[HN Gopher] Ask HN: What's your ideal city in a 100% remote world?
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Ask HN: What's your ideal city in a 100% remote world?
In the last year many jobs in computing/software development have
gone fully remote. If given the opportunity to work remotely from
anywhere in the world where would you go? Or if you've recently
transitioned to a remote work environment where are you thinking of
moving?
Author : alecbcs
Score : 31 points
Date : 2021-11-05 15:01 UTC (8 hours ago)
| runjake wrote:
| It would be not a city. It would be somewhere rural. In fact, it
| _is_ somewhere rural.
|
| It's quiet, and there's just enough infrastructure to head down
| the road on bike or foot for some lunchtime exercise.
|
| But, if you like the big city, or working from the woods, that's
| fine, too.
| Bjorkbat wrote:
| Might be the city I'm currently living in: Albuquerque, NM.
|
| It's very inexpensive, and sits at the foothills of the Sandia
| Mountains and Petroglyph National Park. It's almost always sunny,
| yet is rarely too hot for outdoor activities. As far as bike
| infrastructure goes it may just be in the top 10 for US cities.
| You almost need to go out of your way to not be an outdoorsy
| person here. It has a decent amount of restaurants, breweries,
| things to do, but if you're particularly starved for
| entertainment then there are cheap flights to Austin and Denver.
| Indeed, what makes Albuquerque really great is that you could use
| it as a nice place to decompress in-between destinations.
|
| There are some downsides though. Crime is pretty bad, as is the
| poverty rate, but a lot of places here in the US are struggling
| with that right now. Truth be told the thing that annoys me the
| most may be the Gross Receipts Tax. Basically, if you freelance,
| your services are subject to what's basically a ~7% sales tax,
| only for services.
|
| But given how inexpensive everything is, and how much I get, I
| can't really complain too much about the GRT.
| eunoia wrote:
| Out of curiosity what are your thoughts on Santa Fe?
| brailsafe wrote:
| Where I am now, nearish to central Vancouver. I'd love to live in
| other places for some time for other reasons, but they're all
| cities in Europe with different ages and cultures. Smaller places
| are great to visit, but are boring and lack breadth of novelty.
| It takes me 4 mins to walk to the gym where I bump into people
| I'm gradually getting to know, then 2 mins to the next cafe where
| I might get to know someone, then 2 mins to groceries, 30 mins to
| the mountains, 2 hrs to whistler if I can get a car or bus.
| lookalike74 wrote:
| Has anyone heard Chattanooga TN is cool?
| alophawen wrote:
| I been working remote for the last 8 years, and thank you covid
| for even more work!
|
| I moved far out the country side and picked up farming, animal
| keeping and all that.
|
| When I need some think time, I have a 1-2 hour walk in the woods
| listening to the birds and experiencing nature. This is where I
| want to die. I left the big city and am never looking back.
|
| OP, why do you consider living in a city for remote work???
| dixie_land wrote:
| If starlink/rural fiber is more broadly available, I'd see many
| people forgo cities altogether. Why live in 500sqft when you can
| have 500 acres all to yourself.
| kaesar14 wrote:
| Other people?
| QuercusMax wrote:
| And amenities like restaurants, grocery stores,
| orchestras....
| giantg2 wrote:
| This could support either side depending on one's view of
| people.
| arduinomancer wrote:
| Personally I think the ideal would be to have a big property in
| the countryside like 1 hour outside a big city.
| dial8nowplz wrote:
| Preferably one that manages to keep the progressive policies that
| have ruined most major coastal cities far away but at the same
| time, having some semblance of infrastructure so I can make great
| use of the geo arbitrage available to me thanks to living in said
| rural area. This is one of the reasons why I am highly optimistic
| about starlink. Once the tech is mature and fully deployed I'll
| be able to develop and live on my 100 acres where I will not be
| subject to any sort of virtue signaling by individuals whose
| ancestors are the cause of most problems we see today in our
| current societal climate.
| ngokevin wrote:
| After visiting many countries, and living in 10 US states this
| past year...
|
| Mexico City. I lived there a month, I enjoyed the food even more
| than Japan, Vietnam, LA. People are friendly, lot of action and
| culture, felt extremely safe, cheap.
