111–120 of 132 posts
Oklahoma City: 1) Very conservative state government. Public schools are incredibly underfunded. Crime penalties are harsh. Extremely high prison population. 2nd in nation. 1st in women incarceration (nearly 3x national average). Constantly spending money trying fight people who sue them for pushing religious agendas. 2) A car is mandatory. Not walkable. Very spread out. It's one of the larges cities by area and the…
You forgot the environment. NYC is full of garbage, not enough parks, and the rivers are so dirty, you're not allowed to swim in them. It's noisy and full of stress. That's why I moved to Hawaii and never looked back. Working remotely is a lot of fun, and is just healthier, both environment-wise and mentally.
My wife and some friends visited NYC recently. My wife was the only one that liked the city, albeit only to a degree. I definitely think NYC is a great place to visit, but I could never see myself living there. I love the public transport system but hate so many other aspects of life there.
If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard that about NYC from a visitor, I could afford to buy a place here :)
Seriously though, why do people only seem to say this about NYC? Does anyone say they enjoyed visiting Dallas but couldn’t see themselves living there?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've lived in the Denver metro (suburbs) for 7 years now and still love it. I moved here from a small city in the south. - Large and growing tech community. Every year, I see job postings from new companies in the area. Google, FB, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft all have sattelite offices. Plenty of options to choose from if you're in development, IT, finance, etc. Lots of non-profit organizations as well. Good universitie…
I'll echo some points: - I-25 traffic is crazy bad, even compared to the 405 in West LA. Really, it's no joke. - Politics isn't really purple in Co, per se. It's a western state, so it's more libertarian than republican, sorta. People are independent as a rule. I think it's something about the long drives and the mountains that keeps up a love of open spaces and a comfortableness with being alone and out of range of…
- DIA: I normally get through in like 2 minutes, gotta precheck!
- One addition: Very little racial diversity
I agree on the food is mediocre and the time to leave to ski is freaking early!
- Cardboard-thin walls, single-bedroom, single-bathroom (no tub) apartment in a crumbling dirty building looking out at your neighbor's drying red underpants can easily run you US$1-1.5mm.
- Renovation and construction noise, dust, inconvenience everywhere, all the time, 24/7/365. If the road was paved last year, let's re-pave it again this year! Anything goes to lower the unemployment rate in the harmonious society! Drilling can easily start at 6 am and go till 10 pm, and construction outside is allowed to bang 24h. The rule of thumb: if no neighbors are renovating this week, someone will next week.
- Services are cheap but shitty. Call a plumber to fix your leaking pipes and he will wrap it in some tape while chain-smoking and making a mess of your floor. Most museums are so bad it's worth to go just for the laughs. Libraries freshest books are from 90-s and maybe a few from 00-s. Nothing you can do at the bank that will take less than 1 hour, including changing the currency.
- Allegedly "the food is great", but Shanghai is a melting pot of China, and almost everything is much, much better at the origin. Shanghainese food is super sweet and greasy in a bad way. Cheap food places and street food is disappearing at an alarming rate, almost nothing is left. Food quality is below average, food service is bad. Groceries are cheap, but most cheap vegetables have no taste at all.
- The largest subway in the world, the largest bus network in the world, and still it can be extremely congested, rude and slow. E.g. when subway trains stop, the machinist exits, checks if everything is "okay", and then presses a button to open the doors..? You have to x-ray your stuff when entering the subway, most people just ignore it, but it adds another layer of stress. People stampede for seats after the doors open. The street traffic is mad, it's better a bit compared to 3-rd tier China cities, but it's still mad mad mad by any Western standard.
- The airports are dark and stinky. When you exit you're immediately attacked by "taxi, sir" touts that will scam you, all in a plain sight of a "policeman". However, Shanghai is very well connected with the rest of China by air and by bullet trains.
- Public hospitals are very efficient and cheap, but not for the faint of heart. A single doctor can process 100-150 people in the morning shift, you have 3-5 minutes and they don't remember you or anything, there is no privacy and no "care". They will fix you up and send you home. Overprescription is rampant. Also, everything is upfront: you can call an ambulance, come to the hospital and 1st thing is to pay, if you don't pay they will leave you to die in the lobby (that's why so many traffic victims end up dead: no money on them and they're unconscious so you can't ask for a relative).
