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Tallahassee, FL

The capital city of Florida, with a pop of about 157,000 and a metro pop of about 256,000. There are four seasons here: Winter, Legislative Session, Summer, and College Football! Tally is a decent-sized place with all kinds of people residing here. You will mostly notice two types of people: Important government officials decked out in suit and tie, or the young college students wearing flip flops and polos. Tally is bigger than what alot of people notice at first glance. That is because all the action is in one concentrated area. We've got our downtown with the state capital, and two well-known universities (FSU and FAMU) all within a few minutes of each other.

Tallahassee has incredible school spirit for its Seminoles as well as love for FAMU's amazing marching band. The scenery in Tallahassee is gorgeous and will have you forgetting you're in Florida. Florida is not necessarily known for its rolling hills or its canopy roads but Tallahassee has plenty of both. The summers are really hot and the winters are really cold.

As far as entertainment goes, I think Tallahassee is lacking. Sure we've got plenty of historic sites around the city and the downtown district is nice for an afternoon stroll but nightlife here is definitely not the best. The bar scene tends to get rodundant and being in a crowded pub filled with drunken and stumbling college students gets old real fast. There are some clubs around the area for dancing and karaoke and we have one family fun center but it needs big improvement. Shopping here is decent but you will find plenty of options for eating out.

For a weekend getaway, there are plenty of nice options outside of Tallahassee. We are not too far away from some beautiful beaches. White sand and blue water is what it's all about. Drive a little over a couple of hours and you will find yourself at Destin, one of the nation's top beach destinations. We are also closer to Atlanta (the largest city in the Southeast USA) than we are to Miami.

Overall, Tallahassee is a decent place to live. If you love nice people, good food, college football, politics, and not have to deal with snow or too much traffic problems, this is probably the place for you.

Are there any water related activities in Tally? Also, how are race relations there?

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Nobody in Tallahassee likes to admit this, but there's an underground piece of knowledge going around that the city is home to the neo-confederacy. How true it is I do not know. But for the most part, race relations in Tallahassee are decent. The blacks live on the South/West sides, the whites live on the North/East sides.

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Nobody in Tallahassee likes to admit this, but there's an underground piece of knowledge going around that the city is home to the neo-confederacy. How true it is I do not know. But for the most part, race relations in Tallahassee are decent. The blacks live on the South/West sides, the whites live on the North/East sides.

The neighborhoods are that segregated? Damn. :angry:

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It's pretty segregated here, too. The white folks live in the southern part of town, everybody else up in the north part of town. I suspect this is the reason the city is unwilling to curb the expansion of the city which is currently headed away from the freeway, rather than towards which would be the logical direction in which to go. There's probably either too much opposition to the gentrification (which I could understand), or the white folks here are just afraid to go up there...

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Bremerton, Washington. An hour west of Seattle, on the Puget Sound and even closer to the Olympic Mountains. Pop 38,500 and the financial and economic hub of Kitsap County.

Bremerton is a different place now than it was 10 years ago. It has traditionally been the "odd man out" of Pugetopolis, but a progressive mayor has helped turn things around. Downtown completely died in 1982 when a suburban mall opened in nearby Silverdale.

Downtown's decay began then, and continued up until 2004 or so. It still amazes me how much downtown has improved in the last two years. A new conference center opened, with a waterfront hotel, and now restaurants and coffee shoppes, and even art shoppes! Lots of people walk around now, in a formerly no-man's-land.

The US Navy shipyard is the largest employer in the area by far. Wages are relatively high, so housing prices have shot through the roof in recent years. $280,000 and up for an older (cute) home, not in a gentrified area. Housing prices, once the lowest in Pugetopolis, have caught up with Tacoma.

Bremerton seems very urban for a small city, we have a full bus system, with a major regional ferry transportation center.

Shopping is practically nonexistant. Not even a Wendy's...but when ya drive to Silverdale, the mall area has everything. (a 20 minute drive)

I like Bremerton. It's a little boring, but has exquisite geography with water and mountains. Air is pristine. People are a little standoffish, typical of Washington State. I've lived here 8 years, and only know a handful of people, one of them my realtor:)

Bremerton is frequently on the best places to live lists. Money Magazine named it the best city in the States to start a new business in 1999.

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I am now a student at Manhattan College in the Riverdale section of the bronx which is the last part of the bronx before Yonkers in Westchester county. Riverdale is a very upscale area of the Bronx that is home to $1,000,000+ homes and private schools. Manhattan College (one of 2 colleges in Riverdale) is bounded by this exclusive neighborhood on one side and Van Cortland Park. Walking the wrong way near the school can be dangerous but this has not kept the school from attracting a large number of students from many very wealthy communities. The school is right near the subway which you can take to get downtown and it is also right off the Rt 9/Saw Mill River Parkway.

