Do you want to live in the city or country? Either way, why? Is there a specific place you’d like to live?
I lived in Suburbia as a child. Happiness is a thin veneer over the contempt the majority of neighbors feel for each other.
I lived in rural towns for much of my young adult life. Monopolized utilities and services, as well as the issue of small-town indoctrination, were reliably present.
I currently live in a metro. The rampant corruption and vehicle-oriented culture are noxious.
I guess I want to live in outer space. It’s pretty quiet up there and I’d imagine it doesn’t really smell all that bad.
I want to live on a sailboat and be nomadic.
Between the flags on the Paseo Boriqua, Humboldt Park, Chicago
That’s pretty specific.
I’m not familiar, but an image search makes it look like you’re describing the middle of a roadway. Did I find the wrong thing?
Not the middle of the roadway, but the buildings lining it. Paseo Boriqua is the cultural heart of the neighborhood.
Canada where all the rich ppl go I assume they know better than me
I want to live in an area that has a great music scene. It has to be clean and pleasant with plenty of community engagement and friendly people. I have to be able to afford a home, food, healthcare, and some things that I and the family just want. I don’t want to be scared for myself or my transgender kids, or my wife. I don’t want to be scared of the government or the people who wanted this version of it.
Basically, I want to live in United States that was promised to me when I was a kid. No matter where it is.
EDIT: Or Cicely, AK.
Insert joke along the lines of ‘I don’t.’
More seriously, I’ve thought about this a bit. The simple answer is already seen in other responses: rural enough to escape crowds, close enough to urbanity to get good internet. The more perspicacious answer is overly complex: someplace where the weather is mild enough not to kill you if you lose your keys, and likely to stay that way despite climate change, mountainous enough to have nice views and avoid flooding, flat enough to build, sparse enough for land to be affordable, populous enough to be able to get the things I want without making a long trek, wooded enough to get the benefit of trees, bare enough to allow access, not too many racists or zealots, not too rich or poor of neighbors, neighbors not close enough to disturb me, but not so far that I couldn’t run over for something if needed, somewhere politically stable, somewhere I can work without a million-mile commute, where the soil doesn’t suck, where there’s a pleasant amount of rain and sun…
It’s not a small question.
Countryside, as far away as possible while still having a reliable internet connection
A nice little cabin in the woods and by a lake.
Far enough from the nearest town that I don’t have neighbors, but close enough that I can reasonably make a grocery run each week.
I’m basically there. I wish my property were a bit bigger with some woods and a freshwater stream coming out of the mountains, but I’m like 95% happy. Here is rural northern Japan. Having a grocery store closer would be neat. Maybe if the town grows again (it’s at around 50% of its pre-tsunami population) the one nearby will reopen.
I’m thinking of moving to Mongolia one day. Vast open spaces and a bitter cold winter. It’s nice to be forgotten by the world.
I lived there for a while, it’s very cool, it feels like going back to the wild Wild West. Bonus points if you like to drink, deduct points if you’re a vegetarian (they mostly just have meat dishes).
Reminds me of when I was up in Iqaluit (far north in Canada). The best way I could describe it is imagine Mos Eisley if it were on the planet Hoth.
I’m an urban person, so I want to live in a dense city where there is great public transportation and you can easily walk to essential places (i.e. grocery store). I also prefer indoor spaces over outdoor, so a city where there are a lot of indoor activities. Places like Singapore and Tokyo.
I think you’re the first person in this thread who hasn’t said something related to being remote/isolated. Good luck in achieving your dreams!
The irony here is I used to live in a dense megacity, although not a developed country, and moved to a city with urban sprawl and no public transportation. I hope to still eventually get to my ideal living environment, but it’s not happening in the near future.
A city. Or a small town with city level amenities and reachability. Some place where I don’t need a car for regular and even some irregular errands.
I’m quite pleased with where I am right now, a provincial capital in NL. If I’d have to scale down, Houten looks quite promising. If I’d be forced to scale up and leave the country, the four places that pop to my mind that interest me are Freiburg (DE), Vienna (AT), Helsinki (FI) and Oslo (NO).
I’d like to leave the United States first. Someplace diverse where I can walk or use public transit, and that has clean water and air. If there’s wilderness, hiking trails, or any other kind of nature relatively close that would be pretty swell.
I want to live in the woods in New Hampshire again some day. It’s a beautiful place and also a place where the state and local governments don’t make me grind my teeth in frustration all the time*. I would have a house, a lot of land, and no neighbors except for pine trees.
I had most of that already and I left, because I was very lonely - I think I talked to another person face to face about once every few weeks. I thought I would be OK with that because I was used to being alone, but having no family, no friends, and a 100% remote job was too much for me. Apparently even I start going crazy if I am that isolated. Now I live somewhere I really don’t like (New York City) but I’m close to my family.
*New Hampshire is a rather libertarian state. Taxes are low but the town where I lived (population 15,000) didn’t provide water, sewers, or garbage collection. Many things are legal that aren’t legal in most other places. For example, you can drive without insurance, set off fireworks, and do almost anything with a gun except shoot another person. The state motto is “Live free or die,” and I would tell my guests that as long as they did one or the other, the state’s duty to them would be satisfied.
That sounds nice. I work remotely now and don’t talk to people outside of my home very often, but I do have a family that lives with me and they provide plenty of interaction. When we were moving, I did spend a few weeks completely alone here and it did get pretty lonely. I’m sorry you now live somewhere you don’t like.
A stable country with solid social safety nets where the people I love are not considered criminals simply for existing would be ideal.
Beyond those requirements, I could live in a cabin in the woods, a trailer in a park, a mansion in the countryside or an apartment in the city. It wouldn’t matter as much.
