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Worst place: Scranton, PA. Poverty, Dirty, Toxic waste.

Best place: Stuttgart, Germany. Lot's of culture, lot's of places to travel to, clean, beautiful.

Dream home: Probably Santa Fe, New Mexico. I am older now and looking for a manageable size city, lots of sunshine, a healthy environment, and beautiful.

The best place we ever lived was outside of London, England. We had accessible health care, good transportation, schools with discipline, and super friends of all nationalities. I miss it.

The worst places we lived were in an area of CT and where we are now in central VA. Boring. The only movies showing at our local theater are for kids and the zombie lovers here. This community could care less about anything cultural.
The school systems in both places were/are ridiculous...the high school in CT built a smokeyard for the students, and the arts are the first to go here to make room for bigger and better sports.
This is NOT the country I grew up in...makes me ill.

worst place: Durango, CO

Lots of people "light in the loafers"

Cold

Low wages

No jobs

hit 10 deer and 2 elk the 11 years I lived there.

had to work 3 jobs just to live in comfort.

worse place: Ogdensburg NY up on the Canadian border.

Boring...

Dead...

Long drives to buy anything or see doctors

Snow on the ground from Thanksgiving to Easter.

Temperatures below zero many days each winter

Only entertainment was hanging out in bars on weekends.

best place: Palm Coast FL

our current home has a lot of pluses- pool, ocean nearby, loads of outdoor activities, great weather, nice neighbors, etc.

Big Minus: grandkids are 900+ miles away but we still own a home up there.

Worst place: Rochester, NY,,,,our family nearly died in a blizzard...

Best place: Santa Barbara California, the first twenty years. It was a small town and had a wonderful atmosphere when we moved there in 1966. The ocean was beautiful (before the oil spill), the mountains were fun to hike (before the yearly fires), the downtown was charming, (before the malls with all the chain stores took the place of independent shops), and homes were affordable, (before the prices averaged one million $$$ for a shack). We raised our children there happily. My husband had a good job in the tech industries, I owned my own business....until.. "Progress" changed everything..

Our dream home: Right now, we're living our dream in Western North Carolina. Nice home which was moderately priced, beautiful nature near the Blue Ridge Parkway, really friendly neighbors and great new friends, an excellent new library, and lots and lots of music. We go back to SB once a year, just in time for another forest fire or earthquake, or gang slaying. Sorry, the "Golden State" has become badly tarnished.

that area of n.c. is amazing. just got back. wow. loved it. have to go look more. really spend some time there. yes, we live up in w.penna, and, if you are not careful, you will die in these winters, easily. have to have blankets, etc, emergency equip, in your vehicles, be careful, and, dress right going out in middle of winter, especially us folk that live in the country, no people closeby. can be very dangerous. see people every year that fall down, freeze to death. that asheville area is just great though ! glad to hear you are so happy there.

First week in September we drove the Blue Ridge Parkway from its southern end in Cherokee to Roanoke, VA. The scenery was awesome, we loved it. We enjoyed the area, but not sure that we could live there permanently. Maybe for the summers, but we would miss the northern NY winters. I think that Winters in northern NY, summers near Floyd, VA and springs and fall on a lovely Caribbean island, perhaps St Croix.

I agree with Viva1 about Stuttgart, Germany being one of the best places in the world to live, although I like it here in Albuquerque. We moved many times in my husband's military career, but the worst would have to be Clovis, NM. Small, dusty, and 100 miles to the next sizeable city. When the wind blew from the stockyard, the smell was indescribably awful!

best place: Portland, Oregon area, where I have lived for the past 3 1/2 years.

worst place: Kinfolkville, Bubbastate. Located in the western part of the "Old South", in a formerly Confederate state. A smallish to medium sized metro area. 50 year old men who speak English in a correct and proper manner are actually looked down upon for doing so. People are so much into their "kinfolk" that it is very common to see all day long extended family reunions that are held on a weekly basis. Kville voted 85% for bush in 2004 yet if you asked a typical adult resident a rudimentary question about any of the most basic issues you would think that he or she has never read a newspaper. 55 year old men typically drive like drug crazed 16 year-olds, and the traffic fatality rate reflects that. That last item is something that you literally have to see to believe. You could check the NHTSA, something I wished I had done prior to my moving there. Diversity consists of the following: hispanic and black, period. The largest minority groups in my part of the Portland area, beginning with the largest, are first generation immigrants from former USSR republics, Asians, hispanics, Pacific Islanders, native americans, blacks. Contrary to what is on tv, Russians are not criminals to any higher percentage than plain white, natural born US citizens. Diversity is a good thing, but if only two groups are represented, it can get a little skewed. Kinfolkville has a very high obesity rate compared to Portland and the nation as a whole. That seems to be attributable to a number of factors. One of course is ignorance. Kville is not exactly among the country's most literate areas. Another is kinfolkiness. The kinfolk accept their kin no matter how fat you get, partly because they are getting fatter too. Another is that they are just not that active and obesity doesnt seem to interfere with their favorite pastime - eating and gossiping about the kinfolk that are not at this weeks extended family reunion. Reading groups there are pitiful. Everyone is in a hurry to get nowhere. 85% of the drivers will gladly risk your life and safety to try to cut two minutes off of their ten minute commute. 75% of the kids are on drugs. Everything is corrupt and controlled by the "good old boys network". Urban planning is a joke - its a "build first and ask questions later" approach to permits, etc. When a major highway is being resurfaced, instead of doing small sections at a time, they close down one lane of an entire 180 mile strech, slowing people down for hours. They dont use curbs and painted lane markers to even attempt to boost traffic safety. Every time some statistics are issued showing that Bubbastate has a traffic safety problem, they make up excuses. Oh its the trucks. Oh we are more rural. All of their excuses can be easily shot down, but they dont care.

San Francisco was great "back in the day" but I don't think I would enjoy it much now. I recently retired and sold my condo in Baton Rouge, la to move to the very small town of Ponchatoula, la. one of the most common phrases I hear is "can I help you with that?"..they love festibels..just had a craft and food one..had a shrimp cake with crab bisque over it..little piece of heaven. two weeks before is was a BBQ cook off..and I hear there is a chili cook off coming soon..you get the picture..oh, and three small streams with boat ramps within ten miles of the house..salt water fishing is a 30 minute drive to launch the boat. worst place? without doubt my home town of Cairo, Il.