I’m still thinking about moving, and right now the two places I’m looking at are the San Francisco bay area and Austin. It’s very telling that the goals of people in DC, SFO, and Austin are very different, as collected on the website 43 Things:
Top goals
- Washington: be admired
- San Francisco: practice discardia
- Austin: go kayaking
I think I’m leaning toward Austin now.
(P.S.: my friend Sara, who lives in Austin, sings a song called “Kayaking”, but it’s a reference to a wet activity a little more intimate.)
When I made the decision to leave Alaska, like you I made a list of cities that I might like. My list was Denver, San Francisco, Honolulu and Seattle. Over the course of the next year I spent a week in each. Not a week of vacation but more a week of research, I looked at, Housing, Jobs, Cost of living, Nightlife and a whole list of things that appealed to me. I wanted to live “in the city” not the burbs so SF and Honolulu got cut right away due to high cost of housing. I liked Denver but loved Seattle. (Denver’s winters are too harsh) And here I am!
Take your time, read the local papers. A bit of research now will pay dividends in the long run.
I’m surprised DC is ‘be admired;’ more like be envied or even feared. This is the city where people ask “what do you do?” when they really want to know how influential and wealthy you are. The ideal answer for those people is, of course “I work on the Hill.”
I wish I could afford to move to SF.