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Bremerton, Washington. An hour west of Seattle, on the Puget Sound and even closer to the Olympic Mountains. Pop 38,500 and the financial and economic hub of Kitsap County.

I love Bremerton and, when I visited last year, found their Downtown and Harbor area to be great; one of those few undiscovered gems in the West.

You didn't mention the ferry though! Only 1 hour to Downtown Seattle. $6 right? And you only pay going to Bremerton (heading back is free).

I'm strongly considering moving to the Seattle area in a few years and I'd love to be able to move to Bremerton.

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Chattanooga, TN: It's ok. It's home. I moved here from NYC after I got married. It's a good place to raise a family and all, but kinda boring :wacko: , I think. Transitioning from the big city to here was difficult.

But like I said, it's home...for now.

Why did you move to Chattanooga?

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The Bull City, Durham, NC.

It's hard living in Durham these days. Everyone else in the Triangle thinks it's ghetto, the Duke Lacrosse rape investigation is polarizing, and the downtown revitalization is moving rather slowly.

An old tobacco town, Durham's got a good deal of character, especially when juxtaposed against the neo-gothic Duke campus. It can be a quaint southern town one day, the next day a good place to get shot on a bus. Race relations, according to the national media, are just awful - if you believe what the national media says. There's a strong black middle class and a growing population of Mexicans.

Anyone in Raleigh or Cary or even Chapel Hill will tell you there's nothing to do in Durham except dodge bullets. Newcomers are taught to stay away from there - realtors direct them towards the suburbs of Raleigh. But there's plenty worth seeing and doing in the Bull City: college hoops (heard of Coach K?), minor league ball (Bull Durham anyone?), an excellent variety of restaurants, a theatre that's half performing arts center - half indie film house (home of the Full Frame Documentary Film Fest and the NC Gay & Lesbian Film Fest), a pretty nice indoor/outdoor mall, lots of bike trails, and the two largest historic restorations in North Carolina.

Durham county is home of Research Triangle Park, a leading tech-bio-med center that GlaxoSmithKline and IBM among others call home. Astroturf and the childproof medicine bottle were invented there.

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Lake Wobegon, Minnesota:

Where the women are strong, the men are good looking, and the children are above average. Home to Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility Catholic Church and the Lake Wobegon Lutheran church.. although the town was founded by New England Unitarians who sought to convert local Native Americans to Christianity through interpretive dance.

The town has a nice downtown area with a grocery store (Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery), a bar (The Sidetrack Tap), Jack's Warm Car Service, Midwestern Discount Store, Guy's Shoes, Bertha's Kitty Boutiques, and a restaurant (The Chatterbox Cafe). The town was settled mostly by Norwegians and Germans in the late 19th century and is the county seat to Mist County, in the geographical center of Minnesota. The population is currently around 800.

Two prominant families live in town: The Bunsens and the Krebsbach families.. although several bachelor Norwegians farm outside of town.

Main products produced in Lake Wobegon are Powdermilk Biscuits, Bepob-a-rebop Rhubarb frozen pie filling, and Mournful Oatmeal (Calvinism in a box).

The city is built around a main square featuring a statue of the Unknown Norwegian, because the model left before the sculptor could get his name.

Winters in Lake Wobegon are long, but summers are fruitful. The Whippets baseball team is the town sports team of choice.

Overall, Lake Wobegon is a quaint town... but has its own share of problems. But we won't talk about those.

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Lake Wobegon, Minnesota:

Where the women are strong, the men are good looking, and the children are above average. Home to Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility Catholic Church and the Lake Wobegon Lutheran church.. although the town was founded by New England Unitarians who sought to convert local Native Americans to Christianity through interpretive dance.

The town has a nice downtown area with a grocery store (Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery), a bar (The Sidetrack Tap), Jack's Warm Car Service, Midwestern Discount Store, Guy's Shoes, Bertha's Kitty Boutiques, and a restaurant (The Chatterbox Cafe). The town was settled mostly by Norwegians and Germans in the late 19th century and is the county seat to Mist County, in the geographical center of Minnesota. The population is currently around 800.

Two prominant families live in town: The Bunsens and the Krebsbach families.. although several bachelor Norwegians farm outside of town.

Main products produced in Lake Wobegon are Powdermilk Biscuits, Bepob-a-rebop Rhubarb frozen pie filling, and Mournful Oatmeal (Calvinism in a box).

