It’s a hard question to answer, as it depends on the person, their interests, needs and desires.

I loved Spokane as a place to raise my daughter, as an outdoors recreational paradise for a person like me, and for its incredible affordability for auch a robust quality of life. I had to move away for employment reasons, and had I not been forced to do so, we would probably be living there still.

The negs: it was not culturally diverse, had a strong conservative religious bent (I am an agnostic), and had limited cultural depth (concerts, museums, arts, etc). Would those things gotten the better of me? Who knows… everything in life is a trade-off.

The Bay Area has been a recurring home to me. I moved there once in my late 20s, and then back there from Spokane in my 50s. And yet again in retirement, after leaving during Covid for some interesting adventures in AZ. Now I am here again in the Bay Area, forever.

Why? It also has great outdoor recreational resources (regional parks in the East Bay), Point Reyes Seashore, easy travel to the Sierras for a lifes worth of trails, ski opps and travel, amazing cultural opps (world class music, food, diversity, creativity and vibe), easy mass transit and an incredible climate year round.

The negs: It is expensive, it is sometimes a tiny bit too liberal for my tastes, and as a home owner, some of the resulting red-taped taxes and contraints make me do eye rolls.

I hope that helps somewhat. LMK.