What Do You Like About Where You Live? What Do You Hate About It?

[Lilacs4Me]

Love:

• schools - top 20 in the state academically
• schools - amazing teachers
• schools - tons of resources, classes, and activity options available for every type of student
• small-town feel
• availability of public transportation and proximity to downtown, freeways, and roads heading west
• awesome food - pizza, burgers, italian beef, ethnic food from just about everywhere
• families have lived here for generations so they care about their village
• charm of the neighborhood
• village center that is walk-able and easy for the kids to ride around on their bikes and have fun with their friends in different places
• medium-sized creek that runs through the village with parks/green space lining it - so pretty!
• village events that bring the whole town together like the 4th of July Parade and the Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony and the Street Dance and the Trolley Crawls

Hate:

• taxes
• alleys
• houses too close together
• paying "public school tuition" of about $1500 every year, plus incidental fees, on top of high taxes, and my kids don't get bussing to school (almost 2 miles to the HS)
• families have lived here for generations so they are blind to certain changes that need to be made
• families have lived here for generations so they still act like they are in high school
• people who make decisions based on their friends and high school buddies instead of what is good for the kids/town/organization/etc
• not on my side of town really, but on the south side there has been a huge increase in crime and even some gang activity from the city - too many apartments on that side and it's a different school district, plus the "town center" is on the north side, so I don't think a lot of the south people feel that small-town closeness like we do. We are literally separated by a main artery and railroad tracks, so in our town there is literally a "wrong side of the tracks" It's pretty divided, which is sad, but TBH, if it keeps the crime away from my side, I'm not sure I mind.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

Winnipeg, Manitoba

What I like-

We have four distinct seasons
We have all necessities within a reasonable distance
It's a fair sized city..not too big, not too small (~800,000 population)
It's home
We have an NHL team
All my family is here (except one brother who comes home every few months)

What I don't like-

The summers are brutal
Crime is on the rise (we've only had 3 or 4 murders so far this year so it's not THAT bad)

I definitely like living where I do.

Winnipeg
Like
-size - not too big, not too small (800,000)
-4 seasons
-access to many great lakes/beaches in very short drive
-decent transportation system - not as great as other cities but you can still get public transportation to all parts of the city
-multicultural
-small town feel
-summer evenings are divine

Dislike
-isolated - very long drive to any city larger than 300.000
-resistance to change
-winter cold snaps
-socialist/union mindset (love/hate relationship)
-lack of job opportunities

My coworker and I will be there at the end of June for a visit and get to help celebrate Canada Day. We're really looking forward to visiting your 4-season city.

 

[kimblebee]

My coworker and I will be there at the end of June for a visit and get to help celebrate Canada Day. We're really looking forward to visiting your 4-season city.

Funny how one of us loves and the summer and one of us hates it (totally me)

You should have great weather and you're here for our 150th birthday. Hopefully our city represents herself well.

Have a great time

 

[DLgal]

What do I love? Everything!

What do I hate? The house next door being used as an illegal Chinese anchor baby house. No one seems to care, though. Other than that, I hate nothing about my city. It's practically perfect in every way.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

I live in central California.

What I like:
Close to lots of popular areas - a couple hours to LA, the beach, and about 4 hours to Vegas
mild winters
lower cost of living

What I don't like:
The summers here are ridiculously hot and it makes my electricity bill outrageous
The pollution in our valley is disgusting
For the size of my city, there really isn't a lot to do as far as arts, culture, festivals, museums, etc.
I'm not trying to get into politics, but I don't like that the majority views of my area disagree with my personal views

Sounds like you live in California's little slice of West Texas known as Bakersfield.

 

[dotfurio]

Sounds like you live in California's little slice of West Texas known as Bakersfield.

You nailed it

 

[Tattylou]

South of Boston.

