MRG
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2013
- Messages
- 11,079
If you choose Philly make sure you understand PA's state inheritance tax and it's impact to anything you want.
I trimmed your responses to address three.The rudeness and racism some of you report concerns me. I hate racism, especially. I heard there is a lot of racism in Atlanta which is one of the reasons I thought Philadelphia might be better.
Table service in San Francisco and Vancouver is good. Sounds like take away is how I would patronize PA restaurants.
Amazon HQ2 has Atlanta and Philadelphia area on short list? I didn’t know that - thanks for the heads up! That could ruin affordable COL.
Why not consider Boston ?
Wow. Have you been to PA college towns? I grew up in the areas they're talking about. Bucknell was just down the road as were State College, Scranton, Lewisburg, Mansfield, and Lock Haven. All nice little towns in the middle of no where.Big cities are always going to be expensive.
Pick a college town close to (but not in) the big city for better quality of life:
Solid College Towns in Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, Allentown: school districts, university, costs) - (PA) - City-Data Forum
Wow. Have you been to PA college towns? I grew up in the areas they're talking about. Bucknell was just down the road as were State College, Scranton, Lewisburg, Mansfield, and Lock Haven. All nice little towns in the middle of no where.
However open attitudes, no way! You can still find references to a 60 minutes article from 20 years ago with interviews of people being referred to as "the influx" cause they didn't look like European descendants. We left that area when we turned 21, when I go back it's like a bad dream. I'm always thankful my DW and I escaped.
In the early 90s I spent a lot of time around Philly, Valley Forge actually, nice area with friendly people.
I have lived around Atlanta most of my life.
- 2 hours to the mountains
- 6 hours to the Gulf or Atlantic
- easy air travel direct to anywhere from ATL
- horrible traffic, but retirees can avoid
- diverse population (pick the neighborhood that fits)
- short drives to Nashville, Asheville, Charleston, Savannah
- I like the weather, enough winter but not to much
- close to the University of Georgia (Go Dawgs - beat Bama)
- low cost of living in the suburbs, housing and taxes are higher in town
-"Your Dekalb Farmers Market", a mecca for cooks and foodies
- college football, pro sports, new baseball and football stadiums
- multiyear growth and rising tech sector
- Georgia/Atl has become a movie/TV mecca, the DW participates as an extra
One the reasons I suggested Connecticut. We are right between Boston and New York with easy access to either by train or car. If one must live in one of the CT cities, I suggest New Haven, which has many museums and cultural events of its own, especially the ones connected to Yale.Why not consider Boston ?
Many thanks to everyone who responded!
To clear up a few things -
I spent most of my adult life in San Francisco and loved it. Then I moved to NW WA close to the Canadian border for work and to be near Vancouver for play and social life. I’ll be here for a bit longer.
Now I want a bigger city experience than San Francisco, Seattle, and Vancouver and I’d like to try the East Coast. Plus I can’t afford the HCOL and taxes in these west coast cities. I would love to live in Montreal but I think I would have problems with residency (at retirement age) and Canadian HCOL.
I would move to NYC if I could afford it. Philadelphia seems to have an interesting downtown with lots of museums and an interesting ballet company. Plus I could easily visit NYC and DC for more museums and ballet performances. (On the west coast, distances between cities are huge.)
PA’s 3% income tax rate is appealing. I hope to go to Spain or some other warm place for a month or so every winter.
Outdoors makes me sneeze and I’ve never been interested in sports. I miss the lifestyle of living in the heart of a city. I’m so glad most of my adult years were in San Francisco - I loved it. But HCOL drove me and virtually all my friends to other states.
I can’t wait to get rid of my car and use public transportation and Lyft. I hate driving, especially city driving.
I read every post carefully. To respond to a few -
Thanks for the good advice on renting first. Will do!
The rudeness and racism some of you report concerns me. I hate racism, especially. I heard there is a lot of racism in Atlanta which is one of the reasons I thought Philadelphia might be better.
Table service in San Francisco and Vancouver is good. Sounds like take away is how I would patronize PA restaurants.
I will consider CT. Thanks!
I didn’t realize Atlanta was less humid. If Philadelphia doesn’t work out, Atlanta is second on the list.
Amazon HQ2 has Atlanta and Philadelphia area on short list? I didn’t know that - thanks for the heads up! That could ruin affordable COL.
Thank you for the warning to investigate inheritance taxes in addition to state and property taxes. I’ll investigate.
East Coast is in your face.
There’s an old political campaign saying (I first heard it from James Carville I think) that politically, PA is Philly in the East, Pittsburgh in the West...and Alabama in between.
ADR to PA & AL.
There’s an old political campaign saying (I first heard it from James Carville I think) that politically, PA is Philly in the East, Pittsburgh in the West...and Alabama in between.
ADR to PA & AL.
I live in the so-called Alabama part of PA. That isn't true anymore. There is also a robust theater and music scene. Harrisburg has a thriving gay community as well. Many colleges here, not just Penn State up in State College. Not all of them are in the middle of nowhere.