MONEY MAGAZINE has a "Top 300 Places to live" thing that comes out every year. I haven't lived or visited 300 places, but I have moved around quite a bit. I also have done a lot of travelling for my job. Here is the Media World ranking of places to live. I base these opinions on what I have seen, and what locals in each area have told me. Here goes......
If you are considering a move, check out MONEY MAGAZINE'S "COST OF LIVING COMPARITOR" and see if the move will be worth it.
Part of working in TV and Radio involves moving. To make more money and work your way up the ladder often you have to move to another market. Hopefully this list (and definately check out "Money's" list) will help!
I grade the areas with school grades, A, B, C, D, F. I judge on Pay Scale, Scenery, TV / Radio Stations, Night Life, Sports, how friendly the locals are, and weather.
SAN DIEGO, CA
San Diego is the best place that I ever lived. The landscape is beautiful, and the weather is always nice. The locals are fairly friendly, although they don't seem to like people from Arizona (Zonies). The nightlife is good. Pacific Beach has the best beach bars, while "The Gas Lamp District" has great clubs. Tijuana (or "T.J.") is close by, and there are some cool bars for the younger set there. Housing costs and rent are a bit pricey, but not as high as NY, and the rate of pay is slightly lower than it should be. Mexican food is everywhere, and mmmmmm it is good! Other restaraunts in the area are good too, except for Chinese Food which is aweful here! L.A. is only a couple of hours away, and Las Vegas is a six hour drive too. There's the Padres and Chargers for sports, but no NBA. The TV stations are above average in quality, but pay lower than average wages. Radio pays the norm here, and stations in 'Diego are pretty good. Check out 91X, a commercial "alternative" station on the left side of the dial. They can get away with this because their tower is in Mexico. For endless good weather, great beaches and a good night life...you can't top San Diego!
LONG BEACH, NEW YORK
Long Beach is located about 20 miles from Manhattan, and has access to the city via the Long Island Rail Road. This means that you can live on the beach and work in NYC, the highest wage paying place in the country, and the highest priced! Long Beach is a barrier island that is less than 1/4 mile wide, giving all its residents the ability to walk to the beach. The best side of the island to live on is what is called "The West End". The West End is a hard core Irish community, and the people that live there are real friendly. The eastern side of the island is a mixture of freaky hisidics and the "bad" part of town, so no need to venture east. There is a ton of cool pubs all walking distance, and big dance places are only a five minute drive. The houses are close together, city style- but in NY thats a good thing. Little property means cheap property taxes! The rents are less than NYC and many surrounding areas, and you can buy a small house a stones throw from either the Bay or the ocean for around 129K. The bad thing is that people from inland areas pile into Long Beach to get drunk and use the Beaches during Summer months. This makes the area annoyingly overcrowded and full of not-so-friendly NYC types. Radio stations from NYC, Long Island, CT and NJ all come in, and NYC has the best TV stations in the country. Sports offers the top teams close by, Yankees, Mets, Jets, Giants, Rangers, Islanders, Knicks, Saints, etc. The beaches are wide and have great surf, and there is a five mile long boardwalk that runs the length of the ocean as you go east. There is always a cool breeze in the Summer, and in the Winter the Ocean temperates the weather, so it's not as cold as inland areas. My biggest complaints about Long Beach are the lack of parking availability, obnoxious city people in the Summer, and the lack of nice restaraunts (but the pubs do have good food!) but that's really it.
NEW ORLEANS, L.A.
Wow, what a good time! The city offers an incredible night life if you appreciate live music. Bourban Street was just amazing. The food here is the best in the country too. There are plenty of things to do in New Orleans. You can catch a Saints game at the "Superdome", go on a riverboat cruise, go to a great aquarium, gamble (a few towns away), catch an incredible live band, or eat 'till you bust! The city itself has a high crime rate, and attracts a lot of scammers on the streets. The pay scale is average, but the cost of living is fairly reasonable. The TV stations are decent, and have a local flair to them. The radio stations surprisingly weren't very good. A lot of mainstream urban type stuff that you hear around other cities. The great music that you hear in the streets wasn't well represented on the radio. The 'burbs that I saw were pretty nasty, so you have to really be careful where you go. My guess is that you have to spend some cash to live in the city or an upscale waterfront community to escape the dregs that live in the bad part of town.
