Tell me about where you live! Post 5 good things and 5 bad ones.

[LeftyMom]

Good things about Sacramento:
1. Some of the best food in the universe
2. It's pretty, mostly
3. The weather's nice more often than not
4. An hour and a half of driving and I can be by the ocean or in high mountain forests
5. As nor cal goes, it's pretty cheap to live here

Bad things about Sacramento:
1. The traffic blows
2. Not all the wingnuts have moved to Placer County yet
3. Every asshole who went skiing once thinks they need an SUV in case they have to drive in the snow again
4. Dangerously close to Freeperville
5. You can't get a vegan meal delivered for love or money

[ZombieNixon]

1. I will tell you one thing that defines it all...

I live four blocks from the center of Chicago.

[flvegan]

2. Okay...Tampa

Good things about Tampa:
1. Thriving "adult industry" here
2. No income tax
3. We have a number of sports teams that win sometimes. People like that.
4. Hurricane shelters that take families with animals
5. Local Animal Control gives me the nudge, nudge and the wink, wink (if you get my meaning)

Bad things about Tampa
1. Rhonda Storms and her posse of intolerant gay-hating asshat fucking dipshits
2. Property taxes and insurance rates are through. the. roof.
3. Benjamin Boatwright http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGB8NGQHWSE.html
4. Worst drivers on the planet
5. Cops fuck with the Food Not Bombs folks constantly

Cripes, limiting it to 5 was tough...

[LeftyMom]

19. You mean a municipal tax or a state tax?

We don't have city or county income tax here, the state handles it all and disperses it. Easier, but when the economy's bad the counties get shafted. Sales tax varies a bit from area to area though, with most going to the state and a bit to the county or city. It's 7.75% here but 8 something over in most of the bay area counties.

[_testify_]

59. We don't have any income taxes except federal

But as flvegan mentioned, our property taxes are horrific.

[_testify_]

58. Hiya neighbor

I agree with all of yours so I'll just add a few:

Pro:
1. Cuban food
2. Crazy Joe Redner!

Con:
1. Summer is like living on the surface of the sun
2. Nightlife is non-existant unless you like booty music

I hadn't heard about the Boatwright guy. What a piece of shit.

[Ramsey]

66. As a new Tampa resident

Of only 4 months, I'll add my impressions:

5 Good Things about Tampa:
1. Tampa Bay (It's REALLY beautiful!)
2. Great weather all the time
3. My neighborhood is really beautiful and my neighbors are very nice
4. My new job is great!
5. No income tax!

5 Bad Things abotu Tampa:
1. Too many strip malls
2. No decent restaurants in North Tampa
3. No Whole Foods grocery in Tampa
4. Too many Republicans in North Tampa
5. Property taxes and insurance rates are outrageous!

[fizzgig]

3. northern colorado

good:
1. the mountains
2. moderately mild (albeit unpredictable) weather
3. some damn good restaurants
4. relatively safe
5. downtown foco has great shops, bars, food and general atmosphere

bad:
1. marilyn musgrave is my congresswoman
2. it's populated by assholes who forget how to drive in the snow
3. overrun by drunk college kids who can't drive
4. work in my field is fairly limited
5. not much to do if you don't feel like going to the bar

[dolo amber]

4. Milwaukee:

Good:

1. Cheap beer, and lots of it.
2. Fantastic restaurants for a city its size
3. Beautiful, well developed lakefront. By *well* developed I mean loads of green spaces, an astonishingly cool looking art museum, and not a million condos. :thumbsup:
4. Distinct neighborhood personalities that have stayed largely the same for a half-century.
5. We had the last socialist mayor in the US. :patriot:


Not so good:

1. Crime. And a notoriously corrupt police force. These could be 2 separate items, but I have a feeling they go hand in hand. :eyes:
2. Public transportation needs some serious updating. The busses themselves are all shiny and new, but there's not enough of them thus they're unreliable. And being this close to Chicago we really, really should have a better commuting option than $20 one-way Amtrak.
3. County Executive Scott Walker. :grr:
4. Local music scene blows.
5. Never ending highway construction.

[book lady]

42. Have you considered using Megabus...

it is $5.00 or less to Chicago

[martymar64]

5. Austin, Texas

The Good:

1. Great live music is everywhere!

2. Home of Rick Linklater, Robert Rodriguez and Mike Judge

3. Molly Ivins and Jim Hightower live here.

4. The 4th most educated city in America

5. The Hill Country in the fall.

The Bad:

1. The Chimp used to live her for awhile.

2. Goodhair Perry lives here now.

3. The traffic sucks big time!!!

4. The cops are brutal thugs.

5. We're surrounded by the rest of Texas.

[RetroLounge]

6. Milwaukee:

Good:

1) Generally a Lower cost of living.
2) Great Parks, and lots of them.
3) Lake Michigan.
4) Food, food and more food. Choices are pretty amazing for a mid-size city.
5) I live here.

