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What's the best city to live in the US? (excluding NY, LA)
- Thread starter SliChillax
- Start date
I live in West LA.. Good city to live in. Shitty city to visit.
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It's Philly, baby.
6th largest city in the US, 8th largest metro area.
2 hours south of NYC, 2 hours north of Washington DC. Either one is a day trip, and if you use Amtrak no driving is necessary.
Stupidly low cost of living compared to the above two cities:
SEPTA is the 5th largest transportation network in the US. Driving here is mostly optional if you're in the city proper.
Eagles (NFL), Flyers (NHL), Sixers (NBA), Phillies (MLB), Union (MLS).
Consistently ranked one of the best restaurant cities in the US. More restaurants per capita (6000 total) than NYC, DC, or Chicago.
Philly was nominated for six James Beard awards in 2019: Outstanding chef (Marc Vetri); Outstanding Restaurant (Zahav); Outstanding Restauranteur (Ellen Yin); Rising Star Chef of the Year (Jesse Ito); Best Chef, Mid Atlantic (Rich Landau); Best Chef, Mid Atlantic (Cristina Martinez)
Philly museum of art and the Barnes are world class. Philadelphia orchestra is world class. Mutter Museum, Franklin Institute, Academy of Natural Science, Rodin Museum, Penn Museum, it's endless re: arts and culture.
America was born here, get your history on at Old City and Independence Hall.
If there's a tour of any sort, it will be making a stop here.
Massive network of excellent universities, including Ivy League (UPENN)
Pennsylvania has 354 Craft Breweries, and is #1 in the country at barrels of beer produced over 3.7 million in 2018, ahead of California. Philly Beer Week (actually two weeks) is an EVENT here.
Pennsylvania has nearly as many craft distillers as it does breweries.
About an hour or so from Jersey and Delaware beaches.
About 1.5-2 hours from skiing in the pocono mountain area, to get your skiing on.
You CAN live somewhere else on the east coast, but why would you
This is awesome - Philly hasn't really been on my radar, but.. this is a great post.
How's the community aspects of living there? Also, does Philly have the stereotypical East Coast attitude or is it a bit different?
I love Seattle, but it's funny to me how casually it is mentioned as a great city to live when it's so unaffordable. Your average house sells for >$700k, a one bedroom apartment is $2000/month, and the city is filled with homeless camps. This isn't a nice place to live unless you are making serious cash.
Someone earlier said Tacoma and I would like to second that. It's close to Seattle but reasonably priced.
Someone earlier said Tacoma and I would like to second that. It's close to Seattle but reasonably priced.
not sure how I'd quantify either of your questions, honestly. Philly is an area of a lot of different neighborhoods and cultures- if you're interested in being part of a community it won't take you long to find one, if that's what you mean.
East Coast Attitude I have no idea- I'm from here so it all seems just normal to me. i regularly travel up and down the east coast from florida to boston, never had a problem relating to people.
Yeah, recommending Seattle, Vancouver, Portland or any of the major west coast cities are expensive.
It's Philly 100%. It's ridiculously affordable compared to new york or dc, good city/regional transit, has all the accoutrement of a major international city, still has the progressive northeast vibes and it's pretty diverse.
checks all the boxes, especially affordability. get on it while it's still slept-on.
only requirement is that you have to at least support the iggles and swear on your life to never support the cowboys
checks all the boxes, especially affordability. get on it while it's still slept-on.
only requirement is that you have to at least support the iggles and swear on your life to never support the cowboys
Yeah, first answers good. For a point of comparison, I've noticed native SoCal folks are fairly reluctant to make new friends - and a lot of them just prefer to do stuff with their families, beginning in their late 20s.
Or the rumored Seattle Freeze, for another example.
Obviously, though, there are always opportunities to join communities and make friends that way.
As for the question about the attitudes - in general, are Philadelphians blunt? polite? Overly (im)polite? Always in a hurry? Stuff like that.
Well, I mentioned Seattle, but I didn't mean actually in the city area. I meant just the general Seattle area which includes the surrounding cities.
People speak their mind around here. I don't see a lot of "false" niceness- if you're from the south it might be an adjustment. So I think blunt is an accurate descriptor. People who live here seem to be VERY invested in their sports teams as well for reasons no one is clear on. I've had men I do not know run across the street to engage me in conversation about sports because of what jacket I happened to be wearing that day. It's just an accepted thing, i guess?
I find the entire northeast corridor (DC to Boston) tends to have the "in a hurry" stereotype, but again- being as how I'm from here, it just seems normal to me.
Best way to find that out is to visit for a weekend and see how things are, I guess.
edit: to your first point the area has so many people in it and so much stuff to do that outsiders are pretty welcome. i've never personally run into the kind of social tendencies you describe.
