What city/town in the US do you live? Do you like it? Pros/Cons?

Orlando. I like wild central Florida. Its wonderful springs bubbling up from deep underground. I like the beach being only 45 minutes away. Love the ever-changing sky. Love the winters. Sunny and 80.

Hate theme parks. Hate the fact you can’t swim in the lakes because of all the gators. Not to mention the brain-eating amoebas in the summertime. Hate the summers (95–97 degrees and similar humidity).

Eugene, Oregon

-I can camp on the beach in 90 minutes.
-I can be snowboarding in an hour.
-lots of trees.
-No sales tax.
-No Bush/McCain signs/stickers
-And a healthy bus system that is affordable.
-And we have a nice modern library.

I live in Columbus Ohio. Pros- lots of different neighborhoods, LOTS of different nationalities, which means a great deal of varity in dining choices and foods available in groceries. Many free or inexpensive things to do. Fairly good mass transit. Not a lot of racial tension. Neighborhoods are grouped by how much money you make, not the color of your skin. Gas fairly cheap. Cons- suburbs are spreading out more and more, and the large shopping malls are following them, making it harder for people on mass transit to reach. Hospitals are not as good as they once were – they are overloaded with people who have no insurance and depend on the E R’s. The public school system is abysmal, way too much infighting. In city schools are in bad shape, building wise. Way to much influence on how things get run in this city by a few of the big money families – big fish in a small pond. All in all, I have lived in much worse places!

Spencertown, NY 12165. Pop.1600. 57 miles of dirt roads. I love it. While I was on the treadmill earlier, I saw a mature buck with a magnificent rack, a young male with new horns and a female all grazing on my newly cut fields. Clean air, clean water from wells, neighbors who help if you have an accident, brilliant and dark skies for star gazing, tomatoes growing in pots w. basil, compost steaming nicely, movie costs $5.00..large popcorn, $1.50. Library

Musicians, artists, architects, writers, organic farmers, famous people in their jeans and sneaks, Tanglewood, Jacob’s Pillow (dance) Shakespeare and Co., Berkshire Summer Theatre.
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Suburb of Los Angeles

Close to beach, mountains, desert; awesome weather (hardly ever humid), lots of culture, variety of things to do, multi-ethnic diversity, plenty of work opportunities in my line of work (media), great schools and opportunities for community college students.

Cons: the “Hollywood” imaginary (people who come to visit have a pre-conceived notion about lifestyle and culture), seems like everyone wants to live here (traffic and congestion are out of control), air quality is a problem during warm months, cost of living is high, housing market grossly over-inflated, some school districts are abysmal in terms of quality.

PS. Also in my area is terrific medical care. Lots of Docs. who trained in Boston, NYC and Albany have moved here so that their children can have this life.

Cons; hellacious thunder, lightening and hail storms, severe winters and Lyme ticks, high real estate taxes, corrupt state government.

I currently reside in Galloway, NJ, the heart of suburia in South Jersey. Last year I lived at the shore in Absecon (only 10 minutes from my present home), which was just across the bay from Atlantic City. There was a beautiful view of the casinos and the boardwalk, along with a scenic dock filled with ducks and geese. As for now, I enjoy the peace and quiet (sometimes too much) but get annoyed by by the fact a majority of the homes are identical. Kids to play ball with and green grass to cut. My main grudge is that lacks the personality of my previous home- no view, no wildlife, no friendly neighbors that you have BBQs with (every house is surrounded by tall, white fences).

Also in Columbus.
I love it…as half of the people here can tell you.

I live in L.A. as well, and I second sndfreQ. And to add a few things: great food, great entertainment (all music, movies, theater, art, etc. come through L.A.), beautiful people (though that can get annoying at times), huge “alternative culture” scenes (if you are into it, you can find it here), and we’re 30 minutes from Disneyland, need I say more?

The Hollywoodization (ha ha new word) of L.A. is annoying; people from out of state have such erroneous stereotypes about Angelenos—like we all want to be in entertainment, or we’re all phony. This is simply untrue.

Maywood, NJ.

Pros: small town, 30 mins from manhattan, clean, low crime rate (possibly none), peaceful, sweet local main street, green, has three malls nearby, nice park, people act nice, bus service connecting you to most major places in NJ and NY

Cons: small town, old people, lack of diversity, expensive housing market (starts at 350k), lack of a local high school, only form of entertainment within the town itself are house parties filled with mostly high schoolers.

Overall, I love it because its simply relaxing. Definitely a place to retire but not so great for the young and the restless

I live in the small town of Heber Springs, Arkansas.

It’s a small town in the north central region of the state. There is a huge man made lake which is where everyone from the area spends the entire summer. We also have plenty of springs, rivers and wooded areas. It’s a great place for the outdoors man; lots of hunting and fishing. The gently rolling hills are beautiful as well as much of the landscape. Its also nice because you see a lot of the same people and you get to know them pretty easily.

It’s a small town so other than the lake, it’s pretty entertainment-less. Most people have parties to pass to nights away. They do eventually get old.

Davis, California. Population 64,938.
Pros:
– Great school systems (K-12) as well as UCD.
– Miles and miles and miles and miles.. and miles and miles.. of bike paths.
– Not too big, not too small.
– Close to everything: Hour and a half from San Francisco, 15 minutes from Sacramento, two hours to Lake Tahoe (and snow), two hours to beaches.
– Moderate weather throughout the year.

