Oh...you are f-ed. Especially if you are not from the area because the 405 goes through some rough areas. You'd be like when Clark Griswold got off the freeway in East St. Louis. There was one time that it was just me and my daughter (she was three or 4 at the time) leaving Bakersfield for LAX. Gave myself 7 hours to make a 95 mile trip. We hit brutal stop-and-go traffic at Magic Mountain and she had the go potty...ended up pitting somewhere around Glendale or Burbank at a Taco Bell that I was praying didn't have a methhead showering in the bathroom.
In Boston on the way to Logan we were unexpectedly stuck in traffic for hours and my wife may or may not have peed on the seats in the car.
I do like San Antonio quite a bit as well. I don’t know about better than Austin though especially since I’m usually there for the Moontower Comedy Festival or SxSW. But I can plow through some fluffy tacos (Pun intended).
I’m also a fan of some of the smaller towns like Fredericksburg, Amarillo, Marfa etc...
Call me a hater but I thought San Antonio was lame. The whole "river walk" was a huge disappointment when I found out it wasn't a river at all but just a lazy river. Alamo was underwhelming. Best thing we did was sea world. Just not my bag.
Yeah.....some problems with your post:
1. Chicago’s homicide rate isn’t even in the top-15 of American cities.
2. Homicides that do occur in Chicago are overwhelmingly confined to specific areas in the city.
3. People attending Cubs games don’t go to those areas.
I have spent a couple of stretches in NYC and as far as I am concerned, it is the best place in the country for living.
You have to love living on the run with breaks in Irish Pubs, and various other eateries, An appreciation for Broadway, the Symphony, and Opera will lead you to things (and more of them) that can only be had in NYC.
Mostly though, you just feel to be part of everything ... shopping for a few grocery items with Kareem, bumping into the mayor on the street, dining with (or a table or two away from) the Mondales, the Trump ex-wives, watching Spiderman order a Latte at Starbucks on his way to the set, and on and on. ... meeting your date at the side door to the theater and having people come up and ask her to sign their programs ... having drinks with an 80 year old "Trixie" from the "Honeymooners" at the bar in Sardi's ... running into the author of the book you have just read at your neighborhood bar. Watching "Law and Order" and seeing your building address pop up on the screen announcing where the boys are going to investigate, or having your bartender tell you about opening a taxi door for Sarah Jessica Parker in a scene on "Sex and the City ... and then watching every episode until you see him in his three second television debut.
This kind of stuff happens constantly;' the place is a giant adventure.
It is a state of mind that is ever so unique.
The only real negative is that you never really have much space; no three-car garages, no ski-boats, no place to restore your old Volvo or to keep your horses. Otherwise, it is the perfect place to live.
You have to love living on the run with breaks in Irish Pubs, and various other eateries, An appreciation for Broadway, the Symphony, and Opera will lead you to things (and more of them) that can only be had in NYC.
Mostly though, you just feel to be part of everything ... shopping for a few grocery items with Kareem, bumping into the mayor on the street, dining with (or a table or two away from) the Mondales, the Trump ex-wives, watching Spiderman order a Latte at Starbucks on his way to the set, and on and on. ... meeting your date at the side door to the theater and having people come up and ask her to sign their programs ... having drinks with an 80 year old "Trixie" from the "Honeymooners" at the bar in Sardi's ... running into the author of the book you have just read at your neighborhood bar. Watching "Law and Order" and seeing your building address pop up on the screen announcing where the boys are going to investigate, or having your bartender tell you about opening a taxi door for Sarah Jessica Parker in a scene on "Sex and the City ... and then watching every episode until you see him in his three second television debut.
This kind of stuff happens constantly;' the place is a giant adventure.
It is a state of mind that is ever so unique.
The only real negative is that you never really have much space; no three-car garages, no ski-boats, no place to restore your old Volvo or to keep your horses. Otherwise, it is the perfect place to live.
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That was an everyday occurrence the times I was there but it's been quite a while.
your post takes me back coz i took the same trips but in summer though with exactly same results.
wifey and I went on a summer trip about ten years ago and did Taste of Chicago, among other things. Such a great city!
Need to look at Metro area for true top 5.
I personally loved New York. It was unlike any big city I have been in my life. The museums, Broadway, Central Park, the food, the number of skyscrapers , the ethnic communities, the food, the hipster neighborhoods, Time Square, the food, the international mix of people, the 9/11 memorial, the food, the Subway, the rooftop water towers, the food, and the feeling that every damn place you looked reminded you of a movie / TV show set in New York.....except it was real.
