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I am lucky enough to be able to move anywhere to set up a new office for my company as long as it is a major city, even internationally. We are running a new trial that can be done from anywhere.
So I'd like to go somewhere that matches what I've always wanted from a city:
-Big, with a ton going on
-Great public transit
-Lots of educated young professionals
-High Jewish population
-Great weather (I don't like winters)
What cities seem to fit this criteria best?
There is only a few options: NYC, DC, and San Fran fit your tastes best and with the Jewish thing, but all have pretty rough winters.
Because of this, I think your best bet is South Florida even though its public transit is not great. Specifically, South Beach in Miami, Delray Beach, or downtown Ft. Lauderdale. Miami is extremely urban, more so than Los Angeles. LA is way too spread out with horrific traffic and a real lack of a transit vision.
That said, I would look HARD at San Diego. Specifically, the downtown area would basicaally fit all your needs, but will not have as many Jewish people as S. Fl (and there are TONS of young Jews).
Really appreciate all the ideas and thoughts! This feels like a once-in-a-lifetime chance to determine where I'm going to live, so thank you for your advice. Given what's been mentioned and internet research, how I feel so far...
Los Angeles: Does it feel like you're in a big city or is it too spread out? My desire to live in one (besides work requirement) comes from loving the busyness/culture in Chicago. Also, seems to be a lot of confusion over how good the public transit is, both here and elsewhere online. For me, there's two real questions (yes/no preferred... don't really need neighborhoods/examples yet):
1. If I live in an area that is nice/trendy with young professionals, will I be able to get to/home from bars late at night on weekends in less than 30 min for less than $15?
2. How centralized are companies? Is there an area I can work in (less than 45 min from a young professional trendy area) where I'll be able to get to most other business meetings in less than 30 min/$15?
Miami: I'm worried that the Jewish community there is older and there aren't many young professionals. Is this valid? Also worried that it may be more of a suburban v. urban city (is this the case?). Seems like the public transit may also be a concern.
San Diego: Seems to be close on all factors, but only really aces the weather test. A bit smaller city than I'd like (I imagine concerts, etc. often skip over it in favor of LA?), seems like public transit is only OK, and the Jewish community is a bit smaller than I'd prefer.
Melbourne/Sydney: Intriguing ideas... Similar to San Diego in that both are smaller cities than I'd like, seems like public transit is only OK, and the Jewish community is smaller than I'd prefer.
DC: Doesn't seem like it is year-round warm weather. What's it like in the winter? I have no concerns about it being too hot (I'll manage).
Tel Aviv: Seems like it may be a bit too small for me. Also the only place where cultural considerations come into play for me. I'm comfortable with Asian cities cause I've been there, but haven't spent time in Israel. Is it easy to get by not knowing the language? How does it compare with major US cities?
Cities not in the running but mentioned by others:
Montreal, NYC, Chicago, Boston, Seattle, London, Baltimore, SF (bad weather)
Singapore, Hong Kong, Dallas, Houston, Austin, Bangkok (small Jewish community)
Denver, Portland, Honolulu (too small)
Buenos Aires (Spanish speaking)
1. I assume you're referring to a cab ride. There are some areas that would meet that criterion, but cab fares can get large really quickly because the city is so spread it. If you think that would come up a lot, you might want to live in Downtown LA, where there are lots of bars and restaurants, lots of major companies, and lots of rail and bus lines. That would also give you the most urban feel. There are lots of folks like you living in Downtown LA.
2, You haven't said what field you're in, but companies are spread out in LA. Major companies are clustered--there's a bunch in Downtown, there are some in Beverly Hills, there's a bunch in Century City, some over in Burbank. Hollywood would be most central, and is pretty urban, but I don't think it's really that much of a young professional neighborhood yet. West Hollywood might be a good possibility, it's got a good urban main street and good bus service.
You're getting mixed info on transit in LA because the picture is mixed. LA has improved its transit system in recent years--built rail lines, created rapid buses and bus rapid transit--probably more than any other US city. Service is frequent on major lines. At the same time, it's a big city and crossing it on transit takes awhile. More than most places, transit in LA really varies by location--in central areas it's quite good, on much of the Westside it's not bad, in peripheral areas it's not so good.
