I live in Columbus, OH. It's fine. Certainly better than any other part of Ohio and one on the best cities in this part of the country. It's growing and has a great economy. Still relatively cheap for its size. West Virginia isn't that far away for when I want to get out into nature. I can't stand heat so moving further south isn't an option for me. It's a good fit.
Columbus native here. I grew up in and lived in Bexley a lot of my life. It's a nice area but NE Ohio has a lot more opportunities if you're an outdoors person. No area of the state has as many good places to hike and run. The trails in SE Ohio, around Hocking Hills, are more dramatic but there aren't as many of them. The trails in NE Ohio, in the Cuyahoga Valley and all of that, are also better suited for running.
I'm around the Chagrin Falls area now - an outer ring suburb of Cleveland. For every nice area of Columbus, like Bexley, Upper Arlington, etc, the Cleveland metro area probably has 10 more. If you think that Columbus is the best area of Ohio, you really need to get out more. And being a Columbus native, I am certainly not biased. My parents still live in Bexley and I have a kid at Ohio State. It was a great place to grow up and I really do like it but it is hardly "certainly better" than any other part of Ohio.
In terms of the 3 largest metro areas, Cleveland would probably be the best, Columbus not far behind, and Cincinnati a distant 3rd. I've spent some time in Cincinnati for work and it iss really dirty and there is not a lot to do. It is just sort of "blah."
I live in a North Texas DFW suburb and strongly dislike it. Moved her for work 7 years ago. It’s crowded, lots of traffic, generic and lacks any kind of personality. Over 200k people have moved to my county since we moved here, pushing the population over 1 million (we are 40 mins from the city).
We have made the best of it, got involved in a lot of things around town. But we have young kids and the summers are brutal and Texas is far from everything that isn’t Texas.
And for the freedom, no gambling, no weed, strange liquor laws, no women’s rights, and you better not read books to kids!
Moving this summer to the mountains, gotta get the kids to altitude for the red blood cells.
No womens rights= no murdering children? No reading books=no indoctrination from the leftbians?
I've lived in a large city in the Upper Midwest since I started college in 2007. It's pretty crazy to think now, but other than a brief stint living with my parents after college, all of my addresses have been within a 5-6 mile radius of each other since then. I always thought I would do a bit more globetrotting, but that's just not how it worked out. I'm 34 now with a mortgage, toddler, and another baby on the way, so this is pretty much it barring unforeseen circumstances.
Overall I think this is a very good place to live, but I'll admit that one of the many crushing things about parenting is the realization that I'm pretty much gonna be punching the clock at the rat race for the rest of my functional years. Before kids, there was always that thought that I could do the "take this job and shove it" maneuver and go f*ck around the mountains or buy a little farm (though it doesn't sound like that worked out for OP...sad!). Always been a good saver. But now doing that would require a lot of sacrifices for my kids which I'm not really willing to put them through. I want them to go to a big solid school system (unlike the podunk one I went to) and have a lot of friend and activity options. Our current location offers that, and it's where our jobs are, so like Walter Sobchak enjoying his coffee, "I'm staying."
I guess all of this should be motivating me to take super good care of myself and be a good saver/investor so I can actually do stuff in retirement.
I left Seattle for Idaho a while back. How Idaho responded to C19 just reinforced that I made the right decision. No one cared that I didn't test. No one cared that I did not take the experimental mRNA gene therapy and I certainly did not lose my job over it. No one cared that I only wore a mask ONLY if absolutely forced to (Travel).
On top of this, we don't let vagrants set up tents on every street corner. As a matter of fact, we don't let them camp in public anywhere. (we just give them bus tickets to Seattle or Portland).
In Idaho we don't teach CRT in grade school and ZERO people demand that you use their personal pronouns. We have open carry laws and are a pro life state.
I could not be happier.
Idaho was second-fastest growing state in the U.S. in 2022
Houston since 2000. I live in an inner city neighborhood that gentrified like wildfire since I bought my house 15 years ago. My zip code added 5,000 multifamily units over the past 10 years and there are about 1,000 new apartments currently in the pipeline including one with a Target for ground floor retail/mixed use. There are tons of great restaurants, bars and coffee shops, although there has been a big change as commercial real estate prices have shot through the roof. It is now much more difficult for someone local to open up in the neighborhood as chains and franchises are piling into the neighborhood. Of course, it is higher end stuff like Bluestone Lane and multiple locations of TX venues. But there were some really creative a cool places that were some of the first to come into the neighborhood that have gone out of business and replaced with much less interesting places. And everything is now very crowded. Restaurants that are in with the foodies get booked up on weekends a couple of weeks in advance.
I do have a love/hate relationship with Houston. Back when everyone was wearing "Keep Austin Weird" t-shirts, someone had a bumper sticker that said "Keep Houston Ugly". A lot of the suburbs are just awful. Cheap crappy hardiplank houses on clear cut lots with no trees, Walmarts and strip malls and a few soccer and baseball fields next to a giant landfill (this is real--my son plays games at that park). Traffic is unbelievable. I take my son to golf on Monday at a course that is about 25 miles away and is mostly highway to get their. It takes a solid hour on Monday afternoon to get there. I can get to the beach faster on the weekends.
Summers can be brutal. This past summer was harsh as was 2011. Some summers aren't that bad as a sea breeze will cause afternoon thunderstorms that keep temps down (but humidity way up). I have been through hurricane Ike, Harvey and Tropical Storm Allison (and the big freeze of 2021). My neighborhood is on a decent grade and does not flood. I did lose four mature citrus trees (grapefruit, satsuma, kumquat and meyer lemon) to the big freeze and my fig tree had to be trimmed back by almost half due to freeze damage during the big freeze of 2021. And the ones I replanted got torched over this past summer.
