How do you feel about the city or town you live in?

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I can't help suspecting that eric76 just punked us with some episodes of "Little House on the Prairie."

Seriously, are you f**king around?

While I was working my very last job, I lived in a "model city" - started in the 1960s. The original developer passed away in the early 2000s, the firm was bought out, things started going where they usually do when that happens, i.e. downhill and rapidly accelerating.

So before I retired I found a place to live in a sort-a kind-a retirement village, well away from there. Lots of retirees around me, but also young families. Affordable so far (touch wood).

I moved out here for peace and quiet to recover from major overwork-burnout and use "working on the house and garden" as occupational therapy. It's niftier than I initially realized. The mid-size town literally 5 minutes away has history and museums and decent restaurants. (Edit in: and ICE CREAM!) It's there if I want it, but it doesn't intrude, and when I head out for groceries etc. I can see mountains. Old, old mountains. Which are just gorgeous when it snows.

And oh, oh, I can watch the day/night terminator sweep across the sky in the evenings, and that is one of the things I love best in the world.

The only things I wish we had here are the aurora borealis and a good view of the Milky Way - I used to live in Oregon, long ago, and I will never forget those.

Last edited by Esmerelda Weatherwax on 25 Oct 2017, 9:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I like it. I like the downtown and the waterfront. The only thing I don't like is all the graffiti.

It would never have crossed my mind to make that up.

^^ Back in the '70s I went out to Rapid City, SD and it was as you describe. Nobody locked anything! And when I was there it was warm during the day, cool at night, and safe 24/7/365.

Oh to have that where I live now. It'd be perfect here, then.

The nearby town, 20 miles away, quickly became my niece's son's favorite place in the world when he was about 9 or 10. In his hometown, he wasn't permitted to leave the yard without an adult present because of the dangers. When my sister came up to visit a few years ago, she brought him (her grandson) with her.

We were sitting in my office talking and he said that he wanted to go to the Dairy Queen. My sister told him it was three blocks down the street and to go ahead. He thought that she misunderstood him and said again that he wanted to go to Dairy Queen. When she said go ahead, he tried again. After that, it started to dawn on him that he didn't need an adult with him to go to the Dairy Queen down the street.

When he got back he was so thrilled to have so much freedom that he felt compelled to describe his trip there in great detail. Then he said that he wanted to go to the park and play. My sister told him to go on. That time, he didn't try again -- he headed out the door and down the street to the park. He never dreamed that such freedom was available.

In comparison, around here you see kids as young as 5 or 6 going to the park by themselves or with a brother or sister a year or two older than themselves.

That'd be me. I've always wanted to go there, nasty underbelly and all.
But I don't like "living" anywhere. I'm nomadic. I start to freak out if I'm "living" somewhere, stuck there, with all the repetitive aggravations that start to come up in place. To me, having to live in a van, boat, caravan etc isn't a bad thing, it's a preference. I'm not fussy, and I don't see the point of luxuries that are unnecessary. Transient or itinerant accommodations of varying types do me fine.

I lived in Las Vegas until I was 13. In a quiet area that was miles of new cookie cutter houses. It got ridiculously hot in the summer. I visited the strip plenty of times. I liked all the lights and fabricated architecture.

It's interesting to say the least. We get massive amounts of snow in the winter and some heat in the summer. We don't get a ton of rain usually. There isn't too much for people to do here, except go to the giant shopping mall that wants to become the biggest in the country. In the summer, we get the state fair and the amusement parks can be fun, but a little overwhelming for someone like me. If you want to go to a concert, you usually have to travel a couple of hours, but they did build a new venue for music, but not a lot of shows come that I personally enjoy.

For the record, I live in New York State. Near Oswego

The town I live in is by the sea too and although I love the sea the beaches here aren't pristine or stunning, more often they are a tad boggy. I am looking into joining the local yacht club though to learn to sail. Which is exciting. I am lucky to at the moment have support workers helping me a few hours a week so I am going to try to make the most of it by trying new stuff like sailing that I would usually not do so well with on my own (because of really awkward social skills).

I live in the largest town in the UK. We are a 30 minute train ride from London so people dismiss it as a satellite town but we have a great history, some significant stuff has happened here over the centuries and I think it had some great areas to live.

Good old Copenhagen....it gets noisier and noisier, people are getting more pissed off in general - Large-city symptoms.
It´s sad. The historic "feel" in Cph. is diminishing and a lot of its charm has gone, so I choose to roam the more provincial parts in my daily life. They are still there. I live in one of them.

Are people in London more friendly though, once you actually get a chance to talk to them in their busy day (such as in a class or social club)?

I've been here 11 years - a personal record, but only because I'm not renting now. I was apprehensive about the gold-fish bowl aspect of small towns (pop. 1k) but interested in having an affordable, secure electronic cottage just a short walk from a dozen stores. I slowly got over the jitters and met more people, feeling more and more at home for about eight years, but then realized I'd never really fit in, and might easily be abused.
My favourite nature trail has been ruined, and money wasted on a hopeless replacement. Last year, I endured a hellish construction project next door, and it has diverted a seasonal stream across my property. Months of work to fix that on my own seem easier than trying to get justice. Stores have been closing, too, and the in-town prices getting worse. If you didn't go to high school here, you don't rate as human.

From my point of view you've done well to stick it out 11 years. The longest I've ever lived in one place is 14 years and after about 9 years the experience of being there went rapidly downhill.

Well, moving house takes years out of my life, and it's a gamble anyway. I maintain a workshop, which complicates things immensely. Usually, if I feel like moving, I don't know where, and when I choose a place it is due to ignorance of the local history, etc. The longer I stay, the more stores I boycott until there's almost no where to go.
I also live on the 'net, and my social life there was ruined by Facebook and Twitter. Now, I'm torn between moving off-grid to avoid people, or back to a city for some face time with a compatible group, if any.