The Bay Area doesn't feel very Jewish to me, but LA (which has a higher proportion of Jews in the population) does, especially on the Westside and in the suburban San Fernando Valley. But it's a hard thing to really quantify, the Jewish population estimates are always a bit dicey, because they don't come from the Census.
Location: Baghdad by the Bay (San Francisco, California)
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San Francisco does not have bad weather. In fact, its probably second only to Southern California as the most beautiful, agreeable weather in the continental US. It gets a bit chilly and rainy in Winter, but never freezes. I don't even own a winter coat and commute by public transit with just a light jacket all winter long. It's the land of the black North Face jacket.
Outside of the three cool, off-and-on rain months you will have about nine months of sunshine and ZERO rainfall from Spring to Fall. The western side of the City is susceptible to Summer fog, but the rest of the Bay Area and, in fact, the City itself is like a naturally air conditioned sunroom.
Spring and Fall occasionally see temps creep into the 80s even in the City. Summer will likely not top 72 in the sunny parts of SF and be in the upper 50s at night. It's warmer down the peninsula and in the East Bay. From the coast to the Bay to inland areas, the temperature swing can be about 20 degrees or more.
So, it's not unusual to see foggy and 59 in the Sunset, sunny and 70 in South Beach and sunny and 85 in Walnut Creek. SF gets a bad rap for weather because tourists come here from 90-100 degree humidity on their summer vacation and spend all their time on the waterfront in shorts. Seriously, I know a few people from Chicago who think SF weather is heavenly.
1. I assume you're referring to a cab ride. There are some areas that would meet that criterion, but cab fares can get large really quickly because the city is so spread it. If you think that would come up a lot, you might want to live in Downtown LA, where there are lots of bars and restaurants, lots of major companies, and lots of rail and bus lines. That would also give you the most urban feel. There are lots of folks like you living in Downtown LA.
2, You haven't said what field you're in, but companies are spread out in LA. Major companies are clustered--there's a bunch in Downtown, there are some in Beverly Hills, there's a bunch in Century City, some over in Burbank. Hollywood would be most central, and is pretty urban, but I don't think it's really that much of a young professional neighborhood yet. West Hollywood might be a good possibility, it's got a good urban main street and good bus service.
You're getting mixed info on transit in LA because the picture is mixed. LA has improved its transit system in recent years--built rail lines, created rapid buses and bus rapid transit--probably more than any other US city. Service is frequent on major lines. At the same time, it's a big city and crossing it on transit takes awhile. More than most places, transit in LA really varies by location--in central areas it's quite good, on much of the Westside it's not bad, in peripheral areas it's not so good.
This is good advice and I agree cab fare for work will add up because like you said jobs are relatively spread out though the vast majority are located along the Wilshire and Santa Monica corridors (basically DTLA to Santa Monica). For nightlife, it is not as much of a problem. Basically the biggest issue with cabs in LA is not how spread out it is (which doesn't help) but that the fares are the highest in the nation.
And Carlite is right on the nose about transit, it has improved drastically in the last decade or so and (contrary to what someone said in this thread) actually has a very focused transit vision for the next 20 years. If you do choose LA, know that transit is going to get significantly better while you live here, with almost yearly extensions and openings.
Really appreciate all the ideas and thoughts! This feels like a once-in-a-lifetime chance to determine where I'm going to live, so thank you for your advice. Given what's been mentioned and internet research, how I feel so far...
Los Angeles: Does it feel like you're in a big city or is it too spread out? My desire to live in one (besides work requirement) comes from loving the busyness/culture in Chicago. Also, seems to be a lot of confusion over how good the public transit is, both here and elsewhere online. For me, there's two real questions (yes/no preferred... don't really need neighborhoods/examples yet):
1. If I live in an area that is nice/trendy with young professionals, will I be able to get to/home from bars late at night on weekends in less than 30 min for less than $15?
2. How centralized are companies? Is there an area I can work in (less than 45 min from a young professional trendy area) where I'll be able to get to most other business meetings in less than 30 min/$15?
