What do you like about your city?

[KYYX4ever]

Another random question from me, armchair cultural observer.

Let's hear from you: what do you like about your city, region, or state ? Positives/ highlights/ likes. It might also be interesting to hear from those who've moved around the U.S. a bit and have chosen a city they finally like. Why ?

[hutter]

Short drive to the Smokey Mountains and isolation from the rat race is a big plus in my neck of the woods.

Great aquarium in Gatlinburg (Gatlinburg itself is great), classic car shows year 'round, UT football, good business...in spite of (and sometimes because of) the "backwards" Mayberry-like setting here, I really dig where I'm at.

"He who is a friend to everyone is a friend to no one." - Queen Kristina
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[waldnorm]

Oakland is a unique diverse city where we're not separated in neighborhoods or burroughs as much. Great food (restaurants), great weather. San Francisco, wine country, Mt. Diablo, Santa Cruz, small beach towns all at close access with great public transportations options as well.

[newwavepunkgirl]

What about peopel from outside the US? Where I grew up:Wiltshire,Southern England, I liked it because there is beautiful countryside and alot of history. Now I live in Sheffield, South Yorkshire in Northern england and I liek that because it has good shops and alot of greenery for a big city. Out of American cities I like Boston MA because it is bautiful in the fall and just a really nice city similar to UK but different too!

Devolution is real

[phillyidol]

I LOVE NY! I really do. The people that live here deserve respect. It's a tough town that does not take any crap, but we take in anyone as our own. In any given area, you can fing arabs next to jews, black with white, chinese, mexican, puerto rican, ....anything. And for the most part, we all get along when it counts. If a black guy and a white guy are fighting, and an out of towner comes by and says New York sucks, they will stop fighting just so they could kick the guys ass. NY rules! Brooklyn #1!

[Moparmark]

Good old Kingston Ontario Canada.Low crime,set on beautiful lake Ontario,close to the U.S border and 10 minutes to the countryside.

[marie3]

Where do you start with Long Island? You can drive 15 minutes North or South and be in some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. Drive out East and it is like a different country. Wineries, farms, it's just unique. Drive west and you are in NYC. My town is diverse. You can get any kid of ethnic food you want. Plus we have every store you need.

[Mechi]

Del Viso is full of green and very quiet... and sometimes you appreciate it, though there are times that you get fed up of it cos you feel that you need adventure and culture... that's when you hit Buenos Aires city (Argentina's capital). Luckily, Del Viso's an hour away from it (a bit more if you take the train).

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[WolverineSyr]

I like Syracuse because it's small, everything is 10 minutes away. You have beautiful rolling hills & forests just outside the city, some very cool art deco buildings downtown that are lit in beautiful blues & reds at night. Every store you could ever want is here. The cost of living is low and the houses are incredibly cheap. There is a lot of history here with the Erie Canal & the old Indian trading posts (where they slaughtered a bunch meddling missionaries....)

People are ok - they run the gamut from rednecks & old farmers to some pretty wealthy types, although it's mostly suburban.

I get frustrated with the politics here, but I think people do anywhere they live.

I also lived in Boston for 10 years & I can't say enough good things about it - except for the cost of housing. The last Boston suburb I lived at was Brighton, right behind the Arch Diocese. We were on a large pond & it was beautiful.

[MARV]

I'm from New York City originally. Brooklyn, to be more specific. I also lived in Queens for a number of years. I absolutly love the very many, wide and diverse neighborhoods which give can introduce one to so many different types of cuisines, one of my favorite things. It is a cultural mecca.....Italian, Greek, Hispanic, Russian, Portugese, West Indian, African, Asian, Mexican.....you name it, you can find an authentic restaurant. I love that the city has grown organically; it's not a "planned" city. So interesting to get lost and just look around. SO much history. I always, always can find a new area to discover for the first time in NYC. Manhattan itself is a world capital for the arts. There are so many museums, art galleries, shows, films and theatres. NYC is so experimental - the amount of artistic talent here is unprecedented. There's always something creatively exciting happening, for the first time and only here. Man, I can't even begin to say how much I love New York. The fashion...the shopping...it's so international. There are always celebrities here, so much excitement and the nightlife is phenomenal. The city never sleeps. Everyone is accepted here. You can go to a club and be served drinks by a dancer from Cats moonlighting as a waitress and bump into Anthony Michael Hall while Martin Gore is deejaying. See Spike Lee at a Knicks game. Matthew Broderick in the subway while some old school hip-hop crew is breakdancing and a blind guitarist sings his soul out. It's just so random. Everything is here.

