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Ask HN: If you could live and work somewhere, where would it be?

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Re: Ask HN: If you could live and work somewhere, where would it be?

#241
I moved four months ago from a very crowded city to an small town in the province of Córdoba, Argentina called Mendiolaza. We have beautiful landscapes and it is near (25kms) the big city.

I am a software developer like you and I work from home for a company based on Seattle.

Anyway I am not here to convince you to move to this city in particular but please consider low populated areas with green spaces.

This move has changed the life of my two kids, they went from being all day in their rooms playing with ipad, videogames etc to play outside, riding bikes, climbing trees, etc. Each one have like 10 friends they see every day. I feel they have more self-confidence since they can go outside alone for hours.

It has affected me as well, everything seems to be faster in an small town. There isn't queues when you go buy something, the services are better. Example the car wash in this town will pick up my car, wash it and bring it home. If I ask for a pediatrician home visit, the doctor will be in my front door 30 minutes after I call, compared to 4 hours. There are less places for food than in the big city, but it is more handmade and better.

The people is friendlier and there is honesty and trust among the neighbors. First time I went to buy something I ran out of cash and they didn't have debit/credit, the owner say "no problem, pay me tomorrow" even if I insisted to cancel the operation.

It took me a while to found a good internet service, I tried 3. Right now I have a 20M connection.

Anyway I think it has been the best decision I made in 2016. I am very happy to live here.

Re: Ask HN: If you could live and work somewhere, where would it be?

#242

Taipei, Taiwan. The friendliest people you will ever meet, living and working in the most convenient country you will ever visit. Everything for daily life is within walking distance but if you do need something a bit further out, public and private transportation is exceptionally cheap and effective. The weather is fantastic year-round (save for heavy rains sometimes coming from the ocean) and taking a weekend to vi…

Do you have to speak Mandarin to go about your daily life?

Re: Ask HN: If you could live and work somewhere, where would it be?

#243

Already here. New York. If you like urban life, as long as you can pay your bills it's the best and most interesting city in the world. It also helps with a good view :) http://000fff.org/uploads/PH6.jpg

Great view. I dreamed about New York since I was a kid. I moved here 4 years ago (from Ukraine) and just recently started to realize how problematic this city is. There are millions of issues:

- Real estate. Of course, this is the root of all evil. - Driving is a bitch. My wife once asked me to go walk in a Central Park with a kid. I was looking for a parking space for one and a half hours. Literally. I drove back home. Because of the real estate, parking garage prices are ridiculous.

- Restaurants. Overpacked with tables. Because of the real estate, owners pack their restaurants with as much tables as possible, so they could fit more people and be able to pay out rent/etc. Anniversary dinner? You'll have it with your wife, a gay couple and several business partners.

- Subway. Don't get me started here. People pee in the subway. Trains are delayed all the time.

- Medicine. I have a top-notch insurance. Every single doctor is scared of everything he/she is saying. It seems like all of them think that my next appointment is with a lawyer. Doctors are very "limited" in what they do. In my case, I compare with doctors from from my native country. They are more like engineers there, – never prescribe you anything, until the actual defect is determined.

- Emergency Rooms are terrible. Best hospitals of NY. My kid was at 104F+. We came in at 12:30AM. Doctor saw us at 4AM. Same thing was with my pregnant wife. We ended up leaving the ER at 5AM because their system was offline and they couldn't get us anything.

These are just a very few things. There are much more. I'm still looking for a place to raise my kids.

P.S. New York is amazing for doing business.

edit: formatting

Re: Ask HN: If you could live and work somewhere, where would it be?

#244
post #5

Boulder, CO.

I'm here. It's not that awesome.

I moved to Denver about a year ago. It's all subjective of course, but I really struggle to understand the benefits of living in Boulder outside of a more vibrant tech scene and being a nice cozy town. The rent is ~$300-$400 more expensive. The trails are absolutely packed with people. There is beer pong and loud parties on every corner in the summer. Yes, it's a little closer to skiing resorts, but we're talking extra 20 minutes. Yet, whenever I talk to folks there they seem to enjoy it while I can't help but feel out of place surrounded by college kids everywhere.

Re: Ask HN: If you could live and work somewhere, where would it be?

#245
post #234
post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Much worse infrastructure, if you care about such things. Probably not as good a place to raise children (especially with the politics of the recent decade or so).

I have to disagree. I know people who passed over good job offers overseas in order to remain in Budapest and raise their children. Good schools, affordable housing, a cheap & heavily utilized public transport system, respect for history and culture, forest/nature a max. half hour from anywhere in the city, and ironically, the recent politics have resulted in a safer climate compared to other cities in Europe.

But these were supposedly Hungarians, rather than foreigners choosing to move to Budapest? My point about politics was unfaovrable climate for foreigners.

Specifically about schools- how would your child feel being the only Jew/Black/Muslim/Asian/etc in class?

Re: Ask HN: If you could live and work somewhere, where would it be?

#246
post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lived in Vienna for 8 years, now in Berlin for the past 3. Vienna the city is great but I'd definitely say the biggest downside are the Viennese (I know this is ironically the most Viennese thing I could say). Basically everywhere in the German speaking world it's considered kinda weird to talk to strangers and people are quite...Shy, I guess? It's always the thing I appreciate most on visits to Canada, the US or the…

Just to offer another point of view here: What you say is true but IMHO things have been improving on the "culture" side over the last 2-3 years especially.

What specifically happened in the last 2-3 years?

Re: Ask HN: If you could live and work somewhere, where would it be?

#249

I'm genuinely surprised that this post is up to 214 comments and nobody has mentioned Paris yet. I have no idea what the practicalities of a life in Paris are, but it's still at the top of my list. In maybe half a dozen visits, I've found Parisians to be quite friendly for city dwellers (very much counter to the stereotype). If I approach situations in my severely broken French, people figure out quite quickly that t…

nobody who is posting on HN will be living in englewood or east garfield park, so the relative effect of crime increases in chicago is almost totally irrelevant to their decision. It's a problem I want desperately to be solved too, but not because I'm deluded into thinking it's going to affect me in any way. Other than the cold/hot weather, there's nothing more I could want out of chicago. As you said, the cost of li…

Maybe you and I have different interpretations of what affects us, but I'm still affected if I live in a city with a dramatically increasing murder rate, even if I'm not likely to be murdered. I have friends working in trauma care at hospitals, for the police and fire department, I volunteer my time in neighborhoods I don't live in, etc. More than that, I have a hard time saying that the problems of people just a few blocks west of me aren't a) my problems already, and b) likely to become bigger problems for me in the future. Maybe it's all just misplaced liberal guilt, but I find it hard to ignore.

Re: Ask HN: If you could live and work somewhere, where would it be?

#250

I'm from Italy originally, and now live in SF. I would go back to Italy in a heartbeat if I were retiring, or if I were a software developer doing remote work. Great people, great food, great history/culture, etc. I'd probably pick Venezia (Venice), one of the most stunning places in the world. One of the tourist-free areas, of course. The problem with Italy is when you have to deal with people for work. Terrible. A…

That is funny - I work with a few Italians outside Italy and they have said the same thing, socially Italians are lovely, but business-wise they get irritated by their fellow countrymen
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