- Air quality in winter is extremely bad.
- No nature at all within 3-4 hours drive.
1) Rains a lot in the winter, have to be prepared for it
2) Lot's of problems with homeless and crazy people on the streets
3) House is very expensive (close to NY/SF/London)
4) Petty crime seems to be legal
That said, love living here !
Amsterdam is altogether great alongside the Netherlands, but its ever-increasing popularity among tourists is making it less and less bearable to live it. It's overly crowded and the housing market is facing serious troubles due to certain overly-liberal government policies and amount of expats coming in for newfound startups. Still 10/10 though!
Completely agree and aforementioned expat here. My only nitpick is the quality of career opportunities though I see a lot of new companies coming through like Message Bird, DAZN. Any other promising opportunities that you are aware of?
Dresden, Germany As far as daily life is concerned, I have a few nits to pick, but nothing that "sucks about where [I] live". The only thing I can really complain about is that Dresden is (sort of) the xenophobia capital of the country. There's far-right protests on a weekly cycle [1] and the conservative state government is still denying that there even is a xenophobia problem, even though attacks on foreign-looking…
BTW. Dresden is the rape-capital of Germany (after Berlin). Done mostly by immigrants (90%).
Harrison, AR Population ~13k 1) There are few restaurants open past ~8pm. That's the one thing I miss most about living in a bigger place. Pizza delivery places are open until 10pm or so, but after that you're pretty much limited to Taco Bell, McDonald's, or Casey's (a gas station, much like WaWa or Sheetz) 2) Lack of a tech community. There are a few people in "tech" around, but the vast majority work for a single c…
Totally agree, living in Yellville, AR and working in Springdale, AR (+2 hours commute each way, every day) A few years ago, I tried to teach a free game programming class in Harrison College under the continued education umbrella - no one signed up. Tried to start a Raspberry Pi meetup group - no one wanted to meet 'in person' ..
Seriously though, shoot me an email. I live on the south end of Harrison, and can be in Yellville in like 15 minutes. I grew up in Lead Hill.
Small world.
Denmark: - 56% personal tax rate, 22.5% corporate, always increasing - Low/negative growth - Massive lack of talent/quality education - Free healthcare = Long waiting lists = Losing family members for totally curable diseases - Everything is overly regulated, lawyer bills piling up - Traffic in Copenhagen is a nightmare - The hightaxes means high wages = expensive products (+42% EU average) - Government fees on every…
Denmark (and Sweden) are often cited as countries with fairly successful "socialist" social policies such as healthcare. Can you please elaborate more about that particular point? From my own research, it seems that most (if not all countries) with socialized healthcare have it worse than the US or other countries that supposedly have the wors because healthcare is not affordable and/or provided by the government.
The waiting times in DK were at one point so bad that it was mandated by law, that certain timeframes for treatment must be respected, but this is rarely possible. I had one family member diagnosed with cancer i november, treatment started in february, death was in september. Another just last week, was hit by a heart attack, something blocking the arteries. She received some pills/nitro and was told she needed a scan of the heart in order to fix the problem, and that she should come back in a month or so. We're hoping she'll make it that far.
I can't say how much worse this is than in the US, but it seems to me that the problems the US face in terms of steep pricing are also the result of government regulation.
Wages are crap for the people but in IT they are actually really good compared to the cost of living. (You can save a few thousand dollars a month - if you're a senior or contractor. Apartment rentals are $300-$500 a month). Its tougher for a woman to be treated seriously in the business. Especially in Ukraine.
Hard to buy good hardware - some stuff is just not available here. No amazon for easy shipping and no real alternative. Shipping from the west is expensive and takes time plus customs fees.
Society is racist and sexist.(the thing that hurts the most) Hate being around people at parties who spew the same jokes after they get tipsy. "Im not racist, but..." Casual racism everywhere. There is violence against minorities and social activists. Government doesnt seem to do much about it.