I tend to think the good outweighs the bad in my small midwestern town.

Best
Little town with plenty of little bars and shops within walking-distance. University across the street with substantial amenities including multiple libraries and gym facilities. Natural areas and wildlife preserves surrounding the entire town, which are breathtakingly beautiful and littered with wildflowers. Short drive to three major midwestern cities.

Worst
Over-run with partying undergraduates all but 3 months out of the year. There are no mountains but there aren't any mtnbike-friendly trails even if I wanted to do some trail riding. Icy rather than snowy throughout the winter.

Tweed was my route of choice and Bluesfest was always great (only furnacefest was better).

Somewhere in Cape Cod, MA

Best: Great small-town atmosphere, 5 minutes to work, beach, and many great shops/restaurants. A paved coastal bike trail trail that runs through town (and behind my backyard). Mild weather year-round.

Worst: Snarky tourists making it impossible to do anything during the summer months, high cost of living.

Outside Washington, D.C.

Best:
Nation's capital right there
Government jobs out the wazoo
Huge cultural diversity (food!)

Worst:
Everybody drives a luxury car
Suburban asphalt sprawl hell
Traffic makes suicide viable

How is this bad!! :orly:

...because I get cut off by high school kids in new Acuras and BMWs while riding my $5k motorcycle down I-66.

The McMansion culture? It's here and it's all about white collar (white bread) free money and sweatless careers.

So, basically... they wear Kenneth Cole jammies and Mexicans mow the lawns of their three car garage homes. Do not want.

/threadjack

South east Arizona.

Best. Sitting on the back deck during the monsoons. Seeing the mountains change colors during sunset. The clean smell of the desert after a rain. Not having neighbors all up in your biz.


Worst. No good supplies of raw materials/oddball items for when I got my muse on.

Hickory NC

Best: Being a Quasi-city (a good size town in most places, a BIG CITY for the country) has lots of good places to eat, any kind of store you could want, 30 to 1 hour from the mountains and nice lakes. Beautiful places tucked away in the country. Rent rates and such are not that bad.

Worse: Closed minded people, a bar I used to go to doesn't allow black people in unless the owner knows them, no public transportation to speak of, you have to like country music to sing karaoke. Crappy winters. Rednecks. NASCAR.

The best and the worst things about where I live are the same; the people, sometimes so beautiful I cry, and at others so annoying I don't know how to think about them. C'est la vie.

Best: City of over 100,000 that still has a small town feel to it (in a good way). Nicely situated between Toronto, Hamilton, and Kitchener/Waterloo making trips to any of them easy.

Worst: Bar scene used to be great, now? Not so much due to the number of douchebags that frequent the bars now.

Something that I really dislike from where we leave is that it is not so diverse. I think this area could be a lot more interesting if there would be people from other cultures, restaurants in other words: Savor= flavor. The area of Port Saint Lucie in Florida has other things that I didn't have in South Florida, like it is less congested, the air feels more clean and the housing is lot less expensive versus Broward.

Best: The only thing close by is more woods.
Worst: The only thing close by is more woods.

Similar:

Fredericton, New Brunswick

Worst: Limited cultural hotspots (we have great art, but so little of it), limited resturants/bars. Growth is slow; politically and population. Next to no public transportation. Not very diverse.

Best: University town, small/safe, beautiful, very culturally and socially aware; a real commitment to cultural preservation. Community.

Toronto is practically the exact opposite.

Worst: people that would be middle class anywhere else in the US are lower class here. Cheap, small houses are in the $400k range. Even now, during a serious housing problem, the median house price is about $540,000, and in my neighborhood it's closer to $670-680k. The new house across the street is in the $1.4 range. Don't get me wrong, it's nice having a small fortune locked up in my house, but it makes starting out here damned near impossible. Most of my high school friends are either in LA or Sacramento.