| dielll wrote:
| A Town in Kenyan coast called Malindi. It literally has the beat
| beach in the world, at Watamu
| jifii3 wrote:
| Iceland, some AirBnB's have amazing internet access while still
| being in the middle of nowhere.
|
| Was there for a ~week and it was super cool, made huge progress
| on a project during work hours, and enjoyed every minute of it.
|
| I still prefer the 'city' life long-term.
| Mikeb85 wrote:
| Somewhere in the middle of nowhere. I currently live in a small
| town in the mountains. Love the mountain aspect of it. The
| townspeople are progressive in some ways (they try to be 'woke'),
| but extremely regressive when it comes to development (NIMBYism
| on steroids). Housing is a major problem, all the restaurants are
| shit, nothing gets built pretty much ever, most of the tax burden
| is on the few businesses there are, etc... But it is one of the
| most beautiful places in the world, objectively (at least outside
| the town).
|
| Also, lots of the replies so far in this thread mention big
| cities. I'm wondering what the appeal of cities would be in a
| 100% remote world without restaurants as, presumably, restaurant
| workers would be moving to jobs that are remote, no? Or are they
| just the new serf class?
| j_walter wrote:
| OP is most certainly talking about software development jobs
| being 100% remote...not all jobs being 100% remote.
| Mikeb85 wrote:
| Ah gotcha. Saw the title and thought more philosophically
| about it. Missed that line. I mean, for me, 100% remote is
| more or less reality (choose not to take a job that restricts
| me geographically, have some side hustles).
| tapan_jk wrote:
| Off topic but [maybe] relevant...
|
| > Somewhere in the middle of nowhere.
|
| A part of me too desires this. For a software engineer, what
| you need most is good network connectivity, which is now
| possible in many places.
|
| The other part of me is convinced that would not be a good move
| in the long run. If I move away from the city, my kids'
| education will suffer, my mother (who also lives with me) will
| lose the social connect that keeps her in good spirits. Growing
| up in a small place, I always longed to move to a city. Now
| that I have "been there done that" in terms of living a city
| life, I do not want my children to go through the same cycle.
|
| It would be nice to have the best of both worlds. Have a second
| home someplace remote, and go live there for short duration as
| circumstances permit.
| nostrademons wrote:
| > It would be nice to have the best of both worlds.
|
| That was supposed to be the idea behind suburbs, but a lot of
| people think of them as the worst of both worlds now.
|
| Personally I think it's pretty nice to live 30 minutes
| outside a city but still have enough property for trees and
| open space, though.
| Mikeb85 wrote:
| All of this is true. Hence why we're actually moving to the
| middle of nowhere in Europe. Because the middle of nowhere
| there is still 30 minutes from cities, whereas even being
| 'somewhere' in Canada is 4 hours from the closest city,
| nevermind the actual middle of nowhere. Plus more family in
| Europe.
|
| But the middle of nowhere, actually, has always appealed.
| You're right though, it has drawbacks.
| gremloni wrote:
| I find that people approaching woke but not "there" yet are the
| best.
| Mikeb85 wrote:
| Sarcastic 'best'?
|
| The 'locals' are extremely unfriendly, actively try to
| sabotage new businesses, bring in foreign workers and lock
| them into work/living arrangements to take advantage of them,
| heck (attempt to) take advantage of all workers, etc...
|
| But they claim to not be whatever 'ism' isn't politically
| popular.
| brailsafe wrote:
| I feel like the parent wasn't referring to specifically
| your situation, but rather centre-left people rather than
| very-left people
| tuckerpo wrote:
| Some totally rural fjord town in north east Iceland. I like being
| left alone.
| iExploder wrote:
| Singapore, but the hourly rate would have to be in truckloads of
| gold.
| rococode wrote:
| Tokyo!
|
| Pros:
|
| - Safe almost everywhere even at night and generally very clean
|
| - Infinite amount of things to do, you'll never finish exploring
| new restaurants (with delicious food) and stores
|
| - International events happen there: conferences, concerts, etc.
