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Most of the Baltimore metro area population 2. Twenty-five miles south is the picturesque town of Annapolis, the capital of Maryland and one of the sailing capitals of the East Coast. The region has a profusion of world-class parks, including 19th-century gems in the Mount Vernon Place neighborhood that are fiercely guarded by a local nonprofit.
Fresh, locally grown food is easy to find at dozens of public markets. Some, including the Cross Street and Lexington markets, are open year-round. Unemployment in Baltimore City was 10 percent in April , above the national average. But a high share of the population has a college degree, and there are nearly two dozen degree-granting institutions in the metro area, including such highly ranked colleges as Johns Hopkins University enrollment 19, and two campuses of the University of Maryland.
Metro Baltimore features top-quality cultural institutions, including the world-famous Peabody Institute and the Walters Art Museum. This is heaven for boaters, with marinas dotting the hundreds of miles of coastline along Chesapeake Bay and the Patapsco River. Baltimore is a major center for medical talent, with a high concentration of physicians and specialists; the teaching hospital at Johns Hopkins is one of the best in the country.
Also, traffic congestion is bad, as are ozone levels in the air, according to the American Lung Association.
But relief often awaits along the breezy waterfront, which is a relaxing place to sit anytime, just to see who strolls by. Before you dismiss being steered toward the frozen tundra of Minnesota, consider this: Minnesotans are some of the friendliest people you'll find anywhere, and the cities they call home offer a surprisingly eclectic mix of date-friendly ways to spend time.
The Minnesota Orchestra is regularly mentioned among the best symphonies in the world. The Guthrie Theater's blue building on the riverfront heads up a list of theater companies and art museums so impressive that Minneapolis was recently included in a "where to go next" list by Travel and Leisure, right next to Rome and Montenegro. OK, so there's another side: Minneapolis-St. Paul at one point led the nation in per capita consumption of Cool Whip. But a high share of metro residents have a college degree, and the Twin Cities have finished first or second in a ranking of America's Most Literate Cities several times.
The University of Minnesota enrollment 52, dominates higher education in the region, but the area has three-dozen degree-granting institutions and an Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. If you're looking for companionship over something other than Cool Whip, St. Paul has a burgeoning restaurant scene, anchored by a handful of excellent ethnic eateries. One reason for the general good vibes in and around MSP is the accessible parkland, including lakes, rivers, trails and some of the most pristine wilderness in the United States.
Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge, 50 miles northwest of the Minneapolis, has hiking and Nordic ski trails from which you can watch dozens of bird species and other wildlife. Numerous lakes within a two-hour drive offer fishing, trails, small beaches and boat ramps. And not much farther afield is the vast wilderness of Superior National Forest and the Boundary Waters canoe area.
If you like to mingle over a good cause, more than four in 10 residents here do volunteer work. The Twin Cities have one of the country's lowest rates of death from heart disease. A large percentage of residents exercise regularly, and similarly high numbers don't smoke. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality recently ranked Minnesota first in the United States for the overall quality of its health care.
So: Happy, healthy, active residents in a vibrant city. Easy to meet like-minded singles in that setting! Two hundred years ago, St. Louis was the last place Lewis and Clark could buy gunpowder before paddling into the Wild West.
Today, it has grown into the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country. But while it's matured, the city still has a wild edge reminiscent of the frontier days. Louis contains more than six dozen neighborhoods, each with its own character. Some are more conducive to mingling than others.
As the website Explore St. Louis says, the neighborhood is "a little European, a little New York and totally St. The St. Louis metro area population 2. Lots of nice suburbs lie to the north and west in St. Charles County: three of these, St. Peters 55, , O'Fallon 75, and St. Charles 64, , made the list of best small cities in a study by Money magazine.
Louis is one of America's "most livable communities," according to Partners for Livable Communities, with lots of walkable places. The American Planning Association recently honored the Delmar Loop in University City as one of the 10 Great Streets in America, and the warehouse buildings downtown have recently been remade into glitzy residential lofts. Charles and Park Plaza in Edwardsville, Ill. The metro has more than 30 degree-granting institutions, including several community college campuses and seven schools with enrollments of more than 10, Nature lovers bask in the city's parks.
The jewel of the system is Forest Park, the 1,acre site of the World's Fair and now home to the city's sublime zoo and first-class museums of art, history and science. Forest Park also harbors the Municipal Opera, golf courses, tennis courts, baseball diamonds, and facilities for bicycling, boating, fishing, handball, ice skating and more.
