Ranking The Cities I’ve Lived In
By: Tim Chin
Tags: United States Of America, Blog, Travel, Tourism, Travel Writing

When the year comes to a close, we tend to use it as an opportunity to look back. As the last five years of my life were a tumultuous period of traveling and living in various locations around the United States, I took a chance to pause and reflect on some of these places. Truthfully, I wanted a break from topics with gravitas. I’ve only listed locations at which I lived in for at minimum of three months. There are plenty of cities I love, such as Chicago and Boston. However, one does not get more than a tourists surface level understanding of a city until they have lived there for a bit.

10 — Corning, NY

I’m not one for living with regrets or resenting lost time. However, Corning felt like a time sink that I will never get back. This city feels so incredibly isolated from the rest of the world. Corning is small with a population of only about 10,000 people and has steadily dropped over the last several decades. All the sources of entertainment are isolated to a single street that every Corning denizen constantly raves about, Market Street. This single mile long street contains every mom & pop shop, restaurant, and artisan coffee shop you will find in Corning. If you can make it on Market Street, you can make it anywhere… in Corning.

Aside from walking this mile long road over and over again, the city is incredibly bare. The city has primarily survived because of Corning, the company, and it’s related Corning Museum of Glass. Corning is a glass and ceramics company who has it’s main headquarters and several factories around the city. The reliance of Corning, the city, on Corning, the company, and Corning’s employees is clear as small surrounding cities are comparatively dilapidated and unremarkable.

After one week, you probably will explore all there is to do in Corning and want to venture out. You may visit the vineyards in the Finger Lake region or the music concerts in Watkins Glenn. Once this becomes dry you might want to find something more adrenaline inducing. Unfortunately, Corning is conveniently positioned in the middle of nowhere. Three hours from Rochester, Four hours from Pittsburgh, and Four hours from New York City. To just demonstrate how barren the region is, during my internship at Corning, the Corning staff had a travel agency come and present the wonderful adventures one can have. The one hour presentation was best succinctly described by a desk clerk at a gym whom I asked “What is there to do around here”. To which he replied, “Nature & Alcohol”.

Yes, that long middle street is Market Street.

9 — New Fairfield, CT

New Fairfield is the kinda town where you go to the bar on Thursday to avoid the unplanned high school reunion that takes place at the same bar on Friday. Many that grow up in New Fairfield, stay in New Fairfield. The population of the town is small. The city is comprised of well off to do financiers that commute to NYC throughout the week and the remaining local denizens that profit of these prosperous individuals. Business is usually doing well for the locals. As my hostess at the time who ran a liquor store said, “Those bankers always need a drink. Economy is doing well, they need to celebrate. Economy is tanking, they need to forget.”



The city itself is bland. The area a pretty typical suburban New England community. A bunch of homes strung across windy mountainous roads. Bars that are typically vacant throughout the week. Of course, a large central mall that everyone congregates to on the weekends dots the city center.

One distinguishing factor of the region, is it’s heavy conservative personality. While the majority of Connecticut is liberal and New York City is proximal, the town’s heavy Catholic concentration leaves little room for progressive fun. New Fairfield does strive for that post-war era American feel as well. The area is littered with white picket fence homes and the town routinely hosts county fairs. The city roads are lined with American flags, which I only assume are present to remind the aging population of their geo-spatial location. But I digress. While the region was quaint and the people I met were friendly, I don’t see myself visiting again anytime soon.

New Fairfield Town Hall. It just screams ‘America’.

8 — Moscow, Russia

I felt ambivalent about listing this one, as I was incredibly young both times I lived in Russia for prolonged periods. Yet the moments were memorable and the impression was nice enough for me to know that I would rather live in Moscow than New Fairfield or Corning.



I remember Russia feeling very cold, gray, and old. I know, riveting description. Moscow has weather similar to upstate New York, where eight of the twelve months are cloudy winters with a low snowfall frequency to make up for it. The grayness came from the monotones of the city and the urban decay of public amenities. I got the sense that all the color in the city was swallowed up in Red Square, the city center that hosts the famous Kremlin. Finally, everything just felt old, but this may have been related to my proximity to grandparents.



