San Francisco, Seattle or Boston (college, living in, safer)

[OzM]

[FONT=Verdana]We are looking to move to Seattle, Boston or San Francisco so would love to get some thoughts, advice and opinions from you all on living in these cities. [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Factors that are important to us are - [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Weather - preferably not too cold[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Employment opportunities - I work in the Sports/Entertainment industry and my Bf works in Finance.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Sport[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Beautiful beaches [/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana]Thank you![/FONT]

[18Montclair]

All three fit the bill except for beautiful beaches.

I cant speak for the other 2, but the Bay Area has some decent beaches I suppose.


http://www.pointreyesart.com/idbf/491/Drakes_Beach__Point_Reyes_National_Seashore.jpg (broken link)

[sweetclimber]

I would say that San Francisco area has good beaches, those are better looking than anything in South California. That being said, I would go with SF or Boston definately, tons to do, see, lots of culture. Seattle is rainy 11 months of the year and kind of lacking in the culture department, but it does have some nice scenery!

[ogre]

OP wrote: "Factors that are important to us are -

Weather - preferably not too cold:" If the top priority related to weather is to have the most pleasant winter possible, you'd want SF. Winters there offer a changeable mix of temperate weather: often cool or a little chilly, sometimes warm, occasionally foggy, but often sunny, and almost always moderate. With the other two cities, you'd need to decide whether you'd find it easier to tolerate relatively mild (cool to chilly, but not usually severely cold) temperatures, with lots of clouds and drizzle, sometimes going weeks at a time without seeing the sun (Seattle), or some cloudy days, a fair number of sunny days, an average of four feet of snow a year, and some pretty frosty temperatures (Boston).

"Employment opportunities - I work in the Sports/Entertainment industry and my Bf works in Finance:" I don't know a lot about either field. Also, I'd think this might depend on the specifics of what you both do in your fields. I do know that SF is known as a major center of finance on the west coast, but that's only general. Which one is best for finance might depend on your bf's specialty.

"Sport:" Do you mean spectator sports or participatory? If you're looking for great places to participate in outdoor activities, all three cities are close to mountains and coastal areas, though Seattle and Boston may be just a little closer than SF to the nearest ski runs. If you're talking about spectator sports, it depends on whether your're asking about pro or college sports as possible sources of employment, given your experience in the sports/entertainment field. If so, I couldn't give you inside info on the work available in the field in any of these cities. But if you're asking about spectator sports, the best place to be a fan, etc., I'd say Boston comes out on top, with SF second. The one caveat is that college sports aren't followed passionately in Boston, though people do pay some attention to them. The other two cities aren't huge college sports meccas, either, though they do offer some fairly big-time teams at Stanford and U. of Wash. In pro sports, though, Boston wins. That's not because of the recent successes of the Red Sox and Patriots, since teams' on-the-field fortunes can change over time. It's because the Sox, Celtics, and Bruins are classic old teams oozing with history, and few cities come close to Boston for the absolute passion the locals feel for their pro sports teams. SF comes in second because of that gorgeous baseball park next to the bay, and the simple fact that the greater Bay Area has teams in all the major professional sports, while Seattle lacks hockey, and may be close to having its pro basketball team move to another city.

"Beautiful beaches:" If you're talking about beautiful coastal scenery, you can find that close to all three cities, though Seattle, being located a bit inland on the coast of Puget Sound, is a little farther than the other two from the ocean coast. As far as beach recreation, swimming in the ocean, etc., I'd give the nod to Boston. The ocean water on the west coast is pretty chilly. It's not exactly tropical near Boston, but at least there are some areas where the water temps are more tolerabale than they'd be in the Seattle or SF vicinities. Boston also is probably within reach of a greater variety of both open sandy beaches, and wild, scenic, rocky coast. It's not the first city in the U.S. I'd think of for beachfront recreation, especially IN the water, but it's better than Seattle of SF in that regard.

Hope this helps get you started with some basics. Take care and good luck.

[in_newengland]

Just to add to the above--the beaches in the Boston area are warm enough for swimming, most of them anyway. You're limited to late June, July August and early September for ocean swimming and some of the beaches that are on the open ocean are always freezing cold, but many of the beaches are warmish and sandy and really nice for swimming.

You also have Cape Cod for more fabulous beaches and great swimming.

Year round you can at least go walking on the beach.

As for the cold weather in winter-- IT IS HORRIBLE but if you can get away for a month of it, it's nearly tolerable. The summers are HOT and HUMID but then again, the ocean's right there.

[18Montclair]

We're not really beach people anyway-at least by CA standards. As you can see, most of our coastline is virtually uninhabited. Yet millions live around the Bay.

[seattlerain]

Ozm, I would recommend that you also go to the Seattle, Boston and San Francisco forums.

[toughguy]

Originally Posted by sweetclimber

I would say that San Francisco area has good beaches, those are better looking than anything in South California. That being said, I would go with SF or Boston definately, tons to do, see, lots of culture. Seattle is rainy 11 months of the year and kind of lacking in the culture department, but it does have some nice scenery!

Take with massive grain of salt.

[radraja]

I'm going to vote San Francisco. It has the most moderate weather by far, has plenty of pro sports teams in the vacinity, and has nice beaches.

Boston will have long, cold winters. And Seattle is grey and rainy for 9 months straight.

[The A-Team]

A beautiful, sunny day today here in seattle. But yes, we do get a lot of gloomy days, but from people i've known that live in the bay area they say it is similar there. Summers in Seattle are absolutely amazing, warm temperatures with sunshine and no rain. Plenty of culture, overall i'd say safer than the other 2, lots of outdoor access(Alki is definatly my favorite beach on puget sound)....however I am not a native here, and being from Arkansas(where it is sunny and warm most of the time) I've had about enough of the gloomy weather lol, so I'll be moving to somewhere sunnier this summer (probably SoCal). But if you can handle the gloominess, and dont mind misting(doesn't usually poor down rain here, kind of a mist, its weird lol) then you might enjoy it. This has been my experience here as someone who is not originally from here, and being that I myself have decided to move away after living here, am just giving an honest account of Seattle. One thing i will never be able to replace here is the scenery....the olympics, the cascades, mount rainier, puget sound, the tree covered hills....I will definatly miss it when i'm gone. Good luck to you wherever you decide to move!!