Cons:
– Two hours from beaches/Lake Tahoe (and the snow). Two is better than three, but I wish it was closer.

Portland, Oregon.

Pros:
Extremely liberal and open-minded people
Powell’s bookstore
We have every kind of climate imaginable, all within reasonable traveling distances
We’re big, but not so big as to be annoying (yet)
One of (if not the) best recycling programs in the country
Fantastic bus and rail line
Very bicyclist friendly
Very, very green (trees)
Very artistic
And very friendly people for a city this size

Cons:
It rains 9 months out of the year. Literally.

@allie You forgot stinky. And moderate weather, try disgustingly hot. :)

@ Allie – I lived in Davis for a while, cool city

Sussex, Wi, just outside of Milwaukee.

Pros:
20 min access to Milwaukee Great city with a lot of history and culture, polish, german, spanish, jewish.
great food
great state fair
summerfest

Cons:
no chinese delivery.

tinyfaery: It is not stinky. The only smelly part in the whole city is on La Rue where UCD has some cows for the ag and animal science classes. And ok, it gets hot, but c’mon.. not disgustingly hot. Work with me here, tiny. =]

Recently moved to Martinsburg, WV. So far, the only thing I really like is my house (1920s arts & crafts style, that needs major work, but is so cozy). My real home is Frederick, Maryland…a truly wonderful place to live. It’s got a small town feel, with big city amenities. 45 minutes to Washington, DC or Baltimore, MD, even closer to Virginia; historic downtown and surrounding battlefield sites (revolutionary war and civil war); vibrant arts community (including beautiful public art projects such as this); live music any night of the week; diverse population; excellent access to quality medical care; active political environment; good school system; strong farming community; mountains, forests, rivers and streams… natural beauty abounds. Oh, and what a library! Can you tell I miss it terribly? About the only con I can think of is the presence of Ft. Detrick. Though it’s doing great things for cancer research, it is also home to America’s biological warfare lab, and a communication hub for the eastern seaboard. Makes Frederick a pretty good terrorist target, and a definite nuclear target…other than that, what’s not to like?

Watertown massachusetts its 20minutes outside of Boston its a small town 3miles by 3miles everyone knows everyone and it dosent have a lot to do but I manage its a busy town eco friendly with everything solor pannel I walk everywhere no need to drive everything is so close

edit: public art projects such as this. Let’s try that again!

I recently returned home to Texas and settled in a suburb north of Dallas: Allen, TX, population 73,000. I haven’t been here long, but I generally like it.

Pros:
– Affordable housing
– Great public schools (K-12)
– Family-friendly environment
– Lots of parks and bike trails
– Tons of shopping choices, including an incredible supermarket
– No state income tax (which could also be seen as a con)

Cons:
– Highly-affluent, therefore heavily Republican environment
– In-your-face churchiness
– Occasional water shortages
– High sales tax
– The Dallas area in general is kind of shallow. The unofficial slogan of Dallas is “keep Dallas pretentious”

I moved back to Texas from Baltimore, MD. Baltimore was….interesting.

Pros:
– Close enough to Washington, DC for dinner
– Close enough to Philadelphia to spend the day
– Close enough to NYC to spend the weekend
– The Wire was the greatest TV show ever

Cons:
– Corrupt city/state government
– High housing costs
– High tax burden (relatively low sales tax but high state/local income tax)
– Very high crime rate (our bikes got stolen off the moving truck while it was being loaded so I can’t enjoy the trails in my new town)

Woodbury, NJ

Pros:
-20mins to Philadelphia
-60mins to Ocean City, NJ and AC
-2 hrs to NYC
-Great schools and sports teams
-Small and close community
-Low crime
-It’s in SOUTH Jersey so we don’t have those ugly Jersey accents and have blow-outs and all that.

Cons:
-High property taxes
-That awesome oil refinery that I’m sure is doing wonders for my health
-15 mins to Camden (Highest or was the highest crime rate city in the US)
-They won’t stop building developments on all the old farm lands
-Having to root for professional teams who haven’t won a championship in over 30 years (Philly teams not NJ teams)

Lurve to gail for her answers! I’m across the Hudson River from her and definitely agree with her pros and cons about the area.

Some of the older members have answered this question here. Welcome to Fluther!

Daly City, CA

Could be a pro or con: FOG!
Middle of all the congested areas.
Simple community near the big SF City.

Palm Harbor, FL

Pros:
-There is a LOT to do around here
-Almost always sunny!
-beach is less than 10 mins away

Cons
-CRAZY Humid!!

jackson, mi, I live in the country part of it I love it because I have the best of both worlds, I’m only about five to ten min. away from all shopping by car and I’m close to the express way but I have plenty of land and still can see wild animals in my back and front yard. I guess the bad side of it is there is no good paying jobs here so I have to work in a different city and the gas prices are not helping at all and of course spring, summer, fall and winter, other than that it is a good place lots to see and lots to do.

Lafayette,LA
Pros: the best food, great people, great hunting and fishing, mild winters, party all the time, great economy when others suck.
Cons: poor education system, hot and humid, hurricanes, suck beaches.