Arkport, NY - While visiting New York to see family and friends has been fantastic, the fact that the weather is cold before the end of September is reminding me why warm weather is the first and most important requirement for where to live.
Previously on: The City Bachelor
I am a few months in with my new job working fully remotely (content editor for hospice consulting agency).
I removed (sold/donated/trashed) over half of my belongings, and moved the remaining boxes to the closet at my dad's place. No more bed, furniture, etc.
While visiting friends/family who have wanted me to visit them and/or want me to dog/house sit for them, I have guest rooms to stay in through end of January 2024, and am traveling around with the belongings that fit in my car.
Starting February 2024, I will be able to use the money that I have saved on rent to visit/test various cities for a few months and make a decision after those visits.
In Episode 1, we tracked the process to get to 15 potential cities, represented by this spreadsheet:
As of today, 9/24/23, over half of these will be eliminated. Read on to see the process!
Hello everyone!
After looking at climate, cost of living, population, etc. I had to come up with the next way to narrow these cities down. I consider myself a positive, "I look for the best in people" person, so I figured that judging these cities on the best that they have to offer would be a good way to do it. Conveniently, there are many YouTube videos of each city of various realtors commenting on the main pros/cons of each city, as well as websites like BestPlaces.Net that provide summaries of these cities (typically focusing on the best qualities of each).
Here is my breakdown of the 5 biggest pros of each city. I've ranked each pro best to worst for each city with some thoughts when needed:
Asheville, NC - My "control group". Any city that falls below Asheville will be eliminated.
Friends are close - obviously the #1 pro. I already have a community of friends in Asheville.
Mountains
Food
Art
Location - This being listed as a pro isn't really a pro for me (and you'll see this listed for quite a few cities). When a city brags about being in a good location to visit other cities, it is essentially saying "I'm not that great, but I'm close to a place that is great!"
Richmond, VA
Outdoors - The #1 selling point for Richmond is the river that runs through the city providing opportunities for recreation in the water.
Food/Entertainment - Always good to see a city that is known for great food and recreational opportunities.
Education - This is obviously a pro intended more for families, but good education in a city is certainly an indicator of quality of life in that city.
Location - Here it is again. When a place says "we're close to the beach!" it makes me think that I just want to live in the place where the beach actually is.
Cost of Living - This being listed as a top pro (when I've done the research to show that the cost of living is actually worse than Asheville) is actually a con.
Virginia Beach, VA
Beaches - The #1 pro that could be listed for any city. You'll see later on the spreadsheet that having beaches is the only pro that gets a "fantastic" grade from me.
Outdoors - Having a good location for outdoor activities outside of the beaches is certainly a plus as well.
Festivals/Events - Recreational opportunities always a plus.
Family Friendly - More geared towards families obviously, but when I went to Asheville, I ended up being there for the majority of my 20s. If the next place I go to is my home for the majority of my 30s, it is conceivable to think that I may start a family while I'm there.
Military Presence - This listed as a pro does nothing for me. Completely neutral, maybe even a con if I worry about being targeted during wartime.
Raleigh, NC
Friends are close - Having childhood friends in the area is nice, I actually visited recently and it was great to see everyone.
The Triangle - The area between the three renowned NC universities: Duke, UNC, NC State. Resulting positives are a high density of young adults, sporting events, and the next pro:
Job Market - Listed as a great location due to the employment opportunities. A good safety net if I ever find myself unemployed.
Family Friendly
Location - "We're close to the beach!" ...but you don't have the beach yourself.
Durham, NC - basically the same pros as Raleigh, but a few key differences.
Friends are close
Outdoor recreation - listed as better than Raleigh
Downtown - Not having been there myself, I don't know if it is any better than Raleigh, but also anytime I mention Durham to anyone of 50+ years of age their eyes get wide and they lament about the crime.
Job Market
Cost of Living - Pretty comparative to Asheville, so I'm indifferent to this being listed as a pro.
Greensboro, NC
Cost of Living - They listed as a pro and this is indeed true based on my research.
Diversity - Typically also means better food in the area as well so I consider this a pro.
Education
ACC Basketball - Greensboro putting this as a top 5 pro while it is not actually that close to the Raleigh area has me turning my head
Golf - This shows up a few times today so I'll say this once: the fact that golf is considered one of your biggest pros is a red flag to me. One of the most boring sports of all time that also has a pretentious dress code does nothing for me whatsoever. Negative points for Greensboro.