Best: San Jose statistically has some of the healthiest women in the US. This means that your average gym in San Jose has 5x the normal "hot gym girls" as anywhere else I've ever been (this is a best for me personally). Moreover, because of our perfect proximity to Santa Cruz we're shielded from the bad weather of the beach, but we're still within short driving distance from the good weather (and everything else) of the beach. Oh, and also there's are nice little pockets of culture all over the place. You've got several great museums downtown, little China, little Poland, little Italy, little Manila (look for it, you'll find it eventually), tea gardens, parks... and here's the kicker: they're actually busy.

Phoenix, AZ. The worst: Heat and the fucking traffic. The traffic is almost as bad as L.A. Less people but a lot less infastructure. And not enough greenery and trees. I'm more of a mountain-forest person though the desert can be very pretty.

Best: Being able to get/find nearly anything, not having to ever drive in the snow, not having to rake leafs...and almost everything else.

No offense but what do you want though???

I want to wear Kenneth Cole Jammies and have my lawn mowed by the person who's gonna do it cheapest..., and the best. I want the Mantion and the Acura and the BMW (not for cutting people off though) and sugar and spice and everything nice!!

What else is there? Really?

hot and muggy in la. don't forget the gators...

Acrua is a luxury brand?

Best: Culture--opera, symphony, plays, concerts, museums, art galleries, clubs, retaurants, etc. Basically everything you'd expect to find in a very large city.

Worst: Traffic (everything is spread out, driving is nearly mandatory), heat & humidity.

Yeah... I drive a fuckin' Pontiac.

Southern Illinois is beautiful with first class, hard working people.

Unfortunately, the area is pretty economically depressed.

I'm narrowing it down some -

Best: I live alone in a nice house in suburbia with a large yard for gardening. The neighbors leave me alone and vice versa. I get my solitude while still remaining in touch with society.

Worst: It's getting 'dark' in my neighborhood. And I don't mean that in a racist way. Punks are now marking stop signs with their gang symbols and they're walking in the middle of streets at night like they own them. A cop was shot about 1/2 mile away at a gas station recently. And I'm seeing blue lights more often while out for cigarettes or food or something. Getting a bit scary.

yay Atlanta.

Best: My apartment is the perfect size and cost for me, the main street (which is 4 minutes walking) has plenty of places to eat and spend money, I'm 6 minutes (walking) away from a nice park, and I have a porch.
Worst: I can almost count on not being able to park in front of my house.

San Francisco Best:
Culture. Whether you want fine art, theatre, or just a drugged-out all-night rave, you can find plenty of it around here.
Job market is still strong, at least in my field (tech), probably one of the best anywhere right now
Not much space to sprawl, yes this is actually good from an urban planning perspective, means everything that matters goes in a small area.
I'm walking distance to just about any type of food or business you could imagine, and few homogenized chains
Weather. Foggy and cold a lot of the time but it never gets REALLY cold or hot and doesn't rain all summer.
Cool people. Everyone is pretty tolerant and nobody gets all judgmental or up in your stuff.
Worst:
Cost of living. I'm paying $1500 for a 1br apartment.. so it's certainly a good thing I've got that job or I don't know where I'd go
No parking anywhere, ever, don't even think about it (hehe so I'm exaggerating a little)
Too many rich assholes, often imported from elsewhere who think buying a piece of SF is a good idea, people in Beemers and SUVs that own the road etc.
Lots of homeless people, fortunately not many in my part of town
Politics. Regulations and red tape up the ass and probably nobody wastes money like California/Bay Area/SF politicians, because they have a lot to spend and a populace that generally supports liberal programs (myself included but I will always say to cut the hours of the legislators or their staff before services). Lately nothing ever gets done except spending more tax money and cutting services.
Too far from Europe

Best:
Clean, safe, great police and fire departments. Good schools, library and parks.

Worst:
Expensive, annoying rich people.

well, the 'close to train station' shoulda given that one away. I'm a suburb north of Hornsby, up the north shore train line.

