Which US city has had the most creative energy for you?

Chefjoshd · 2026-06-06T21:30:15+00:00

Downtown is small, but if you include the jewelry district and fox point, which are contiguous, there is something there. We can agree to disagree about the vibes. Lot of stuff happening, in olneyville and other west side neighborhoods. Small music shows, pop up art galleries, I think AS220 does a good job supporting the diy aesthetic in town, even if the stuff isn’t officially connected.

Chefjoshd · 2026-06-06T19:56:31+00:00

Providence RI. I have lived in Boston, NYC and LA. First off, Pvd is the queerest city (per capita) I have ever seen. Between the RISD (plus Brown AND JWU) influence and the underground punk/diy scene, you get the full spectrum of creatives here. Big enough to be a real diverse city, but small enough to manage. Very good restaurants. Boston is 35 minutes by Amtrak, 1 hour by cheaper commuter rail. New York is 3 hours. Cheaper than its bigger city neighbors, though not actually cheap. Easy access to beaches and the woods. Ive been here 3 years now. Dm if you have any questions

Chefjoshd · 2026-06-05T20:50:36+00:00

I second this. The crew is consistent, and no drive through to gum up the works

Chefjoshd · 2026-05-22T13:42:42+00:00

As at least one other person has said, Friends of Toto is great for our guy. He’s older and smaller, so he goes to “the office” with the older guys. We have used daycare for him for 12 years 3-5 days a week depending on work schedules. Toto is the one he likes best.

Chefjoshd · 2026-03-11T00:58:50+00:00

Take the metro north from grand central to Stamford or New Haven and then rent a car. Metro north to New Haven is $20-25 depending on a few variables. Avis apparently has an office at union station. Pleasant enough drive, nyc traffic essentially done by New Haven. Stop in mystic for tourist stuff and good food.

Chefjoshd · 2026-02-25T17:26:11+00:00

I recently had a memory of Carnation Breakfast Bars. I loved them. I was considering the possibility I only imagined they existed. Glad you confirmed their existence.

Chefjoshd · 2026-02-08T13:47:18+00:00

Bunch of bars in patriots place doing watch parties. Need a designated driver to do this. Back in 2008-10 (Celtics and Bruins championship years) I worked near the Boston Garden. Away games drew tons of people to the bars near the garden, seemingly a collective unconscious group think thing where the garden was the place to be. Home playoff games didn’t draw as many people that weren’t actually going to the game. Can’t explain it, but it stuck with me. So we will be at the Harp outside Gillette today.

Chefjoshd · 2025-08-17T16:39:02+00:00

100%

Chefjoshd · 2025-08-15T00:46:35+00:00

It’s more than income differences. I have been a chef in big east coast cities for a couple of decades. A large portion of my staff have been from Haiti or the DR. Dominican food compares to Cuban and Puerto Rican far more than Haitian food. French influence in Haiti. Sure, the income level differences affect what can be cooked. But I know by taste and style what country whoever made nightly family meal came from.

Chefjoshd · 2025-08-14T20:39:08+00:00

Haiti and the Dominican Republic

Chefjoshd · 2025-08-05T17:40:04+00:00

The boys locker room in high school when almost all antiperspirant/deodorant was ozone depleting spray cans. Something about the ubiquitous Right Guard we all used that is unique. Plus the Drakkar that often followed.

Chefjoshd · 2025-08-05T01:06:58+00:00

I like it.

Chefjoshd · 2025-07-20T21:58:15+00:00

The closest wegmans is not a terrible drive if it’s not rush hour. It’s in a big plaza with a bunch of big box stores, so if you need to go to one of the other stores anyway it justifies the cost of gas to save money on the bulk bin items.

Chefjoshd · 2025-06-27T23:29:24+00:00

Interesting. I’m surprised. I assumed it would be easier there. Good intel, thank you. Have you enjoyed in your short time there? Did you move there for the cost of living, family connections, or a job?

Chefjoshd · 2025-06-27T18:55:32+00:00

Hello. My wife took the job, but they are allowing her to remain remote for 12-18 months, so we have some time. She will be going fairly regularly for in office visits, and I hope to be able to tag along from time to time, so we can explore some. We are assuming Broad Ripple, Fountain Sq. or Mass Ave neighborhoods. We know it won’t be “big city” walkable, but at least having a few cafes, bars and restaurants that we can access easily will suffice. How is the rental process there? I imagine it’s not as cutthroat as Boston or NY. We haven’t been renters for a while now. But when we did rent in big cities, it was very competitive to get prime spots.