|
| - Very walkable (including the metro), especially around city
| center
|
| - Reasonable housing prices - high, but comparable to cities in
| the US
|
| - Politeness is baked into society and unpleasant interactions
| with strangers are very rare
|
| - Rest of the country is fairly accessible by train for a weekend
| trip, and there's plenty of beautiful nature if you get out of
| the city
|
| Cons:
|
| - Difficult language and few people speak any English
|
| - Fairly closed society/culture, you'll always be an outsider
| (but there are plenty of expats)
|
| - Toilets in restaurants often suck and public trash cans are
| rare
|
| - Bureaucracy is quite bad and inaccessible if you aren't fluent
| in Japanese
|
| - Work culture is bad, though being remote could make that a non-
| issue
|
| Some runner ups:
|
| - Lisbon (excellent weather, low prices)
|
| - Copenhagen (super safe, great quality of life)
|
| For me though, the top 3 criteria by far are 1) a lot to do, 2)
| very safe, and 3) don't need a car, and Tokyo is pretty much the
| only major city that meets those.
| truetraveller wrote:
| >few people speak any English
|
| Is this true? I would think that at least 50% would be able to
| speak English. Perhaps even up to 80%. Anyone else with first-
| hand experience?
| mywaifuismeta wrote:
| It's true. 50% may know a few words, but probably less than
| 5% speak good enough English to have a regular conversation
| about something more complex than the weather. You can
| definitely live in Tokyo without knowing Japanese and do
| everything you need to do, but your options, socially and
| otherwise, are always going to be limited.
| biehl wrote:
| Copenhagen is great. Barcelona was great too. Lisbon looks very
| nice too. I imagine it like a slighly smaller and less
| expensive Barcelona.
| VirusNewbie wrote:
| >Reasonable housing prices - high, but comparable to cities in
| the US
|
| If you count number of bedrooms, but if you look at sq.footage
| isn't it much much higher than almost anywhere in the US?
| brailsafe wrote:
| The U.S is probably uniquely excessive when it comes to
| McMansions and overall bigness of everything. You don't get
| affordable giant places in either country though if you live
| in a dense urban centre.
| flakiness wrote:
| Cons: It's very humid in summer and very chilly on winter. The
| traffic is less than ideal if you are a car person (although
| this doesn't matter to you).
|
| Coming from Tokyo to Bay Area and having family here, I
| wouldn't miss it much. Only things I miss are friends and food,
| which are both from my cultural attachment.
|
| That's said, many youngstars from Tokyo go back after staying
| here for several years, probably because of the loneliness and
| the boredom. So your points well taken.
| Dracophoenix wrote:
| You're just the kind of person I've been looking?
|
| 1)How long have you been in Tokyo?
|
| 2)What part of Tokyo do you live and work in?
|
| 3) How easy/hard did you personally find establishing a
| relationship (in the non-romantic sense) with the locals?
|
| 4) (If you're an American) How do you handle you're taxes?
|
| 5) What were some of the more surprising things about Tokyo
| that aren't mentioned enough?
|
| 6) How easy is it to get out into the countryside?
|
| 7) Where does one find expats to hang out with who aren't
| coworkers?
| jstx1 wrote:
| London is great.
|
| So are many other large and diverse multinational cities. Many of
| them also happen to be great for in-office tech job
| opportunities.
| baybal2 wrote:
| I will still want to live in a big city, and I will still likely
| rent a place in a coworking fitted as I wish.
| Luuseens wrote:
| Somewhere in Croatia. Good weather, good food, good internet.
| telesilla wrote:
| If you can get line of sight, from a hill-top chalet on one of
| the many islands, to a cell tower: Croatia is fantastic.
| Fishing, sailing, people with a big sense of humour.
| mayormcmatt wrote:
| If I had to choose one, it'd be Stockholm (or perhaps any Swedish
| city with water access).
|
| A couple years back I did take a two-week trip there consisting
| of one week sightseeing, one week remotely working for a West
| Coast agency. My work hours were around 4pm to 1am-2am Stockholm
| time, which was just on the edge of comfortable. My reasoning is
| as follows:
|
| 1) Fast internet everywhere I went, even the countryside
|
| 2) Great tea and coffee -- excellent cafe culture, too
|
| 3) Had a chance to meet some of the most kind, intelligent
| engineers I've ever known while there (and some now working here
| in the States, too); would love to collaborate and be motivated
| by working with them again
|
| 4) It felt very safe at all times of day (compared to where I
| live now, at least)
|
| 5) Active sailing culture, as I've recently become interested in
| that sport/hobby
|
| 6) Really fun bike culture, especially groups like at
| Bagarmossens cykelkok
|
| 7) Didn't seem like owning a car is necessary, even to travel
| outside the city/intercity
|
| 8) Perhaps an unpopular opinion, but I enjoy how vices like
| alcohol and rich foods are more expensive there, so I went easy
| on them and felt healthier
|
| Finally, nothing to back this up on, just a "feeling": the vibe
| is simply more chill, less dysfunctional than here in the States.
