Best and worst things about where you live
 

What are the best and worst things about where you live?

I'll start.

Best: I live in Soho, so the best thing is all of the beautiful women. I once chatted up Josie Maran a block from my apartment. Nothing came of it, obviously, but it was still an amazing moment.

Worst: Trying to be monogamous. There is just some much temptation.

Oh, must be horrible...

Worst - crime (been burgled three times, car broken into three times, brick thrown through window of my flat, someone murdered last year in my street, someone stabbed (but didnt die) last month. The Ipswich Serial killer took the women he killed from a couple of streets away also (one of the dead women I went to school with)

Best - near the rail station, so convenient for travel at least

Best - 24hr public transpo and there's always something to do.
Worst - Everything is so damned expensive.

Best: Living out in the country means there are no prying eyes when you just want to water the shrubs.
Worst: No good access to markets with exotic ingredients when I feel like cooking exotic fare.

Just reading my answers above makes me realize how spoiled I am, if that's really the worst...

Edit: I live in East Texas.

Best: Smaller town means getting around is super quick.
Worst: Smaller town means less variety for entertainment.

I love where I live and had to stretch to find the worst thing.

Best: A wild ravine with a creek to muck around in runs through our neighbourhood.

Worst: Oversaturation of dollar stores.

Best: Large yard with about 20 acres of woods/marshland behind us. I can sit in the back yard and not look into someone else's back yard.

Worst: Its a narrow main road with fairly heavy traffic.

Best - The city founders set the streets up on a grid system and makes it damn near impossible to get lost, unless you go out to the suburbs.

Worst - Everything else.

Best: The economy doesn't crash and burn like some other parts of the country (so I still have a job).

Worst: The traffic. Oh jaysus, the traffic.

Best: 4 Minutes to work. I do drive like a maniac so ...

Worst: Errr... no public transpo and no car is not an option. Besides that I'm Kosher!

Best: Where to start? Excellent and cheap food at all hours. Warm weather, year 'round. Can travel all over Asia with no more than 5 hours travel or less in any direction (Bali and Phuket are about an hour's travel in opposite directions).

Worst: Very far from the rest of my family and friends. National work culture is a bit much at times. Long work hours with not enough vacation time can be draining (but you're only young once).

Best: The beach, boats, watersports and the great outdoors.

Worse: Hurricanes, brush fires and the traffic.

Best: Small town atmosphere, everyone is friendly and knows everybody.

Worst: There's nothing to do which leads to small town meth abuse. Pretty sad seeing old friends strung out like that.

Best: mostly middle and upper middle class, clean, safe and quiet, about an hour from downtown Chicago

Worst: winter

EDIT: I'm in Upstate NY.

Best: Winter with lots of snow, great winter sports season.

Worst: It's only NOT winter for what seems like <1 month, during which it's raining and cloudy.

Best: Cloudy Days/Rain are about once every 2 months, Beautiful place.

Worse: It has been over 100 degrees all month just about.

Best: great neighbors, great bars and restaurants within easy walking distance, a long walk from Wrigley, lots of nearby green space and oversized lots, spring and summer in Chicago are like nothing else.

Worst: suspected gangbangers a block away, winter, drivers who don't seem to care about pedestrians (especially very young pedestrians).

Best: Live in downtown NYC, I love it here, it is a real community area (you actually know your neighbors), with parks which is amazing in NYC. I have great friends, family here, lots of restaurants. I live near 2 of the biggest Rabbis in the world, and have access to them everyday. Stunning view, great food, culture, quick transportation, easy parking.

Worse: Need more space. And snow in NYC sucks.

Best: Short drive to downtown Chicago, lots of bars, restaurants. College town (Northwestern) right by me.

Worst: South Side is moving up...

San Francisco, California.

There is so much to do and see. From crazy events, hiking in the great out doors, clubs, bars, and the ocean is right there. Plus the temperature is perfect.

The worst is the summer fog, but I can live with that.

Edit: I forgot to mention the other bad thing, it is expensive to live here.

best - 70 degree F winters

worst - 130 degree F summers

Best: Vibrant city, great atmosphere, the coast, 1 hour from London, 10 minutes from the countryside

Worst: Expensive to live/eat/drink, often wet and windy, hippies

Best - There is no shortage of good places to eat.
Worst - There is no shortage of ugly women here

Best: The weather and most of the people are usually real chill here in San Diego. We have a lot of interesting food that, for some reason, you can't find anywhere else. (Not even in LA.. weird!)

Worst: For a big city, there's not a lot to do here. We also get too many illegal immigrants since we're touching TJ to the south. It's hard to find a job.. illegal immigrants or not. This place is too crowded.

The weather, the beach, and that my important people are here.



The weather, the bugs, and the higher percentage of ignorant/racist/rabid-religious/narrowminded people than I would prefer.
Yay, south.

Best: Weather and landscape. We get enough rain to keep things green, and usually enough sunny days to keep plants and people happy. Half the year, anyway. And the green hills and mountains are beautiful.

Worst: Weather and landscape. When we get a couple of hot days, it's usually followed by rain. Which makes the roads slicker than snot. We get a little snow almost every year. But if we don't already have packed ice from freezing rain by the time the snow comes, we get the ice immediately afterwards. Which makes the roads slicker than snot. And it's a pain if you have to travel around the hills or mountains on slick roads.

edit: very Northwest Oregon. An hour from the coast, less than that from Washington.

I love reading these, but I don't know where most of you are so it would be nice if you could also tell us the area that you are describing without being uncomfortably specific.

I live in Venice, in Los Angeles.

