From: ptkwt@... (Phil Tomson)
Date: 2005-09-22T01:36:39+09:00
Subject: Re: [OT] Places for a programmer to live?

In article <20050920234057.7ecb83b7.zedshaw@zedshaw.com>,
Zed A. Shaw <zedshaw@zedshaw.com> wrote:
>
>Tempe, AZ -- Small little town with a kind of hidden tech industry.
>Lots of semiconductor plants, and ASU is a pretty nice university.
>People there drive like idiots and nobody likes pedestrians.  They even
>have commercials with the slogan, "Share The Road" telling the bikers
>and walkers to get out of the car's way.  Summers there are hotter than
>Satan's Asshole after eating a gallon of Goan curry.
>
>Bellingham, WA -- Great little town where a smart guy like me (and
>maybe you) could go die a quiet little death.  Bob Log III has played
>there.  What more do you need?  WWU is a nice little university.  Great,
>fun people.  Watch out for the chlorine plant down the
>road.  Someday everyone's need to wipe their ass with white toilet
>paper will kill all of Bellingham.

Death Cab for Cutie is from Bellingham, correct?

>
>Vancouver, BC -- Gorgeous rivers, oceans, forrests, beaches, and great
>food found everywhere.  Too bad all the crackheads, meth addicts,
>heroin abusers, and obnoxious whiny psuedo-liberals screw it up for
>everyone else. The police there are more corrupt than a FAT32
>filesystem after a Sasser Worm attack. Check out the "Pickton pig farm"
>serial murder case for an example of Police effectiveness.  I have to
>say that I've lived all over the US and been in some really bad shady
>places, and I never felt so threatened and unsafe as I did in
>Vancouver.  But hey, if you have tons of money you can just go
>Snowboarding at Whistler and ignore it all like all the other rich
>people living there.

I've only visited Van, BC a couple of times.  I was very favorably impressed.  
Stayed in the "Little Italy" section for a few days - old Italian men arguing 
with each other out in front of nice sidewalk cafes; it was very autentico, 
felt like I was really in Italy there for a minute.

 >
>Tacoma, WA -- Used to have the worst gang violence in the US.  Now
>they've cleaned it up, fired the corrupt police, dumped money into
>renovating and saving all the historic hotels, and created a tram that
>goes like 4 blocks.   It's a start, and Tacoma I think is really poised
>to take off.  That place will be great as soon as they clear the
>prostitutes and crack dealers out of the blocks around the library.
>You can buy some fantastic houses there for next to nothing.  If you do
>work in any of the prison oriented businesses then you can have lots of
>work there.  Tacoma has more prisons than Santa has hated children on
>his list.  This is because Tacoma/Pierce County is Seattle/King County's
>ashtray.

I hear they've got a nice glass museum now.

>
>Portland, OR -- Ok, I didn't really live in Portland but I visited and
>damn I wish I had moved there.  People in Portland were so damn nice it
>was bizarre.  I thought I was a sucker in some weird reality show.  I
>was walking down the street and a homeless guy asked me for some
>money.  I said, "Sorry."  With a shit eating grin he said, "You have a
>really nice day man." Another guy heard me playing harmonica and
>offered me free food.  And who can't love a city that has both the
>Santa Rampage *and* Chuck Palahniuk.  Anarchy rules!

Don't forget the Zoo Bombers.  And those guys who modify their bikes in 
really bizarre ways and use them for jousting.

Liked your colorful descriptions of all these places....


Phil