I moved from Austin to San Francisco in September. I’m much happier in San Francisco, and I feel fortunate I can be here. The weather is much better. Heck, if you don’t like the weather you’ve got, go to the next neighborhood. Summers in Austin are brutally hot. I’m finding life without a car to be very easy here in San Francisco. The public transportation is the best and most comprehensive I’ve experienced. (Austin’s is minimal.) There’s diversity in recreational opportunities, neighborhoods, and restaurants. I do miss Austin’s outstanding food trucks and I miss breakfast tacos. I’ve also found it pretty easy to become involved in California politics (more so than Texas). The Bay Area can be a great place to live. Interesting fact about Austin, though, it will soon boast the three tallest residential buildings west of the Mississippi, and they form a triangle with each leg about 4 blocks long. The city is very rapidly growing, and it’s good to see it growing up rather than just sprawling.
Thanks. Their 2,500 person SurveyMonkey survey for 'desirability' made me chuckle. From the methodology description, sounds like just asked a bunch of people where they wanted to live. I suspect 'anywhere but here' would have been the number 1 option if offered.
Given the value index, I'm a little surprised any really high cost market like San Francisco or DC would place. As others have noted, some places can be great places to live at the right salary but if you're at the mean or less, not so much. I guess that's where people are moving for the jobs though so you hit Job market and net migration.
I'm anti-lumping Minneapolis and St. Paul and Raleigh and Durham together. Distinct cities, IMO, despite proximity. No one would mistake Trenton for NYC.
Not surprised to see Austin, Seattle, Denver, or Portland on the list. At least with the college-aged and recent-grads that I talk to, those are the destination cities that come up. Not NYC, Boston, Chicago, etc...
Only a couple of truly Midwest cities...not sure what to make of that. I wouldn't want to live in Des Moines (and I've spent a good bit of time there).
Did you mean to write Newark? Or perhaps the confusingly-named West New York, New Jersey? Trenton is 60 miles from NYC per Google Maps ... with Minneapolis/St Paul being 12 miles apart; Raleigh/Durham 23.6 miles; Kansas City MO and KC, KS 3.8 miles; and Bristol VA/TN being 23 feet apart (all per Google Maps, which I guess measures from the city center).
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013
When I can. I was at the Duke basketball game in Charlottesville this year and was hoping to see our guys in Minneapolis (my first Final Four). But I didn't see football live. We could see extra games in '18 because a local CBS affiliate showed ACC games on two different cable channels Saturday morning -- early East Coast start games that often included the Devils.
So far, so good.
We have been evacuated twice in our 24 years here. Friends and neighbors have lost homes, but not us so far.
I was tempted to quote the great Mary Chapin Carpenter: "Fate should not tempt me."
However, I think you're right, so I won't.
P.S. I most recently saw MCC in concert at what I think is the best concert venue anywhere: the Appel Room at Lincoln Center.
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My Texas/SA summary:
Dallas summers are hotter but with a little less humidity and then there is Houston where it is brutally humid in the depths of summer. San Antonio is the compromise, slightly cooler than Austin maybe a tiny bit more humid. But SA(with the exception of the Spurs) is quite clearly city 3A of the Big Three cities in Texas. Lots of very good local eateries but not fully on par with Austin. Sprawling and getting more so as time goes on. Generally cheaper than the other 3. My biggest issue, besides little to no spring(but then winter isn't too bad) is a lack of car culture. Dallas and Houston due to sheer size have more and Austin is just "cooler".
SA won't rate in those polls, most of the tech stuff ends up in Austin creating a different buzz about the city. SA gets the satellite stuff(small operational functions) from some of those firms to save on cost. A lot of that is due to not having a flagship university, but then DFW does not either.
That and the fact that she lives in Virginia.
Another great song, though. Come On Come On is a truly wonderful album.