Bad:

1) Very Segregated.
2) Crime rising, police corrupt.
3) Too damn close to Waukesha and the Repugs.
4) Public Transportation mired in 1950's thinking that buses solve everything. Need light rail.
5) I live here.

RL

[Liberalynn]

7. Finger Lakes Region, Upstate NY

Good

1. Fairly low crime rate
2. Beautiful scenery- lots of lakes of course - Naples grape growing region
3. Wegman's Supermarket- fantastic customer service, books, a cafeteria style restaurant, photo, pharmacy, video, pre-prepared meals, specialty items. Plus lots Fresh produce. We locals love this store!
4. Great Italian Restaurants and One Good Chinese Restaurant
5. Great school system including a great community College which I attended my first two years of college and have gone back for more courses.

Bad

1. Limited non-grocery shopping- Only major department store is Walmart. We have a very small Penny's, and a T.J. Max but virtually no other place to buy , bedding and bathroom supplies. and electronic stuff like DVD's. Unless you want to drive a fair distance to Rochester or one of its suburbs.

2. If your not hungry for Italian your choices are limited. We finally have one good Chinese restaurant and we recently got an Apple-bees but other than that it is pretty much just fast food, unless you count Pondergrossa(JMHO) and Denny's as something different. LOL.

3. Getting more and more crowded. If one more person complains that they moved here to get away from over population and then the population followed them I am going to scream. I was born here for pete's sake, how do you think I feel? My family has lived here since the 1890's. The people who are complaining are the ones who started the over population and over development. Don't complain to we who have seen our nice rural area turn into a traffic and crowded nightmare.

4. County government is mostly Republican but Dems control the cities! Yay!

5. Not enough cultural enrichment and entertainment activities.

[BarenakedLady]

68. Did you go to the Naples Grape festival

this year?

[Robb]

8. Western Colorado

Good things:
1. It's fargin' beautiful here.
2. Did I mention it was beautiful?
3. I live in a small town, and folks are largely great
4. The weather is usually sunny or snowing, rain dries up quickly.
5. If I need to get away, there's a half-decent airport an hour out.

Bad things:
1. I'm tired of walking into rooms and being the smartest one there.
2. My ex apparently wants to stay in town.
3. I'm at the top of my available field, and there's no place else to go unless I leave.
4. Trustafarians.
5. Lack of Ethiopian food.

[Initech]

9. Orange County CA:

Good things:

1. The sports teams (Angels and Ducks)
2. Close to Los Angeles
3. Lots of good concerts at the Arrowhead Pond and the House Of Blues at Disneyland
4. Close to the beaches
5. If I need to get away, there's two really good airports not too far away (SNA and ONT).

Bad things:

1. It's fucking expensive to live here.
2. It's Freeperville, big time (the town I live in is home to Richard "Tricky Dick" Nixon)
3. Too many insane soccer moms who brag about their kids' achievements on the windows of their oversized SUVs
4. The traffic blows. Seriously, you've never experienced traffic until you've driven on Satan's Highway (aka CA-91).
5. Lots of bad TV shows have featured the stupid, the rich, and the snobby of this county and have really tainted its image (fuck The O.C.!).

[querelle]

10. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Good Things:

1. Most picturesque city in North America.
2. So many parks and public spaces.
3. Restaurants of every type everywhere. All of them very good.
4. An arts scene to die for.
5. Tolerance.

Bad Things:

1. Small town attitude at times.
2. Too many NIMBY's (Not In My Back Yard)
3. Too many self-rightious types.
4. Yuppie-ville central. They all name their kids "Tyler" or "Kaileigh". These people make me sick.
5. The gay scene has too many S&M (stand around and model) bars.

Q

[driver8]

43. I love the city of Ottawa. I grew up in upstate NY and we used

to go up to Ottawa all the time for concerts. Ottawa is so beautiful and so clean!!

[XNASA]

11. Chicago

Good Things:

1. You can buy beer at the grocery store.
2. You can buy wine at the grocery store.
3. You can buy any kind of booze, at the grocery store.
4. The grocery stores aren't too crowded.
5. There are lots of grocery stores.

Bad Things:

1. Sometimes it gets very hot.
2. Sometimes it gets very cold.
3. Sometimes it gets very windy.
4. Wisconsin is nearby.
5. Indiana is even closer than Wisconsin.

[YankeyMCC]

12. Suburban Boston

Pros:
1. Some of the best food in the Universe :)
2. The seasons
3. I'm a bike ride away from the spot where the shoot was heard 'round the world
4. Mountains (reasonably sized ones), meadows, woods, all very beautiful and nearby
5. Lots of job opportunities

Cons:
1. Traffic at least going into Cambridge and Boston - actually outside of that it's not so bad
2. The salty slush in the winter
3. High cost of housing
4. The current governor
5. The guy down the street who takes the leash off his dog in the conservation area across the street because he thinks the dog is friendly when it's really a nasty aggressive dog that's threatened me twice.

