I’m glad this topic came up. I’m planning on taking the next year to explore different locations and the following year to buy a house, so it’s been on my mind. Here are some thoughts:
I sense I’m in the minority here, but I really am not a fan of cars due to the tail risk of death. In 2018, there were 11.18 deaths per 100k people, or a 0.01118% chance of dying. If you value life at $10M, 0.0001118 * $10,000,000 = $1,118. I could see the convenience of cars outweighing this cost. But, a) a MIRI researcher is having a hugely positive impact on humanity, and so the value of their life, I would argue, is many orders of magnitude larger than a standard life. And b), if you think there’s a decent chance of humans figuring out life extension, I think that means life is way more valuable than the standard $10M. Eg.$200k/year * 50 years gives you a value of $10M, but if you think there’s a 10% chance of eg. the singularity happening and that leading to an extra 100k years of life, now we’re talking about an expectation of something like 10k years. And those are years that hopefully will be really, really awesome to be a part of. (I haven’t even started factoring in the cost of injuries, or the fact that cars are expensive.)
Historically, my thoughts on this have flip flopped, but right now I sense that there is a lot of value in having good weather. I used to think, “What’s the difference? Most people spend a ton of time indoors anyway.” But on the other hand, I sense that being outdoors has some really nice benefits for cognition and mood, and that you should try to spend a lot of time outside. Also, if you accept my argument against cars, you’ll need good weather so walking/biking isn’t too unpleasant. Unfortunately, in most locations, you’ll either have to deal with temperatures that are too hot during the summer, or too cold during the winter (or both). The pacific northwest and California seem to be the only options for weather you can be outside comfortably year round. Unfortunately, PNW has a lack of sunlight, and California is expensive. I’m personally leaning towards the PNW, but I want to do some more research into the sunlight issue first. Anyone know how big a deal it is?
Something I’ve been thinking about is the extent to which you could really get by without a car if you don’t live in a “real city”. Well, I should know the answer to this already. I’ve spent 10+ years living in Pittsburgh (college), Gainesville, Culver City, and Las Vegas (downtown, Summerlin, Winchester, and Henderson) all without having a car. I think it’s worked out fine overall. I just worry that the inconvenience prevents me from doing things like going to the park or the gym when I otherwise would. On the other hand, there are non big city locations where most of what you need is pretty conveniently located. Eg. when I lived in Summerlin, I was a 5 minute walk away from a library, great restaurants and a movie theatre, and was a ~15 minute bike ride away from a grocery store, park, casino, outdoor mall, bike trail, and more. So maybe it’s worth finding non big city locations like those.
Right now I’m leaning towards Portland. It seems to be (one of?) the only place that checks all of the boxes: moderate weather, nature, walkable/bikable, legit restaurants (I hate when the only available options are chains), weed, tech friendly, things to do, and last but not least, not being too expensive. On Zillow it looks like there’s some really solid options to buy between $250-400k. It seems like it could be a fit for MIRI’s campus.
This is a strong downside to Texas. It is very hard to get around without a car. You might be able to live in downtown Austin without a car, but that’s a pretty expensive part of town. And once you want to go anywhere else, you’ll want to drive.
Downtown Austin, btw, is not good thinking territory. It’s super crowded. I mean crowded. I mean, many streets are simply not accessible for driving on because they are so packed with drunk college kids. It’s fun and frenetic, but it’s an attraction not a lifestyle.
Houston? San Antonio? Dallas? All cities with their own vibe, but they are not walking cities at all. Texans have vast tracts land and boy o boy do they USE it.
While it’s possible to get around without a car in some spots of most cities in Texas, your quality of life and ability to visit others, go to interesting places, etc. downright sucks* unless you have a car. Additionally, the moment you leave the big cities in Texas (and even in them in some parts), the culture gets very religious and conservative, very quickly. Also, the state government and legislature is fond of going on crusades against the big cities from time to time, because they think the big cities are too progressive / liberal. Furthermore, everyone has guns. This is not an exaggeration**, unless you’re on university or government property, or in a few very very progressive / particular locales, you can expect that the majority of people you see are armed, and that a majority of people or more keep a gun in their car while driving. People get shot during road rage incidents. Liberals and progressives frequently own guns too, it’s not just conservatives. Avoid Waco, you really don’t want to relocate there.
Though, despite those things, Texas is probably one of the better places in the US for things like local political control, low to no state taxes (correspondingly, low to no state services that you’d find in CA or NY), high amounts of libertarianism and “live and let live” vibes (except when that’s a lie), surprisingly high tolerance for variance and weird / unfamiliar ideas, generally very cheap cost of living, cultural vibrancy, starting and running a business, and some other nice things.
Somewhat of a joke, but not entirely...if you move to Texas you will be assimilated and suddenly find yourself extolling the virtues of Texas and Texanness to everyone who’s not already living there. Texas has very strong cultural memes and you will get infected by at least some of them.
