Looks like an ice fisherman. It’s all good.

Great post. I grew up in Portland. It used to be beautiful - now it's tent city, part of that is the housing market getting crazy expensive, not enough apartments and insane taxes. But it's still a great pinball place, so I moved across the Columbia River to Washington and I'm pretty happy here, can drive over and play pinball, then leave. Love the nearby beaches, the mountains, the Gorge. When it rains, guess what? Stay in and play pinball!

Other places I've loved while visiting: central CA coast (my favorite place but way too expensive + earthquakes + taxes), Austin and San Antonio (great food and weather), Asheville (great weather and beer), and Albuquerque (pretty, but gets cold, no great breweries and no great pinball).

I unironically prefer Tex Mex to more authentic Mexican food. Both can be absolutely amazing, but if we're talking about just average food or worse, slap some cheese, sour cream and guacamole on there and I'll probably enjoy it.

Hard to beat a good mole though.

Great thread. Fascinating read.
I'd say I'm as much a 'citizen of the World' as I can be. Raised in Vancouver, B.C., university in France, worked and got married in Iceland. Lived in Houston, Texas for a wonderful summer in 2008. Worked parts of the past seven years in the USA--mainly Arizona. I like Tucson and Bisbee there. Have been fortunate enough to travel to NYC a few times. Just got back from a wedding in Ireland and some time in Switzerland. Switzerland is a wonderful place.
Anyhow, aside from the fact that Madison, Wisconsin sounds awesome, the one thing I will take from this thread is that the modern day American wants to live with people of their own political stripe. That's a surprising concept to me. Perhaps it explains why the nation is so divided? This desire seems unique.

I simply hope all of us realize how truly lucky we are to have won the birth-lottery and be in a position to choose where to live. Every place mentioned sounds terrific. Especially Colorado. Hope to visit soon!

Look forward to re-visiting this thread soon!

Thanks for the confidence.

NZ is a good place to live.

Some thoughts off the top of my head ...

Pros:

- small - only 5m population in a land mass the same size as the UK (which has 66m people)
- really laid back
- great lifestyle
- you can drive from any house in NZ to a lake or a beach in 30 minutes.
- California style beaches on the East Coast and wild, rugged beaches on the West Coast
- no snow at all in Auckland
- very intermediate climate .. 10c to 30c all year round
- only 3 hours flight to Australia
- only an hour or 90mins flight to Queenstown
- hardly any gun violence (except mental case Australians shooting up the place)
- free (ish) school for everyone
- free (ish) medical for everyone
- free pension for everyone
- no snakes
- no poisonous things
- the All Blacks are the world most winningest sports team
- all cultures mix pretty harmoniously
- quality of food is very good
- cows/sheep all raised in grass paddocks (yes, grass ..)
- quality of coffee is great everywhere
- very few Starbucks

Cons

- small population - could easy handle another 5m people ... but not all in Auckland
- 1/3 of the population live in Auckland while the rest of the place is empty
- houses in Auckland and Queenstown are crazy expensive
- 12 hours flight to Los Angeles
- 24 hours to fly to Europe
- limited pool of pinball machines
- traffic in Auckland is pretty crappy (but nothing like LA)
- it rains a lot
- instant sunburn from the hole in the ozone layer
- country is on a huge fault line
- Auckland is built on 50 “sleeping” volcanos
- wages have a ceiling. You will not become Bill Gates living here. You live here for the lifestyle, not to be rich
- meth starting to invade the country big time
- we say “fish and chips” funny
- tall poppy syndrome in full force

rd

I wouldn’t move there unless you have to work nearby, or have family there.

It’s just an overcrowded Houston suburb. (Used to live nearby and still have family there)

Always like seeing Mile Marker 880 near Beaumont...

I've lived in far left areas and far right areas. Most of the time, politics never comes up.

And if it does, make new friends.

If you love your car, move to California, Texas or Arizona.... It will become your second home.