[Oeditpus Rex]

13. k

Good (this is gonna take some thinkin'):

•It's quiet.
•Except on the July 4 weekend, when there's like 100,000 bikers in town.
•There's some really good breakfast places.
•If you're into OHV, one of the largest OHV recreational areas in the state is just a few miles out of town.
•Great weather, except for a couple weeks in July when it's over 100.

Bad:

•Third-poorest county in the state.
•Among the highest-priced homes in the country.
•No place to shop. We have a Target and a kmart for "stuff" and an Albertson's, a Safeway and a Nob Hill for groceries.
•Many people here, including the city council, are anti-progress.
•Not a damned thing to do unless you drink, play softball or ride dirt bikes.

I could go on and on, but...

[SeattleGirl]

14. Seattle:

Good things about Seattle:
1. Stunning scenery, including the waterfront, the Olympic and Cascade Mountains, and Mt. Rainier.
2. Lots of things to do, from sightseeing to big-name concerts, to the opera and ballet and symphony, to the Pike Place Market, and so much more.
3. It's close to Canada, which I love to visit.
4. Great downtown area.
5. A liberal city.

Bad things about Seattle:
1. Traffic blows here, too.
2. Public projects (roads, bridges, light rail) sometimes take FOREVER to get going, because sometimes Seattle can't decide if it wants to be in the granola free-former crowd, the yuppie crowd, the industrial crowd. Very frustrating. Have to go six times around the block and sideways, just to decide to start talking about something.
3. Despite being pretty liberal, we have our share of local wing-nuts on the radio (whom I do not listen to).
4. The monsoon season, which usually arrives between late January and early March. As a native north westerner, I rather like it when it rains, but during the monsoon season, it will rain HARD HARD HARD, 24/7, for two weeks in a row.
5. The freakin' sales tax!

[SOteric]

18. Seattle, Part Deux: The Nitty Gritty

The Good:

1. The people of Seattle are by and large fairly polite for a big city. Strangers you stop in the street will give you directions or tell you the time of day. Drivers will actually stop downtown and let folk cross the street even it's against the light and there's no crosswalk in evidence.

2. A thriving melting pot with relatively little racial tension for a large city.

3. The arts communities is thriving both at the mainstream and the counter-culture levels.

4. Fresh, locally grown organic produce is abundant.

5. The rain-washed air smells like heaven and there's a coffee stand on every corner, sometimes two.

6. (A bonus) Seattle invented the Frango.

The Bad:

1. Any time you're in a hurry in Ballard, you'll be stuck driving behind a little Norwegian man in a '66 Buick who thinks 25 miles an hour is plenty fast and you're a hooligan.

2. There are fooking stoplights on the fooking counterbalance. Whose fooking idea was that?!

3. The monorail. The design team that ran the existing monorail into a building; the two engineers that wrecked the current monorail in a petty game of chicken; and the bullshit political crapstorm surrounding the potential new monorail with all its ensuing tax-hikes.

4. Tim Eyeman.

5. Lutefisk.

[SeattleGirl]

21. OMG! How on earth could I have forgotten EYEMAN????

:puke: :puke: :puke:

[Coventina]

52. LOL! I was born & raised in Seattle, I remember the Scandinavian drivers.

Although we left before I was of driving age, I can remember my dad complaining about how they still thought they were driving their wagon from the farm.

:rofl:

[greatauntoftriplets]

22. Despite what my host Andy Stephenson said about Seattle traffic...

it was laughable compared to the Kennedy Expressway all-day parking lot in Chicago. Sales tax in Chicago is 8.75 percent, a tad lower in the suburbs. Great city in general.

[SeattleGirl]

26. Still, it can be nasty here. And sales tax is 8.8 or 8.9 percent.

But I'm glad you got to see my wonderful city. Despite the things I listed as being bad, I absolutely love it here.

[NNadir]

15. Central New Jersey.

Great stuff:

1) Fabulous rural countryside with delicious home grown fruits and vegetables.

2) As much history as you are about to get in the United States - many people critical to the human experience from George Washington to Thomas Edison to Woodrow Wilson to Albert Einstein spent important parts of their lives here.

3) Access to the cultural centers of New York and Philadelphia (and Princeton).

4) Rick Santorum would never get elected to anything here, but this state includes Rush Holt's congressional district.

5) The New York Mets are covered in the local press.

Bad stuff:

1) New Jersey jokes from people who know very little about New Jersey.

2) Christy Whitman and Jim McGreevey are former governors.

3) Traffic can be problematic unless you know the short cuts through the country.

4) Rick Santorum's state is just across the river.

5) The local press covers the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies.

