decent politics= not too left, not too right. Not overly in your face over every little detail (see NYC/SoCal). We're not in the far right bible belt, not in the east coast leftists society, etc. Your view isn't constantly shouted down on one side or the other.
BoxheadTim wrote:Tahoe wrote:Yeah, that's the one thing I miss a little out here, the fact that the car culture is mostly confined to hot rods and four wheelers. Nothing wrong with either, just makes it a little harder for those of us who are into different aspects of the car hobby to find the right sorts of specialists.mtn wrote: If I were to move from where I am, I'd love to be in Northern Wisconsin/UP, or somewhere in Virginia/South Carolina/North Carolina area. Don't want to move out west, I don't like heat, and I do like winter. The place I'm in would be perfect if it had one or more of the following: A nice body of water, mountains, curvy roads, or rolling hills. The farmland gets pretty boring after awhile, but the place has a lot of other stuff going for it.Sounds like you're describing Lake Tahoe where I live. It's out West, but no real heat. I've lived in MI,WI, and Southern CA. I miss the car culture in SoCal, but love living in Tahoe for the weather, Lake, roads, and close to Sonoma and Laguna Seca. I'm sure there are dozens of a great places to live though.
You guys are missing the part where I don't want to move out west
That is mostly to do with family and a general appreciation/love of the midwest. I could pry myself from the midwest, but don't see myself moving permanently farther than an 8 hour drive from the UP where my extended family all vacations. Oh, one more qualification is I have to be relatively close to an ice rink with a healthy hockey scene.
Come to Texas. Lots of climate variaties here. East texas has lots of tall pine trees like in the South East, West Texas is desert, Central Texas is very open, The Hill Country (Austin and the surrounding South Western area) is beautiful, North Texas gets snow. Depends what you want. I wouldn't live anywhere else.
I like Central CA (Sacramento) or Austin.
In NorCal you are just a couple hours from ANYTHING you want to do. Want to play in the snow? Go up to Tahoe. Race tracks? Laguna, Infineon, Thunderhill, Reno-Fernley. Outdoors stuff? All over. Good beer and good food? Some of the best in the world. Living expenses aren't cheap like many other places, but they are affordable, and you can even find good deals with a bit of hunting.
Austin: Everything good about Texas without most of the bad. Lots of music and culture.
Outside of the country: Germany (I really really loved Berlin) or possibly New Zealand.
Money being no object... NorCal would be great for all the reasons Beer Baron stated. Money is an object though so I see eastern TN, on a lake in the Smokeys as a nice alternative.
The NC or SC if not in Huntsville.
I like Huntsville a lot though. Cheap living, plenty of motorsports, no rust, no snow. plenty of non-motorsports stuff and plenty of my kind (aka engineers).
Other countries. Isle of Ma, Australia
sachilles wrote: In all seriousness, for the snow haters, why don't you like it? Is it temperature, driving conditions, what?
It is cold and snow equals salt equals rust.
93EXCivic wrote:sachilles wrote: In all seriousness, for the snow haters, why don't you like it? Is it temperature, driving conditions, what?It is cold and snow equals salt equals rust.
agreed. Plus, people are stupid. They buy AWD SUV's/Subarus and expect all the gov't mandated nanny devises to save them when the roads are slick. Guess what, it doesn't. You still have to drive with some semblance of intelligence.
The main thing I dislike about where I live: winters can see -20, summers can see 110. That's a 130 temperature variance that can happen in a few weeks here! (ok, more like a month, but still.) Last week we had 10" of snow and 4' drifts on Monday. Saturday and sunday were sunny and 60.
Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Money being no object... NorCal would be great for all the reasons Beer Baron stated. Money is an object though so I see eastern TN, on a lake in the Smokeys as a nice alternative.
I don't get the hate towards CA for living expenses when the whole of New England is completely overlooked. Outside of SF and certain parts of LA, California holds nothing on most of the East Coast for living expenses.
I think the small town I'm in is a bit overpriced. I have a coworker who relocated from Delaware and says this place has nothing on there for cost of living.
Beer Baron wrote:Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Money being no object... NorCal would be great for all the reasons Beer Baron stated. Money is an object though so I see eastern TN, on a lake in the Smokeys as a nice alternative.I don't get the hate towards CA for living expenses when the whole of New England is completely overlooked. Outside of SF and certain parts of LA, California holds nothing on most of the East Coast for living expenses. I think the small town I'm in is a bit overpriced. I have a coworker who relocated from Delaware and says this place has nothing on there for cost of living.
Your state taxes are very high, admittedly that isn't the majority of the living expenses, but it does hurt.
The costs are pretty low here in SC all around.
93EXCivic wrote:sachilles wrote: In all seriousness, for the snow haters, why don't you like it? Is it temperature, driving conditions, what?It is cold and snow equals salt equals rust.
In Nor Cal they do not use salt on the roads, just sayin.
tuna55 wrote: Your state taxes are very high, admittedly that isn't the majority of the living expenses, but it does hurt. The costs are pretty low here in SC all around.
I mean, CA seems to get singled out in all of these conversations ("Where should I live? Not CA, that place is too expensive.") like it is the most expensive state to live in, when it isn't. Cost of living is not cheap. We are above average for cost of living, but we are not ZOMFG-expensive!!!!1!!
