Best Places to Live STREET CRED WANTED (relocation, schools, move)

[vh380]

okay, I know I can easily google/bing/yahoo the "best places to live" and get the latest and greatest cities with new public relations machines in place and making the right pitches to the magazines. What I want is STREET CRED and knowledge...people living in places I've enjoyed:

Portland, OR
Gold Beach, OR
Tucson, AZ
Houston, TX
Knoxville, TN
Raleigh-Durham, NC

Open to other suggestions and ideas of places people love. Also need it to be large enough to build/start a business or be employed in something above 80K per year (prev made 250K and above, so I'm being realistic) so it needs some industry.

Currently live in Metro Detroit now for 11 years and have never loved it and now it's unbearably negative and in what I term a permanent contraction economically and I'm changing my whole line of work, etc. So moving with a fresh start sounds awesome to me. Need street cred on new possible cities...here's more what I need:

Prefer intellectual based/college towns are good; I have no children at home so schools i don't care about; prefer liberal over conservative; prefer multi racial versus segregated; prefer nice/warm/friendly over stuffy/pretentious;

Thanks for any information, hot spots, why you LOVE it, industries, growth, any info is appreciated.

[lucknow]

Originally Posted by vh380

okay, I know I can easily google/bing/yahoo the "best places to live" and get the latest and greatest cities with new public relations machines in place and making the right pitches to the magazines. What I want is STREET CRED and knowledge...people living in places I've enjoyed:

Portland, OR
Gold Beach, OR
Tucson, AZ
Houston, TX
Knoxville, TN
Raleigh-Durham, NC

Open to other suggestions and ideas of places people love. Also need it to be large enough to build/start a business or be employed in something above 80K per year (prev made 250K and above, so I'm being realistic) so it needs some industry.

Currently live in Metro Detroit now for 11 years and have never loved it and now it's unbearably negative and in what I term a permanent contraction economically and I'm changing my whole line of work, etc. So moving with a fresh start sounds awesome to me. Need street cred on new possible cities...here's more what I need:

Prefer intellectual based/college towns are good; I have no children at home so schools i don't care about; prefer liberal over conservative; prefer multi racial versus segregated; prefer nice/warm/friendly over stuffy/pretentious;

Thanks for any information, hot spots, why you LOVE it, industries, growth, any info is appreciated.

Toronto sounds like the place for you. It's got everything that you described in spades. Talk about "a fresh start" it would be a whole new country for you. Even Canadian "conservatives" would be considered "liberals" in the USA. It's one of the most multi cultural cities in the world where there is almost no racial intolerance at all. The people are very friendly and it's easy to make friends. It's the intellectual and cultural center of the country. It has a vibrant arts scene for those that are into those things. Toronto is also the financial center of Canada with a very diversified economy. There are no slums or urban decay in the city at all.Toronto also has a very good rapid transit system. One of the biggest problems in the city is traffic gridlock. I lived in TO for 25 years and I always loved it. If I were to back to live there again I would only consider living within the old city of Toronto boundries. I love the area called "The beach" which is on the lake on the east side. If you live there you probably don't even have to drive to work but can walk, ride a bike or take the street car.
It's only about 4 hrs. from where you live so it would be very easy to check out and also an easy move if you decided to relocate there.

[Wingfoot]

Toronto by many miles.

[Alanboy395]

Originally Posted by vh380

okay, I know I can easily google/bing/yahoo the "best places to live" and get the latest and greatest cities with new public relations machines in place and making the right pitches to the magazines. What I want is STREET CRED and knowledge...people living in places I've enjoyed:

Portland, OR
Gold Beach, OR
Tucson, AZ
Houston, TX
Knoxville, TN
Raleigh-Durham, NC

Open to other suggestions and ideas of places people love. Also need it to be large enough to build/start a business or be employed in something above 80K per year (prev made 250K and above, so I'm being realistic) so it needs some industry.

Currently live in Metro Detroit now for 11 years and have never loved it and now it's unbearably negative and in what I term a permanent contraction economically and I'm changing my whole line of work, etc. So moving with a fresh start sounds awesome to me. Need street cred on new possible cities...here's more what I need:

Prefer intellectual based/college towns are good; I have no children at home so schools i don't care about; prefer liberal over conservative; prefer multi racial versus segregated; prefer nice/warm/friendly over stuffy/pretentious;

Thanks for any information, hot spots, why you LOVE it, industries, growth, any info is appreciated.

Out of your list Raleigh-Durham is perfect for you. I considered it for relocation and nearly pulled the trigger on it.

[vh380]

Thanks and I always enjoy Toronto for sure, yet the weather has to be a bit harsher than even Detroit where I live now. But have been traveling to the south often lately and have determined the south is likely not for me based on the conservative/passive aggressive stuff that seeps everywhere there. Thanks again!