Who’s YOUR City? Blog

I was born in Columbus, OH and lived in a total of 5 States (WA, OH, NY, AZ & CA). I knew as a little kid that Columbus was NOT the place for me personally. It is a nice place to be from and it is a very nice, clean town. It just didn’t have the energy and diversity that I personally needed. It also lacked that real urban feel that I was looking for. In retrospect it is funny that I knew that even when I was young. Anyway, we mov ed to New York and I hit paydirt. I loved everything about the city except the dirtiness (in the late 70’s) but I was willing to deal with that. It had an energy that made me feel alive. I was young and ate the city up. I moved away to the Phoenix area in my mid-twenties (escapism years) and stayed there for 11 years. It was a change from NY. It was new clean, bright and shiny but over time I realized that at my core I was empty. I had good friends but I really missed the energy and culture of an urban city. I left and moved to Southern California. I lived in the LA area and for the most part got the energy, good weather and beautiful geography but it was not NY. I really got tired of the traffic and having to drive great distances to do anything. I sold my possessions and took a job in Seattle. Seattle is probably one of the most esthetically beautiful cities in the U.S, HOWEVER…well let’s just say that this article http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw/2005/0213/cover.html can sum up better than I can what I think of Seattle. While I was there I did a lot of soul searching and realized that deep down San Francisco had EVERYTHING that I wanted in a city. I had visited there a few times before and loved the city but I always let family and friends talk me out of moving there because of THEIR fears of the city. I decided I was going to move and did. The only thing I will say is ” I am home and I have exhaled”!

Sent by Cristobal from San Francisco

I have some college available, but no degree. i can’t seem to find a good job here in San Antonio concerning labor. So If I do leave San Antonio, Well I’m out on the streets. I have no money and I need a job. So where the best place to be homeless? I would like to know so I can start out. I have a unique personality and love to ride bicycles, art, and anime.
I currently live in San Antonio and ever since I left CArdell Cabinets, well, I couldn’t get a job at all. I have had some temp jobs, but nothing perminent.
I am considering the military, but I want to hav a back up plan.

Please help.

Sent by Daniel from San Antonio, TX

One category of people not addressed in Richard’s work (from what I know about it so far) is the category I’m in. I’m 42, still single, no kids, disabled due to an incurable/non-fatal incapacitating illness, & completely impoverished (on SSI). I’m definitely an “open to experience” type of person that he speaks of in his book–but I’ve been taken out of the game by illness, isolation, & poverty. I lived in Pittsburgh, PA for 32 years. There was a period of time where I was extremely creative (artist, acting, film, writing) & felt I had outgrown the city–and needed to move to a more progressive place. At the same time, though, my illness was progressing. I ended up having to apply for SSI, and was turned down. I was about to be homeless, and had to move to wherever I could find someone willing to help me. That turned out to be outside of the San Diego, CA area (a stranger on the internet helped me briefly). I was able to get SSI here, and feel financially TRAPPED here now. Other than getting the assistance here that I couldn’t get back east, I have HATED EVERY MOMENT of my life in this SOULLESS place. I HATE Southern CA!!! The people I’ve met here have been SHALLOW, NASTY, MEAN, SELFISH, CLOSE-MINDED, JUDGMENTAL, SUPERFICIAL, ULTRA CONSERVATIVE, & FLAKY. If they act nice for a moment, they switch to nasty the next. And they have all been COLD hearted. And NOBODY here takes friendship s eriously. I’ve been STUCK here for 10 years. I am surviving physically, but dying in every other way. I have not been able to make ONE friend here. (I had 100’s of friends back east–until I became ill & they all abandoned me.)

Where do people still treat the impoverished & disabled with dignity, kindness, friendship, support, & acceptance? Where can the poor still have a decent life? Where can the different & isolated find a community of people? Where would a person give me the time of day once they see my old car or find out that I’m on disability? People wont even speak to me here after they either find out I’m disabled or poor. They literally just walk away from me in mid sentence after I answer “the California interrogation” as I call it (i.e. as soon as they find out I’m poor and/or ill). Does anybody have any ideas for a better place for me?

Sent by Marie from Carlsbad, CA

I lived, loved and laughed in gorgeous, fun and hip Eugene, OR, for 20 years. Then…I met this man (music swells.) Well, he lived here in the Tri-Cities and had a great job, so I made the compromise. I moved to a place that I thought would suck my soul dry for so many, many reasons. No green, no culture of cool, no decent artisan bread bakery…OH! the list was endless for this dry, dusty, windy void of a desert. I cried for the first 6 months solid a nd just wanted to wither and die (and pretty much felt like I was going to get my wish.)

I do not remember the moment it came to me, but on one particular day, a little after my morning tears and coffee dried up, I heard myself tell myself: girlfriend, the grace that is to be found in ANY place on earth is the grace you BRING to it. I suddenly felt incredibly selfish and utterly childish. It is true…there are great matches between the personality of a city and the preferences we have for where we live. That was my Eugene experience all the way. But this little epiphany helped me to understand that if you offer your grace to the people and place you are at any moment you begin to be the instrument of change rather than sitting back and expecting it all to be laid out banquet style for the fulfillment of your desires.

I went forth, oh children, and made this place my own. I offered “me” to it, rather than standing with hands on hips reciting the mantra, “What’s in it for me??” No, it still can’t hold a candle of cool to my beloved Eugene, but it does hold my beloved….and, as I have since discovered, a vast canvas to paint my own vista upon.

May you all bring your grace to your place…

Sent by Lynn McDougal from Kennewick, WA

My wife and I are an interracial couple with two young children. We are also teachers. We love Austin because of its coolness, tolerance, and lack of chain stores. However, it has gotten too expensive to live downtown and we hear teaching jobs are hard to come by.