Beer Baron wrote:Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Money being no object... NorCal would be great for all the reasons Beer Baron stated. Money is an object though so I see eastern TN, on a lake in the Smokeys as a nice alternative.I don't get the hate towards CA for living expenses when the whole of New England is completely overlooked. Outside of SF and certain parts of LA, California holds nothing on most of the East Coast for living expenses. I think the small town I'm in is a bit overpriced. I have a coworker who relocated from Delaware and says this place has nothing on there for cost of living.
I consider both coasts to be stupidly expensive, restrictive and conjested. 3 major problems I have with them. Personal rights/freedoms on BOTH coasts are hindered to the point of stupidity. I choose to not be a part of either of them.
The_Jed wrote: Northwest for the climate
Are you kidding?????
Beer Baron wrote: I don't get the hate towards CA for living expenses when the whole of New England is completely overlooked.
What you are saying is because it is expensive to live in New England people who don't live in New England should not complain about the high cost of living in NorCal.
What it boils down to is both are too expensive but only one is actually desirable so I'm not going to waste energy wishing I could afford to live in Connecticut
We looked at Prescott, Arizona; liked it a lot. I'm told if yu like Arizon, look at New Mexico, same blue skies, purple mountains but a poorer State, cheaper.
With crazy laws, limitations, high taxes and supporting NYC, I really want to get out of New York. Mrs. 914 wants to "go somewhere for the winter". No. Lets have our primary residence somewhere else and visit upstate when the mood hits.
I'd consider western Tennessee or North Carolina but I believe it's now the new Florida.
Overseas? Yes, but as we age, medical availability and skill levels are a concern.
LaMaddalena, off the coast of Sardinia.
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/11600
People keep mentioning the car culture in the SW. What about Mi? you no the state that put the car on the map. The car culture here is amazing. Every type of car, every type of modification and every type of motorsport.
Adrian_Thompson wrote: People keep mentioning the car culture in the SW. What about Mi? you no the state that put the car on the map. The car culture here is amazing. Every type of car, every type of modification and every type of motorsport.
I lived in Flint for many years while in college. I know Mi isn't all like that, but I've had my fill.
The lakes and natural aspect to the less populated areas is nice.
Southern California. Culture (automotive and otherwise), geography and climate are virtually unbeatable and there's economic opportunity to boot. You pay through the nose to live there, but you get what you pay for.
Short list: Santa Monica, Dana Point, Newport Beach or virtually anywhere on the beach in San Diego.
If I don't end up in Brazil, I'll be back in SoCal soon.
EDIT: Just to add a bit of context to what I mean when I said the climate was good. When I moved to NYC I discovered I didn't own a jacket. I never knew I was lacking one because I never needed it. I also didn't have A/C and in two years I could count on my hands the number of days I would've liked to have it.
I’d like to have a hanger home and fly a plane off my own dirt strip so cheap acreage, predictable weather, and low rain fall are required. I’d want to be able to transition from flying into astronomy as I got too old to trust myself so higher elevation and low light pollution are important. Lastly, I’m a California native so I’m wildly spoiled when it comes to tolerating humidity, bugs, overcast, snow, etc.
So, draw an impact oval longitudinally centered between AZ and NM with the upper latitude extending into parts of UT and CO. From there, parse the list down taking regional ideology into consideration.
Warning - Over the Top Ignorance – Warning.
UT is far too good for someone like me…all those wholesome, smiling, helpful people freak me out. CO is rocketing towards becoming the new CA (no, I actually don’t feel compelled to pay your way) and AZ is just CA’s runoff area.
So there you have it, it’s NM for me.
South Carolina is a horrible, horrible, horrible place to live. No jobs to be found, ugly women, backwards rednecks with guns, mosquitoes the size of helicopters, summers that reach a billion degrees and me. You don't want to come here. Ever! Don't visit, don't even pass through on your way to Florida. You will HATE it!!. 
Me, I'm not leaving unless the damn rude ass Yankees take over. Unfortunately about half of them seem to stop here on the way to Florida and stay. They fall in love with our quaint state, move here and promptly try to change it to be like the hell they left in the first place. 
That's why you see these on cars all the time. It's so we know who to run off the road.
Out of the country? Not much interests me. There are a few places that would be nice to visit for a month or two but as far a moving, no thanks, I'll pass.
DeadSkunk wrote: In reply to thestig99: Then you need to move some place where it's colder. The salt won't work and you won't get much rust. Think Edmonton.
I picked up a rust free car from central Wisconsin.
I was shocked when I went to Sno*Drift a couple years back. There was a torsion-bar style Subaru in a parking lot, and it appeared to have actually driven there!
Salt don't work below single digit temps, and the sun doesn't melt it to make overnight sheet ice, so they just grade (not plow) the snow and call it good enough.
It's one of those things I don't really think about much anymore.
Unless the wife decided to change jobs, or we wanted to lost her income, we don't have the option too.
But I think Nashville/Portland or NorCal as mentioned by Beer Baron is where we would likely go if we could.
Everyplace has its pros and cons. I've lived in a few so know a little. I'd like to try living outside the Boston-Washington megalopolis again. I enjoyed the slower pace of life. Maybe Maine or the Chicago area, depends on the next job.
I did love the update of sc and western nc. But not enough going on there to pu my career where I want it, too bad.
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