[ajlburke]

Have you BEEN to Kansas City? I got sent there for work meetings once and I have to admit I dreaded it - but it's got lots going for it, with lots of great cultural history (Jazz!) and some awesome food (BBQ!) and some really interesting places downtown. The people I met there were a whole lot more genuinely nice than most Bay Area folks, too.

YMMV obviously, but if you dismiss most of the rest of the continent as "geographically uninspiring" you're going to miss out on a lot.

[ocb]

Shh, west coast people have a higher quality of life than you! They can drive to better-than-average hikes on weekends! That's such a huge part of their identities that nowhere else could possibly be bearable!

[jordache]

some ppl's quality of life is defined by being able to buy a bigger mcmansion. Other people likes the ability to reconnect with nature.

KS? sheesh.. no way man

[ocb]

The point I was trying to make is that your belief that access to the mountains is actually the most important thing for lots of people (especially the software developer type) is absurd.

If you're living in a city, your day-to-day lifestyle is going to be pretty much the same anywhere in the US, or really anywhere in the developed world.

Yes, that includes Kansas City.

[jessaustin]

Kansas City is not actually in Kansas. Kansas is the state named after its neighbor's second-best city.

[epalmer]

Good places to raise a family count for some of us. Having an easy commute does as well.

[draw_down]

Yuck.

[nikdaheratik]

The only major downsides to that part of the country are January is really cold and August is really freakin' hot. Also, there's a tendency towards blandness and sprawl, but that's a problem everywhere.

[spo81rty]

And we have awesome springs and falls with all the beautiful trees. Something I really missed when I moved to Oklahoma for a couple years. They have very few big trees.

[vram22]

How cold?

[rdtsc]

> lot more genuinely nice than most Bay Area folks, too.

I noticed that too. I miss that part of the Midwest as well. I am on the East coast now and here people are too aggressive and competitive, even without an obvious reason to be so. I mean they are still genuine, just genuine in their open hostility so to speak.

They say these are just stereotypes and are not accurate, but I don't know, seem to jive pretty well to what I noticed.

[Kalium]

Yes, I have. I spent time living there.

I like not having to own a car.

[jordache]

My bar is geographically compelling regions: West Coast to the Mountain West essentially