Personal anecdote...getting a dog is a really quick way to meet people in LA. I don't think I've been to any other city that has a more active dog culture. Having said that, I don't recommend nor endorse bringing home a dog just for that sake.
Dallas is the rival NFL franchise to the Philadelphia Eagles.
There's some history there between both fanbases and things get heated when games happen.
But more importantly (and I'm not entirely sure how this happened) *philadelphia area* Dallas Fans have acquired an absolutely terrible reputation. Like, never been to Texas, not from there, but decided to bandwagon onto that team to troll and be contrarians. Which is bizarre since the Dallas Cowboys haven't been a good team in over 20 years. They rarely (if ever) make the playoffs and haven't won a championship since 1996. At least with Patriots fans it makes some sense. It also doesn't happen with Redskins or Giants fans (the two OTHER NFC-East divisional rivals) in the area. They're perfectly fine. It's just the Cowboys fans that lean hard into being assholes.
Everyone- EVERYONE- loathes those people.
So if it's the middle of Football Season and you're at the stadium in Dallas Gear, you will likely meet some unpleasant Philadelphians lol.
Chicago has all the amenities of NY and LA and most of the same problems except it's a bit cheaper. It's also gritty as fuck and surrounded by a Midwest suburban hellscape. Not sure the tradeoff is worth it for a city that is appalling to live in and look at 70% of the year.
I'll just say that I love Austin and we're glad to give you Nick Foles.
Seattle. There's problems with every city and there's a flip side to almost every pro/con (it's expensive, the Mexican food mostly sucks, and this post is going to attract the locals that like to complain because of the homeless and cost of living like that shit is unique across the USA) but these are the reasons I love it.
- Possibly the most liberal, progressive place in the US (except for the tax structure. But most shops have pride flags, LGBTQ safe place plaques, BLM posters, liberal politicians, liberal churches, every restaurant has a food safety rating on the window)
- People are warm and friendly
- Recreational weed, great quality and options and prices
- Most shops are locally owned, very few chains
- This leads to interesting store concepts like convenience stores that sell craft beer on tap and serve fresh Korean food
- Public transit that is expanding through buses and trains that even run late at night
- Small city feel (Gas Works Park gets you a panoramic view of the entire city) yet it still has everything you need
- Summer is dazzling and 65-85F usually. You only need A/C 5-20 days a year. Also almost no rain during summer and late summer.
- Winter is cold and wet usually but this winter has been so mild and sunny. The lowest it ever gets is the mid 20Fs. Usually 40s for winter.
- Bustling arts scene
- Amazing Asian food (Thai especially) and seafood and food trucks
- Bustling industry with Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Nintendo nearby plus biotech
- A world-class hospital system through UW, Fred Hutchinson cancer center and other medical alliances
- Expansive benefits for the poor like AppleCare (state Medicaid insurance) and laws that protect the lower and middle classes (like it's illegal for medical insurance premiums for state employees to add their dependents and it be more than 3x the cost of the employee alone)
- Strong union state, the unions here are amazing and very protective of teachers. My husbands union meeting fought and won a good raise this year, and the meeting had all kinds of minorities and disabled people speaking out for their needs.
- Kids here are woke af. I regularly see gender fluid school children and they have LGBTQ parent kids nights at schools.
- The city is walkable, the blocks are short. I drive maybe once a week now to pick up groceries en masse
- An Amazon hub, so we have a huge infrastructure to get amazon deliveries same day and grocery pick up/delivery.
- Pike Place is one of the oldest and best farmer/artisan markets in the USA
- The best coffee in the USA
- The rain is kind of romantic and once you buy the right clothing, it's easy to get used to.
- The PERFECT juxtaposition of nature and urban. A 30 minute drive will get you to the mountains, I'm 5 min from the beach here in Ballard, where the sun sets behind the cascade mountains. Mt Rainier is one of the prettiest mountains, hiding behind the city.
- 2-3 hr drive to Portland, 2-3 hr drive to Vancouver
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Your name is very ironic when attached to this post.
I'm moving to Philly in March and I'm stoked. It's an amazing city with great food, events/activities, and beautiful women. It's close to other cities and it has decent public transport. Also it's cheap!
I was thinking of living in SF, but I decided to live in Palo Alto instead. I'm glad with the choice. SF and Oakland are not too far of a drive/train ride. San Jose is close by. I can more easily visit Santa Cruz. And there's lots of nice nature available to the southwest. Palo Alto itself is pretty suburban, but it has some nice attractions to go to for simple stuff after work.
Def not the typical East Coast attitude. It's a little abrasive but in a wholesome Rocky sort of way. You should check out Philly!
