Best City in U.S. to Live

Hatunen wrote:

Almost anywhere on the San Francisco Peninsula if you can afford
it.

Not many can afford it!!

On 01/01/2004 12:19 PM Matt Beckwith plucked Senior Frog's Magic Twanger
and said:

I'm looking to move to another city in the U.S., which satisfies
certain criteria.

1. An academic center.
2. Not a big dirty city like New York, Chicago or Philadelphia.
3. Housing costs reasonable.
4. Lots of shopping centers.
5. Lots of ethnic restaurants.
6. Lots of movie theatres.
7. Traffic not horrendous.
8. Lots of intelligent people.

Cities I've visited which come close, but no cigar:

1. Scottsdale, Arizona. Has just the right ambience, lots of fabulous
shopping centers. Unfortunately, not intellectual or academic
particularly.

2. San Diego, California. Housing costs too high. (True for anywhere
in California, I presume.) And not particularly intellectual.

3. Boston, Massachusetts. This is actually a possibility, but the
housing costs are kind of high, and the traffic is definitely
"horrendous".

4. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Another possibility, actually. What do
you think?

What I'm hoping is that there is a city in the U.S. which has the look
and feel of Scottsdale or San Diego, with a university or two, but low
housing prices and not bad traffic, and intellectual people.

(I don't think the presence of a university guarantees an intelligent
populace. For example, Austin, Texas has a huge university but the
people are typical narrow-minded Texans, for the most part.)

Thanks in advance.

Matt Beckwith, M.D.
Hagerstown, Maryland


How about Cranford, NJ? We have Union College in our town. We have
Italian, Slavic, Chinese, Mexican and other ethnic places to eat. We
are a short distance away from Woodbridge Mall, Menlo Park Mall, and
upscale Short Hills Mall. Ditto for movie theaters. We have a river
running through town, even have a river festival with floating floats.

You can hop a train of bus to Manhattan or New Brunswick. Best of all
you can reach the NJ Shore in less than 50 minutes.

--
________
To email me, Edit "xt" from my email address.
Brian M. Kochera
"Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once!"
View My Web Page: http://home.earthlink.net/~brian1951

MTV wrote:

Small college towns come to mind, of which there are many. Although,
they are very cliquish. A larger college town & state capitol like
Madison, Wisc would fit.

I really love Flagstaff, AZ. It is home to NAU which is a very nice
university. People are friendly there since it still has that small
town feeling. Since it is close to the Grand Canyon it has a large
number of visitors from all over the world.

Brian K with the help of 999 monkeys
eventually managed to type:

How about Cranford, NJ? We have Union College in our town. We have
Italian, Slavic, Chinese, Mexican and other ethnic places to eat. We
are a short distance away from Woodbridge Mall, Menlo Park Mall, and
upscale Short Hills Mall. Ditto for movie theaters. We have a river
running through town, even have a river festival with floating floats.

You can hop a train of bus to Manhattan or New Brunswick. Best of all
you can reach the NJ Shore in less than 50 minutes.

Cranford is a nice little corner of a generally not-so-nice region.
"Venice on the Rahway" is a bit of a stretch, but there's interesting
old architecture and a walkable feel to the town. I wouldn't mind
living there.


--
A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to
get its pants on, but what was the truth doing with no pants on in the
first place? --Winston Churchill

1. An academic center.
2. Not a big dirty city like New York, Chicago or Philadelphia.
3. Housing costs reasonable.
4. Lots of shopping centers.
5. Lots of ethnic restaurants.
6. Lots of movie theatres.
7. Traffic not horrendous.
8. Lots of intelligent people.


Nashville, Tenn.

Somebody already mentioned Tempe, Ariz.

(Matt Beckwith) with the help of 999 monkeys
eventually managed to type:

and the many small college towns located near large cities. Which are?

There are lots, and I've lived in several, but I'm not sure whether
any have sufficiently "intelligent" people to meet your standards. If
you've crossed Austin off the list then your definition differs from
mine. I gather you are using "intelligent" as a code for something
like non-southern, liberal-leaning, upper-class professionals.


--
A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to
get its pants on, but what was the truth doing with no pants on in the
first place? --Winston Churchill

"Matt Beckwith" wrote in message
om...
I'm looking to move to another city in the U.S., which satisfies
certain criteria.

