Recommend me a city in North America.

[Pax]

My favorite cities on the east coast besides NY and Boston are...
Atlanta (hometown)
Austin, TX great music and indie film community
and Halifax, Nova Scotia beautiful clean city
These are places I am recommending from personal experiences.

[MrFun]

...why?

Must you be so closed minded?

[Dinner]

I didn't expect Sausalito to be so cold in summer.

It's right on the water. If you're worried about that then either move inland in the bay area or, if you want to stay on the water, move south of Point Conception because the water south of Point Conception is a warm current moving from the tropics north while the current north of Point Conception (basically northern California) comes from Alaska south so you get cold water.

More practical advice, will you be working and if so what field? Right now it is kind of hard to find a job if you don't already have one so it might be better to get a job and then move to where ever you have a job. That is unless you are independently wealthy and don't need to work. I guess you could be a Russian Oligarch or mafia boss.

[rah]

Surprised to see the city where I live listed in the top 25.
And yes, using percentages seems a bit silly. 100% of nothing is still nothing. And I'm sure you'd find more in Chicago and NY then the top 25 combined.

[DanS]

O: If you're looking for culture as the top priority, then you probably want to stick to some of the top metro areas in the US: NYC, San Francisco, LA, Chicago, and Washington DC, in that order. Quality theater is a little hard to come by in the US -- NYC is the undisputed king here although I understand that San Francisco has a good scene.

Art is strong in NYC and to a lesser extent Washington (it lacks some depth and variety of art forms). Don't know about how strong the art scene is in LA, Chicago and San Francisco. I liked Chicago's museums, but only had a short time to visit, so can't judge how deep they are -- they tend toward the sciences rather than art.

These are of course among the most expensive places to live in the US. Chicago is probably the cheapest among the five due to the cold winter weather. I have a favorable impression of Chicago, although I have only visited twice.

I would suggest a few visits to the US before making the jump, if you can afford it. You may find that you can live in the second culture tier cities, or you may find that even the lower end of the top 5 isn't for you. YMMV.

Good luck!

[The Mad Monk]

Must you be so closed minded?

Put up or shut up.

[pchang]

housing costs

What about payments to HOA/whatever? What's their typical amount?

Actually, I was including Mortgage, taxes, and insurance. These homes are not in a Home Owner's Association so there would be no HOA. Thus, my figures would represent the total cost.

[pchang]

I didn't expect Sausalito to be so cold in summer.

Actually, the warmest part of the year here is Sept. and Oct.

[onodera]

It's right on the water. If you're worried about that then either move inland in the bay area or, if you want to stay on the water, move south of Point Conception because the water south of Point Conception is a warm current moving from the tropics north while the current north of Point Conception (basically northern California) comes from Alaska south so you get cold water.

More practical advice, will you be working and if so what field? Right now it is kind of hard to find a job if you don't already have one so it might be better to get a job and then move to where ever you have a job. That is unless you are independently wealthy and don't need to work. I guess you could be a Russian Oligarch or mafia boss.

I'm an IT BA/PM, so I need a place with lots of IT firms or bank HQs that is not Texas.

[Dinner]

http://money.usnews.com/money/careers/articles/2009/09/15/10-best-places-for-tech-jobs

Best places for tech jobs right now (the article was written in 2009 so specific market conditions have no doubt changed)
1. Atlanta
2. Boston
3. Houston
4. Huntsville
5. New York
6. Phoenix
7. San Diego
8. San Francisco
9. Seattle
10. Washington D.C.

It was based on current job openings advertised at the time so I'm not sure how much faith to put into that assessment. It would be useful to find a list of total IT employment by city, ranked from most number of actual people employed to least, and then compare it to a similiar list of banking employees in each city. That should tell you where the jobs in your field are located.

[stevesingh]

Ls vegas is THE city in north america .

[Hauldren Collider]

Northern Virginia has a lot of tech. Much of it is government contractors, but there are a lot of datacenters in Ashburn, Virginia.

