Top 100 best places to live- CNN Money

[KnoxVegas]

Dan,
Did you see the mountains? I call K-Town "Brigadoon" because just like the musical, Knoxville is the same as it was 100 years ago, with out the overt racism and The Library (Paging Sonny Pieper!). Actually, Farragut is a great town and a wonderful place to raise a family. Where I live now reminds me a lot of Knoxville. It's a beautiful town. The campus is the worst planned in the history of the known world. The Fort is an on going party that is akin to the Ghetto at Dayton. The Strip is not what it used to be but come one, bar, bar, O"Charley's (Paging...), OCI...

Reasons to love Knoxville: It is not Tuscaloosa! It is not Auburn! It is not Lexington! Next question.

SOHOT, I am thinking of stealing away and actually using my season tickets for the first time this century. I will gladly hook you up iwth where to go. We canalso work on a plan for when the Big Orange rolls out to Berkley next year. I will actually be working in Sonoma the weekend before the game next year, so I can get the company to pay for the flight.

[Sonny]

I spent a few evenings at the Library
and the Lap
and O'Charlies...

[Alex White]

Sonny, sad to say that none of those places you mentioned are open. The Lap and the Library are now Buffalo Wild Wings, a combo wing joint and bar. O'Charlies just closed and is still vacant. If you had a favorite bar on The Strip chances are it has closed, or more likely reopenned under another name. They have really cracked down on underage drinking in the UT area lately which has caused the demise of several legendary drinking holes. I hear Cool Beans is the place to go now. I don't get up there very often any more. I got tired of hearing the girls say: I don't think so Dad.

[Sonny]

I don't get up there very often any more. I got tired of hearing the girls say: I don't think so Dad.

Too funny!

You can always try the Catch for some friendly girls.

[KnoxVegas]

It's Th'Katch, right Alex?

[Alex White]

The Katch always has very friendly girls......for a $20.00 table dance.

[jessexy]

i know this is places in the USA, but i just got back from Puerto Vallarta and i wouldnt mind living there for the rest of my life.

mis dos pesos, which is actually valued as less than a patch of grass from the Great Plains here in the States.

[Hackalicious]

i know this is places in the USA, but i just got back from Puerto Vallarta and i wouldnt mind living there for the rest of my life.

mis dos pesos, which is actually valued as less than a patch of grass from the Great Plains here in the States.

Lots of Americans are retiring to Mexico these days. Legally, foreigners cannot own land, but they do 99-year leases and the like. (Maybe the ownership restriction is only on the coasts...I can't remember.)

Belize and Costa Rica are two other places that are popular. You can live like a king on modest savings. Costa Rica has universal health care, too.

[Sonny]

Belize and Costa Rica are two other places that are popular. You can live like a king on modest savings. Costa Rica has universal health care, too.

Land value is appreciating very quickly apparently in CR as more Americans buy down there, especially in some of the more popular/tourist areas. A increasingly large number of Americans are retiring down in CR, due in part to the tax benefits.

I was there earlier this month for my "Luna De Miel." In some areas, land has doubled in value in 5 years according to this one American tour operator.

Food is cheap. I ate lobster three nights in a row pretty economically.

Regarding universal health care in CR.... every time we drove by the town's single clinic - it was packed to the gills. I wouldn't bank on that.

[KnoxVegas]

My mother-in-law is currently looking into this practice. The medical care is cheaper, US dinero goes a long way and the climate is right. Or so she says. While I am actively supporting her in this endeavour, I can't get past the "no owning of property" thing. But there are entire towns in Mexico populated by Americans and Canadians.

[Hackalicious]

My mother-in-law is currently looking into this practice. The medical care is cheaper, US dinero goes a long way and the climate is right. Or so she says. While I am actively supporting her in this endeavour, I can't get past the "no owning of property" thing. But there are entire towns in Mexico populated by Americans and Canadians.

I looked it up and foreigners cannot outright buy land within 50 miles of the borders and 25 miles of the beach. These lands must be purchased through a 50-year trust that is held by the bank.

The rest of the country is open to foreign ownership.

A lot of countries have even tighter restrictions on foreign ownership.

I don't know Mexico's rationale for the policy. Countries with liberal foreign owernship policies do attract much more foreign investment. (Just like when the Japanese were injecting capital into the American real estate in the 80's.)

[keolalani]

I live on Bainbridge Island WA which in 2005 was declared the "second most desirable place to live." Alas, in 2006 it doesn't even make the top 100?

When CNN/Money did it's thing in 2005, I called their corporate offices to suggest that they didn't do their homework. BI may be an intelligent, affluent, still green (though losing it thanks in part to CNN/Money advertising) community with a high ranking school system. Yet it has the highest rate of alcohol/drug use and suicide among its teens in the State of Washington. I wondered if they think their readers would have thought it's a good place to move were they given that information.

No response from CNN/Money VPs, so I tried Time Warner which owns CNN/Money. No response from them either.

I've a hunch something is going on behind the scenes with this annual list. I wonder if there is any money being passed from Chambers of Commerce and CNN/Money.

What is most sad is that CNN/Money doesn't seem to have a clue - or care - that their advertising of a community that way irrevocable "hurts" it.

When will the adolescent patriarchy of America wake up to something of grander value and purpose than increasing bank accounts?