Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Tell Me What I Already Know

There's an opinion piece in today's New York Times that was brought to my attention via Twitter, and I thought I'd post because I've been in an especially "I love San Diego" kinda mood lately. As I said in the title, tell me what I already know, Mr. Brooks. The piece looks at a recent Pew Research Center study about where Americans would like to live and what sort of lifestyle they would like to have.


The researchers at Pew asked Americans what metro areas they would like to
live in. Seven of the top 10 were in the West: Denver, San Diego, Seattle, San
Francisco, Phoenix, Portland and Sacramento...
...If you jumble together the five most popular American metro areas —
Denver, San Diego, Seattle, Orlando and Tampa — you get an image of the American
Dream circa 2009. These are places where you can imagine yourself with a stuffed
garage — filled with skis, kayaks, soccer equipment, hiking boots and boating
equipment. These are places you can imagine yourself leading an active outdoor
lifestyle.
...These places are car-dependent and spread out, but they also have strong
cultural identities and pedestrian meeting places. They offer at least the
promise of friendlier neighborhoods, slower lifestyles and service-sector
employment. They are neither traditional urban centers nor atomized suburban
sprawl.

He failed to mention the incredible San Diego music scene, but I'll let him slide on that one. Even in these tough times with people struggling and our city, county, state and country all facing dire economic times that compound one another, I've never felt stronger about the place I've been lucky to call home.

Full article here.

2 comments:

Melodie Tao said...

Agreed! We are so lucky to call a place where most dream to vacation, home: San Diego!

Lazy John said...

Every metro area has its strengths and weaknesses. How much one likes or dislikes a given metro area is directly correlated to that which is important to him. I've always considered San Diego fairly middle of the road on all counts. It may not be great, but it isn't terrible, either. Some places have better music scenes, but more expensive real estate, and others vice-versa.