781–790 of 1001 posts
It's not sexy, but college towns in the midwest can usually be pretty affordable as long as you're not trying to live exactly next to campus: Madison, Ann Arbor, East Lansing, South Bend, Ames, etc. If you hear people talk about how cool Austin used to be 20 years ago, they're basically talking about what these towns are still like.
I'd highly recommend the triangle area in North Carolina. In Raleigh, there are a large number of tech companies, RHE, Cisco, IBM, Unreal Engine, just to name a few. It has the second highest % of computer science PhDs, and it's home to NC State, Duke University, and UNC. It's also a cultural hotspot for Blues creativity. Many of the best contemporary blues artists are located here in the triangle. The cost of living…
Totally agree about the triangle. We lived in NYC, SF, and Boston for a cumulative 15 years before choosing the triangle for exactly the reasons you mentioned. I work in tech and wanted greater intellectual and economic diversity. Durham-area coffee-shop chatter is great - in a single sitting recently I heard folks cover ground including christian theology and practice, the upcoming pride parade, backyard chickens ge…
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Yes Portugal is a good choice now, I moved here 1 year ago from UK because of various factors, Brexit, tax, quality of life etc also because I believe it will be a great location to recruit IT talent to. I live in Cascais which is a bit expensive, (still much cheaper than San Francisco of course) but has wonderful quality of life for family, Capital city amenities next to beach. Great infrastructure, motorways, ultra…
> private medical cover including dental, for family of 4 unbelievably cheap, less than 200 Euro pm, i paid nearly that much for just dental in UK Almsot 200 EUR a month on dental seems outrageously expensive. Getting a simple figure on the prices is difficult but it seems like the going-rate is appox £16-21 pm (lets say 20-30 EUR): https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/dental-insurance... The amount I have to…
You would be better off saying ok put the benefit into my pension instead.
If you would like to remain in United States and do not mind having proper seasons, I would strongly consider Chicago, the last affordable big city in the United States. University of Chicago pulls a robust intellectual community (81 Nobel Laureates), but there is also a deep intellectual history around the arts and music that transcends the work of the university - something that I'm not sure I can say for a place l…
I've lived there for a while and there were a lot of deal breakers for me: * security: you feel unsafe in most of the city, past a certain hour and you can't walk nor take the public transit (actually even during the day, the public transit is filled with crazy people). I could never take walks around my place when I was living there. A lot of poverty. * no real life: there is the loop, but it's mostly offices and it…
Your nightlife thing is pretty weird. The Loop is Chicago's business district. It is dead after business hours. Don't be there. Wicker Park and Logan Square are neighborhoods, not single streets. There's also Lakeview, Avondale, Pilsen, Andersonville, and a bunch of others I'm forgetting. Maybe the argument is that together these neighborhoods constitute a pretty decent night-life, but it's hard to walk from Wicker Park to Andersonville if you want to start an evening eating tacos at the Big Star walkup and end it with beers at Hopleaf? That's fair, but that's what NYC is like too.
It does get cold here!
There are many other cities all over Central and Eastern Europe like this. Other options are Novi Sad in Serbia, Szeged in Hungary, Brno in Czech Republic (the major tech hub), Timisoara in Romania (same), Lviv in Ukraine, Krakow in Poland, Tartu in Estonia.
Strangely, Iowa City. Huge University, art and science lectures and events all the time, street music downtown most nights with dozens of clubs and events. Festivals, protests, book readings. Clean and mostly safe (drunks at 2AM can get rowdy). English of course, but a dozen other languages heard in any coffee shop or restaurant (because of the International student population)
Sick of people saying this. Iowa City is not a world class city. Period. Iowa City is a backwater. It's population is extremely white. "street music downtown" and "dozens of clubs and events" is a complete given in most major US cities and the only reason you would think that is special is if you have never left the midwest. The city is ugly and has literally no public transportation. It is extremely car-centric and…
And yes its a mixture of cultures; that's kind of the point. You can run to Silicon Valley and hide among your own brogrammer tribe, or you can go somewhere and meet different people
I’d recommend Ann Arbor if you don’t mind the midwestern winters. [0] UMich is there, and you’ll find people in academia working on very interesting problems. Very friendly locals too. [0] https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/most-educated-cities-i...
I'm a software engineer living in A2 and also recommend moving here. It has a small town feel but has most amenities anyone would need. Comcast provides gigabit internet for $120/mo in some areas of town. There's a great downtown scene with a ton of university students to stimulate intellectual curiosity. There is a growing tech scene here with companies like Duo (sold for 2bn to cisco), barracuda networks, and a thr…
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I guess it depends on what your criteria are. Bordeaux is a lot wetter than Nice, and the extremes in Montpellier can be quite harsh. There are no mountains near Bordeaux, and you need to drive a good 30-45mn out of Montpellier to get anywhere nice. I completely agree that the night life and cultural scene is far better in student cities such as Bordeaux, Lyon, Nantes, Montpellier etc
I lived in Lyon almost all my life and I wouldn't call it a student city. It's pretty boring.
If you would like to remain in United States and do not mind having proper seasons, I would strongly consider Chicago, the last affordable big city in the United States. University of Chicago pulls a robust intellectual community (81 Nobel Laureates), but there is also a deep intellectual history around the arts and music that transcends the work of the university - something that I'm not sure I can say for a place l…
What would be authentic Mexican food?