I went to grad school in Atlanta, and I kinda miss it. Tons of great food, lots of parks, cool art scene, affordable, huge airport with access to everywhere, good weather most of the time (except in the dead middle of summer...)
Only thing that really sucks is the pollen. And you're in the true deep south if you go an hour in any direction.
Only thing that really sucks is the pollen. And you're in the true deep south if you go an hour in any direction.
Some of this is right but a lot is misguided. Responses in purple.
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and no, no matter how you slice it, Seattle is pretty liberal for USA standards
weed is expensive everywhere, but there are good prices here. I can get 3x1000mg full extract oils for $15
The ones I've encountered are locally owned ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I talk to the owners
I don't live in amazon campus. There's more to the city than amazon. It's walkable where I'm at
lmao at "no daylight" during the winter. Such a crock of shit. The days are short but there have been several sunny days here this winter, and the light gray sky is still daylight. People that whine about Seattle weather have probably never lived somewhere with an actual nuisance of a winter.
pike place isn't a tourist trap. Locals actually grocery shop at the market. Please. Plenty of people who work downtown eat lunch at pike place.
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My job is located in Seattle and I love it when I go there but man do they have the craziest homeless people. Walking outside during a Seahawks game is an experience. I was working with someone who was retrofitting shipping containers for them but that's still an ongoing process
Great answer! I love Memphis, been here over 15 years, lived both in midtown, Cordova and the 'burbs and really enjoy it. Lots to do, lots of places to eat, great cheap entertainment, attainable housing (both apartments and houses) and good jobs available.
If you are intro drinking and hard drugs maybe.
edit: I should say this is just based on living there for 5 years. I did more drugs in that city than I have done my entire life. If you end up hanging out with the late crews there it was just what you did.
I live 30 minutes North of Seattle, moved here in '98 and have loved it ever since. Through work I have been to and stayed in many cities in the US but I love where I live.
Something to understand about Seattle is perspective & exaggeration. Everything that everyone said so far in this thread is likely true on some level. It does rain a lot, it IS expensive, etc etc.
BUT... a lot of opinion is based on THEIR perspective, and if their perspective is overly positive or negative, it tends to be exaggerated.
So I personally do not find it terribly expensive here, but I live in a smaller town not in Seattle proper. From my perspective everything is within my means and I am not in the tech industry at all and would not consider myself well off. But if I had more money, obviously I would be more positive about it.
Same with the weather. Yes, it rains a lot in the winter. If you don't mind the grey skies and showers, it is fine and it is part of the life you live. But if you hate the rain, and you crave daily blue skies and sun, then from your perspective it probably feels like it rains every god damned day. On a side note, rain here comes in waves...other places I lived, storms roll in, it rains, they roll out, rinse repeat. Here a storm rolls in, and lives here for a week, or two, with steady to off and on rain and perm grey skies. But then you can have a week of sunny that people forget about as soon as the rain comes back for 2 more weeks. Personally, I can handle the weather, and I enjoy it, even at it's worst it is MAYBE 2 months of constant, 2-3 months of often, and the rest is awesome.
To end this long ass post... I love this area, but it is not for everyone, and that is ok, to each their own.
I do not think there is a BEST place to live. The best place is where YOU find your peace and love to be there. And that could be ANYWHERE.
Good luck ;)
Something to understand about Seattle is perspective & exaggeration. Everything that everyone said so far in this thread is likely true on some level. It does rain a lot, it IS expensive, etc etc.
BUT... a lot of opinion is based on THEIR perspective, and if their perspective is overly positive or negative, it tends to be exaggerated.
So I personally do not find it terribly expensive here, but I live in a smaller town not in Seattle proper. From my perspective everything is within my means and I am not in the tech industry at all and would not consider myself well off. But if I had more money, obviously I would be more positive about it.
Same with the weather. Yes, it rains a lot in the winter. If you don't mind the grey skies and showers, it is fine and it is part of the life you live. But if you hate the rain, and you crave daily blue skies and sun, then from your perspective it probably feels like it rains every god damned day. On a side note, rain here comes in waves...other places I lived, storms roll in, it rains, they roll out, rinse repeat. Here a storm rolls in, and lives here for a week, or two, with steady to off and on rain and perm grey skies. But then you can have a week of sunny that people forget about as soon as the rain comes back for 2 more weeks. Personally, I can handle the weather, and I enjoy it, even at it's worst it is MAYBE 2 months of constant, 2-3 months of often, and the rest is awesome.
To end this long ass post... I love this area, but it is not for everyone, and that is ok, to each their own.
I do not think there is a BEST place to live. The best place is where YOU find your peace and love to be there. And that could be ANYWHERE.
