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Ask YC: Mid-sized, livable, hacker-friendly towns?

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Re: Ask YC: Mid-sized, livable, hacker-friendly towns?

#91

Post by NoBSWebDesign »

I live in Ann Arbor, MI, and I love it there. It's got the University of Michigan. It's economy is dominated by education, high tech, and biotechnology, according to Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Arbor,_Michigan

According to Forbes, Ann Arbor is the third smartest city in the US, behind Boulder, CO, and Bethesda, MD, but just ahead of Cambridge, MA. http://www.annarborspark.org/about-us/newsroom/ann-arbor-nam...

If you really want a great city to live in, though, especially for kids, Plymouth Township, MI (this is actually where I'm living right now) was rated the 37th Best Place to Live by Money Magazine, in part due to its great school system. http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/moneymag/0707/gallery.BP...

Employment Review Magazine rated Ann Arbor the 10th best city in the nation to live and work in June 2002. It also earned the number 10 spot in The Princeton Review ranking of the best college towns in the nation in September 2001. Additionally in 2001, American Style Magazine named Ann Arbor the 22nd best Arts Destination in the nation.

Of course, then again, you've also got sites like these for a good counterpoint. http://www.annarborisoverrated.com/

Re: Ask YC: Mid-sized, livable, hacker-friendly towns?

#92

Post by llimllib »

dfranke wrote: post #3

Somerville, MA fits the bill pretty well, for sufficiently small values of "decent climate".

How about Northampton, MA? I've never lived there, but I've been there many times and love the town. UMass and Amherst are right down the street, Boston's only an hour away (depending on traffic), good restaurants, great music scene, plenty of biotech (depending on your willingness to travel).

There's also Middletown, CT and New Haven, CT, both of which I've lived in. Middletown's a neat small city with Wesleyan University in town and a cool small downtown, classic New England. Anywhere in the Connecticut outback is a likely spot for some biotech, Bayer and others are big in the state.

New Haven was really ugly 15 years ago but now it's largely an awesome residential city; you want to live in the "grad ghetto" with all the Yalies. Cheap housing, great restaurants, cool up-and-coming atmosphere. I loved the year I spent there. The downside is schools - if you have kids you should send them to private school.

I don't know about the biotech scene, but I love visiting Portland, ME. Anybody able to speak to that city? Another great medium-sized New England town.

Re: Ask YC: Mid-sized, livable, hacker-friendly towns?

#93

Post by llimllib »

mfruhling wrote: post #2

Maryland is great. You can live in Columbia, MD and be between Baltimore and D.C. The IT salaries are very competitive and the cost of living is dramatically cheaper. Tons of great schools and Universities. Mountains 3 hours to the west, beaches 3 hours to the east. It gets a little too cold Dec.-Feb..

Cost of living is indeed fantastic, I bought a nice house in Baltimore for just over 200.

However, in terms of bike commute, or to say that it's hacker friendly, I don't see that myself. Have you found people that I haven't?

Also, is there much biotech outside of UMBI?

Re: Ask YC: Mid-sized, livable, hacker-friendly towns?

#94

Post by NoBSWebDesign »

NoBSWebDesign wrote: post #91

I live in Ann Arbor, MI, and I love it there. It's got the University of Michigan. It's economy is dominated by education, high tech, and biotechnology, according to Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Arbor,_Michigan According to Forbes, Ann Arbor is the third smartest city in the US, behind Boulder, CO, and Bethesda, MD, but just ahead of Cambridge, MA. http://www.annarborspark.org/about-us/newsroom/ann-arb…

Oh, and the reason I mentioned Plymouth Township is because it's less than half an hour from Ann Arbor, so you could easily live in Plymouth Township and work in Ann Arbor.

Re: Ask YC: Mid-sized, livable, hacker-friendly towns?

#95

Post by andrewl »

larrykubin wrote: post #6

I live in Austin, TX and find its size to be manageable, although it is growing fast. Is that too large for you? It has the University of Texas, its in the 'Hill Country', and has a lot of smart and creative folks. I don't have a car and ride nothing but the Capital Metro bus. The average age is pretty young here, so there are a lot of parties and such, which is a plus for some but minus for others. You will like it…

I lived in Austin 1996-97 and I loved it. Swimming in Barton Springs pool is one of my favorite things to do.

