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

Durham, NC

Pros: Good weather, great restaurants (almost everything is local), traffic not bad, close to Raleigh/Cary/Chapel Hill, close to a lot of universities, good running community, relatively low cost of living, lots of jobs in the area (Durham has highest concentration of Ph. D's in the country).

Cons: It's gotten a bad rep crime and safety-wise but it's gotten a lot better over the last 10-15 years. Not a ton to do but thankfully it's next to the other cities too. Public schools aren't good. Never an aesthetically pleasing city. No pro sports teams nearby.

Bull Cityyyy wrote:

Durham, NC

Pros: Good weather, great restaurants (almost everything is local), traffic not bad, close to Raleigh/Cary/Chapel Hill, close to a lot of universities, good running community, relatively low cost of living, lots of jobs in the area (Durham has highest concentration of Ph. D's in the country).

Cons: It's gotten a bad rep crime and safety-wise but it's gotten a lot better over the last 10-15 years. Not a ton to do but thankfully it's next to the other cities too. Public schools aren't good. Never an aesthetically pleasing city. No pro sports teams nearby.

Isn't it fun to make facts up?

City: Sarasota, FL

Pros:

Home of the best beach in the US. (Siesta Key)

Warm falls and winters (For the most part.)

Crime is relatively low.

Lots of wealthy people (If you are into that.)

Cons:

Real Estate is a little expensive (Especially on Siesta and Longboat Keys)

Hard to find quality women my age. Most that are my age are either free loaders or trust funders.

Lots of crazy people. Women especially. You will find that out after a few dates.

Too many low paying jobs.

Restaurants are not that great for the most part and many of them are just too damn expensive.

Not that many great places to run besides the beach.

Have to be careful with your $. Sometimes there is an impression that people are out to jip you financially anyway they can.

Bad drivers.

Old people. (just too many of them.)

Night life is kind of lame.

DES MOINES, IA

PROS:

Cheap cost of living, really nice, helpful people ("Iowa nice"), good K-college schools (throughout entire state, really), non-existent traffic, Fall time is beautiful & perfect temps, centralized location which is esp. good for road-tripping anywhere in the U.S., revitalized downtown, major T&F meets (Drake Relays, USAs, NCAAs)

CONS:

Seemingly ever-lasting winter(!!!), summer humidity, lack of non-hard surface trails, can get a bit "same old, same old"

Tampa, Fl

Pros:

1.)Great running weather during winter typically between 40-80 degrees.

2.) Beach

3.) Surprisingly a lot of trails(flatwoods, alafia state park, balm boyette scrub preserve, dead river rd, etc.)

4.) Lot of beautiful women

5.) Great nightlife

6.) Variety of things to do

7.) Diversity of Cultures/Races

Cons:

1.) Weather is so stinking hot and humid during summer March thru Sept/Oct anywhere between 80 - 110 with very high humidity. 80 degrees is the coolest it gets over the summer unless you run in the rain.

2.) Traffic sucks....almost anytime of the day traffic is bad.

3.) Crime

Pacific Grove, California

Pros: 40-70 degrees 98% of year, 5 blocks from Monterey Bay & many miles of bike (and dirt) path running trails along the bay/ocean, superior running along 17 Mile Drive in Pebble Beach & Carmel, very runner friendly community, Big Sur, Pacific Association USATF strongest & deepest in most age groups in nation, great restaurants, Monterey Bay Aquarium, much trail running in local forests, $60 monthly water bill, $60 monthly gas and electric bill, no breathing of recycled air (AC & heat 11 months of year), surfing, fishing, whale watching, golf(?), airport

Cons: Real Estate = more expensive but you're not paying outrageous water, electric and gas bills, $400K to $1+ million, overcast and/or light fog until about noon most days and then clear, sunny, and about 60 degrees

Ames, IA

Pro: college town feel.. as I'm a college kid. Very easy to get around. College girls.

Con: Living there in the summer is brutal with temperature and humidity. Winter is incredibly windy and cold. They suck at plowing their streets. Frat boys. Small weenie farmer boys in their big blown our red trucks with pipes.

and for the best place in the world i lived for 5 months-

Dunedin, New Zealand

Pros: Everything. Trails around for running are amazing. The kiwis are a great friendly bunch. Nightlife scene is great. Kiwi women are beautiful. Weather was nice.

Cons: Student flats didn't have heating, but this led to all the reason to cuddle up with a nice kiwi lady.

Newburyport, Ma

Pros: awesome running loops. trails and country roads nearby. Close to ocean. Great downtown with restaurants and local shops. Little crime. competitive local road races. Can get to boston by train. Lots of town festivals

Cons: Houses are way too expensive. Lots of rich douchebags.

Miami, FL

Pros: South Beach, multicultural, food/music, nightlife, improved running community, no winter

Cons: No running trails, congestion, summer training, caravan sports fans, shallow people, bad place to find love

Rochester NY

The first guy got a few points, but missed a lot.

Pros:

True 4 seasons, a REAL MANS winter, fall is beautiful, spring does exist (its not that long) and summer is better here than most parts of the country where it's simply TOO hot. Our summers are 70-90 daily.

Location: Close to canada and toronto, buffalo, syracuse, albany, sits on a great lake (lake ontario), 30 minute drive to the best of the fingerlakes, only a few hours from ADIRONDACKS.

You can go from 250 feet above sea level on the shore of lake ontario to 2,200 feet above sea level 20 miles south of rochester in the hills of the finger lakes.