I think many Russians were aware of this as there was a tradition to flee the city for one’s “dacha”. A dacha is essentially a summer home that is normally located far in the backwoods and rural regions of Russia. Dacha’s typically are disconnected from most modern public services. I recall having to walk for a mile or so to collect water from a well. Most the time on a dacha is spent, repairing the dacha, gardening, and eating and drinking.

Overall, Moscow is worth a visit, but I wouldn’t recommend relocating.

A fairly typical Russian dacha.

7 — Titusville, FL

Titusville is wacky. The outskirts of the city are dotted with small ranching communities, one of which I lived in. When I went for afternoon runs, it wasn’t uncommon for me to run into horses, ducks, pigs, and chickens. I had one neighbor that owned Emu’s and a coworker who had a couple of Tigers and Lions in their back yard. I’m serious.

Moving closer to the heart of Titusville, one will run into a mixed bag of upkeep. The city had it’s largest boom of residents during the space race. Due to it’s juxtaposition to Kennedy Space Center, the city was home to NASA engineers and was frequented by tourists who wanted to witness the awesomeness of a rocket launch. Since this time, many of the plazas and malls in Titusville have fallen into disrepair. The shops have closed down or moved elsewhere along the coast for better opportunity.

While business may not be booming for the shopping industry, many parts of Titusville are still flourishing. An active boating and fishing community line the coast. Coastal restaurants, such as Pier 220, are delicious. Especially due to the sharp increase in rocket launches (and landings) from SpaceX, tourists have once again started to flock the area. If on the space coast, Titusville makes for a solid pit stop.

A pair of bridges that connect Titusville to Cape Canaveral. Many view rocket launches from here.

6 — Troy, NY

Troy is a college town and contains the university I attended, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Much like I did throughout college, Troy greatly evolved during the four years I had been there. Troy used to be notoriously known as an area to avoid in the Greater Capital Region of Northern New York. The downtown was fairly empty and had high occurrence of crime and much of the infrastructure of the city was old and rusting.

By the end of my time at university, Troy had improved significantly. Many impressive and hipster restaurants and cafes began to open up in the downtown area. I recall a entertaining board game bar and coffee shop popped up in my last couple of months that was very trendy among local college students.

Whereas before I would have dissuaded people from visiting Troy, I think Troy is now one of the more livelier neighborhoods of the Capitol Region (assuming COVID hasn’t put a complete end to it). If you’re visiting the area, I would try to catch the weekend farmer’s markets and the downtown eateries. I would still be hesitant to call this city home however, due to the ramshackled infrastructure and a personal disdain for the local university.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute menacingly hovers over downtown Troy.

5 — Fremont, CA

Fremont is the definition of suburban sprawl. The entire city is one giant spread of single family homes only separated by highways and long avenues. To emphasize the consistency, the city has no downtown. There are several plaza’s and shopping malls, but there is no city center in which people can stroll around and peruse shops.

Fremont is a great place to settle down, however. Fremont is a safe and placid community. There are several great hikes and parks that I could envision established families taking their kids to on weekends. Mission Peak, a six mile hike that will give you a gorgeous view of the lower Bay Area, is right in the back yards of many Fremonters.

The city also has an impressive car community. One will frequently run into old classics such as Volkswagen Beetles, Al Camino’s, and old Corvettes. Riding home from work, I would frequently see modded cars, with crazy tires or super functional spoilers. To top it all off, Tesla has a factory in Fremont, making the electric cars commonplace in the community.

A perch on Mission Peak to view the suburban sprawl.

4 — Oyster Bay, NY

Oyster Bay is a county on Long Island, about twenty minutes from the New York City border. The county has a dichotomy of living standards. One half of the region lives in fairly typical homes that one might find in Long Island and New York City. The other half lives in gargantuan mansions and drive fancy sports cars during morning coffee runs.

When getting lost driving around a neighborhood in Oyster Bay, I would frequently use some insanely large mansion, a polo course, or a golf field as a reference point. But one doesn’t have to be trapped in this realm of ostentatious luxury. Oyster Bay is full of more modest communities that consist of short apartments and diverse restaurants.