| Felt like many sectors of the citizenry, government, and business
| community had agreed upon a framework for a basic and decent
| standard of lifestyle. Certainly Swedes could chime in and tell
| me some hard truths that I missed while there (I've only stayed
| in Sweden for a month, cumulatively).
|
| Things that would be hard are, definitely, finding housing that
| doesn't break the bank (Stockholm is majorly backed up, with
| rentals expensive). Also, my wife and I mastering a new language
| now, in our forties could be a challenge. I did start taking
| classes for it, for fun, before the pandemic.
|
| If Sweden were off the table, my other remote choice would be
| Kagoshima, Japan. Nothing like living next to a volcano!
| 999900000999 wrote:
| Chicago.
|
| Friendly people , cheap housing, great public transportation.
| Tons of things to do.
|
| No visa issues, it's much easier to move cities they countries.
| floppydiskette wrote:
| I love Chicago, but where are you finding cheap housing?
| Genuinely interested what areas.
| codegeek wrote:
| Brutal Winter.
| 999900000999 wrote:
| Let the wrath of God humble you.
| GDC7 wrote:
| Lagos, Nigeria.
|
| That's where young people are.
|
| Looking at history exciting stuff (both positive and negative)
| happen where there is a huge concentration of young people
| interacting with each other.
|
| English proficiency is quite good as well.
| thorin wrote:
| Are you originally from Africa? I'd put Lagos very near the
| bottom of places to live from what I've heard, but I'm sure it
| would be "exciting". If I was single I'd probably pick
| something like Pucon, Chile ( a beautiful town with great
| kayaking / outdoors ), Beachburg, Ottawa in the summer for
| kayaking, NZ for the beautiful environment and low population
| density.
|
| As I'm not single and have a family to attend to I'd probably
| stay where I am or move to a village in the Peak District (UK).
| higeorge13 wrote:
| Tech scene in the balkans is great for a couple weeks. Athens,
| Belgrade, Zagreb, Sofia were great remote weeks for me, in nice
| coworking spaces, cheap accommodation and food and lively night
| life and friendly people to hang out.
|
| Having worked from almost everywhere around Europe, my next plan
| would be Seoul though.
| 1270018080 wrote:
| Small, dense, walkable. Does it exist in America? I don't think
| so.
| thatfrenchguy wrote:
| San Francisco obviously. Perfect density, access to nature,
| perfect climate. You just have to pay for it.
| ngokevin wrote:
| Wouldn't say walkable though. Public transit doesn't feel
| super well-connected. If you have the cash to Uber
| everywhere, it's good though it's a lot of traffic to go
| through to go a few miles.
|
| The time of the slow sparse public transit or the costly Uber
| ended up having me still just drive everywhere, and then
| worry about parking everywhere I went.
| gwill wrote:
| mid sized cities like Milwaukee could make the list. Not sure
| if that's dense enough though.
| drstewart wrote:
| Madison
|
| Santa Fe
|
| Burlington
| 1270018080 wrote:
| I've been putting together a list of walkable cities to
| potentially move to, and Madison and Burlington are on the
| list.
|
| Most of America is a 1/10, they're 6/10s, which isn't bad.
| All ranked by my totally arbitrary scale. But what I'm
| looking for is a 9+/10. Aspen, Colorado is a good example,
| but I would never be able to buy a house there as they start
| at $8 mil.
| endisneigh wrote:
| Somerville, MA. Manhattan, NYC, etc.
| kaesar14 wrote:
| I'd plug New Haven here!
| pivo wrote:
| Boston fits that description well, it's why I love living here.
| Ancalagon wrote:
| Anyone else afraid to say exactly where, for fear it might become
| too popular? :)
| 1270018080 wrote:
| Wichita, Kansas. Everyone move to Wichita, it's great. Trust
| me.
