State your city, and briefly talk about it (Pros/Cons)

Klo98 wrote:

Los Angeles:

Pros: weather (biggest one), many things to do, wide variety of restaurants/stores, relatively close to the beach, lots of races

Cons: traffic!!, too many people, high cost of living, stuck up rich people (certain areas), lack of quality running trails

Also LA.

Pros: weather (if you like heat), wide array of experts in any field (if you have weird/tough medical problems, for example, LA is a good place to be), close to beaches, mountains, etc., the acting/filmmaking/TV capital of the world, UCLA and Caltech are great schools, varieties of subcultures, from hipster to gay to ultra-rich and so on...

Cons: Exceedingly expensive (See

and compare cities), weather (if heat is not your thing), air quality, crappy job market, UGLY city, LOS ANGELES IS NOW PART OF MEXICO (9-10% of public school kids in LA are white) AND IF YOU LIVE HERE YOU ARE LIVING IN A THIRD WORLD NATION, extremely spread out, crappy public transportation system, very low degree of trust among residents because of cultural clashes, located in California, which is in massive perpetual financial trouble (because it's become Mexifornia), CA has Obamunist tax and regulatory policies that are causing businesses and wealthy citizens to flee en masse, traffic...

But it was nice almost 50 years ago, when this song was written about Laurel Canyon:

Huntington Beach, CA

Pros: I live half a mile from the beach. Consistently in the 70's year round. Great k-12 system. Decent amount of good looking girls. Lots of universities close by. Decent nightlife.

Cons: Expensive cost of living. Large amounts of tourists/inland empire people come during the summer and trash the beach. Large white supremacist population. Lots of drunk driving deaths.

Oslo

In the richest nation on earth, Norway.

In the nation with the best living standards in the world, Norway.

In the nation where poor people are something we only watch in foreign movies, Norway.

So, Oslo:

Capital of Norway. A city with wild and great nature just a quick 10min tram ride outside. You can even walk. In the winter cross country skiing in the woods are amazing, again just outside the city.

The people are lovely, nice medium hot weather in the Summer, cold and deliciously snowy in the winter, obviously.

Cons: Immigrants are coming to steal our benefits, don't want to be a part of our great nation.

Pros:

- People are beautiful

- Not obese

- Running is accepted and loved

- Bislett Stadium where the great Bislett Games is happening each year. Truly the greatest track and field arena thats existed, the world records and memories in this place is amazing. Just ask Sebastian Coe or Steve Ovett. They are both coming here today, meeting for the first time in years. Why are they doing this at Bislett you say?

Because its remarkable. Hayward Field got nothing on Bislett Stadium.

Tons of more pros. Some are mentioned above. Theres just too many, if you're interested to know more about the great city of Oslo, just give me a call on skype.

The user "yyy" can probably give you more information as well.

CON: King Harald V is a douche.

f*** the south wrote:

Unless you're black, in which case you should probably wear a bulletproof vest at all times in case you accidentally roll through a stop sign or something.

Sorry, I might have written it from a different point of view. But, so far I have not seen any major or regular complaints about police racial profiling or heavy handedness here. No accidental shooting during traffic stops, not beatings a la Rodney King. Tallahassee, is pretty liberal place. But, today it is hot and humid as hell

ralphw wrote:

CON: King Harald V is a douche.

No mister, King Harald V is a great man.

Harald represented Norway in the yachting events of Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964, Mexico City in 1968 and at the Munich Games in 1972.

With his sailing crew he won World Championship bronze, silver and gold medals, in 1988, 1982 and 1987, respectively.

In July 2005, the King and his crew aboard the royal sailboat Fram XV won the gold medal at the European Championships in Sweden. In the 2007 World Championship the King obtained a sixth place.

Randolph Seymour III wrote:

Very expensive airport, yes I have paid over 1000 dollars to newyork!!!!

Thats more expensive than Oslo -> New York.

Boston

Pros:

Urban, but easy access to beaches, camping, rivers, lakes, and quiet country roads for bike riding

Excellent running scene

Plenty of well paying jobs in the high tech industry. Good mix of established and startup companies

Good cultural, musical, arts scene

Many opportunities for night school/grad degrees

Ocean moderates weather extremes ... rarely gets below 10 degrees or over 90 degrees.

Traffic not nearly as bad as other big cities I've lived or traveled to

Cons:

Cost of living

Drivers

Wash, DC

Pro's: good Metro system; it's multi-culti so the food scene is good; good employment opportunities; 3 airports to choose from; winters are mild (mostly); free museums and alot of them; many good colleges in the area; really good parks & trails system; healthy trees for the most part; more & more bike lanes and bike-sharing. Civil war battlefields if your grandfather comes to visit.

Con's: it's so crowded and traffic is so bad that you can't enjoy the Pro's; summer weather is terrible (why is it hotter in DC in July/Aug than Atlanta??); all the type A a-holes who come here from somewhere else, and then the media talking heads say 'DC is is a cess pool'. Guess what - you sent your worst here to make it the cesspool; housing costs are ridiculous - tough on young folk; traffic is bad; no good Italian restaurants; the Metro system is getting too $$ and mechanically unreliable - no one wants to pay taxes to maintain it; traffic is bad. Crime is not rampant, but enough to make you uncomfortable. And did i mention the traffic?