From Oyster Bay it’s also easy to travel around the area. The Long Island Railroad can be hopped on in Glen Head and taken into deeper parts of New York City. If one is trying to get away from it all, the remainder of east Long Island is equivalently accessible. As one who jumps between states of introversion and extroversion, I found Oyster Bay as a convenient head quarters. When I was craving the music of city, I would dance on over. When I needed a break, I could easily find peace in my neighborhood of Glen Head.

Just a modest Glen Head establishment. Nothing to see here.

3 — Cocoa Beach, FL

Cocoa Beach is part of an incredibly thin barrier island connected south of Cape Canaveral. The town is surrounded by the Atlantic on the east and the Banana river on the west, allowing residents to cross the entire Island in under twenty minutes in some parts. The beach town is an ideal place for many that work in the Aerospace industry around Cape Canaveral.

The area is constant warmth. The Atlantic ocean is warm all through December and the sun is blasting. To emphasize the temperature, the city imports snow during winter holiday festivals for children to play in. However, one should keep in mind the Hurricanes. While I resided in Cocoa Beach, I did have to evacuate on two separate occasions due to category 3 and category 5 hurricanes that had hit the Island.

The city sports many hallmarks of a beach bum paradise. Plenty of rental stations for surfing, diving, ocean fishing, and skydiving exist. Tourists from all over the coastal area flock to the beaches as they are considerably more clean compared to Daytona beaches up north. Cocoa Beach’s closeness to Orlando and Kennedy Space Center also makes it ideal for people who are trying to catch a rocket launch and then head to Universal Studios or Disney Land. As my host once said, “Honestly, this place it perfect”. While Cocoa Beach doesn’t reach my top spot, the city is hard to dislike.

Cocoa Beach has some flavor

2) Los Angeles, CA

Los Angeles is immense. The amount to explore and do in Los Angeles seems endless. The city isn’t really a single city the way most metropolises are. It’s better to think of Los Angeles as a string of cities that all expanded into one each other. Much of the city is comprised of flat single story suburban homes, but each of these sectional cities has it’s own downtown or hub to venture in.

The city still has stereotypical places, where one can always find activity. Venice Beach and Santa Monica is constantly bustling. Even during COVID era, I’ve found entertainment in these areas through skating down the beach or taking an electric scooter along the coast. If you’re looking to get away from the crowds, L.A. is covered in hiking spots to explore. I find these are never boring hikes either. One doesn’t just climbs a mountain to get a decent view of their surroundings. They often contain interesting architecture, old ruins or structures, or other signs of humans trying to preserve their mark.

The cities diversity brings great restaurants as well. The car culture of L.A. has created the most impressive food truck scene I’ve ever witnessed. The cliches surrounding the Mexican and South Western cuisine are true. I have had some of the best Taco’s of my life while adventuring in Los Angeles. With so much to do, see, and eat it’s difficult to imagine getting bored in Los Angeles. As a L.A. local told me once, “There’s so much to do in LA, this is a city where you can go surfing and snowboarding in the same day if you wanted to”.

In accordance to popular belief, Los Angeles is in fact in a perpetual state of sunset.

1 — New York City, NY

Even after all I’ve seen and explored, it is difficult for me to change my mind about New York City. Having grown up in the city and having friends and family in the area, I certainly have a personal attachment. New York has also created certain expectations I have for cities. When I don’t see them I am baffled.

I find traveling around New York City incredibly efficient. I rarely have to think about how or when I will move between two places because there is either a public transportation route to that point or the location is within walking distance. I’m skeptical that in the United States, one will find a better public transpiration system than the one New York City has.

Sources of entertainment and adventure are also never too far in New York and one always knows where to go. Want a hipster atmosphere with artisanal shops? Head over to Downtown Brooklyn. Want some affordable East Asian cuisine? Stop by Flushing, Queens. Want a calm activity for the whole family? Head over to the Bronx Zoo. Want some excitement? Just walk anywhere in Manhattan. Finally, completely tired of New York City and need a break? Go to Staten Island. Seriously, we have know idea what happens in Staten Island.

What I appreciate about both New York City and L.A., is the diversity of activity. Both these cities have something for everyone. If you get board of the Beach in Cocoa Beach, you’re screwed. If you want to have conversations not related to technology or cars in Fremont, you’re usually out of luck. But in these two mega cities in the United States, there is always a community for you.

New York City, in all its glory

T.Y.C.