I love Seattle, especially the Wallingford district. I get up there at least once, usually more times a year. So that's my vote I guess. Unless you guys stay in D.C., which I also love.

Wow. I can't help but notice that NONE of the cities that I've ever lived in made the list. Huh.

Hmmmm glad to see Philly on there, I am very intrigued by Philly of late - and it's lower cost of living (well compared to here...)

I'm still trying to figure out what being "liveable" means.

Dallas never makes a list unless they're talking about high crime rates.

tj....that's cute...seriously, we were on the list.
that's cool. kodak...so 1982.

is june still a good time to come for the weekend. we're gonna go for a run when i'm there. K?

DB: June is fine. Please remember, Pam, this isn't MySpace.

BellBivDeVoe and Bobby Brown are from Philly.

DB: I thought they were from Boston.

Rochester - don't forget Darienne Lake.

and Ithaca is more progressive, but there are no jobs there besides the universities.

And having lived in Buffalo, yes, we descended on Rochester all the time: Carpe Diem, the Liberty, sigh...good times. There was another cool one, I forget what it was.

I'm surprised that Austin isnt on the list.

Hmm. None of the places Stebbins mentioned in Rochester are around any more. The weather, unfortunately, still is. Even Kodak isn't here as much as it used to be, now primarily having moved to China and India.

My French vanilla frozen ncustard obsession dates from my one trip to Rochester, specificially the Abbott's outlet in Charlotte.

Go San Francisco! It's sunny and 70 all weekend. Did I mention no bugs and no humidity?

having stayed in 4 of the cities, I think this list is crap
-Boston-pretty nice great metro transit services, really dirty though, i was amazed at the filth at most restaurants.
-Pittsburgh (by far the worst city i have ever lived in) high crime, horrible city services, weak metro transit, I could go on.
-San Jose pretty but insane the shopping was okay, has the typical homeless/hooker/drug gang problems. The cost of living was ridiculous and i was lucky to only have to stay in a flop house for one night till my 3 star hotel opened up.
-Portland pretty disappointing, weak metro transit, huge drug and homeless problem, nice museums but over all little to do in the cities mostly geared for the outdoor type. The gardens were nice but how many times could you see them? Angry undercurrent in the whole city as well.
-DC lots of touristy stuff, pretty decent metro services, good food, horrible crime, pretty bad weather.
Hmm like most list I suspect it has more to do with who you know when you visit than anything else.

Personally I'd put Phoenix/Tempe, San Antonio, Atlanta, San Diego, ...that's all I can think of besides most of Hawaii.

Of all the cities on that list, I have only lived in one... Portland (I'm assuming that's Portland OREGON by the way) and I have to disagree with Matt, I loved it. I thought the mass transit options were plentiful and growing. One of the largest urban parks in the US, nice tight downtown, beautiful river front, OUTSTANDING beer. The weather was pretty dreary a lot of the time, but when it was nice out it was BEAUTIFUL. I'd live there again in a heartbeat.

I'm surprised that Atlanta did not make the list... with the amount of condo and hotel construction going on here right now (it's like living in Dubai) you'd think everyone was moving here.

Your description of pittsburgh is spot on. In addition to a lot of blue collar sluts, though, the city has some beautiful architecture.
Madison's great as well. Lots of slutty boys there too.
Ithaca's nice but small and the weather blows. Been to Rochester a few times and always had a blast. Lots of deaf slutty boys.

Tim -

I'm sure you've visited, but have you ever actually lived in Hawaii? It's not exactly the idyllic vision most people get from their oceanfront suite at the Wailea Hilton.

School system = horrible.
Cost of living = astronomical.
Social services = nonexistant.
Unemployment = rampant.

Hey, I love Hawaii too. What's my point here? It's easy to piss on anybody's list.

Yes, why did't Austin make the list? This is just the sort of dubious honor we're always receiving. It's a total yuppie concentration camp with barbed-wire fences of our own self-satisfaction.
Seriously, come visit already!

