Need some advice on living conditions and such in other states.

[Vyuru]

I have received my Geo Preference email from the FAA in regards to my ATC application. It tells me to select two states that I would like to live in. Options are:

Anchorage Alaska
Los Angeles/Oakland California
Denver Colorado
Jacksonville/Miami Florida
Atlanta Georgia
Honolulu Hawaii
Chiicago Illinois
Indianapolis Indiana
Kansas City Kansas
Boston Massachusetts
Minneapolis Minnesota
Albuquerque New Mexico
New York New York
Cleveland Ohio
Memphis Tennessee
Fort Wroth/Houston Texas
Salt Lake Utah
Washington, Leesburg Virginia
Seattle Washington



Seattle is a slam dunk for my first choice. However I am having difficulty choosing my second choice since I have never been to any of these places except Houston many years ago. It should also be said that I will be at whatever facility I go to for at least 6 years before given the chance to transfer, so whatever I pick as my second option should be somewhere I'd want to live, it shouldn't be viewed as a temporary location.

Having a preference to avoid overly big cities and overly hot climates eliminates a good number of these, New York, Boston, all of Florida, etc. The heat and Palmedo bugs make me want to steer away from Atlanta >.>

Three of the areas I am considering are Albuquerque, Denver, and Fort Worth. True it's hot and humid as hell in Houston, and I believe Texas in general, I did like my stay in Houston, though I think I wouldn't want to live there. I have heard many good things about Fort Worth though.

I'm leaning more towards Denver and Fort Worth rather than Albuquerque ATM due to some of the info I have looked up on City Compare An income tax rate of 10% seems a little high to me.

So yeah, looking for input, halp!!1!

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Need some advice on living conditions and such in other states.

From your list, your first choice is spot on! I've been to all those cities and it took me all of one second to say SEATTLE when I saw it in the list. As for your second, I would absolutely go with Denver. The area has SO much to offer in every season and you still have all of the advantages of a metropolitan area. So thats my 2 cents!

[Bricklayer]

Re: Need some advice on living conditions and such in other states.

Not sure if you've lived in Seattle before (ignore if you have), but it rains pretty steadily there throughout the year (other than Summer, which is the best!). If you don't mind the rain, Seattle would be my first choice as well.

Los Angeles is dry, has good temperatures, lots of ethnic food (pretty much anything imaginable), tons of freeways (you basically have to drive), sometimes-horrible traffic. When I left (~2006), rent was around $800-1000 for a 1BR apartment.

I went to Chicago for a summer about ten years ago. It was very hot (like people were getting heat stroke). Other than that, the bus system was good (the whole city is one big grid), lots of good food, can't speak for the non-summer months, but I believe it snows (hard?). Lots of neat museums and parks. The bite of Chicago was fun.

I have some distant in-laws in Houston. The 2-3 times I've been there, the weather reminded me of Asia (where I currently live), kind of humid. The city itself felt huge (area) to me, but not very crowded. I suspect housing would be very affordable.

My impression of Boston was that driving was a nightmare (one way streets, major traffic, angry drivers, etc.). Having lived in Taipei (and driving frequently), I suspect Boston would feel like a piece of cake now.


P.S.: Just saw TGM's Denver recommendation. I haven't been there personally, but I have other in-laws that live there, and they love it. I think Denver would possibly be my second choice from that list. In fact, having lived in Washington for so long, I would almost say Denver would be my first choice, since I like being in new/unfamiliar environments.

[Aksannyi]

Re: Need some advice on living conditions and such in other states.

Contrary to the song at the beginning of the Drew Carey show, Cleveland does not, in fact, rock. So don't go there.

I rather liked Jacksonville when I was visiting my ex-fiance near there. Very nice cozy little area. I've heard Miami is an entirely different world, with a lot of culture. Florida is kinda great if you can deal with humidity.

Atlanta - I don't like it there, seems very ghetto to me. That's probably not a very nice term but it just wasn't that nice there and I really didn't even like driving through there.

