You have to pick one city in which to receive a year's stipend on the condition that you finish your novel in that time...

>A red dirt West Texas town that has one motel, and the residents live in Hooverville-era wigwams.
You may as well just write a story bout that

it isn't about locking yourself away you moron. it's about getting out of your norm.

Not sure, so here's a shortlist of possibilities, in no particular order, based on places I've actually been:

Naples, Italy
Stockholm
Tallin
Prague
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Baltimore (somewhere within walking distance to Fell's Point)
Boston
If you change the hypothetical from "city" to "place", and "studio apartment" to "living space", anywhere with forests, mountains, and lakes/rivers would do.

I wouldn't need to go far. I'm on the Peak District's doorstep, I'd have a cottage in Lockerbrook or anywhere else near the Ladybower Dam.

Either that or I'd have a beautiful old house (I know the exact house) in my hometown near the woods where I used to play as a child.

born and raised right by kensington, whaf makes you say that?

sadly the areas about to be gentrified to shit

I'd choose the city in which I'm most familiar, where I'm safest in other words.

Tokyo, because I'm a fucking weeb and I won't be able to talk to anyone.

I was just kidding around about the trees. Clearly you like warm weather.

I am the OP and have chosen Boston. It's comfy and there are a lot of college chicks and smart people.

Baltimore's pretty rough dude. You can be in a high-crime block within like two blocks of the waterfront.

I suppose it could be any place, but the stipulation stands that your living space won't be any larger or more luxurious than a studio apartment, even if it's a standalone house so that people don't factor in cost of living.

>Baltimore's pretty rough dude. You can be in a high-crime block within like two blocks of the waterfront.

As I mentioned in my post, I've been to all the places I listed, so I know what I'd be in for. Pretty much all of the high-crime areas are west of downtown. The area around the inner harbor and fells point are nice as hell. Even the downtown area and just north of it were nice.

can I go back in time before globalism and multiculturalism ruined nearly every major city in the west?