Focus: Right now I live in one of those planned "upscale town centers" in the middle of a big suburb. It's like the Diet Coke of city living. I can walk to a ton of restaurants, bars, and shops, but I'm limited to a 5-block radius before I hit an endless sea of typical suburban residential stuff. On the positive side, I'm a $9 Uber ride away from the Metro, so I can shoot into DC, Arlington, or Alexandria pretty easily. I also have a huge 3-bedroom apartment for the same price my friends pay for a tiny 375 sq. ft. studio near the Capitol. Alt-focus: My lease is up next summer and I'm really debating moving to a condo in Arlington (city) or buying a townhouse here in Fairfax (suburbs). Right now, I'm leaning towards the condo. My buddy just bought one across the street from the Pentagon and he couldn't be happier. For me, it would cut my commute to under 10 minutes and I would be within spitting distance of an awesome bar scene. On the other hand, holy shit, it's expensive to live there.
Focus: I live in the Chicago part of Chicago, always have and love it. I used to live further north from my current location in a more residential area. Grew up with a front and backyard. There are always local spots close to eat, drink and shop. Chicago's neighborhoods are very self-contained that way. It all just depends on what flavor/vibe you want. Just recently with the gf, we moved into a pretty upscale high-rise. Now given the historic mansions and etc around us, we're actually in the slum towers of our hood, but it's still nice. We're blocks away from the two main beaches of the city and walking distance downtown. There are a lot of bars, clubs and restaurants down the street, except the bars closest to us are the most douchiest. They're more like where tourists go the second or third time they visit the city to feel like they aren't tourists. Un-focus: Ideally, I'd like to live on the border of two neighborhoods in Chicago, Lakeview/Lincoln park. It's where a lot of people settle but there still are a lot of things going on. It's also a rather central part of the city. There are parks and not a lot of riff raff running around. I need to spend more time in certain cities to get a feel for them. I am about to visit LA for the second time which is the only other major city I've been to more than once. I haven't spent enough time in a place to be like "Hey, I really want to live here" or I just love Chicago that much. The gf really loves Chicago, but I have a feeling moving back to L.A. is on her docket down the line.
I just moved apartments so this is timely for me. I go crazy if I'm not in a reasonably big city - I was born in a tiny tiny village and moved to a small town and then as soon as I was 18 I shot off to London and never left - except to move to Buenos Aires, a similarly trendy place except cheaper. The area I'm in is called Almagro which has good parts and sketchy parts, luckily I'm in the good part. It's the main tango neighbourhood so there's a handful of schools and places to dance, more bars per square block than seems safe or reasonable and delicous and cheap bakeries. So far very happy with this move.
Focus I just moved out of a small apartment just off campus in a college town. It was a 5-10 minute drive to the bars and restaurants. The main reason I picked the location because I didn't want to drive very far to class and the location was about 2 minutes from the law school. I'm in the process of moving to Chicago to attend Northwestern's graduate tax program. Because of that, I chose to live in Streeterville within walking distance to the law school. I haven't moved in yet, but I'm not taking a car and I wanted a place that was both close to school and public transportation. The place I picked fulfilled both of those needs.