Best: I live like six freaking feet from the beach/from the Venice Boardwalk, there's amazing farmer's markets near here, I love the mix of cultures, the restaurants and markets, I love the music and theater scenes, all the museums, I love the film industry and living in the world heart of movie-making, and I love the huge and diverse Jewish community. Did I mention living feet away from the beach?!! I can hear the surf at night, and watch the beach bunnies frolic during the day-- when the future Mrs. Levite lets me....

Worst: It gets too hot too often, the smog is getting way better but still kinda sucks, it can take a long time to get anyplace in this town-- I just mean like freeways and traffic and everything being real spread-out, thanks to global climate fuckage there's nowhere near enough rain here, and the cost of living is through the goddamn roof-- just the price of housing is enough to give you a heart attack....

I live in Ottawa

Best thing(s) - Very Clean and low crime (and a good 4 hour drive to shithole Toronto - sorry TO nians,...just like sticking it to Charlatan once in a while - all in fun)

Worst thing(s) Cold winters and a federal bilingualism policy that is dividing a city because of stupid language.

I live in St. Louis, Missouri

Best: I was born here. ;) Familiarity. The traffic is nowhere near as bad as say LA or Chicago. We have a really nice zoo and some nice museums, and they are all free (for now). We have a couple of pretty decent sports teams.

Worst: We get the crap end of all weather extremes from 100 degree days with 95% humidity to bitter sub zero days. It takes forever for trends/innovations/technologies/chain restaurants to get here. Our public transit system is all screwed up. Alot of times concerts and events completely bypass us altogether.

By your standards, it used to be even better. Before they finished the 416 to the 401 it took almost an hour more to get to Toronto. Ottawa is definitely going downhill.

You also left out the canal in summer is beautiful and in the winter you can skate on it.

Halifax, Canada

Best- Nightlife, great food, music and the coast .Huge university population
Worse- Substandard Public Transport, limited growth

Are you sure this should be in worst? :surprised:

ItWasMe covered the weather portion of where I live :)

Best: I'm right on the bus line (bus system goes all over town), right on a street with a bike lane, two blocks from a hippie food co-op with awesome coffee, and ten minutes on foot from campus. And I swear we have more ethnic restaurants--more restaurants period--than any other town of this size that I've seen; that is definitely one of the upshots of living in a college town.

Worst: There's little regulation on rental housing here; some of the neighborhoods look downright seedy.

Northern edge of Sydney, Oz.

Best: I live literally 5 minutes walk from train, shops and school/s (for the kids). I can walk to my local golf course, though dragging the buggy that far is a *bit* of a pain. 45 minutes on the train into central Sydney. I work from home, so no commuting for work! :). We've been here long enough that we know lots of locals and that community side of things is hugely important, especially with young kids.

Worst: You have to travel a fair way to get to a decent restaurant - Sydney has heaps of them, but not really too many close to us. The local council/municipality wants to rezone my house for Townhouses :(

Louisville, KY

Best: Very unique city, always some sort of festival or picnic for cheap, interesting entertainment, small-town feel, gorgeous scenery, accessible to other great cities, also near the country.

Worst: If you didn't go to high school here, you'll never be "from" here. When someone asks you, "Where did you go to school?", they don't mean college or professional school. They mean high school.

St. Paul, MN

Think typical suburban townhouse development (co-op style):

Worst: No privacy, your home is connected to the person next to you. Everyone knows your business or pretends they do and it always feels like your home is being watched.

Best: Everyone knows you and is always watching out for you and your home.

double edged sword?

northern beaches? im thinking palm beach areas? if theres one place lacking a few decent eats, its that place! i was there a few months ago and couldnt decide which one of the two mediocre but way overpriced places i wanted to eat at!


my place in sydney -

best - the multiculturalism
worst - the crime

Not if you went through Tweed, where apparently there is an Elvis Sighting Society.

And the canal is great as is Bluesfest. Check out this years line up;

Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest - Scheduled Performers

Gotta see Jeff Beck and Joe Cocker. Hope the weather is good.

Best: Small city with authentic historic flavor and a surprising wealth of cultural activities, lots of good restaurants, access to public transportation, close proximity to natural outdoor spaces

Worst: Lack of bike friendly road infrastructure (they're working on that, allegedly), inexorable spread of suburban sprawl, being on the "iffy" end of town, the whore/flop house two doors down with obnoxious-as-hell yappy rat dogs that stay outside barking all day long

Location? Frederick, MD

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.)

too add: fucking garbage strike is killing us.

Best and Worst...
 

The Best Thing about where I live is that the scenery is ever changing and that I don't have to worry about the hub-bub from the crazy city, but it's only 45 minutes to an hour away so that I can be there anytime I want.

The Worst Thing is that when my friends and famiy want to visit, they ALWAYS get lost trying to find my house, because I am so far out in the middle of NOWHERE.

Best about my specific neighborhood I live in: It's just beautiful.
Worst: SOOO may dog owners, not enough people who pick up the poop.

best - the beach is awesome and very relaxing; the people are so nice (its that southern hospitality); the food is amazing! fresh seafood that is caught every morning, and some of the best bbq (one of our most popular bbq joints got first place in a national bbq contest)

worst - its more of a town where retired people come to vacation and live, so there is not much for younger people to do unless a concert or fair comes to town- its very slow; shopping is not that great, there aren't that many stores that are popular with my age group; there aren't many libraries, and i love to read. the books that we do have are very outdated; there are lots of things that haven't been rebuilt since katrina (it sucks because there were water paks and theaters and great restaurants that decided not to rebuild D= )

Best: 10 minutes from the drag strip, less than an hours drive to about 4 others.

Worst: Everything else, right down to the serial killers.