[The Mad Monk]

HeadquartersThe following companies and organizations (excluding educational institutions) are among the larger one's headquartered in the metro area (noting cities of headquarters office if not Kansas City, MO):

American Century Investments, a major investment management firm
AMC Theatres, a major movie theater chain
Andrews McMeel Universal, a syndication and publication company which represents media/entertainment features such as Dear Abby, Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes and Doonesbury
Applebee's, a major restaurant chain - Lenexa, Kansas
Black & Veatch Corporation, major engineering firm
Burns & McDonnell Engineering, an engineering and architectural firm
Cerner, leading supplier of healthcare information technology solutions - North Kansas City, Missouri
Church of the Nazarene
Commerce Bancshares, a bank serving Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois
Community of Christ, International Headquarters, Independence, MO
DeMolay International
DST Systems, Inc., global provider of sophisticated information processing and computer software services and products
CenturyLink, formerly Embarq Corporation, large telecommunications company (headquarters in Monroe, Louisiana)
Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA)
Ferrellgas, the nation's largest retailer and distributor of natural gas
Fort Dodge Animal Health, a major animal health pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturer and a division of Wyeth - Overland Park, Kansas
Freightquote.com, Online 3rd party logistics provider -Lenexa, Kansas
Garmin, largest maker of GPS-based electronics - Olathe, Kansas
Hallmark Cards, largest maker of greeting cards in the U.S.
HNTB Corporation, large architectural and engineering firm
H&R Block, financial corporation and former parent company of CompuServe, known mostly for their income tax preparation services
Inergy, L.P., one of the nation's largest retailers and distributors of natural gas
Interstate Bakeries Corporation, makers of Twinkies and Wonder Bread (recently moved headquarters to Irving, Texas)
International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers
J. E. Dunn Construction Group, major construction contractor
Kansas City Board of Trade, a commodity futures and options exchange
Kansas City Power and Light Company, a leading regulated provider of electricity and energy-related products and services
Kansas City Southern Industries, operators of a Class I railroad
Lockton Companies, the largest privately held insurance brokerage in the nation
National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA)
Newport Television - one of the largest privately held broadcasting companies in the United States
North Kansas City Hospital - North Kansas City, Missouri
People to People International, a voluntary organization founded by President Dwight Eisenhower
Peterson Manufacturing Company, a leading manufacturer of vehicle lighting - Grandview, Missouri
Populous (formerly HOK Sport + Venue + Event), a major sports architectural firm
Reece and Nichols Realtors Inc., a large real estate sales/brokerage firm
Russell Stover Candies
Sprint Nextel Corporation, one of the world's largest telecommunication companies - Overland Park, KS
Perceptive Software, makers of "Image NOW" software - Shawnee, Kansas
UMB Financial Corporation, a large commercial bank serving a multistate area of the Midwest
Unity Church
Veterans of Foreign Wars
Waddell & Reed, a large investment management and brokerage firm - Overland Park, Kansas
Walton Construction, a major construction contractor
Wolferman's bakery
YRC Worldwide Inc., known mostly from its former name and brand "Yellow Freight", one of the largest transportation service providers in the world - Overland Park, Kansas
The Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank is one of the U.S.'s twelve such banks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_City_metropolitan_area#Headquarters

[pchang]

The Mad Monk = KC Civic Booster
Frankly, in most cases it is not to our advantage to encourage more people to move to where we live.

BTW - Data Centers != IT Jobs
Most Data Centers only employ 24 hour rent a cops and rack and stack people

[Hauldren Collider]

The Mad Monk = KC Civic Booster
Frankly, in most cases it is not to our advantage to encourage more people to move to where we live.

BTW - Data Centers != IT Jobs
Most Data Centers only employ 24 hour rent a cops and rack and stack people

There's also network infrastructure and stuff, I know there are IT jobs there. Not sure how many.