Comment by binarynate | Hacker News Reader

Comment by binarynate | Hacker News Reader

I've been thinking about this a lot. My criteria:

- Warm winters

- Sunny (>200 avg. sunny days)

- Good music scene

- Good tech scene (for meeting other founders)

- Beautiful nature nearby

- Reasonable cost of living

- In the US

Based on these criteria, I think I've landed on Austin, Texas as the best option. Here are other places I considered, though:

- California: L.A. or San Francisco would honestly be my top choices, but the high income tax rates push the cost too high.

- Phoenix: A cool city, but my perception is that its music and tech scenes are not as vibrant as Austin's. Also, I don't think the desert is very beautiful.

- Nashville: In a lot of ways it's like Austin, but smaller. It's still one of my top picks right now because it's closer to my family, but I'm leaning toward Austin because winters in Nashville are still relatively cold.

- Miami: This city excels in all of my criteria except for the music scene, which appears to be severely lacking. So, that takes it out of the running.

- Denver: Meets a lot of my criteria and seems beautiful, but I think its winters are too cold.

I'm not sure what kind of music scenes you're looking for, but Miami has one of the best for electronic music in the US, as well as probably latin and reggae.

You're right—I should have mentioned that for live music, I'm mostly into indie rock and indie pop. I do like some vocal-driven electronic music (like Sylvan Esso), but when I checked Songkick for concerts in Miami, I mostly saw shows for pure EDM and DJs, which aren't my cup of tea for live music.

I've done extensive business travel in Denver, and, being a CA native, I did not find the winter to be that harsh. In fact, because it's up in the mountains, most of the cold and snow melts away by high noon. You're left with sunny skies until the frost returns at night, but it definitely helps with needing to shovel snow I'd imagine :P

Thanks for mentioning that—that's helpful to know

Don’t listen! Denver is prone to harsh winters that weed out the weak. Yearly winter total population fatality rates average around 8%. If the weather doesn’t get you first you might asphyxiate from the extremely low oxygen.

I hear New Jersey has better nature anyway.

Source: sarcasm.

Moved to Austin this year myself, I think it's a great choice for everything you've listed (although the cost is getting up there, but still affordable in many areas!). I'm definitely not planning on leaving anytime soon with how nice it's been.

Thanks for your feedback! I'm glad to hear it has gone well for you. I visited Austin last week for Levitation music fest and quickly became fond of the city and weather. Hopefully I'll be back there soon for a longer stay.

Denver winters aren’t that bad, which I found a pleasant surprise after moving here.

Interesting—it sounds like I may have overestimated how cold it gets there. Basically I'm looking for a climate that is noticeably warmer in than the winter than my current location, Indianapolis.

Anywhere west of meridian 100 degrees west will feel more temperate due to less humidity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100th_meridian_west

It can get cold but its mostly dry. Better than mid atlantic winters.

Miami is fantastic. Phoenix has air quality problems, but I find the desert to be beautiful. To each his own.

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