Where We Live—Recommendations Where To Live

[Stuhoo 89,566]

  On 4/17/2025 at 10:48 PM, woodenshoemanHoosierfan said:

This sums up my thoughts about where I live.

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That’s what the good lord invented subways for my friend.

[AZ Hoosier 10,906]

  On 4/17/2025 at 11:04 PM, Stuhoo said:

That’s what the good lord invented subways for my friend.

Yeah, I always crave a good sub sandwich when I'm stuck in traffic...

[Napleshoosier 10,890]

I got stuck in a traffic jam from hell one day coming back from Santa Barbara, Ca to Orange County (Costa Mesa).  Traffic plugged in the San Fernando Valley on the 101.  It took six hours of sitting in traffic to get home. I lived in Houston the 1st two years out of school and thought the traffic was bad there but man…that LA is in a different league.  It was a fun place for a single guy in my 20’s and early 30’s for sure.

 

[AZ Hoosier 10,906]

  On 4/18/2025 at 12:34 AM, Napleshoosier said:

I got stuck in a traffic jam from hell one day coming back from Santa Barbara, Ca to Orange County (Costa Mesa).  Traffic plugged in the San Fernando Valley on the 101.  It took six hours of sitting in traffic to get home. I lived in Houston the 1st two years out of school and thought the traffic was bad there but man…that LA is in a different league.  It was a fun place for a single guy in my 20’s and early 30’s for sure.

 

You couldn't make me live in SoCal (or anywhere in California) for any reason or any amount of money... the state is a hellhole with a government to match. 

[Dave from Dayton 4,025]

  On 4/18/2025 at 12:52 AM, AZ Hoosier said:

You couldn't make me live in SoCal (or anywhere in California) for any reason or any amount of money... the state is a hellhole with a government to match. 

I could live there.  Provided, I could use extra $$$.  Daughter and SIL live adjacent to Balboa Park in San Diego.  Very nice.  Way too many people.  Too much sunshine for my skin.  And not enough water for the booming demands. 

 

[8bucks 7,554]

  On 4/15/2025 at 3:07 AM, HoosierHoopster said:

Woodlands is a nice area but that bus trip is down i45 - a good hour at least, lousy commute, you dodged a bullet

Yeah. Was close to buying in sugar land 15 yrs ago and moving down but chose to go back to Indy.  I have always had a 30+ minute commute, sometimes closer to an hour so at the time I thought it would be fine. Now I have a 8 minute commute and it feels like a cheat code. I did like parts of Houston. 

[Napleshoosier 10,890]

She lived down the road from me.  Her and her husband liked to go out to bars that had live bands and she would get up and sing with them. Lots of fun… she past away years ago. But that is what happens in Naples..

[pappy1865 2,279]

  On 4/14/2025 at 12:36 AM, woodenshoemanHoosierfan said:

Good ole Teutopolis, Illinois. Population 1400. Only bad thing is it is in Illinois.
Hour from Champaign, 2 hours from Indy, 1 hour from Terre Haute, 1.5 hours from St Louis.

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Good old Stevens Industries!  Visited that plant several times. 

Edited to add:

Grew up in Mooresville, Indiana. Lived in the Haute since 1996. Terre Haute isn't as bad as some make it out to be. I stayed in Lincoln, Nebraska, for work for 2 years. Norman, Oklahoma, for a year, and Cody, Wyoming, for a 7-month project. 

My goal when I retire is to move to Englewood, Florida. 

[woodenshoemanHoosierfan 6,695]

  On 4/19/2025 at 4:36 AM, pappy1865 said:

Good old Stevens Industries!  Visited that plant several times. 
Edited to add:
Grew up in Mooresville, Indiana. Lived in the Haute since 1996. Terre Haute isn't as bad as some make it out to be. I stayed in Lincoln, Nebraska, for work for 2 years. Norman, Oklahoma, for a year, and Cody, Wyoming, for a 7-month project. 
My goal when I retire is to move to Englewood, Florida. 

I worked at Stevens for 10 years in the Press Laminating Department before going to Sherwin Williams for more money. Enjoyed what I did there, but I needed the extra income.

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[Dhop 495]

  On 4/17/2025 at 10:58 PM, AZ Hoosier said:

 

I grew up on the southside of Indy, graduated from IU in 1977 and moved to Arizona after graduation ... seen a lot of change here - growth has been insane, and with the general political climate and the weather climate, Phoenix is just too much these days. I've been retired since 2016 and now split my time about 60-40 between the "rim country" around Happy Jack and the Phoenix metro area. Traffic is off the charts in Phoenix, and I avoid it as much as I can. During "snowbird season", we get an influx of midwesterners, northerners and Canadians, and everything bad about traffic and the sheer number of people just grows off the chart.

The number of people fleeing California has caused home prices to soar, doubling in the past 5 years or so.

The desert is hot - at times unbearably so - temps approaching 120º in the summers, followed by a relative cooling (105-110º), higher humidity and incredible dust storms during the "monsoon season" that is late summer. That drives most of the snowbirds back to their other homes, but it's too hot to do much outdoors.

That's why I prefer the Happy Jack area where temps are 10-20º cooler, but it's also met with an influx of folks from the valley of the sun (Phoenix metro area) invading the high country in search of cooler temps.

I lived in Chicago for a year or so, traveled to NYC over the years for work, and those big cities have a buzz and a culture unique to themselves. There is no real draw to downtown Phoenix - it's hot, dirty and overrun with the homeless.

