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Take Pittsburgh off your list. Gentrification has changed the city into a Mini-Brooklyn hipster hood.
As far as Liberals go, they are a new breed - complete hypocrites. They hate everything they truly are. You will find them in every city core. It is why I leave Pittsburgh as much as possible. My suggestion is to move to a small Rust Belt Midwestern city, suburb, or town. They tend to be middle of the road and laid back.
Last edited by bluecarebear; 07-25-2015 at 08:19 AM..
I don't really feel like it's realistic to say you want to completely avoid snobby people... snobby/A-types are everywhere. Especially places like DC where you have relatively young people making over $100,000 who have gone to the top schools in the country, that's to be expected. Don't limit yourself, the places you're saying you don't want to go are good places to build your career. Snobby and snotty people are everywhere unless you go to like the country and even then, you may still run into a few there.
I think it's a question of overriding culture. If a city has that snooty progressive culture, it has a very chilling effect on everyone, and it forces people into that mold. My money's on conservative southern cities with lots of transplants. They have a strong culture, which is the only thing that makes them nice.
Austin is a very good example of this, from my own experience and reading. A few years ago it was THE place to be, but too many tech workers moved there. This resulted in a slight gender imbalance, and more importantly, a more liberal populace. (Tech workers tend to be confused liberals. I think their logic goes "I was victimized in high school, therefore I identify with the victim ideology and hope to gain favor by sympathizing with them".) Austin now seems to reflect the exact same unfriendliness and snobbery as San Francisco, Seattle, etc.
I could be wrong, but I think I have identified a huge social shift in the U.S. and you can benefit from it if you understand what's happening. It will be twenty years before the media picks up on this, so you really have to figure things out for yourself.
If you live in a liberal progressive city, your social and dating life will always be an uphill struggle. If you find a city unpoisoned by the "progressive" ideology you can live a normal life, just like most Americans did up until the mid 90's.
Slightly exaggerated for sure, but it might make the difference between happiness and depression. I know the quality of my interactions vary greatly and predictably based on location.
If you live in a liberal progressive city, your social and dating life will always be an uphill struggle. If you find a city unpoisoned by the "progressive" ideology you can live a normal life, just like most Americans did up until the mid 90's.
I disagree with this. It depends on what type of person you are and where you are in life. Conservative cities tend to be very family oriented and that too can cause difficulty with social life and dating. I think the best cities are those that are somewhat balanced politically. Cities that are very one-sided in either direction can be a challenge if you don't fit the mold.
I'm not sure if there's any city that's "good" for college grads-- it's hard finding your first job out of college no matter what city you live in. Trying to get a job in a place where you've never lived before, never visited (otherwise why would you be asking for open ended suggestions?), and have no connections only makes the process harder. Here's a revolutionary idea-- perhaps the best city for new grads is the one where you came from....?
This post rings the most truth in the thread thus far.
I graduated from college a few months ago, and it has been virtually impossible for me to get interviews outside of my hometown (St. Louis). The only other city that I can get interviews in is Chicago, with the exception being major corporations that can pay for relocation (and in most cases these companies don't hire recent grads).
And this has been the case for all of my friends I graduated with. It looks like you kinda just have to go where you get your first job, and then go from there.
Columbus, A city very similar to Austin in some ways and very different in others. Everyone seems to overlook it, but that is what keeps it under the radar. I think people forget that it has over 2 million people.
I just moved here a few weeks ago and I'm enjoying it, and one of my criteria was to live somewhere that's not overly pretentious or snooty with yuppies and Type A mentalities. Now, that's not to say that those types don't exist in Columbus either. They do. Just like any other city with good paying jobs. But the percentage is much smaller than say, San Francisco or Chicago. The snooty young people concentrated in a few small areas here and there. New Albany is VERY snooty, from what I've seen. But just be yourself and avoid it or don't let it get to you. Plus, even if you did live in a snooty neighborhood....it's really not THAT big of a deal. You would be surprised to see that many so-called snooty yuppies are actually friendly. They just happen to like nice things.
I don't understand why people are saying Austin isn't snooty/pretentious/yuppie. To me, it seems like it certainly is. The whole hipster thing, in my opinion, is snooty in itself.
I would also recommend Cleveland or Cincinnati. Basically, anywhere in Ohio. Ohio is not a snooty state in general.
People are people everywhere. You are thinking way to hard into this who population personality. Move where you want and make friends with who you want. Thinking there's some magical land with no materialistic type A guys where everyone is friendly and geeky is a dream at best. I ve lived all over and can tell you people are for the most part the same everywhere. Its who you associate with that matters.
Regardless of where you are: The reality of this is that unless you're in a small town, most strangers will NOT try to befriend you unless they feel that they can somehow gain from you either monetarily or sexually. Or unless they're forced to by being your co-worker.
In a Swift-ian way, that has some small truths. I would definitely add the "join my megachurch" crowd in the Bible belt..... plenty of people south of the ol' Manson/Nixon line will tell complete strangers about their relationship with Christ and how you should go to church together. I guess they need allies to punish gays, immigrants, atheists, communists, carpetbaggers, Eastern Elites, UN sympathizers, abolitionists...... so yes, you are being exploited for gain by some means. A conscription of sorts.......
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