78 Comments
 

Entirely depends on what you value and who you like to be around - cultural fit is equally / if not more important than how wealthy an area is. 

p.s. It's not NY that place is a fucking cesspool

 

The first places that come to mind are mores so "tier 2" cities based on that list, specifically ones that have a bit more money in them. Ex. Twin Cities, Boston, Philly, DC, Charlotte. 

Just my two cents, though

 

safe, high end, educational focus is easy - I'd imagine you can find this in switzerland, france, UK, germany, and the nordic regions, possibly australia and NZ

inclusive? one look at their demographics will tell you they don't like immigration (or like if they have a large % as in switzerland, still massive discrimination, worse than USA per people I know that've lived there)

what you're describing is utopia, which will never exist. if you listed your priorities in order, then I'd suggest somewhere like monaco.

but if you're talking USA, for all of the bad press the south gets, the cities are very inclusive. it'd be a rare week where I don't run into someone of south asian, east asian, african, middle eastern, european, central american, and african american descent, it's safe, not focused on celebs (bc I'm not in LA, NY, Miami), but it's not high end. celebs like high end, which is where I'm getting tripped up

you also haven't said anything about climate. personally, I'd imagine certain suburbs of boston check all of those boxes except maybe the high end one, but if you don't want an 8 month winter, that's a hard pass

 
CiaronSmith

Safe

Inclusive

High-End

More focus on educated individuals than celebrities, ideally.

Orange County, CA

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

Scottsdale

Denver

Boise

Seattle

Southern California, i.e. San Diego

Lake Tahoe

LA can be nice if you find a nice spot and you WFH

 

East Village NYC

Beachouse in SoCal

Beachouse in Carolinas

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

Me too. Lived there for years. I never thought Philly was special besides being very affordable vs NYC at the time. Lived in a decent area but crime was sporadic too. Few murders (less than a mile perimeter from where I lived, I can think of at least 2 while I was living there) near where I used to live and I wasn't in a "bad part" of town.

 

Flashy for sure. Every person you see wearing Gucci probably paid for it with credit they can pay back. Public transit does suck for most areas. Some areas it's not too bad though. I think "existent but inadequate" is an accurate way to think about it. 

Summer heat isn't that bad though. Don't get me wrong, it's hot and humid, but talking to people in NYC hitting 95 degrees when we haven't been over 90 yet makes this seem more bearable. Summer is just a lot longer here, and nights don't cool down at all. It's tropical. Winters are the benefit that makes it all worth it.

Don't @ me
 

Most people I ask at work say this.

For education-level, safety, quality of schools, and cost of living relative to comparable suburbs across the country.

 

being born and raised here, can confirm all of this. i've never met an adult without a degree, 90%+ of my graduating class went to college with the majority going to T50 institutions, never worried about crime. 

 

It'd be even better if WMATA actually operated a functional transit system, and if there were more lines (e.g., down Columbia Pike, the Purple Line connecting Bethesda to Tysons, etc.), but compared to other large US cities that have even less transit, it could obviously be worse.

Quant (ˈkwänt) n: An expert, someone who knows more and more about less and less until they know everything about nothing.
 
k1k10

DC suburbs

I used to live on the Dunn Loring stop on the Orange line in VA. It was ok, but I like NYC or SoCal better. I highly disliked the fact that political talk was an acceptable conversation starter for most people at the bar (not me though).

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

Dunn Loring is alright. I was more referencing places like Bethesda, McLean, etc. Regarding political talk at the bar, yeah, thats just kind of how we get down here. Politics and gov't are a way of life, but that doesn't mean you need to make it a contentious topic of conversation.  

 

Annapolis is vastly different from Arlington, would not call it a suburb of DC. It's a nice, but small town about an hour north of DC. Arlington is a super cool spot. Best public school system in VA, basically no crime, urban planning is excellent in that its easy to get around in a variety of ways, lots of amenities and parks, tons of interesting employers(Amazon, DARPA, Boeing, etc). The one caveat to all of this is that it is fairly expensive to buy a house. Even 70 year old 3 bedroom houses are going for 1 million+. Renting is feasible in the more urban areas of Arlington and a lot of people do. If I was able to choose any place on earth to raise my kids, it would probably be Arlington.  If you have any other questions feel free to ask!

