For those of you who
responded so generously with advice as to where would be the best place for me to land, thank you.
Last night, after talking to all my friends about it and asking their opinions, the decision was made: time to go.
Using your comments, I decided that the economies of St. Louis and Detroit weren't worth betting on. San Francisco is just too gosh darn expensive to be a realistic place to live. Baltimore just doesn't do it for me.
I've cut the prospective cities down to a total of four (maybe five).
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN
- Chicago, IL
- Denver, CO
- (maybe) Southern CA
- Pittsburgh: Yes, the economy blows, but its home. Desire to kick Santorum's ass is high.
- Minneapolis/St. Paul: Good government, good people (like Garrison Keillor), and a relatively good economy. Yes, the weather sucks, but I love the ice and snow. Looking more and more like the number one on my list. Desire to save Dayton from Kennedy is high. Desire to get rid of Coleman is even higher.
- Chicago: A few things: Barack Obama, Dick Durbin, Jan Schlakowski, Melissa Bean, Wrigley Field (and those lovable Cubs), oh, and Pizzaria Uno. Only fear is that Chicago may be a little too big.
- Denver: Denver made it because it looks like its emerging like a newfound Democratic stronghold in which I could play a part. Allard used up all of his nine lives, and I would look forward to working to replace him with Mark Udall (I bet Hick will run for and win the Governors race next year). Also would like to help put up a fight against that nutjob Tancredo.
maybe 5. Southern California: See below.
So, I need a last bit of little help. You see, I'm a college student (currently at Furman), and will need to find a new one. A quick side note for all those SoCal people who made a pitch to me: LA jockeyed itself onto my list, by virtue of Pomona College (and may actually be #5 on my list, I'm still mulling it over).
Today, requests went out for information from the University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh) and Macalester College (St. Paul, MN).
With that in mind, I need some recommendations as to what colleges are the best ones in the Pittsburgh, MSP, Denver and Chicago areas. I prefer small liberal arts places, but won't reject the biggies (like Northwestern and UC-Boulder) out of hand.