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

pros: winter(sometimes). It can be 10 or 70 in the same week. Longest pleasure beach in the world. Good late winter marathon.

cons: everything else - huge military presence, summer is brutally humid and usually hot, strip malls everywhere, nothing to do besides go to the oceanfront (including the beaches on the ches bay). Hard to find a race over 10k, besides in winter.

Chicago

Pros: Real urban setting with distinct neighborhoods, cultural opportunities and architecture. Beautiful lakefront, lakefront trails and parks. Sports fans that actually care about their teams and attend their games (see Bulls, Hawks, Bears and Cubs). Best diversity of quality, progressive restaurants of anywhere in the US (even compared to NYC). Clean and safe neighborhoods in locations where the inhabitants care enough to keep them that way (i.e. everywhere except the far South/Southwest and West side).

Cons: Cold, dreary winters. Hot summers. Lakefront path, while great, is he only extended running trail within city limits. Sox fans. Limited access camping, climbing, mountain biking or other outdoor activities without a 3 to 6 hour drive. Limited supply of single family homes within city limits.

Lancaster, PA

Pros: cheap place to live

Cons: the place is a sh!thole. It's like a little slice of the South Bronx transplanted to Southeast PA. It's one of these small cities that somehow manages to have big city problems and small town amenities.

Cra cra wrote:

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

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Where do you live in L.A.? We have some of the best running trails in the nation. We have mountains that are over 10,000 high. Are you crazy? This is a trail running mecca.

I live ~15 min outside of the city and maybe since I lived in Oregon and Colorado, it's hard for me to think of this as a running trail mecca. Ok, sure there are probably more here than other parts of the country, I guess I was comparing it to previous locations where I have lived. Plus, I often do not want to sit in the horrible traffic here to drive to a trail.

Great White Way wrote:

glioma wrote:

By riffraff, I mean boring people--not homeless people. The kind of people who enjoy living in Canton, OH because it is cheap don't come here and we are glad not to have them and their Olive Garden/Target culture.

Actually, you will see those people eating at the Olive Garden in Times Square.

Of course--but those types of tourist traps are easily avoided. "Real" New York dwarfs the handful of "fake" areas where yokels from Ohio hang out.

the high price of housing in nyc in fact detracts significantly from its cultural interest because it drives out the artists, writers, musicians, and other creative people, leaving only the trust funders, financial industry and ad industry. and with this some of the character of the city has left.

Dude! I'm in Toledo as well! terrible area. good trails out in oak openings.

jjjjjjjj wrote:

the high price of housing in nyc in fact detracts significantly from its cultural interest because it drives out the artists, writers, musicians, and other creative people, leaving only the trust funders, financial industry and ad industry. and with this some of the character of the city has left.

is this a cliche or is it true? walk around LES or areas of bkln and the place is flooded with non corporate characters.

It sounds true, but it may be one of those chestnuts people always say and therefore believe.

For example I know some artists and writers - many have traditionally working spouses subsidizing them. So the creative types are here, just not paying their way.

agip wrote:

jjjjjjjj wrote:

the high price of housing in nyc in fact detracts significantly from its cultural interest because it drives out the artists, writers, musicians, and other creative people, leaving only the trust funders, financial industry and ad industry. and with this some of the character of the city has left.

is this a cliche or is it true? walk around LES or areas of bkln and the place is flooded with non corporate characters.

It sounds true, but it may be one of those chestnuts people always say and therefore believe.

For example I know some artists and writers - many have traditionally working spouses subsidizing them. So the creative types are here, just not paying their way.

^What he said. The rich subsidize the arts, so having rich people around is very good for art. There aren't many families of 4 in Missouri with an income of 60k/yr buying high-quality original paintings, are there?

xfnxb wrote:

san antonio

cons: humid and hot as a wrinkley ballsack in the summers. not as many trails as I would perfer. and not to sound racist but there is a plethora of mexicans

Lol "not to sound racist," and yet you still list it as a con.

jjjjjjjj wrote:

the high price of housing in nyc in fact detracts significantly from its cultural interest because it drives out the artists, writers, musicians, and other creative people, leaving only the trust funders, financial industry and ad industry. and with this some of the character of the city has left.

