which city to live in (among all 50 states)?

[amaiunmei]

Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Richmond, VA
Atlanta
Phoenix
Cleveland
Houston

[AlohaFriday]

Sunbelt cities in AZ and TX will give you COL but not as much urban living or cultural diversity, particularly Asian.

[mjlo]

Long shot may be Ann Arbor - It's 14% Asian, safe, growing, and urban. It's got a great job market. It's small for what you're looking for but it's in the 5 million people Detroit region, which outside of the city has everything you need.

[ckhthankgod]

Originally Posted by mjlo

Long shot may be Ann Arbor - It's 14% Asian, safe, growing, and urban. It's got a great job market. It's small for what you're looking for but it's in the 5 million people Detroit region, which outside of the city has everything you need.

I was also thinking that Farmington/Farmington Hills could also work due to being one of Detroit's more diverse and integrated suburbs that is of very good quality, as well as having walkability in Farmington. Its Asian percentage is around 10-11% between the two communities and nearby Novi is around 16% Asian. Between the 3 communities, there are about 140,000 people.

I also thought about the Plymouth/Canton area, which is in between AA, Detroit and the area mentioned above. Canton is right next to Plymouth/Plymouth Charter Township, with the latter being walkable. Plymouth doesn't have much diversity, but Canton, which has more people does have a decent amount including an Asian percentage of about 11-12%. I mention both together, because they are in the same school district(Plymouth-Canton Community).

Here are streetviews of both Plymouth and Farmington, just to give an idea of what they look like and to see if they would work: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=plymo...125.38,,0,7.16

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=farmi...106.17,,0,0.97

[GalacticDragonfly]

Originally Posted by semidevil

I'm currently looking for a job "all over the U.S," but it's a bit overwhelming to literally consider every state in the country, so I'm trying to narrow it down to a few.

Currently, I"m primarily looking at Seattle, Dallas, Austin, and maybe.....LA or San Francisco (still worried about the cost of living).

Dallas and Austin is my first choice because it seems to have the best balance of pay vs cost of living. But right now, the top 3 I listed, I'm getting some interviews, but nothing really set in stone. I want to see what other cities I can or should consider.

Here is what i"m looking for:
- reasonable cost of living vs pay. I.e, $700 to 1000 at most for a 1 bedroom apt, decent, safe, not run down.
- "Safe." I know everywhere has it's crime, so maybe something on the lower end of the crime rate scale.
- cultural diversity (personally, I prefer a decent chinatown)
- We are in our 30s, so we're not looking for a party place, but a place where we can settle for at least a couple years to work and get experience. I"m in the insurance industry, and she is in the graphic design industry, so a place where jobs can be available.
- I"m looking for the 'major cities,' so well known, modern, updated, has growth, and is more or less not stale. something more on the urban side

Any cities come to mind?

Ahahahahahaha. Well, the best places to live would be Los Angeles or San Francisco, but do you plan on commuting? Or do you want to live in the city proper? If you want to live directly in the city, then cross off Los Angeles once, and cross off San Francisco three times. $1,000 each month for rent is like basic for Berkeley. With that said, you could find a nice apartment that goes for $1,000 a month in a nice area somewhere in the East Bay of San Francisco. But living directly in The City just ain't happening.

But if you want a decent Chinatown, then San Francisco being considerably the best and oldest Chinatown in America might be your first choice. Its a more legit Chinatown and not something a big city just wanted to do because it works well as a tourist attraction in SF. Also Oakland has a giant Chinatown too so its 2-in-1 Chinatowns in the Bay. The Bay Area has the highest concentration of Chinese and Indians in the country, and Los Angeles has Koreans, Vietnamese and others. If you budget well, you should try and live somewhere in the S.F. Bay Area, but not directly in S.F. unless you think you'll make more money in the future. Also, the public transportation in the region is high-speed and stellar so it shouldn't be an issue owning a car. Not so much in LA, but it's still up there.

[ckhthankgod]

Given that the insurance industry was mentioned, I wonder if something in the Hartford CT area may be able to work? I'm thinking one of the more walkable suburbs. I saw a few apartments in West Hartford that may fit, but I'm not sure if it could work. Apartments Search - Walk Score

Also, in the Dallas area, are there areas of places like Richardson or Plano that may fit?