WANTED: New hometown

Louisville, KY

 

Seattle's all right, but I would never ever want to live there. Try Portland, Ore.

 

I thought Tom Petty didn't have a second username?

 

I lived in Portland for a year. Try Seattle.

Seriously, Portland has its good points and I loved visiting there, but I really didn't like living there. And the climate is only a positive if you're Aquaman.

If you don't mind traffic gridlock, San Diego gets my vote.

 

Interesting lists here. Some good choices, but based on Jones' criteria others that probably have to be relegated to a second tier.

Second tier: Chicago and Minneapolis (but too cold), N.C. Triangle, Charleston, Baltimore/D.C. (also some snow), Austin. All great places to live, but all have drawbacks.

I'd rule out pretty much anything in Florida for the temperate reasons. It's just too insufferable in the summer. And anything north of Tennessee, also for weather reasons. I think you're better off in the South, either east or west.

My plug is, predictably, for my area: Southern California's simply the best place to live in the country. San Diego, I think, has to be at the top of the first tier. It's got everything you want. You'll fall in love with the area.

If you're looking for inspiration, though, let me suggest the I.E. -- Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, Riverside, Corona or Chino Hills can all be great places to live. Weather, of course, is fabulous. Gets pretty hot in the summer, but that's the Southwest for you. That and the traffic are small prices to pay. The "worst" weather you'll have is the rainy season in February ... where the high might be as low as 50 F. Damn. (Right now, by the way, it's 71 F, sunny and with a breeze. Clear skies. Gorgeous.) ... House prices are going down, so you can get something decent for $400,000 now, especially if you stay out of the cookie-cutter neighborhoods. SoCal can be a lot cheaper place to live than you think. ... All of those are close to the ONT airport, which is the best bargain in SoCal for travelers. But none of them are glamorous -- it's kind of gritty once you venture out of those areas, especially once you hit Fontana, Rialto, San Berdoo, etc., which is an interesting experience for a writer.

Anyway, that's my $0.02. Come visit and we'll show you around. You can see for yourself.

 

How about Oxford? If it worked for Faulkner and Grisham, would it work for Jones?

 

I'd recommend Reno.
You're really 15 minutes from Tahoe, give or take, you've got all the gambling your heart can desire, nice summers, not too cold winters, and they're building a new stadium for the AAA baseball team that's moving there soon. The Silver Legacy has to be among my favorite places to visit, too.

 

Except, for the earthquakes, mudslides and wild fires, not a bad place to live, eh?

 

If I could move to the States, I'd pick either Seattle or Albuquerque. Quirky reminded me a lot of Kamloops, B.C., just a little more metropolitan.

Trouble is, I wouldn't know anything about the school systems.

And JR, Calgary used to be a great place to live. It's still pretty good, barring the skyrocketing cost of living. But you're right ... Edmonton sucks.

 

The first two are completely overrated. We get far fewer earthquakes than the South/Midwest gets tornadoes or the East Coast gets hurricanes or the Nor'easters in winter.

If the Big One's going to happen, it's going to happen. But you won't be dodging earthquakes every spring/summer like the Southeast does with tornadoes/hurricanes or blizzards every winter like you do in the Midwest and Northeast. Cali is a far calmer place to live, in terms of weather and/or natural disasters.

The wildfires -- too many of which are human-caused -- were pretty shitty, I'll grant you that.

But hey, if the idea of living in big, bad Earthquake Country makes the rest of y'all nervous, that's OK with me.

 

The airport thing is a problem. Pretty much limits you to the largest cities and their accompanying traffic and housing costs and crime.

Of the places mentioned:

Greenville's got a great little airport and it's nice there, but it fails on Jones' desire to not be overrun by fundamentalist Christians (Bob Jones University ... hey, are they related?)

Charleston's airport is small. It's an awesome town with awesome food and great beaches. But housing is expensive and it's very hot in the summer.

San Diego's airport sucks and housing is expensive, but I think Jones would fall in love with the Ocean Beach section.

Richmond is a really interesting place, but uncomfortably hot and humid in the summer. The airport is third-rate and driving to D.C. can be a bitch.

I might look at the Atlantic City area. Lots of flights. Easy access to NYC and Philly but cheaper than either. Beaches, nightlife, big enough but not too big.

 

Grisham, Baldacci and Howie Long all chose Charlottesville, and have no real roots there.

A friend of the family who is a VP for G.E. has already bought land for his retirement there. Dwayne "Rock" Johnson just bought north of town.

That would kind of be a good rule of thumb for me: who lives there that could live anywhere?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlottesville