Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I live in NYC and would like to relocate to a city that's clean, not boring yet not overcrowded. A good city for an upper 20's single Asian guy. Preferably somewhere you can either drive into work easily or just get by with public transportation (not a mix of the two).
I've actually never been to the cities listed, but these are the cities with jobs in my career field (Advertising).
I would Say Seattle based off of the fact that you want a clean city that isn't overcrowded. If you can handle grey skies then you will be fine. Summers are absolutely Beautiful and it provides more and more amenities that you would find in places like Manhattan with high in stores, clubs, and bars. Lots of Recreation too.
They are all good choices for what you want though. I've lived in the Bay Area (not SF though) for a short period of time and lived in Boston for a few years.
You've got some good pics there based on what you're looking for. All have good transport, are exciting and relatively clean cities (and not as crowded as NY).
Chicago is clean, but crime here is a KILLER''' screw Chicago... last Year the police had to roll in and shut down our lake front beaches because they said it was to hot out, lol gosh Hot at the beach
till the 911 calls came out, their was gang bangers fighting and threatening any decent people on the beach with things like= leave yo shiet fo' us and we wonts jack up yo family, NOW GO! OR I BE WHOOPIN DAT A$$..
While Chicago, Boston, and San Francisco are certainly nowhere near as crowded as New York, they're still pretty overcrowded, especially in their cores. Seattle is vibrant, but nowhere near as crowded as Chicago, Boston, or San Francisco.
Cleanliness: Seattle, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco
Ease of owning a car and driving to work: Seattle, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston
Ease of solely relying on public transportation: Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle
Having lived in both Chicago and San Francisco, neither felt like that much of a departure from New York, and I imagine living in Boston would be pretty similar to New York as well. If I were in your situation, I'd probably pick Seattle because it will offer you the greatest change from your current lifestyle.
Oooo, their was an up tick in our heat n humidity last night in Chitgago, 4 shot DEAD, and another 12 shot n Injured....So glad Chicago is a gun free zone....
I don't listen to the weather here, just the body count, 1-2 dead means it's 70* or cooler, 4-5 dead is around mid 80s, and 9+dead is 90 plus degrees ....
Actually, like any big city in the US, most of the violent/serious crime in Chicago is centered in a few "greater" bad areas and almost all are away from the considered good areas of town. As someone from NYC, you should be very familiar with this notion. Furthermore, a lot of that type of crime is gang on gang or drug trade related. Last year alone, 25% of homicide victims were part of one gang alone. People like to be over sensationalist with the crime thing. Although it's bad in some areas, those are lower class areas plagued by gangs and a lot of the homicides tend to be gang "warfare." Unfortunately, innocent people CAN die during this and it is semi rare that it spills over into an area that is more yuppified or hip, but it can happen - just like NYC.
Needless to say, it's really hard to accidentally just randomly walk into a ghetto area from a good area in Chicago. With the exception of about 2 or 3 neighborhoods (one of which you probably wouldn't want to live in any way - boring bedroom community), you'd have to walk for a few to handful of hours in some areas before that truly happened.
This is nothing new though. NYC, Boston, Philadelphia, etc is no stranger to this notion.
All four cities are fine IMO. They are all clean in the areas you'd probably live in. They all have good Asian populations, with San Francisco having the most. The crowded-ness factor - None of them are even close to NYC. San Francisco and Boston are small cities with respect to overall land area. Chicago is probably biggest, but it also has the most people out of any city. San Francisco and Boston overall are pretty dense (again, nothing compared to NYC), but Chicago on the north side is actually denser than both. However, this has to do with the fact that in a handful of north side areas of Chicago are more vertical in their residential than San Fran and Boston. Chicago has more residential high rises than all of these cities (probably combined). However, Chicago's streets are on average a foot or two wider than that of San Francisco and Boston, so it's not as close/packed feeling (still can be, but there are some pretty narrow areas of San Fran) in the residential areas as those cities. Seattle is less packed than that even.
Public Transit - Chicago out of this list has the most extensive system (2nd largest in the US behind NYC - but NYC is way way far ahead of everyone else in the US with public transit), followed by Boston, and then San Fran/Seattle. I believe all these cities have a bike sharing system (Chicago's to come out on Sunday - will be second largest in the US when it's all said and done by the time it's done).
For cost of living, San Fran and Boston are more expensive, and Seattle and Chicago are about on the same level with COL (Seattle might be a hare more expensive but not too noticeable). San Fran, Boston, and Chicago all have their bad areas and Chicago's is the largest, but refer to the above. Seattle is the safest city of the bunch.
IMO, if you want a less crowded version of NYC, that would be Chicago or San Francisco, with Chicago on the largest scale city-wise, followed by Boston. Chicago is definitely the most "vertical" city of the bunch, but there is also a ton of low scale (5 story and under) development in Chicago. If you want a change of pace, then that would be Seattle, definitely. Again though, none of these cities is nearly as dense as NYC, although Boston and San Fran may feel denser than they really are because of the streetscape, but still nothing compared to the dense areas of NYC.
Last edited by marothisu; 05-30-2013 at 09:22 AM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