Powell Hall, home of the renowned St. Louis Symphony, is a few blocks away from Forest Park.
Please don't show me this again for 90 days. So: Happy, healthy, active residents in a vibrant city. All rights reserved. Travel Tips Vacation Ideas Destinations. See More Ecosystem Guides.
The neoclassical Central Library building anchors a large library system. And Union Station, built in , reopened in as a hotel, shopping and entertainment complex, and is now a major attraction. Downsides include bad air pollution and humid summers. But a mug of local beer in an air-conditioned bar or sidewalk cafe can ease both of those ills. From the artsy to the outdoorsy and everything in between, the nearly 8.
All that's required is a willingness to interact, and of course the financial means to stay afloat in one of the country's most expensive metro areas. Want cultural diversity? New York offers close to neighborhoods within 59 community districts. One study estimated that languages are spoken in the borough of Queens alone. Many sections of Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx have easy access to green space, great restaurants, bay views, friendly neighbors and the subway, which has chaperoned more chance encounters-turned-romances than many entire cities.
Once known as gritty and dangerous, the subway, like the city itself, has grown much safer in recent decades: The metropolitan area is in the lowest one-third of the United States for violent crime, with even lower rates of property crime.
The New York metro area also has one of the nation's highest concentrations of physicians and teaching hospitals. Department of Energy has recognized New York for promoting solar energy. The Big Apple is also home to half a million students attending higher education institutions, including several with lifelong learning centers for older students. The biggest issue for people considering a move here: Can you handle the nearly endless buzz of one of the world's most vibrant cities? If yes, you'll have trouble running out of things to do and people to meet here.
Consider this: The "older singles" section of the online dating site Mingle2.
And that's only one marker of the possibilities for finding love and companionship in the self-anointed Rock 'n' Roll Capital of the World. The copper-roofed clock tower of the West Side Market stands sentry over stalls selling all manner of fresh food. The market dates to and earned designation as one of the American Planning Association's 10 great public spaces.
The Cleveland metropolitan area population 2. Beachwood 12, , a suburb in eastern Cuyahoga County, is a haven for older residents, with 32 percent age 65 or older, compared with a national average of 13 percent. The village has award-winning schools, two large senior centers, an elaborate public pool and the glitzy Legacy Village mall. The industrial barons who built Cleveland endowed superb arts and cultural institutions that endure. Downtown's Playhouse Square claims to be second-largest theater complex in the United States, and the metro area has over a dozen theatrical, ballet and dance companies.
In addition to the famous Cleveland Orchestra, the city also maintains an opera and a pops orchestra. Want to tap Cleveland's rock roots? Live music abounds at the town's many bars.
If that's too tame, check out the Cleveland-style Slovenian polka on the first floor of Euclid's old City Hall. Locals embrace the mostly hapless pro sports teams, and outdoors lovers can choose from golf courses, Great Lakes sailing, hiking and biking in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, and the much cleaner these days Cuyahoga River. Education is top-tier here, from the public Cleveland State University to a slate of private colleges that includes Oberlin College 35 miles away and Case Western Reserve University, which also boasts an excellent medical school.
The other big local name in health care, Cleveland Clinic, ranks near the best in the country for heart surgery. Unemployment 9. And older singles who don't need jobs have that much more time to peruse those online personal ads. Philly is so much more than the cradle of America's democracy. It's a city of progressive neighborhoods, brotherly love, strident opinions and mouth-watering cuisine ranging from haute to hot. It's also a place with ample culture, accessible natural attractions and an outgoing, engaging populace. The city anchors one of the oldest metro areas in America founded and the fifth biggest, with a population of nearly 4 million.
Philadelphia population 1. Icebreaking opportunities for first dates here are extensive: Philly's impressive cultural institutions include the Pennsylvania Ballet, the acre Philadelphia Zoo founded , the Philadelphia Museum of Art more than , objects in a majestic Greek Revival temple and Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and U. Constitution were signed. The Philadelphia Orchestra, which performs at the 2,seat Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, is considered by many critics to be one of the best in the world.
At the Reading Terminal Market in Center City, locals have jostled since for fresh meats, vegetables and fancy foods sold by Amish farmers and chocolatiers. For the iconic Philadelphia cheesesteak, some locals swear by Rick's Steaks. Rick is the grandson of Pat Olivieri, who invented the sandwich with his brother in about The only way to decide for yourself is to try them all.