EASTERN LONG ISLAND, NY
I consider Suffolk County - From Port Jefferson out - an entirely different market than New York. The North Shore (north of Route 25A) from Wading River to Saint James and the Hamptons on the south shore are the best places to be. It is a country atmosphere in a city environment. Some of the finest restaurants I have ever eaten at are in towns like Rocky Point (The "Sea Basin") and especially out in The Hamptons. The Beaches on the North Shore are quaint private beaches, while the south shore offers large public beaches like "Smith Point" or anything along Dune Road. Summer nightlife is great, the Hamptons have everything from Beach Bars and Dance Clubs, to live rock, jazz and blues bars. When the summer is over, so is the Hamptons. Then there is Port Jefferson's packed college town style bars, or home town pubs like Tara Inn and Phil's. Houses are expensive to buy, very high property taxes too. The trade off is that it is an extremely safe place with excellent schools. The pay rate is slightly higher in most fields, but not in TV and Radio. There is too many stations on the dial to make any any money - to pay any money. That and most of the Radio stations are low power and cover very little area. For sports you have to trek it on into NYC, which is a chore. The U. at Stony Brook has sports, but no one goes. People are real negative in a lot of areas. They seem to be always pissed off about everything around them, so meeting new friends out here could be tough. But depending on the town, people can be real friendly. Folks on the North Fork and around Hampton Bays are nice, but around areas like Shirley, Sound Beach, Rocky Point, and Mastic, people have an attitude problem. So here it is: It's a beautiful place with great beaches. The food is excellent, the night life is good, the weather is moderate, the schools are great, it's a safe low crime area, but people can be hard to meet.
FORT LAUDERDALE, FL
I like a lot of South Florida, but I probably like this area the best. Fort Lauderdale is close to Miami, to catch Dolphins games or to get great multicultural foods - but it's far enough away from Miami so that it's a safe area. In the Winter the beaches are nice and because of the tourists the night life is good. In the Summer, it's just too damn hot. I would say that it's a trade off to the North, where the Winters are too damn cold! There is a lot of old people, which is just Florida, but there is a lot of younger people here too. It doesn't rain often, but there does seem to be a daily five minute downpour in the middle afternoon! The locals are fairly friendly, a good amount of them are transplanted New Yorkers and Canadians! The New Yorkers seem to get nicer when they leave NY. Housing is cheap and so are utilities. The problem is that the pay scale is lower than average too. Another bad thing is that the scools aren't very good, but there is a lot of private schools around. The TV and Radio stations are above average. A lot of local flair to them, and a good deal of Latino influence like in Southern California.
BOSTON, MA
Out of the big cities, Boston is my favorite. There is a real home town feeling here, not like in other big cities. People are friendly and crime is low. They have the Cape for beaches, and the mountains of New Hampshire aren't far away if you like to ski. There is a lot of great historical things to see, especially around the market square and Harvard. The night life is good, especially the Irish bars! The subways are remarkably clean, and they run them at all hours. Lots of College sports, and of course the Red Sox. The Summers are nice, never too hot with a cool ocean breeze. The Winters on the other hand are very cold. They tend to get a good deal of snow too. The schools are good in the 'Burbs and the city is big on Catholic Schools. Property taxes are high and housing in general is pricey, but the pay scale is above average. Just be careful driving. People in the Boston area drive like lunatics!
