If you could live anywhere in the continental US, where would you live?

[Blimpie]

Georgetown, KY, which is where I hope to teach/coach after taking retirement in TN in a few years. Georgetown is a scenic place and would allow me to see many more UK basketball games and Reds baseball games.

Georgetown College is a fantastic school, as well.

[PedroBourbon]

Georgetown, KY, which is where I hope to teach/coach after taking retirement in TN in a few years. Georgetown is a scenic place and would allow me to see many more UK basketball games and Reds baseball games.

Look forward to having a fellow Reds fan here in Georgetown, KY. Look me up if you need anything for your move. Good Luck

[M2]

If I could live anywhere in the U.S., I'd have a few houses located around the country.

I actually live in the place I like best. Boston's a dynamite city. It's an expensive place for housing, but it's managed to keep me happy since the mid-1980s.

That said, I could easily live in Manhattan (possibly Brooklyn too) or Chicago. San Francisco, Portland and San Diego all strike me as places where I could live. I hear good things about Minneapolis.

I'm inclined toward city living so my criteria tend to be based on things like good urban residential neighborhoods, large stretches of the city you can walk through, public transportation, diverse culture.

I could live by the ocean (mid-Atlantic) from April-October, but I'd need to go somewhere else the other six months of the year.

[Ltlabner]

If given the option I'd likely move to the Gulf Coast of Mississippi as we have a large extended family there (the wifes) and I like the weather other than the hurricane problem, obviously.

But these days, I'm more and more interested in a compound somewhere like Montana and Idaho. If it weren't for the snow/cold I could dig on rural living and the smaller cities. Central Kentucky is beautiful also. Somewhere were I could afford 50 or 100 acres and a moderate sized home. "Compound" might be a tad overboard, but something were I can't actually see my neighbors would be good.

Then again, I'd love to check out Memphis, Nashville or Savanah so I don't want total isolation.

I don't dislike Cincinnati, I'm just not particularly in love with it either. It's a very nice town IMO and offers a lot for being a smaller big city. But nothings really holding me here.

[Kingspoint]

Distinct, yet moderate seasons. June-September has to be the best weather in the US....temp in the 80's...no humidity...green all through. Winters are rainy...but still have decent temperature to golf, bike, etc.

Cost of living is a HUGE plus.

Traffic....not so much.

Culture...fantastic. Arts, music scene, Zoo.

2009 World Champion Portland Trailblazers

Food....wow! Most James Beard award winning chefs in the US. Crazy cool food scene, and most very reasonably priced. (A shout out to LePigeon for those who haven't tried it!)

Neighborhoods. Portland is made up of dozens of 'community based' neighborhoods that bring a very small town feel to different pockets in the city.

Low crime rates.

Fantastic public transportation. Fantastic.

Best airport in the US.

Sustainable mindset. People get it...not so much in the tree hugging way, but in the responsible lifestyle way.

Clean air. Lots of it.

Good people. Yes, lots of freaks, but overall...people pretty genuine.

Urban coolness. Very hip downtown scene.....Pearl, Northwest, Waterfront, Lloyd.

and.....

did I mention...the most breweries per capita in the US!!!

....and Portland's "Rain" stopped about 25 years ago. The amount of rain now is minimal compared to what it used to get. Along with the rain, it used to be foggy in the morning about 90 days a year, mostly in the Winter, but it's not foggy for more than maybe 5 days a year now, at the most.

It rarely, if ever snows, and if it does, it's only 1/2 an inch or so. 40 years ago and beyond it used to snow a couple of feet every year.

All of this weather change comes from the amount of heat that is pushed up into the air from Portland's automobiles, industries, and people. There are 1 Million people in the Portland Metropolitan Community, which Vancouver is a part of.

The best comparison I've seen of the "current" Portland is one written by a famous New York author who lived in Greenwich Village in the 40's, and he saw it as very similar to that place and that time, full of artists, and dozens upon dozens of little pockets of diversity. For those who like that, that's the attraction that Portland is today.

[westofyou]

...and Portland's "Rain" stopped about 25 years ago. The amount of rain now is minimal compared to what it used to get.

Yet there is still stuff stuff around my house that is covered with moss 365 days a year. Sure it's not Astoria when it comes to rain, but it's still damp around here 9 months of the year.

But all this knowledge begs the question?

Have you ever lived in PDX?

[nate]

I grew up in Ohio and still live there. I've also lived in Kentucky and Colorado. I've also seem this entire country over the last year, top to bottom and coast to coast. I've been in a lot of cities that have a lot to offer and a lot that I wouldn't care to ever go near again.

