Is it a favourite park or walking track? The library? Do you have a really fun festival that your community is known for? Tells us about it!
I live in a shithole city in the desert with high crime rates (my home has been broken into twice in 4 years (while I was home)) but my favorite thing about it is the natural environment. Very beautiful place. I hope we get more social programs to better the community, but where I live, all of the money goes to like 10 square miles in the city center and everyone else is left to rot in an over-policed, car-centered, 40km sprawl.
That’s really hard. I hope you can muster up some support from other locals and make some changes!
Sadly everyone where I live seems to be socially conservative if they’re over the age of 25 so I’m just working on doing some good old AEO on peers.
I like the library, it has a pretty good board game collection, I’ve gotten some switch games out from there rather than dropping $60-70 on them, not to mention books, movies, audiobooks, museum discount passes, etc.
Also, it’s nice being back in a town with sidewalks, decent low-density roads around, local businesses nearby. A lot of my middle school/high school life was lived on a narrow hilly road with no shoulder that made it hard to get anywhere before I could drive.
It’s the first city I’ve lived in that has a substantial cycling network. Recently they’ve completed so much that I can travel from the north end to the south without sharing the road with vehicles.
That sounds fab 👌 good protected cycle ways make things feel so much more accessible
There are three farm stands within cycling distance of my house (I believe one is technically in another town, but that doesn’t matter), plus the seasonal farmers’ market.
That sounds heavenly!
It’s not really super recently anymore, but my wife and I moved about 10 months ago and then she has had a series of injuries that made it hard for her to walk since the start of the year, so it’s been hard for us to find things we like in in our new city. We’re starting to new for new apartments, but apparently it’s still a bit early for our move date. I am hoping that we can move out of the quasi industrial area (right by the high way and most of the businesses near by are really b2b and not consumer facing) and into a real neighborhood will help a lot.
I can talk a lot about the things I liked in our old city, though
My town (and all the towns around it) are expanding bike infrastructure like mad. I bike to work and I believe in building communities that aren’t car centric, so I’m thrilled to see it happening in real time. And I found a route to my work that’s almost all on protected bike lanes. It makes me happy
That sounds fantastic! Thankfully I am a remote worker, but I would love to bike to do everything I can’t do at home. I seem to be in a very car-centric area, but they are expanding bike lanes.
I try really really hard to make sure where I live and work makes this possible. I only apply to apartments near bike infrastructure, I only apply to jobs within biking distance… this apartment was a compromise with my partner, so it feels like a gift from the universe to have bike lanes extended to our house.
As long as you try sometimes to bike, you’ll make yourself visible and I have faith that makes a difference. Your city council person might see a bunch of bikes some morning and choose to vote in favor of more. Baby steps :)
Very rural…people aren’t living on top of each other…lots of nature and space.
Kalamazoo Michigan, the art scene and LGBT+ friendliness. My mail person is queer, half of the library staff are queer, our mayor was a gay man, there’s a queer theatre and queer resource center downtown, it’s really great!
Sadly we have no set queer bar, though one of them is our unofficial bar but it wouldn’t stand up to a proper one.
Oh and of course it’s the first and only city I’ve lived in after moving out, and I went to college here. It’s near to my heart. And with Gretchen Whitmer and Jocelyn Bennett killing it, I’m relatively happy hear in the mitten ❤️
I live in a town with a small liberal arts university and a lot of retirement homes. This gives it a really interesting vibe - generally artsy and relaxed. Most of the time, anyway.
My favorite thing the town does is our annual chalk art festival! I don’t create art, but I like walking around and seeing what other folks created.
I bet the art is beautiful!!
I’m a NYC native, and I am always struck by the accessibility of cultures we have to offer. Any time I discover a new cuisine or dish I haven’t tried, I’m basically guaranteed to find it in this city. There are lots of things I hate about NYC, but I love that we’ve got so much of the world to offer, with a transit system that can get you there.
NYC truly seems like a melting pot. The food must be incredible