"Philly and Atlanta are a segregationist's dream, and Chicago is WAAAAAACK! "

I disagree entirely - I grew up in Philly - only major city I know where black people dominate the government, there are large integrated areas including my neighborhood Mt. Airy which is cited as one of the top 10 examples of a successful integrated neighborhood in the USA...the one thing that everyone complains about is the f'd up city wage and gross receipt taxes which drive businesses and jobs out to the burbs - and the one -way streets downtown, but what are you going to do about that? Those streets were originally designed for horse and buggy. Also public trans is a nightmare. Beautiful area, though - lots of woods, streams, 1 hour from the ocean, 1.5 hours from incredible camping/fishing whatever in the Poconos, two hours from NY if that's your thing...

I live in Chicago now - there's definitely more segregation here, but there are still a lot of good parts - my neighborhood has Africans, Jamaicans, Mexicans, whites, African-Americans...a few blocks away is a Pakistani/Indian community, a few more blocks away is a big Jewish/Korean community. Much better run city than Philadelphia (city services, attractions) plenty to do, I think the place rocks, though the weather can stink, still there's plenty of sunny days. The disadvantages are high housing cost, not much in the way of day-trips, tough winters. Sorry you Southerners may have the weather, but I will always relate better to Northerners....