My son says Reno FTW. Perfect weather, views and traffic. Although he does not use the freeways during rush hours as he lives a five-iron shot away from IGT. Also, no state income tax. A nice bonus.
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Knoxville, TN. I love it here. College town with lots to do. Nearby Smoky Mountains. NO STATE INCOME TAX. Friendly people. Fairly consistent area in the "best places to live" type of areas. About 6 hours to the coast. 3 hours to Nashville or Atlanta.

Pasedena is pretty nice. Not the low rent district for sure. A buddy lives next door to Frankie Muniz there.

We like our little part of Tennessee about 30 minutes east of Knoxville.

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Yeah, basically anywhere in east TN is going to be pretty great. I live on the lake too (actually main channel of the Tennessee River). Wonderful.

Sounds like your main criteria is to move to a place where people look and think like you. Austin or Asheville may be good fits but wouldn't venture more than a few miles in any direction or you'll run into lots of "rednecks" and "Trumpers."

In a mansion.

That’s what most people over 40 want.

North or South of Salt Lake City. 4 distinct seasons, nice people and 360 degree views of Mother Nature. It's pretty dry (humidity) and this can be a problem.

This.

I think this map best illustrates that point... and that it's not unique to Texas: https://arcg.is/0y88er

Austin, is definitely the most Liberal-leaning city in the state. I'm a proud UT Longhorn graduate and would choose Austin, hands down, over any other city in the state... except the Californians really trashed the housing market there, plus the town just isn't the same since SXSW became a thing. Tons of transplants moving there because of its unique vibe, only to dilute that vibe by encouraging chains and other things counter to the "Keep Austin Weird" movement. In short, the Austin we all knew and loved is - sadly - dying.

Other large metros in Texas generally follow this pattern: Major city (e.g.: Dallas, Ft. Worth, Houston) vote more blue, surrounding burbs are "pink" (just slightly red majority).

In short: There's pockets of places to settle regardless of where you live on the blue/red spectrum.

It's a bit sad to think that the two political parties in the US have become so diametrically opposed that we can't even live together anymore.

For all those that have never been to Annapolis, you definitely ought to check it out. Close enough to DC and Baltimore without the craziness. Plus, you get views like this. Plus, anywhere you can get crabs pulled out of the water 30mins beforehand for lunch is A-OK in my book.

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It's a bit sad to think that the two political parties in the US have become so diametrically opposed that we can't even live together anymore.

For me, at least, I'm not scoping out maps like this when I choose where to live. It's about schools, access to roads (b/c DFW is the very definition of urban sprawl), the neighborhood, etc. I'm in one of those "pink" areas, so there's a good mix here.

I'm very much your prototypical centrist. I take each issue individually - not by any party line. My Dad, by contrast, is very Liberal-leaning and sometimes I hear my kids blindly regurgitate his talking points or say they "hate" a particular politician. I challenge my kids on that and have them explain why they feel a certain way. If they can't come up with an answer, they have to think through it and provide a reasoned line of thinking before they go back to playing Fortnite... or hopefully some pinball.

I think if we all did that more, we'd have less of this s**t. Unfortunately, people do the opposite and hole themselves up in their echo chambers.

Bah, that’s just interweb venting by folks. I have big time GOP die hards on almost every side of my house and I’m basically a Democratic Socialist. I think the people they want running things are laughable but they themselves are fine as neighbors. We don’t throw stuff at each other or yell shit. Although if this one dude lets his dog shit in my yard again....

See. Echo chamber!!

Anybody else here Libertarian Nihlists or am I the only one

Exactly. I can live next to these people just fine, but I wouldn't want to Facebook with them! That's life today.

Just like so many people are unbearable here but you run into them at a show and they are just fine.

Exactly. If Facebook has taught me anything, it's that I really didn't know my friends and neighbors as well as I thought. Amazing the views they happily express there but never share face-to-face.

Suppose it's an offshoot of the Internet F*ckwad Theory.

Great minds...

Santa Barbara ...... once you get past the sticker shock of houses it's a great place to live. Temp fluctuates between 55-85 all year with no humidity and little rain.

