Cities

[queerbychoice]

The huge glaring problem with FindYourSpot.com is that it only suggests American cities. I'm not sure that I really want to live in any American cities. But here's what it suggested.

1. Portland, Oregon
Population: 1,163,000 | Average Home Price: $182,000 | Precipitation: 36" | Snow: 5"
2. Providence, Rhode Island
Population: 650,000 | Average Home Price: $128,000 | Precipitation: 48" | Snow: 32"
3. New Orleans, Louisiana
Population: 1,310,000 | Average Home Price: $105,000 | Precipitation: 57" | Snow: 0"
4. New Haven, Connecticut
Population: 523,000 | Average Home Price: $198,000 | Precipitation: 43" | Snow: 30"
5. Hartford, Connecticut
Population: 825,000 | Average Home Price: $155,000 | Precipitation: 41" | Snow: 42"

Actually, the main thing I learned from answering these questions is that it doesn't much matter where I live. I never go outside or do anything sociable anyway.

Comments

[redrider.livejournal.com]

and, I would add that New Orleans is a great place to visit, spend several months (or a year, as I just did), have some good times, get in on/start some great queer action, meet really interesting + welocming people, etc. But. It's also a very difficult place to live, lots of economic disparity, race politics are fucked up, police corruption abounds, there's a high crime rate (most people I know there have been mugged or assaulted)and there are many many mosquitoes, rats and big palmetto bugs. I'm glad I lived there, but am also glad I'm out now. Just my $.02 for you. xo a.

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

My best friend lives in New Orleans and has lived there for nearly ten years. He certainly notes its faults (including some things that you named as its advantages - he's quite irritated with the conservatism of the so-called queer community there) but all in all, he seems to like it enough that he doesn't plan to move.

And then, of course, the entire U.S. suffers from lots of economic disparity, fucked up race politics and police corruption.

Still, I don't really think New Orleans is my style. If nothing else, its high alcohol content would drive me up the wall.

[redrider.livejournal.com]

He certainly notes its faults (including some things that you named as its advantages - he's quite irritated with the conservatism of the so-called queer community there) but all in all, he seems to like it enough that he doesn't plan to move.

It does definitely feel like a very traditioanlly gay male kind of place. I knew some people there who were trying to start some queer/gender agitative stuff (and that's what I was trying to do in starting a drag king performance group there), but I can definitely understand your friend's critique + wish I'd met him when I was there.

And, about this:
And then, of course, the entire U.S. suffers from lots of economic disparity, fucked up race politics and police corruption.
I by no means intended to suggest that those things don't exist elsewhere, I just think that in my experience (as someone who's lived most of her life in the homogenous midwest), I got a quick wake-up call when I moved there. It was as if many things that I knew to be true (but hadn't +seen+ or watched in action because of their naturalization all over the U.S.) were suddenly very visible + present in my daily life. Which can be both a good thing + a difficult thing.


And, of course, my evaluation is also biased as I don't drink or drug, and so missed out/elected to refrain from a big part of the New Orleans experience.