I personally loved New York. It was unlike any big city I have been in my life. The museums, Broadway, Central Park, the food, the number of skyscrapers , the ethnic communities, the food, the hipster neighborhoods, Time Square, the food, the international mix of people, the 9/11 memorial, the food, the Subway, the rooftop water towers, the food, and the feeling that every damn place you looked reminded you of a movie / TV show set in New York.....except it was real.
| 1 | New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA | 19,567,410 | 19,979,477 | 2.1 |
| 2 | Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | 12,828,837 | 13,291,486 | 3.6 |
| 3 | Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI | 9,461,105 | 9,498,716 | 0.4 |
| 4 | Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX | 6,426,214 | 7,539,711 | 17.3 |
| 5 | Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD | 5,965,343 | 6,096,372 | 2.2 |
| 6 | Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX | 5,920,416 | 6,997,384 | 18.2 |
| 7 | Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | 5,636,232 | 6,249,950 | 10.9 |
| 8 | Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL | 5,564,635 | 6,198,782 | 11.4 |
| 9 | Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA | 5,286,728 | 5,949,951 | 12.5 |
| 10 | Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | 4,552,402 | 4,875,390 | 7.1 |
| 11 | San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA | 4,335,391 | 4,729,484 | 9.1 |
| 12 | Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI | 4,296,250 | 4,326,442 | 0.7 |
| 13 | Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA | 4,224,851 | 4,622,361 | 9.4 |
| 14 | Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ | 4,192,887 | 4,857,962 | 15.9 |
| 15 | Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | 3,439,809 | 3,939,363 |
Okay, let me rephrase: In Boston, on the way to Logan, we were stuck in unexpectedly bad traffic (i.e., worse than it usually is due to several accidents) for hours (it usually does not take hours to get from Bedford/Concord/Lexington to Logan) and my wife may or may not have peed on the seats in the car.
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anon_ddojbbh8q7xrt
Guest
the roughest part of the North side is maybe Rogers Park. However LoyolaU is located there. I seriously doubt 15,000 rich white jesuit kids would attend school and live there if they feared being murdered every single day
its sheltered Iowa people like that guy who refuse to cross the Mississippi because of fear someone will steal their fossil watch or car jack their chevy minivan
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anon_ddojbbh8q7xrt
Guest
no you dont need to look at metro area. When one thinks of chicago they are not referring to Naperville. Besides being an hour away there isn’t anything remotely chicago about Naperville. There is a Naperville clone in every state near every major city. Naperville has no culture, surely no chicago culture
Yeah you do when someone has Phoenix listed as fifth biggest city in US in a poll. It’s really not. The offerings of the core of biggest city often depend on how high the metro area population is that it supports. And, Chicago is still basically same spot so not sure what your point is either.
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anon_ddojbbh8q7xrt
Guest
that makes absolutely no sense at all.
When someones says hey babe we have to go to chicago next summer during the 4th of July. BRO THEY ARE NOT REFERRING TO NAPERVILLE
You are being dense “bro”. One more time, I am not talking visiting the surrounding metro area cities but if the poll topic was of the five largest cities population in US, you need to talk about cities with true largest metro populations. That surrounding population is what makes the main city, and all it offers, unique and special. Which is why Phoenix looks so odd in the poll over larger places like Boston, Atlanta, Miami, Dallas, San Francisco etc.
When we moved to the Seattle area for a few years I was bracing for the crappy fall/winter rainy weather. I was pleasantly surprised because I knew it would rain most days, but much of it is just periodic light rain drizzle and it's not that cold so you just need a jacket to go out and do the stuff you want to do. And then spring began at the end of February. And then summer was mostly 75-80 with low humidity and cool nights. Great city, with the waterfront being renovated with the removal of the viaduct, and the mountains (<1 hour) and coast (2.5 hours) at your doorstep.
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anon_ddojbbh8q7xrt
Guest
Dude are you slow. This thread is about the ones favorite top 5 cities. Being that nearly all of us have only lived in 2-4 cities in our lives, clearly this entire thread is about VISITING cities
FFS
Wow -have you recently had Covid-19, your brain has aged. Yes, I do know this is about visiting, guess you forgot the original post you quoted. My original point was that, and I will talk slowly, This. Thread. Is. Actually. A. Poll. Poll listed five choices based on populations. Phoenix really is not a good fit for that list. Most people already can see this and others in thread have said the same. That’s all. That’s the point. You can like any city you want buddy.
I was lucky enough to go to the Final 4 in Seattle when a rich friend's brother decided not to go and they took me in his stead. It was the one Michigan won and involved the Flying Illini. My memory of the weather is that it lightly rained and then got sunny again about 10 times per day. Everything was just green and lush. As an aside, one day we got to see them throw fish down at the market which was an interesting experience. csb.
