https://wallethub.com/edu/best-worst-large-cities-to-live-in/14358/#main-findings

We talk about this stuff often. Here's another analysis. Here's the top 5.

1 Virginia Beach, VA
2 Seattle, WA
3 Pittsburgh, PA
4 San Diego, CA
5 Colorado Springs, CO

ATL
DC
NYC
PHILA
CHARLOTTE

No Chicago?

I mean outside the "murder capital" areas shits nice

are normal and regular acting

the pizza is trash tho lol

but I had his roast beef that was soo damn good I almost tweeted about it

...start talking about why X city is too expensive/hood/not cool, the cost of private schools, "I like the suburbs," etc. I hear the same thing IRL.

I'm talking about "where will the next black meccas be?" I was just talking about this with my SO the other night, as we were discussing New Orleans and the cultural shift that's happening down there.

Overall, I don't think progressive-minded or well-to-do black folk are thinking about black cultural centers, the "next" choclate city, etc. Still behind with that "as soon as I come up, I'mma get me a big house in the nice suburbs" mentality. The idea of black folks migrating to specific neighborhoods (with the intent to stay and build) just hasn't caught on yet.

by that I mean for a good amount of us "making it" means

1. using white achievement as a barometer of success, i.e., really doing "it" is a house in the burbs with the white folks
2. leaving others behind, i.e., looking out for me and mine but not the local community

+growing gap between rich and poor
+lack of passing down property between generations (anecdotal but it seems like property of deceased elders is sold off instead of held)


I say all that to say that it seems like we're just placing ourselves into deeper suburban pockets, like I have family that lives in San Bernadino because the properties in LA are too damn high in price and when you go out there you see a ton of black and brown people who are doing the same damn thing.

but living in Charlotte its way too easy to be in the burbs because Uptown is tight and all the surrounding areas feel like burbs even though its 10 minutes from center city.

but even in Charlotte the code word is "good schools" which means "white areas"

There is no way I will let my child grow up in a predominantly white school in the south. That just seems wrong.

Was hoping to avoid private schools, but now I have tours scheduled to look at a few. My son was in a charter that he liked, but it probably won't be around next year (mismanagement). All of this came about after the deadline to apply to other city schools, and I don't like the neighborhood elementary, so...

we both think we will sell this house and move to a better district but I don't want it to mean mostly white.

we are both college educated so I think a public school will work I just want to make sure the diversity is strong.

funny thing is a white girl I went to HS with in the burbs up in pittsburgh is a guidance counselor at a private school in Charlotte. I may hit her up to see what's what. My wife wants me to see if I can get the hook up.

I don't work for this site and I don't have any interests in it. I've never been to any of those top 5 cities. Like I said, I posted it because this is a topic that's discussed often on OKP. There's no hidden agenda to encourage or discourage anyone from moving to any of these spots.

And as far as the list goes in regards to us...that's another angle that used to be discussed in these posts. We used to be able to take a topic and extrapolate it to fit our concerns.

>https://wallethub.com/edu/best-worst-large-cities-to-live-in/14358/#main-findings
>
>We talk about this stuff often. Here's another analysis.
>Here's the top 5.
>
>1 Virginia Beach, VA
>2 Seattle, WA
>3 Pittsburgh, PA
>4 San Diego, CA
>5 Colorado Springs, CO
>

VA beach? I love VA, best times of my life, met my wife in VA.
Seattle? too expensive and too white
Pittsburgh? too cold and too white
San Diego? expensive but heard the weather is awesome
Colorado Springs? sounds white but legal trees, trees, trees

lol if that's worth anything

then you're going to have a lot of confused teens up there looking for answers and finding all the wrong ones.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

that religious stepford perfect upbringing prolly got the kids all fucked up.

the smaller the circle the better?

weird methodology too. va beach and seattle aren't very similar other than being coastal (and whiter than their immediate neighbors?), but they average out in the rankings to be the best?

pittsburgh comes in third because it splits the difference and it's a little better than average in most categories.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/06/30/colorado-springs-libertarian-experiment-america-215313

"Colorado Springs has always leaned hard on its reputation for natural beauty. An hour’s drive south of Denver, it sits at the base of the Rocky Mountains’ southern range and features two of the state’s top tourist destinations: the ancient sandstone rock formations known as Garden of the Gods, and Pikes Peak, the 14,000-foot summit visible from nearly every street corner. It’s also a staunchly Republican city—headquarters of the politically active Christian group Focus on the Family (Colorado Springs is nicknamed “the Evangelical Vatican”) and the fourth most conservative city in America, according to a recent study. "

My GF pops lives there and it's weird as fuck. I get the beauty because its motherfucking beautiful, but I can't imagine being young there. The church I got dragged to was pretty diverse, (aint enough of a negro population there for a black church) but there was a hella stepford wife feeling around even the black folks

I agree that it's weird.