Good luck ;)
I agree. Personally though, I've never been happier in my life than living in Seattle
San Diego is weird and frightening. Feels like the city in The Matrix. And yeah, way too many white conservatives.
$2000 for a one bedroom is nothing when you compare that to the astronomical prices in LA, NYC, and SF.
I wouldn't live in Seattle, but I love Bellevue and Redmond.
Palo Alto is nice. Right next to Stanford with excellent shopping areas.
I know Florida gets a bad rep but I'm going to throw in a vote for Tampa. It reminds me of Miami's little brother.
-The city is fairly liberal and progressive with a very large LGBTQ community (current Mayor is an openly gay woman).
-Large diverse population (3 million MSA population)
- People are friendly
- Great nightlife with tons of clubs, bars, breweries, etc
- Amazing beaches only 30 mins away (Clearwater Beach or St. Pete Beach)
- Expensive but still livable due to great job market and tons of companies moving into the area
- Lots of things to do in general with Busch Gardens, NHL games (Lightning), NFL games (Bucs), museums, great restaurants, etc
- Only a 45 min to 1-hour drive to Disney/ Orlando
The downsides are that there aren't any seasons much like most of Central/ South FL (currently 84 today as I type this). Also being FL you basically need a car to get around unless you stay downtown and have access to the trolley.
-The city is fairly liberal and progressive with a very large LGBTQ community (current Mayor is an openly gay woman).
-Large diverse population (3 million MSA population)
- People are friendly
- Great nightlife with tons of clubs, bars, breweries, etc
- Amazing beaches only 30 mins away (Clearwater Beach or St. Pete Beach)
- Expensive but still livable due to great job market and tons of companies moving into the area
- Lots of things to do in general with Busch Gardens, NHL games (Lightning), NFL games (Bucs), museums, great restaurants, etc
- Only a 45 min to 1-hour drive to Disney/ Orlando
The downsides are that there aren't any seasons much like most of Central/ South FL (currently 84 today as I type this). Also being FL you basically need a car to get around unless you stay downtown and have access to the trolley.
True, and the city really needs to improve affordability; but, I'm a graduate student and my husband is an elementary school teacher and we both comfortably afford housing in Ballard together, so we're middle class.
Seattle has higher median rent than LA and NYC. Bellevue is even more expensive.
I'm pointing out that you can not see most of the city from gasworks. You need to get out more.
I'm not sure how it's a crock of shit. There's quantifiably a very low amount of light in Seattle. "according to the NOAA, Seattle has clear skies just 28% of the time from November to February, the lowest rate of any city in the U.S. "
https://smartasset.com/mortgage/cities-least-depressing-winters
https://www.king5.com/article/news/...ttle/281-f2f5e2b5-3d34-455d-aa5a-54e0855fdeb0
https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2017/11/low-solar-radiation-is-that-why-you-are.html
It's not just about cloudy days, it's also the low amount of solar radiation we get due to geography.
In terms of light, Anchorage is worse but that's about it. I'm sitting here writing this at noon and it looks like dusk outside.
yeah I'll take your word for it.
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I literally just busted out laughing. SF is a visit city but the cost of living is insane there and the homeless/drug problems are NOT getting better lol...
Every day while working to work, I had to avoid human feces. I even saw maybe once or twice every few weeks someone defecating on the street... https://www.forbes.com/sites/adaman...-132562-case-reports-since-2008/#1ae754b45ea5
Top cities, probably like Raleigh, Austin, Dallas, Nashville, Memphis... places that are booming right now with okay or affordable cost of living.
If you want smaller cities that are still pretty big like (200k+) then great places are around some of the big cities that probably arent good. Places around the Bay Area that are a bit cheaper but a bit further out or like Orange County like Irvine which is the safest city in the US for its size (but it's also a bit expensive)
You can see most of Seattle proper from gas works (downtown, Capitol Hill, Ballard, Fremont, university district, mt Rainier, the sound, etc) and coming from my hometown Houston, Seattle is small, which is why I said you can see most of it. I get that there's Tacoma and Bellevue, but I'm talking king county
I get that, but this winter has been mild and dry compared to others. I mean it was sunny yesterday here in Ballard, and I took this picture a couple of days ago too, there was just a few clouds with blue skies. The post I quoted said "no daylight" which is an exaggeration.
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Thought about Palo Alto when I was working in Stanford but I don't know how you can deal with the people there. So full of shit and are pretty secretly racist
Beautiful women is a weird "plus" for Philly. Give the 4 regions of the US, the East coast would definitely be by far the least cited in that regard vs the South, Midwest, and West. Good luck though. Theres beautiful women everywhere to be fair.
The people there overall are horrible. Its worse than New York without what should be the right of entitlement.