LAS VEGAS, NV
Las Vegas I have mixed feelings about. Housing is really cheap and so is the utilites. There is a fantastic nightlife, things are all open and happening 24hrs a day....you can never run out of things to do. The flip side is that Vegas attracts some real low lifes, "Jerry Springer Show" types too! The gambling thing really would get to me after a while. They even have slots in the supermarkets and Seven Elevens. That part is kind of pathetic, but it still is a fun town. Lake Mead is great for boating, the mountains are all around for skiing, and California beaches are five hours away. Sports are not happening in Vegas, no teams here, they're not allowed because of the legalized gambling. The schools aren't too good either, but you can live like a king and make a lot of money on what you save on housing here. The Winters are nice, but it is way too hot in the Summer....again the trade off.
ANNAPOLIS, MD
Another mixed bag. Annapolis is a historic town located 30 miles from both Washington DC and Baltimore, and it is on the Chesapeake Bay. The historic part of the city is beautiful, but it can be deceiving. Crime is pretty bad, and the police never catch anyone! The entire town revolves around the Annapolis Naval Academy too, so a good deal of people have a real square personality. The bay is not like a real beach, it's more like a river. The closest Ocean beach is two hours away in Delaware, and that's nice. Washington DC is a toilet, but it does offer big time sports and so does Baltimore. The night life in Annapolis itself is lacking, unless you like hanging out in restaraunt-bars with Navy kids. There are some cool places over the Bay Bridge in "Kent Narrows" and "Fells Point" in Baltimore is fun too. TV and Radio stations come in clearly from both D.C. and Baltimore. The D.C. TV stations are good, but not the Baltimore ones. Radio is real bland, mostly urban or middle of the road rock. Housing can be expensive, and it's tough to figure out what's a bad area and what's a nice area crime wise. Restaurants here are very good if you like seafood. The crab houses are fantastic and pretty much all food is above average. The schools are decent too. People here are funny. They will say hello or hold a door for you, but it's next to impossible to make friends with anyone. People live by the book (military influence) so don't expect anything exciting to happen. The weather isn't the greatest either. It's too cold in the Winter and unbearably hot in the Summer. I clear out on most weekends and go up to Long Beach (a 4 hour drive) so I can have a life and some fun. There are fun areas, don't get me wrong. You just have to drive a half hour to go to them.
FREDERICKSBURG, VA
Fredericksburg is an odd mix of people. There are a lot of hicks mixed with transplanted northeners and ex-military people. Unfortunately, the military influence is the same as in Annapolis, meaning that people do everything by the book. There is pretty much no nightlife other then restaraunt-bars and hotel-bars. I call this area "Radio Free Fredericksburg" because once you get within 15 miles of Fredericksburg, you lose almost all radio stations (a very faint DC-101 barely comes in!). Food is kind of bland everywhere and the only beaches are at lakes, which just don't do it for me! The schools are pretty good, the crime rate is not as bad as in Annapolis, and people down here are real friendly. I made friends pretty easily here, and I still have them as friends. The weather is like Maryland, too cold in the Winter and too hot in the Summer, but the Spring and Fall are really nice. No sports unless you go up to Washington DC, 90 minutes away.
NEW HAVEN, CT
I went to College in New Haven. The 'Burbs are nice, but most of the city is bad. Yale rules the city, (I didn't go there!)so the center of the city caters to the Yale community. The center is known as "The Green" and it is really the only safe place to go in the city. There are a few really good places to hang out (Toad's Place) and there are off Broadway plays, and basically a tiny bit of everything. The TV stations are really bad, poor quality-low budget types. The radio market is pretty good, especially if you like rock. Housing is expensive, even way out in Hamden or Cheshire, where I lived. The land surroundings are really scenic. Sleeping Giant State Park and other parks are just really nice places to be. The beaches are the Long Island Sound, which is slightly better than the Chesapeake Bay, but not by much. Crime towards New Haven is pretty bad, and the schools are bad too. People in the area are kind of stand offish. It isn't easy to make friends here, people can be snobby if you let them! There is no real sports, you have to go to NY (2hrs) or Boston (2.5hrs). Food isn't very good here either, it's very bland. It took a long time for me to find anything that tasted good!
