Saturday, July 01, 2006

Dream city?

L'oiseau rebelle asked:

What is your dream city? Why?

Assuming that you have not struck the jackpot and your inheritance, if any, would barely last you beyond a few months. In other words, ways of amassing money to survive should be taken into account.

And: where would you never live?


My dream city? I don't exactly have one in mind, but a number. They share one characteristic - all are college towns.

Many college towns offer these benefits — a built-in intellectual community, good restaurants, low crime rate and research libraries, to name just a few. You can argue that big cities have them (low crime?) too; that may be true, but metropolises have crowds, and a cramped living/work space is a turn-off for me.

College towns (in the US) are also good places to raise a family.

Unfortunately, I assume most of my country (city) folks will probably think they are boring places to live in.

My 'dream' list then (not exhaustive): Madison, WI; Charlottesville, VA; Boulder, CO; Athens, GA; Chapel Hill, NC; Austin, TX; Palo Alto, CA; Oak Ridge, TN; Santa Babara, CA; Gainsville, FL.

Incidentally, such towns have either a state flagship university or private institution or National Lab as an "anchor tenant". If the bitter winter is an issue, then CO and WI are off my list.

Place where I would never live? Heh, it is obvious if you had followed my blog all this while.

5 comments:

L'oiseau rebelle said...

Hey, Boulder has mild winters! It rarely snows and when it does, the snow melts quickly. The snow falls on the right places - the ski slopes.

Elia Diodati said...

I'm a city slickr. What can I say :D

takchek said...

Good food is very subjective. One man's meat can be another's poison. And besides, Madison is one of the best places to stay in the US! (Other than the bitter winters)

Outside of the US? There are...a mountain town near Salzburg in Austria (can't exactly remember the name), and parts of the English countryside. But Europe has language (and racial) issues; China will be good too, but I haven't been to that country, so I can't comment.

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure if you have visited Athens, GA. Personally do not think it is a nice college town to live in. Definitely consider Los Altos, CA though.

Anonymous said...

have u been to Toronto? I think thats an awesome place to live in.