The Female Science Professor lays it down:
...would you rather be a professor at:
1. A university that is located in a city/region in which you would love to live, but at which most of your faculty colleagues would be insane and/or unpleasant;
or
2. A university in a not-great place to live, but at which you would have interesting colleagues
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I haven't read the article, but I'd have to know what "not great" really meant.
Not great is fine. Bad isn't. If you mean a "bad" place to live, then my answer to the question is: no.
As long as it's a reasonable place to live, it doesn't have to be my idea; no question, gotta have good colleagues. Also gotta have a good administration, which pretty much vetos any extant institution.
I would rather not be a profeesor, period. But that's just me. ;)
Okay, I can only deal with this from personal experience, to make any sense.
The dream of all dreams for me is to be a professor in a great place with great faculty. Caltech, Stanford, Harvard, Cambridge, University of Paris, University of Edinburgh, Pisa, maybe UNSW in Sydney, Australia. Whatever. Just a dream, for now.
I have been an Adjunct Prof of Astronomy in a so-so place (Cypress, California) which was briefly a fine place when the Angels were in the World Series, but the faculty were rude to me, as I knew my stuff and they had been bluffing all their lives.
I have been Adjunct Prof of Math 5 semesters at Woodbury University, in Burbank, California, on a lovely campus. I liked most of the faculty (mind you, they almost all were teachers, not researchers), but the Dean of Arts and Sciences was a drunk abusive psychopath, and my contract was denied despitre the love of the students and the respect of faculty and administration. That bitch has been stripped of Deanship, and her loony girfriend stripped of assistantdeanship. But too late for me.
So, as I can't get in the door for interviews for real professorships, despite having successfully taught literally thousands of students, and having more publications that all faculty of Woodbury combined, I am this very afternoon grading Algebra 1 midterms for impovershed Hispanic and Afroamerican teenagers at Blair summer school in Pasadena (a nice town in a lovely setting).
My first paycheck never got autodeposited in my bank. Nobody available knows why. The new Superintendent fired the head of IT, and the shock has not yet stopped reverberating.
But I know I'm happier than I was when I was under cruel attack by a monster, and I suspect that would be true if I were at Yale, UC San Diego, U.Toronto, or wherever.
"The kingdom of heaven is within you" means something like: "The University of Bliss is in your own work and play, not on any external campus."
The faculty at Munich University seemed happy to me. The one who had lost wife and kids in a car crash was homeless, literally on the street (very rare in Munich) but people still came and had serious talks with him, made sure he was okay. The beer and sausages and live theatre were excellent.
So, someplace with lovely architecture, civilized people, nice cultural amenities, good beer and munchies. Also, where my wife would be happy, researching and writing science fiction and screenplays. Maybe Amsterdam?
They say U. Iceland has a good Math department.
U. Olympus Mons would be nice, circa 2100 A.D. I'd be a revered elder statesman, of Martian education. My stories of the great people of the 20th century would have an audience. Better and better offers would come from Ceres College.
The Oort Cloud beckons by 2200 A.D.
Oh, am I still dreaming?