Would you rather live in Des Moines, Iowa or Jacksonville, Florida?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Des Moines.

Smaller cities that still have strong amenities, a livable and logical layout, and that are sanely designed and have solid public transit and a diversity of weather are far preferable to sprawly Sun Belt hellholes.

Curious how traininthedistance is going to vote for this...

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Jacksonville

This. Another thread to bash "OMG sprawly suburbs".

Uh, you do realize Des Moines has plenty of sprawly suburbs too right? It's just that the actual city is much nicer. In fact Des Moines has an interesting distinction in that the city proper on the northern city limits cuts off right where the sprawl begins, and there's a spread of unincorporated territory between it and its northern suburbs, (which is actually where the motel I stayed at while I was there was located), which helps keep it insulated from the terribleness.

FWIW, Des Moines streets are more narrow than Minneapolis', and unlike in Minneapolis parking is allowed on only one side on the majority of them, which can be annoying, but is still the more urban way to go. Not saying it's more urban as a whole, but I did find that rather noteworthy about it.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Though I don't share with the Atlas fetish of small, cold, white, liberal hipster cities

That's...a terrible description of Des Moines. Madison or Iowa City, maybe, but Des Moines?

Perhaps most amusing about that description is the fact that Des Moines isn't even all that white. It's almost a third non-white in fact.