Pros and Cons of your city

[Crazed Rabbit]

I live in a tiny city between Seattle and Canada.

Pros:
Small city.
In a extremely beautiful corner of the world. Within a day's travel is the Olympic penninsula's rainforest, the many islands of Puget Sound, and beautiful mountains in the cascade range.
Between Seattle and Vancouver.
Great Mexican restuarants.

Cons:
Traffic ain't so good at rush hour, due to poor planning.
Sometimes the rain can be a bit much.
Not a lot to do; no cinema, museum, theater, etc.
Mayor is obessed with bringing a big shopping center into town, which would destroy the structure of the town and cause terrible traffic.

Crazed Rabbit

San Diego has the largest naval base in the US. The marines are here as well. Go away.

Wth? What have they ever done to you? Not the grateful type, I guess.

[Beirut]

2nd post. I grew up in Montreal, but this is where I live now.

My Small Town.


Pros:
-You know everyone
-Very friendly
-Lots of trees to cut
-Strong artistic community
-Lots of breathing room
-After 6PM, you might as well be on the moon it's so quiet.
-English & French get along very well
-Small enough so one person can affect real change

Cons:
-Stupid ski hill brings horrid tourists
-Rich people buying all the land
-Undrinkable town water
-Moronic local politics
-High amount of habitual drunk drivers

[Uesugi Kenshin]

2nd post. I grew up in Montreal, but this is where I live now.

My Small Town.


Pros:
-You know everyone
-Very friendly
-Lots of trees to cut
-Strong artistic community
-Lots of breathing room
-After 6PM, you might as well be on the moon it's so quiet.
-English & French get along very well
-Small enough so one person can affect real change

Cons:
-Stupid ski hill brings horrid tourists
-Rich people buying all the land
-Undrinkable town water
-Moronic local politics
-High amount of habitual drunk drivers

That sounds a lot like my small town in the USA. Let me add a few things though.

Pros:
-College brings in some good student teachers and nice summer jobs.
-It's in Vermont, but on the border with NY and MA so you are not as far from the cities as you would be if you were up in Montpelier, or near the Canadian border.
-Very good AP track teachers at the High School.
-New Middle School.

Cons:
-The new Middle School was debated for 13+ years because of stupid small towns v. slightly bigger small town politics.
-Leaves and skiing bring in loads of stupid tourists.
-On a bit of a road nexus, but the new bypass has removed most of the big trucks, we still get horrid traffic occasionally though.
-Lots of rednecks, who are generally more tolerant than many rednecks can still be very intolerant and idiotic.
-Stupid college happens to be one of the most liberal institutions ever conceived, and doesn't get along as well as it could with the town, though that is changing.

[Vladimir]

I don't like DC

[InsaneApache]

Why? What has Don Corleone done to you?

[Patriarch of Constantinople]

Athens, Greece

Pros:
Center of Western Civilization
Its in Greece
Democratic
Wine
Culture
History
The Parthenon
Acropolis
Olympics

Cons:
Heat
Tourism

Thessaliniki (Birthplace)

Pros:
Food
Wine
Similatiries with Athens imo

Cons:
Communism

Sorry i havent been to Thessaliniki in a while

[InsaneApache]

Well you can fall back onto the raki/chipero.......

[Louis VI the Fat]

Athens, Greece

Pros:
Center of Western Civilization
Its in Greece
Democratic
Wine
Culture
History
The Parthenon
Acropolis
Olympics

Wait, you meant to post this in the monastery, right?

[Strike For The South]

Necromancy but I have a new city so its not spam!

Lubbock Texas


Pros:
-Nicest people you will ever meet
-15 minutes and you can be anywhere
-Texas Tech
-Im a sucker for cowboys
-More churches per capita than anywhere in the USA
-German immigrants+Deep south migrants=5'10 blondes with a twang mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Cons
-More churches per capita than anywhere in the USA
-Very socially conservative
-Its a "dry county" meaning you need to drive 5 min to the strip which is suitatied on a highway with no lights. Deaths abound
-Very White bread no diversity
-300 miles to Dallas/Ft.Worth, 400 to San Antonio and 600 Houston and for the duration all you see is farms cows and oil derricks
-"high class" here is drinking beer in a glass. I'm no European but culture is a foreign word here

Overall a nice town with very nice people but I long for my San Antonio.

[Fragony]

Need I say more.

[seireikhaan]

Cedar Falls

Pros:

- People are very nice.
- Amazing sports bar
- Pretty much any store you'll need is here.
- Good UNI.
- Mild enough party atmosphere than you're not suffocated, but have plenty of options to go out on weekends.
- Top 4 (1AA) football team.
- Can get anywhere within a half hour walk.

