What do you love about your chosen city of residence?

[Hugh Jorgan]

Oahu.... Pros...Where to begin? As perfect a climate as the human body could ask for. Great surf, great sailing, great food, brown girls everywhere not wearing much year-round. More outdoor activities than any other place I can think of. Enough natural beauty to bring a tear to your eye daily. Good selection of beer (not as good as the west coast, but not bad). No snow to shovel. Among the best skin industry in the country.

Cons: It's getting too crowded. The real estate dollar doesn't go near as far.

 

[English]

Close to the mountains (skiing) and close to the river (jetskiing). Warm weather year 'round, but I can head to the beach if it gets too hot.

You can get ANYTHING here. While Hawaii was nice, it was a pain trying to get items that weren't sold on the island. In SoCal, you can get anything you want or need pretty easily.

I live in a new community with a great infrastructure. Wide courtyard-type, tree-lined streets that lead to a community center with a shopping area, restaurants and a cultural arts center. All within walking and biking distance. I love it.

 

[SiuDude]

In aviation, you do not choose your city of residence...your city of residence chooses you!

 

[DJS]

Puget Sound. If you like the outdoors, this is *the* place for you. Skiing/Snowboarding. Hiking. Whitewater. Cycling. Water skiing/Wakeboarding. Kayaking. Boating. Sailing. Rock climbing. Mountain climbing. Year round championship golf courses. You name it. All of this within minutes of a very modern urban set of cities, including some world class restaurants, etc...

Downside is the notorious amount of rain during the middle of winter, but if you're really into the outdoors, you find you simply change your gear in the wet season and continue playing outside. For example, I've got two bikes, one for rain, one for dry, plus I've learned enough about cycling/hiking/etc. in the rain that I know what to wear to stay comfortable. (well, ok, I only wakeboard in the summer...I just can't get used to the idea of wearing a drysuit just to wakeboard...many others do, though).

Either that or you go up in the mountains and go ski/snowboard in the snow (except this weird weather year, of course, where it didn't really rain in the lowlands or snow in the mountains that much).

If you're not into the outdoors, you'll hate Seattle and the Pacific Northwest...you'll find yourself sitting indoors because it does tend to be at least cloudy for 150 days out of the year, and you'll simply go stir crazy. But with the mountains and volcanoes, the water, the snow, the ocean, easy access to the desert (hot!) side Washington state (the Cascades block most of the moisture), and the little airports sprinkled all over for $100 hamburgers, ...this is definitely the place for me.

 

[USMCmech]

I will second everything FastCargo said about San Antonio. I love it here. The summers are typically hot Texas summers. I'm not much of a city lover, but SA is pretty nice.

I hated Florida. It is beautiful, but the entire state is a giant retirement comunity. Everybody is Rich, Rude, & Retired.

I really loved northern & central Virgina when I was staioned at Quantico. Four real seasons. Summer and Winters are both realitvely mild. The whole area is full of history.

I won't move to SoCal, NYC, or Houston no matter how much the pay is.

 

[Immelman]

Santa Cruz, CA:

Positive: Awesome weather.. seldom hot or cold. The winters are wonderful between storms.. and the winter weather isn't continuous. Last winter the entire month of January was sunny 65-70... this year we got several weeks like that, but a lot of rain, more than usual. Great surf (albeit not as good as the big island where I grew up), awesome mountain + road biking, a very bike friendly area.. many people commute that way, no gas to pay for!..very earth concious place.. very easy to get cheap organic food.. very left on the political scale (well, that would go in the negative column for some I know)..the hills are full of redwoods and wild life, as opposed to tract housing (more on that below)

Negative: Real estate is astronomical -- County median price on a normal house just crossed 700K..The summer is not so nice... while its hot inland it is foggy on the coast, just like San Francisco.... There are lots of bums (I can't blame them, if I had nowhere to go I'd come here), but it gets to be too much.. encouraged by the leftist political mindset...

 

[WizardPilot]

Provo, Utah

Pro's: Lots of hot girls. Like uber hot. But you're about 50/50 if they're mormon or not, like me, or married.....at 18. Mountain flying, it's good training, sometimes bad weather, but mostly good. Lots of mountains to go hiking/hunting/fishing/camping/shooting/shrimping/motorcycling/Running/Jogging etc... Hot girls? yes.

Con's: it's Provo Utah. Filled with zoobies, and about 70% mormon. Good place to grow up though. Hot summers, Cold winters, Cold/hot/wet/dry springs.

 

[NTXPilot]

I use to live in San Antonio...couldn't wait to get outta there. Still a nice place to visit I guess whenever I do get a chance to make it home.

Originally posted by FastCargo
the road layout is crazy (lack of good planning)

San Antonio highways were doable for me. Austin on the other hand, now that's lack of good planning...

USMC and FastCargo, if yall like mexican food check out Panchito's on McCullough. Best mexican food, I miss it. I guess that's a con about Dallas, no decent mexican food.

I like Dallas a lot better, there's always something to do. Lots of cool places to go explore...Addison for night life, bars in lower Greenville, Deep Ellum, West End, Fort Worth Stockyards if you're feeling adventurous. Homes are actually reasonably priced; a home in Plano is pretty affordable. Lots of potential growth and plenty of land. Cons: be prepared to drive everywhere, at least the highways are good.

 

[HMR]

Santa Cruz, CA

Ahhhh... Santa Cruz hospitality. Back around '98-'99 a friend and I were jumped by a local skinhead gang while walking down Pacific Ave in the middle of the day. Unfortunately for them, we had just finished weigh-in for the U.S. Open of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at the Santa Cruz Civic Center. It took about one minute for our twelve other teammates (who were a block behind us) to catch up and join in the fun. Man, those bald guys can run fast in Doc Martens.

 

[Goose Egg]

Boston, MA area.

There are aspects of living here that I really like, but generally speaking, I can't wait to get out of here. I didn't grow up here and so I know how life is in other places.

Pros: Awesome baseball scene--being a Red Sox fan here is basically like religion. It's very exciting (especially last year). Some decent beaches where surf can be found (although not much of a big wave scene, if that's your trip) All kinds of cultural events to everywhere. And the main one is that I have a really good job here. New England Autumns feature beautiful colors and the only two months of good weather. Lots of history and old stuff.

Cons: COLDER THAN A WITCH'S TEAT!!! Winter seems like it lasts forever, and that's the main thing that makes me want to leave. Winters are sub-zero, and the sun sets at 4:30 pm. Housing is extremely expensive (Florida is cheap in comparison). And the traffic sucks. And everyone is sort of high strung and in a hurry to get places. I'm not like that, I'm very laid back. And sometimes it does really suck to be a Red Sox fan (but not yesterday) --hating the Yankees as much as I do can take a lot out of a person.

After this? Florida, SoCal, or somewhere else with ocean and palms. I'm fed up with seasons (particularly winter) and all that outdoorsy stuff is "been there, done that"--I nearly skied myself into oblivion during high school.

-Goose