| coolspot wrote:
| Can't agree more!
|
| The crafting beer is great there, housing is affordable,
| crime is non-existent. And Internet is 10GBps full-duplex for
| each household.
| ngokevin wrote:
| Don't worry, it won't become popular unless it has a craft beer
| scene
| giantg2 wrote:
| For homebrewers, that can be anywhere.
| culopatin wrote:
| Buenos Aires
| bwb wrote:
| tax system etc is insane though... but agreed, if they could
| build a working gov/economy it is one of my all time fav
| places. Patagonia and amazing coastline not "far" too.
| culopatin wrote:
| Just get paid in an account abroad and avoid all that.
| sokoloff wrote:
| I'm already living in one of my top choices: Cambridge, MA. (Four
| real seasons, high educational attainment generally, good public
| schools [some of them anyway].)
|
| I'd love to buy a place on a TVA lake in TN and spend most of the
| summers there.
|
| Younger and without kids, I'd have given serious consideration to
| moving to Costa Rica during/after COVID.
| poulsbohemian wrote:
| I'd really like to go check out Slovenia. Everything I've read /
| heard indicates that it is a more affordable Switzerland. Be at
| the beach and skiing in the same day, high quality of life, etc.
| emernic wrote:
| Toluca, Mexico. It's extremely cheap, cool/temperate all year,
| and some of the suburbs (e.g. Metepec) are quite safe. Reasonable
| proximity to the US (geographically, temporally, and to some
| extent culturally) would make it a practical option for
| Americans. It's a profoundly "not hip" city, but as someone who
| just wants to be left alone in my apartment all day, I consider
| that a plus. The main downsides are extremely high elevation and
| sub-par internet speeds (likely requiring some careful apartment
| hunting).
| felgueres wrote:
| You are setting the bar extremely low. Besides nevado de toluca
| (ridiculously beautiful mountain) there's little to no
| incentives for this place
| stickinote wrote:
| I've always thought Vancouver, BC would be a nice spot but, it's
| quite expensive.
| neilk wrote:
| Remote worker and Vancouver resident here. Vancouver is the
| second most expensive city in the world, measured by cost of
| living to prevailing wage. Only Hong Kong scores higher.
|
| If, like me, you work in tech with American funding, it's
| conceivable to have a "normal" life in the downtown core,
| including buying property. But everyone else is fleeing the
| downtown core, the Greater Vancouver Area, or even the entire
| province.
|
| Anecdote: I know an arts administrator who moved to semi-rural
| Nova Scotia. She went from barely being able to afford a
| basement apartment to buying a pretty large house. It's pretty
| weird to imagine arts administration even being possible from a
| town in nowheresville... but the pandemic has created strange
| situations. She just flies into cities when she has an actual
| event or performance to manage.
| api_or_ipa wrote:
| Vancouver BC is magical and (IMO) one of the most beautiful
| cities in the world. In July & August, hands down the most
| beautiful place in the world, but still, 8 months of the year
| it's dark, wet and cold. If you're passionate about getting
| into the mountains or on the water and you can tolerate the
| rain, it's a wonderful place. Lots of wealthy people in
| Vancouver own boats to go sailing in the summer and a condo in
| Whistler to ski in the winter and their quality of life
| unbeatable. On the other hand, I know a couple people who moved
| from Vancouver to Canmore, Alberta because they still got their
| fill of mountains, but they traded a bit colder of climate for
| significantly more days of sunshine. It's all a trade-off in
| the end. Regarding affordability: Vancouver is expensive if
| you're working for a local company & paid in CAD, but if you're
| earning a US salary (esp Bay Area), Vancouver feels
| substantially more affordable than most large US cities (again,
| IMO, it's _very_ hard to compare cost-of-living between
| countries).
| 908B64B197 wrote:
| > Vancouver is expensive if you're working for a local
| company & paid in CAD
|
| What explains such depressed wages for local developers?
| Aren't local companies interested in competing?
| VirusNewbie wrote:
| I've been remote for a while and so I stayed in Orange County.
| It's very nice, strikes a good balance of the other big cities in
| CA but lower CoL compared to Bay Area and Los Angeles.
