One of the latest superlative lists puts Portland, Maine at the top. Take it from someone who lived there for 10 years. They have no idea.
Let’s say you were a certain kind of person. You were young, unattached, with a huge inheritance tucked away, with no vehicle, no debt, and a satisfying job at a nonprofit just steps away from your overpriced apartment. The job pays only about $18,000 a year, but it makes you feel good, and your financial manager covers your living costs anyways with the pickings from your trust.
If you were this kind of person, Portland, Maine would be an ideal place to live.
If you were, however, most other types of people—families with kids, for instance, or people without trust funds who are not lawyers or anesthesiologists or slumlords—it just plain sucks…