I'll second some pros that @PollyannaMom said and add my own:
-Close to Boston and easy access to everything in the city.
-Close to beaches
-Excellent medical facilities close by
-Every store you can imagine within a 10 min or less drive
-Love our neighborhood and neighbors (It is getting even better bc my bff is in the process of buying a house on my street!)
- My family is within a 10 min drive
-Our town has awesome schools
-Summer weather and Fall foliage

Cons:
-WINTER
-Cost of living....but, really, winter is my only real con

 

[earfulofmagic]

Portland, OR

likes:
food, huge variety of cuisines
cultural events and places
pretty much every business is a locally owned business
beautiful state - great place for nature lovers
no sales tax
generally progressive politics and people
weather, for the most part, is nice
weird, wonderful individuals all over
environmentally conscious population

dislikes:
not enough sunshine
decent to poor urban planning
inflated housing costs*
population boom outpacing infrastructure*
lack of diversity in many areas, gentrification
cost of living is growing at a pace not matched by salaries*
(* = there is a "rent crisis" i.e. housing bubble ripe for popping)

 

[Mokat76]

SE Virginia
Love:
Best neighbors ever
Four distinct seasons, but winter isn't too extreme
Surrounded by history
Lush and green
My area is very low crime
Superb schools
My house
Farmers markets with truly local goods

Dislike:
Relatively high cost of living
Traffic, especially in the summer
Hurricane threats/warnings--the worry about damage, whether to evacuate...
Mosquitos and ticks (got Lyme disease my first year here from a tick bite)

 

[here757]

Norfolk Va..
Pros:
It's Norfolk and we are awesome!

Cons:
Well it's Norfolk and cuz we're do awesome, surroundings cities can't compare! Lol
Traffic
4 seasons in less then a week,ahhh!

 

[bdcp]

No VA. Love most everything. Close to DC and lots of historical sites. Plenty of culture and events. Only thing I really hate is traffic (at times). Not a cheap place to live, but salaries are also high. Unemployment is low and has been that way for a long time. Best part is our grown sons and DIL live close by and DH and I can afford to live here, even when we retire in a few years. My parents are 1.5 hours away, DH's mom is 15 min away and our siblings are all within 3.5 hours. Easy to get together which we do several times a year. The rest of our relatives are 400-1500 miles away (NY, TX and GA), but because we live in metro DC, most all have visited over the years.

As for other things, I have three large shopping malls within 20 miles of me. There's tons of restaurants and 15 grocery stores within 5 miles. We also have multiple good hospitals and lots of Dr's within a 45 min drive. We have three large international airports within an hour and a half. Our school system is consistently rated very good and we have wonderful state universities. Our boys both graduated from state schools (one BA and one AA) and both have really good high paying technical jobs. Best of all, we live 45 min from Lorton, where we take the Auto Train to FL from.

 

[Westcoastwild]

Pros:

The weather. I don't miss snow, and here I can drive to it if I want to ski.

Transit and easy access to cheap flights.

The coffee

Biking culture

Amazing farmers market

Independent bookstore, great library, and in general a heavy emphasis on education and intellectualism

Cons:

The weather. It rains a lot in winter, and humidity makes it both colder and hotter than you'd expect.

And summer is hot but not hot enough for the town to build a public swimming pool. So weird.

Cost of living. This is big. House prices raised 13% in this year alone, they aren't expecting it to slow down. The job market does not even come close to keeping up with this.

It's not a small town but it's not a city either. So it's got more to do on a Friday night but that "more" is usually bad music acts at bars I don't care for. I'd like to live in a city with more culture.

The crime. High homeless population, college town. If the homeless aren't going through my trash at 3 am, the college boys are out there hurling glass beer bottles at each other. It's MOSTLY safe. But not entirely.

The intellectualism and liberalism gets to me sometimes. I prefer it over tea party anti- intellectualism but it definitely gets tiresome. I don't like the current president and didn't vote for him but....seriously, "conservative" and "religion" are not dirty words.

