Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I have never experienced big city living, but you all are making it sound rather enticing. What has always held me back, besides enjoying the active rural lifestyle (which is becoming harder to keep up with when aging) are factors like city noise, cleanliness, and air quality. As far as noise, how do you sleep with all the banging and shouting and delivery noises? Do any light sleepers live in cities? As far as cleanliness, sidewalks and streetsides often have cigarette butts, bits of paper and rubbish. How are you able to ignore it? And air cleanliness, there are all those exhaust smells. Just curious.
Went from DC suburbs, both inside and outside the Beltway to a series of small funky artsy towns. Bisbee, AZ, Ajijic, Mexico and Gulfport, FL. Now back in Mexico. Life takes some funny turns sometimes. Highly recommend all three!
All share walkability, arts and LGBT communities, many eateries, city-sponsored events (that attract people from nearby big cities).
Wow, that is a change! I love Bisbee. It's a great little town. I've heard from quite a few people lately that have discovered Bisbee's funky charms.
Almost every autumn we had spent a week in the mountains of North Carolina and about 15 years ago we decided that was where we wanted to retire. So we bought two acres and planned on building a new home when the time came. Nearby town with a population of about 2500 and about 40 miles from Ashville.
When we got close to retirement we sat down and took another look at this idea. Local shopping would be pretty much at Walmart and Lowes. For much of anything else it would be a trip to Ashville. For any medical specialist/procedures it would pretty much be make the trip to Ashville. Choice of restaurants fairly limited. Looking out as we would age, the trips to Ashville looked less appealing. So we adjusted our thoughts on how we wanted to live in retirement.
We wound up kind of splitting the difference of a rural or city life. Traded the 2 acres in the mountains for a house in a subdivision at the foot of the Cumberland Plateau. All our medical needs are within 10 minutes from home. For a town with a population of 35,000 the medical situation is pretty good with many specialists. When my wife needed back surgery, no problem with having to go elsewhere for a neurosurgeon.
Area has all the shopping choices we need. Haven't had to make any trips to Nashville or Knoxville for things we can't find here. Even got a really nice bakery that a former pastry chef at Disney opened in a small town a few miles away.
With Tennessee Tech University being here, there seems to always be some music, including the Bryan Symphony, or play to go see. Going on Friday to see King Lear that is being done by the local arts people. May not be New York City level but enjoyable to us. Plenty of ethnic restaurant choices like Philippians or Syrian or El Salvadoran, as well as the usual.
So for us, this worked out very well. We may not have all the amenities of New York or Philadelphia or Boston, but there are enough for us. And I can sit out on my deck in the evening and listen to the rustle of the wind in the leaves of the trees. And on my way to town, I can see the deer out in the evening grazing at the edge of the woods
If anyone is interested, I have two acres in the mountains of North Carolina for sale!
I'm born and raised in NYC and my wife is from Long Island.
Same here! We grew up in Queens and lived many years on Long Island. I lived in New England, too, so am familiar with the places you mentioned. Portsmouth is so beautiful, I considered living there at one time. I also really do love the Berkshires and upstate NY. When I used to go visiting from Boston to NY, there was that spot on the highway where you could turn right and go up to Albany. I was always tempted! We would have settled in one of those places in a heartbeat were it not for the harsh winters. We chose the Upstate of SC instead, which offers a similar environment and lifestyle minus the snow and the bone-chilling cold.
I have never experienced big city living, but you all are making it sound rather enticing. What has always held me back, besides enjoying the active rural lifestyle (which is becoming harder to keep up with when aging) are factors like city noise, cleanliness, and air quality. As far as noise, how do you sleep with all the banging and shouting and delivery noises? Do any light sleepers live in cities? As far as cleanliness, sidewalks and streetsides often have cigarette butts, bits of paper and rubbish. How are you able to ignore it? And air cleanliness, there are all those exhaust smells. Just curious.
When my husband was alive, long before I moved from suburbs to city, he was such a prodigious snorer that I became addicted to the combination of a white noise machine and ear plugs. When I say "addicted," I mean I can't sleep anywhere without them, at least the ear plugs anyway.
That addiction has worked well for me now that I live in the city. When it's time to go to sleep, I turn on the sound machine and I pop in the ear plugs and I hear nothing from outside. (And I'm a very light sleeper.) I think it also helps that my condo building is very solidly built, so I don't hear my neighbors either, even without the sound machine and the ear plugs.
As far as street cleanliness is concerned, I guess Orlando is a very clean city. I just don't see litter or rubbish anywhere around, at least not in my neighborhood. And I never notice any exhaust smells.
One problem: There is an active construction site directly across the street from me, and since that's been going on, my balcony has been very dusty and in need of frequent cleaning. And that project isn't supposed to be finished until some time next year.
I have never experienced big city living, but you all are making it sound rather enticing. What has always held me back, besides enjoying the active rural lifestyle (which is becoming harder to keep up with when aging) are factors like city noise, cleanliness, and air quality. As far as noise, how do you sleep with all the banging and shouting and delivery noises? Do any light sleepers live in cities? As far as cleanliness, sidewalks and streetsides often have cigarette butts, bits of paper and rubbish. How are you able to ignore it? And air cleanliness, there are all those exhaust smells. Just curious.
Interesting post. It is clear that you have never experienced “big city living,” as you label it. What parts of urban living sound “rather enticing” to you?
I have never experienced big city living, but you all are making it sound rather enticing. What has always held me back, besides enjoying the active rural lifestyle (which is becoming harder to keep up with when aging) are factors like city noise, cleanliness, and air quality. As far as noise, how do you sleep with all the banging and shouting and delivery noises? Do any light sleepers live in cities? As far as cleanliness, sidewalks and streetsides often have cigarette butts, bits of paper and rubbish. How are you able to ignore it? And air cleanliness, there are all those exhaust smells. Just curious.
How big a city are you talking? Have you been to Charlotte? From what you posted, I don't think really big cities would work for you. I'm talking cities of over 1 million people.
The big city is something that I put up with while I was working. The stress of the daily commute is something that I won't miss. There are pluses and minuses to going out into the woods to live. One of the negatives of living out in the woods is that you are at least a half hour to anywhere. Trailer parks replace housing projects. Car accidents don't happen at fender bender speeds.
If you can, be close to a commuter line where you can leave your car so that the occasional trip into the city without a car is still possible.
I have never experienced big city living, but you all are making it sound rather enticing. What has always held me back, besides enjoying the active rural lifestyle (which is becoming harder to keep up with when aging) are factors like city noise, cleanliness, and air quality. As far as noise, how do you sleep with all the banging and shouting and delivery noises? Do any light sleepers live in cities? As far as cleanliness, sidewalks and streetsides often have cigarette butts, bits of paper and rubbish. How are you able to ignore it? And air cleanliness, there are all those exhaust smells. Just curious.
Every big city has areas that are quieter, cleaner and safer than others, you can be effectively "downtown" but still live in a quieter streetcar suburb with yards, parks and surrounded by SFH in most. We can walk downtown in about 1/2 hour or take a bus or Uber right out the door and be there in minutes but live in a quiet, extremely safe tree lined area of historic, well kept houses. There are different levels of urbanity available, for a price, in every big city.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I love Bisbee. It's a great little town. I've heard from quite a few people lately that have discovered Bisbee's funky charms.
