Air Force. I was stationed in Sacramento after boot camp and tech training (that was in Denver, CO). I met My wife in an online chat room/RPG and in 1998 I moved to Newburgh, NY where she lived. She started her family later than I did and while My two sons were grown, she had children aged 5 up to 9 at that time. So it was easier for Me to move east than it was for her to come to California. A good choice too. I love everything about the state of California, but it has been rendered unlivable by the politics that happen there. When her father became ill in 2000, we moved to northeast Pennsylvania where I reside today.


I’ve lived in Arizona, Nevada, Iowa, Pennsylvania, and New York.


I really don’t like living here, but there are some serious advantages.

• · The crime rate is practically none existent. There have been two murders in the past 25 years.
• · There hasn’t been a burglary in 50 years or more.
• · Everyone looks after each other and very few people bother to even lock their doors.
• · The hardware store will leave their product on pallets on the sidewalk after closing hours.
• · The downtown area (if you can call it that) is a 5-minute walk from My front door.

There are some down sides too.

• · There is no real dining. What does exist is family style Italian (pizza, calzones, things like that) and one Chinese restaurant.
• · Entertainment is a forty minute drive away.
• · It’s a half hour to the nearest golf course and that course sucks.There is no real industry. My job is over an hour away. I put 520 miles a week on My car for work.

There are more downsides as well as upsides. It would take to long to list all of them.

Where would I like to live?

I loved California. But as I said, the politics and people have rendered it unlivable.

It's hard to say. I’ve lived in a number of places so I don’t fear moving or strange places. I’m a web developer by training and really, the best web jobs are in Pittsburgh or Philly in this state. Neither place appeals to Me.

I would like to either go to the far northeast (Maine) but really hate the cold; or south to some place like Virginia or North or South Carolina. I’d like to get to a climate that isn’t too hot in the summer (wife can’t do heat) but has little to no snow (Did I mention I hate the cold?). I was reading in another thread that the Shenandoah Valley is a nice place to live. I’d give that some serious thought but would need to see how the economy is there.

California -- what a Communist sh!t hole.

 

[yiostheoy]

The answers to the two title questions are for most folks overlapped, but I suspect they aren't entirely the same.

Where I live and why:

• Where: Washington, D.C. -- downtown
• Why:
  • Because I like cities where I can walk to much of what I want to do and where, when I don't walk, it rarely takes more than ten minutes to get where I want to go.
  • Because D.C. is, to my eyes, a beautiful city (the parts people live in as well as the federal part of the city) with an abundance of trees and parks.
  • I grew up in D.C. and insofar as nothing has militated that I move elsewhere, I just haven't.
  • It's reasonably close to both the shore and the mountains.
  • D.C. is fairly well insulated from natural disasters.
  • D.C. has good public transportation and decent access to the rest of the world via air travel.
  • D.C. is one of the nation's intellectual hubs.
  • D.C. is a small city.
  • D.C. is diverse -- there are people of (nearly?) all races, creeds, nationalities, and lifestyles in D.C.
  • The weather is temperate.
  • The variety of dining options is awesome.
  • There're decent performing arts.

Why I don't live elsewhere:

• Mostly because living in D.C. isn't, for me, "broken," so there's no point in my trying to "fix" it by moving elsewhere.
• The type of work I undertook to pursue as a career has no physical location constraints.

Where else do I think I could live happily?

• In the U.S.
  • Chicago
  • Austin, TX
  • Denver, CO -- provided I didn't think Yellowstone would erupt during my lifetime
  • Columbus, OH
  • Philly
  • Minneapolis-St. Paul
  • Nashville
  • Any number of "old word" style cities -- downtown is a nice place and one can walk to "everything" -- on the East Coast Piedmont plateau or Mountain Northwest (well north and/or west of Yellowstone) that is far enough from the ocean not to have to worry about hurricane storm surge and having a topography that is varied enough to keep tornados to a minimum and that doesn't generally have earthquakes.
• Outside the U.S.
  • Any major European city -- capital cities are my preference -- that doesn't need a wall of some sort to keep out the ocean and that isn't prone to quakes and volcanic eruptions. I would love to live in Amsterdam, but there's no way I would live in A-dam. Paris would be my first choice.

If there's any central theme to why I live where I do and don't live where I don't, it's that I have no desire to live in places where nature's unforeseen "drama" can "reach out and touch" me and my family in our home.

I live here. Why? Look at the place and ask yourself why not!

Lake Tahoe?

The most beautiful place in the California Sierra.

But still Communist.

 

[yiostheoy]

I came to South Carolina for a job. I've been here for 5 years now and I love it.

Previously I lived in Southern California for more than 30nyears. Then New Mexico for 3.