[wickerwoman]

46. And central Jersey has the nicest shopping malls in America.

Menlo Park is palatial. :-)

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

16. Minneapolis.

Good things:
1. Beautiful spring and fall weather.
2. Lots of smart Democrats.
3. Easy to travel to/from the area; can be at a nice lake in an hour or two.
4. Plenty to do: nice parks, lakes, restaurants, world-class zoo; major league sports (if you like that kind of thing).
5. Clean, attractive neighborhoods, lots of trees.

Bad things:
1. Norm Coleman is one of our Senators.
2. Winter is heinous, though we cope: the streets get plowed quickly and the airport almost never closes.
3. Housing is getting absurdly expensive.
4. The outer suburbs are full of Republican assholes.
5. Constant road construction.

[Mutley]

17. I've been living in Annapolis for about a month now

This is what I've noticed so far

Good things:
1. Lots of trees and pretty back roads
2. Decent shopping within a short driving distance
3. Close to the Chesapeake Bay
4. Relatively quiet
5. Relatively safe

Bad things:
1. Close to the Bay Bridge, the only route to the Eastern Shore in this part of Maryland, which means Lots of traffic
2. No really good resturaunts, unless you go downtown. Lots of chain places
3. This is the state capitol, which means the Republican governor lives here
4. Maybe too quiet
5. We get a flood warning every time it rains

[doc03]

20. Southeastern Ohio

1. Friendly people.
2. Beautiful hills.
3. Close to large cities but far enough away we don't have the traffic and crime.
4. Lots of hunting and fishing.
5. Housing is cheap.


1. Too many Republicans.
2. Too few good jobs.
3. Too much rain
4. Too cold in winter.
5. People are too resistant to change.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

23. NYC:

Good:

1) Incredible diversity
2) Beautiful women ;)
3) Mass transit
4) Any kind of food available
5) Culture second to none

Bad:

1) Tiny apartments
2) High rents
3) "Crazy" people
4) $7/pack of cigarettes
5) Humid as hell

[ThomCat]

31. I mostly agree with you.

Good:

I'd change 2) to Beautiful People! :9

Bad:

I'd change 4) to Everything is crazy expensive.
and I'd change 5) to You don't feel the seasons here because it's just weather blowing across concrete.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

32. Yeah, the weather's unpredictable.

In the last week, it's dropped 15-20 degrees. Coming from Los Angeles, I'm not used to that. :hi:

[LaraMN]

24. Small-town Minnesota:

Good:
1. Lots of outdoor activities
2. Relatively high-grade schools
3. Low crime
4. Beautiful scenery
5. Nice residential neighborhoods

Bad:
1. Paper mill stink
2. COLD weather
3. Nowhere but Wal-Mart to shop for alot of things without leaving town
4. Gossipy small-town sensibilities
5. Lack of culture/entertainment

[CaliforniaPeggy]

25. You're on, my dear LeftyMom!

Good things about Manhattan Beach:

1. Right on the ocean
2. Great shopping
3. Great schools
4. Incredible weather
5. Proximity to wonderful museums

Bad things about Manhattan Beach:

1. Horrible fwy traffic
2. VERY expensive to live here
3. Crappy air quality (this is rare)
4. Overcrowded housing, esp. by the beach
5. Lots of Republicans here

:hi:

[av8rdave]

56. Our LA layover used to be in Manhattan Beach

Nice area!

[femmocrat]

27. Outside of Pittsburgh, PA

Good things:
1. Beautiful scenery
2. Quiet, peaceful
3. Great place to raise a family
4. Good schools
5. Hardly any traffic

Not so great:
1. Driving into Pittsburgh is a biatch
2. Lousy roads, always under construction
3. Lots of conservatives
4. Nothing is within walking distance
5. Only dial-up is available

[SoyCat]

28. NW FL:

Good:
1. most of the beaches are lovely (esp. Walton Co. beaches)
2. great seafood for those who eat it
3. mild winters most of the time
4. great areas to bike/hike/kayak in Walton Co.
5. close enough for frequent trips to NOLA
6. housing prices more reasonable than some other areas of FL

Bad:
1. religion (damned close to being the buckle of the b.b.)
2. politics (reddest red) also, home to Joe Scarborough
3. pollution in certain pockets (several superfund sites)
4. ignorance everywhere
5. not a lot of really good live music
6. like most of the US, SUVs everywhere
7. long, hot summers that lead into rather short autumns (can you tell I like fall?)
8. if being around military bases is not your thing, don't come here! (NAS Pensacola, Eglin AFB, Hurlburt Field, Tyndall AFB, etc.)

