Recommend me a city in North America.

[onodera]

UPDATE: see page 2 immediately after reading this post.

If I ever decide to emigrate and my German won't be good enough to settle down in Germany or Austria, I'll have to move to the US or Canada (UK sucks).
I should research my options beforehand, so here's what I'm looking for:
a city - I'm a Moscow boy, got to have people around me
with good public transport - I don't enjoy driving, because I'm bad at dynamic equilibrii
and low crime urban neighbourhoods - don't want my kids to get mugged

I've narrowed the list down to NY, San Fran and Vancouver, but perhaps I've missed a city or two? All of these sound a bit too expensive.

PS This is completely unrelated to the latest WikiLeaks cable leak :wiglaf:

[MRT144]

SF has crap for public transit.

[rah]

I doubt you can afford to live in an area of NY where you kids won't get mugged.

[Wezil]

1. city
2. good transit
3. low crime

These are your major requirements? Pretty vague.

#2 will probably be the tough one if you are looking at NA.

[Elok]

Boston? Don't know about the crime situation, but the climate's distressingly cold so that should appeal to you. Lots of nice colleges for the kids. The Boston T works all right AFAICT. It doesn't have D.C.'s convoluted pricing system and it doesn't seem to be made out of recycled scrap like Manhattan's.

[giblets]

Here's a list of U.S. cities with high public transport ridership- I'm assuming that places with better public transport will generally have more people using it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...nsit_ridership

Info on crime rates in U.S. cities with at least 250,000 people:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_..._by_crime_rate

Maybe Boston? edit: crosspost

[Al B. Sure!]

Here's a list of U.S. cities with high public transport ridership- I'm assuming that places with better public transport will generally have more people using it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...nsit_ridership

Info on crime rates in U.S. cities with at least 250,000 people:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_..._by_crime_rate

Maybe Boston? edit: crosspost

Your assumption that places with better public transit will generally have more people using it is flawed on so many levels since it ignores the lack of competition in city transit services, rates of poverty or just car-ownership in cities, traffic and road congestion, distribution of jobs (really relevant for Jersey City), etc.

Philly is #6 and I can tell you right now, the Southeast Pennsylvania Transit Authority is beyond terrible and also is the most expensive public transit service in the country at $2/one-way bus ride, not to mention the fact that it is only $2 and not $3 or $4 because SEPTA received massive state subsidies when they threatened to raise fares, something which the city and state governments felt would have left thousands of students and workers unable to afford to travel to school or their jobs.

Consider that in Philadelphia, 22.9% of the population is below the poverty line. The fact that 26.43% of the city's population takes public transit should not therefore be surprising.

[DaShi]

I hear Newark has a large Russian community.

[giblets]

Your assumption that places with better public transit will generally have more people using it is flawed on so many levels since it ignores the lack of competition in city transit services, rates of poverty or just car-ownership in cities, traffic and road congestion, distribution of jobs (really relevant for Jersey City), etc.

Philly is #6 and I can tell you right now, the Southeast Pennsylvania Transit Authority is beyond terrible and also is the most expensive public transit service in the country at $2/one-way bus ride, not to mention the fact that it is only $2 and not $3 or $4 because SEPTA received massive state subsidies when they threatened to raise fares, something which the city and state governments felt would have left thousands of students and workers unable to afford to travel to school or their jobs.

Consider that in Philadelphia, 22.9% of the population is below the poverty line. The fact that 26.43% of the city's population takes public transit should not therefore be surprising.

I think mass transit rates are a good starting point. Obviously it's a good idea to avoid **** holes like Philly.

Actually by taking crime rates into account I think you could easily eliminate the cities who only have high mass transit rates because people are too poor to drive.

[Riesstiu IV]

Not Dallas.

[giblets]

Yeah, avoid Texas entirely if you want decent mass transit.

[onodera]

I hear Newark has a large Russian community.

Guess what? **** Russian community. If I wanted one, I'd move to Brighton Beach.

[Dauphin]

What's Toronto like?

[Provost Harrison]

...(UK sucks)...

Says the Russian

[onodera]

Says the Russian

Yep, London = Moscow and everything else is a village.