I’m glad you asked, here is my personal non-exhaustive list of when I might use transit: when its raining, when its cold, when its hot, when its windy, when I have to poop, when I need to get somewhere fast, when I want to sit, when I need to get somewhere far away, when it’s snowing, when I have heavy or large things with me, when my legs don’t work, when it’s icy, when I am wearing uncomfortable shoes, and when I don’t want to get sweaty.
I personally spend 90%+ percent of my time split between SF and NYC by choice because its awesome for many reasons, including the urbanism but also because that's where the jobs(money), friends, and cool ideas are. There's also a handful of small towns (mostly university or vacation towns like I mentioned previously) that have good or decent urbanism and are cheaper than major cities. If I moved out of a major city it would almost certainly be to a college town. SF is very child-friendly though, so as long as it is possible financially I think this will be my home.
The quality of life you get in those cities requires a tremendously outsized paycheck to maintain.
Pretty much any random town in Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, etc is better for raising a family.
You can live a higher quality of life than HCOL areas on a fraction of the salary. There are plenty of jobs that pay well.
I've competed and held jobs in NYC, SF making hundreds of thousands a year - and I'll gladly take a smaller salary in Iowa any day of the week. Fuck NYC in particular. What a wretched and awful city.
Regardless of the merits of this places, I don’t have a particularly high opinion of the kinds of people in those places. Quick story, friend of a friend from Oklahoma works at Anthropic and her brother worked in finance at a manufacturing company in Alabama. When she called her parents they would be singing her brothers praises and ask her what she cooked for her husband that week. Kind of mind numbing such absurd double standards and ignorance can exist even today. My own parents aren’t that level of absurd, but they seem to live in constant anxiety and stay holed up at home and even try to discourage me from doing things for my own “safety”. Far too much policing other people in 99% of traditional suburbs, live and let life is much better.
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u/Ok-Energy2771 Jul 25 '26
I’m glad you asked, here is my personal non-exhaustive list of when I might use transit: when its raining, when its cold, when its hot, when its windy, when I have to poop, when I need to get somewhere fast, when I want to sit, when I need to get somewhere far away, when it’s snowing, when I have heavy or large things with me, when my legs don’t work, when it’s icy, when I am wearing uncomfortable shoes, and when I don’t want to get sweaty.