Which city would you rather live in?

[2952-0-0]

You have two cities, and let's assume that their metropolitan areas have same populations, weather, natural surroundings, and racial makeup. Everything else will be affected by their differences, which will be explained below.

City A: The entire metropolitan area is criss-crossed with a huge network of freeways, and residents are expected to drive their cars to get around. As a result, there are vast suburbs of cookie-cutter homes complete with big-box stores and office parks, and dangerous and decaying ghettos close to the downtown core. Much space is also left for parking, and there is a near-total lack of any means of transport other than cars, since buses are slow, infrequent, late, infested by hobos and panhandlers, and are seen as a form of welfare for the poor. As a result, congestion on major roads is a big problem, but civic leaders always build more and more freeways in response.

City B: A vast network of subways, rapid buses, and trains reach every corner of the city, and although most households have cars, over 70% of commuters use the cheap, fast, and efficient public transport system. A few freeways exist, but they aren't designed to drive within the city, and you're almost considered insane if you drive to work every day. All mayors, of whatever ideology, have opposed more freeways and invested in expanding the public transport system. Most neighborhoods are a clutter of townhouses, apartments, and single-family homes (though even those seem to have smaller lot sizes than those in City A). Although the richest and poorest live in distinct areas, most others live side-by-side; it's hard to characterize one area as exclusively middle-class, upper-class, or lower-class.

Which would you rather choose, and which is a "better" place (subjectively speaking)?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

B hands down. Which is also no doubt far more liberal and probably has more strip clubs.

[Verily]

Would I rather live in/near LA or New York? I think my current location answers that question.

[Hatman 🍁]

B, obviously.  City A would be unsustainable in 50 to 100 years.

[AkSaber]

B, cause it doesn't seem like a sh**thole.

[Alcon]

City B sounds awesome.

[DownWithTheLeft]

I'll take Thanks to Rudy B is Awesome for $1,000 Alex

[DanielX]

Both have idiots in charge of urban planning.

[Ban my account ffs!]

I'd rather live in the country where I have lots of land, so I can enjoy the recreational opportunities and also have a large vegetable garden that provides the bulk of my vegetables and fruit.  But if I had to choose, I'd take city B, because at least that way the countryside wouldn't be invaded with suburban sprawl so that fat republicans could have their 5000 sq. ft. house on a tiny lot with a token juniper shrub and rock garden out front and a very green lawn that Juan takes care of while Mr. Republican sits in traffic on the freeway he opposed expanding in order to keep his taxes low.

[7,052,770]

City B sounds awesome.

[DanielX]

To expand upon my earlier remarks, City A and City B are both severely lacking.

City A has not enough attention paid to its downtown areas, is zoned with insufficient density, and is lacking in public transit options. There's plenty of trees, but everything looks all...cookie-cutter...somehow. This is either LA or one of the Texas cities, right? It kind of fits Orlando, too.

City B is zoned too densely, and its highway system - given that this is almost certainly New York City you're talking about - frankly sucks (an understatement!). The streets are in terrible repair, there's almost no greenery, and traffic flows about as fast as a snail.

What's needed is a metropolitan area with reasonable highway AND rail connections, and mostly moderate density housing - think older, 1950s-type suburbs, as well as townhouses (not inner-city-style flats which are stacked next to each other like bricks, but ones with plenty of trees around) and some low-rise apartments.

[Person Man]

B sounds like Baltimore, New York, Boulder, Santa Fe, Washington, D.C.

A sounds like Cleveland, Tampa, Laramie, Denver, Orlando and Colorado Springs


A sounds like a hick town in an area that usually votes 46-53 and B sounds like a neat town in a 53-46 area.

Though there are nice cities that are more traditional and like A. Fort Collins, Clearwater (sort of a hybrid, but is expensive and filled with rich people,old people, hicks, fundies and new age cultists.. you know republicans and communists)

[Verily]

B sounds like Baltimore, New York, Boulder, Santa Fe, Washington, D.C.

A sounds like Cleveland, Tampa, Laramie, Denver, Orlando and Colorado Springs


A sounds like a hick town in an area that usually votes 46-53 and B sounds like a neat town in a 53-46 area.

Though there are nice cities that are more traditional and like A. Fort Collins, Clearwater (sort of a hybrid, but is expensive and filled with rich people,old people, hicks, fundies and new age cultists.. you know republicans and communists)

In case you haven't been paying attention, A is a thinly veiled Los Angeles and B is a thinly veiled New York City.

[David S]

The nice thing about the US is that each person can make that choice for himself, or choose some other city with whatever characteristics he likes.

[Person Man]

...if he could find the money.