Most Affordable Places To Live Well (Ten Most Affordable Cities)

Forbes ^ | 6 November 2007 | Matt Wolsey

[maineman]

LOL!
Most of the cities are dumps...with Pittsburgh at the top of the poop list.

[ReignOfError]

Cincinnati a crime ridden hell hole? Like everywhere else it all depends on neighborhoods.

Bingo.

Crime statistics don't tell the whole story. I have never been robbed, raped, mugged, beaten, shot, stabbed or burglarized. In any city, there are places where you don't want to go, and if you must, you don't go after dark. The neighborhoods where gang-bangers victimize each other. Half a mile away, you have nice middle-class neighborhoods.And half a mile from there, you have nuveuax-riche mansions.

[ReignOfError]

Atlanta fell off the murder list? Huzzah!

[ReignOfError]

(Shrug)

You can take measures to fix it our you can complain. Some folks are wired for the latter. If they clear one complaint they quickly find another.

[katykelly]

I don’t remember the ride that dropped us there. Just the one that picked us up. He came sreaming up in a pickup throwing open the door yelling “Get in the truck!”. We did, and he proceeded to give us a lecture on our foolishness.

[County Agent Hank Kimball]

Well, I’m maybe 45 seconds from the fire station (less than a mile away). The hospital.....maybe 5 minutes. It’s just under 3 1/2 miles, so that would depend on traffic, but it’s never bad enough that an ambulance with a siren wouldn’t get there quite quickly.

My wife has a heart condition so I take this sort of thing into account in determining where I live.

Hank

[buccaneer81]

Sorry,but I’m staying in the Northeast.

As a born and bred suburban Bostonian (now living in Columbus), you can keep it. We at least have a CCW law, economic growth, a fairly Conservative population (even with Dems), and a respect for religion not found in the Northeast.

[ReignOfError]

I wonder why Detroit isn’t on the list?

Sarcasm noted. There are many reasons it's attractive to move there, but one overwhelming reason not to -- no jobs. You can get a big house on a big lot in Detroit for what it costs to get a railroad apartment in NYC. The only thing missing is the job so you can pay for it. Cheap houses -- even well-built nice ones -- aren't much of a draw if you have a moribund (I love that word) local economy.

[Cacique]

There are a lot of places cheaper than where I am. I bet it's pretty damm cheap in Saudi Arabia or in any damm hole somewhere. I'm from South America and practically every major city there is four times cheaper than any place here. But why do you think people get out of there every chance they get. Life is way much cheaper in Mexico than it is here. Yet we have millions of illegals crossing the border to live in expensive places like New York City. It's called civilization, that's where most people want to be.

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[I still care]

I live in Tampa. Flights to NYC are cheap. I visited twice in the past two months. I have friends who have family in Michigan. They pay more than twice what I pay.

The point is, check the air travel. To some people it’s not important, but if you are an older person on a fixed income, and like to visit family, living near an airport is nice.

Close enough so you can always find an airport ride is a bonus. If you don’t have close friends that can bring you, the rides to the airport can cost more than the flight.

[pepperdog]

You hush now! We don’t want anyone to know. After all the summers are hell, the winters are frozen hell and there are tornadoes every weekend. Not to mention that everyone is a gun happy conservative....no this is no place to move!

[ReignOfError]

Atlanta is very similar to Cincy, on the metro area vs. city thing. The City of Atlanta proper is around 10% of the metro area population, and even that has gentrified substantially.

I don't know Cincy, so I'l take your word. But yes, Atlanta proper is a small part of the metro -- about 5 million in the MSD (Metropolitan Statistical District, a Census bureau term) and about 500K in the city limits.

There are still some pretty bad areas to be found, though, as you’d expect.

In any city. But they're getting fewer. There are neighborhoods I wouldn't dare to live in a decade ago, and now I can't afford to live in.

The current mayor down there, while far from a conservative, is so much better than the previous two decades’ mayors, that it’s pretty amazing. She is really trying to make things work and get better.

I'm a huge Shirley fan. When it comes to local governance, give me pragmatism and results over ideology every day of the week. Being mayor is about potholes, sewer lines, water mains, law enforcement, schools and parks.

I don't give a good damn what a mayor thinks about Roe v. Wade or the war in Iraq. That is not a mayor's responsibility. Mayor Franklin is kicking ass and taking names, not jockeying for national prominence, but doing the job she was elected to do. I'm impressed, especially after the corrupt mess Bill Campbell handed her.

[buccaneer81]

I visited Indy for the first time two months ago. Loved it. I stayed at The Crowne Plaza at Union Station, visited the American Superhero Museum, went to the Colts-Broncos game at the Dome, ate at the Weber Grill restaurant. Your downtown is beautiful. My wife loved Mass Ave, and I was impressed by the Speedway.

[Erasmus]

Typical directions, as I recall from a visit to my Uncle's family there in 1957:

"Turn right out of your subdivision onto Peachtree."

"Continue for 3 miles, then turn left onto Peachtree."

"At first opportunity, turn right onto Peachtree."

"Continue most straightforward onto Peachtree."

"After 1.2 miles, turn right into your destination."

<}B^)

[Erasmus]

For some reason, nobody has brought up the fact that its original proposed name was "Pittsborough," and that for a few years a century ago it was spelt "Pittsburg."

(Why, I know not.)

[Erasmus]

I once spent a year in Houston. It was June, 1973.

[Dick Vomer]

Sorry,but I’m staying in the Northeast.

....thank you.