Are you honestly trying to tell us that NYC has a dearth of creative people? NYC has been the origin of acts from Jay-Z and M.O.P. to Vampire Weekend and Ra Ra Riot. Many of the best Jazz musicians in the world are based in NYC. NYC is the only city in the country where live theatre is a thriving industry.

People literally come from all over the world to experience New York's arts. You must be living in an alternate universe if you look at the place and see a city devoid of creative people.

Minneapolis- St. Paul

Pros: endless possibilities of places to run-- paths around the lakes (that are plowed in the winter!), great trails, great running community (there's literally a 5K/10K/half marathon within a couple hour radius every weekend), health conscious/fit city with a freeway system for bikes (#1 bike city, suck it Portland), low crime rate, home of the second largest university in the country, good job opportunities with well-known companies like Target, 3M, General Mills headquartered here (just to name a few), solid pro sports teams, don't have to drive far to be in the woods, good nightlife (at least in Minneapolis), Jesse Ventura was once governor.

Cons: The seemingly endless winter. Thankfully they plow the running paths better than the roads a lot of the time. But damn, it gets cold. Also the education system is not great (with the exception of the U of MN), and taxes are pretty darn high.

He's probably from some shi thole where the only artists he's ever encountered are poor (because they suck and because the people with money in his area are too busy spending it on Olive Garden). He doesn't realize that there are actually a lot of people out there with both money and taste that will pay for good art and that not all artists are poor.

Troy, Missouri (a small town/exurb, 1 hr northwest of St. Louis)

Pros: low cost of living ($98,000 for a 1,500 s.f. house on an acre in town), access to outdoors, untraveled gravel roads for running, lower crime, neighbors don't b***h about my chickens or chainsaw, people are down to earth and pretty nice. Close enough to St. Louis to travel in for city amenities. Enough small-town relics like produce growers and family hardware stores are still around that it feels like some of vintage Americana has survived.

Cons: Social life is non-existent. Dining options are OK. A lot of folks in town who haven't traveled far and are pretty small-minded.

Recent claim to fame... on Letterman's small town bit for getting a can of pork and beans if you buy a trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncnzTFIy7qI

Salt Lake City

Pros: Mountains 15 minutes from downtown. Winter sports. Excellent hiking, biking, running, climbing, etc.

Cons: Utah. The whitest state in the US. The influence of the LDS church on culture (or lack thereof) and politics. Poor education system. Winters can be quite long.

Phoenix, AZ

Pros: 6 months of GREAT weather, lots of road races/trails, mega sports area, and ton of diversity of areas to live and eat.

Cons: HOT during the summers--reached 114 today! And terrible allergy/dust seasons.

I'm also a Columbus resident, and love the city. I grew up on Long Island about 30 miles East of Manhattan, went to college and worked in Boston for a total of 8 years, and studied abroad in Oxford (I.e., England). My overall favorite city is Columbus, mainly due to the low cost of living and he fact that I met my wife here. Just to drive home my point, I make $50 k a year and go out with my wife regularly; I still save about $25k a year due to the low cost of living. I live in a 3 Bedroom house in a great suburb by the way (I.e. Grandview)

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The cons of Columbus is the fact that there is virtually no public transportation (relative to other major cities), and the culture is a little bit lacking. That being said, if you live near downtown you can certainly find interesting and fun activities almost every weekend of the year.

Tallahassee, Florida

Cons: Very cheap city, great weather (for 8 months, horrible for 4 months),

no traffic,

the best and most friendly police in America, (really you'd think you are in Canada or England, the cops are great here)

low crime, educated population. Hot, people of all races. Many oak trees. No racial tension, close to some great parks, a fast developing running culture

Cons: Too laid back, the world might leave you behind

too dependent of schools (FSU and Florida Mechanical University) and the state government for its economy

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

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?