Cons:

- Fairly quiet, sans a One Republic concert and Jeff Dunham show.
- Probably even less diverse than Lubbock- we have more Chinese exchange students than hispanics/blacks combined.
- 500 miles to Kansas City, 400 to Chicago, and 550 to Minneapolis(roughly). Lots of wasteland called Iowa in between.
- Until very, very recently, roads were deadly to vehicles. I'm fairly sure that not even Manhattan has as many holes in the road. Convinced they literally killed my father's vehicle when I came up for a visit last year during my senior year in high school. Should be noted, they are doing road construction as I type, so not sure how this'll turn out in the end.

[Strike For The South]

Tech itself is very diverse but in Lubbock everyone is kinda the same

[tibilicus]

Stockport:





There's not much to be said in it's favour...
Has the largest brick structure in western Europe.
Has a few charming little villages scattered around it.
Home to the best Greek takeaway on earth.
Home to the Adshead family for a rather remarkable length of time.
Very nearly situated at the centre of Britain.
Close to Manchester.. yes, that is a good thing.


There's too much against it to even begin listing...

I sympathise with you.

I grew up near that area although luckily I was more in the Cheshire area. Although consider yourself lucky when you consider what's beyond Manchester and towards the west..

Birkenhead..

[woad&fangs]

Madison (I basically live in a suburb of it)

Pros:

Awsome food
State street
Badger sports
Badger band
Amazing theatre community
Small amount of unempoyment
Lots of performing and fine arts venues
One of the best free zoos in the nation
Farmer's market
Arboretum

Cons:

2 seasons, OMFG its COLD!!!, and Road construction season
Hippies
Insanely liberal government. I consider myself to be fairly progressive and they STILL manage to scare me

[Furunculus]

Pro's
Buried deep inside rural wales
University Town
By the sea
Zero Crime

Cons
Welsh nationalist idiocy
Welsh language idiocy
Chippy left-wing politics
Never be a Tory local Gov't here

[Jolt]

Espinho



Pros:
- Small town (circa 30,000 people), you get everywhere fast (20-30 min tops) on foot
- Nice beaches (That's what tourists say, I hate our beaches, icy water and strong winds)
- Casino, for those who like to throw their money away
- Nice night activity, with many bars seaside.
- Friendly people (Most of us anyway)
- Clean, compared to other Portuguese cities (Fortunatly, the grafiti problem here isn't that great. I hate random grafitis they ruin a city. I'd put the death penalty for any youth who grafited a national monument, as I've seen to often)
- One of the best voleyball teams in teh world (Sporting de Espinho)
- Largest sports pavillion of the Iberian Peninsula
- Largest fair in Portugal (Or is it the Iberian Peninsula as well? Don't recall)
- Really organized city (e.g. Parallel and perpendicular streets and street numbers instead of street names)
- A nice city park

Cons:

- Casino is very powerful in interfering with the politics of the city. Thus we don't have much to do (Compared to where I am studying, which is Lisbon)
- A lot of gypsies (They are quite a problem here)
- Changed some of the streets from the typical "Calçada Portuguesa" to ugly orange bricks.

Yeah, that's it. It's a beautiful city, overall.

[TinCow]

Washington, DC



Pros:
Great museums
Great food of all kinds (restaurants and groceries)
Convenient for travel anywhere domestically or internationally
Suffers far less than most other cities from the economic crisis
Very clean

Cons:
Horrendous traffic and inadequate public transportation system
High house prices, even after the housing collapse
Tourists who don't know that you stand on the right of the escalator and WALK on the the left
Stupid weather - 1 month each of Spring and Autumn, not enough snow in winter, way too hot in summer

[Major Robert Dump]

Washington, DC



Pros:
Great museums
Great food of all kinds (restaurants and groceries)
Convenient for travel anywhere domestically or internationally
Suffers far less than most other cities from the economic crisis
Very clean

Cons:
Horrendous traffic and inadequate public transportation system
High house prices, even after the housing collapse
Tourists who don't know that you stand on the right of the escalator and WALK on the the left
Stupid weather - 1 month each of Spring and Autumn, not enough snow in winter, way too hot in summer

Cons: "representatives" who won't listen to their own constituents, accuse them from being from another district, and know whats best for the public despite overwhelming evidence that they are wrong. Takes the Supreme Court, Republicans and @ 25 blue dogs to set them straight (last weeks vote)

[Meneldil]

Where I was born, and where I've lived for most of my life :

Montpellier (France):

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Pros:
- Many universities, lots of students, nationals or foreigners
- A really living town culture-wise: art exhibitions, theaters, concerts, lectures, street artists, etc. There's always something to do, see and learn in Montpellier.
- An overall beautiful city. Part of it kept its 19th century look (cf picture #1 & 2), while the most modern parts of it have a classical-greece feeling, accordingly to our -megalomaniac- mayor's wish.
- Awesome public transports, thanks to the 2 tramway lines. I think these are the only ones that actually make some benefits in France.
- You can pretty much find everything you want.

