Harveyspecter

Exactly. NYC, LA and Seattle to I would only compare to London.

Yes it is, my inlaws went there last yr and while waiting outside VooDoo Donuts, a homeless woman started hurling abuse at the queue!

To the OP: As others have said, firstly you can't compare NYC to Chester and secondly, while that's a pretty photo you posted, the reality is it won't be like that because those houses are expensive and we all know sun is a rarity in the UK

I moved to the US last year and until recently was living in central WA state (about 2hrs SE of Seattle). While the climate was great, the town was isolated and very un-scenic (crusty brown desert) with little to do and lots of gang violence. I got a job in Indiana and moved here last month and I love it. We get a bit more rain obviously but it's a lot more pleasant area and has a small town country feel with the benefit of big cities relatively close by. I spent part of my honeymoon in NYC so have an idea of what you are talking about but before you head back to the UK I would suggest if possible trying another part of the country. That's the joy of the US, is it is so big that most people find somewhere they like.

I hope that helps.

Rete

He is not living in NYC. He lives in New Jersey. Only commutes to New York for work. There is a vast difference between living in NYC and just working in NYC. You go home at the end of the day to a nice suburb with fresher air, less congestion, etc. You are not surrounded with homeless people on every street or panhandlers, etc.

I started working in NYC in 1966 and retired in 2015. I lived outside of NYC in the suburbs on a quiet street in an apartment where I could walk to a variety of restaurants and coffee shops, or to a pub or bar, go to church services of three different denominations if I so choose, was within a 20 minute drive of the Long Island Sound and great beaches or 10 minutes from the Hudson River with great restaurants and parks for picnics or sitting under a tree contemplating my navel, a 2 hour drive to the Berkshire Mountains in MA and 3 minutes from the Metro North Train Station for a trip into mid-town Manhattan.

I fully understand that he misses the UK and his hometown and his lifestyle there. And I fully understand being unhappy where you landed and the desire to recapture what you feel you have lost. I suppose a lot depends on where you can find employment of the caliber that will afford you the lifestyle you are seeking and if that area has a small town close by that will ease your melancholy. Only he needs to realize that he might find that small town in Massachusetts but he would still be commuting daily to a major city where there are lots of homeless, crime, dirt, crowds, etc. He will just be swapping NYC for Boston and a small town in NJ for a small town in MA.

Pulaski

How come it took you five years to work out that New York wasn't for you? ..... It took us less than six months.

We packed everything we had into a Penske truck fifteen years ago last week and left, and the only time I have been back is for a handful of business trips. I wouldn't entirely rule out returning temporarily (for a few years), but it would have to be for several times my current salary, which is unlikely but not impossible.

britinusa777777755

Moved to NJ after 3 years in NYC, quality of life have improved since. Far better apartment and neighbors. All my neighbours pay the market rent, instead of a mix of section 8/rent controlled and full paying tenants.

I'm under the impression that Boston MA is quieter, cleaner, smaller and has less of a homeless problem than NYC? Therefore the lifestyle would a little different from living in a commuter town of NYC? Perhaps I am mistaken ?

Nutmegger

Boston may not have as many homeless people as NYC, but I believe that, when related to the size of the population, it has a higher number. People are hurting-- you are going to find the homeless everywhere.

britinusa777777755

Hmmm I might have to consider the lifestyle of working and living in NJ (Paramus/Mahwah) or MA (Cambridge etc). Enjoying the city itself off peak on weekends (museums, restaurants and events etc).

Pulaski

A lot of your list are mutually exclusive - you want more walkable down towns and less noise, and yet some are inconsistent with life in any G10, or probably G20 country, or more.
Cities attract homeless people, they just do.

At the moment your list looks like a list of reasons to leave the US, and some of the problems you identify will be no better in the UK, and I guarantee that if you return to the UK it won't be as fabulous as you remember it.