But let's face it, no matter where you move things become commonplace after time so some of the reasons you moved no longer are big deals. I moved out here from Pittsburgh, while the weather is a lot better then Pittsburgh I have already am use to the warmer climate. It his in the 60s and I am like "hey it's a little chilly" whereas Pittsburgh I would go outside in tshirts when it hit 50.

My part of Central PA is really starting to grate at me. The cost of living is rising, but wages are not. Real estate taxes keep going up. Affordable housing is non-existent, so most people are increasingly becoming more house poor. The amish are buying all the cheap housing up and becoming slum lords. We are becoming a suburb of philly, where people are openly proud to be an asshole...while many natives are proud and open about being racist assholes. Neighbors are not friendly any more due to the small town lifestyle being killed off by sprawl. The state and local government (commonwealth) is bloated, corrupt and impotent. Unemployment is low, which means that good service and good employees are very hard to find at the wages most companies are wanting to pay. Pennsylvania has shitty workers rights laws, which put us well behind some other states like Maryland. We have become one of those places that is nice to visit, but crappy to live in.

That being said, I haven't figured out where I would want to go yet if I do. But this thread is helpful!

Unfortunately, my experience is that the less than 40 crowd is probably less tolerant of different viewpoints and quick to group people. I've lived all over the county (CA, TX, TN, NJ, OH, AZ...) and while it's good to live in a place that broadly shares your values/priorities (not necessarily defined by political party), diversity of experiences/cultures adds a lot to the community.

Don't confuse locals with local politicians.

We can always use good latex salesmen in NC

TN sounds nice. How bad is the humidity there?

I was actually thinking hard about Del Boca Vista, but I am not old enough yet.

I live amongst many bleeding heart liberals in my area...most are good people, and the topic of politics doesn't really come up. I will say this that many are starting to realize that we are getting taxed to death and its getting out of hand. The other problem is our great Governor is such a left wing whack job that its getting worse (I know hard to believe)...if I was looking to move to an area of "likeminded" people it would probably be Utah....although that comes with other pitfalls like shitty beer, cold winters, and religious impacts.

Winter is what you make of it. We enjoy skiing, snowboarding, x-country skiing, tubing, and ice skating. I grew up near this dinky little ski hill in northern Wisconsin called Kettlebowl. It was only open on weekends, but you could ski all day for $3. When I turned 14, I was able to get a snowmobile license and I could drive up there myself via the trail system. It's amazing what a difference there is between southern and northern Wisconsin in terms of reliable snowfall. Up where I grew up, we pretty much always had enough natural snow to open the hills by Thanksgiving. Where I live now, we'll be lucky to have enough man made snow to open the hills by Christmas. Still, now that I'm in southern Wisconsin we have our ski passes ready. Not wishing away the nice weather we have now, but when the snow comes we will be ready.

I lived in Nashville and the humidity wasn't bad at all.

Uh , no Humidity , little rain....
I don't know about that .
Born and raised in SB for 22 years .
Yes it's nice, but all the LA crowd comes up every weekend .

Maybe you were the black cloud and took the rain with you seriously, last year was the rainiest year they had and it still wasn't bad but again I am from Pittsburgh so any place where it doesn't rain every other day is an improvement!

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I live in Rockwall, Texas (it is a suburb of Dallas). It is right on Lake Ray Hubbard. Great cost of living and tons of things to do.

Here is a pic:

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I kinda like my little corner of California. It’s high desert so we get enough snow every year to keep it interesting.

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Love it out there, just not sure I could ever make the move to CA. I spent 10 days chasing and photographing trains up the mountain from San Bernardino and out into the desert by you a few years ago before the big fire. Beautiful part of the country!

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I humbly implore to all my fellow pinsiders regardless of your party affiliation or religious beliefs just live and let live. That's really the problem here, ZERO respect/tolerance. I'm trying to stay generic as to not offend anyone or more importantly break pinside rules.
I HATE Portland Oregon for the intolerant stinky pile of shit that it has become. It was a much better place 15 years ago. "Keep Portland weird" meant something completely different than what it does today.

https://futurism.com/scientists-discover-3-new-super-earth-exoplanets
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And if you look verry hard it kinda looks like a pinball!

There is no bad weather... Only bad gear.