Where Should I Move To? Part Tres

What’s going on everyone.

First some business:

Music to listen to: Ghost Song by The Doors



Play this and relax.

Crush of the Day: They will be throughout this post.

Since I’m graduating from grad school in a few weeks, its gotten me thinking about the possibility of moving to a new city. I did two posts about this and they were popular so here’s the third edition of “Where I should Move To?” Part Tres

Here’s the criteria:

a) I would prefer that it’s not in the Northeast. Grew up there, love it, need something different.

b) At least two professional teams and/or solid college sports scene. I do work in sports management after all.

c) The majority of my family lives in New York City, Atlanta, Dallas and South Carolina. I love my family and would like to be near them but I’m also a loner so moving across the country away from them doesn’t concern me greatly.

d) I’ve never been to any of the places that are going to be listed accept Baltimore and San Antonio, so I have no personal experiences with any of them.

e) Grew up in New York but that was too big, like the size of Nashville even though it feels too small at times and Atlanta is slightly too condensed.

f) I want it to be a known place but not cliché. That’s why you won’t see Dallas, LA, Miami, Chicago, Detroit, etc. on the list. Those are nice cities but I want to go with something different.

g) I don’t like the Eastern Time Zone. I have my reasons so that going to be a factor.

Here are the rankings so far:

Vancouver- 2 out of 10St. Louis- 5 out of 10Toronto- 6 out of 10Houston- 6 out of 10Cincinnati- 6 out of 10Denver- 7 out of 10Baltimore- 7 out of 10Oakland- 8 out of 10Seattle: 9 out of 10

OK, lets get to some cities:

Milwaukee

Sports Scene: The scene is solid. You have the Bucks and Brewers right in town, so the NBA and MLB are represented. I’ll have to become a Packers fan, which is ok I guess. They have some minor league teams in various sports. I would be close to Chicago, so all of their sports teams are available to me.

College may be a little thin, even though Marquette is right there. The University of Wisconsin is about an hour and a half away so that’s not a far drive to make.

Nicknames: I don’t like Mill Town or The Mil. Cream City doesn’t sound family friendly, if you know what I mean. Brew City is good. I’m ambiguous on The City of Festivals and Deutch-Athens, which in German means German Athens.

Motto: Where’s the beer and cheese. Just kidding, that was mean. I couldn’t find one.

Cultural Scene: They seem to like museums a lot in the city, which isn’t a bad thing but not something I’m going to be running to. One thing that I do enjoy going to are festivals and the city probably hosts one of the most famous ones in the world in Summerfest. All my research continues to point to the cultural diversity of the city, which would be welcomed.

Weather: Its frickin Wisconsin, time to start wearing the heavy coats after years of avoiding them in the southeast.

Odd Fact: The city is home to the International Clown Hall of Fame, the Harley-Davison Museum and America’s Black Holocaust Museum. I would be interested in visiting one out of those three places the first day in town and it may or may not be the one you would think.

Actually, this gives me a moment to talk about my lack of trust in clowns. I’ve never liked them and when I see one, I give them the side eye and watch my back. Laugh if you want but those are the facts.

Eye candy/celebrity factor/food: While listening to my Steve Miller CDs, here are the people that I could kick it with in the city…Eric Benet, Devin Harris, Jerry Harrison of the Talking Heads, Jane Kaczmarek, Kato Kaelin, Les Paul, Terry Porter, Speech from Arrested Development, Prince Fielder and Bob Uecker.

Candice Michelle counts as the eye candy.

The food would be excellent, especially if I embrace European dishes. I’m not a big fan of the various forms of sausages or cheese for that matter, so that would be an issue. What wouldn’t be an issue is Miller beer. I can have that all day.

Population: Metro population is just under two million people, so this works out.

Likelihood of moving here: A surprising 7 out of 10. I was surprised by this one. I like the cultural activities, especially the ones outdoor and I always have Chicago for big city activities.

Minneapolis

Sports Scene: Very strong. They have all four of the major sports leagues represented with the Twins, Timberwolves, Vikings and Wild.

They also have the solid USL team, the Minnesota Thunder right there as well.

Oh, there is the University of Minnesota, part of the Big 11, yes, I said the Big 11, so all of those sports are right there for me.

Nicknames: City of Lakes is excellent, Mini-Apple is ok and Twin Cities is solid. I can do without Mill City

Motto: En Avant, which in French means Forward. Needs some more creativity.

