re: Rank these places to live

Of the cities on that list I've been to, I'd rank like this:

Boise
Salt Lake
Seattle
Portland
New Orleans
Baton Rouge

I haven't been to these cities but from what I've heard I'd rank like this:

Boulder
Raleigh
Charlotte
Denver
Houston

Tier 1

Boise
Portland
Denver
Boulder

Tier 2

Raleigh
Charlotte
Seattle
Salt Lake City
Houston

Tier 3

Baton Rouge
New Orleans

Narrow it down to two.

Also do you like owning a gun? This applies for all.

None of those are appealing

Boulder : expensive, hip, more hip than you, if you can't bicycle up to Rocky Mountain Park without stopping to catch your breath, you may not be worthy of living there. An attitude of "I'm here, and now I'm building a fence to keep you out" has been there for forty years.

Denver: some neighborhoods as great as others are ratty. Neighborhoods that were great aren't anymore as growth spreads ever outward.

Colorado Springs and Golden are places that friends who lived in Boulder and then Denver and then moved because they could...those are their 'forever' homes.

SLC: less Mormon centric that it used to be. If you want to work during the day and ski great snow before dinner, you'll join friends of mine who moved there for the ski slopes.

For all of the three above, the odd thing is they are dry, as in lip chapping, skin scaley dry. If you have sinus problems, you may love this.

No kids?

Nola is near top of any list

Laid back work environment
Favorable party culture
Festivals year round
Easily traveled
Millions of drunken tourists

mountain/west areas above the non-LA areas (honestly have no idea why anyone would live in nola) ... raleigh/charlotte above houston ... houston's too crowded and expensive, though the other two might be just as bad ...

Here you go. Given the info supplied.

Baton Rouge
Boise
Boulder
Charlotte
Denver
Houston
New Orleans
Portland/ Vancouver
Raleigh
Salt Lake City
Seattle