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Choosing a US city : Tech/Engineering sector | public transportation

s.brody

Registered Users (C)
Hello,

I would appreciate some guidance or opinions on choosing a US city to live. My main criteria are: great public transportation system(as I won't be owning a car anytime soon ), good variety of jobs in Engineering/IT field, and average cost of living.

I've done some research, and the following choices have come up: Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia. Anybody can say a few words or recommend some others ?

I just graduated from a European University and I'm quite confident in getting a job in my specialty. The thing is I'll only be arriving with ~6k Euros, so take this into account.
 
Hello,

I would appreciate some guidance or opinions on choosing a US city to live. My main criteria are: great public transportation system(as I won't be owning a car anytime soon ), good variety of jobs in Engineering/IT field, and average cost of living.

I've done some research, and the following choices have come up: Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia. Anybody can say a few words or recommend some others ?

I just graduated from a European University and I'm quite confident in getting a job in my specialty. The thing is I'll only be arriving with ~6k Euros, so take this into account.
http://forums.immigration.com/threads/september-vb-dv14-last-chapter.320699/page-79#post-2348596

... Chicagoland certainly has lots of international automobile & general manufacturing related engineering & IT opportunities with a pretty good public transportation system and compares rather favorably in terms of total cost-of-living with other larger cities, depending where you decide to live - suggest to visit & check it out in person. Going forward you definitely will need a car in order to survive in the US...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._cities_with_high_transit_ridership
 
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Hello,

I would appreciate some guidance or opinions on choosing a US city to live. My main criteria are: great public transportation system(as I won't be owning a car anytime soon ), good variety of jobs in Engineering/IT field, and average cost of living.

I've done some research, and the following choices have come up: Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia. Anybody can say a few words or recommend some others ?

I just graduated from a European University and I'm quite confident in getting a job in my specialty. The thing is I'll only be arriving with ~6k Euros, so take this into account.


The USA does not have GOOD public transport. A few cities have OK public transport A car is pretty essential but a lot of people in the big cities use car clubs so that might be an idea...
 
The USA does not have GOOD public transport. A few cities have OK public transport A car is pretty essential but a lot of people in the big cities use car clubs so that might be an idea...
So you guys are saying that I can't survive without a car, even in a city with OK public transport..:eek: (It's just me, no other family members).
Still, I thought that by living inside the city (not in the suburbs), I could manage without a car for the first few months.
What about Minneapolis, or Pittsburgh ?At this stage of my life, I would also prefer an area with a vibrant lifestyle, as of places to meet young people. Might also consider enrolling in a public University by next year, for a Masters Degree maybe.
 
So you guys are saying that I can't survive without a car, even in a city with OK public transport..:eek: (It's just me, no other family members).
Still, I thought that by living inside the city (not in the suburbs), I could manage without a car for the first few months.
What about Minneapolis, or Pittsburgh ?At this stage of my life, I would also prefer an area with a vibrant lifestyle, as of places to meet young people. Might also consider enrolling in a public University by next year, for a Masters Degree maybe.
It really depends where you'll live and where you'll need to go for work and otherwise. One can safely assume that an apartment well connected to public transport will be more expensive. Many manufacturing firms are located in the suburbs/industrial areas and are not well connected to public transport anyway. Hence, the answer is: it will all depend on your specific circumstances, yet few people outside of Manhattan do not have (at least one) car.
 
So you guys are saying that I can't survive without a car, even in a city with OK public transport..:eek: (It's just me, no other family members).
Still, I thought that by living inside the city (not in the suburbs), I could manage without a car for the first few months.
What about Minneapolis, or Pittsburgh ?At this stage of my life, I would also prefer an area with a vibrant lifestyle, as of places to meet young people. Might also consider enrolling in a public University by next year, for a Masters Degree maybe.
It really depends where you'll live and where you'll need to go for work and otherwise. One can safely assume that an apartment well connected to public transport will be more expensive. Many manufacturing firms are located in the suburbs/industrial areas and are not well connected to public transport anyway. Hence, the answer is: it will all depend on your specific circumstances, yet few people outside of Manhattan do not have (at least one) car.

Agree with Euro, Manhatten would be fine (perhaps even better) without a car. Certain cities will be ok without a car but it is pretty limiting.

The USA has lots of land and they use cheap methods of construction. So, almost everywhere you go you find they build big retail parks where you drive in, load up with crap you don't need and drive out. In Europe you probably head to the "town center" and there you buy anything you need. Here, the town center often does not exist. You can find the town center concept here, but real estate and rental prices in those areas will be higher. So yeah, I would imagine you will be buying a car sooner than you think.
 
