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What do you think is the best US city to live in or near, and why?
(sh.itjust.works)
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this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2026
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I live and have lived in the chicago metro my whole life. There are few places I could imagine moving to if I could go anywhere. Obviously im biased. One thing is I need good public transit. I never thought how good ours may or may not be till I went to a job interview in dc. I swear it was middle of the day and the trains ran like every 20 mins. In chicago they only run that unoften at like 2am. then like getting off and going on a buss you paid basically full fare. got a 25 cent discount or something. here you pay your fair and you can transfer twice outside the system (bus to diff bus or bus to train or train to bus. transfers train to train are always free and don't use a formal transfer). I think maybe only new york might have a system that is adequate enough for me in the us outside of chicago. add to this great bike lane infrastructure and the divy bike program and the extended train network with metra and its central location to amtrack plus two major airports. then like the lakefront, parks, forest preserves often around the rivers. its not bad for nature spaces for such a big city. then like you can find food from anywhere between the city and the suburbs. also four seasons which can be a plus or minus but is a plus for me. when you have nice weather in chicago you effing appreciate the heck out of it.
You are right that Chicago's system doesn't get enough love, but you've always got a free train to bus transfer on the DC system. I remember when you actually got a little slip of paper from the train station to give to the bus driver. These days trains are 3-10m headways during peak times, at least down town, but that definitely hasn't always been the case.
I swear it was like a 25 cent discount train to bus. this was just after 2010 I think.
It's $2.25 today which is the full fare of a metrobus ride. I am like 90% sure the credit has always been full fare but it's possible at some point it might not have been.
yeah its possible I was reading the machines wrong. I got off at reagan and was like. wtf. then after waiting 20 mins for a train and waiting another 20 when I transfered to the line going to the univeristy I was again like. wtf.
A 20 minute wait at DCA would make me pretty upset as well. Early 2010s was the "trains keep catching on fire" era, which meant they would single-track for weeks after the incident to make repairs. These days the trains don't catch on fire nearly as often.
yeah it was funny because I had heard good things about the system and was massively disapointed. I mean I like the cleanliness. I mean I only experienced it once but left a rather sour taste in my mouth. I had actually hoped to take the opportunity to get out to the mall for an hour but had to put a kybosh on that. I don't travel a lot so missing the opportunity to see a place I go to kinda stunk.
Lived in and around Chicago most of my life, and this is also my answer.
Having a winter hobby to look forward to takes the edge of the cold weather for me.
You mentioned the lake, but another benefit often overlooked is access to one of the largest bodies of fresh water on the planet.
yeah to go further the water reclamation district and not just water source but like the deep tunnel. There were so many articles suggesting it was a boon dogle as it got expanded and expanded but even though they plan for abundanza by the time they have it. It turns out to be just enough. Its looking pretty genius now with the crazy storms we have nowadays. I was talking to people this year how when growing up most rain was from rainy days rather than always seeming to be a storm. ironically this last summer we actually had closer to the rainy days I remember as a kid. much like last winter that everyone said was so bad just reminded me a typical one before the 90's.