If you could live in any city in the world, where would you live?

Kyoto.

I love Japanese society, it is complete opposite of the disorder and chaos I encounter in my daily life living in California. People leave leave their bikes outside without locks. I had my bike stolen within a few months of buying one back home. Always have to keep an eye out in case someone tries to harm me in any way, and it is really stressful living in the city here. In Tokyo, I felt calm even in a city that is more bustling than any I've been to. People there feel invested in their society, I think, because they take such great civil care. I don't think I ever saw any trash just all over the place like I do in Los Angeles or San Francisco. Nor do I think I saw any homeless people, considering their homelessness rate is 0.

Personally, I want to live in such a society where I can just live my life and work on my craft. Pay taxes, get some great societal benefits for it such as a working public transit system.. Having lived in USA and previously India, I can say with great confidence that my two weeks in Japan were some of the best and calmest so far in my 30 years. It just sucks that I struggle with learning new languages, and I only know english somewhat well.

I'd love to live in kyoto along the river, and just work on side projects and maybe teach programming or start/work at a company there. If someone can recommend me how to do that, that'd be great! Or if you want to hire someone who can do basically anything (business to engineering) at your company!

According to the internets the best quality of life is somewhere in australia https://citymeme.com/?search=&o=quality_of_life

Bangkok.

I'm planning to visit Sao Paulo either in the next couple months or starting next year (depending on Covid) and might settle there for quite some time; but for the time being I think Bangkok is the real deal except for humidity/heat.

Should the caveat be affordability, or just in dreams? Just in dreams I think it would be a large Japanese city, but if affordability comes into it, that complicates things.

I am content to live in Washington, DC. It has wonderful parks, it has the National Gallery of Art, one has suburban-feeling neighborhoods no farther from the White House than Murray Hill is from Wall Street.

Elsewhere? I'd vote for the upper Midwest, somewhere close to the Great Lakes between Cleveland and Milwaukee.

I think about this a fair amount. NYC immediately comes to mind. As does Tokyo. I think the better move might actually be Auckland.

Lately I've been trying to think about what parts of the world might be able to go back to normal faster than others and investigating moving there until the pandemic is over.

Back in 2001, when I saw it for the first time on my Honeymoon, I would have had likely picked San Francisco. My understanding is that things have gone way down hill in the 17 years since my last visit, which makes me sad.

Right now, I think I'd like to live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, up on the bluff that overlooks lake Michigan... but I can't possibly afford it.

I'm just outside Chicago right now, it hasn't imploded into Detroit or Gary levels of decay yet, but I'm worried. They deliberately let the riots go for days last year, and there have been more than 150 expressway shootings this year... it's rapidly becoming a no-go zone.

San Diego. Nice weather, beaches, epicenter of West Coast Swing. (However I'm not sure if it's gone downhill like San Francisco has.)

Also I heard good things about Vancouver, but when I visited it didn't live up to expectations.

Sofia Antipolis is France's answer to Silicon Valley. It is smaller, slower, cozier, nicer, younger, healthier, happier French Silicon Valley. I love it.

I love Stockholm (and Sweden in general). Had I visited earlier in life I likely would have wound up there. Second choice would be Amsterdam.

Fort Collins, Colorado. Decent climate, not too humid, mountains nearby. Not too large, but Denver's an hour away if you want a big-city ballet company or a children's hospital or a major airport. (And when you don't want those things, all those people aren't in your face.) College town. Some tech scene.

I actually had that choice and chose Melbourne, Australia. Still my #1 choice today.

Not a city, but Meville, Northern MidWest, US. 100 acres of mixed forest and tillable land. Thank you, Elon, for the final missing piece, internet.

Rio de Janeiro (which is where I live)

Maybe some small town close to North Pole.

Valencia Spain, i love it!

Kyoto, Japan