Now I live on Long Island, just a stone's throw from the City. It's far enough out where I can have true quiet and enjoy a little bit of a small town lifestyle. I'm real close to beautiful ocean beaches, farms, nature preserves and we have a great selection of restaurants out here too. Way out east, we have an established and respectable wine industry. Long Island is also full of history going back to the Amerindians.

I've been to lots of places across the country and across the world. While it's reallllllly nice to get away sometimes and every city or country definitely has it's own undeniable allure, I'll always call New York home. Even if I move somewhere else, I'll have to have an apartment or something here to come back to. I can really see why it's hard for New Yorkers to adjust in other places. We're straightforward, have little time for the b.s., are always busy, need to see the new, etc. The one thing I often hear from transplanted New Yorkers is how much they miss the food. Dammit, I'm blathering...ok, I'll stop [8)]

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[birdmadgirl]

I love the entertainment here. We can spend a load on different shows or we can go people watch for free.

I love all the different restaurants. Russian, Peruvian, Cuban, Mediterranean, Greek--I never had any of these types of food until I moved here.

I love the mountains.

I love the pubs [:)]



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[hexicon]

I'm a huge fan of my adopted hometown, Tacoma. I was raised in Seattle's Eastside suburbs, and we always thought of Tacoma as the armpit of Puget Sound, but I had to move here for work in 1991, right when Seattle became "cool."

People in the NW tend to be quite snobbish about Tacoma, which is inevitably referred to as "gritty" or "blue collar" in the national press. I can't tell you how many times I've had visitors who say "I never knew there were places like this in Tacoma." My neighborhood is full of beautifully restored Arts & Crafts homes. Mine is a pre-war Cape Cod with a water view. It's located in a great little urban village where I can walk to the shopping district for the library, Starbucks, yuppie grocery store, wine bars, or down to the waterfront for a bike ride, jog, or a nice dinner. I'm really happy here and tell myself that the snobs don't know what they're missing . . and I'd like to keep in that way.

[drsevrin]

I'm extremely happy to be living in Salt Lake City. I've also lived on the West Coast, in the San Francisco area, but prefer it here. Really, there is no place I've been that I'd rather live, although a few places in Scotland come close.

Salt Lake City's character has been uniquely shaped by the opposing influences of the conservative Mormon Church and all those who rebel/react against it. The end result is a safe, clean city with a vibrant counterculture which has included a significant Punk, New Wave and Ska community since the early 80's. We've had New Wave radio uninterrupted since '83 or so, often multiple stations. The city is small enough not to swallow you up but big enough to offer most big-city perks. The film industry is also big here, spurred in no small part by Robert Redford and his Sundance Film Festival. The feel is laid back but there is still a strong work ethic. The city proper is maybe 40% Mormon and the rest are heathens like me.

Commutes are very short - mine is about 15 minutes, which is typical. Traffic is light by most big city standards. There are 7 world-class ski resorts all within an hour of the airport. 10,000 ft mountains surround the city and offer fantastic opportunities to get away. Jobs are fairly plentiful. There is a surprising amount of diversity - large Mexican, SE Asian, Bosnian, Indian, Arab, and Greek communities, helped in part by the fact the city is one of the country's designated refugee resettlement communities. This also means good eating - many great restaurants can be found.

But if I couldn't enjoy New Wave music here, it would be tough . . .

[deethelurker]

Ooh, newwavepunkgirl, you live in the home of some of my favorite musical artists! The Comsat Angels, Heaven 17, the Human League, ABC, Pulp, Arctic Monkeys -- all of them are Sheffield acts. I can't think of anyone from Wiltshire. So I'd say you traded up.

I come from a city 90 miles southwest of the Texas state capital, San Antonio. I like that I come from that place instead of a larger city because it gave me a sort of groundedness that the large metropolises of the U.S. couldn't have. I like to think of my city as a very down-to-earth one. It's very blue collar, with little pockets of affluence here and there, and it's really coming into its own. It's a very comfortable place to settle into. Some people who pass through it might scoff at it, but I think there's plenty of happiness beneath the surface. In fact, I'd say the only drawback to living here is that there aren't enough people here who share my pop cultural interests, though even then I've been surprised, and really, the U.S. is one huge country full of people who, by and large, don't share my cultural interests.

