What I WANT in a City - List of Criteria (how much, house)

[DCNative]

Originally Posted by Chaparral

Despite other's opinions, and based on your criteria, Albuquerque definitely belongs in your top tier worthy of closer investigation. ABQ fits just about all your major criteria, as well as many of your bonus points (particularly your tax issues). On your lists, only San Diego could give ABQ a run in the weather department. And you can only get real NEW MEXICAN food in New Mexico (try it once, and you're hooked).

Chap

I looooooooovvveee Mexican/New Mexican food. How's the social scene in burque?

Revisiting Minneapolis - one thing that is holding me back from that city is what I've heard about the mosquitos in MN. Are they as bad as people say they are up there? I'm allergic to mozzies... when I get bit by one, nothing happens at first but 24 hours later it swells up like a balloon with a hot reddish rash that taxes nearly all of my self control to NOT scratch it.

[Peter1948]

Originally Posted by DCNative

Wow, lots of talk about Louisville. Before I visited there, I had never even heard of it.

However, since I don't plan on buying a house for another 3-5+ years (unless I move to a cheap city like Houston), I wouldn't mind living in a moderately expensive city like Chicago and renting an apartment, while saving up for a house later down the road.

Wow, you had never even heard of Louisville? I can understand knowing anything about it or even its size, but I figured most people at least recognized the name as it is still one of the larger cities in the nation (42nd ranked MSA, 26 in city population)....amazing how some cities can lack name recognition. I am not sure if that is good or bad.

[TheHarvester]

Originally Posted by stx12499

Wow, you had never even heard of Louisville? I can understand knowing anything about it or even its size, but I figured most people at least recognized the name as it is still one of the larger cities in the nation (42nd ranked MSA, 26 in city population)....amazing how some cities can lack name recognition. I am not sure if that is good or bad.

Most Americans can't find the United States on a globe unless it's outlined and labeled.

Geography isn't a major interest for most people, which is why we here at city-data are a bunch of geeky nerdy dorks relative to the general populace. And I'm proud to be a geeky nerdy geography dork. I memorized the capital cities of all the nations in Africa when I was 8 years old, because I pretended that my plastic dinosaurs lived in Africa so I needed to know such information. Now THAT is NERDY!

[MileHighSigh]

Originally Posted by DCNative

As my handle implies, I live in Washington, DC and have all my life. I'm tired of DC and I would like to move to another city within the next year or two. But I'm not sure where to go, so I was hoping that you folks can help me with suggestions of cities that meet the following criteria:

Size:
Medium-XLarge City

Social environment:
- Some cultural feel to it; shopping/restaurant/bar strips where young people like go out and about
- Some diversity, but not to the point where it’s overrun by minorities, but not all completely white either
- Friendly, open-minded, helpful, mellow, and laid-back people
- Good single female – single male ratio for ages between 20 and 35
- Good place for a single male to find women to date and have relationships with, or to just have sex with
- At least one major university where educated and affluent young people are there in large numbers
- People who care about their health, exercise, and exercise good hygiene
- Lots of places to go, things to do for young/single people (parks, dance scenes, sports bars, gym/sport activity areas such as golf, tennis, swimming, etc)
- Most neighborhoods must be safe

Religious environment:
- Minimal evangelist population or religious influence; mostly secular
- Individual spirituality is a plus
- Diversity of religions is also a plus

Political environment:
- Mellow, laid-back, and not high-strung like in Washington, DC
- Progressive, but without the smug and elitist attitudes (like you find in DC)
- Politics centering on the moderate, neither going too liberal or too conservative

Financial environment:
- Affordable cost of living for the young and single
- Affordable real estate for single income earners
- Growth opportunities for environmentally-conscious businesses
- Employment opportunities containing sufficient upside

Bonuses (not completely necessary at this point in my life):
- Nearby beach
- Nearby mountains for skiing/snowboarding
- A decent bus system or public transit system that helps ease traffic
- A solid K-12 education system (will become important when I have kids)
- Family oriented residential environment (will also become important when I have kids)
- Minimal sprawl
- Low state income or sales tax
- Manageable property taxes

Know of any cities that meet most, if not all, requirements above?

I'm serious about moving out of DC and I want to visit a few suggested cities to get a taste, prior to my full move. Being young and single and looking for a mate, the social requirements are most important to me at this point in my life. Obviously the job outlook and cost of living is also important to me, but things like K-12 education and family-oriented environments aren't as important to me now... but might become more important when I marry and have kids.

All suggestions and input from everyone will be very much appreciated!

I must say, all of the answers have been very interesting--as is your criteria for a city.

Everyone is pretty much just relating their own perception of any given city and I'll just do the same...

1.) LOTS of choices!

2.) Austin, Seattle, Portland, LA, San Diego, Denver, Salt Lake, Boise, San Francisco.

-Boise, Denver, Salt Lake are all very active, young, health-conscious, but they are all generally conservative towns that are not terribly open-minded. But they are laid back enough that you won't find the atmosphere uliveable or anything.

