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To your benefit, you did that when America actually had jobs throughout the entire country. I graduated from college in 2009, when essentially no jobs were available outside of the DC area. If I graduated in college during '98, I would've done the same thing.
I love Chico/Paradise, it's a really pretty area up there.
It doesn't snow in Sacramento, but it gets pretty cold. I didn't like the entire Chico/Paradise area, I'm not a small town person. I just couldn't wait to get out of there, my three years were enough.
I love living in DC and plan on staying. Originally from Baltimore (not exactly DC), moved to LA (lived there for 1 yr), Atlanta (lived there for 3 yrs) and now live in DC (live in NW, Takoma). I did not like LA. IMHO it was dry, too spread out and lacked the urbanity and the option of car-free living offered by east coast cities. I'm a four seasons person, so the weather was not a big selling factor to me.
Atlanta was OK. Too low dense and spread out. The one thing I did like about the Atlanta area was the state of the African American community. African Americans are doing well and are very progressive in Atlanta. The same can be said about African Americans in DC.
DC works for me. It offers great urbanity and density. It's not overbearing like NY and seems offer more greenery than your typical east coast city. It's definitely one of the top cities in the nation when it comes to offering cultural and entertainment options. With Metro (bus and rail), biking (extensive biking network), walking (small compact city), cabs and the soon to be operational street car/light rail system, car-free living is definitely feasible.
DC is not perfect. There are some downsides to living in this city. The ever increasing cost of living and the large population of snooty, uptight people are some of my beefs with living in DC. The uptight people are not a major issue because you can also meet a lot of good down-to-earth people from all over the world in this city. The COL is a b*tch. Soon DC will be on par with NY and San Fran.
I did not like LA. IMHO it was dry, too spread out and lacked the urbanity and the option of car-free living offered by east coast cities. I'm a four seasons person, so the weather was not a big selling factor to me.
This is exactly what I try to tell people, but they don't listen. lol.
I'm here to stay forever, as far as America goes there is only one city that interests me enough to leave here-- New York. Other than that, I wont be leaving Washington unless it was for somewhere overseas like Seoul, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, or Melbourne but I would be back.
For retirement, something like San Diego, Denver, Tucson, or Seattle sound just dandy.
This is almost exactly how I feel. NYC is out for me because I like DC more for raising a family, which I definitely want one day.
I would hate to live in California. People complain about the weather here but I adore having seasons. Love the fall colors and the snow (even the measly amount we've had this year). I do hate summer here but hopefully one day I'll be able to migrate somewhere cooler for the summers, haha.
I lived on the Gulf Coast for a while, and it was just horrid. Weather was like DC summers 70% of the year, absolutely no culture, no diversity, etc. Had an Obama sticker ripped off my car twice there and my friend had a HRC equality sticker on his car ripped off and they keyed a gay slur into his car door. We lived in a progressive tourist town right on the beach but it was still that bad.
I love that inaugurations are like Superbowls here. I love that you can walk into bars and hear people discussing politics and stocks. I love that you have more educated people living here than anywhere else in the country. I love that it's a big city, but there are trees everywhere and mountains and gorges close by.
Like valentro said, I'd have to move to some crazy awesome international city before I'd ever leave DC.
I love living in DC and plan on staying. Originally from Baltimore (not exactly DC), moved to LA (lived there for 1 yr), Atlanta (lived there for 3 yrs) and now live in DC (live in NW, Takoma). I did not like LA. IMHO it was dry, too spread out and lacked the urbanity and the option of car-free living offered by east coast cities. I'm a four seasons person, so the weather was not a big selling factor to me.
Atlanta was OK. Too low dense and spread out. The one thing I did like about the Atlanta area was the state of the African American community. African Americans are doing well and are very progressive in Atlanta. The same can be said about African Americans in DC.
DC works for me. It offers great urbanity and density. It's not overbearing like NY and seems offer more greenery than your typical east coast city. It's definitely one of the top cities in the nation when it comes to offering cultural and entertainment options. With Metro (bus and rail), biking (extensive biking network), walking (small compact city), cabs and the soon to be operational street car/light rail system, car-free living is definitely feasible.
DC is not perfect. There are some downsides to living in this city. The ever increasing cost of living and the large population of snooty, uptight people are some of my beefs with living in DC. The uptight people are not a major issue because you can also meet a lot of good down-to-earth people from all over the world in this city. The COL is a b*tch. Soon DC will be on par with NY and San Fran.
I definitely have to agree with the above statement. i am from SC (the redest state in the US), went to college in NC (red state also, but no where compared to SC esp. in cities like raleigh and charlotte) and been in the dc are for about 10 years. The only complaint I have about the area is those 6-8 weeks of bad winter/cold weather. No fan of that. Also, the traffic can be a beast sometimes, but like you said everything is not perfect.
One thing that stands out for me though is the fact that I can get to SC and NC in no time, but also travel to Philly and NYC in a short period of time. It's like the best of both worlds in my view. No plans of leaving anytime soon.
I will also say that places like Raleigh and Charlotte are on the come up. Raleigh has major universities, COL is cheap, and is growing at a rapid rate. Very diverse as well.
Charlotte is a place I would highly recommend for someone looking for a change. No where compared to DC, but you have two major sports teams, a rail system, and it's the 2nd largest financial center hub (home to bank of america and wells fargo) in the US. Still more of big town than urban city, I can the Queen City as being a place where many people will flock to in the next few years.
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