The Texas Hill Country is probably the most compatible area in Texas for MIRI if they chose to relocate to Texas. You can have beautiful rolling hills, decent enough weather, lots of outdoors-y pursuits, breweries, less traffic, slower pace of life, and more while still being within 30-60 minutes driving distance of Austin proper.
*there are exceptions, such as...someone living in Montrose, The Heights, Midtown, or other neighborhoods inside the 610 loop in Houston who doesn’t venture outside the loop can do just fine without a car for the most part. I’m sure the same is true for certain areas of other Texas cities, theoretically (I only have experience with Houston). On a side note, the food scene in Houston is amazing and worth visiting for.
**okay, maybe a little bit of an exaggeration in some ways, but my broader point about “if you move to Texas, you will have to interact with lots of people who are likely rocking concealed weapons” being generally true is a claim I stand behind.
I’m both up voting you and commenting because I used to live (more than 4 years) and continue to monitor (in a very real time way) the DFW Metroplex. Then, I moved to Southern California, so I’ve kind of made the MIRI move in reverse.
Beware of motivated reasoning when it comes to things in TX that you think will change for the better soon. For example, if you had listed Dallas as a possibility, I would be warning against counting on improved DART service.
If you find a positive attribute in a particular area of Austin, make sure the other positive and negative attributes about Austin still apply; things can be quite different as you move around the state. Administrative boundaries (e.g. School attendance boundaries) may surprise you.
Strongly recommend looking into sources of expected life expectancy and healthcare costs for all locations being considered.
I think you will find that most of the more livable places to live in the United States require a car. The places that truly do not require a car are quite expensive to live in comfortably and often have other drawbacks as well.
I completely agree with your points about cars, but I don’t think Portland is in the running here. I am wondering what other areas may be most walkable, livable without a car. The US is such a car-centric place, that it’s tough. Europe would obviously be much better for that.
The US is such a car-centric place, that it’s tough. Europe would obviously be much better for that.
Yeah. That hit me when I was watching those driving tour videos. They say that places like Portland are really bike friendly. But looking at the Portland video next to the Amsterdam one, there was no comparison. The streets were filled with bikes in Amsterdam, and there were actual bike lanes everywhere there.
I am wondering what other areas may be most walkable, livable without a car.
From what I could tell, the issue is that the places that are truly walkable and livable without a car are all major cities, and those major cities are all super expensive to live in. Eg. NY and Boston. If anyone knows otherwise please let me know!
I’m glad this topic came up. I’m planning on taking the next year to explore different locations and the following year to buy a house, so it’s been on my mind. Here are some thoughts:
I’ve found it useful to watch these Driving Tour of City X videos on YouTube.
I sense I’m in the minority here, but I really am not a fan of cars due to the tail risk of death. In 2018, there were 11.18 deaths per 100k people, or a 0.01118% chance of dying. If you value life at $10M,
0.0001118 * $10,000,000 = $1,118. I could see the convenience of cars outweighing this cost. But, a) a MIRI researcher is having a hugely positive impact on humanity, and so the value of their life, I would argue, is many orders of magnitude larger than a standard life. And b), if you think there’s a decent chance of humans figuring out life extension, I think that means life is way more valuable than the standard $10M. Eg.$200k/year * 50 yearsgives you a value of $10M, but if you think there’s a 10% chance of eg. the singularity happening and that leading to an extra 100k years of life, now we’re talking about an expectation of something like 10k years. And those are years that hopefully will be really, really awesome to be a part of. (I haven’t even started factoring in the cost of injuries, or the fact that cars are expensive.)Historically, my thoughts on this have flip flopped, but right now I sense that there is a lot of value in having good weather. I used to think, “What’s the difference? Most people spend a ton of time indoors anyway.” But on the other hand, I sense that being outdoors has some really nice benefits for cognition and mood, and that you should try to spend a lot of time outside. Also, if you accept my argument against cars, you’ll need good weather so walking/biking isn’t too unpleasant. Unfortunately, in most locations, you’ll either have to deal with temperatures that are too hot during the summer, or too cold during the winter (or both). The pacific northwest and California seem to be the only options for weather you can be outside comfortably year round. Unfortunately, PNW has a lack of sunlight, and California is expensive. I’m personally leaning towards the PNW, but I want to do some more research into the sunlight issue first. Anyone know how big a deal it is?
Something I’ve been thinking about is the extent to which you could really get by without a car if you don’t live in a “real city”. Well, I should know the answer to this already. I’ve spent 10+ years living in Pittsburgh (college), Gainesville, Culver City, and Las Vegas (downtown, Summerlin, Winchester, and Henderson) all without having a car. I think it’s worked out fine overall. I just worry that the inconvenience prevents me from doing things like going to the park or the gym when I otherwise would. On the other hand, there are non big city locations where most of what you need is pretty conveniently located. Eg. when I lived in Summerlin, I was a 5 minute walk away from a library, great restaurants and a movie theatre, and was a ~15 minute bike ride away from a grocery store, park, casino, outdoor mall, bike trail, and more. So maybe it’s worth finding non big city locations like those.