3.) Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, San Diego, Boston, Phoenix, Las Vegas.

-These are all your run-of-the-mill secular cities. You won't find many evangelicals, most folks are not church-goers, alternative lifestyles and religion is embraced.

-This would probably knock out Denver, Boise, and Salt Lake. These three cities are very religious. Boise and Salt Lake have the Mormon influence and though Denver isn't over-the-top like, say, Franklin, Tennessee or whatever, it is heavily influenced by suburban evangelicals and Colorado Springs--1 hour to the south. It's home to Focus on the Famlily and is a breathtakingly evangelical sort of place. Also, in Denver there is very little religious diversity. It is a serious church-going place and unless you're in certain neighborhoods I'm afraid it might make you feel a little out of place.

4.) Austin, Los Angeles, Tucscon,

-Political environment is a little tough. San Fran. and San Fran. are very liberal and pretty smug about it. Austin and Tucson are just too laid back to really care a whole lot. They're liberal and they know it--but it isn't in your face like San Fran. I find LA to be the same way.

Boise, Denver, Dallas, and probably Phoenix are all conservative cities, but they are all pretty center-right sort of moderate. If you could live with a mostly conservative place like Denver, you'll find that there are still liberal groups and a lot of moderates. But, again, beware, moderate means different things in different places.

5.) Austin, Tucson, Boise, Salt Lake.

6.)Austin, Tucson


Honestly, I would seriously look at Austin or any other college town in the west (Eugene, Albaquerque (sp)). You'll find that most non-coastal cities in the west--Denver, Phoenix, Dallas, etc.--are probably too sprawly, too expensive, too conservative, too religious for your liking. I think a more funky college town would be right up your alley.

If you're willing to pay a little more, I would think that anywhere in California would be like a buffet for you. San Diego sounds a lot like what you're looking for.

I know that a lot of people have recommended Denver and Louisville to you. They are both great cities that meet some of your criteria, but honestly, I think you would find that they are too faith, family, football oriented for your tastes. If you're cool with select neighborhoods being your style--even if the metro area is pretty much not at all what you're looking for--they could work.

But I'd look to Austin, SD, Tucson, maybe Boulder (though it's kinda snooty).

[blacknova]

Hi DC,
It's interesting you find DC to have an 'unfavorable' (to males at least ) male:female ratio. According to the 2005 Census, DC actually has the nation's lowest male:female ratio (United States and States - R0102. Sex Ratio).

Having said that though, it's possible though that most of those females, that are being counted, are married females or in familes.

In regards to the social criteria, would you say you spend a considerable amount of time outdoors or indoors? or doing social activities? (honestly). Females tend to be social creatures so you are more likely meet them the more time you spend outdoors.

In regards to living near the beach, you may want to look at Miami or Fort Lauderdale, FL. Both of those locations are located on the coast. The one bad thing of course is that you have to deal with hurricanes every once in a while.

I currently live in Miami Beach, FL in South Beach and it is almost perfect. In so far as weather goes, if it weren't for the hurricanes and the slight humidity, living here in FL would be almost perfect (I think Southern California weather near Hollywood would be closer to the climate what I'm looking for, with a dash of the occasional snow... if that even exists )

Anyway, the reason I responded to this post is that I too am looking for the ideal location to live in and have almost exactly the same criteria. Access to beaches, nearby skiing (or snow), rock climbing, etc.

In my research so far, Wisconsin and Cape Cod also came up as potential candidates.

Good luck in your search and post back here if you decide.

Cheers!

[Highpointer]

Originally Posted by miamiman

Phoenix is also a very unsophisticated city. The metro area is what would happen if Salt Lake City and inland Orange County were fused together. There is an extremely high Mormon population in the eastern suburban Phoenix communities of Gilbert and Mesa, who often occupy town councils and other political offices, an mix religion with politics. There are some portions of Phoenix in which people have horses, chickens, and livestock, in their backyards, strutting and flying left and right.

Let's not get into the women in the Phoenix area. If you find an Orange County type of woman attractive, you will LOVE the Phoenix area. Plastic surgery rules and regulates.

What makes Phoenix unsophisticated? Do you claim that Phoenix is unsophisticated just because it is different than large Northeastern cities like New York City and Boston? Why are you attacking Salt Lake City and inland Orange County? What is wrong with Mormons? The percentage of Mormons is high in some areas but I would not describe it as "extremely high." A leading Presidential candidate for 2008, Mitt Romney, is Mormon and the former Governor of Massachusetts.

I have not observed any mixture of religion with politics. There are very few areas within the city where people have horses, chickens, and livestock in their backyards. However, the Phoenix area was predominantly agricultural until the mid 20th century, and there are neighborhoods like Laveen in southwestern Phoenix where modern housing developments border farms and ranches.

One who attacks people from rural backgrounds who live on farms or who own livestock are themselves arrogant and unsophisticated. Where do you think the food that you can buy at the supermarket comes from? In Laveen, for example, there are dairy and chicken farms that provide important food products like milk and eggs for much of the Phoenix area. Some of the residents of this area own horses, and they can ride their horses in South Mountain Park - the largest municipal park in the USA which is entirely within the Phoenix city limits.

