Where Will Abe Live Now?
 

Without a job or anything to tie me down here in the states, I could go anywhere I want. For those of you who may not know, www.findmyspot.com is a website with eight pages of information about what I want my ideal place to be, and then lists it for me. After entering in information about crime, housing prices, geography, outdoor activites, size of city, public transportation, nightlife and more, here are the top places for me to live:

1). Denver
2). Carlisle, PA
3). Seattle
4). Altoona, PA
5). Anchorage
6). Boulder, CO
7). Great Falls, Montana
8). Ogden, UT
9). Missoula, Montana
10). Salt Lake City
11). Harrisburg, PA
12). Spokane, WA
13). Fort Collins, CO
14). Long Island, NY (Yuk, no way)
15). Albany
16) Pittsburgh
17). Provo-Orem, UT
18). Olympia, WA
19). Erie
20). Cheyenne, Wyoming

This reflects my own biases when I chose the areas of the country that I was interested in. If I chose no geographical preference, what 20 are listed?


1). Denver
2). Carlisle
3). Knoxville
4). Cincinnati
5). Seattle
6). Minneapolis-St. Paul
7). Duluth, MN
8). Rochester, MN
9). Altoona
10). Cleveland (Yuk, no)
11). Anchorage
12). Flagstaff
13). Boulder
14), Indianapolis (Yuk, no)
15). Great Falls
16). Ogden
17). Missoula
18). Grand Rapids (Yuk, no)
19). Lexington, KY

and my personal favorite

20). Ann Arbor, MI - no, shoot me in the head, you;d have to kill me to get me to live permanently here in arguably the most pretentious place I've ever been to, period, bar none. Yuck. I need to take a bath.



Thought you folks might enjoy this.

Another place I am looking at is Boise. I did research on it before applying to some jobs at BSU and I was very impressed.

Hawaii.

Oh, forgot to mention, I am looking at several of these places, so if you know anything first hand, good or bad, lemme know!

-Abe

Although I'm reallly surprised missoula is in the top 10 if nightlife and city size were factored in.

You don't know my answers to those questions, of course ;) (I did want nightlife and I chose medium or large cities, but not small ones.)

BTW - Hawaii just isn't my scene, as you could probably tell from my results.

-Abe

well regardles, GL wherever you go in the future, hope everything works out how you want it to :)

Seattle is a great place, but it's not cheap. It's not crazy expensive like Manhattan, the Bay Area or San Diego, but it's expensive.

How well do you handle lots of drizzly, gray days? 'Cause if you're here in the Fall and Winter, be prepared. It gets better in the Spring, Summer is gorgeous and Fall usually stays pretty nice through late September/early October, but from that point through April you have to put up with a lot of gray, wet days where you don't see the sun. Probably a big reason we have so many micro-breweries...

No West Virginia? ;)

What's wrong with Grand Rapids? :p

It's a good quality of life here in terms in terms of jobs & salaries v. cost of living. It's sort of cheaper, more mellow and blue collar version of Denver.

Also, a lot of young transplants from out of town, which is nice if you're single.

I actually thought Indy was kind of cool. I never saw the old Indy, but apparently they've put alot of money into renovating the downtown area.

Some good friends of mine who go went to UVA and are big UVA football fans (oxymoron?) have been to Boise a few times for bowl games. The first time they went they were shocked at what a wonderful, beautiful, friendly city it was. The next time they went they were surprised that it was everything they remembered and more. I've never heard a bad thing about Boise, so I think that would be an excellent choice!

:D :D :D

Interesting, in a random sort of way ;)

With geographical bias on
1) Tulsa, OK
2) Greenville, SC
3) Clarksville, TN
4) Enid, OK
5) Louisville, KY
6) Chattanooga, TN
7) Amarillo, TX
8) Lubbock, TX
9) Oklahoma City, OK
10) Roswell, GA
11-15) Birmingham, Atlanta, Abilene, Nashville, Bowling Green
16-20) Johnson City/Kingsport/Bristol, Jackson(MS), Athens, Columbia(SC), Tuscaloosa
21-24) Albany (GA), Lexington, El Paso

With geographical bias off
1-5) Chapel Hill, Alexandria, Tulsa, Greenville(SC), Raleigh
6-10)Clarksville, Durham, Enid, Charlotte, Louisville
11-15)Chattanooga, Palm Springs, Richmond, Amarillo, Lubbock
16-20)Greensboro, Oklahoma City, Hampton, Greenville(NC), Rocky Mount
21-24)Lynchburg, Roswell, Reston, Birmingham

I think we know what abe looks like



"A suspect was seen fleeing the site"

SI

Stay away fron Cincinnati...


I say Vegas!!

As a New Yorker (natch) living in the South, I can say that, if I had my way, I would be living in....

(wait for it)

the Pacific Northwest.

It's beautiful and laid back but not parochial.

Indy.

Come February, you'll be living in the same city as the back to back SB Champs who are opening a new stadium next season.

Out of that entire list, Abe, the only ones I can speak to are the Twin Cities & Duluth, as I went to college just south of the Twin Cities and have relatives there, and my brother lives in Duluth.

As I believe the Twin Cities are well-represented by other FOFCers, I'll let them comment. After all, I only spent a few years there (in proximity). However, if you get no input, drop me a PM and I'll give you my thoughts.

As for Duluth, here are my impressions (both having visited and through my brother):

First, be prepared that during the winter it can really be colder than f***. We went up for his wedding in December 2004 and it literally never got above 0. However, they had a lot of snow, so that's good if you like winter sports.

In the summer, they've found plenty of outdoors stuff to do, and apparently there are a number of good bike paths. Plus, you're not very far from the upper Minnesota wilderness with all that offers for the outdoorsman in pretty much any season.