There are really only two things that would get me to move away from Cincinnati. Either a proximity to the ocean or mountains. There are parts of Texas I like, but with apologies to the Texans here, it's just too darn hot in the summer. I like parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota, but I don't think I'd take kindly to the winters. I lived in Colorado Springs for a few months in 2001, but I wasn't making that much money back then and we moved back to Cincinnati because of the cost of living.

With all that said, I guess I'm pretty happy where I am, when I get to see it. The only thing I want is a more rural setting with a few acres and a log home. Ohio suits me just fine as far as that goes. With my line of work, I get to see the mountains and the ocean quite a bit, and when I do west coast runs, sometimes both at the same time. As I expand my company, it would benefit me to be near the major freight lanes. The midwest is the place to be and Cincinnati is a prime location.

I don't know what the big beef is against Ohio except maybe that it's human nature to want what you don't have. When I see the scenery out west or see the ocean it's easy to say, "I wish we had this at home.", but after wandering through all those places, home is a darn good place to return to. When I was younger I longed to go somewhere "interesting" but now I take more comfort in what I know. If I can get about ten acres in the country about an hour or two from Cincinnati, that will suit me just fine. The mountains and the ocean aren't going anywhere, so I can always visit whenever I want.

Except for the ocean part, that screams "Nashville," ORH!

[Kingspoint]

Yet there is still stuff stuff around my house that is covered with moss 365 days a year. Sure it's not Astoria when it comes to rain, but it's still damp around here 9 months of the year.

But all this knowledge begs the question?

Have you ever lived in PDX?

So, with that knowledge, triple the amount of rain that you've seen over the last 20 years and you'll understand what it used to be like for centuries and why Portland it's reputation for rain. It would literally rain every day for over a month, and not that disgusting drizzle that you would get in Seattle, but rain, as the sun never shown during the month. It kept people from living there. It's been very mild for the last 30 years, as far as rain is concerned.

I'd rather live in the Rogue River Valley, though as it's hot in the Summer and cold in the Winter, and the air is much fresher. About 35 years ago, the smog in Portland reached a point to where it wasn't real pleasant. Before that, every day, if you drove South from Portland to Salem, you could see the Coast Range crystal clear. Now you struggle to see the Cascade Range at times. I remember flying from San Francisco to Portland in a Cessna in 1979 and the sky was clear as could be until you started approaching Medford as there was an orange cloud that hovered over it. Then you went past that and it was crystal clear again until you were at about Eugene. From there what you saw was a giant orange cloud that stretched from the tip of Mt. Hood to the coast range and from Salem to North of Vancouver. This giant orange cloud of 70 miles by 70 miles has sat there every day for the last 35 years, though now it's a cleaner cloud as automobile emissions are 100 times better than what they were and factory emissions are 1000 times better than what they were. Go on the other side of Mt. Hood to Hood River, and you have air that's clean as can be. That is a great place to live, but you need a way to employ yourself unless you want to drive to Portland back and forth every day (many do), but you better own a Subaru. Here's one for you WestofYou. The name of the rapids in front of, "The Dalles", was called, "The Dalles of the Dead" after 1838. The first Jesuit priests to go to Oregon named it that after losing 12 people from ther party of 26 while traversing the rapids on barges (large canoes) bound for Fort Vancouver.

[westofyou]

So, with that knowledge, triple the amount of rain that you've seen over the last 20 years and you'll understand what it used to be like for centuries and why Portland it's reputation for rain. It would literally rain every day for over a month, and not that disgusting drizzle that you would get in Seattle, but rain, as the sun never shown during the month. It kept people from living there. It's been very mild for the last 30 years, as far as rain is concerned.

Now you're just telling tall tales, this doesn't have the last ten years in it but it was not 3 time wetter here 30 years ago, now go towards the coast and that's a different story.

http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/pqr/pdxclimate/PG65.html

I can tell you that since 1900 the temperature in the PNW has increased 15%, and 2004 was an El Nino winter and the 5th driest in 60 years.

I'll take that any day.

BTW I believe a lot of that air pollution comes from China too, their crap is affecting the weather something awful too.

Speaking of 1979... I remember the air in the East Bay being ten times better back then and being able to see Mount Diabalo from the City. Now you're lucky if you can see Memorial Stadium.

[SunDeck]

.

Aiken?

I don't get it either- my parents know a bunch of retirees down at Pawleys who came from Aiken.

[Kingspoint]

Now you're just telling tall tales, this doesn't have the last ten years in it but it was not 3 time wetter here 30 years ago, now go towards the coast and that's a different story.

http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/pqr/pdxclimate/PG65.html

I can tell you that since 1900 the temperature in the PNW has increased 15%, and 2004 was an El Nino winter and the 5th driest in 60 years.

I'll take that any day.

