What's a good town to live in for a person recently out of college?

Question

This is general because I want to hear what other people think is the good stuff about a city/state/city-state...

Answer 1

One where you can get a JOB!!
Seriously, You can do some job searches by location - look at monster.com, for example

Answer 2

Well, you are young, so being mobile and flexible is a good idea. So I'll just tell you about the area where I live, and you judge for yourself if you'd like it.

I live in Boulder Creek, California, which is in the Santa Cruz Mountains a (longish) bus ride away from Santa Cruz, California. You may have heard of that: surfers and earthquakes and all that? Well, it's also got a major campus of the University of California, and the interesting thing is they do not give grades. Make of this what you will, but they give "evaluations" instead of grades in undergraduate classes at UCSC. Of course, it is my impression they use buzz words successfully enough that admissions offices looking at their graduates calmly translate the evaluations into grades.

Anyway, it's a college town, and it's got a reputation for left-leaning politics, although there's really a pretty good variety of political interests in the County as a whole. The county ranges from very successful farming operations in the southern part, centered around Watsonville (check your produce packing boxes), up a most incredibly beautiful coast along Highway One to Santa Cruz through a group of nice middle-and-upper class suburbs, to the county seat at Santa Cruz.

"Keep Santa Cruz Weird" is a tee shirt that has made the rounds, because periodically the politicians want to clean up the street people and other colorful folk. It never works. If they got sufficiently irritated to seriously stay away, the tourist business would go to heck, and they all know it.

Boulder Creek is at the crest of a long hill known as San Lorenzo Valley, which is some of the most expensive real estate in the world, because it is worth it. Big old redwood trees, comfortable, no-BS folks, aging hippies and bikers, quite a few artists and writers and other interesting types, and generally, a heck of a nice place to live, and opens tourists to the Big Basin State Park (a truly wonderful place) in the summer. There's a funky old railroad that runs from Roaring Camp in Felton down to the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz, and back again. They have train robberies sometimes, and run a ghost train on Oct. 31.

Yeah, Santa Cruz County is a very nice place to live, and I want to open a bookstore here and stay awhile. Like the rest of my life, for example.

Answer 3

Hey. I've worked in manufacturing and lived in seven different states. My favorite is Oregon and Colorado.

My favorite cities are Portland, Denver and Seattle.

All have lots going on for the younger crowd with good job opportunities and housing.

Answer 4

Chicago. Young city. Tons of jobs. Good areas to live in even if you don't have a lot of money (I was a recent grad 6 years ago). TONS of stuff to do. And many young grads - especially from Big 10 schools.......

Answer 5

Find a job. Then move to a nice town located to the east of your job.

In the morning you will be driving west to your job, and in the evening, you will be driving home going east.

This way, the sun will always be at your back, and you will never have to drive into the sun.

Driving to work or home from work while battling sun glare is a *****

Answer 6

Any small town with low crime rates but planed comunities are the worst by the time you ritire youl still be making payments

Answer 7

Metropolis!

Youre safe from bad guys in that town cuz of Superman

Answer 8

Burlington Vermont. Young, vibrant and educated culture. Great quality of life.

Answer 9

New Orleans. A very needy city.

Answer 10

Tylertown, MS