MINNEAPOLIS, MN
It's a shame that Minneapolis is so damn cold and dreary. Summers are nice if you like lakes and fairs, family type stuff. The Winters (which pretty much include most of the Spring and Fall!) are just brutal! When I was there at the end of March, it was still grey and snowing! The Mall of America is pretty much the big thing to do. It's where all the bars are (and bars here close at 1AM!?!) and an amusement park called "Camp Snoopy". The mall is real cool, but it gets old fast. People here are really friendly and courteous, and the neighborhoods are nice...I just can't get past the cold! The TV and Radio stations are real good here, housing is cheap and the schools are good. The pay rate is very low, to equal out the housing, unfortunately.
SCRANTON, PA
The mountains that surround Scranton are breathtaking. The overall land surrounding the entire area is nice, and there is ample skiing and lake activities. Scranton itself is a dump. It's an old rust belt city-that is getting better, but has a ways to go! There are no real sports here, you have to go to Philly or NYC for that. The TV stations are really cheesy low budget UHF's, but the radio stations are pretty good. The pay scale is below average, but housing is real cheap. Crime is a problem around the University Of Scranton, and locals aren't too friendly to outsiders.
WINSTON-SALEM, NC
I wasn't here for that long, and from what I saw...that's a good thing. Winston-Salem as a city is a dump. There's nothing in the city except businesses, Pawn Shops, and Nudie Bars, seriously! After 6PM the city is empty....and creepy. Over by Wake Forest University there are some things to do, but otherwise you have to drive to Charlotte, not exactly a hot bed for entertainment either. The TV/Radio stations are ok. The TV stations are a bit low budget looking, while the radio stations sound pretty generic. The mountains make for some nice scenery, and the further out of town you live, the housing gets dirt cheap. The only sports activities are College and High School sports, and night life seemed pretty hurting too. All in all, a depressing area!
NEW YORK CITY, NY
This is a weird one. I really like Long Island, Fairfield CT is OK, but to actually live in a place like Queens or The Bronx, oh man... never. I enjoy everything that the city has to offer, except living there. The rent is just way over priced, and the pay scale doesn't compensate it. I would rather live in NYC than L.A. or Philly, and a good deal of other major cities, but that doesn't say much. I really like the night life, you can't top the pubs, concerts or plays. Getting around is easy enough by subway or cab, but driving is horrible. Outside of Manhattan, roads like the BQE can really kill your car and make you hate life due to traffic. People are unfriendly, and so many people don't even speak english. That's really annoying. NYC has more to do than any place in the country, but it can get tedious. The best thing is to live a half hour out of the city.....on the ocean in Long Beach!
SAN BERNARDINO, CA
The best thing about "The Inland Empire" is that it is only about fourty minutes from L.A. This gives you access to some great beaches (an hour drive) and decent night life. Crime here is pretty bad for petty things like car thefts, and there is some heavy violence in the bad part of town, but not like L.A. The mountains are beautiful and the surrounding towns like Riverside are equally nice. People are fairly friendly, but can be stand off-ish. The night life is 'burban stuff. You really have to go into L.A. to catch a show or for sports. The weather is nice most of the year, but it can get smoggy come mid-Summer- and there are fires here. Las Vegas and San Diego aren't all that far of a drive away, so you don't feel stuck here, like some surburban areas. The pay is average here, and housing costs are average too, much cheaper than L.A. TV and radio stations mostly come from Los Angeles, as well as northern San Diego County. There are some radio stations in the Riverside area, and a college radio and TV station in San Bernardino.