 

Annapolis is nice for a day date spot or to visit, pretty boring otherwise. The Naval Academy is worth checking out.

Quant (ˈkwänt) n: An expert, someone who knows more and more about less and less until they know everything about nothing.
 
papertiger

USA is a fail. It's rife with ratchet people because they'll of their ghetto twerk culture with loud low-iq rap music.

It's inescapable and in your face. All we see is dreadlocked people speaking grammatically incorrect English.

Who wants USA ?

Where do you live?

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

The Gulf Coast is basically what you're describing. 

"If you don't have any enemies in life you have never stood up for anything" - Winston Churchill | "It's a testament to the sheer belligerence of the profession that people would rather argue about the 'risk-adjusted returns' of using inferior tooth cleaning methods." - kellycriterion
 

As another Bay Area native.. you aren't very well traveled even within your immediate vicinity. Oakland is east bay. No one considers SF as part of any of the North/South/East Bay or Peninsula, SF is just SF. North Bay is Marin/Solona/Sonoma/Napa counties. And no; Bay Area girls are not the hottest... in one night out in Vegas/LA/NYC, any major tourist city in Mexico (Tulum, PV, etc) or Europe you'll see more attractive women then you'll see out in the Bay in a month. That is unless your type is hoodrats from Oakland or ESJ.

 

Orange County.

I also heard Alabama is pretty nice Irvington, NJ is pretty nice year round. Make sure you check it out in person at a 3am night.  

Persistency is Key
 

This so heavily depends on what nice means… I’ll probably never leave NYC unless going international, but I’ll second the callouts for the DC suburbs (I’m partial to NOVA in particular) - they’re wealthy, educated, safe, clean, diverse, accessible, fantastic schools, close to a major city, multiple airports… if you want upscale suburban life it’s pretty hard to beat

 

That's a super broad question, but I'll toss out an unconventional take 

If job location is not an issue/can work remotely then Hawaii:

--Cheaper than Miami, Cali, NY, etc (adjusting for the fact that accommodations skew on the higher end in HI since it's tourist oriented)

--Nicest year round weather (65-85 degrees year round)

--Some of the nicest beaches/surf spots/golf courses in the world (especially considering close competitors like Cancun, Dominican Republic, etc. are located in pretty dangerous places whereas Hawaii is still within the cultural and legal boundaries of the US)

--Natural vibes being surrounded by mountains and beaches rather than being stuck in a depressing concrete jungle 

 

Socal easy win. I work the Northeast market 6-3. I am out of the office at 3 and can go surf or ride motorcycles the rest of the day. I am 1 hour from San Diego, 1 hour from LA. The food is amazing, the girls are amazing, the car culture is amazing, beach vibes are amazing, weather amazing. Make sure you have a tax haven elsewhere as these California taxes are amazing as well.....

 

Personally I'd live somewhere flashy in the west coast like Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, Hidden/Beverly Hills and the likes (the weather is a bonus too), but each to their own.

Edit: I haven't considered schools in this, because I ship my kids off to boarding school in England.

 

Another thing to consider is hobbies. Love DC, but I’m a huge skier and sailor. While annapolis checks the sailing box, the Chesapeake is murky and there really isn’t anywhere interesting to sail to near there. It’s not like going to Martha’s Vineyard etc. Also too far to do a bunch of weekends in Vermont for skiing. 

 

Just got into sailing and a big skier. I think Boston is the best place to work for both. Alot of my sailing friends live in Marblehead to sail and the mountains are within 3hrs to great mountains

 

People really sleep on Boston. It is a huge financial hub with many big PE, VC, and AM companies based here or who have a large presence/satellite office. (Bain, fidelity, Wellington, MFS, TA, Harbourvest, THL, State Street Global Advisors, Battery ventures etc) Best hospitals and universities in the country. Innovation hub especially in the areas of robotics and biotech. Highly educated population and education is very valued here. Best sports teams. Quite liberal, but not to the point of societal deficiency. Liberal senators and mayor, moderate Republican governor who is actually great and ranked best governor in the country. Young crowd so there is plenty to do, maybe not NYC or LA level but you can have a good time. For those with kids, there is great schools and it is very safe relative to other cities with large populations. The local people aren’t as friendly or open as other places but there are plenty of transplants due to the universities here. The state of Massachusetts is highly ranked in any meaningful category as well.

 

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