Right now I’m leaning towards Portland. It seems to be (one of?) the only place that checks all of the boxes: moderate weather, nature, walkable/bikable, legit restaurants (I hate when the only available options are chains), weed, tech friendly, things to do, and last but not least, not being too expensive. On Zillow it looks like there’s some really solid options to buy between $250-400k. It seems like it could be a fit for MIRI’s campus.
This is a strong downside to Texas. It is very hard to get around without a car. You might be able to live in downtown Austin without a car, but that’s a pretty expensive part of town. And once you want to go anywhere else, you’ll want to drive.
Downtown Austin, btw, is not good thinking territory. It’s super crowded. I mean crowded. I mean, many streets are simply not accessible for driving on because they are so packed with drunk college kids. It’s fun and frenetic, but it’s an attraction not a lifestyle.
Houston? San Antonio? Dallas? All cities with their own vibe, but they are not walking cities at all. Texans have vast tracts land and boy o boy do they USE it.
Seconding this.
While it’s possible to get around without a car in some spots of most cities in Texas, your quality of life and ability to visit others, go to interesting places, etc. downright sucks* unless you have a car. Additionally, the moment you leave the big cities in Texas (and even in them in some parts), the culture gets very religious and conservative, very quickly. Also, the state government and legislature is fond of going on crusades against the big cities from time to time, because they think the big cities are too progressive / liberal. Furthermore, everyone has guns. This is not an exaggeration**, unless you’re on university or government property, or in a few very very progressive / particular locales, you can expect that the majority of people you see are armed, and that a majority of people or more keep a gun in their car while driving. People get shot during road rage incidents. Liberals and progressives frequently own guns too, it’s not just conservatives. Avoid Waco, you really don’t want to relocate there.
Though, despite those things, Texas is probably one of the better places in the US for things like local political control, low to no state taxes (correspondingly, low to no state services that you’d find in CA or NY), high amounts of libertarianism and “live and let live” vibes (except when that’s a lie), surprisingly high tolerance for variance and weird / unfamiliar ideas, generally very cheap cost of living, cultural vibrancy, starting and running a business, and some other nice things.
Somewhat of a joke, but not entirely...if you move to Texas you will be assimilated and suddenly find yourself extolling the virtues of Texas and Texanness to everyone who’s not already living there. Texas has very strong cultural memes and you will get infected by at least some of them.
The Texas Hill Country is probably the most compatible area in Texas for MIRI if they chose to relocate to Texas. You can have beautiful rolling hills, decent enough weather, lots of outdoors-y pursuits, breweries, less traffic, slower pace of life, and more while still being within 30-60 minutes driving distance of Austin proper.
*there are exceptions, such as...someone living in Montrose, The Heights, Midtown, or other neighborhoods inside the 610 loop in Houston who doesn’t venture outside the loop can do just fine without a car for the most part. I’m sure the same is true for certain areas of other Texas cities, theoretically (I only have experience with Houston). On a side note, the food scene in Houston is amazing and worth visiting for.
**okay, maybe a little bit of an exaggeration in some ways, but my broader point about “if you move to Texas, you will have to interact with lots of people who are likely rocking concealed weapons” being generally true is a claim I stand behind.
I’m both up voting you and commenting because I used to live (more than 4 years) and continue to monitor (in a very real time way) the DFW Metroplex. Then, I moved to Southern California, so I’ve kind of made the MIRI move in reverse.
Beware of motivated reasoning when it comes to things in TX that you think will change for the better soon. For example, if you had listed Dallas as a possibility, I would be warning against counting on improved DART service.
If you find a positive attribute in a particular area of Austin, make sure the other positive and negative attributes about Austin still apply; things can be quite different as you move around the state. Administrative boundaries (e.g. School attendance boundaries) may surprise you.
Strongly recommend looking into sources of expected life expectancy and healthcare costs for all locations being considered.
I think you will find that most of the more livable places to live in the United States require a car. The places that truly do not require a car are quite expensive to live in comfortably and often have other drawbacks as well.
I completely agree with your points about cars, but I don’t think Portland is in the running here. I am wondering what other areas may be most walkable, livable without a car. The US is such a car-centric place, that it’s tough. Europe would obviously be much better for that.
Yeah. That hit me when I was watching those driving tour videos. They say that places like Portland are really bike friendly. But looking at the Portland video next to the Amsterdam one, there was no comparison. The streets were filled with bikes in Amsterdam, and there were actual bike lanes everywhere there.
From what I could tell, the issue is that the places that are truly walkable and livable without a car are all major cities, and those major cities are all super expensive to live in. Eg. NY and Boston. If anyone knows otherwise please let me know!