[Ptah]

29. My home town, for now.

Tucson Arizona.
Five things I like about Tucson:
1. The climate is fabulous - lots of sun, spectacular rain.
2. Gore and Kerry won Pima county.
3. Personal internal combustion transportation not necessary.
4. There are many scientific happenings at the U of A (Bear Down!), i.e.
********************
http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/149033.php

Close-up look at Mars is big day for UA
Our view: HiRISE images of Red Planet are a noteworthy achievement

Friday was an oh-wow, jaw-dropping day for our community. In the morning, members of the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) team at the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory received telemetry that they'd been anxiously waiting for: Their camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter had snapped its first low-altitude image.
**********************

5. Sunflowers:


Five bad things about Tucson:
1. There are too many people here.
2. They all drive cars and pick-ups.
3. Amtrak only comes through three times a week.
4. There is never any snow to shovel.
5. I ran out of stuff I don't like.

[NMDemDist2]

30. I lived in Sacto for YEARS and it's a pretty good town for sure

here's my list for SE NM

1) beautiful skies that go on forever it seems (my amateur astronomer DH loves that)
2) nice people. they are mostly all friendly and polite
3) the best damn beef anywhere, organic range feed and tasty tasty
4) our "traffic jams" consist of two cars behind a truck
5) from my back deck I can see all the way to Texas

not so great things

1) it's dusty
2) the water is harder than most parking lots
3) if you don't shop WalMart (which I refuse to do) it's a long drive for decent shopping
4) did I mention it's dusty?
5) gas wells fart occasionally (they DO!) and it smells like farts for an hour a week

:rofl:

[Broken_Hero]

33. okay...

Good things about Goodman:
1. quiet
2. It's somewhat pretty
3. The neighbors are okay, even though they are all RW's...who make 0 sense.
4. .....nothing comes to mind...
5. .....nothign comes to mind...

Bad things about Goodman:
1. The weather sucks!!!!!!!!!!!
2. This is a very RED COUNTY! and it SUCKSSSSSS!!!!!!!!
3. The pest, suck, the bugs...don't get me effing started, TICKS SUCK!
4. no ocean, or large body of water
5. no trees, no real decent wildlife, my friends aren't here, my family isn't here, there isn't any bears, or fish(real fish), or anything...most boats here are lawn ornaments....

btw, I miss Sac too LeftyMom...

[last_texas_dem]

34. Alright, here goes...

5 good things about Orange, TX:

1. Most of my family lives around here, and I like most of them
2. It's where I grew up and have lived for most of my life so far (though hopefully not for that much longer) so it's comforting in that way
3. It's one of the more Democratic areas of Texas ("Democratic" meaning something entirely different than "liberal") even if our drunk-driving Congressman Kevin Brady is undefeatable because our Congressional district was gerrymandered to include the well-off suburbs of Houston
4. It's on the edges of "Cajun country" which is an interesting culture
5. It's on the coast, which I like

5 bad things about Orange, TX:

1. The heat, but even worse, the humidity, are horrible here almost year-round
2. It's heavily polluted (they call this "Cancer Alley" for a reason)
3. It has to be one of the most politically apathetic places in the nation
4. The Republicans have made significant gains in this area in recent years
5. This town is dying...

[Blue_In_AK]

35. Anchorage, Alaska

Five good things:

1. Mountains and water are close, beautiful setting
2. Cultural diversity
3. Friendly people
4. Great Democratic mayor, Mark Begich
5. Just the right amount of people, about 250,000

Five bad things:

1. Winter is long and dark
2. A lot of alcoholism
3. More gang activity lately than there used to be, people getting shot
4.
5.

I'm stumped on 4 and 5. I really like it here.

[swag]

36. okay

Five good things:

1. Proximity to beautiful Columbia River Gorge
2. Proximity to beautiful Oregon Coast
3. Funky-assed culture and subcultures
4. Transportation planning includes great mass transit and bicycle routes
5. Variety of quality food, music, art

Five bad things:

1. Winters with gloom and rain from Thanksgiving to July 4, when residents get so depressed by February they are choking the shit out of one another on the street
2. Shitheaded "tax activists" who have destroyed the state's funding for education, infrastructure, and a lot of other important stuff
3. College football fanaticism
4. Distance from Europe, Spain in particular
5. Use of the grating term "spendy" to mean "expensive" or "pricey"

[Arugula Latte]

71. I'll piggyback on Swag's post about Portland, Ore.

Other good:

Friendly drivers
Fresh, clean air
Good foodie/farmer's market/local produce scene
Proximity to mountains, forests, wine country and high desert (as well as ocean and Gorge as Swag mentioned)
Great urban park system and fantastic parks and rec. offerings for families (or non-families, I imagine)
Huge stock of surviving pre-World War I housing (unusual in a western city)
No professional football or baseball team ... that's good in my book! :woohoo:
Nice size -- not too big, not too small (well, sometimes a little too small).

Other bad:

Use of grating term "sack" instead of "bag"
One of the shortest school years in the nation (see Swag's number 2 under bad stuff)
Um, yeah, the wet substance that rhymes with "drain"
Roof moss

[Monk06]

37. Vancouver BC

The Good

1) You can go skiing, sailing and mountain
biking on the same day.

