Best place to live in the world and why?

[sundaymorningstaple]

That's easy......

He enjoys the steaming sewers, the gridlocked traffic where the fastest road transport in the city is the messenger bicycles and skateboards. He enjoys the muggings in Central Park and on every other street corner and the piles of garbage due to the various strikes periodically.

Of course he enjoys the wide variety of restaurants & theaters & broadway. I'm am sure he also enjoys paying, in addition to Federal Income Taxes and New York State Income Taxes (but unlike most other large cities in the US) NYC Income Taxes as well.

There's a lot to like there. But I never found it. Guess that's why it's been almost 40 years why I haven't been there when I only lived 3.5 hours south of there.

Are we talking about the same place?

[EADG]

I may not have lived in that many places, but coming from and having lived in different areas of NYC and NY would have to say NYC is overall the best place I've lived, on many levels and for a lot of reasons, and I miss it a lot.

The great vibe, people, variety, food, entertainment, pace, and levels of most things there are like nowhere else, and it was a difficult place for me to leave. It is an either acquired- or inborn taste, and not a particularly forgiving place for travelers or other non-residents. While there I never felt that I didn't want to live there. And that was pre-Giuliani, since then safety and garbage issues are more topics for other cities.

But oddly I don't wish or plan to return there permanently, not NY so much as that part of the US. I've been away too long from the bitter cold to want to live though it again. And there's many other cool places in the world. But that's part of the life journey I guess, trying out and finding that perfect place, or never finding it but enjoying the journey as you go.

I have similar feelings about Japan, partly given my years there and partly given my compatibility with the place, culture, food and people, but it's another place I struggle with considering to return, especially now with the economy as it is. The pull is strong but if I do return it may not be permanently.

Annapolis Maryland was a nice place to live but that was too long ago to put into my current adult perspective.

Singapore is ok but it's never felt quite right for it to be my best place to stay long-term. It's comfortable, predictable, usually clean, safe, and in some ways convenient but I've always felt it to be lacking in some obvious and in other not-so obvious ways. A few years ago I came to accept it as a employment safe haven and blase fair-weather stopping ground between other places while the world economy sorts itself out.

Certain parts of Hawaii or Southern California are probably closer to my ideal of where I'd be most content, or San Fran or Vancouver if the weather was better, or Sydney if the taxes weren't ridiculous.

But I have more places to visit first to call it for sure.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Happy Holidays EADG!

Ah, Annapolis, quaint historical city on the Severn River. I know it well. I actually got married the first time in Annapolis back in '69. Easy laid back town more famous for it's view of the Severn River and the US Naval Academy than the capital of Maryland. Beautiful town. And well placed between Baltimore and Washington DC. That's the best part. Also not that far away from Bowie & Laurel Int'l & Pimlico Raceways!

[EADG]

Happy New Years and holidays to you SMS!

Yes, I have fond memories of the year I lived in MD, right on the Chesapeake, working in a boatyard by day, sailing and racing on the weekends, and occasionally going to Ocean City for a road trip.

Nice people, great crabs, and a nice balance of life. A very different vibe from north of the Mason-Dixon.