tonight nathan informed me that he is thinking of not finishing school in alabama, which means it's time to figure out where we're going next again.
i need everyone's help with this, so i'm going to list our criteria:
1. WE DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO OWN A CAR. this means that we have to live somewhere with good public transportation, and keep in mind, i'm not a big fan of buses and taxis.
2. we don't want to live anywhere that isn't on the west coast, although if some other city has every possible good thing, we might consider it.
3. we like to buy houses. this pretty much rules out san francisco, at least at this stage of our lives.
--numbers one through three, i'm really counting on jorge, biff and sean for. and alex, my brother, if you ever read this blog. don't fail me, dudes.
4. nathan has to finish school, so there needs to be a good college nearby. this college should probably have good programs in the man-fields, like engineering and maths. and if it lets him not pay out of state tuition, that's all the better.
5. i've gotta have parks that allow dogs, and places to go see punk shows. also museums, playhouses, sushi, and punk rock + indie on the radio. i want to never have to leave my town to see flogging molly or stephen malkmus.
6. we might be choosing our final destination here, and if we ever choose to breed, the place needs to be suitable for little bastards to live. speaking of little bastards, have i got some stories for you guys. but that's for another post.
7. i hate snow. i hate wind. living in a harsh climate will make me die in the first winter.
8. i don't like the ghetto. and i don't like crime.
9. i like a dog-friendly city. i like parks that allow dogs.
10. along those same lines, nathan likes a bike-friendly city.
11. i like mountains and beaches. not so much with the plains, hills and lakes.
i would have put 9 and 10 higher up on the list, but i figure a city that has the other requirements will be good on those two things too.
i don't think nathan agrees, but i'm willing to leave the country to accomplish this. i just refuse to consider canada.
you have all been charged with a mission. go out and find my answer, little faithful ones.
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7 comments:
OK - I'm speaking for Austin here....
Point:
1- You don't need a car in Austin - but that's only if you live centrally. Real estate is $$$ centrally. For comparison - for what you guys paid for your house in VA, my last apartment was selling for 50k over that. Yes, apartment. That's not to discourage you though - there is some affordable real estate - but you have to be willing to bike to places.
2- It's westish - but not on a coast. Does that work?
3- Yeah, like I said - real estate is for sucks here. But if you're willing to live a little further from the university, you can buy a house.
4- U of Tx - excellent engineering school if that's what he really wants to pursue (top 10). Good school overall too.
5- Austin has MAD amounts of parks - more than any city that I've lived in while in the shitass Navy. They all allow dogs. Some even allow dogs without leashes.
6- Austin has some good public schools for sure.
7- Snows once every decade. If it ever gets slightly icy - the whole city shuts down.
8- The worst ghetto in Austin doesn't begin to compare with VA.
9- See #5
10- Austin is more bike friendly than most. Bicycle austin.
11- ERROR. No mtns, no beaches.
-biff
I took a nap at a dog park along the beach in a city by oakland airport, the area I was at was not in the ghetto although Oakland is kind of Ghetto! The public transportation there is called DART. When I went to Pixar Studios just south of Berkeley everyone was either riding a motorcycle to work or Bicycles, much to my amazement the bicycles were fixed gear bikes for some reason. I will keep my eye open and see which area up there has a combination of nice real estate and proximity to UC berkeley, that is the area I am in charge of selling life insurance for now and have seen both a combination of wealthy areas and some ghetto. I will keep an eye out on prices too!!! Plus Lawrence Livermore labs is there too, Nate should look into getting hired there!
good job you guys, keep it coming. i'm sure austin is on nathan's list right now biff, and your list is super helpful to me. the only thing about austin for me is that i'm not sure i want to settle there forever. could i ever call myself a texan? how do you deal with that?
good job jorge, i didn't think of berkely. keep checking things out for me as you travel. i refuse to live in oakland, because i know all about that bag of worms. my cousin used to live there and it's the city that made me scared of metropolises as a child.
keep it coming!
Austin is SO un-Texas. You rarely see the cowboy hat/shitkicker combo. Austin is a haven from the rest of Tx. You'd never know you were here.
Is Nate still planning a tour de Austin? Are you comming with?
dude, I hate this so much. as you know you should be living in our backyard. i'm at work i'll keep this short.
San Diego. nuff' said. its not for me. but it is for you guys. Good climate
great public transportation.. not the dc metro but very good.
Lots of other stuff, if you would like to consider it let me know i'll hook you up with my stalker she lives there and has tons of info , crime rates avg. temp. racial break down school districs anything you could want. shes crazy.
let me know
The chancinator.
Yeah, but southern Cali is a freakin' desert. Who would want to live there?
-biff
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