Miami: I'm worried that the Jewish community there is older and there aren't many young professionals. Is this valid? Also worried that it may be more of a suburban v. urban city (is this the case?). Seems like the public transit may also be a concern.
San Diego: Seems to be close on all factors, but only really aces the weather test. A bit smaller city than I'd like (I imagine concerts, etc. often skip over it in favor of LA?), seems like public transit is only OK, and the Jewish community is a bit smaller than I'd prefer.
Melbourne/Sydney: Intriguing ideas... Similar to San Diego in that both are smaller cities than I'd like, seems like public transit is only OK, and the Jewish community is smaller than I'd prefer.
DC: Doesn't seem like it is year-round warm weather. What's it like in the winter? I have no concerns about it being too hot (I'll manage).
Tel Aviv: Seems like it may be a bit too small for me. Also the only place where cultural considerations come into play for me. I'm comfortable with Asian cities cause I've been there, but haven't spent time in Israel. Is it easy to get by not knowing the language? How does it compare with major US cities?
Cities not in the running but mentioned by others:
Montreal, NYC, Chicago, Boston, Seattle, London, Baltimore, SF (bad weather)
Singapore, Hong Kong, Dallas, Houston, Austin, Bangkok (small Jewish community)
Denver, Portland, Honolulu (too small)
Buenos Aires (Spanish speaking)
LA and its metro are very large and has different sorts of vibes depending on what part of it you live (basically holds for all large metro). Certainly if you lived near the downtown core area you will feel that it is a big city. The reason why whether LA is deemed okay for mass transit is that for a city/metro of its massive size, it really does have a pretty bad mass transit system. That being said, it's still pretty good in terms of absolute amounts of areas, amenities and sights it covers for a large number of people--it's just that there are also a large number of people who are left out of areas where mass transit coverage is very good. That's why you're getting competing stories. The other factor is that useful mass transit in LA is really something that's only been brought back in the last two decades and really useful in the last decade or so--as such, a lot of people won't have really updated their mental maps of the place. As for your questions, in regards to LA:
1) yes, you will be able to get from a bar back home without spending $15 when you work and live in the central core
2) no, companies are definitely not centralized in LA. there are clusters of them and the biggest one is downtown and another "linear cluster" down wilshire from downtown but there are other ones as well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BTA88
I question the validity of this wiki article. The first chart has LA at 4th in the entire world with Jewish population, then the second chart doesn't rank LA at all in the large Jewish populations outside of Israel. Chicago and Boston are also missing on the second chart. Less than a 10,000 difference between Philadelphia city and the entire Philadelphia metro, when there's more than 10,000 Jews in Cherry Hill alone, not even looking at Main Line, Delaware and Bucks Counties, and the rest of Camden County. San Fran/Bay Area has a similar discrepancy...
What I don't doubt is that the top 5 Jewish cities in America are New York, LA, Miami, Philly and San Fran, with nods to Boston and Chicago. I just question the numbers and accuracy of the charts.
First, DC has cold winter weather. It averages 2 degrees warmer than Philadelphia, which is 2 degrees warmer than Boston. In other words: cold.
Tel Aviv. I haven't been yet, but trust me, I intend to go. Two things about Tel Aviv that I know. 1. It's the largest metro in Israel and is an international. In the modern day in age, that basically makes it the largest city. It's a cultural hub of our tiny friends and is generally considered to be an World City. 2. The women are smooooooooooooooooooooookin hot. That's my primary reason for wanting to go. Israeli women really do it for me. Don't ask me about public transportation in Tel Aviv, I don't know.
Totally great thing questioning the validity of the article. There were two separate listings for what were essentially the same metric (number of people with Jewish ancestry in the metro areas) and they did have slightly different rankings. However, it would throw it more into question if you were able to cite a more reputable source than the stats cited by that wikipedia article. If we can't find it, then I think this is probably the best to go on so far, taken with a grain of salt and the realization that it won't be perfect.
The smoking hot women in Tel Aviv wasn't in response to my post, but I completely agree. I think it's that military duty getting them in shape. Super hot, especially the ethiopian and russian descent girls.
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