The city is built around a main square featuring a statue of the Unknown Norwegian, because the model left before the sculptor could get his name.

Winters in Lake Wobegon are long, but summers are fruitful. The Whippets baseball team is the town sports team of choice.

Overall, Lake Wobegon is a quaint town... but has its own share of problems. But we won't talk about those.

"Momma's little baby loves rhubarb rhubarb, Bebop-a-Rebop Rhubarb Pie."

How can you talk about Lake Wobegon and not mention A Prairie Home Companion and/or Garrison Keillor?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Charleston, SC.... It's a really nice place to visit (a lot of our revenue is from tourism), a decent place to live. I've lived here most of my life. Downtown is really pretty with all the old houses and a few streets paved with old cobblestones. College of Charleston (my school) is smack in the middle of it which is nice. The streets are aweful down there though, and being on a penninsula that's part-landfill means it floods a lot <_< Recently the medical industry has been blooming.... We have some new medical office parks popping up here and there which is bringing in some relatively wealthy residents and, unfortunately, their traffic. They refuse to A.) stop building neighborhoods where the roads can't handle the existing neighborhoods and/or B.) fix said roads to be able to handle the current and future development.

All in all, it's nice and I'm usually glad to come back to it after I've been away. I do miss the Hampton Roads area, though :dontknow:

Random fact: Mount Pleasant, a more upscale suburb of Charleston, experienced a 52% growth rate one year (can't remember the exact year).

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Huntsville, AL:

Medium sized city of 180,000 with about 300,000 in Madison County in the Tennessee River valley region of North Alabama. Engineering and science dominates industry here. NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and the Army Redstone Research Arsenal provides thousands of high tech civil servant and contractor jobs. Cummings Research Park is the second largest in the country after RTP with approximately 25,000 high tech jobs. Huntsville has the second highest per capita # of PhDs in the country (again after RTP area).

Huntsville has more than its share of suburban development but has seen a resurgence in downtown in the past 5 years. The downtown area is becoming the entertainment center of the region; however, the economic center still resides on the arsenal/research park. Huntsville has three very well preserved historic districts: Twickenham is a gorgeous neighborhood full of mansions (literally) dating from 1814-1900, Old Towne contains beautiful late 1800s Victorian architecture and Five Points contains renovated turn of the century cottages and bungalows.

A very nice feature of Huntsville is the amount and quality of conservation/park land within the city limits. Huntsville has a hilly topography (they call them "mountains" here) and the top of Monte Sano is a 2000+ acre state park within 5 minutes of downtown with miles of hiking and biking trails. Additionally, efforts by the Huntsville Land Trust have preserved thousands of more acres.

Overall, Huntsville is a nice place to live that is changing (mostly for good) at a rapid pace. It is a great place to raise a family. It has a low cost of living and very well paying jobs, particularly in the high tech sector. The people are very friendly. BBQ is fantastic. Sometimes I yearn for a big city, but New York, Chicago, DC... are only a plane ticket away.

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  • 5 weeks later...

I live in Columbus, Ohio. Been here for a little over 8 years (I grew up about 30 miles outside of Columbus). My wife and I live in an apartment just south of downtown in an area called German Village. It's a 233-acre neighborhood listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Wonderful brick streets, beautiful old homes, lots of locally owned businesses and restaurants. We love the area, but it's a little too expensive for us to purchase in right now.

Anyway, we're walking distance from downtown Columbus (where we both work) which has been going through the starting phases of some major urban rennovations in the last 5 years. Downtown is mostly made up of office buildings, so it's busy from 9 to 5 and empty at night. There's many new condo developments springing up all around the downtown core though. Most of the activity so far has been just north of downtown in the Arena District and Short North areas.

There's also a current iniative to install a streetcar system downtown to connect our different neighborhoods together. There was a streetcar system in Columbus 100 years ago, but it was ripped out decades ago to allow for more automotive traffic on the streets. Things are starting to come full circle.

Anyway, we love living here. It's midwestern enough to have nice people and metro enough to always have something going on. We're home to OSU, the largest college in the nation, in addition to several other schools in the area, so we have a fairly young population. Columbus is the 15th largest city population-wise, but you probably wouldn't know it since we're so sprawled out. Columbus is surrounded by nothing but farmland and woods in every direction, so the suburbs keep growing outward in every direction.