HARRISBURG, PA
Harrisburg is about 90 minutes from Baltimore / DC, and two and a half from Philly, making it accessable to major metropolitan areas. It is also reasonably close to skiing resorts. People are friendly, some a bit hokey, but nice. There isn't a whole lot to do, so things like camping are big. High school sports / band is real big too. They get a lot of snow, and the Winters can be pretty brutal. Summers are nice, you can go to the river area or even Hershey Park and have fun. Crime is not bad and housing is exteremely cheap. Unfortunately, in TV and Radio, the wages are below average, but consistant with the market size. The TV stations are really hokey and low budget, laughable really- but the radio stations are really good for a small market. Overall a sleepy little city, with not a lot to do....but always something going on.
WASHINGTON, DC
What a hole. The city itself, dubbed "The Murder Capital" or "Death City" is the biggest hole on the east coast. The surrounding areas, mainly in Virginia, aren't bad. Alexandria has things to do, and Arlington has a semi-happening night life. There's also "Georgetown" and "Adams Morgan" in D.C. Sports wise, there's the 'skins, Cap's and Wizards, and you can always catch a show at places like the "9:30" or "The Black Cat". The problem is that most of these clubs are in really horrible neighborhoods. Crime is really bad, just a violent city in general. People are for the most part either angry and poor, or nerds transplanted from somewhere else. I don't like being in D.C. because I never feel safe. Also, people eat, sleep and breathe politics, YUK! A very square place in a violent atmosphere.
BALTIMORE, MD
Like most cities, it's better to live outside the city, either in Bel-Air, White Marsh, Columbia, etc. rather than deal with the crime of the city. Baltimore has a huge poor section, and these people hang out at the nice areas to grub from tourists. I have never seen so many homeless people. About one quarter of the city is nice, the rest is a hole- but not as bad as D.C. The "Inner Harbour" is a nice area for tourists. It has the aquarium, ESPN Zone, Hard Rock, Planet Hollywood and many other places to go. There is harbour tours and water taxi's and even free concerts at the waters edge on weekends in the Summer. Right down the block is "Little Italy", which is a mini version of NYC's. Great authentic Italian food. Camden Yards and PSI Net Stadium has the "Oriols" and "Ravens" for sports, and Johns Hopkins University is in town. "Fell's Point" is where the pubs are at. It's an Irish district with great bars and clubs. Federal Hill has it's share of pubs too. People are friendly for a poor city. The Murder rate is one of the highest per capita in the country, but it mostly stays in the projects. The TV stations are very generic and boring and the areas radio stations are average, with a lot of "Urban" type stuff.
TAMPA, FL
Tampa has a lot going for it. There is obviously the good weather most of the year (except July and August it's way too hot) and the beaches. The Gulf beaches are large white coral sandy beaches and the water is quite warm. The Bay (Tampa Bay) is nice too, mostly for water sports and fishing. Housing in Tampa is reasonable, and Florida has no state income tax! Lots of areas in the Tampa - St. Petersburg area are a bit run down. Petty crime like stealing and vandalism is a bit high too. In Clearwater, along the Gulf, there are plenty of hot spots for night life. Very similar to San Diego's "Pacific Beach". "Ybor City" is a bit run down, but it is a mile long strip of bars and clubs that crank on the weekends. Ybor City is very similar to "Fell's Point" in Baltimore, it's fun...but be careful, lots of creepy-crawlies around! The 'burbs are pretty nice. "Odessa" is upscale and a bit pricey, but most other areas are mid-price range. Sports in the area are good. The NY Yankees have their farm team here and the regular team practices here in the Winter. The local football team has a strong following (and real nice stadium too). For NBA you have to travel to Orlando to catch the "Majic", but that's not a bad drive. Radio Stations here are real bland, and there isn't a lot of them either. TV stations are typical for a market this size. The pay scale is a bit low, but considering the cost of living and no State Income Tax, it evens out.
These are just my humble opinions, I hope that I didn't offend anyone!
If you are considering a move, check out MONEY MAGAZINE'S "COST OF LIVING COMPARITOR" and see if the move will be worth it financially.