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I am looking for a walk-able city with good public transit that it easy to make friends in and with nice people. I spend quite a bit of time in Boston and lived in the New England area. I like the walk-ability and the access to public transit in the downtown area. However, I found it almost impossible to meet people and make friends their. I found a lot of the people I worked and went to school with to be not welcoming. It also impossible to meet people outside due to people not friendly nature. This is contrast to places in the south like Nashville and Fort Myers. I able to make friends, data, and have a social like their. Even most stranger are nice and want to talk to me. However, everything is so spread out and I have to drive everywhere. It also a very unfriendly place to a cyclist. So, what cities offers both walk-ability/good transit and nice people? I would also prefer a place that is alive at night and with more reliable and better maintain transit than Boston. Access to some outdoor activities would be nice as well.
I only live a few hours away. I thinking about going over there during my Christmas break. Anything thing I should do or eat when I am their?
Well, it depends what you’re into, but I’d recommend visiting the pier and Vinoy Park to anyone. The Dali museum is very good if you’re into art at all. There are a lot of great food options, but a few that come to mind first are Hawkers Asian Street Food, Datz, and Paciugo Gelato. I haven’t spend much time there in the past couple years so I’m sure there are a lot of good new places I haven’t visited yet.
Eugene, OR is a bit on the smaller side (metro area 350k, or about half of the Springfield, MA metro) but has a friendly culture, lots of activities not affiliated with U of O, a huge biking scene with lots of separated bike lanes and trails right in town, and a BRT system alongside regular buses. I haven't ridden the public transit, but as a college town, I assume it's pretty reliable.
Minneapolis-St. Paul also seems like a good choice for your criteria, if you can deal with the winters.
Eugene, OR is a bit on the smaller side (metro area 350k, or about half of the Springfield, MA metro) but has a friendly culture, lots of activities not affiliated with U of O, a huge biking scene with lots of separated bike lanes and trails right in town, and a BRT system alongside regular buses. I haven't ridden the public transit, but as a college town, I assume it's pretty reliable.
Minneapolis-St. Paul also seems like a good choice for your criteria, if you can deal with the winters.
As a long time Twin Cities resident, MN (N)ice/passive-aggressive is a real thing. People are insular, keep to themselves, and generally don't like "rocking the boat" via starting a conversation with a stranger. There are many reasons for this, and the metro is otherwise great, but the mantras "everyone's polite, no one's friendly" and "people will give you directions to anywhere but their house" rang very true in my experience.
Now living in the south, all my family is still there and I visit multiple times/year. And the differences are so stark in terms of strangers (at the grocery store, the check out counter, etc.) willing to start up a convo.
As a long time Twin Cities resident, MN (N)ice/passive-aggressive is a real thing. People are insular, keep to themselves, and generally don't like "rocking the boat" via starting a conversation with a stranger. There are many reasons for this, and the metro is otherwise great, but the mantras "everyone's polite, no one's friendly" and "people will give you directions to anywhere but their house" rang very true in my experience.
Now living in the south, all my family is still there and I visit multiple times/year. And the differences are so stark in terms of strangers (at the grocery store, the check out counter, etc.) willing to start up a convo.
That is a good description for people in Denver and I imagine most of the mountain west.
I also lived in Texas where people are supposed to be friendly, but I didn't really find that to be the case. They're less insular compared to the west for sure, and their warmth do go beyond mere politeness, but I still find them superficial and and it's hard to get deeper until they got to know you.
If you define friendly as being easy to interact in a non-superficial sense with strangers then I actually think New York is up there, despite the reputation. I had little trouble getting into meaningful conversation with strangers in parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan. I'm surprised that OP couldn't find the same in parts of Boston.
You do have to put up with more unfriendly behavior in New York though.
Better transit than Boston? Easy choice as there's only a handful of cities that does that. New York and Chicago. I guess possibly San Francisco.
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