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I'll be moving to Charleston soon and can't wait to add to the forum. In the meantime I'll just say, as someone who's lived North, South and West Charleston is one of the more interesting small cities I've encountered. I love the fact that it has an intact downtown, that has people actually walking around in, is close to the ocean and is hot! I just spent a year in New York and for 7 months was miserable from cold, grey days that went on and on. I'll take the heat any day. Of the complaints I've read about Charleston I can't really find any of them to be so bad. Traffic? Bad everywhere, just avoid peak hours. Bugs? Nothing some screens can't keep away. Food? I believe there's a reason Charleston is consistently written up in national magazines on its gastronomy and low country cuisine. As for any other complaints, as regards intolerance, culture, etc. From my experience one will always have to adapt to some degree to the local culture. From my experiences visiting I've found Charleston to be pretty open minded and friendly. The whole North-South thing is over played, if you really want to feel divisiveness try South Florida. And, trust me, northeners can be extremely intolerant of any views outside their own. Not here to be pointing out the negative though just looking forward to experiencing the best of what Charleston has to offer and that seems to far outweigh the negatives.
You sound like I did before I moved here from New England. You THINK you can handle the heat but how about having to pay electric bills from May thru September for air conditioning that are as high or higher than your heating bills are in New York ? On top of that you still have to pay for heat from November to March.
You sound like I did before I moved here from New England. You THINK you can handle the heat but how about having to pay electric bills from May thru September for air conditioning that are as high or higher than your heating bills are in New York ? On top of that you still have to pay for heat from November to March.
Maybe the cost of AC and heat for Charleston does cost as much as heating up North for the winter but my house taxes are more than $3000 less here which more than make up the difference. Also the miserable long winters up North are depressing and definitely affect your mood. I'll take Charleston for being the better place to live for me personally. I've lived South before, but in Mississippi, and it was different. Charleston has it's own unique ambience and class. I think it's a great place to live!
Maybe the cost of AC and heat for Charleston does cost as much as heating up North for the winter but my house taxes are more than $3000 less here which more than make up the difference. Also the miserable long winters up North are depressing and definitely affect your mood. I'll take Charleston for being the better place to live for me personally. I've lived South before, but in Mississippi, and it was different. Charleston has it's own unique ambience and class. I think it's a great place to live!
You sound like I did before I moved here from New England. You THINK you can handle the heat but how about having to pay electric bills from May thru September for air conditioning that are as high or higher than your heating bills are in New York ? On top of that you still have to pay for heat from November to March.
New York must have really cheap heating rates! My electric here, running the ac 24/7 is much lower than what my heating costs were in New England, and actually not a heck of a lot more than my electric up there in the summer without using ac. When I used oil to heat I would go through approximately 700 gallons in the winter (I had plastic on the windows and kept the temp around 67). If oil was $3 a gallon (that is very conservative), I would pay $2,100 for the winter. That doesn't include electric costs, which were around $100 in the winter months when I used oil. I changed to a pellet stove for the last 3 years I was there and I would go through 5 tons, and sometimes more depending on the weather. At approximately $280 a ton, that is $1,400 for the winter. When I used my pellet stove my electricity was close to $150 a month. I just can't imagine my yearly electric cost here being close to what I paid for electricity and heat in New England.
I would say that if your electric bills are as big or bigger than your heating bills from up north, you should have your Air Conditioner checked out. It sounds like it might not be working correctly.
Re#5. I can assure you that those with thick Southern accents are much like the Japanese: formal on the surface, but simmering inside. If provoked (hotbutton stuff: politics, race, religion) they won't be rude, they'll simply pullout their unregistered saturday night special and put a cap in you.
That's why since moving to the South for work I have learned to:
A) Keep mostly to myself (except for family).
B) Keep things as formal and concise as I can at work and on the street.
C) Take advantage of those wonderful gun-state laws that allow me to have a carry-and-conceal weapon, and use it if someone attempts to affray or threaten me because I'm not "from 'round here."
Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of beautiful, outstanding things about the South, and Southerners love them, rightly so, but given a chance to sell my house at a reasonable price when the economy picks up and move to a more diversity-tolerant and progressive part of the country, I would do it in a heartbeat.
That's why since moving to the South for work I have learned to:
A) Keep mostly to myself (except for family).
B) Keep things as formal and concise as I can at work and on the street. C) Take advantage of those wonderful gun-state laws that allow me to have a carry-and-conceal weapon, and use it if someone attempts to affray or threaten me because I'm not "from 'round here."
Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of beautiful, outstanding things about the South, and Southerners love them, rightly so, but given a chance to sell my house at a reasonable price when the economy picks up and move to a more diversity-tolerant and progressive part of the country, I would do it in a heartbeat.
That's why since moving to the South for work I have learned to:
A) Keep mostly to myself (except for family).
B) Keep things as formal and concise as I can at work and on the street.
C) Take advantage of those wonderful gun-state laws that allow me to have a carry-and-conceal weapon, and use it if someone attempts to affray or threaten me because I'm not "from 'round here."
Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of beautiful, outstanding things about the South, and Southerners love them, rightly so, but given a chance to sell my house at a reasonable price when the economy picks up and move to a more diversity-tolerant and progressive part of the country, I would do it in a heartbeat.
I'm curious......where would you pack up and go in a heartbeat?
Well having moved here from Boston I would not move back. I guess we (my Family) just live in the right area. I love this state and the area.
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