Nothing to exciting going on over here. We got hot water back at our house after 5 or so days, so I'm smelling a little better. The Fair opened, which is the like 11 day long drunken high school reunion with gang fights, underage pregnancies, tractor races, the Charlie Daniels Band, and a demolition derby. We are high class. Going to the fair is the motivation for posting again. I have some fun stuff in the works, but that is for another time.
Today I need your help.
As mentioned previously, I will be moving somewhere at the end of the year. I have some cities in mind: Seattle, Chicago, Minneapolis, Eugene, and recent newcomer Austin. Boulder/Denver dropped of the list because I couldn't bear to attend Broncos games. Here are my criteria for my new home, in order.
- Good public transportation/No sprawl. I will not own a car. WILL NOT. I'll have a bicycle though, so a little sprawl is ok.
- A "Scene". I would prefer a good punk rock/underground/whatever scene, or at least a place to see live shows, and hopefully play.
- Football. Being a Bears fan, a city with a NFC team would be nicest, but almost any team will do. Also, college football would work. That's one of the things that got Austin involved in the mix.
- Bars. Both for employment and entertainment. Everywhere has bars, but some places only have shitty bars.
- Studio apartments. I will 99% be doing this by myself, so I would like affordable housing. I wont have much in terms of possessions, so it won't have to be big.
I know about Chicago, I've been there a couple times. I sort of know about Seattle, from the couple of nights I spent there recently and from hearing Whit's stories. But as for the others on my list, I'm pretty much limited to info on the internet. That is fine, but I prefer hearing about it from someone who lives there and might have some similar interests to mine. So if you live in any of the places, or have, or spent a bunch of time, or have friends who live there, give me some info, please? Or if you know of a place that might fit me, let me know.
You guys are great, whoever you are.
Tomorrow, one story that sums up my personality/life's path. It's a good one. There's no Lita Ford.
9 comments:
There's only one city that fits your description: New York.
Obviously Seattle would fit all that. Have you thought of Portland? It's supposed to be up and coming in all areas but football.
i was 99% thinking of moving to chi-town if you went.
Seattle does have a lot of what you are looking for, although public transportation isn't the best. The buses aren't too bad, though, and it's a pretty bike friendly town if you don't mind getting wet. Only problem is that it's starting to get outrageously expensive, even for a studio.
The only thing that Portland doesn't have of your requirements is football, unless you count Division 1-AA Portland State or you are willing to drive down to Eugene or Corvallis for college football (no car might hurt that). Portland is an up-and-coming, cool city that has great light-rail, tons of bike paths, the most micro-breweries per capita than anywhere. It's also a lot cheaper than Seattle.
Plus, we might be moving there next year.
My parents met on a train to Chicago. My dad being from Auckland and my mum from Southampton, England, I don't think they would have met otherwise so I am partial to Chicago!
Can I say that it has a deeper musical history than Seattle? Is that criminal? I know Seattle also has a huge musical history and scene, but Chicago is... Chicago!
It would be a bigger change from CA life than Seattle would be, I guess? Culturally it's more removed I presume, being midwestern.
The very cold winters are something to consider. You left weather off your list, but weather matters. Life is beautiful, but difficult and expensive in those winters. Life is warm and damp in Seattle.
I loved Chicago. It is possibly my favourite city in the world, except for Auckland, my home. Seattle is also a fantastic place, and better if you want to do outdoors things, obviously. Do you? If so, being near the Olympic Peninsula and Puget Sound would be awesome.
But mainly you want bars, and music, and scenes, and...
a fresh start, right? So go to Anthony-town. Go to Anthony-town, and not the town-where-Whit-was, as lovely as he may be.
Go east, young man. Go to Chicago.
Austin is it! Live music? Check. Transporation? Check. A scene? It has every scene imaginable. As for football, you can't go wrong with Longhorn football. Austin also has a ton of great bars, especially down on 6th Street. They have also converted a lot of downtown warehouses into some nice apartments.
I was reading an article on CNN today about Austin and it really made me homesick. You can find it here: http://www.cnn.com/2007/TRAVEL/getaways/07/03/austin.texas/index.html
So far you have New York, Seattle, Portland, Chicago and Austin.
Man we're helpful in narrowing things down.
All the help is greatly appreciated. I have a few months, so we can all still think about it!
I just realized one of the bloggers I read also writes for a Portland blog.
http://portland.metblogs.com/
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