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I agree with those who would live in Venice or Rome: those who say they are overrun with tourists do not know Venice and Rome. My problem is I do not want to pay Italian-style taxes.
To me, Miami would be a total bore as a tourist destination (only the beach, and there are better beaches elsewhere), but is a good place to live.
To be sure, I would live in London, San Francisco, Paris or New York, roughly in that order, if I could afford it.
I know some folks who live in tiny rent-controlled apartments in San Francisco, no children, and they're okay.
You're crazy, Paris is substantially larger than either. The main issue with Paris is that I could not afford to live in Paris but in some place at the end of a RER line. At this point, better live in a smaller large city. But to each his own.
Yeah Paris is substancially larger than either, but past a certain size I'm not sure if it makes much of a difference in day to day life. Well, the prices will be even more extortionate, this is true. And maybe subway cars aren't as packed? I swear I once didn't have enough room to lay my bag down past midnight in the metro.
I guess my Paris experience is kinda influenced by the fact that my grandparents lived in the 94 on the RER A line so I've mostly lived the city through that, when visiting them for christmas / easter / weekends. Granted it did not take that long to get downtown (only about 25-30 minutes to Les Halles) but I always felt pretty swallowed by the city everytime I went there, everything seemed to be so far away, and it was actually a pretty nearby suburb by Paris standards. Still, having to rush at midnight to get home is kinda annoying. And some metro stations make you feel like you'd get lost in them.
I get that it must be great to live within Paris city limits but talking with friends living there, it seems that everyone was one hour away from each other. I lived in the second French metro for years and everyone was downtown or close, and at most I had to walk like one hour if I felt like it. Of course bike rental helped a lot when it was introduced back in 2005. I believe Paris must be nice if you are in the city and use the bike, more so than being in a nearby suburb and have to take the RER to do anything.
I don't really know Milan, but my sister lives in Barcelona and it seems a lot more manageable in terms of size / distance. Never been in a packed subway there like I've been in Paris. That's why say a 4-5 million metro must be my upper limit.
I'll have to spend time in NYC or London to see how I feel. I remember going to London in the 90s and feeling something similar to what I always feel in Paris. It was really huge and the city was hard to grasp in a few days.
I would not like to live in a smaller place than Bologna though.
Honolulu. It's a poorly planned city on a really nice island, but these days it's bursting at the seams and everyone is living on top of each other. They are starting to have major infrastructure issues and some of the worst traffic in the USA, cost of living is through the roof, wages are low, there is a lot of poverty, poor education and drug problems in Hawaii. Not to mention it's the most isolated city on the planet so if you want to leave you're a (minimum) $600 and 6 hour flight away from anything else that's not an island.
Yeah Paris is substancially larger than either, but past a certain size I'm not sure if it makes much of a difference in day to day life. Well, the prices will be even more extortionate, this is true. And maybe subway cars aren't as packed? I swear I once didn't have enough room to lay my bag down past midnight in the metro.
It still makes a difference. Paris is large and crowded, but Shanghai for example is twice the size, and noticeably more crowded and stressful on a daily basis. The streets are always so packed, sometimes dangerously so. It is very common for people for wait for over an hour or more for a table at a restaurant or at a bank. Don't even mention the metro, which makes Paris metro feel easy and spacious.
It still makes a difference. Paris is large and crowded, but Shanghai for example is twice the size, and noticeably more crowded and stressful on a daily basis. The streets are always so packed, sometimes dangerously so. It is very common for people for wait for over an hour or more for a table at a restaurant or at a bank. Don't even mention the metro, which makes Paris metro feel easy and spacious.
Thus what is frightening is that the Paris City planners take Shangai as a model to follow , for they are planning a Great Paris with .... 25 million inhabitants in 2050 and huge construction sites are already dotting city and suburbs, they even want to destroy the last fields north of Paris to build a gigantic "zone of multi activity" in spite of local opposition ("triangle of Gonesse")
Paris is sure on the way of turning into Shangai with the added nuisance that it takes 10 times longer to build anything in Paris than in China, hence it's a city dotted with perpetual construction sites, some of them looking half-abandoned (and they are a magnet for fly-tippers, so they surroundings look like dumps)
Yuck. Venice and Florence are maybe THE European cities where tourists have destroyed the whole vibe and the natives have fled.
I would never live in either. They aren't Italian cities anymore but disneylands for tourists. Just like NYC wouldn't be NYC without New Yorkers.
What? This is the most absurd thing I have ever read! .
I live in Florence..we have tons of tourists every day...it is the tourists that make the city more peaceful, orderly, cleaner and less chaotic! Are you kidding me! Yes the streets are a bit crowded...this is only thing to complain about. In fact my Italian friends and I wish we had more foreigners living in our city...
The RER is a disgrace in general, but I would love to live in Paris. At least would love to try it out for a couple of years. I really like the vibe.
Anyway Venice is the worst offender. It's the **** for visiting, **** for living. Same goes for lots of oldie towns in Italy tbh (Siena, Firenze etc.)
Poor RER
They are buying dozens of new trains for the D and E, I hope the experience will be better in the future specially on my D line. A has finally a train with AC... The B and C are bad. Unfortunately for people living near the B, a new line is planned for the CDG airport (CDG express). It means probably that there will be less investements on the B trains (the one you use to go to the airport) ... Wait and see .
Actually if RER was a world-class quality as well as its stations like Auber or Les Halles -I mean japanese or korean level-, I think the experience of living in suburbs would be much better... GPX will reduce the pressure on this network anyway.
As the date of 2017 it's not the case. Maybe before olympic games, in 2024...I'm skeptical, specially for the B. And I do not recommend to live outside of inner Paris, it's not an "amazing" experience. It's normal and boring, like most of suburbs around the world...
Poor RER
They are buying dozens of new trains for the D and E, I hope the experience will be better in the future specially on my D line. A has finally a train with AC... The B and C are bad. Unfortunately for people living near the B, a new line is planned for the CDG airport (CDG express). It means probably that there will be less investements on the B trains (the one you use to go to the airport) ... Wait and see .
Actually if RER was a world-class quality as well as its stations like Auber or Les Halles -I mean japanese or korean level-, I think the experience of living in suburbs would be much better... GPX will reduce the pressure on this network anyway.
As the date of 2017 it's not the case. Maybe before olympic games, in 2024...I'm skeptical, specially for the B. And I do not recommend to live outside of inner Paris, it's not an "amazing" experience. It's normal and boring, like most of suburbs around the world...
I heard that D is the worst line. The train directing to Creil is like really dangerous or something.
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still, Parisians, no room for complacency
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