Cons:
- Overall, the city knows high unemployement and criminality rates. It's not the Bronx, but last time I checked, the unemployement rate was around 12%, and you can quickly feel unsecure in some places.
- Lot of homeless people, which probably doesn't help with the criminality issue.
- There's no real 'Montpellierains'. People study or get a job there, then they move on to another place. You won't find many people claiming with pride that they're from Montpellier, because well, we don't really care, we live/study/work here, and that's about it. Not really sure it's a con though. I'm not really fan of chauvinistic 'My town is so awesome' discussions.

Where I live and study now, up till April:

Sudbury (Ontario):

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Pros:
- People are really friendly there. Much more than in France. And the fact I'm French grants me instant popularity among Franco-Ontarians.
- The Campus is really nice. My students residence is ten times better than anything you could find in France.
- Landscape (might be) awesome, especially in summer.
- The whole English/French billingualism is awesome. You can speak french with some dude and then switch to (broken) english with another guy.

Cons:
- Actually, the city itself is fugly. The whole downtown looks like a French highway stop. It gets worse with snow (from late september to late march), because the snow turns black wsith the pollution.
-Don't be fooled by the two first pictures. The area is not some preserved landscape: lakes are polluted, and so is the soil, thanks to the mining companies. From what I've been told, the whole area looked like a lunar landscape in the 70's, and all the forests and what not have been created since then. And wherever you go, you can see the huge chimney (sp?) seen in pic #3, endlessly releasing smoke in the sky (note that the chimney is that high so the smoke doesn't end up polluting Canada but the US).
- Kind of a redneckish area. Anti-abortion (or 'pro-life') advertising are common. Culture on the other hand, is not.
- The city is huge. Only 150K inhabitants, but its so spread out that doing anything takes hours. It's made even worse by the poor public transport system.
- People are so antiamerican, they make us french look like beginners in that department. And the pointless nationalism is sometimes annoying ('Oh yeah, we in Canada have the best healthcare system EVER!' 'You mean, like, outside of Western Europe right?', or 'Our beer is the best ******* beer in the world' and other 'Tim Horton's is teh awesome')

[rasoforos]

Where I live:

Athens <-- Population about 5 million. Capital of Greece

-Pros

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

-Cons

The rest














Where I come from:

Thessaloniki <-- Second largest city in Greece. Population 1.2 million.


-Pros






-Nice town by the Aegean.
-Maybe the best cuisine in Greece.
-Good nightlife.
-Quite nice people.
-Amazing sea resorts are a stone's throw away.
-Great museums and monuments. Great history.
-Aris Basketball Club


- Cons

-Government investment is nonexistent (all the money goes to Athens)
-Traffic problems (our metro is under planing/construction for 20 years now. See above)





I have also lived in: Hull (3 years), Lancaster(1 year), London (1 year) and Nottingham (1.5 year) England, and they all have a special place in my heart.

[gaijinalways]

Tokyo, Japan (going on 12 years this June)

Pros

Great transport, you can actually often set your watch by the trains and subways

Lots of restaurants, quite a few of them good ones

available work in the educational field, though it is getting tougher, good income possibilities in IT and education

Cons

expensive groceries

small houses/apartments

a tough language to learn (coming from English as a first language)

people who are a bit insular

not much green, only 18% is open areas such as parks, etc..

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

[B]Sudbury (Ontario)

- Kind of a redneckish area. Anti-abortion (or 'pro-life') advertising are common. Culture on the other hand, is not.

Sudbury hasn't elected a Conservative MP since what, 1949? The current MP is in the NDP, if I recall correctly.

EDIT: Then again, I'm not surprised. The areas that vote for the NDP tend to be...well, look at the ridings they win yourself. I'd rather not explain.

- People are so antiamerican, they make us french look like beginners in that department. And the pointless nationalism is sometimes annoying ('Oh yeah, we in Canada have the best healthcare system EVER!' 'You mean, like, outside of Western Europe right?', or 'Our beer is the best ******* beer in the world' and other 'Tim Horton's is teh awesome')

If there was one thing that always frustrated me in Canada, it was that.

On the pro side, if you're in Sudbury, you're [on a relative basis] not far away from a nicer place, like Muskoka.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Where I was born, and where I've lived for most of my life :

[B]Montpellier (France).

I thought you were from Toulouse?

[Meneldil]

Sudbury hasn't elected a Conservative MP since what, 1949? The current MP is in the NDP, if I recall correctly.

EDIT: Then again, I'm not surprised. The areas that vote for the NDP tend to be...well, look at the ridings they win yourself. I'd rather not explain.

Yeah, people I meet are usually somewhat well-educated, progressive and liberals, but that's only because I hang out with other students and their parents.
When you go out and wander around in Downtown, Sudbury sure feels redneckish, with its churches everywhere, and its people. Most people are poorly dressed, drive truck, go to the Church. And everybody seems sad.

On the pro side, if you're in Sudbury, you're [on a relative basis] not far away from a nicer place, like Muskoka.

Never been there, but happilly, Sudbury is not far from all the big cities in Ontario, aswell as Niagara and Quebec. Never went farther North or West though.

I thought you were from Toulouse?

You thought wrong old pal :p