Cultural Scene: They have excellent parks, the most elaborate theatre scene outside of New York, the parks are described as some of the best in the country, lots of things working for it. Furthermore, Mall of America. Who doesn’t love a mall?

Weather: This may be an issue. Its not just “hey, it’s a little chilly outside so let me get a light coat” cold, its “holy crap, I can’t feel my fingers and why did a foot of snow just come here overnight?” cold. This isn’t a city to be messed with.

Odd Fact: The City of Lakes and Seattle are tied for the most literate cities in the USA. Also, the city was ranked second in having the highest percentage of commuters that use bicycles. One more for the road, more than 40% of citizens in the city volunteer and do charity work, the highest percentage for a major city in the US.

Eye candy/celebrity factor/food: While listening to my Prince CDs, which each of us should be doing on a daily basis anyway, here’s who I can kick it with at the Mini-Apple…Prince of course, Rachel Leigh Cook, Julia Duffy, Kimberly Elise, Larry Fitzgerald, Ric Flair, Al Franken, Brock Lesner, Allen Page, Jesse Ventura

I know that Rachel Leigh Cook may fit my type more but I’m going to go with the upset and list Kimberly Elise as the eye candy. She’s underrated.

Population: Metro population is just over three million people, so that’s not too bad but maybe pushing it on size.

Likelihood of moving here: I’m going to go with a five out of 10. Everything looks good on paper accept for the weather. I can’t deal with the cold like that, laugh at me if you want, its deserved.

Portland, Ore.

Sports Scene: Its limited in comparison to many other places. Of course, you have the Trailblazers of the NBA and that’s great, I love the NBA but I need some more. OK, I’ll give you the Timbers of the USL who will actually be in the MLS in 2011, so that’s a bonus. There are some minor league teams in the area, which is good.

For colleges, the University of Portland is there. The Pilots. Portland State deserves a mention as well. I also know that the two big state schools, Oregon and Oregon State aren’t impossible to get to.

Nicknames: I like Rose City, dislike P-Town, confused with Stumptown, PDX is awful and I wouldn’t want to move to Little Beirut when normal Beirut isn’t a walk in the park.

Motto: Two separate sources say that its “The City that Works” and “In Livable Cities is Preservation of the Wild.” First one is bad, second one has potential.

Cultural Scene: Portland is obviously on the west coast and has an outdoor element that’s intriguing. If I want to go hiking or hit up a river for some rafting, I can get down with that. A nice feature of the city is that it’s a center for microbreweries, which is something I like to dabble in.

Weather: Time to get the raincoat off of layaway...

Speaking of which, do people purchase items on layaway anymore. This deserves its own post one day.

Odd Fact: Portland is the largest shipper of wheat in the USA. Good to know if I need some bread. I guess this connects with the microbreweries as well.

Another odd fact. Because of the strong free speech protections in the Oregon Constitution, it was found that full nudity and lap dances are protected speech. What this has resulted in is the city having the most strip clubs per capita than San Francisco and even Las Vegas. Wow, just wow.

Eye candy/celebrity factor/food: While listening to my Meredith Brooks CDs , here’s who I can kick it with in Rip City…Bill Walton, Matt Groening, Joey Harrington, Peter Jacobson, Phil Knight, Roddy Piper, Ahmad Rashad, Damon Stoudamire…

Quick tangent of Damon. He had my favorite drug arrest ever when he was busted with pot at the airport when the metal detector went off and his weed was wrapped with the foil. Who does that? He’s coaching now with the Memphis Grizzlies so hopefully he has that under control. OK, back to the celebrities.

Gus Van Zant, Lindsay Wagner and Brad Wilk.

Katee Sackhoof of Battlestar Galactica fame gets love for the eye candy.

Population: Metro population is just over two million, not bad.

Likelihood of moving here: I’m going to say five out of 10. It’s a little too far away, isolated and I need more sports.

Ok, that’s it for now. Here are the current standings:

Vancouver- 2 out of 10

St. Louis- 5 out of 10

Portland- 5 out of 10

Minneapolis- 5 out of 10

Toronto- 6 out of 10

Houston- 6 out of 10

Cincinnati- 6 out of 10

Milwaukee- 7 out of 10

Denver- 7 out of 10

Baltimore- 7 out of 10

Oakland- 8 out of 10

Seattle: 9 out of 10

I only have about two or three cities left. I promised Karst that I would do Kansas City. I also need to get at Mr. McMahon’s suggestion, San Diego. I need to do Salt Lake City for comedy sake and maybe Omaha.

Am I missing any cities, let me know.