What is the best and worst part of living in the city you live in?

[El Presidente]

Let us know what the best and worst things are of living in the city you live in.

As you know I live in the city of Brisbane on the east coast of Australia. it has a population of some 2 million and provides the comforts and amenities of a large city as well as access to some of the best beaches and sand islands in the world on our coast and of course the wineries and outback to our west. Thankfully, it is still easy to "get away from it all" while enjoying excellent education, healthcare, restaurants etal.

The downside.......travel! It is a 9 hour flight to Hong Kong. 16 hours to LA.

But I wouldn't change it

[Habana Mike]

Atlanta GA, best/worst aiport in the world - nonstop flights to almost anywhere. Can't complain about the climate as it is pretty temperate most of the year.

One positive is we're still fairly smoker-friendly, many establishments one can still enjoy a cigar in. At least the politicians and nannies leave it up to the business owner here for now.

Beaches are a little far (4-6 hours) though I guess it's also a positive that traffic congestion has eased since we're now only the 7th worst in the US this year vs. one of the top 3 in past studies - either that or at least 4 other cities have surpassed us by becoming even worse.

For a minor metropolis there's relatively decent culture - museums, restaurants, music and the like but having moved down from the DC area and traveling frequently to most of the major cities in the world, it seems a bit lacking all in all.

Cost of living is not bad at all compared to other big cities, a lot more house for your coin.

Great place to have raised the kids.

[Lant63]

I am going to college in Detroit so the upside is great diversity and food scene, along with easy access to the great white north. The downside.... My city is bankrupt

[surly]

My city is Victoria, British Columbia in Canada.

BEST: The weather is pretty nice year round in Victoria, BC. It's a big tourist town, so lots of great restaurants and things to see. If you like salmon fishing and the outdoors, you can't beat it. Also just a couple of hours ferry trip to Vancouver or Seattle.

WORST: Hard to find much bad to say - Victoria is often listed as one of the best cities in the world (example: http://www.cntraveler.com/readers-choice-awards/best-cities-world_slideshow_17-Victoria_9).We have a bit of a problem with homeless people and it can be expensive. Everything costs a bit more because we live on an island.

[REASON]

My City; Edmonton, AB

Best: All the festivals in the city. Opertunity for good Jobs (more a provincial thing), the Hore Frost on the trees make for a winter wonderland.

Worst: The random -50 below day in the winter

[Duxnutz]

Sydney:

Pros: - a very beautiful city.

- Great beaches located right in the city.

- Weather, pretty much all seasons but an uber mild winter.

Cons: - Geographically very spread out, traffic is horrendous in peak hour

- Sydney siders are very insular and an unfriendly lot in my experience (compared to Midwest US)

- Bloody expensive in every way possible (eating out, entertainment, property prices).

My partner and I just spent 21 days in Bali trying to figure out where to spend the next 10-15 yrs of our life. Might have to take some notes from this thread!

[Habanos2000]

Western Suburbs of Chicago is where I'm from. The good things about living close to a large city is that you have a great selection of just about anything in terms of travel, dining, and entertainment. The lakefront, at least in the summer time, is a joy.

Bad things: traffic, winter weather, taxes, politicians, the usual!

[Rushman]

I live in the district of West Bay on Grand Cayman. Hard to call it a city with some 11,000 residents but it is the second largest district on the island second only to George Town, home to famous seven mile beach.

Best things: diversity, beauty and peacefulness, waking up to the sights and sounds of the Caribbean Sea.

Worst things: (1) Home to the former and reportedly very corrupt Premier McKeeva Bush. But he is known to hang out at the cigar bar so he can't be too bad. (2) it's not Playa del Carmen....boy do I miss Mexico. (3) while west bay is not as bad in terms of housing, this whole island is very expensive in terms of living expenses, eating out, electricity, pretty much every thing but conch shells.....nah they are overpriced too.

---

I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=19.390033,-81.404448

[Upnorth3]

I live in Toronto, Canada. I would say the best thing about living here would be the socialist tendency. The worst thing about living here would be the socialist tendencies.

[Dozerhead]

I live just outside Houston.

The best: Close to the beach and just about any warm weather recreational activity you could want. Since I love to scuba dive, we are just a 2 hour flight away from some great diving. Regardless of anyone's interests, there is probably something here for just about anybody whether it be sports, fine dining, fine arts, etc. The job market is pretty good right now, too. Gas prices tend to be cheaper here compared to most parts of the country, and even the state, for that matter. We have great sports venues to see football, baseball and basketball.

The worst: The traffic sucks. Yes, there is something here for everyone but chances are it will take you an hour to get there regardless of the time of day. In the Summer the heat is bad but our swamp like humidity can make it absolutely unbearable at times. There are beaches close by but they are not the prettiest in the world and in the Summer we get some nasty seaweed that washes up along the coast which tends to smell really nasty after a few days. The sports venues are nice but 9/10 the teams that play in them usually suck.

[ogus]

Charlotte NC: Good- Mild weather year round, family oriented, faithful people, good cost of living and home prices, easy going, 3 hours or less to anything

Bad- Mediocre food, superficiality and greed, religious people, most people won't move but wish they were somewhere else, no natives in this town

Ugly- Nobody out of state knows Charlotte is in NORTH Carolina

[khamy]

Sydney (some similar points to Duxnutz)

Pro's

- From where i live at least, everything is half an hour away and i'm always against peak hour traffic

- Lest then 2 hours drive to get to Beaches north and South of Sydney as well as fantastic flora and fauna of the blue mountains to the West and Hunter Valley wineries are not to far off as well. (City beaches, wouldn't want to drive to any of them, to much traffic and its over crowded)

- One of the best harbors to sail on or just sit and have a beer while people watching.