So yeah. That's a quick version of the city. Great place to live. 8)

ColumbusUnderground.com

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I stay in two places but pay property taxes in San Marcos, Calif., so let's go with that. It's a suburban city in a suburban part of San Diego County, an area that has seen substantial home appreciation the past six years while growing at a pace much faster than the surrounding towns. The homes are typical upscale tract, set away from businesses, with trails, wide streets and cul-de-sacs. It's 10 miles from the ocean, so the weather is moderated by the water but is not as cloudy as Oceanside.

Retail is starting to catch up, but most major shopping is done in Carlsbad or Escondido. Lots of good locally owned restaurants. Traffic is not great, and there are pockets of crime in the older areas by the railroad tracks. Good elementary schools, but the secondary schools are ordinary at best. Community college is big, and the four-year Cal State is growing.

It's not a college town, though, and we see ourselves settling in one down the road.

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I live in Grand Rapids, MI, a mid sized city located in the West Michigan area roughly thirty miles inland from Lake Michigan. As for the vitals, the "Funiture City" as GR is nicknamed, has a population of around 190,000 souls in the city proper, about 700,000 for the MSA and 1.2 million in the CSA which also include the three viberant lakeshore towns of Muskegon, Grand Haven, and the uniguely Dutch town of Holland. GR is the seat of Kent Co. Our economy is fairly diverse and overall on par with the rest of the nation despite a recent deline in our old school blue manufacturing sectors. However a blossoming Life Sciences and Health Care corridor located on a bluff, we affectionatly call Pill Hill along with a bit of an influx of Advance Manufacturing as well as a resurging Downtown is countering any negative effects. Our major players are, Alticor (formerly known in the US as Amway), Steelcase which manufatures office furnishing, Hurman Miller which also manufactures office furniture, Spectrum Health which is at the core of our booming life sciences and health coridor, Meijer, Inc a privately own company that operates a 270 store chain of supercenters thoughout the midwest. With these and other strong economic drivers, Grand Rapids, the second largest city in the state, is the principal city in the West Michigan region. With many collages options such as Grand Valley State University, Calvin College, Hope College, Grand Rapids Comunity Collage among others along with growing presence from U of M, MSU, Farris State University, we are not lacking in higher education.

In the Geographic department, GR is located at the banks of Michigan's longest river, the Grand River. The city's name was derived from the powerfull rapids that sadly have long since been distroyed by flood controlling measures. Weather is typical of the Midwest with near idealic summers, beautiful falls, and cold winters. However one will find that temperatures are moderated a bit by the Great Lakes.

People wise, despite a growing cosmopolitian atmosphere in GR proper thanks to a resurging downtown, folks here have retained small town warmth and friendliness. Thanks to Dutch heritage and a Mid Western Mindset, Grand Rapidians hold true to strong to the point work ethics, and are willing to help others in need. We also hold great pride for our city and Metro. Just check out UP's GR forums and see for yourself. But talk politics, you'll get allot of opinions and debates around here. Despite, being known as a GOP stronghold and childhood home of the now late President Ford (God rest his soul), the city of GR itself leans towards the left end of the spectrum. However, out in the suburbs one will find GOP overtones in political preferences. But I feel that too is starting to become a misnomer since the GOP's losses in the 2006 elections.

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Bremerton, Washington. An hour west of Seattle, on the Puget Sound and even closer to the Olympic Mountains. Pop 38,500 and the financial and economic hub of Kitsap County.

Bremerton is a different place now than it was 10 years ago. It has traditionally been the "odd man out" of Pugetopolis, but a progressive mayor has helped turn things around. Downtown completely died in 1982 when a suburban mall opened in nearby Silverdale.

Downtown's decay began then, and continued up until 2004 or so. It still amazes me how much downtown has improved in the last two years. A new conference center opened, with a waterfront hotel, and now restaurants and coffee shoppes, and even art shoppes! Lots of people walk around now, in a formerly no-man's-land.

The US Navy shipyard is the largest employer in the area by far. Wages are relatively high, so housing prices have shot through the roof in recent years. $280,000 and up for an older (cute) home, not in a gentrified area. Housing prices, once the lowest in Pugetopolis, have caught up with Tacoma.

Bremerton seems very urban for a small city, we have a full bus system, with a major regional ferry transportation center.

Shopping is practically nonexistant. Not even a Wendy's...but when ya drive to Silverdale, the mall area has everything. (a 20 minute drive)

I like Bremerton. It's a little boring, but has exquisite geography with water and mountains. Air is pristine. People are a little standoffish, typical of Washington State. I've lived here 8 years, and only know a handful of people, one of them my realtor:)

Bremerton is frequently on the best places to live lists. Money Magazine named it the best city in the States to start a new business in 1999.

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