|
| I've traveled all over europe and my favorite city for living
| would be Budapest. It seems like it had a low CoL but a very
| vibrant community in addition to being walkable and beautiful.
|
| Haven't met any Hungarian engineers so I don't know how the
| developer/startup community is, so if anyone knows chime in.
| bwb wrote:
| Valencia, Spain. Amazing weather all year long, great biking,
| great beach, and beautiful old city along with beach city all in
| one place. Oh and they Turia is a giant park that runs through
| the middle of the entire city and is sunk into the ground.
| slackfan wrote:
| If I can work from anywhere in the world, why in all flying hells
| would I work from a city?
| ngokevin wrote:
| I've been nomadic living in both rural and urban areas. Because
| cities have events, people to meet, food to eat. There's a lot
| of conveniences.
|
| For rural, I've lived in a town where there was only one
| restaurant, and it was a Mexican place that closed at 4PM. One
| small grocery store during height of the pandemic, no masks.
| I've driven 3 hours to make a grocery run to an Asian grocery
| store and get boba tea. In the US at least, I feel like I stick
| out like a sore thumb in rural areas in a time people were
| getting randomly attacked due to skin color. The nature is
| great though.
|
| For urban, I've been able to go out at 1AM+ and get delicious
| cheap food at a restaurant and feel the energy of the city as
| everyone was still out drinking and wandering. Or I can get
| into pickup basketball games. Or listen to porch concerts
| walking down the neighborhood
|
| It's nice to go back and forth.
| Barrin92 wrote:
| For me personally, quality of life. No need for a car, I love
| theatre and as a kid I had to commute two hours to get to the
| next chess club because I lived in the middle of nowhere.
| legerdemain wrote:
| Theater can be live-streamed. You can play chess online with
| anyone in the world. Why would you need to live in a city to
| enjoy these experiences?
| Barrin92 wrote:
| I hope that's a joke because sitting in front of a screen
| isolated at home isn't a replacement for experiencing a
| play live. I've played enough online chess during the
| pandemic for a lifetime, I want to sit in a club with a
| beer and my friends over a physical board having face-to-
| face conversations, there's no online replacement for that.
| And in a city that is always only 15 minutes away by foot
| and I wouldn't trade it for anything.
| legerdemain wrote:
| That's why there are different kinds of people in the
| world. I wager there are lots of people like me on this
| site. If warm food regularly appeared at my door, I'd be
| happy never leaving my room and interacting with the
| world exclusively using my computer. I think it's useful
| to be aware that not everyone is a social butterfly who
| demands constant IRL interaction!
| SamuelAdams wrote:
| A lot of commenters come from wealthy / well off backgrounds. I
| agree with you, I like the openness and quiet that rural towns
| and areas bring. My only requirements are clean water and fast
| internet.
|
| Both of which were a problem in the farm house I grew up. Since
| moving to a city I'm always marveled at the difference between
| city water and well water. And now I get internet faster than
| 25 Mbps, consistently.
| giantg2 wrote:
| It depends on the well and city. I've had wells that had poor
| water quality. I've also lived in cities that had terrible
| water. So far the best water for me has been from a high
| quality well.
| ngokevin wrote:
| Software engineers like openness and quiet even more so than
| average. To get away. Hence why everyone is a hiker that
| wears Patagonia :) I'm sure lots of people's long-term dreams
| here are not software, but to live some Stardew Valley life
| or bake bread and make beer or something
| browningstreet wrote:
| Budapest, with a side spot in Spain, and my ski pass in the Alps
| gremloni wrote:
| Bangalore, India
|
| It has great weather, a nice mix of people since there are a lot
| of transplants both from other parts of India and international,
| good food, safe and relatively clean compared to other large
| Indian cities.
| Snoozle wrote:
| I think about this a lot as I have been fully remote since 2019,
| but have yet to execute on a family move.
|
| If I didn't have a dog, I would definitely spend a few years in
| places like Portugal, Thailand, Vietnam, and other countries in
| which I could have a nice experience relatively cheaply. The time
| zone is a bit of a challenge though, as work starting at midnight
| makes it hard to enjoy.
|
| For settling down, though, I would have a hard time living too
| far from a big city. I've tried to live the quieter life, but I
| just need the energy that comes with those large communities.