BTW I believe a lot of that air pollution comes from China too, their crap is affecting the weather something awful too.

Speaking of 1979... I remember the air in the East Bay being ten times better back then and being able to see Mount Diabalo from the City. Now you're lucky if you can see Memorial Stadium.

There was this spot I lived at in Walnut Creek which was really cool. I'm sure you know the place. It was right south to what is currently the Walnut Creek Bart station, just off Ygnacio Valley Drive.

This spot was the vector in the V-shaped hills that surround Walnut Creek. There would only be rain for 2 weeks out of the year, where Concord, just a few miles to the North and East would get quite a bit more rain. As the clouds hit the hills they would get pushed to both sides of where I lived. It was awesome. You could play softball 12 months out of the year.

[westofyou]

There was this spot I lived at in Walnut Creek which was really cool. I'm sure you know the place. It was right south to what is currently the Walnut Creek Bart station, just off Ygnacio Valley Drive.

This spot was the vector in the V-shaped hills that surround Walnut Creek. There would only be rain for 2 weeks out of the year, where Concord, just a few miles to the North and East would get quite a bit more rain. As the clouds hit the hills they would get pushed to both sides of where I lived. It was awesome. You could play softball 12 months out of the year.

I delivered auto parts for a company in WC in 1982, made $4.00 and hour and could still rent an apartment and go to JC which cost exactly $50 a semester.

Can't do that anymore.

[Kingspoint]

Now you're just telling tall tales, this doesn't have the last ten years in it but it was not 3 time wetter here 30 years ago, now go towards the coast and that's a different story.

http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/pqr/pdxclimate/PG65.html

Nice chart...nice find. It does support what I said, though, to a degree. It's not 3 times though as you say I said, but 40 inches a year instead of 32 inches a year makes a huge difference, especially when the 8 extra inches are spead out over the 3 rainy months of November through January. Three extra inches of rain for 3 straight months is an awful lot of rain. It fills in the gaps of the days when it wasn't raining. Those Nov-Jan months produced from 1/2 to 3/4ths of the Annual Rainfall, so during those three months, when it used to rain nearly every day, then it seemed like it was raining 3 times as often as it does now when it's only raining 10 days out of the month instead of 30. I had mentioned that it started about 30 years ago before you gave me the chart to look it up. It was 1976 when it began to get really mild as far as precipitation is concerned.

If you look at the 3 months of Nov-Jan of the Winter of '73-'74, it rained 30 inches over those three months. Exactly 20 years later in the Winter of '93-'94 during Nov-Dec, it rained only 10 inches over those three months. So, the 3 times as much wasn't really a tall tale. That's actually what happened. It hits really hard when the days are short to begin with in the Winter and you combine that with never seeing the Sun for three months, and everything's wet every day, wherever you go, then the Winters of the last 30 years with the exception of the "El Nino" you spoke of over the Winters of '95-'96 to '98-'99 are gloomy to go through. You certainly felt four of them. Imagine feeling 24 of them.

For 10-year rolling periods starting in 1875, here's the avg rainfall for Portland:

'76-'85......52.9"
'86-'95......39.4"
'96-'05......40.9"
'06-'15......39.4"
'16-'25......38.2"
'26-'35......38.6"
'36-'45......37.6"
'46-'55......40.3"
'56-'65......35.6"
'66-'75......39.4"
'76-'85......33.7"
'86-'94......32.0"

The El Nino:
'95-'98......49.1"

There's no more data available after that, but it's the same as it was from '76-'94. There's definitely been a Major change to the climate. Not only is there less rain, but it's less Cold, too. This year, they certainly had their share of rain as the snowpacks were back to the 200"+ levels that they usually were back before 1975.

[Kingspoint]

I delivered auto parts for a company in WC in 1982, made $4.00 and hour and could still rent an apartment and go to JC which cost exactly $50 a semester.

Can't do that anymore.

In '83 I was working as a Computer Operater for a company, A. Cesana & Assoc. on Ygnacio Valley Road in WC. I printed payroll checks for companies like Motorola and stuff. My girlfriend was going to DVC, and then I went to work for B of A and Marie Callendar's (at the same time), then went dancing at night.....to have that kind of energy again. I loved it there. I managed a softball team (instead of playing), and never touched an American Beer once in the years I was in California....only imports. Didn't have the microbrews, yet. My favorite thing to do was to skip work and go to an afternoon ballgame of the A's or the Giants. Saw opening day for both the A's (Canseco) and Giants (Will Clark) in '83. Clark homered off of Nolan Ryan. They were called businessman's specials for a reason.

[Redhook]

Portland. Definitely. I've been to 42 of the 50 states and Portland is easily my favorite place. I love it there.