However, if you have a problem with heat, be warned. In the summer you expect 100 degrees every day. I like the heat, but it can be oppressive.

All the good things that other people are saying are accurate.

Re: Ask YC: Mid-sized, livable, hacker-friendly towns?

#96

Post by joshstaiger »

You might consider Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, NC area. I'm in the Bay Area now, but I enjoyed living in "The Triangle" as they call it.

Cost of living is great. There are three large universities in the area: UNC, Duke, and NC State, meaning lots of youngish, educated people.

There's a pretty good geek community. IBM, Cisco, Redhat, and SAS all have large presences in the area, and there is a startup scene (nothing like the Bay Area, but it exists).

When I lived there, we had twice-monthly geek meetups and got great attendance - met some really interesting, fairly diverse, people. The large amount of northern ex-pats mixed with the southern culture made for a pretty cool, laid-back, friendly atmosphere.

And there is biotech in the area as well. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Triangle_%28North_Carolina%... for a start...

Only downside is you'll definitely still need a car to get around. If you're smart and/or lucky you can probably minimize that a bit, though. The Chapel Hill/Carrboro area can be pretty walkable/bikeable.

Re: Ask YC: Mid-sized, livable, hacker-friendly towns?

#98

Post by interknot »

mocheeks wrote: post #65

I can vouch for other people's vote for Madison, WI. I just moved here a few months ago after a brief stint in Richmond, VA, and a life in (or near) Chicago. I am really enjoying the vibe of this often forgotten city, and and really impressed with how diverse the terrain is in the state (considering its the midwest). I've met some guys from a video game startup, and a good number of people from the big software compa…

Madison is pretty great, especially in the summer, but I think our winters are a bit foreboding.

The main problem with creating a startup atmosphere in Madison is that most people leave once they graduate. I've managed to stick around almost a year after graduation, but the coasts are beckoning. :)

Re: Ask YC: Mid-sized, livable, hacker-friendly towns?

#99

Post by tx »

larrykubin wrote: post #39
pius wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the info, I'm city shopping right now and I'm planning to check out Austin at SXSW. Any Austin tips for me? I try to avoid having a car at all costs, so it's good to know you've found that feasible.

This probably is moving away from what davidw was asking, but here's my quick guide to Austin. The 6th street advice depends on who you are. If you are looking for live music, definitely 6th St. and the clubs on Red River. If you want cheaper drinks (like $1 Rum and Cokes of low quality), want to party with more of college-age crowd, are single and looking for attractive women, you will be very happy there. Very litt…

Agreed. However, you haven't mentioned the BEST "feature" of Austin. We have an absolutely unique freakin jungle within 6 miles of downtown called "Greenbelt" where you can do all kinds of crazy things on your mountain bike, or swim with your dog in one of those natural pools or just walk for miles. Also you can rent a boat and have fun on lake Travis, where my favorite thing to do (although dangerous) is to jump off the rocks. Those things are why Austin is 1st or 2nd fittest city in the nation and this is why I don't want to move to the Valley. We have lots of "Valley refugees" here, who moved because of cost of living and "lack of culture".

However, if "good hacker community", and especially start-up community, is priority #1, I'd stay around SF Bay Area. Austin has only one traditional "software VC" and they're not nearly as open minded and progressive as numerous VCs in the Valley.

Re: Ask YC: Mid-sized, livable, hacker-friendly towns?

#100

Post by sethg »

dfranke wrote: post #3

Somerville, MA fits the bill pretty well, for sufficiently small values of "decent climate".

I live in Boston, and I agree that the climate sucks (I keep telling myself that it builds character). Housing prices are outrageous...for anyone who isn't coming from the Bay Area or Manhattan. (If you do move here, rent an apartment and wait for the housing bubble to finish bursting.)

But there are a number of tech companies around, either in Cambridge/Somerville or in the Boston suburbs. The public transportation system is decent and the city is compact enough that a lot of things are within a half-hour drive of one another.

Regarding biotech, I used to work on the Human Genome Project at what is now the Broad Institute (which got spun off from the Whitehead Institute). Novartis rents a floor or two of the building I work in and owns a whole building a block away.

Boston's Museum of Science is a good place to take kids; they have a "Discovery Center" that's specifically oriented towards 0-to-5-year-olds, but my three- and five-year-old have fun at a lot of the other exhibits as well.

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