Some things will be better if you return to the UK. Some will be better if you move to Boston, or somewhere in New England, other things will be better if you head south, or to the West Coast, but much as I hate to be the bearer of bad news, you can't have it all!

scrubbedexpat027

All I saw in that picture of Chester was horrible clouds. That's what living in SoCal does

Sounds like you just need a change. And that doesn't have to be a change back.

johnwoo

A lot of that applies to San Francisco, but I love it.
Although I live in he burbs, I get into the City as often as I can.

Beaverstate

Sounds like NYC

Beaverstate

I-5 shouldn't bother you much...US 26 (sunset hwy) is a horror.

Beaverstate

While Portland isn't NYC or LA is isn't exactly small town. The metro population is about 2.4 million.

Twinkle0927

It's very easy to develop a whimsical and romantic idea of the U.K. once you've left. This is not my first time leaving the U.K. to live somewhere else. When I was 19 I packed up and went back to Germany (where I had spent most of my younger childhood) thinking it would be the same. It wasn't. It had changed - and that's not just because I arrived just as they were pulling the Wall down. It was easy to find fault with things and think to myself "it wouldn't be like that in England" and start to miss things. So after 7 years I packed up again and moved back to England. The first few months were fantastic. Then reality set in and it was nothing like I had remembered. And I'd only been gone 7 years. Work later sent me to Asia and it was the same all over again.

You seem to have a fondness for the more typical, traditional English way of life - chocolate-box villages, local pubs with friendly regulars, country lanes and so on. A woman (American) that I work with here went to the U.K. last month on holiday. Although she found some places that fitted your ideal (and we all know they do still exist) she was disappointed at how American everyone and everything is trying to be over there. She looked for pubs with traditional fayre and whilst she was occasionally successful, a large number are now owned by chain franchises with a standard menu of burgers and "fries" across the board, small, independent shops are closing and everything is moving to out of town shopping parks, etc. In my final months in the U.K. I noticed a lot of new housing being built in the local area that all has that same look that you see here - that sort of clapboard-effect. And don't get me started on how they have seized Black Friday over there. Lots of people who've been to Florida once or twice and now think they're half-American, talking about watching "movies" and "hanging out", and if I had a pound for every time I heard "awesome!" in my last six months there... You can't even buy a normal fridge there now - everywhere is selling what they call "American fridges" with double doors on the front. We don't even have one of those here.

In short, I think you're going to be disappointed. England has changed, and not in the direction you may have wanted it to. But this country is so big and so diverse there is probably something to suit you somewhere. I'm in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest and when I watch the news and they report from Miami or New York or Dallas it's hard to believe it's the same country. I remember visiting one Thanksgiving and we were with the in-laws near Spokane and it was minus 26. I stepped outside and felt like the insides of my lungs were freezing over. Got inside and the TV was on and some event in Miami Beach was being shown and everyone was in swimwear, lounging on the beach. Spend some time finding the right spot for you. There's a lot more to here than the northeast corner.

lizzyq

Well put! I would add that not just are the places we go "back" to not the same, we ourselves are not the same. As we move around and grow up our life experiences change us, The things that used to charm us may now aggravate us and vice versa. As with most of those who have responded to the OP I would recommend trying somewhere different within the USA before moving "back home".

carcajou

New York has a reputation among Americans for being extremely fast-paced and hustle bustle, with rude people always in a rush. It also used to have a reputation for exceptionally high crime rates though that has faded in the public consciousness; the reverse with prices (it wasn't seen as extraordinarily pricey until about the last 15 years or so).

It had an extended run as the "hot city" seemingly all young American millennials wanted to move to, though that has stopped, for many of the reasons you alluded to in your post. Many are trying smaller mega-cities like Boston or Philadelphia instead.

I find the state of the public transport and subway system shocking - it looks like it hasn't been updated in 100 years - and find it astounding that such a system could exist in a country as rich as the US.

I found homelessness to be a much more visible problem on the West Coast than the East Coast.

Nothing wrong with having wandering eyes. I would consider different parts of the country as well besides just the Northeast. Let me be contrarian and throw a few outside-the-box suggestions out there: Have you considered a place like Nashville or Jacksonville? If you can get past the stereotypes of the South a lot of Brits have, there are good deals and lifestyles to be had there.