If I were to move to a larger city, I'd love to move to London. NYC freaks the you-know-what out of me and I always get the impression that New Yorkers look down on the rest of the country. I feel more comfortable in L.A. because it's on the West Coast and I was partly raised on the West Coast (further up, in the Bay Area and near Seattle), but L.A.'s got WAY too much sunshine for me and I don't have an interest in anything beach-related, so that kinda ruins THAT for me. I took a course in London in 2000 and felt completely at home there. It's always been my dream city and it didn't disappoint. And the people there were so friendly. So long as I did what my instructor and advisor offered as advice, I felt like I did very well there. And if I could afford it, I'd love to keep up a second home there.

edit: Hexicon, I spent a year of my childhood right outside Tacoma! I think it was shortly before its renaissance because I remember a lot of pickup trucks and diners being popular, very blue collar, that kind of thing. (Which totally suited me because I was raised blue collar -- that is, before that term = redneck.) But I remember there not being a single ugly part of Tacoma. Every neighborhood I saw was gorgeous, breathtaking, picture-perfect. I think it's all that greenery, plus Tacomans seem to really take care of their homes. Or at least the ones in the neighborhoods I saw. Tacoma really is a lovely place, highly underrated, in the shadow of the gorgeous Mount Rainier, and with the pretty Puget Sound nearby.

[newwavepunkgirl]

[quote][i]Originally posted by deethelurker[/i]
<br>Ooh, newwavepunkgirl, you live in the home of some of my favorite musical artists! The Comsat Angels, Heaven 17, the Human League, ABC, Pulp, Arctic Monkeys -- all of them are Sheffield acts. I can't think of anyone from Wiltshire. So I'd say you traded up.

I come from a city 90 miles southwest of the Texas state capital, San Antonio. I like that I come from that place instead of a larger city because it gave me a sort of groundedness that the large metropolises of the U.S. couldn't have. I like to think of my city as a very down-to-earth one. It's very blue collar, with little pockets of affluence here and there, and it's really coming into its own. It's a very comfortable place to settle into. Some people who pass through it might scoff at it, but I think there's plenty of happiness beneath the surface. In fact, I'd say the only drawback to living here is that there aren't enough people here who share my pop cultural interests, though even then I've been surprised, and really, the U.S. is one huge country full of people who, by and large, don't share my cultural interests.

If I were to move to a larger city, I'd love to move to London. NYC freaks the you-know-what out of me and I always get the impression that New Yorkers look down on the rest of the country. I feel more comfortable in L.A. because it's on the West Coast and I was partly raised on the West Coast (further up, in the Bay Area and near Seattle), but L.A.'s got WAY too much sunshine for me and I don't have an interest in anything beach-related, so that kinda ruins THAT for me. I took a course in London in 2000 and felt completely at home there. It's always been my dream city and it didn't disappoint. And the people there were so friendly. So long as I did what my instructor and advisor offered as advice, I felt like I did very well there. And if I could afford it, I'd love to keep up a second home there.

edit: Hexicon, I spent a year of my childhood right outside Tacoma! I think it was shortly before its renaissance because I remember a lot of pickup trucks and diners being popular, very blue collar, that kind of thing. (Which totally suited me because I was raised blue collar -- that is, before that term = redneck.) But I remember there not being a single ugly part of Tacoma. Every neighborhood I saw was gorgeous, breathtaking, picture-perfect. I think it's all that greenery, plus Tacomans seem to really take care of their homes. Or at least the ones in the neighborhoods I saw. Tacoma really is a lovely place, highly underrated, in the shadow of the gorgeous Mount Rainier, and with the pretty Puget Sound nearby.
[/quote]

Oh that's cool! Well the guy who played C3PO in 'star wars' comes from Wiltshire so that's famous enough and you've heard of me haven't you?! I'm still a country gal at heart though, you can take the girl out of the country etc. There's alot to do in Wiltshire for families and it's near the coast and is probably most famous for farms, armed forces,Stonehenge and UFO sitings LOL. Tacoma sounds lovely, yeah Wiltshire has some beautiful scenery and they take good care of their gardens and there's no litter and they fix the roads, up here they don't bother as much.

Devolution is real