Best: only being an hour away from the mountains...and only being 2 hours away from NC lol

Worst: Traffic

Edmonton Canada

Worst: 8 months of Winter(literally), in which i was frozen for 2 weeks with -40C (or -40F), university town, snow, snow, snow (they get all mushy and gross when they start to melt).

Best:largest Mall in North America (West Edmonton Mall, 5th largest in the world), world largest indoor amusement park, i can see the building where i work from my house, close to train, close to river, lots of festival....etc

Best of Best: Where I met my SO

Best: Pedalpalooza, indie everything, and the rivers.

Worst: Hipster heaven.

i moved.

best: walking distance to the gym, two sushi places, hovan, organic and regular grocery, the market, middle of the historic/artsy district. fairly cool neighbors, nice landlords. closer to some of my families that I work with.

worst: built in 1909, remodeled in 1959, tilts to the west, bugs, window units, no cabinet space, unhappy kittehs, did I mention bugs?, water pressure that sometimes drops randomly in the middle of a shower....

i've been thinking about this for a bit now, then it hit me this mourning as i was daydreaming out the window on the bus to work. seeing 2 bald eagles perched just of the waters edge. that is a freakin amazing sight to behold in RL. and we have them all over the place.

the worst has to be the pretentious politically correct people that make life a living hell for anybody just tryin to make their way through this roller coaster ride.

I'm sorry, but every time i hear the word Ipswich, I hear John cleese saying that the palendrome of Bolton is Notlob, not Ipswich, followed up by frustrated complaint against intercity rail.

I'm stupid. Where is RL.

forgive my innerwub speak. =) you're not stupid, it stands for Real Life as opposed to online. i actually live in the seattle area in the pacific northwest. if any of you have never been here before, you should plan a vacation up here. it truly is one of the most beautiful areas in teh nation.

Best: I'm near everyone I care about, everyone I know
Worst: Utah, need I say more...

Best: No grass to mow.
Worst: people right on top of you.

BEST: We don't have to pay for schools, there is a pool across the street, my kids are freerange. Public halfpipe 2 blocks away.
Worst: I am stuck in the living cesspool of the religious right. No good restaurants, even the grocery store has a limited selection. I can't wait for my kids to get older so we can move.

I agree. I was in Vancouver back in 2004, and made a special trip down to Seattle to do the touristy stuff. Went up the tower thing (kind of like a mod CN Tower, i forget the name) went to the public market and had a Starbucks coffee. Also ate at a restaurant that was used in the film Sleepless in Seattle (I think).

At any rate, I'll be in Vancouver again this month, and will try to sneak in a trip to Seattle.

---------- Post added at 09:20 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:15 AM ----------

I am currently sitting in a hotel room in Ottawa. (Les Suites) which is walking distance from everything. I'm sitting in here, because it's pouring rain. I drove from Toronto yesterday. Toronto is in the 12th day of a municipal workers (= garbage) strike, so it is nice to be in this cute, compact little city despite the rain. It took me 5 hours to drive here (401 - up past Brockville and then north on the Veterans Highway) because I stopped for a meal in Napanne.

I like Ottawa, it is very lush, green, and seems cosmopolitan. The only thing is the area by the Byward Market (the bus stops) seems very grungy, with lots of street people. More so than you would expect from a city this size. In fact, it reminds me of areas of Toronto (like Queen & Spadina, or Queen & Sherbourne)....

that would be the space needle.
if you liked that, then i recommend going up in the columbia tower also. it's the tallest building this side of the mississippi and the view is spectacular from the top. since your lookin at bein here during the summer i would also recommend visiting alki beach out in west seattle. not the greatest swimming beach, but a kick ass people watching beach. and once again the view of the city and the san juan islands can't be beat.

The best: Toronto is one of the biggest, greatest, and most multicultural cities in North America, if not the world, and it's situated in one of the most prosperous and free nations on the planet (i.e. the multitude of benefits that go along with that).

The worst: It's expensive to live here. (The average house price is CAD 380,000 / USD 328,500.)