Just as an example.....There has been talk of a casino in downtown Chicago. It would likely be the biggest casino in the world - hundreds of millions in tax revenues and economic value. The city and state can't agree, and there's still no casino in Chicago.

Chicago gave me Tortoise and a whole host of other musical treasures. It also gave me the Committee on Social Thought.

It is very sad that Chicago continues to be so dysfunctional politically and that there remains so much violence and poverty in its minority neighborhoods. But for art and culture and thought, after NYC, Chicago is it for me.

The DOJ/FBI was very successful in breaking up the two biggest gangs in Chicago. Turns out they kept things relatively under control, and after they were gone it led to major turf wars between dozens of gang trying to fill the void.....sometimes the real world, sadly, plays out exactly as economists predict.

I have to travel to Chicago a lot for work. I love it (except for the traffic) whenever I go. I did not expect the food to be as good as it is.

I'm not sure if I prefer it to New York or not. Hard to factor out the novelty of going to Chicago. I used to live and work in NYC, so that made me somewhat jaded.

If I had to rank my favorite "major" cities that I've been to:

1. New Orleans (does this count as major?)
2. New York
3. Chicago
4. Nashville
5. San Francisco

<---every city after this point kind of sucks, imo -->

6. D.C.
7. Los Angeles
8. Philadelphia
9. Boston
10. Houston

I still need to go to Austin, Denver, Seattle, and Charlotte. 4 Places I think could come in above the "sucks" line.

Seattle is a cool town. But, man, you make me realize how many great events in great cities I've missed out on. Been to Charlotte and Nashville, and Denver, a few times - on business. Never been to New Orleans, or Austin.

Denver consistently ranks very highly for places to live. I don't know, as a tourist or even in my 20's/30's, the sprawl of a Denver or LA just isn't the same. Give me NY and Chicago where I can walk anywhere to almost endless entertainment options.

Vegas - today's tragic events withstanding - is horribly underrated, as well. Basically all the entertainment/food/music/etc of any of the cosmopolitan cities, but a very livable city that's easy to get around outside of that. And new. With some great outdoor options, as well.

I hate sprawl, but some cities do a good job of counteracting sprawl with "zones". New Orleans is somewhat of a sprawl, but lots of discrete "zones" that are like mini-cities within the city (e.g. French Quarter). Nashville does a decent job with this as well.

New York and Chicago both have the walkability + discrete zones.

Austin drastically changed ive heard from friends. I used to live in San Antonio and got to Austin frequently.

Being completely honest.....you wanna know what city pretty hot as well as livable ?

Lancaster PA.

Probably one of the better culinary small metros in the east. Great music and art scene developing. ....and B2B ....several good to better coffee shops....diverse ethnic population....crowding and traffic are going to be an ongoing issue however...

DC, Boston and Philly are great towns!

Add the Twin Cities to your list. Was just there in October and it was fantastic - like a smaller, cleaner, friendlier Chicago.

DC sucks

And for my most controversial opinion of today: Memphis > Nashville

To quote my dad, a transplanted Pittsburgher, on Lancaster traffic, "If you think that's actually traffic, you've never been to a city."

That said, Lancaster and the Central PA area is a really fun place to come home to. I think it's a little bit of a red herring for the current discussion, but a great, improving area.