1. An academic center.
2. Not a big dirty city like New York, Chicago or Philadelphia.
3. Housing costs reasonable.
4. Lots of shopping centers.
5. Lots of ethnic restaurants.
6. Lots of movie theatres.
7. Traffic not horrendous.
8. Lots of intelligent people.

Cities I've visited which come close, but no cigar:

1. Scottsdale, Arizona. Has just the right ambience, lots of fabulous
shopping centers. Unfortunately, not intellectual or academic
particularly.

2. San Diego, California. Housing costs too high. (True for anywhere
in California, I presume.) And not particularly intellectual.

3. Boston, Massachusetts. This is actually a possibility, but the
housing costs are kind of high, and the traffic is definitely
"horrendous".

4. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Another possibility, actually. What do
you think?

What I'm hoping is that there is a city in the U.S. which has the look
and feel of Scottsdale or San Diego, with a university or two, but low
housing prices and not bad traffic, and intellectual people.

I've heard that Pittsburgh is an extremely underrated city. My wife lived
there for a couple of years before I met her and she loved it.

Let me put in a good word for the Albany, NY area. Housing prices are
reasonable, especially compared to the large cities to the south and east.
There are several colleges and universities: the State University at Albany
and RPI being the largest, but there is also a law school, medical school,
and several smaller private colleges. There is lots of culture, with the
tri-city area of Albany, Troy and Schenectady, plus Saratoga Springs just to
the north, offering a wide range of music and theater.

Between the colleges, the large G.E. research center, and the state
government, there is a highly educated population. There is also a growing
high technology segment.

As far as shopping is concerned, my attitude is that there are stores
everywhere. To me big shopping centers are a minus, not a plus. And we do
have our share of them.

There is also a lot of outdoor activities: ski areas in the Catskills,
Berkshires, Adirondacks and Vermont are all close by. There are lots of
hiking and camping areas. There are lakes, rivers (including the best white
water in the east outside of West Virginia), lots of history, and access to
Boston, New York and Montreal. Boston and NYC are 3 hours away...Montreal
is 4 hours away.

Traffic isn't too bad. The interstates do get a little clogged at times
during rush hour...but not nearly as bad as the larger cities. I commute 20
miles to work and it takes me a half hour on most days.

"Matt Beckwith" wrote in message
om...
So, to summarize the non-insulting responses received so far:

You insulted people of Texas. Fair is fair.


Madison, Wisconsin
Omaha
DesMoines
Kansas City
Davis, California

and the many small college towns located near large cities. Which are?

Davis, CA, as mentioned above, is one such.


Thanks.
Matt

"Miles" wrote in message
news:5z3Jb.177570$J77.50890@fed1read07...


Matt Beckwith wrote:
I'm looking to move to another city in the U.S., which satisfies
certain criteria.

1. An academic center.
2. Not a big dirty city like New York, Chicago or Philadelphia.
3. Housing costs reasonable.
4. Lots of shopping centers.
5. Lots of ethnic restaurants.
6. Lots of movie theatres.
7. Traffic not horrendous.
8. Lots of intelligent people.

Cities I've visited which come close, but no cigar:

1. Scottsdale, Arizona. Has just the right ambience, lots of fabulous
shopping centers. Unfortunately, not intellectual or academic
particularly.

Did you not know that Tempe, AZ. is home to ASU and borders Scottsdale?.
ASU is a very large university. Scottsdale has a community college.
As far as ethnic goes I suppose that depends on what you're looking for.
Scottsdale is home to almost 100,000 winter residents from other parts
of the country and Canada for almost 6 months of the year. Traffic is
only bad in certain areas during rush hour. Because the metro Phoenix
area is laid out in a grid it is extremely easy to get around even when
the freeways are busy. Many streets run across the entire metro area.

Translation: HUGE sprawling metropolis with little to distinguish one
"town" from the next. Not to mention the 115 degree "dry heat" summer
temps.

wrote in message
ighton.edu...
How about Omaha? Or Des Moines? Kansas City would be
another choice, although more traffic there.


Wouldn't Lincoln fit the bill better than Omaha? KM
--
(-:alohacyberian:-) At my website there are 3000 live cameras or
visit NASA, play games, read jokes, send greeting cards & connect
to CNN news, NBA, the White House, Academy Awards or learn all
about Hawaii, Israel and mo http://keith.martin.home.att.net/