There are many attractive women in the Phoenix area, but I don't know how many of them have had plastic surgery. However, if you Google "plastic surgery" and "Arizona", you get 1,990,000 hits, but if you Google "plastic surgery" and "New York", you get 3,620,000 hits.

[bouldercol]

Originally Posted by SpeedyAZ

How did Kansas City and Louisville get on that list? I mean the other cities on that list are fairly large and offer much more than Louisville or Kansas City. I'd personally nix those...

You mentioned that you want a place that was affordable, Seattle is most certainly NOT affordable. I believe the median home price is around $400K. However it does meet the rest of your criteria...

Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver, and Houston are all top-notch cities. They're all affordable and each offers many amenities. Each also has a great culture and all are fairly diverse. I'd add Boulder, CO to that list also.



The ones in red are the ones that I'd also nix out. Either they aren't affordable or wouldn't be a good suit for you and your "wants". However Austin, Ann Arbor, and possibly Omaha meet most of your criteria and are also affordable.



I'm curious... You have Houston on your favorite city list but why don't you have any interest in Dallas or Atlanta? All three cities are pretty similiar when it boils down to it. Why aren't you looking at those?

The cities that I personally think would be best for you are as follows (no order):

Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN
Denver, CO
Boulder, CO
Austin, TX
Dallas, TX
Houston, TX

Excellent list! When I was reading the OP criteria it almost looked like mine when I was moving from Colorado Springs. Denver is awesome, and the only thing about Boulder that doesn't fit your criteria might be the overall attitude towards money. Boulder is very expensive, and that tends to turn many people away. Housing prices here could be compared to that of Southern California, or Scottsdale Arizona. But believe me, you get way more. (Unless you look at pollution, congestion, and crime as good things.) I make less than six figures a year, and still mange to live a very comfortable life here in Boudler. I don't know about other similar sized metros to that of Denver-Boulder that wouldn't have an 'elitist' train of thought. It is certainly better than what you would find in DC, New York, and Chicago. If you are looking for fit, well educated, and usually affluent young people than Boulder hits the mark. The Denver metro area has tons of schools, and because of the outdoor atmosphere and way of life, most in the area are very fit, and in my opinion have a much higher quality of life because of it. Try to find that in New York, Chicago, or DC. According to Money/CNN magazine Colorado is home to the BEST PLACE TO LIVE IN THE NATION, and THE BEST BIG CITY IN THE NATION!! That is hard to beat! Kiplinger magazine just ranked both Boulder and Denver for their best list. If you are looking for a the best, than Colorado will do it for you.

[TheHarvester]

bouldercool: Do prices drop off significantly as you head north of Boulder? Are there nice outlying areas? And what's your opinion of Fort Collins? Actually, anyone is welcome to respond to these questions, I'm curious because Boulder has a LOT of land to the north and east of it and I can't imagine the expense being so high as you get away from the nicer areas of town. It's not like Santa Barbara, where there's no room to grow so prices can only go up.

Last question: Is Boulder cool or are YOU cool in Boulder?

[sweetclimber]

Nobody has mentioned it, but Rochester New York is a great mid to larger city on the great lakes. It has tons of culture including the wonderful philhamonic orchestra and Garth Fagan dance as well as much more. There are endless festivals throughout the year highlighted by lilac festival and jazz festival. It is ethinically diverse and the political climate leans well toward liberal. The schools are about as good as any other city mentioned and the universities are top notch. The cost of living is also very affordable, you get alot of house for your $ there.There are several areas of the inner city to stay away from like northeast and northwest but these are small ghetto areas, the rest of the region is pretty low for crime rare. The only negative to the region is somewhat high taxes and an avg. economy, but there are MANY more positives than negatives. Did I mention the lakeshore? Lake ontario shore in that area is as nice a waterfront as there is in the US, with natural white sandy beaches. Also you mention skiing, well there are a number of great ski/snowboardplaces nearby like Bristol on the finger lakes. The weather is also cold in the winter months, but if Minneapolis is high on your list, Rochester should not be a problem.

[DCNative]

Originally Posted by blacknova

Hi DC,
It's interesting you find DC to have an 'unfavorable' (to males at least ) male:female ratio. According to the 2005 Census, DC actually has the nation's lowest male:female ratio

In regards to the social criteria, would you say you spend a considerable amount of time outdoors or indoors? or doing social activities? (honestly). Females tend to be social creatures so you are more likely meet them the more time you spend outdoors.

Yeah, DC appears to have a favorable male-female ratio (for men anyway), but have you seen the gay pride parade? Tons of females there, and they're lesbians. Also, many women I meet in DC are either very snooty or very political activist. I don't care to date either type.

I've done a lot of bars and parties around the DC area in the last 5-6 years, as well as some sporting events and wine festivals and lots of other stuff. But I've almost given up on women in DC because I'm tired of their pretentious game-playing and elitist uppity-ness. At least the ones that I have met and dated.