This list is whacked. Honestly, come on...Pittsburgh?! That place is nothing more than a hell hole of urban decay. Absolutely disgusting. Where is Austin, Charlotte, Atlanta, or Savannah? I NEVER hear anybody move from Atlanta to Pittsburgh....ever. Meanwhile, we can't keep people from moving here due to climate, razor sharp economy, and unbelievable living conditions. Why have the "Pit" when you can have "The Peach"!

Atlanta? Phoenix? No offense Tim but the traffic and smog in both are worsening every single day. Miles of tract homes, subdevelopments lopped on top of each other with abandon, chain restaurants, strip malls, big boxes, and more strip malls with chain restaurants... Those "boomtowns" have so little local character, bad weather (in my opinion 100s in PHX - dry heat, whatever; near 100s with 80% humidity in ATL), and oh plenty of crime...

No place is perfect but I understand why those aren't on the list.

San Diego, well traffic and ridiculous cost of living aside, well that is my pic.

P.S. I have no idea what restaurants you went to in Boston but it rates extremely highly by most guides of note.

I'd have to agree with Condoblogger that Portland is pretty nice with the exception of the weather and the gay scene. Of course I'd move back to SF in a heartbeat if I could find a job that would allow me to afford living there.

I don't know where Rand McNally gets their info but the Bay Area is way expensive!! I know...I moved to Portland from there. Oh...I guess that means I know how to pick livable cities.

Agreeing with most here...Austin should be number one and if SF and SJ can make the list, San Diego is two.

I like the "angry undercurrent" in Portland, it's what keeps things interesting around here. On the other hand, we probably have the world's highest concentration of licensed massage therapists. My neighborhood is swarming with cop-taunting anarchists in black hoodies and blissed-out new agers, and I like it that way.

To many people, Washington, DC firmly below the famous Mason-Dixon Line is in the South. I never noticed Boston's filthy restaurants. The city itself has always had a trash problem. What makes a city liveable is the people in it. In the 1950's, people couldn't leave Pittsburgh, Philly, New York, Boston and Upstate New York fast enough...California and Florida beckoned with their sunshiney weather and palm trees. I like Washington, which is a paper-pusher's paradise, but sometimes I want to live in a city where you run into people with dirt under their fingernails.

It's interesting out of that list, 4 of the cities have absolutely no appeal either to live or to visit - San Jose, Rochester, Madison and Pittsburgh. I'm wondering if this is a list paid for by those cities in order to help boost their lagging populations (Philly alone has one of the biggest housing markets and has been losing population for 25 years).

Portland, MAINE

aha!
The Pittsburgh area was ranked as the nation's second most polluted metropolitan area

Told ya so. let's see i don't have kids so most of the issues SeattleDan listed about Hawaii don't apply to me, plus my work allows me to be almost anywhere and I already have a job.

TOS- as for smog and traffic DC ain't no picnic and the traffic plans for cities like Phoenix and Atlanta beat the hell out of the older cites. I don't really mind strip malls and 110+ degree weather, i was born in the desert. It's just what you can learn to like. Oceans and humidity used to freak me the fuck out.
oh and The food in Boston was fine i was talking about the actual cleanliness of the establishments.

I'm with Brian i think the cities just paid to get on the lists.

Brian - San Jose's losing population? Since when?

Atlanta is a boil on the ass of the South. There are no liveable cities in the South because the assholes in power here believe that the Bible, as written by the Right Hand of God himself runs government. And the Bahbul, as we know, don't much like The Gays.

When I wrote my congressmen to ask them NOT to support the constitutional amendment banning gay marriage here, the answers I received were uniformly along the lines of, "I don't care what you believe, you godless heathen! The Bible says ...". Not everybody's opinion here, of course. Just the ones with power.

I love seattle and DC both...but seattle is scary expensive now...but the cuffs are hot and super friendly...I have to agree that Pittsburg is baffeling...only cool thing is you can and will live like a king....really cheap there....