Fuck this list though. Stop saying Seattle is great.

It is great (for the most part) and the last thing it needs is more gentrifying hordes.

if you wanna gentrify, go across the lake to Bellevue. they'd love to have you.

last trip we did the touristy stuff like the space needle etc.

for a second trip we want to hit more shit in the cuts

any recs?

things to do?
places to eat?
shopping?

also, is this adult only or kids included?

shit, i've been priced out of the city proper since 2014, so even when * I * do make it into town i'm like "this is different," but if you let me know a few things you're looking for i'll try my best.

No kids, just me and my fiance

So good bars, restos.

Also anything outdoorsy and scenic that's like a daytrip but without hiking involved.

I hear you as far as cities changing fast and not being in the mix anymore like that, but whatever you could provide would be dope!

Thanks

that really changes what are good options to do, especially outdoorsy/sightseeing things.

I'll need $$.

That place is nearly perfect.

its small as fuck and expensive.


feels like a resort town and not really a city

and conservative as shit...

Some dude was telling me that it's expensive w/ few jobs because the people that move there already have money and don't need jobs because they either own businesses or are retired.

I'll lose to all thirteen of the other cities above us but I cannot abide being compared in any way to Tampa. I'm assuming they rank so high because the QoL score is boosted by the beaches and athletes.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

LOL
.
.

"The unexamined life is not worth living." - Plato

...a "crowded" part of Atlanta, outside of the insane traffic y'all have down there. (does everyone drive two cars to work?)

cars everywhere but the sidewalks be mad empty.

I still remember my first freaknik. Streets were empty at 9PM and dude said, watch in an hour or 2. We came back and shit looked like Mexico City

.
.

"The unexamined life is not worth living." - Plato

Still plenty of room for more transplants.

which is the same size population wise as Atlanta, both of which are just ~50K more populated than Omaha, but its deceptive because Kansas City is also Overland Park, Independence, Leawood, Kansas City (KS) and several other large towns that balloon its metro to more than twice the size of ours.

As I've gotten older and travelled a bit more I've come to learn that most of the biggest cities are relatively similar in population at their cores but get as massive as they do through all the mid-size and small towns they've incorporated into their tax structure over the decades.

~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

less space
DC too
but that's east coast...we live on top and underneath one another

just always thought ATL was wayyyyy bigger than that...people wise

Atlanta's metro area, altogether, is approaching 5.8 million people. That's nearly 5.8 million people sharing the same roads and that's with a severely hindered train system that isn't able to service tons of folks. Even the smaller towns located in the metro area have mega big city traffic. Trust, I've lived down this way long enough to notice the difference from back in the day to now when it comes to the population down here. We are packed. Experts are already projecting that Atlanta and the metro area will be around 8.6 million people in the next 3 decades.

I heard abt the traffic

Most of them rank in the 6 figure category but the boost from their metro areas give them their big dog status.



Since 1976

http://www.ajc.com/news/local-govt--politics/census-metro-atlanta-population-approaches-million/1pxSPBRYI6L26zn4jgVBrN/
.

"The unexamined life is not worth living." - Plato

the city really does like it's at max capacity

they can build UP.

plus there are all kinds of trees and shit up in there.

it's not particularly dense for the most part.

https://atlanta.curbed.com/2017/3/15/14929304/atlanta-population-density-map-cities

Whole city is miserable as fuck. Since October the city had three sunny days through March of this year. Don't even get me started the low key cultural dissonance that exists. It's the most miserable city I've ever been to / lived in.

The lack of sunshine and all that rain makes for a really shitty place to stay. Call it hate all you want but someone has to keep it a buck. Everyone needs sunshine and Seattle is not a sunny place.

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/weather/seattle-is-just-2-weeks-from-rain-free-record-as-we-enter-historically-driest-time-of-year/

been 75-80 degrees and sunny for 2 months, but let Kira tell it...

>http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/weather/seattle-is-just-2-weeks-from-rain-free-record-as-we-enter-historically-driest-time-of-year/
>
>been 75-80 degrees and sunny for 2 months, but let Kira tell
>it...

refute this:

http://komonews.com/weather/scotts-weather-blog/never-ending-gloom-seattle-has-had-just-3-sunny-mild-days-since-the-start-of-october

75-80 degrees for two months does not refute my points.

While I'm going in on Seattle fuck whatever in the piss drinking feces infested waters people drink downtown that has their attitudes so awful. I've never met a sadder sack of ruffians, that's right ruffians, than whatever that environment downtown is supposed to be.

2) i really did enjoy those october-december storms rolling off the pacific. i just hated february.

3) go on a vacation, do some inside shit, get some lamps.

Vitamin D deficiency is tied to premature deaths. Something has to be done because it's nuts having to deal with the lack of sunlight. That might explain the absolutely horrendous attitude in Seattle.