2) Beaches within walking distance of downtown
ditto for Stanley Park

3) Languages heard on the street Chinese, Japanese,
Spanish, Hindi, Taglog, Somali, to a lesser extent
German, French.

4) More Sushi restaurents than Starbucks

5) You can earn a living without owning a car


Bad

1) 100 Block Hastings Steet. 1000 addicts within one
block.

2) The Club and Art scene died in 1990

3) Brian Adams and Bob Rock came from here

4) Faux Indie/Rap punks and their pathetic sidewalk
attitude.

5) Japanese snowboard stackers trying to get on a
bus with their brand new Sports Mart Special boards.

[borlis]

38. Northern Suburb of Chicago

Good Things

1. The schools are awesome.
2. 15 minutes away from Lake Michigan.
3. Low crime
4. 50 minutes away from "Downtown."
5. Change of seasons.

Bad Things

1. This suburb is red but getting a bit bluer.
2. High property taxes (2400 sq foot house on 1/4 acre worth $450k, taxes are just shy of 8k)
3. No affordable housing (If I was looking to move, I'd be lucky to afford my own house.)
4. Winter sucks!
5. A lot of people around here are really "uppity" and they let everyone know it.

[BreweryYardRat]

39. St. Petersburg-Tampa, FL.

Good:
1. Beautiful sunsets.
2. Lots of bird life. Egrets, herons, ibises, comorants, ducks, gulls, skimmers, ospreys, and more.
3. 45 minutes to/from the dorms at my university, so I can visit my dad any weekend I want.
4. My dad's place has the best view. You can sit out on the patio and watch dolphins in the Intercoastal Waterway.
5. You can tan in October.

Bad:
1. Swarms of freepers and other crazies.
2. Summer is absolutely fucking abysmal. June-September is suffering on a grand scale for a fat guy like me.
3. Roaches. My dad's place doesn't have the huge palm-sized ones, but they're still around in abundance.
4. Cost of living sucks.
5. Traffic's a bitch. And thanks to femmocrat for reminding me that nothing's within walking distance either.

[clyrc]

40. Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

Good Things

1. The University where I live is a great place for kids.

2. Wonderful and cheap Indian, Pakistani and Lebanese food.

3. Fascinating people from all over the world as my neighbors.

4. It's close to Dubai, so we can go easily if we want entertainment of the less humble sort.

5. The multi-cultural make up of this country is teaching my girls more than they would ever learn about other cultures back in the States.

Bad Things

1. Heat

2. Traffic

3. The rigid class system that exists here. I hate it but can't do so much about it.

4. Lack of Democracy

5. The status of women. On a day to day basis it doesn't affect me much, but every once in a while I'm reminded that I live in a country where I'm basically considered to be in the same category as a child, and what adult appreciates that?

[Dem2theMax]

41. North County of San Diego (read 'in the sticks')

Good.

1. No street lights, lots of stars at night.
2. Wild animals, mother nature at her finest.
3. Can safely go for a walk at 2am.
4. Clean air.
5. It's not Crawford Texas!


Bad

1. No public transportation.
2. Pizza place is 20 minutes away. (Now THAT'S bad.)
3. Surrounded by repukes.
4. Santa Ana winds in October. Scary.
5. NO HIGH SPEED INTERNETS!

[Heidi]

44. Southern Switzerland:

Good things:
1. The local culture is wonderfully easy-going in most respects.
2. The climate is gorgeous: rarely too hot in summer nor too cold in winter.
3. Excellent public transportation system.
4. Mountains to the south of us, Lago Maggiore to the north.
5. Our village is five minutes from the Italian border, and an hour by train from Milan.

Not-so-good things:
1. Very expensive place to live in terms of real estate prices, rents, taxes and living expenses.
2. Pretty insular in some ways: if you weren't born here, you'll likely always be an "outsider."
3. Not so rich in cultural opportunities as the Swiss-German part of the country.
4. There seems to be an assumption that every American is a personal envoy for GWB, who is none-too-beloved here.
5. Three-hour drive to Zurich.

[wickerwoman]

45. Shanghai, China

Good things about Shanghai:
1.) I get paid an obscene amount of money for not a lot of work just because I'm a foreigner.
2.) The street food is out of this world. You can get a great restaurant meal for only two or three dollars.
3.) It's full of non-Shanghainese Chinese who would bend over backwards and sell their mothers to impress you with their generosity. And they're completely unselfconscious and unprententious. I know the color of my neighbor's underwear- mostly because I come home and find him plucking chickens in the hallway in them.
4.) 75 cent DVDs.
5.) I feel perfectly safe walking the streets at 1 am even as a single woman.

