Consider someone who likes walking to work, groceries, and everything they need; hates driving and owning a car; loves having top caliber arts and entertainment; feels more alive living in a place where people are on the street; and enjoy an evening walking bar to bar drinking with friends and not having to worry about a DUI on the way home, cities offer a lot.
That is Boston, Manhattan, and SF in this country.
(Oh, and I can hold my husband's hand in the city without getting weird stares. That's not possible in many parts of the country.)
SF has top quality arts & entertainment? I'm from New Orleans so I'm spoiled, but the live music scene in SF is the pits. Stern Grove is cool, but it's only during a short time of the year. The SF ballet is excellent, but most other A&E things fall way, way short of other US cities.
Also: Austin, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Seattle, etc.
Some things I like about a few of those: Pittsburgh is the 2nd-safest major U.S. city for pedestrians (after Boston) [1], is nice and compact, and a beautiful setting in a valley at the intersection of two rivers. Chicago has one of two 24-hour rapid-transit systems in North America (NYC is the other one), a beautiful lakefront, great deal of ethnic diversity, and is possibly the best American city for skyscrapers (NYC is the only other contender). Atlanta is walkable/bikeable if you live in the city, has the 3rd-largest gay population in the U.S. (after SF and NYC), and is one of the leading centers of Black American culture.
Overall imo there are lots of interesting urban places to live, the main issue is just making sure to live in the actual city rather than the suburbs, if you want a city lifestyle.
> , the main issue is just making sure to live in the actual city rather than the suburbs, if you want a city lifestyle.
Yeah but then your cost of living shoots up. I mean, I've priced Austin real estate. If I want to buy 2BR apartment in downtown Austin (the closest analogy to where I currently live in Brooklyn) I'm looking at half-million dollar properties. Which is fine for an NYC boy like me, it's what I'm used to, but then why am I moving again?
Consider someone who likes walking to work, groceries, and everything they need; hates driving and owning a car; loves having top caliber arts and entertainment; feels more alive living in a place where people are on the street; and enjoy an evening walking bar to bar drinking with friends and not having to worry about a DUI on the way home, cities offer a lot.
That is Boston, Manhattan, and SF in this country.
(Oh, and I can hold my husband's hand in the city without getting weird stares. That's not possible in many parts of the country.)