The one redeeming season is spring and Cactus League baseball. We currently have 10 stadium complexes and 15 MLB teams train here. It's a great way to spend a day in the sun watching current and future stars of the sport with family and friends. The weather is generally perfect for this - temps ranging from the low 60s up to 85º or so.

Before my parents passed, I would get back to Indiana several times a year, but it just never felt like "home"... and I've not been back since about 2014.

With all of that said, Arizona is home now and we cope with the people and climate as best we can. I've seen this sign on multiple cars over the years, and it's a fairly widespread sentiment:

Went to a multi-day meeting in Phoenix.  Took the opportunity to get a round of golf in.  105* out.  Thank god it’s a “dry” heat.

every square inch of my clothing was trying to humidify AZ.  I’d never make it there myself, but a really cool area if you’re good with the temps.

[AZ Hoosier 10,906]

  On 4/19/2025 at 4:07 PM, Dhop said:

Went to a multi-day meeting in Phoenix.  Took the opportunity to get a round of golf in.  105* out.  Thank god it’s a “dry” heat.

every square inch of my clothing was trying to humidify AZ.  I’d never make it there myself, but a really cool area if you’re good with the temps.

Yeah, after 45 years, you kind of get used to it or adapt... but it's still hot... Arizona desert is a "dry heat", but so is my oven - and it still cooks the chicken... thank God for the rim country.

[HoosierHoopster 8,324]

  On 4/18/2025 at 1:49 AM, 8bucks said:

Yeah. Was close to buying in sugar land 15 yrs ago and moving down but chose to go back to Indy.  I have always had a 30+ minute commute, sometimes closer to an hour so at the time I thought it would be fine. Now I have a 8 minute commute and it feels like a cheat code. I did like parts of Houston. 

I’m in the Sugar Land - Sienna area. It was a good place to raise the kids, Fort Bend County was at one point the most diverse county in the country, the schools are good (though my daughter darted out East to Philips Exeter for HS), and we’re in one of those master planned communities so the housing and neighborhood is nice and we have lots of big trees and inlets off the Brazos (hence, the gator), the area itself is pretty nice, but you have to drive to get anywhere, the opposite of a walking town, and Houston is generally a 45 min commute surrounded by the worst drivers I’ve ever seen.

On the plus side I did hit 150 mph on the toll road once …. :) — empty, no other cars at the time, but don’t tell my kids — and yes, I did just say 150, just after criticizing Houston drivers…

[8bucks 7,554]

  On 4/20/2025 at 7:11 PM, HoosierHoopster said:

I’m in the Sugar Land - Sienna area. It was a good place to raise the kids, Fort Bend County was at one point the most diverse county in the country, the schools are good (though my daughter darted out East to Philips Exeter for HS), and we’re in one of those master planned communities so the housing and neighborhood is nice and we have lots of big trees and inlets off the Brazos (hence, the gator), the area itself is pretty nice, but you have to drive to get anywhere, the opposite of a walking town, and Houston is generally a 45 min commute surrounded by the worst drivers I’ve ever seen.

On the plus side I did hit 150 mph on the toll road once …. :) — empty, no other cars at the time, but don’t tell my kids — and yes, I did just say 150, just after criticizing Houston drivers…

Sienna Plantation? We would have been neighbors. I had a nice wooded lot picked out in there. This was 10+ years ago when it was fairly newish.  150, some muscle to get that quick. 

[HoosierHoopster 8,324]

  On 4/20/2025 at 7:28 PM, 8bucks said:

Sienna Plantation? We would have been neighbors. I had a nice wooded lot picked out in there. This was 10+ years ago when it was fairly newish.  150, some muscle to get that quick. 

Yep! It’s just Sienna now - small world we would’ve been neighbors— we moved here in 2000, there were still dirt roads now there’s something like 25,000 here

[Napleshoosier 10,890]

  On 4/20/2025 at 9:38 PM, HoosierHoopster said:

Yep! It’s just Sienna now - small world we would’ve been neighbors— we moved here in 2000, there were still dirt roads now there’s something like 25,000 here

Did you boys ever make it to ride the bull at Gilleys?  I was there 1982-1984 and yup I did.  lol. Houston was a fun time then but I’m right out of school so….  Da… lol  there were more awesome chica’s in Houston then than you could shake…. Whatever. Haha.  I lived on the north side. I-45 and FM 1960.  Was a long drive downtown everyday for sure.  It was a party town. After two years the company I worked for shipped me to Southern California .  Even met Red Adair the wild well fire fighter at one of his company party’s .  That was cool.  Sold equipment for the offshore platforms which was fun.  Yeah, I’ve been on many of those.  lol. In the Gulf of America, offshore California and Alaska.

[HoosierHoopster 8,324]

  On 4/21/2025 at 1:42 AM, Napleshoosier said:

Did you boys ever make it to ride the bull at Gilleys?  I was there 1982-1984 and yup I did.  lol. Houston was a fun time then but I’m right out of school so….  Da… lol  there were more awesome chica’s in Houston then than you could shake…. Whatever. Haha.  I lived on the north side. I-45 and FM 1960.  Was a long drive downtown everyday for sure.  It was a party town. After two years the company I worked for shipped me to Southern California .  Even met Red Adair the wild well fire fighter at one of his company party’s .  That was cool.  Sold equipment for the offshore platforms which was fun.  Yeah, I’ve been on many of those.  lol. In the Gulf of America, offshore California and Alaska.

Nope never did that. But then we moved here when we were already parents and both of us busy lawyers. One of my partners says

'why don't you live in the city in which you work?' Has a nice ring to it, but I'm still a commuter :)