Bad things about Shanghai:
1.) The level of individual and collective dumbfuckery and self-absorbtion is occasionally overwhelming. I once saw a blind man tripped three times by different people rushing to get out of the subway.
2.) Many purebred Shanghainese under 30 are the most spoiled, obnoxious, vapid, mercenary, intellectual-stunted people on the planet.
3.) Everyone in this city is determined to go deaf by age 40. There's construction on every block. People walk around screaming into cellphones. I live next to a middle school that blares the Chinese national anthem and some Russian funeral dirges at 7:00am every morning.
4.) No heat in the winter. They aren't allowed to sell real heating systems south of the Yangtze to save electricity. We're about two meters south of the Yangtze so we put up with freezing temps and no heaters.
5.) If you food-shop based on a list (as opposed to just buying whatever looks good) you have to go to at least three different shops to find everything you want. And weird stuff is seasonal. One month you can get cottage cheese and the next you can't.

[Heidi]

47. How do you heat in the winter?

:scared:

[wickerwoman]

48. Layers...

I bought some cats too. They spend the entire winter under the blankets. :-)

[GOPisEvil]

49. The good and the bad of Austin, TX

The Good
1. If you like music, it's here, live every night. There must be 100 places to see music in this town.
2. The weather from October (usually) through May.
3. Lack of chain-type places in central Austin.
4. Educated, mostly liberal citizens.
5. Laid-back atmosphere.

The Bad
1. Traffic.
2. Surrounded by Republican suburbs.
3. The weather from June through September.
4. Expensive for Texas.
5. This is the hipster/slacker capital of the universe (you're not edgy if EVERYONE is doing it).

[yellowdogintexas]

50. From Fort Worth TX

The Good:

1. Our Museum District..just awesome.
2. Excellent fabulous zoo
3. Great Mexican Food
4. Jim Wright lives here
5. Wearing shorts on Thanksgiving


The Bad:
1. Most Republican County in Texas or so they say
2. GoodHair, BreckGirl and Cornyn
3. The LONG HOT SUMMERS
4. The resulting high water and air conditioning bills
5. Too far from Kentucky and Connecticut (my sisters are there)

[av8rdave]

54. I have to echo your thoughts

Here in Grapevine, I would have to add:

(good)
Good schools
Grapefest!
Main Street Days
Wilhoites
Esparza's
the running/biking trail system

(bad)
traffic
the mayor
too many repugs

[speedoo]

51. New York City

Five good things:
1. I get to occasionally hang with cool loungers like haruka, lioness, Thomcat, Drum and now Starbucks Anarchist.
2. An unbelievable array of excellent and yet inexpensive ethnic restaurants.
3. Metropolitan Museum of Art
4. Some great neighborhoods
5. There are millions of people here who hate Bushco as much as I do.

Five bad things:
1. Traffic
2. Cost of living/lack of affordable housing
3. Crumbling infrastructure
4. A public school system still struggling to recover from years of Giuliani neglect
5. The place where GWBush, Rudy Giuliani, Bernie Kerik and other assorted sub-humans used 9/11 to hijack my country and take from the needy/give to the rich.

[BarenakedLady]

53. WNY

Good

1. It's very green and lush
2. Lots of wildlife (around my house anyway)
3. Not very built up in this area (lots of open spaces)
4. Far enough away but still relatively close to everything
5. Good food

Bad

1. It rains a lot
2. It snows a lot
3. Not very diverse (in this town)
4. Town is conservative
5. No cell phone reception

[av8rdave]

57. What part of WNY? I'm originally from Jamestown

[BarenakedLady]

62. ...

outside Rochester

[speedoo]

64. I used to live in Fairport.

so I know what you're talking about.

[av8rdave]

55. I do a lot of Sacramento layovers

It's a well kept secret, actually. I love the running path by the river, and although our hotel is a bit in the middle of nowhere, it's a short trip down the path to old town. The railroad museum is cool, and there's a great Irish pub in old town, the name of which escapes me right now.

[Coventina]

60. Phoenix, AZ

First the good:

1. Phoenix is surprisingly close to better places. A day or less of driving can get you to: Los Angeles, San Diego, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Durango, Co. and other locales.

2. We have one of the best, and largest community college systems in the nation. How did that happen? Oh well, I'm a grateful product and employee of it.

3. We have an excellent symphony orchestra that manages to operate in the BLACK! Once again, surprising but I'm thankful.

4. Janet Napolitano is the governor of AZ. And she is expected to win easily again in Nov. Love ya Jan! *kiss*

5. My family has long roots here...from before statehood. So I have a certain nostalgic fondness for this hellhole.

Now the bad:

1. HOT, miserable )#$(&#%&()@ desert! It's hot, it's ugly, and it's only getting worse with overpopulation and global warming.

2. OVERPOPULATION! And all that comes with it. 10,000 people move here every month! WHY!?!?! GO AWAY!!!!! You are only making it hotter and more miserable!! Not to mention more polluted.