Because you're single, I'm going to break orthodoxy here and suggest the Bronx when you first arrive. You'll have access to NY's extensive subway and bus network, a huge pool of tech jobs to choose from and high pay. Just keep your street smarts about you.

I lived in NYC (uptown Manhattan) for a long while without a car and thrived. A very good friend of mine has lived in Chicago for two years without a car and he's done just fine by renting one when he needs one.

Your other options are Boston near the T -- so long as you don't need to visit the many places it doesn't serve -- and DC, which has a decent metro system. Surprisingly, LA has a growing public transit system, though it's growing from nothing. It mainly services Hollywood, downtown and a few other narrow corridors in the enormity that is LA. SF has a system that just doesn't quite mesh together. (If you live or work outside SF city proper, you'll be driving.)

Other than those places, I'd agree with Britsimon -- you're going to need a car. If you move to Pittsburgh (which is both affordable and interesting, btw) you'll definitely need one unless you live right in the centre of town. In that case, you'll need to rent one so often that you'll probably cave in and buy one anyway.
 
@connectedspace: Thanks for the response. I'll definitely be on the Eastern side of US, due to money constraints. Chicago is a likely destination. Boston seems very appealing to me, though it might be too expensive for my first year in the US.
Any words on Brooklyn, NYC ?
 
@connectedspace: Thanks for the response. I'll definitely be on the Eastern side of US, due to money constraints. Chicago is a likely destination. Boston seems very appealing to me, though it might be too expensive for my first year in the US.
Any words on Brooklyn, NYC ?

I would personally have suggested Brooklyn or Queens rather than the Bronx ... You need to be careful about areas but should be able to get some decent priced places in reasonable areas within reach of the subway lines. South parts of Harlem may be worth looking into as well - it's gentrifying so not sure what the prices are actually like ie reasonable or not.
 
I would personally have suggested Brooklyn or Queens rather than the Bronx ... You need to be careful about areas but should be able to get some decent priced places in reasonable areas within reach of the subway lines. South parts of Harlem may be worth looking into as well - it's gentrifying so not sure what the prices are actually like ie reasonable or not.

I can see where you're coming from. I suggested the Bronx because much of it has good subway service and is quite amenable to midtown, while being quite cheap. Properties in the Bronx are also more likely to be No-Fee and less likely to require a year's rent up-front.

Queens and Brooklyn are great, and certainly safer. Renting with roommates might save on expenses in these places and it's a great way to meet people. There are some large old Brownstones in Bed-Stuy in Brooklyn that would be a lot of fun to live in. Harlem south of 130th is already prone to landlords with Manhattan habits: high rents, credit checks, pay slips, the works. Still, there's roommates, though apartments in Manhattan tend to be smaller.

Poor old Bronx, always the black sheep :)
 
@connectedspace: Thanks for the response. I'll definitely be on the Eastern side of US, due to money constraints. Chicago is a likely destination. Boston seems very appealing to me, though it might be too expensive for my first year in the US.
Any words on Brooklyn, NYC ?

The Eastern side tends to be fairly expensive if you're at the latitude of Washington DC or above. Chicago is in the Midwest, which is far more affordable. There are some great cities there aside from Chicago: Pittsburgh (might be tough for tech jobs) and Minneapolis being two standouts. Be aware these places are cold in winter -- and I'm not messing around. The Midwest has several months of leaden skies and skin-ripping, soul crushing cold. Flying into northern Germany from Chicago last January was like entering the tropics by comparison.

If money is your main constraint, you'll find a low cost of living in places like Denver, Houston and Phoenix along with healthy job markets. (But there's the car thing, and these places are very much 'heartland America'.)

Brooklyn is fantastic. You should be able to get a start with your 6000 euros if you look a fair way out from Manhattan. Just be careful with some neighbourhoods. Stay away from places with high concentrations of public housing. If you don't mind sharing with others, you'll be able to enjoy the amenities and closeness to Manhattan of Williamsburg, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Park Slope and so on.

I suggest the website streeteasy.com to give you an overview.

Hope that helped.
 
Seconded. The Chicago forum is great there.

Most of the ones I've used, as we have hypothetically shifted around a few states before settling on where to go during this long process :D , have been very good! In particular, very helpful when it comes to little local things that you are unlikely to find anywhere else, whether it be if the moms at school are particularly snobby or the ease of accessing public transport etc.
 
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