US News has a new article on the 10 Best Places to Grow Up. I figured I would look at them, and see what I thought.
- Madison, Alabama - I've never been to Alabama, so I really can't say anything about this place.
- Virginia Beach, Virginia - I was there once, and it seemed to be way overcrowded.
- The same goes for Overland Park, Kansas. I've just barely been to Kansas.
- San Jose, California - Ther article says "San Jose is the country's safest big city", but buy-in is a house costing $449,000 on average.
- Boston - Not a good place if you want to drive around town. It is fun to explore, though.
- Rochester, Minn - I can vouch for this area of the country. And they have the best medical care in the world there.
- Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It's in a corner of Iowa I've not been to. I know it floods, though.
- Denver is pretty good. Everything but the airport, really.
- Plano, Texas. The home of J. R. Ewing. They also bottle Vernor's and the second-generation Dr Pepper there. A good place for Ewings and sodapop, probably. I've been near it, but not in it.
- Edison, New Jersey - I still have trouble thinking of NJ as a desirable place to live.
Does anyone have any thoughts on these places?
15 comments:
That's funny... San Jose. When I was growing up if you said you were from San Jose, people laughed. Of course they laughed when you admitted you were from Fresno too.
Out of these, I've only seen San Jose and Denver. I like Denver. I've always wanted to visit Boston. Some day...
Since I have never been anywhere, I can only agree that California is an expensive place to live.
I might take issue with the idea that he 10 best pkaces to grow up are citis, rather than small towns.
I might take issue with the idea that he 10 best pkaces to grow up are citis, rather than small towns.
Throw,
How much time have you spent in New Jersey exactly?
Signed
Best of New Jersey
funny list. plano, texas? hahahaha.
the capital of the world* for teen suicide/heroin addiction/keeping up with the joneses' credit card bills?
(ok, i exaggerate, but only a little bit.)
plano is not plain-o texas. or even remotely a great place to raise kids. plano is a very large strip mall-with a swimmin' pool in every back yard-wart on the blackland prairie.
*the teenage suicide rate. and the heroin problem...are probably still in the top 10 nationwide.
This reminds me of one of my late father's best one liners.
ME: Where are you going on business?
HIM: San Jose.
ME: So, do you know the way to San Jose?
HIM: No, but hopefully the pilot does.
These type of lists, like Best Hospitals or Best Schools, don't impress me much. It's hard to define things like that.
As for New Jersey, I've lived here since 2001. I don't know whether to call it desirable or not-it just is what it is. It's crowded, but as a consequence you usually don't have to go far to find a dry cleaner or gas station.
So what do you think the 10 best places are?
Ananda: I will be featuring Fresno very soon.
Laura: California is pretty huge, you can go a lot of places inside it.
Secret: Good point. And again, good point :)
BONJ: You have a point, too. I think I did give NJ short shrift here. I hear that the Delaware Water Gap area in the west is pretty nice. But otherwise, a higher percentage of the state seems Detroity compared to anywhere else. New Jersey does after all have the highest population density of any state. While that makes for a concentration of an urban environment and urban decay, one can also remember Yogi Berra's supposed adage "It's so crowded, that nobody goes there." New Jersey is crowded because someone must find it desirable.
Michael: How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice.
Cornbread. I hope none of that heroin makes it into the Vernor's.
Lily: Good suggestion.
I live in Edison NJ, and it's not a bad place. It's suburban, so you need a car to get from place to place, but whatever you need is close by. Plus there are trains that bring you into NYC in 30 minutes. The schools have a good reputation too, so it's not so far fetched that it's a good place to live. Property values climbed like crazy in the 90s, and they only died back a little recently (like everyplace else).
US News says they used their database of 2000 places, so it's probably not fair to any place that wasn't in their database.
I've only been to Boston and I surely wouldn't want to live there.
Edison? I wonder why specifically Edison. NJ is a wonderful place to grow up! jeez... some of the best people I know are from NJ. Including me. :-)
Of course, I think Iowa City is a better place to grow up than Cedar RApids, but I'm biased.
I'm not a fan of San Jose, but Denver is cool.
dmarks- hard to tell if you have visited my blog before ($20.09 eating campaign blog).
I vote for Austin and Portland for the best places to grow up.
Thanks for visiting! I've never been to Austin. I've been to the western Portland.
Post a Comment