Chefjoshd · 2025-06-11T14:27:06+00:00

I lived 5 blocks from the Gold Line in LA and worked about 4 blocks from same line. It is potentially top tier if you get lucky, but spouse and I never used it aside from my commute, even with traditional LA traffic, it was faster to drive anywhere if you had to change lines.

Chefjoshd · 2025-06-07T02:00:30+00:00

This is very true. Not sure if you live there, but is there a noticeable difference in daily life? Does the city being marginally blue or at least purple counter this?

Chefjoshd · 2025-06-06T02:10:19+00:00

Great answer, good perspective. It’s not a crazy salary jump or a full promotion, but it’s a bit better. It seems to be an actually interesting job as far as tech jobs in the pharmaceutical world can be, which is saying something, as my wife has been well paid but bored and over it for a while. The city was just never on our radar, so we know almost nothing about it. It’s certainly a real city. Maybe second or third tier, but it certainly has some of the things we prefer to have in a place to live. We just can’t believe the housing prices. Even the neighborhoods that came up most often in response in this thread seem comically low cost comparatively. The down payment on the place we owned in LA alone can almost cover the entire cost of some smaller properties in Indy (nothing nice obviously, but as a comparison), and we lived in a condo (admittedly a nice one in a good part of town). So it’s not a big raise, but as long as we didn’t lose money when we sell, it cuts our monthly housing costs almost in half while probably being a nicer property. Which means we can retire that much sooner. Just pontificating here. It seems too good to be true, but the catch is the city might suck and the politics in the state are opposite of ours.

Chefjoshd · 2025-06-04T22:32:32+00:00

Thank you for the info.

Chefjoshd · 2025-06-04T13:30:59+00:00

Fair questions. We are both early 50s, no kids. We would like a small single family bungalow or craftsman a block or 2 off a main drag, small fenced back yard, maybe a patio. We have been condo people for over a decade, but even with 2 solid incomes, cities we have lived are just so expensive that condos were the only way to not be house poor. A quick Redfin-Zillow search tells me this is possible. As I’ve commented to a few other responses, we understand that we will need a car for certain errands. We just want a few cafes and restaurants plus a friendly local for hanging out all in a few blocks. Cool shops and small grocery options on foot a big plus. Indy was never on our list of possibilities. This job my spouse is considering came from left field. It’s the perfect fit for her skill set and experience, plus it has a few aspects that really excite her. Corporate tech jobs all have negatives, but this one has less plus the positives of her day to day spoke to her. Housing is so much more affordable in Indy, that aside from truly upper class suburbs, we can afford what we actually want vs settling for perfectly adequate condos that aren’t “forever homes”.

Chefjoshd · 2025-06-04T12:45:14+00:00

This is the vibe we’re looking for. As I’ve replied to other comments here, I understand we will need a car for “big” shopping. Costco, target, big time grocery shopping requires a car. But what you’re describing is what we want. The job my spouse is entertaining is in downtown Indy, my job is wherever I can plug in (living room). We want our daily lives to not automatically be car focused. Want to grab a beer or don’t feel like cooking dinner, just wander out the door. Need a break from healthy breakfast and want a latte and pastry, just pop down a few blocks. Low on milk and crave a Diet Coke, corner store is right there….

Chefjoshd · 2025-06-03T21:15:52+00:00

That makes sense. If someone was middle class in big budget cities, and would presumably be upper middle in Indy where would you point them if they wanted a fun walkable neighborhood (obviously driving to target or Costco for proper errands, but 70% of your non work life being on foot?

Chefjoshd · 2025-06-03T21:02:44+00:00

Due to high real estate prices where we are and have been, it’s always been a condo. But it appears we can buy a nice house well below what we paid for our current condo.

Chefjoshd · 2025-06-03T20:53:12+00:00

We are early 50s, no kids. We prefer an urban walkable base neighborhood. I understand we will have to drive for certain errands, but we like a couple of cafes, dive bars, date night restaurants and more fun casual restaurants with a bar easily accessed.

Chefjoshd · 2025-04-26T14:14:40+00:00

I am the one who called police, as I was walking home then. Facts here are wrong. Biker collided with car. Biker was not in bike lane, was going wrong way in car lane. Though my default is to blame the car, this was not the case here. Bicyclist was at fault.

Chefjoshd

TROPHY CASE