If you’re a Flash Platform Developer/Designer – and why else would you be on this site – then what US city would you most want to live in?

What are the criteria to judge by? You decide. For me I’d consider things like the tech industry in the area – duh, weather, universities, local environment – like mountains, ocean, etc. I don’t have kids but most would need to consider the local education system, which is probably a crap shoot anywhere.

As for the local Flash User Group communities you’d have to think the San Francisco, San Jose area are probably hard to beat. They must get some pretty decent speakers in there from time to time. Plus, I hear Sim Bateman puts on a good show up in Portland. The LA Flash and Flex User Groups are good but too far away for me to visit with any regularity.

What I wanted to show in the chart above is the density of visitors to my blog – which I assume is a general representation of Flash Platform dev/designers. While California has the most visits Mass. has the highest density. I call it the KP-effect. :)

I would have broken this down by city but Google Analytics breaks cities up in odd ways. In a place like Dallas you have one big city. But Los Angeles is broken up into lots and lots of cities.

Here are a few links to some discussions about tech cities:

• eWeek : Beyond the Valley: 10 Blooming U.S. Cities for Tech – page 2
• Wired : 10 Top Tech Towns
• Slashdot : Discussion on the Wired article – I love the comment, “Austin is great but it’s surrounded by Texas.”

I voted for the Northern Virginia area. Richmond is a nice city, I’m pretty liberal. Okay, I’m ultra liberal, and according to those who’s opinions I disfavor the most – Sara Palin – Northern Virginia isn’t even real America anymore. Sounds like my kind’a place. :) Plus Richmond has a low cost of living and a very nice University. My dream location would be to live in a nice neighborhood close enough to a University that I could walk/bike to classes.

I’ve lived in lots of places so here’s my thoughts on a few just off the top of my head:

• Los Angeles – pros: good FUG community, lots of stuff to do, everything except the beach is a longish drive away. In fact, everything in LA is a long way from everything else in LA. No matter what you want to do it always seems like it’s 3 freeways away. The weather is very good. cons: I covered the space already, if you live inland then the summers are horrible.
• San Diego – pros: it really isn’t that big of a city. Traffic isn’t nearly as bad as LA. Good mountains nearby to retreat to. Beach. cons: fires.
• Portland – pros: great FUG community, Sim Bateman, nice clean city, universities. cons: very short winter days, rain, bad traffic.
• Seattle – Similar to Portland without the FUG community. pros: Ryan Stewart, great places to hike and explore when the weather isn’t shit. cons: weather is shit a lot, traffic that would put  Saint Francis of Assisi in a puppy-kicking mood.
• Phoenix – pros: lots of hiking in the area plus N. AZ is at 7,000 feet which is a good get away during the summer. cons: When they close the airport because it’s too hot then it’s really frakking hot and that happens, traffic isn’t that bad for such a big city but it’s very large area. You don’t want to live too far from work there or you’ll regret it.
• New York – “They say if you can live in New York you can live anywhere. So if you can live anywhere why would you live in New York?” – unknown. Observation: I get lots of hits from the NY area so why don’t I know of any developers there? Do they just not talk to anyone outside of NY? Anyone else notice that?
• Orlando – pros: Not bad in the winter, lots of beach stuff to do, I hear the housing market is about to go under so you might be able to squat in a house for free. cons: Not sure which is worse, Phoenix summers or Orlando summers, there are ZERO mountains.
• Raleigh-Durham – pros: nice weather, lots of universities, plenty of places to eat out, decent outdoor opportunities. cons: the cities are liberal and mixed diversity but the state is still very Red.

What do you think?