I can eat wild game. I really like to eat buffalo. I just can't eat it when it's dead relatives are staring at me.
Have you guys ever driven southwards from the Newark, NJ airport? I did, at night...awful. Also, Tijuana would be pretty high on my list of places where I would NOT want to live.
Yeah, northern Jersey is damned ugly. Is that place one big dump? Nothing but scrapyards and oil refineries everywhere.
It depends on where you are....Newark, Elizabeth, the Oranges, Seacaucus etc, are awful....Wayne, (the houses they show in sopranos) Rumson, Alpine, some other parts in bergen county are some of the richest places in America .
I understand the downside, esp. if single. But the cost of living was ridiculously low, good Mexican food w/ great margaritas ... and great, inexpensive golf ... and close to Santa Fe, Taos and Colorado.
My vote: Pueblo Colorado 1) Rust-belt town on the flat plains by the Rockies; 2) Advertises it's 'elbow room' (guess why); 3) Biggest economic boom: $1.5 billion the feds will spend to destroy the 2600 tons of mustard gas stored in Pueblo At least its beauuuuutaful: (can you see a city there? why won't they show us their city? hmmm...)
I was married with a child.... Cost of living low?? I'm not sure where you live currently, but when we calculated the change from Plano, TX to there after a few months, our average "costs" increased by nearly 40%. Milk was nearly $4.00 a gallon in 2000 (.99 in TX), gas was already $1.75 a gallon ($1.09 in TX), rent was "Plano level" for a lot less amenties (approx. $900 for small 2 bedroom, compared to $600 in TX), water bill was high & rationed (desert area... so understandable, we should conserve it anywhere). Good mexican food? To each his own, but compared to good old "tex-mex" there was hardly any flavor other than the red or green chile... We visited Pancho's just to get close to TX-Mex Golf cheaper... maybe, close to some ski and antique places, maybe... definitely a lot closer there (Riudoso was nice). My point was, once you did it, you ran out of stuff to do. (Driving 30 mins. in either direction on the interstate pretty much left you out in the desert, alone.) I'm an explorer type, I like to get in the car and drive to new venues... I guess I'm not "outdoorsy" but more of a "shopper" and "entertainment buff." For a hiker, or mountain biker, or snow boarder, it would be a paradise. I was raised in the greater Houston area, so running out of city in under a half-hour distrubed me. I just expected a state capital to stick out when driving past it on the interstate as well. On our first trip up to Santa Fe, we literally missed it. Zero building that look "stately" - no Skyscrapers hardly in ABQ either. The "downtown" reminded me of Greenspoint. Houston's medical center is larger. But I like the bigger city. No major league sports of any kind. College sports (of UNM) were treated like celebs. Like 3 malls within 70 miles. They thought a 14 screen theater was big. The "zoo" and "aquarium" were a joke. Where are the trees (aside from the nat. forest up n the east side of the Sandias, and a small strip of oaks along the Rio Grand)? Rock yards, in place of grass. Drab pastel decor everywhere you look... yech! I miss two things, and two things alone. 1) The lack of humidity -overall weather was great! 2) The Twister's Burrito -a must for anyone in need of leftovers. For anything else worthwhile, drive to Durango, CO, Phoenix, AZ or come back to TX! There was money to be made there... in the right job.
I spent a couple of nights close to the Newark airport. The whole area is scary. When I opened the curtains in my hotel room, however, I was starring at the World Trade Center towers in the distance. I thought that was pretty cool, even at the time (Sept. 1996)
IROC it, I said that I understood! I met my wife when she was living there (I was in Colorado). I was also raised in Houston, and also enjoy shopping and entertainment (as does she), so unless we were planning on golfing we wouldn't spend the weekends in town. Usually headed off to Santa Fe. Durango ... a few times for sure; also Colorado Springs, Boulder, Crested Butte, Denver and Telluride. One weekend we felt like having German food, and I think that there was only 1 German restaurant in town. Guess I just have found memories; good golf, then a few margaritas, cool afternoons and sparkling lights looking back at the city.
I think I have rarely been more worried about what would happen if my car would break down...actually, I had driven down from Albany and it was late at night and I had not reserved a hotel room and it seemed like ALL the hotels very close to Newark airport were sold out, so I had to drive further and further down south, until I finally got to this dump of a motel...already saw some weird-looking people (ladies or those who wanted to look like ladies) in the parking lot, but I was so tired, so I went to the reception and wanted to ask about the rates for a night...while I was asking, I discovered that the rates were HOURLY rates...
