Where we choose to live can have a huge impact on our juggle. Living in an unfriendly neighborhood, or one where residents move often, can make it harder to find child-care help or other support. On the other hand, settling in a peaceful rural hamlet may seem like a great way to calibrate your juggle - until you realize you can't make a living relying on the slow dial-up Internet access available there.

    A recent survey tackled the question of what bonds us to the places we live, and its findings suggest the quality of our juggle is a more influential factor than economists might think. Given a choice, most people don't care as much about the local economy as they do about the social offerings, physical beauty and openness of a locale, says a recently released survey of about 14,000 people in 26 communities by Gallup and the Knight Foundation.

    Those intangibles - how warm, welcoming and fun a community seems to be - are apparently why people living in Miami tend to like it even more than they did last year. Residents of Minneapolis-St. Paul had an above-average regard for their town even 'B.F. - Before Favre' joined the Vikings, this article reports. Even in hard-pressed Detroit, citizens are liking life a little more than in recent years, perhaps because of better parks, green spaces and recreational opportunities, marked by investments in bike paths.

    In my case, living in the Pacific Northwest is a tradeoff. My town of Portland offers wonderful outdoor-sports access, edgy culture and natural beauty. However, as one who has worked in journalism and publishing all my life, I find many of my career contacts are a continent away, in New York.

    Juggle readers, you have commented in the past on regional differences in the juggle. Dressing everyone, including small kids, for frigid weather complicates the daily routine. And the quirky amenities some of you have cited in your comments - such as the feral pigs and ducks wandering in parts of Hawaii - can lighten one's mood and outlook.

    選擇住在哪里，可能會對我們生活的天平產生巨大的影響。住在鄰里關系不太好的社區，或者居民經常搬家的社區，你會很難找到托兒服務或者其它幫助。另一方面，安頓在一片寧靜的鄉間小村，看上去或許是一種很好的平衡的辦法，直到你終于意識到，你根本無法依賴那里慢吞吞的上網速度而長期生活下去。

    沒有什么地方能和家一樣最近的一份調查正是希望揭示到底是哪些因素促使我們選擇安家之地，結果發現，生活質量是一個比經濟學家想象的可能還要更具影響的因素。這份由蓋洛普（Gallup）和Knight Foundation聯合對26個社區的大約14,000人進行的調查顯示，如果有選擇，大多數人更加關心這個地點的社會服務，自然環境，以及開闊程度，而不是當地經濟如何。

    這些無形的因素──氣候溫暖、鄰里友好、生活有趣的社區環境──顯然是住在邁阿密的居民為何比去年更喜歡住在這里的原因。根據這項調查，即便橄欖球明星Favre'加入本城的維京人隊（Vikings）之前，明尼阿波利斯-圣保羅的居民對自己居住地的評價也高于平均水平。就算是壓力很大的底特律，當地居民現在也比近年來更加熱愛生活，也許原因在于美化的公園、綠色的空間以及豐富多彩的娛樂設施，其標志則是對自行車車道的大力投資。

    我自己呢，選擇住在西北太平洋地區則代表一種生活的取舍。我所在的波特蘭有極好的戶外運動設施，先鋒派的文化，還有優美的自然環境。不過，對于一生都在新聞和出版界工作的我，我發現跟我事業有關的諸多聯系人都遠在大陸彼岸的紐約。

    必須做出取舍的讀者們，你們在過去已經對地域的不同發表過很多評論。給包括幼兒在內的所有家人添衣御寒已成了每天的功課。而你們中的一些人在自己的評論中提到的稀奇古怪的好玩事兒──如在夏威夷部分地區晃蕩的野豬和鴨子，則會點亮人們的心情和希望。