On the downside, my impression is that there's not a ton to do in the town itself. Also, the economy is pretty heavily dependent on oil (at least one refinery nearby) and shipping, and good jobs are apparently hard to come by.


Anyway, that's probably about it. If you're truly interested in Duluth, drop me a PM and I can give you my brother's phone number so you can ask him more about it. His wife is a Duluth native, as well, so she could go into even more detail.

Wanna buy a house in Jacksonville? ;)

Denver/Boulder area is utterly gorgeous.

I saw SPokane, WA on that list. Born and (mostly) raised there, so of course I think it's a great place.

The Seattle area is a great place to live -- except for the traffic. It's awful, and there is no long-term fix in sight.

Thanks folks!

Remember, these places were suggested because of my choices. I love precipitation, whether hail or snow or rain. I like it cold and snowy. I love winter, my favorite season. I like to go hiking in the summertime. Mountains or forests = yay.

I changed my city size to small towns and got places like Seward, Alaska and some place in South Dakota (it wa pretty and had fish in the name, but small and isolated). And yet I still had Denver as my number one city, which means it is really my bestest match overall.

I'd be happy in Anchorage I think. Any Alaska people wanna chime in?

-Abe

You can drive to winter from Seattle, but they do not have one there. For summertime hiking and biking, though, you can do no better. Ditto Olympia.

I chose medium city to small town. With geography factored in.

1) Peterborough, NH
2) Saranac Lake, NY
3) Plymouth, NH
4) Jamestown, NY
5) Johnstown, PA
6) Lewisburgh, PA
7) Glens Fall, NY
8) Littleton, NH
9) Plattsburgh, NY
10) Concord, NH

With geography turned off

1) Leadville, CO
2) Divide, CO
3) Leavenworth, WA
4) New York Mills, MN
5) Peterborugh, NH
6) Petoskey, MI
7) Saranac Lake, NY
8) Hancock-Houghton, MI
9) Dillon, MT
10) Plymouth, NH

hmmm


how come no cities in New Jersey ever come up on this list.

My guess would be housing costs. I set mine to choices that were in the middle for both house costs and rent. A NJ city (Princeton) came up #25 on my list. When I pushed housing costs up near the most expensive options, I started getting a lot more.

This is with no regional bias:

1. Boston, MA
2. Hartford, CT
3. Providence, RI
4. Worcester, MA
5. Washington, DC
6. New Haven, CT
7. Milwaukee, WI
8. Portland, OR
9. Little Rock, AR
10. Baltimore, MD
11. Honolulu, HI
12. Chicago, IL

Spokane, WA is gorgeous. I don't think the nightlife is all that varied.

I would highly recommend you check out Ft. Collins, CO. It's not that far from Denver, it's right at the foot of the Rockies, and from what I remember it's got a pretty good little nightlife because of the college.

BTW, my top ten:

1- Norfolk, VA
2- Tacoma, WA
3- Olympia, WA
4- Cincinnati, OH
5- Knoxville, TN
6- Charlotte, NC
7- Louisville, KY
8- Hampton, VA
9- Nashville, TN
10-Greenville, SC

I'm in the wrong state. With preferences taken off:

1.) Little Rock, AR
2.) Albuquerque, NM
3.) Portland, OR
4.) Eugene, OR
5.) Hartford, CT
6.) Fayetteville, AR
7.) Corvallis, OR
8.) Salem, OR
9.) Providence, RI
10.) Baltimore, MD
11.) Charleston, WV
12.) New Haven, CT
13.) Sheboygan, WI
14.) Worcester, MA
15.) Baton Rouge, LA
16.) Medford, OR
17.) Shreveport-Bossier City, LA
18.) Danbury, CT
19.) Frederick, MD
20.) Alexandria, LA
21.) Santa Cruz, CA
22.) Santa Fe, NM
23.) Washington, DC
24.) San Francisco, CA

I changed a few things and got the most hits in Oregon and Louisiana.

Heh - I'm laughing thinking about you in Olympia. I think the Evergreeners and other various hardcore lefties would drive you up the wall. Or maybe it would just give you more material for your radio show...

I could have sworn we already had a findmyspot.com thread. But I could be wrong.

SI

I've been there a few times and it is really nice. Lots of winter activities in the nearby mountains and the summer hiking season, while short is fantastic. It's nice that there aren't so many people out on the trails. The university is nice (where I spent a majority of my time) and the weather was moderated by the nearby water so winter isn't as cold as the interior. It's also not as windy as other coastal cities, I'm guessing because of the fact that it's on an inlet and not true open ocean.

The downside of the time I spent there was bugs, lots of bugs.

My girlfriend spent some time in Anchorage, and she loved it.

I'm pretty certain you are correct. In fact, if I weren't lazy I would go find it and compare my list from then to now. :)

Found a university job to apply for in Denver. Yay!

Good luck, hope you get it!!!

I just came back from a trip to Colorado and an interview in Fort Collins and I gotta say - ugh. Not that high on my list, sorry.

I saw Carlisle and Harrisburg on that list in your original post. Harrisburg is great, albeit facing bankruptcy. The nightlife is excellent, and the city has been getting younger the past few years.

Carlisle, on the other hand...forget that. ; )

(I don't think you were ever considering the area as it is. This is simply my take on seeing that on the list.)

It's almost unthinkable that with an algorithm that spot-on that the website would be gone now. :)

looks like it changed its url:

http://www.findyourspot.com/

F U

I just ran one for me and #1 came out Eugene , Oregon. I love Eugene and my grandparents live there. I had about 7 places in Oregon, and 5 in Washington on my list . Funny that Honolulu didn't end up on there.

I like Bellingham way better than Grand Rapids