I have heard that Louisville is an up and coming Austin. Is this true? or would anyone know another up and coming city that has similar qualities as Austin?

Sent by Fred from Las Vegas

Except for money, there are very few reasons why I can understand a Canadian moving to the U.S.

I was brought to Chicago from Toronto by my “American” husband. After many years I got so sickened by the racial friction in Chicago that I picked up and moved across the continent. I didn’t return to Canada because I did not believe I could afford to live in Ontario again, but I am more and more sickened by the “Americans” in general and willing to economise to improve the quality of my life.

“Ameroicans” are so convinced of their superiority in every way while being quite ignorant of what is being accomplished in the rest of the world. I am frequently made proud of what Canada and Canadians have accomplished.

I came to the Northwest to what I thought was a beautiful land, but the rule seems to be “if it moves - shoot it, if it is growing, cut it down”. The U.S. is a violent country. Canada is not. The cowboy mentality, the imperialist government have worn me down. I think I will take this old body back to the land of my birth where the quality of life is something you cannot buy with a gun.

Sent by Marilyn from Vancouver, WA

I need someone’s help. Desperately.

For the last two years, I’ve lived in the Pacific Northwest, and I just don’t click here. The area is beautiful and majestic and all, but I just don’t click with the people, somehow. They have this eerie, introverted quality that I don’t fit in with.

I’m originally from the southeast US, but there just wasn’t much happening there intellectually or creatively. I was bored.

I lived in Los Angeles for a few months, and that was actually pretty cool, but the people lacked a certain soulfulness and depth.

I’ve heard that Chicago might be a good fit for me. Also, I’ve heard that the maritimes of Canada or, even, my original ancestral region of northwestern Spain might work.

Does anybody have any thoughts on the subject? Non-rude ones, I mean.

Sent by  David Jack

Hmmm, saw you on C-SPAN Book-TV and I liked what you said. I’m 71 now and Fort Collins has been a very special place for me. I think FC is the right size place for me. The people at the Northern Colorado Linux Users Group have taken me under their wings and I’ve learned so much from them.

Sent by Shorter Rankin from Fort Collins, CO

Track Ball of Truth tells of the journey:

How did it end up that I was geeking out around the LucasArts facility in the Presidio in San Francisco rather than working there?

Tell us your story.

This occurred to me when I was taking a picture of the bronze Yoda statue by the front entrance, the only sign that a ton of really cool jobs working on the next Indiana Jones and Star Wars properties were on site. Only real geeks know that Lucas Arts moved whole hog from Skywalker Ranch and other locations to a nondescript but beautiful section of the Presidio.

People end up living where they are via three routes: accidentally, intentionally, and indirectly. Accidentally: most people in the US simply live where they grew up because it’s familiar, family and friends are close by and it is so easy to piece together an existence from all that familiarity. Intentionally: at some point early in their lives, some people say, look, I want to live/work/go to school there and then they make it so. Indirectly: some people follow a job, a spouse or a passion that limits where they can live, and the choice is just fallout from that initial decision. There are few nomads, other than those required to be so due to their job (military, sales, corporate execs, etc.).

As I travel around the U.S. to places I’ve always wanted to see, I play this game in my head of trying to figure out how people who live there came to live there. I’m in San Francisco now and my feeling is that there is a greater proportion of intentionals here than in other places. It’s the same vibe I get from immigrant and transient-heavy DC. Maybe it’s because both are creative class meccas, granted of different flavors. Richard Florida, who studies these issues, has a new book out called “Who’s Your City?” I haven’t read it yet, but it deals with this kind of thing.

Given my job, DC is the obvious choice for me and I realize now that I figured out where I wanted to live and what I wanted to do at about the same time. I wanted to go to college in DC but was stuck in NY for financial reasons. But I made sure to go to grad school inside the Beltway. Thinking these things through paid off very nicely for me. I would recommend to any high school student that he/she factor location into the college decision. College location feeds into social and business networking quite heavily. Yes, you can get a job in Miami after colleging in Seattle, but it’s swimming upstream. And above all, don’t let your location just happen, because these things tend to get locked in after a while. Someday, you might look at that Yoda statue, or the dairy farm in Vermont, or a restaurant in New York, and get pissed that you’re just a visitor.

If I had made a different career choice and was successful, maybe I would have ended up at a West Coast entertainment or tech company. Growing up in the Shire made this difficult (especially for laying the ground work for comp sci or anything artistic) but not impossible. I could see an alternate timeline where that did happen: I would be slaving away on animation shots for the upcoming Star Wars movie, halfway through my 30s, unmarried, wondering if what I was doing was truly meaningful and if life had more to offer. All geek and no life makes the Trackball a dull boy.

So how did I react when I saw Yoda and realized that I was on the outside looking in? I took his picture, with my kids in it, felt a little sorry for the people inside (I’m not kidding it was a beautiful day and I was on vacation) and moved on with a big grin on my face. I mean, I was standing right outside a geek mecca! Awesome! I score major geek points.

The greater Denver metropolitan area scores highly on a new set of rankings my team and I compiled based on the five major stages of your life. Denver itself ranks in the Top 10 places for young professionals. And Boulder ranks in the Top 5 smaller regions for single college grads, young professionals, families with children and empty-nesters.

But there is an even bigger economic factor that bodes well for the region’s fortunes. With nearly 4 million people and $140 billion in economic activity, it ranks as one of the top dozen mega-regions in the United States. In fact, it’s one of the 40 leading mega-regions that power the entire global economy.
The rest is here.