Truth of the matter is, I could live anywhere just so long as I have my wife with me.

Give me ***** or give me death, huh ?!

 

[yiostheoy]

I want to move to Colorado for the green rush, have some land and do some weed production and ******* retire...I gotta sell the farm I have now first...and land sure takes a long time to sell around here...I live in SW Mizzouri by the Elk river..

I heard that Colorado is going to pot and that the S.American cartels are buying up ranch land there like there is no tomorrow.

Just wait.

Soon it will be just as violent as the Texas-Mexico border.

 

[yiostheoy]

I live where I live because I want to live where I am at..

I do not need the government to tell me where and how to live, that is why I reject the far left religion, as should anyone with any sense.

What about far right John Birch Society bullsh!t ?!

Do you reject that also ??

 

[yiostheoy]

I live in Foley Alabama.
Why? Good value for your dollar in Real Estate, low taxes, growing economy and very, very few Liberals.
Where else? Maybe Lillian, AL Why? It's about 7 miles east of here and has even less Liberals.

Good value because there are Negroes everywhere around you no doubt.

 

[yiostheoy]

It would be nice to hear from someone from Vermont, Arkansas, Alaska, Montana, or one of the other truly FREE states.

 

[TheGreatGatsby]

I live in Austria. Im content and dont want to live anywhere else. Its a beautiful country. As a immigrant and romani (gypsy) I might one day be forced to go somewhere else if there is a new Hitler or like that. But now everything is fine.

So, as a non citizen you think you're entitled to live in Australia indefinitely?

 

[Darkwind]

The answers to the two title questions are for most folks overlapped, but I suspect they aren't entirely the same.

Where I live and why:

• Where: Washington, D.C. -- downtown
• Why:
  • Because I like cities where I can walk to much of what I want to do and where, when I don't walk, it rarely takes more than ten minutes to get where I want to go.
  • Because D.C. is, to my eyes, a beautiful city (the parts people live in as well as the federal part of the city) with an abundance of trees and parks.
  • I grew up in D.C. and insofar as nothing has militated that I move elsewhere, I just haven't.
  • It's reasonably close to both the shore and the mountains.
  • D.C. is fairly well insulated from natural disasters.
  • D.C. has good public transportation and decent access to the rest of the world via air travel.
  • D.C. is one of the nation's intellectual hubs.
  • D.C. is a small city.
  • D.C. is diverse -- there are people of (nearly?) all races, creeds, nationalities, and lifestyles in D.C.
  • The weather is temperate.
  • The variety of dining options is awesome.
  • There're decent performing arts.

Why I don't live elsewhere:

• Mostly because living in D.C. isn't, for me, "broken," so there's no point in my trying to "fix" it by moving elsewhere.
• The type of work I undertook to pursue as a career has no physical location constraints.

Where else do I think I could live happily?

• In the U.S.
  • Chicago
  • Austin, TX
  • Denver, CO -- provided I didn't think Yellowstone would erupt during my lifetime
  • Columbus, OH
  • Philly
  • Minneapolis-St. Paul
  • Nashville
  • Any number of "old word" style cities -- downtown is a nice place and one can walk to "everything" -- on the East Coast Piedmont plateau or Mountain Northwest (well north and/or west of Yellowstone) that is far enough from the ocean not to have to worry about hurricane storm surge and having a topography that is varied enough to keep tornados to a minimum and that doesn't generally have earthquakes.
• Outside the U.S.
  • Any major European city -- capital cities are my preference -- that doesn't need a wall of some sort to keep out the ocean and that isn't prone to quakes and volcanic eruptions. I would love to live in Amsterdam, but there's no way I would live in A-dam. Paris would be my first choice.

If there's any central theme to why I live where I do and don't live where I don't, it's that I have no desire to live in places where nature's unforeseen "drama" can "reach out and touch" me and my family in our home.

Well, I was born in Southeastern Iowa, but dad moved us to the San Francisco Bay area in 1970 and I lived in a number of ‘cities’ in the bay area until 1981 when I entered the Air Force. I was stationed in Sacramento after boot camp and tech training (that was in Denver, CO). I met My wife in an online chat room/RPG and in 1998 I moved to Newburgh, NY where she lived. She started her family later than I did and while My two sons were grown, she had children aged 5 up to 9 at that time. So it was easier for Me to move east than it was for her to come to California. A good choice too. I love everything about the state of California, but it has been rendered unlivable by the politics that happen there. When her father became ill in 2000, we moved to northeast Pennsylvania where I reside today.


I’ve lived in Arizona, Nevada, Iowa, Pennsylvania, and New York.


I really don’t like living here, but there are some serious advantages.