- Multicultural so the food variety and freshness is top notch/authentic. Indian differentiates to northern/southern(Goa)/sri lankan and nepalese. Thai differentiates out north/south/lao/cambodian/vietnamese. chinese is szechuan,honky, chiu chow etc. you get the idea...

- Vietnamese Pho uses the proper fresh noodles.

- Decent coffee in most cafe's.

Cons

- Expensive as F@#% , expect to pay 2 to 3 times more here then most developed placed in the world.

- Traffic is shite (though from where i live, i don't get caught up in it much)

- Transport is shite (always late, always crowded, sometimes lacking climate control)

[Fuzz AI]

Sydney:

Pros: - a very beautiful city.

- Great beaches located right in the city.

- Weather, pretty much all seasons but an uber mild winter.

Cons: - Geographically very spread out, traffic is horrendous in peak hour

- Sydney siders are very insular and an unfriendly lot in my experience (compared to Midwest US)

- Bloody expensive in every way possible (eating out, entertainment, property prices).

My partner and I just spent 21 days in Bali trying to figure out where to spend the next 10-15 yrs of our life. Might have to take some notes from this thread!

Screw you! We're not unfriendly!! Next time you come to a Figurados event, we're charging you double!!

[Duxnutz]

Screw you! We're not unfriendly!! Next time you come to a Figurados event, we're charging you double!!

Haha! Just a generalization based on the Inner West I guess!

[PaulP]

Best: weather and the ocean

Worst: dysfunctional City government, the eroding infrastructure, and onerous taxes

[CdnLimitada]

Singapore

Best- Clean, safe, great place for business, very efficient, great for young kids, close to a lot of vacation spots, help is cheap, a lot of great food.

Worst- A little sterile, a little boring, cost of living, transient expat population so friends leave often, not a great place for golf, cigars are expensive, kids grade school costs more than my college tuition fees (I am not that old...)

[Bill Hayes]

Melbourne

Best - The people

Worst - Unpredictable weather

Voted 2013 world's most liveable city.

Pros - Generally the people are friendly enough, multi-cultural restaurant and food scene, bars, good wine, sports capital of Aus, relatively easy to get around inner Melbourne suburbs due to tram, train and bus system and I quite like the random weather at times as it keeps you on your toes and forces you to adapt and have a good time regardless of the conditions.

Negatives - I love Victoria's beaches and the ocean but they can be more of a challenge to get to than other Aus states, can be an expensive place to live and maybe not as much opportunity workwise as Sydney, random weather.

[dvickery]

welllllllllllll ... I don't live in a city ... town of 8000 and I live 26kms from town . next door neighbours are (in both directions) half a mile away .

there is NO city in the universe that I would like to live in ... but as long as you guys are happy where you live ... good for you .

pros of living in the great white north(a long ways from town) ... no snakes(yuck) ...no rats ... no fleas ... zero crime(I lost my house keys 25 years ago and have never locked my house since) . good hunting fishing canoeing sledding quading etc etc and I don't have to leave my property .

cons ... a long way to anywhere(you just don't go for pizza at midnight) ... somewhat expensive(pay my heating bills for a winter) ... 1200 kms to salt water .

all in all ... I love where I live .

derrek

[dicko]

Perth

Pros- weather, beaches, river, food and drink, jobs, friendly people

Cons- expensive(more than Sydney except maybe for property), bad service, slow night life during the week (improving), cashed up bogans

[ramon_cojones]

LA

best:

weather, women, people, food, city life, suburban life, car mecca

beaches, mountains, desert and vegas all within driving range

worst:

smoking restrictions, traffic, cost of living, bars close early but there's always after hours

Would never live anywhere else, no analog anywhere else in the world

[LordAnubis]

Whoa whoa whoa dicko what are you saying about my cashed up bogan bretheren???

I agree with dicko for most of the points, Perth is great, i like the relaxed lifestyle. I'm a country boy (only actually lived in Perth for 5 years during high school) even now i work in mining and spend more time out bush than i do in Perth, so for me Perth is basically a holiday.

Weather is good, it's quiet, location is good, people are friendly (sometimes too friendly), food and drink wise for me there's a few good halal eateries so that's good. There's a good turkish/lebanese community as well so there's some good shisha bars around, and ofcourse for me most of my family is in Perth so that's great.

Cons for me really would be traffic/poor road design and poor public transport services.

[Skyfall]

MI6 - London Branch

Pros: Q Branch Gadgets, Sultry Women, Great Pubs, Great Tailors, Sports Cars, Country Clubs and of course Her Majesty!

Cons: Short Life Expectancy, Food Scene, Hot Spot for Villians and Henchmen, Weather, In and Out of the Airport a lot.

[anacostiakat]

DC

Best thing: It is our nation's capital!

Worst thing: It is our nation's capital!

[NJP]

Melbourne, just love it. I spent 17 years around all parts of Victoria. 20 years in and around Melbourne, once you know it you love it. It's my warm cardigan. When Melbourne is on nothing compares. The cops are rampant both legal and ethical but its a convict nation that prides itself on a "fair go" so what can you do.

[sengjc]

Screw you! We're not unfriendly!!...

Yes you are!

I live in Melbourne, BTW.