It’s April out there, and you know what that means.  Short shorts!  Praise Allah!

Also, it means that I’m 5 months out from making my next move.  The end of my time in Chicago marks the end of my 5th year on the road, the halfway point for my 10 Cities in 10 Years project.  It’s not exactly all downhill from there, but it does mean that everyday forward is further in the ‘Less days ahead, more days behind me’ phase.  Kind of an odd thought, really.  Like finishing your sophomore year of college.  Man, my sophomore year of college was pretty great.  And college in the Springtime, amazing.  Short shorts!

Wow, sorry, I’m getting off track.

It won’t be ’til sometime in mid June that I officially pick my next city, in the sense that I’ll start looking for work and apartments and figure out the public transportation situation.  I am leaning towards a particular city (or state, really, with 2 cities as options), but I am interested in where people think I should move.

I’ve floated the idea of even doing a poll, getting people to vote on my next destination.  This move is a little too complicated for me to add that into the mix, but I’m thinking for my 7th city, I might just do that.  Open it up to the masses.

But, still, for fun, I’m interested in your ideas.  Where should I move?  What cities should I put on my list?  Keep in mind my criteria:

1. The city must be in the top 30 most populated cities in the country (which means that Portland, Oregon is the smallest city I’d live in… other than New Orleans; I’ll consider that city down the line if the repairs make real progress).

2.  Must have solid public transportation.  This is vital, because I don’t own a car and I don’t want to own a car.  I love driving, but car ownership just isn’t worth it.

3.  Must not be in Florida.  Yeah, sorry, just not going to happen.

Those are really my only criteria.  I’ve ended up in places I never thought I’d live (Southern California, anyone?).  I’m open to the winds of fate.

For this move, I’m going East.  It doesn’t have to be on the Coast, I just want to be closer to the East so I can hit the coast up when I want.  But, in general where do you think I should live?  What cities have you loved?  For moves 7, 8 and 9, what cities should I keep in mind?

Your thoughts?