• · The crime rate is practically none existent. There have been two murders in the past 25 years.
• · There hasn’t been a burglary in 50 years or more.
• · Everyone looks after each other and very few people bother to even lock their doors.
• · The hardware store will leave their product on pallets on the sidewalk after closing hours.
• · The downtown area (if you can call it that) is a 5-minute walk from My front door.

There are some down sides too.

• · There is no real dining. What does exist is family style Italian (pizza, calzones, things like that) and one Chinese restaurant.
• · Entertainment is a forty minute drive away.
• · It’s a half hour to the nearest golf course and that course sucks.There is no real industry. My job is over an hour away. I put 520 miles a week on My car for work.

There are more downsides as well as upsides. It would take to long to list all of them.

Where would I like to live?

I loved California. But as I said, the politics and people have rendered it unlivable.

It's hard to say. I’ve lived in a number of places so I don’t fear moving or strange places. I’m a web developer by training and really, the best web jobs are in Pittsburgh or Philly in this state. Neither place appeals to Me.

I would like to either go to the far northeast (Maine) but really hate the cold; or south to some place like Virginia or North or South Carolina. I’d like to get to a climate that isn’t too hot in the summer (wife can’t do heat) but has little to no snow (Did I mention I hate the cold?). I was reading in another thread that the Shenandoah Valley is a nice place to live. I’d give that some serious thought but would need to see how the economy is there.

California -- what a Communist sh!t hole.

Where I lived in California, I was two hours away from Lake Tahoe. I was 3 hours away from Crater Lake. I was 1.5 hours away from the Pacific Ocean. I was 1 hour away from one of the worlds greatest wine area's, NAPA Valley. I was 3.5 hours away from Sequoia National Forest. I was 5 hours away from Yosemite National Park.

I could snow ski in May in the morning, water ski lake Tahoe in the afternoon, and by evening, surf in the Pacific. Within hours of My front door, I could white water raft any number of world class rivers. There was mountain hiking, historic sites, and ancient ruins.

Simply put, California is one of the most wonderful places geographically in the world. I miss much of it but still won't return because of the people and their politics.

It is what it is.

 

[westwall]

The answers to the two title questions are for most folks overlapped, but I suspect they aren't entirely the same.

Where I live and why:

• Where: Washington, D.C. -- downtown
• Why:
  • Because I like cities where I can walk to much of what I want to do and where, when I don't walk, it rarely takes more than ten minutes to get where I want to go.
  • Because D.C. is, to my eyes, a beautiful city (the parts people live in as well as the federal part of the city) with an abundance of trees and parks.
  • I grew up in D.C. and insofar as nothing has militated that I move elsewhere, I just haven't.
  • It's reasonably close to both the shore and the mountains.
  • D.C. is fairly well insulated from natural disasters.
  • D.C. has good public transportation and decent access to the rest of the world via air travel.
  • D.C. is one of the nation's intellectual hubs.
  • D.C. is a small city.
  • D.C. is diverse -- there are people of (nearly?) all races, creeds, nationalities, and lifestyles in D.C.
  • The weather is temperate.
  • The variety of dining options is awesome.
  • There're decent performing arts.

Why I don't live elsewhere:

• Mostly because living in D.C. isn't, for me, "broken," so there's no point in my trying to "fix" it by moving elsewhere.
• The type of work I undertook to pursue as a career has no physical location constraints.

Where else do I think I could live happily?

• In the U.S.
  • Chicago
  • Austin, TX
  • Denver, CO -- provided I didn't think Yellowstone would erupt during my lifetime
  • Columbus, OH
  • Philly
  • Minneapolis-St. Paul
  • Nashville
  • Any number of "old word" style cities -- downtown is a nice place and one can walk to "everything" -- on the East Coast Piedmont plateau or Mountain Northwest (well north and/or west of Yellowstone) that is far enough from the ocean not to have to worry about hurricane storm surge and having a topography that is varied enough to keep tornados to a minimum and that doesn't generally have earthquakes.
• Outside the U.S.
  • Any major European city -- capital cities are my preference -- that doesn't need a wall of some sort to keep out the ocean and that isn't prone to quakes and volcanic eruptions. I would love to live in Amsterdam, but there's no way I would live in A-dam. Paris would be my first choice.

If there's any central theme to why I live where I do and don't live where I don't, it's that I have no desire to live in places where nature's unforeseen "drama" can "reach out and touch" me and my family in our home.

I live here. Why? Look at the place and ask yourself why not!

Lake Tahoe?

The most beautiful place in the California Sierra.

But still Communist.

The mountains are named the Sierra NEVADA mountains, and I'm on the Nevada side. Have too many machineguns to be in Cali.

 

[Gracie]

If I holler "WESTYYYYYYY", you could prolly hear me.