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Location: Baghdad by the Bay (San Francisco, California)
3,530 posts, read 5,133,609 times
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1. San Francisco - I love the unique place it is. Even the beautiful weather does its own thing and doesn't line up with schedules in the rest of the U.S.. Great baseball town. Dense and walkable. Liberal-minded. Great economy. Amazing food city and proximity to Wine Country. Awesome day trips. Rich cultural and ethnic diversity. Distinctive personality and environment. Crazy wilderness/metropolitan dichotomy and outdoors/urban mix. Great urban neighborhoods. The City still knocks me out with amazing frequency just taking it all in, even on my short commute to work. It's quite different here from 99% of the rest of America in both positive and negative ways, which to me is all good.
2. NYC - Awesome urban environment with distinct walkable neighborhoods. Many of the other qualities I love about SF are here too, some in greater quantities, though a few intangibles are missing for me. Probably one of 2-3 cities In the world where, coming from SF, I would feel comfortable not doing a pros/cons list to relocate.
3. Los Angeles - I love the California lifestyle and LA might be its quintessential iteration. It's a great place for my career, too, which helps its appeal. Good energy. Like the two above, it's a good place to have some disposable income. I'd have to overlook their baseball team, though.
4. Denver - I like the laid-back mountain vibe and the city is scenic and interesting. It's a bit small, but I think it makes up for its lack of urban qualities in its mix of urban/outdoors. Beautiful setting. Fun sports town. Liberal. Lots to like.
5. Seattle - I'd grow a bit tired of the weather, I'm sure, but it's such a beautiful city and a great urban environment (again with an outdoors mix). I like the fact that it's its own distinct place, it's Liberal, and it has a great economy. There's an innovative spirit here, rivaled only by SF's. It's small and provincial in both really good and really bad measures from my perspective.
The order of these three will always change, alternative, move around but after seeing much of the United States AND Canada, these will probably be my permanent top three forever.
1. Miami
2. Vancouver
3. New York
At the present time, I don't want to deal with "cold weather" or the like. That isn't to say that I view cities with that climate as inferior, I don't. I just find them more difficult to live in and to live with than what is in my comfort zone, which is warm, hot, humid, sunny, and just always warm. If not warm, then cool and benign, if it gets cold (like Vancouver) then in a more benign and manageable way than the American Midwest or Northeast or Quebec, Ontario, Alberta.
As the actual city itself, New York is by far the favorite. I've said it before, it narrowly edges out Hong Kong for me and I've always envisioned that I would only like Tokyo as much as it. I have seen Hong Kong (recently in November) and London (also in the recent year) and they are third and fourth fiddle to me as cities under New York and presumably Tokyo.
Vancouver sort of appeals to me in ways no where in the Western half of North America can. It visually speaks volumes to me, I have always been a sucker for lush and green scenery (or tan and dry cacti filled deserts; but only the "tan" brand of desert, not that ugly/hideous brown "semi-arid"). I have always been a fan of recreation and what separates a place like Vancouver from other Northwestern cities like Seattle is that the scenery and topography is immediate, to quote what I told a friend a few years ago "Vancouver's scenic exploration is yours to wreak havic upon, it's all immediate and right there, it gets straight to the point." Which is true, skiing starts just across the water from Downtown (and you can choose to go through Downtown via Stanley Park, which in itself is gorgeous) and the city is built up densely. More packed, more clamoring, more "Pacific Rim" style, if you will, and that trumps the Americano urbanity of Seattle to me, by FAR. The city is infinitely more scenic, more beautiful, more intimate, more topographically blessed than anywhere else in the Cascades Region of the United States and Canada, at least among the major cities and that is something I will absolutely take. I'm also Asian, while I don't care for being around Asians so much, I do care for a lot of the amenities, seeing as how I indulge myself in different variations of Asian or Latin American food on a day-to-day basis, Vancouver makes it way too easy for me.
After these three (I know you asked for five but it may as well just be like a 14-18 way tie for me for the rest), I have these places in alphabetical order. It means a lot that I'm listing them, at minimum it at least means I could "see my life there" if I had to and would do so with a "smile" on my face, meaning a feeling of being content is there. However I want to make a point, I prefer at least a dozen or more other cities outside North America over all of these cities, which is why none of them get a number listing. Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco Bay Area, Toronto, Tucson, Victoria, Washington DC, plus the rest of California (all of it), the rest of Texas (all of it), the rest of Colorado (all of it), the rest of Arizona (all of it), the rest of Washington state (all of it), and the rest of Florida (all of it). Let's just say that I respect all of these places, let's just say that there's enough about all of these places that I really like, and let's just say if I HAD to live in any of them, that I could, and would do it easily, but they aren't my active first choices in the world and I plan on sticking to those "first choice" places (like Vancouver, Miami, New York) over any of these. No offense, because I wasn't trying to be offensive.
One notable exclusion is Minneapolis-Saint Paul, I have no doubt that I'll like it but I want to see it first before making a judgement.
Worldwide:
1. New York
2. Tokyo (haven't been but don't need to go to know)
3. Hong Kong
4. London
5. Seoul (haven't been but don't need to go to know)
Honorable mentions (in order): Tel-Aviv (haven't been but don't need to go to know), Osaka (haven't been but don't need to go to know), any of the Big 6 in Germany (any and all), Melbourne, Barcelona (haven't been but don't need to go to know), Sydney, Taipei (haven't been but don't need to go to know), Singapore, Busan (haven't been but don't need to go to know), Nagoya (haven't been but don't need to go to know), Stockholm (haven't been but don't need to go to know), Oslo (haven't been but don't need to go to know), Copenhagen (haven't been but don't need to go to know), Kuala Lumpur, Bangalore, then those 18 North American cities I listed in my previous post in any particular order (just alphabetical, I really don't care).
Absolutely love visiting but wouldn't want to live in:
New Orleans
Seattle
Cities I either have lived in (and liked it) or would want to based on my visits there:
New York
Chicago
San Diego
Washington DC
Cities I'd love to visit, haven't yet, but would not live in based on what I know:
Charleston
Miami
Others I might live in if given the opportunity:
Denver
Nashville
Boston
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