Wherever you are, act like that's the place to be..."hey... isn't this great?".
Good to see that so many people seem to recognize that line from a classic that's now over forty years old. Dimone was a jerk, but he made a good point.
After spending my first thirty years or so in various places along the East Coast and a small village near Athens, Greece, I chose to move to Colorado, and more specifically to a place where I could live within a very short walking distance of dirt running trails, my workplace, and virtually everywhere else that I needed to be on a regular basis. The higher altitude and good weather were a big bonus. To me, minimizing time and energy just getting from place to place was important, and not merely because I had never even driven a car. Also, there are a number of factors that you may not even think about until you've experienced their absence, like a low risk of crime or injury to person or (less importantly) property and the general friendliness of those around you. Overall, I'm very satisfied with my choice.
No. I'm in the military and currently live in south Texas. I hate it. Traffic is terrible and it's hotter than hell the majority of the year. I miss seasons and snow.
Luckily, thanks to being in the military, I'll be getting out of here in 7 months and moving to a location I'll like a lot better.
I just saw this, and wanted to say that I lived on at least a couple of military bases as a kid. I liked the convenience of having so many quotidian parts of life within walking distance, and I suspect that there are few places as safe from crime. (On the other hand, I also had the unpleasant experience of an extended stay on a large military base in south Texas during the summer. Maybe the worst place I've ever lived.)
I live in Rochester, Minnesota. It isn't bad, but it's pretty forgettable and pretty cold in the winter. It's also very windy which I don't like.
Gosh, I remember the cold and crazy wind in Rochester. Just walking across a street in the winter can be a daunting experience. Fortunately, the downtown area has that wonderful maze of tunnels and crossways to avoid much of that. It also has the Mayo Clinic, which is fantastic. And when I think of Rochester, Minnesota, I'm always reminded of one of my favorite poems:
I've lived in Texas, the country of Lithuania, Oregon and now Colorado, just South of Denver. So far have liked Texas and Colorado the most, but they all were great experiences; I have had a very lucky childhood. My 17th birthday just passed, and after moving out I'm thinking of either moving back to the South, to New England or to Japan.
No. I'm in the military and currently live in south Texas. I hate it. Traffic is terrible and it's hotter than hell the majority of the year. I miss seasons and snow.
Luckily, thanks to being in the military, I'll be getting out of here in 7 months and moving to a location I'll like a lot better.
I just saw this, and wanted to say that I lived on at least a couple of military bases as a kid. I liked the convenience of having so many quotidian parts of life within walking distance, and I suspect that there are few places as safe from crime. (On the other hand, I also had the unpleasant experience of an extended stay on a large military base in south Texas during the summer. Maybe the worst place I've ever lived.)
I hate being so negative, but Texas is the 9th state that I've lived in and it is easily the worst. I didn't realize how much I like the change of seasons until I moved down here. Which south Texas base were you at?
I left Seattle for Idaho a while back. How Idaho responded to C19 just reinforced that I made the right decision. No one cared that I didn't test. No one cared that I did not take the experimental mRNA gene therapy and I certainly did not lose my job over it. No one cared that I only wore a mask ONLY if absolutely forced to (Travel).
On top of this, we don't let vagrants set up tents on every street corner. As a matter of fact, we don't let them camp in public anywhere. (we just give them bus tickets to Seattle or Portland).
In Idaho we don't teach CRT in grade school and ZERO people demand that you use their personal pronouns. We have open carry laws and are a pro life state.
I could not be happier.
Idaho was second-fastest growing state in the U.S. in 2022
Yes, you are a misanthrope and sociopath. Yes, Idaho has long attracted broken people like you. I'm sure you and Ammon Bundy are of like mind and you can stay in that God forsaken place and away from the rest of us for the rest of your miserable life.
I don't get sick. Ever. But I caught the man made SARS-COV-2 - an intentionally engineered virus that was released from a bio lab in Wuhan, China. I was super tired for a week but then recovered and my natural immunity took over.
But please don't bag on Idaho. From the pine-filled peninsula of Ponderosa State Park to the sparkling turquoise waters of Bear Lake and every park in between, there is no shortage of natural beauty to soak up. Pack your bag, grab your sunscreen and come visit us for an incredible Idaho summer soon.
Cheers
This post was edited 12 seconds after it was posted.
I left Seattle for Idaho a while back. How Idaho responded to C19 just reinforced that I made the right decision. No one cared that I didn't test. No one cared that I did not take the experimental mRNA gene therapy and I certainly did not lose my job over it. No one cared that I only wore a mask ONLY if absolutely forced to (Travel).
On top of this, we don't let vagrants set up tents on every street corner. As a matter of fact, we don't let them camp in public anywhere. (we just give them bus tickets to Seattle or Portland).
In Idaho we don't teach CRT in grade school and ZERO people demand that you use their personal pronouns. We have open carry laws and are a pro life state.
I could not be happier.
Idaho was second-fastest growing state in the U.S. in 2022
Aww, you poor little thing. Portland & Seattle must be so scary for you. You harp on life on those cities so much. You must really be brave to make the occasional trip there.
Ammon? Ammon was an ancient Semitic-speaking kingdom occupying the east of the Jordan River, between the torrent valleys of Arnon and Jabbok, in present-day Jordan.
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