I rather enjoyed living in Texas aside from being in Killeen. Texas outside of Killeen is nice.

Chicago is really cool. I wasn't there very long and I was pretty young but I remember it being pretty impressive to me when I was a kid.

All the other areas I have no experience with, but those are my personal thoughts/ramblings, hope they at least helped a bit.

[Feba]

Re: Need some advice on living conditions and such in other states.

Well, I clearly don't care for KC, but if you do wind up here, lemme know.

It's not really that bad, but I'm not a fan of the climate. This year has been very very good, but most of the time it has cold winters, and very warm summers. If heat is a turn off, you might want to think twice, but if you can stand some 100+F days during the summer, you get pretty nice springs and autumns in exchange. Again, winter is typically very cold (ice storms, and for that matter heat waves, probably cause more economic and medical damage around here than tornadoes), but is very nice. I think we usually get at least three or four nice snowfalls every winter; I think we've had a white Christmas for like the past four years now.

The public transportation is terrible, and there is enough sprawl that you can't get around without a car. Not an issue for most people, but something you should be aware of. Traffic is actually pretty good most of the time, unless you commute into downtown on a daily basis; and we don't have massive 5-lane highways. I don't think I've been in anything like a traffic jam here in years, and then that was traveling on a holiday weekend. The worst you'll find is that road maintenance is pretty common, but it's usually handled so well that it doesn't cause serious delays; same with traffic accidents.

In the Kansas City metro, you can get into very suburban and even nearly-rural housing and still be pretty close (~30 minutes) to downtown. I assume you'd be working at KCI, which is actually pretty far away from downtown (It's about 30 minutes from my place to downtown, and KCI is about 30 minutes); you could get a pretty quiet neighborhood if you wanted. If you work at the executive airports I live near, you could get a nice quiet, suburban place. There're some apartment complexes near here that are within walking distance of good shopping centers, and about five minutes from that airport if you drive. You could even walk there if you wanted some exercise, only 2.5 mi each way.

In terms of local businesses, there are a surprising amount of ethnic restaurants. If you have any specific hobbies, I could see if there are any shops that cater to it, but I would imagine you could find something. Downtown has some very cool places to check out, Union Station (an old train station, converted into a museum+IMAX+theatre+planetarium+indoor-educational-theme-park), Crown Center (basically, a mall), the Plaza; the latter two having impressive displays in the holiday season. There's also an effort to revive downtown's art; I've heard talk about theaters, although I haven't personally been in a very very long time. A good amount of concerts and sports, if that's your thing.

If you can stand the warm summers, and don't mind driving, it's a pretty good place to live; I've actually seen magazines rate the city I live in, and the city right next to us, as among the best places to live in the country based on health, education, etc. If you have any questions about it, let me know.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Need some advice on living conditions and such in other states.

I was just in McCracken & Spring Hill, Feba. I like Kansas because it can be very low key and relaxing but I'd have to live near a metro area for those times I want to kick up my heels. LOL

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Need some advice on living conditions and such in other states.

Hm, well, you certainly wouldn't like Atlanta, you start sweating the moment you step outside for most of the spring and summer. Same as where I live, which is what I hate about it

Los Angeles sucks. Nice place to visit, not to live in. Shit costs too much, its always dry, the beaches are polluted and when there aren't brushfires and it actually does rain, then there are the mudslides. And the quakes, can't forget those. San Diego is OK, but since that's not an option, I'd pass.

Of what I've seen on the list, Seattle suits you best, but Denver and other northern or mountainous regions may suit you as well. Nice thing about northern states or living in the mountains is it stays cooler most of the year. Even a hot day in the mountains is more tolerable than where I live because you can always count a cool breeze. Good exercise just walking around, though crazy drivers are more dangerous at higher altitudes, I've found.

[Feba]

Re: Need some advice on living conditions and such in other states.