CHEAP RENT

A downtown that, in my opinion, beats out buffalos/syracuse's. But it's not a massive city, you'd still want to own a car. There's a fair amount of bars, pizza places, that sort of stuff.

Tons of killer parks. Lots of the parks, due to the glaciers many years ago, have crazy terrain that is nice for hiking and running.

Great minor league sports teams. Cheap tickets. lots of fun.

Lots of road races and club teams. i run a a road race any weekend i feel like it with NO issue finding one.

CONS

really long winter, it just drags on forever. and it's always windy too.

economically it's powerhouse employers have failed miserably in the area, Kodak, and xerox to name a few. Growing up everyone's parents had great jobs at these places, now, they employ next to no one. The population is currently lower than it was in the past.

When you talk to someone who's also from around here, the conversation usually focuses on the bad things like the winter and the lack of awesomeness.

------------------------------------------

In the end, if i were young and had a good job offer here, I'd probably move here. There's a lot to do. I'd rather live in rochester, NY than most places in the midwest and the south.

I've lived in parts of florida, ohio, and couldn't wait to get OUT of there.

BWAHAHAHA!!!

Solomona the Capasnaove wrote:

Houston

PROS: Very diverse peoples, weather (in winter)- very mild, nice architecture, vibrant night life, very friendly people, improving bike trails, Memorial Park and Herman Park for running, great museums, nice zoo, Houston Marathon, tons of nice restaurants, sports teams, numerous Gentleman's clubs, Reliant Stadium, Toyota Center, proximity to Galveston Island

CONS: None

Fixed it for ya

Palo Alto, CA

PROS: Weather is great year-round, running trails are fantastic, excellent food (especially if you're into asian cuisine), people are generally pretty smart, public schools are great academically, nice downtown area, access to sports events at Stanford, everything's very clean, bike friendly, 25 minutes from San Jose

CONS: cost of living is probably the worst in the country (housing is worse than NYC and SF), people are a weird mixture of aggressively extroverted VCs and socially inept engineers/academics, local schools had issues w/ kids committing suicide, getting to SF takes an hour, traffic is awful (crossing town can take ~40 min at rush hour), people can be pretty snobby, random asian tourists will ask to take your picture on the daily, no socioeconomic diversity, our only bowling alley closed a few years ago, people drive their Teslas like jerks, nightlife is probably pretty poor for a college student

Jmo77 wrote:

yeezus wrote:

Seattle

Pros: Mild (cool) summers, mild (warm) winters, cost of living not too high compared to comparable cities, progressive, lots of running trails and great running community, biggest city in a large area so you get lots of bands/singers in town often, rains are usually just a light drizzle

Cons:

Cons: the fact that it rains there or is gloomy for a good 4 months straight.

Don't get me wrong, I love seatlle (lived there for 6 years), but getting soaked anytime I walked or rode my bike anywhere in the winter months was annoying.

Cons: Waste your tax money on useless light rail. Homeless problem. High housing prices.

moving the hell out of the USA?

It's funy you mention this because the closest i ever came to being killed was when i went into the wrong neighborhood in phillynot exaggerating, almost shit my pants

Truth! wrote:

Ai wrote:

Philadelphia:

Pros: Good bars and restaurants. "per capita" one of top cities for places to eat, drink and relax vs any other major city.

Cons: everything else. its a ghetto hell hole. The crime is south-side-of-chicago-esque. Major infrastructure issues for the 21st century. Decaying rust belt city.

Definite exaggeration on how bad the crime/ghetto-ness is. As long as you avoid certain neighborhoods, Philly really isn't that bad. If I ever ended up in one of those neighborhoods though, I'd be shitting myself.

I live in Rochester and I have for 20 years. I'm 30. It's slightly better than Syracuse and it's equal to Buffalo. Winter is long as FUCCK. The area has tons of nice outdoor opportunities - trails/lakes/hills. Can go from 250 ft to 2300 ft elevation within 30-40 minute drive.Great lakesFinger lakesNo traffic, cheap rent, cheap houses.

UpstateXC94 wrote:

Rochester, NY

Pros:

- Good running community

- Always a road race on the weekend

- Plenty of trails and parks to run

- I feel like I will never need to leave the area for medical care thanks to University of Rochester

- Handful of decent colleges/universities

- Lots of nice suburbs around the area

- Fall makes for absolutely beautiful XC season

- Prices of homes aren't bad (see tax comment later)

Cons:

- It snows ALOT

- Winters are brutally cold

- Summer feels short, with Spring nonexistent

- Taxes in NY are high

Overall a good place to live, as long as you can handle winter from the beginning of November to the end of March (give or take a month).

Riverside, California.

Pros: about 60 miles from LA, 100 miles from San Diego, and Big Bear is not far away.

Cons: cholos, taggers, tweakers, metal mulisha tards, pollution, basically year-round desert heat, jesus freaks. In general, shit.

Reykjavik, ISL

Pros: fresh air, extremely cheap heating (90% geothermal), nature everywhere, nightlife, beautiful women, easy flight to States/Europe, excellent outdoor track stadium, fit population, excellent indoor track, fresh food from the sea, deep Viking tradition (our language has changed little)

Cons: financial catastrophe; poor leaders; loss of tradition, rich culture, and solidarity for "diversity"; weather bad 360 of 365 days a year (summer is the best week of the year); VERY expensive food/commodities; healthcare can be bad