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If one looks at this objectively, the following would be considered:
1) a good place to be raised as a kid with an emphasis on education, safety, and a nice collection of things for kids to do.
2) a good place to attend a university with a no limits to the type of education one needs to pursue their chosen life's work.
3) a good place for a career where one can advance and flourish.
4) an affordable place to live based on the salary one can expect from their career.
5) see line #1 (a good place to raise the next generation of kids)
6) access to a variety of other places (cultural, natural, etc.) to give your life engaging experiences. This could be both nearby and through solid transportation networks to other places.
6) a good place to retire with enough to keep you engaged in your community for fulfillment in the golden years.
Even though I did leave it, I would say my hometown of Kansas City, Mo., checks off all of those boxes save #2 — however, the state universities of both Missouri and Kansas are outstanding institutions that offer study in any field one might choose. The branch campus of the University of Missouri in Kansas City isn't quite as comprehensive as the main campus in Columbia, about two hours to the east, but KU's main campus in Lawrence may as well be in a KC exurb now — it's only 30 minutes west of the city, and its Kansas suburbs and Lawrence's outskirts are growing towards each other. (My Mom, born in Omaha and raised in northeast Kansas, is a double Jayhawk.) And KC does have several excellent small colleges and universities, including Park and Rockhurst universities and Avila and William Jewell colleges, plus several others close by.
But I tell people that I wouldn't trade growing up in Kansas City for growing up anywhere else in the country. Actually, come to think of it, though, #3 depends on what career you wish to pursue. For instance, if you want a career in the news media, and you want to rise to the top, you will have to leave KC eventually, though you can certainly make a name for yourself and do very well in the local news media.
But I'd say that's something that applies to just about every city in the country not named New York, Los Angeles or Washington (at least in the media, government and tech for the last of these three). I think that question would be better phrased "a place where you can advance in your career to a point where you can hold your head high."
I feel like most places in general have taken a turn for the worse compared to 30 years ago save gentrified urban areas. If they haven’t become less safe, they’ve become more crowded and oversaturated with people.
Definitely not San Diego or LA. If anywhere in California I would say somewhere on the Central Coast. Pismo Beach, Monterey, Paso Robles, etc. Places that purposefully try to stay small.
New Orleans. It has a vibe of its own, I knew a lot of people there, I can't imagine any of them ever successfully living any place else. I can't rememner ever meeting anyone outside New Orleans, who was a transpoant from NO, except maybe in Baton Rouge.
New Orleans. It has a vibe of its own, I knew a lot of people there, I can't imagine any of them ever successfully living any place else. I can't rememner ever meeting anyone outside New Orleans, who was a transpoant from NO, except maybe in Baton Rouge.
Hurricane Katrina made involuntary transplants of a bunch of New Orleanians, and last I looked, the city's population has still not returned to its pre-Katrina level.
But I don't think those transplants moved too far away. Maybe Houston at the outside.
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