I was just in McCracken & Spring Hill, Feba.

I've never heard of either of those, but apparently Spring Hill is only like twenty minutes south of here. You should've let me know!

I like Kansas because it can be very low key and relaxing but I'd have to live near a metro area for those times I want to kick up my heels. LOL

Yeah, that's one of the nice things about the KC metro, you can live in a very quiet, practically rural neighborhood, be ten minutes away from a city with tons of places to shop for whatever you need, and forty minutes away from downtown KC for special occasions. Forty minutes to go see a show might seem like a long way, but there's plenty of stuff to do outside of KC (the size of KC minimizes the realization of how large some of our other cities are. You've heard of Chattanooga, Sioux Falls? Overland Park (I'm basically across the street from it) has a higher population. Topeka even has a lower population; Olathe is on a nearly even level with Topeka (I wouldn't be surprised if we've surpassed them by now, it's a quickly growing city); Ann Arbor, Wichita Falls? Olathe has more than them too. Heck, Overland Park is actually larger than Kansas City, Kansas (When you hear people talking about "Kansas City", they're generally actually talking about KCMO if not the metro at large). And that's skipping a lot of capital cities, too.), and it's not even that bad when you compare it to the time you'd spend in traffic in other cities.

I mean, really, Atlanta for example is just hell. That might sound like it's just being mean, but I do have proof.


I was born there.

[Skoal]

Re: Need some advice on living conditions and such in other states.

Atlanta has horrible traffic.

I lived in Memphis for a year. It is definitely hot there but fun. I would suggest living east of Memphis. Oakland, Arlington, Eads, or Cordova. Lots of stuff to do and Memphis in May is pretty fun. They will have snow there every once in a while. If you would like to know more specifics just ask.

[Mhurron]

Re: Need some advice on living conditions and such in other states.

Atlanta has horrible traffic.

Most major cities have traffic people will call horrible.

I rather liked Jacksonville when I was visiting my ex-fiance near there. Very nice cozy little area. I've heard Miami is an entirely different world, with a lot of culture. Florida is kinda great if you can deal with humidity.

A lot of places are nice to visit but suck donkey balls to live there since for the most part you only see the best of the place and little to none of the bullshit you would have to deal with living there.

Also the wife lived in Miami for a time and she would most likely kill herself before going back.

[Dim Mahk]

Re: Need some advice on living conditions and such in other states.

Los Angeles, And HI
If you are at all interested warm weather most of the year, sexy sexy ladies wearing minimal clothing, many beaches, Deserts to ride ATV's, Water to surf, Mountains to Snowboard, Streets to race, Forests to camp and hunt and yada yada yada.

[Aksannyi]

Re: Need some advice on living conditions and such in other states.

Overland Park

Haha, I always forget this place exists but as soon as someone says it, I remember my aunt, uncle, and cousins lived there for a few years. There's a GE plant near there, I'd assume, since my uncle was transferred for work.

[Feba]

Re: Need some advice on living conditions and such in other states.

the wife

ok, now you're just making shit up.

Aks: I don't know about any GE plant around here; all I know of energy stuff around here is that I live by a gas facility with some big tanks, and there's a huge grass strip cutting through the neighborhood thanks to the pipeline running to it.

But yeah, OP is pretty damn forgettable.

[Aksannyi]

Re: Need some advice on living conditions and such in other states.

Yeah, I was like 10 when they moved there, so we never did take a trip out to the midwest to visit them. So I've never been. I just found it kinda funny to remember that all of a sudden.

[DakAttack]

Re: Need some advice on living conditions and such in other states.

Um, Leesburg, VA? It's a nice place, and right on down the pike is Tyson's Corner, a swanky shopping center where the theater employees check your tickets multiple times before you see the movie. If that's not swanky enough Tyson's II is somewhere nearby, but is only visible to individuals who make over 110k a year. Further down the pike, you'll find 495, the capital beltway, known for flash mobs of traffic.