Help me choose 4 cities to live next year

[Kneel B4 Zod]

[ QUOTE ]
- We want a good educational system for the kids

[/ QUOTE ]
wait, do you plan on moving your kids to 3 different school systems next year?

[Jurollo]

Seattle
Boston
San Diego
Miami

[lapoker17]

your entire op sounds like it was written about chicago.

[sirio11]

[ QUOTE ]

wait, do you plan on moving your kids to 3 different school systems next year?

[/ QUOTE ]

My kids are 4 and 2

[Hamish McBagpipe]

Top 10 most livable cities. Ranked August 22/07

Economist rankings

Vancouver beats Melbourne for the first time. I live in Toronto but have been to Vancouver for months on end. Probably meets all of your criteria except only has the Vancouver Canucks for sports.

[Xanta]

BC Lions FTW.

Oh yeah, Vancouver is sick nice, was very close to going to school there largely because of the city.

[StevieG]

You should consider Minneapolis, especially if you can do it Sept-November. September because it is a great month to be there, November so you can get a taste of what winter is like there.

Arguably the Twin Cities are hated by nature, but it certainly is not on the too hot side. It suffers from midwest heat and crazy t-storms in the summer, but not bad for the most part.

Also, multi-ethnic pretty much means they have both Nords and Swedes. Not entirely true, but compared to Boston, NYC, D.C., you wil definitely feel like it is northern Europe.

But as for the rest of it - the people seem to match what you have in mind.

There are plenty of museums (and a lot of live theater and music).

Parks a plenty.

Lake Harriet, Lake Calhoun, and Lake of the Isles right in the city, plenty more around.

Don't kid yourself, though, the winters can be brutal. You will want to try a return trip in February sometime to see what it's like to have your eyeballs freeze open.

[Gildwulf]

[ QUOTE ]
My wife and I have this crazy idea and we want to live in 4 different cities next year (about 3 months each).

The idea is to know different environments, so we can choose a city to live after 2009.

Some of the criteria are:

- We want to live near a big metropolitan area (this is not in the middle of Nebraska)

- We prefer a multi-ethnic city (like Toronto)

- We want a good educational system for the kids

- We prefer a progressive city, but still family oriented (Is that possible?), we have liberal views on general, but we really value a community where family values are important.

- We prefer US cities, but maybe Canada is ok; Europe a distant possibility

- Too hot (temperature) is bad, so 100+ cities (Phoenix?) are not eligible; near water is better (lake, river or sea), near forest is also good

- Not outrageously expensive cost of living cities is better, higher than average is ok

- Plenty of parks and museums please

- Cities not hated by mother Nature

- Cities whose citizens are very respectful of the law

- Professional Sports team is a plus [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]


What do you think of this idea? Is 3 months enough?

Maybe it's gonna be just a one year long vacation but we want to give it a try.

Please help and share your experiences

[/ QUOTE ]

Vancouver was just rated the world's most liveable city by the economist intelligence unit, remaining near the top of the list for the 328473289432th year in a row...Toronto is number 5, I think, this year.

Both fit all your criteria. Vancouver is probably the greatest city in North America in terms of what it has to offer (beautiful views, clean air, mountains near by, right by the ocean, a metropolitan area, lots of culture, very multiethnic, great education system, relaxed West Coast mentality, free healthcare for residents) for the standard of living.

Quick question though...so your wife and you have this crazy idea but what do your kids think of this? I know if I was 10 years old and my dad said he wanted to move to four different cities and put me in four different education systems in a year I'd tell him he was an [censored] and lock myself in my room.

I don't think your kids are going to be anywhere long enough to accrue the benefits of a good education system.

edit: bleh someone beat me to the rankings

[bonds]

[ QUOTE ]
You should consider Minneapolis

[/ QUOTE ]

This post is spot on. Minneapolis/St. Paul would be an excellent choice.

I think in your shoes I'd also try either Seattle or Portland, Austin (not in summer) and probably one of the larger cities in North Carolina.

[talentdeficit]

i've lived in like a hojillion major world cities including seattle, san francisco, london (uk), paris, hong kong, singapore, kuala lumpur, colombo (not so major, alright), etc.

vancouver is my home and baring something extraordinary happening will be for the rest of my life