I love everything about fireworks. The explosions, the noises, the colors, the risk, the lighting-shit-on-fire...<p>But I recently moved to a high desert/ski town where fireworks are largely banned, and outright dangerous to the entire city for about half the year, and I'm willing to accept this tradeoff for access to forests, mountains and streams.<p>The local city launches the annual displays from the tallest butte in town, and there are neighborhood pools on which side of the butte will catch fire every year. The local FD uses that inevitable fire as a suppression exercise, which is nearly as entertaining as the fireworks display.<p>I'm perhaps jaded though, in being willing to make this tradeoff. I worked for a few years in the downtown Austin office of a major tech co. right on the river. We'd congregate in the cafeteria and in the rooftop garden for eye-level firework viewing. It was absolutely glorious.<p>Side anecdote: on NYE you could walk the garden perimeter and see fireworks at the horizon line in every direction. God Bless Texas.