Fayetteville, NC
Food
Beer - Neutral for me, I lived in Asheville with a better beer scene and although hanging out a breweries with friends is nice, it doesn't really move the needle either way for me.
Location - "We're not the place that is super cool, but we're close to one!"
Patriotism - I don't consider patriotism to be a bad thing, but how does this make daily life any better? If the large amount of American flags waving around is one of your top five pros, you've got to work on developing some more interesting qualities.
Golf
High Point, NC
Outdoors
Cost of Living
Location
Baseball/Golf
Furniture Hub - Okay so I knew nothing about High Point before doing this whole exercise and it fit the initial criteria according to the data. But do I really want to live in a city that is most well known for having a big furniture industry??
Winston-Salem, NC
Cost of Living
Hiking
Wine Tasting
Location
Nice People - I put this as a negative. You really can't come up with anything else, Winston-Salem? I call people "nice" when I don't have anything interesting to say about them.
Wilmington, NC
Beaches!
Downtown
Riverwalk - Traveling to Los Angeles recently confirmed that it is a definite plus having areas that are enjoyable to walk around.
Food
Focus on Local - I'd say Asheville had this as well, the city generally supported local restaurants and businesses rather than the bigger chains which resulted in better food and culture.
Columbia, SC
Outdoors
Cost of Living
Location
College Football - Unfortunately this doesn't do a lot for me. I'm sure I would get into whatever local sports there are but I certainly wouldn't consider myself a big college football SEC fan or anything.
Low Taxes - This is the first city to mention taxes. I guess that's generally a quality about South Carolina, but again when a city says "it's affordable to be here" as one of their best qualities, I'm finding that it is usually because it is a pretty boring area comparatively.
Knoxville, TN
Friends are close
Outdoors/Lakes - I do love boating so mentioning the lakes definitely gets the thumbs up from me.
Location
Low Taxes
Southern Hospitality - Knoxville started off strong but really dropped off at the end. See my above thoughts on "nice people" to get the general gist of what I think about Southern Hospitality.
Charleston, SC - I can confirm that all 5 pros are truly pros having been there myself many times.
Beaches!
Downtown
Harbors/Rivers
Food
Scenic
Augusta, GA
Small Business - I'll interpret this similarly to the "focus on local" from Wilmington earlier. Definitely a good thing, but I worry that this is the best thing that Augusta has to offer...
Nice People - Again, pass...
Golf - Wait, if I've spoken badly about golf and consider it a con, how is it the #3 best part of Augusta?...
Slower Pace - This is actively something that I look to avoid. Why is "boring" one of your pros, Augusta????
Brick Houses - WHAT. THIS IS ONE OF YOUR BEST QUALITIES????? Who cares?? Augusta, you do not get a rose. Eliminated immediately.
Savannah, GA
Beach Adjacent - This is the acceptable version of "location". I've been to Savannah and Tybee Island before, and they are very close to where I'd consider it all part of the Savannah umbrella.
Food
Cost of Living
Baseball - Big focus on the Savannah Bananas, I did enjoy going to baseball games in Asheville so I can confirm I would enjoy them.
History - Pretty indifferent to this.
Atlanta, GA
Pro Sports - Atlanta has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to pro sports. Unfortunately, of the four main major league sports, NHL games are my favorite to attend in person (based off of very limited data). I hear those Falcons concessions prices are a good deal...
Friends are close, trees - Shoutout to my friends in Atlanta who love the amount of trees the city has. Even online it was brought up a few times in my research how green the city is.
Location
Cost of Living
Major City - This is listed as a pro, I don't know if it would be a pro for me though. Just feels a little too big, which I think means that Atlanta is just going to miss out on making it another episode.
The spreadsheet is a little wider now due to adding in the extra columns, but here is where we stand after looking at the top pros for each city. I have ranked them based on their score in today's exercise.
With that, we say good bye to Atlanta, Knoxville, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, High Point, Columbia, Fayetteville, and Augusta. Looking at the data, I notice that the places with more affordable costs of living have less positive pros, which makes sense.
Due to my harsh cutting of half of the cities, I'm quite on track to determine which ones to test out in the spring. I've traveled to Charleston many times and feel like I have a good grasp what it would be like to live there. Due to the proximity, I could check out Durham/Raleigh in the same trip and kill two birds with one stone there. I feel like I could just remove one or two of these seven, and have my plan ready for in-person visits.
What do you think? Should I look at the tops cons of each city next? Let me know your thoughts on the final seven! As always, your time reading this is greatly appreciated.
God bless!
Jeremy Glidden