3. Not only is it overcrowded, but it seems that Phoenix attracts only stupid, conservative mouth-breathers. Phoenix is Bush & Rush lovin' country. Blech. Drive on any of our freeways and you'll see "Viva Bush" stickers aplenty. Even now.

4. Old, grumpy people who come here to die. Sun City and all the wannabes. They vote in droves against anything that benefits younger people.

5. There's a lot of contenders for this spot: Sheriff Joe, Snowbirds, our corrupt local politicians who are in bed with developers......so take your pick.

[spindrifter]

61. Seattle

Good
1. Spectacular views from most parts of the city
2. Best educated citizenry
3. On the whole, votes liberal
4. Close to great outdoor recreational opportunities--hiking, boating, climbing
5. Mild climate

Bad
1. No one can ever make a decision in time to save billions of tax-payer dollars
2. Traffic is totally out of control
3. Developers are encroaching on #4 above
4. Housing in the city is too expensive for middle and lower classes
5. Outrageous sales tax because wimp legislature refuses to consider state income tax.

[momophile]

63. metro Denver

good:
1. weather is pretty damn good most of the time
2. a lot of healthy living available as Boulder is close and lots of people around here are crunchy (me included)
3. mountains - pretty...
4. smoke free, baby!
5. state house is blue!

bad:
1. still some red - Allard, Musgrave, Tancredo, Beauprez (see ya, buddy!)
2. out-of-state drivers when it snows
3. land locked
4. Boulder is too expensive to live in for most
5. Buffaloes suck lately and Rockies usually suck

[huskerlaw]

65. Los Angeles

The good:
1. The weather is absolutely fabulous.
2. There is always something to do. If you get bored here, it's your own damn fault.
3. The diversity is amazing. The real Los Angeles looks nothing like Beverly Hills 90210.
4. You can snow ski and surf in the same day.
5. 2 words: Barbara Boxer.

The bad:
1. Traffic. Not gonna lie to you, the freeways around here can suck big time.
2. It's expensive. Nobody with a normal income can afford to buy a house.
3. I'm told there are earthquakes. I've lived here for a year and haven't felt a thing...but I'm sure I just cursed myself by typing that.
4. We treat our homeless people like shit. (but then again, what city doesn't?)
5. Some people are a bit too obsessed with their looks, their car, and their designer clothing.

[Mz Pip]

67. Albany, CA

Good things:

1. Fabulous schools
2. Safe neighborhood
3. Terrific views
4. Awesome bookstores
5. Progressive citizens

Bad things:

1. Weather nice one month out of the year
2. Worst traffic in Northern CA
3. Expensive to live here
4. 49ers suck this year
5. Ah-nold is governor

Mz Pip
:dem:

[Rhiannon12866]

69. Northern NY

Good things about Northern NY:
1. Beautiful summers
2. Lakes and mountains
3. Tough animal protection laws
4. My friends are here
5. I was born here

Bad things about Northern NY:
1. Serious snow country
2. Everything North of NYC is Freeper country
3. Taxes
4. Unemployment
5. You can't get a vegan meal delivered for love or money

[goldberry740]

70. North of Phoenix

1. It's a little cheaper than where I lived in California
2. I can appreciate the dramatic Monsoons of the desert
3. I walk a lot in the winter, because the temp is like California Summer
4. It's a 'dry heat'...
5. It was easier, financially, to raise my children here than California

1. I am tired of the relentless heat of the summer
2. I'm sad to see the population grow and no one's addressing the diminishing water supply
3. I miss the music scene of California, where I could tune in to multi-cultural/classical/off-beat music on my radio. That just isn't here. (although I do find it on the web, the community that appreciates it isn't around me)
5. I miss the Ocean, walks on the beach, camping in Sierras... I'm trying to save to get back to Cal.

http://www.cafepress.com/caravans

[KayLaw]

72. Tampa Bay area

Good:
1. Close to theme parks.
2. Close to Gulf of Mexico.
3. Any kind of food you could want.
4. No snow.
5. All sorts of people.

Bad:

1. Congested.
2. Hot.
3. Too many Republicans.
4. Too many Carpetbaggers.
5. Rude neighbors. Twice, my (teen) son has been confronted by nasty neighbors who claim he has no right to walk on our sidewalks or ride his bike on our street. Jerky old retirees!

[Nikia]

73. Small town Wisconsin

At least about the small town that I live in
Good things:
1. Lots of things going on in the summer time.
2. Inexpensive homes.
3. A lot of green space.
4. Relatively low crime.
5. Easy to get to most places in town.
Bad things:
1. They are suspicious of outsiders.
2. Democrats aren't very visible here.
3. A long cold season.
4. Must go out of town in order to buy some items or enjoy many forms of entertainment.
5. Most people seem to be either focused on their children or drinking, unfortunately sometimes both. A result of this is that there are less social oppurtunities for people not involved with those.