Would appreciate a 2nd opinion on DC's pros/cons - must be some others here. And i do live in DC - not Bethesda, Arlington, Leesburg, Waldorf or Manassas.

The metro in DC is horrible compared to the NY system. Much less city coverage and unreliable.

Oh, yes, I was flying in a particularly bad friday, (graduation) waited till last minute to get a tix and I paid nearly 1K. The airport here is ridiculously expensive. Most people prefer to drive to Jacksonville or Panama City to save

Scandinavian Fellow wrote:

Randolph Seymour III wrote:

Very expensive airport, yes I have paid over 1000 dollars to newyork!!!!

Thats more expensive than Oslo -> New York.

People really love their restaurants. I never thought the lack of or presence of restaurants would be included in a pro/con list. I rarely dine out though.

To chime in about NYC. I will say the biggest con is everything is so damn expensive so I feel like I am saving no money. Most trust-funders are the artsy type so I have no idea who said there was no arts scene.

I think if you do it right NYC is no more expensive than Boston, DC, Chicago, LA or Dallas. I went to college in North Carolina and I have friends that pay more for rent than I do (I live in Manhantaan and actually have a decent place)in Charlotte and Raleigh (there places are much nicer than mine to be fair).

I think New York is a much better city than the one I listed before and basically those are the only places where you can a decent job and earn some wealth (banking, consulting, corporate development, accounting, investing, etc). Everyone here is really young and hardworking, sometimes it is hard to imagine being in your 20s and living somewhere else. I have aspirations to move back to North Carolina when I can afford to buy a house and when I have saved up enough money to have high yielding assets and don't need to focus as much on salary. In the business and finance world if you work at some of these big companies in NYC you have instant credibilty across the world and people will also realize you probably work twice as many hours as the average person and I am hoping this pays dividends down the road. Nightlife is incredible, tons of smart people who are generally pretty friendly. Some of the scenery here is hard to replicate anywhere across the country which is awesome.

In Maryland, the traffic north of the DC beltway isn't so bad compared to anywhere inside it or the general area of Northern Virginia outside the beltway.

You can access most of the DC pros without the cons in the suburbs north of the beltway.

Or zip up to Baltimore for the inner harbor.

I lived in Manassas, VA for a long time but all of the work and traffic was going in one direction.

Yes, middle of summer gets pretty hot but it's shorter than an Atlanta summer.

New Rebel wrote:

Oxfordian wrote:

Oxford

Pros: Historically significant, unparalled literary tradition, the most beautiful women in the country, many of the cultural amenities of a metropolis (without the drawbacks such as crime, slums, smog and noise pollution) in a small town package. Running in the heat and humidity will make a man out of you.

Cons: tourists, students and football fans on home game days. The new wave of weekend residents which has caused over development and a real estate bubble.

I'm moving to Oxford in August. Hoping to find some decent running. Any recommendations for groups and/or trails?

I run alone so can't comment on groups, but can recommend a trail system adjacent to the campus. The main trail is a 3 mile former rail bed which ends at the foot of Thacker Mtn, one of highest points in MS.

Feeding off the trail are miles of single track mb trails and a 1.5 mile loop used by the Ole Miss XC team. You can run up Thacker Mtn. via a dirt road, and beyond that are miles of unpaved fire/logging roads, which are ideal for hilly long runs. Just don't run 'em during hunting season.

There are also alot of single track at nearby Sardis Lake, and miles of trails and dirt roads in the Holly Springs Nat'l Forest which is about 10-15 mins. away.

Well, I answered this for Buffalo already but I have been living in DC for the last month and a half so take my response with a grain of salt.

Pros: Pretty much what you listed. If you get out of the city, there are other things within a couple of hours such as wineries, moutains, the beach ect that are good weekend activities. Lots of good restaurants (but I will second whoever said no good italian restaurants). Decent places to run.

Cons: For a major city the people aren't particularly good looking. There are a lot of women in the 5-7 range but very few higher. Alot of douchbags who like to act like their job is particularly important. Expensive to go out (not uncommon to pay $10+ for a mixed drink). The traffic is maddening when you actually have to drive somewhere.

Monroe, LA

Pros: Warm all year round, The Duck Dynasty family lives here, road races almost every weekend in Fall/Spring, Good prizes offered at area races (not too competitive), tight knit running community, levee trails nice to run on.

Cons: Summers can be brutal, not many single women here, the paper mill stinks, roads can be narrow (lack of places to run), must travel to get to trails, 3.5 hours from closest major city (New Orleans, LA Dallas, TX), mosquitos.

DCBALT wrote:

In Maryland, the traffic north of the DC beltway isn't so bad compared to anywhere inside it or the general area of Northern Virginia outside the beltway.

You can access most of the DC pros without the cons in the suburbs north of the beltway.

Or zip up to Baltimore for the inner harbor.

I lived in Manassas, VA for a long time but all of the work and traffic was going in one direction.

Yes, middle of summer gets pretty hot but it's shorter than an Atlanta summer.

Dude, the guy you are replying to was talking about Washington, DC. You're not talking about DC. Non-overlapping magisteria.

DEEtroit

Pro: Cheap farm land

Con: New Whole Foods