| Boston, NYC, London, Toronto, Chicago. Preferably a small town
| house near public transportation.
| ryandrake wrote:
| My criteria... good luck--many conflict with each other, and I
| don't really think this unicorn town exists.
|
| English speaking
|
| Very low population density (rural-er is better)
|
| Inexpensive, reliable high speed internet for work
|
| Low tax burden (state income tax + sales tax + property tax)
|
| Affordable land + housing
|
| Unpolluted air and water
|
| Good schools and universities
|
| Politically stable
|
| Culturally moderate: not overly liberal or conservative
|
| Legal gambling: nice to have :)
|
| Things I don't care about:
|
| Access to cities, music scene, art scene, any scene really
|
| Sunshine/warm weather
|
| Walkability
|
| Neighborhood culture (I'd prefer to live far enough from my
| neighbors that I never see them)
| muzani wrote:
| I'm happy where I live now. Bangi, Malaysia. Great food, and it's
| cheap enough to eat at a restaurant every day. Everything from
| the humble fried rice to wagyu steak.
|
| It's next to Putrajaya which has some amazing parks, whether it's
| skate parks or just picnic spots. Weather is great. Lots of
| beautiful people. About half an hour's drive from a cinema or
| major mall, but that's not too bad.
| ralmidani wrote:
| In almost every respect (with the weather being the only thing I
| might wish to see improved), Dublin, Ohio (and Columbus in
| General) has exceeded my wildest dreams since we moved here in
| June.
|
| https://wallethub.com/edu/best-worst-small-cities-to-live-in...
| binarynate wrote:
| I've been thinking about this a lot. My criteria:
|
| - Warm winters
|
| - Sunny (>200 avg. sunny days)
|
| - Good music scene
|
| - Good tech scene (for meeting other founders)
|
| - Beautiful nature nearby
|
| - Reasonable cost of living
|
| - In the US
|
| Based on these criteria, I think I've landed on Austin, Texas as
| the best option. Here are other places I considered, though:
|
| - California: L.A. or San Francisco would honestly be my top
| choices, but the high income tax rates push the cost too high.
|
| - Phoenix: A cool city, but my perception is that its music and
| tech scenes are not as vibrant as Austin's. Also, I don't think
| the desert is very beautiful.
|
| - Nashville: In a lot of ways it's like Austin, but smaller. It's
| still one of my top picks right now because it's closer to my
| family, but I'm leaning toward Austin because winters in
| Nashville are still relatively cold.
|
| - Miami: This city excels in all of my criteria except for the
| music scene, which appears to be severely lacking. So, that takes
| it out of the running.
|
| - Denver: Meets a lot of my criteria and seems beautiful, but I
| think its winters are too cold.
| achillesheels wrote:
| I've done extensive business travel in Denver, and, being a CA
| native, I did not find the winter to be that harsh. In fact,
| because it's up in the mountains, most of the cold and snow
| melts away by high noon. You're left with sunny skies until the
| frost returns at night, but it definitely helps with needing to
| shovel snow I'd imagine :P
| binarynate wrote:
| Thanks for mentioning that--that's helpful to know
| eunoia wrote:
| Don't listen! Denver is prone to harsh winters that weed out
| the weak. Yearly winter total population fatality rates
| average around 8%. If the weather doesn't get you first you
| might asphyxiate from the extremely low oxygen.
|
| I hear New Jersey has better nature anyway.
|
| Source: sarcasm.
| jasonladuke0311 wrote:
| Denver winters aren't that bad, which I found a pleasant
| surprise after moving here.
| binarynate wrote:
| Interesting--it sounds like I may have overestimated how cold
| it gets there. Basically I'm looking for a climate that is
| noticeably warmer in than the winter than my current
| location, Indianapolis.
| syndacks wrote:
| I'm not sure what kind of music scenes you're looking for, but
| Miami has one of the best for electronic music in the US, as
| well as probably latin and reggae.
| binarynate wrote:
| You're right--I should have mentioned that for live music,
| I'm mostly into indie rock and indie pop. I do like some
| vocal-driven electronic music (like Sylvan Esso), but when I
| checked Songkick for concerts in Miami, I mostly saw shows
| for pure EDM and DJs, which aren't my cup of tea for live
| music.
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