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What type of things make a community desirable for you?
On the top of my mind-a good movie theater like Cinemark or Regal.
A Best Buy
Good restaurants like Cheesecake Factory or Chili's
a good public high school system
a hospital
My list would include good schools, attractive streetscapes, good sidewalks, good public transportation, all of the basics within safe and easy walking distance, a library within walking distance, lots of independent, local stores, nice parks with playgrounds, some colleges or universities nearby, an independent bookstore, a diverse mix of people. If I were contemplating living in a smaller town that didn't offer public transportation then I want a thriving downtown that is still home to some useful stores, and not just fudge shops and antique places for tourists.
A Cheesecake Factory or a Chili's would go into my negative column, although I could overlook that as long as there were sufficient numbers of other, local places around to offset it.
-A healthily high density (7000 ppsm to 100,000 ppsm)
-Smart growth/New Urbanist/mixed use patterns
-Very walkable
-Lots of young people (20-30s) but that doesn't necessarily mean there should be no old people or families with young kids
-No unjust or nanny state laws which are made just to give police more powers to arrest people for non-crimes (i.e. getting arrested for sitting on top of a milk carton or doing a cartwheel in front of your friends means "disorderly conduct")
-Very good historical preservation that doesn't just let developers demolish historical buildings at a whim, but if it is a new town then they should build historicist buildings and not all the 1950s/60s era modernist stuff that looks very cheap and bland
-Good public transportation
-Controlled violent crime
-Decent schools, even though I don't have kids yet I'd want my schools to be at least adequate
-Diversity of ethnicities
-Less chain stores and more locally owned mom and pop business
-Multiple bookstores, both like Barnes and Noble and Borders, as well as some independent ones
-Good parks where it is big enough to at least jog around there
-Taxes which are used effectively so that there can be the maximum good use of social services at the lowest cost to the tax payer
-Lots of trees and vegetation but not at the expense of density and mixed use in the community
A Cheesecake Factory or a Chili's would go into my negative column, although I could overlook that as long as there were sufficient numbers of other, local places around to offset it.
I agree. An over abudance of chain stores would be a negative as well.
My main desires are:
Interesting and inspiring architecture
Urban design
Walkable/bikeable
lively streets
pedestrian friendly
local store/restaurant scene
Diverse nieghborhoods
Mix of youth and working professionals
Access to good entertainment
Abundence of free festivals
Good farmers Markets
Museums, Fine Arts, top notch cultural institutions
Great Zoo
Proximity to nature, (hiking, biking, boating, fishing)
Airport with lots of direct flight
Minimal traffic
Basically everything I have in St. Louis
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