 

[adisneyaunt]

SW Fla
Pros: Flowers year round ( and plenty of Sunshine), Arts and entertainment, tons of Restaurants, moments to the Gorgeous Gulf, shopping galore... the list is endless!
Cons: wish we had gotten here sooner! Far from my side of the family but they All come visit, lol
LTD... Living The Dream!

 

[AquamarineSteph]

Middle Tennessee

Love:

--Ummm - I'll get back to you on that.
--No, wait! The Predators are playing for the Stanley Cup. The local pride for the team is insane, and it's a great relief from reading the news in the rest of the country/world.

Dislike:

--100 people/week are moving here.
--Traffic was already bad, and now it's just evil.
--Newcomers are flooding areas that the locals don't visit b/c now they're too expensive. (Gentrification.) So anything advertised as trendy is probably going to be flooded by new residents and tourists.
--Public transport doesn't go anywhere you need to it go.
--While the city itself has open arms, the surrounding counties do not always share that same attitude.

 

[penn19]

North of dallas. Yea, not happy with it anymore. Looks like every other suburban town. Used to be quaint. Now? Not so much. Dry cleaner/fast food on every corner. Can't wait to get out.

 

[earfulofmagic]

Pros:

The weather. I don't miss snow, and here I can drive to it if I want to ski.

Transit and easy access to cheap flights.

The coffee

Biking culture

Amazing farmers market

Independent bookstore, great library, and in general a heavy emphasis on education and intellectualism

Cons:

The weather. It rains a lot in winter, and humidity makes it both colder and hotter than you'd expect.

And summer is hot but not hot enough for the town to build a public swimming pool. So weird.

Cost of living. This is big. House prices raised 13% in this year alone, they aren't expecting it to slow down. The job market does not even come close to keeping up with this.

It's not a small town but it's not a city either. So it's got more to do on a Friday night but that "more" is usually bad music acts at bars I don't care for. I'd like to live in a city with more culture.

The crime. High homeless population, college town. If the homeless aren't going through my trash at 3 am, the college boys are out there hurling glass beer bottles at each other. It's MOSTLY safe. But not entirely.

The intellectualism and liberalism gets to me sometimes. I prefer it over tea party anti- intellectualism but it definitely gets tiresome. I don't like the current president and didn't vote for him but....seriously, "conservative" and "religion" are not dirty words.

I feel like this might be Spokane or Tacoma (you do not have to answer)

 

[ten6mom]

Suburb SE of Phoenix

Love:
No extreme weather (no tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc)
Grew up here so it's "home" and my family is still here
Schools in my immediate area are pretty good
Cost of living and housing seems pretty reasonable compared to southern California, where we vacation
2nd safest city in America, supposedly. Not that I leave my doors unlocked, but still.

Dislike (I don't HATE):
Summers can be brutal, dry heat notwithstanding
All my area is boring tract "cookie cutter" housing. Unless you have a million-plus dollars, your house looks like everyone else's. It's not necessarily bad but it's boring
Too far from a beach

 

[Westcoastwild]

I feel like this might be Spokane or Tacoma (you do not have to answer)

I take it you have not been to Spokane in winter. It does not lack the white stuff. The shoveling, the city's inability to plow in a logical manner, the freeze, and finally the melt.

 

[Mokat76]

Suburb SE of Phoenix
Dislike (I don't HATE):
Summers can be brutal, dry heat notwithstanding

Ah, yes, the dry heat. When I lived out there I used to tell people, "it's dry in my oven but I don't sit in there." But I truly liked the east valley and was sad when the Air Force moved me.

 

[Kellykins1218]

Sandusky, Ohio

We have an awesome amusement park (Cedar Point)
6 indoor/outdoor water parks
Ferries to the Lake Erie Islands

Michigan drivers ...seriously, use a friggen turn signal once in awhile! I don't know what it is but almost every time there's an issue, you look and they've got a Michigan plate. I also don't like that we have no direct route to get to a highway going south. That's about it. I love it here.