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Northeast is my least favorable place, too. Grew up there. Lived in Central NY, too, Syracuse for one year. It was my personal epitome of a "he*l hole." Continual grey skies (at night, it was so cloudy, skies were white--how bizarre), brutal amts.snow, people who rarely smile, small townishness and bad roads.
^^^This. I grew up in Upstate NY and couldn't wait to leave because the lack of sun was so depressing. I would literally hibernate in the winter. I would only go out to go to work just because I HAD to. LOL I think I must have had SAD because although Florida has it's own issues, I have felt so much better since I moved. I went back for a week at Christmastime and we got 30 minutes of sun the entire week I was there. My mom would love for me to move back but that's not happening.
I'm 40 and I've changed a lot as a person as far as what I like and what I need in my life to make it run how I like. I had huge adjustment problems moving from San Diego to Tampa bay in 1991. I also had a big dose of culture shock moving from Sacramento to Pittsburgh, PA, though this turned into dread at having to move from Pgh back to San Diego for family reasons.
As I have gotten older, I have made friends with Florida again. I have also cast a much more critical eye on Vermont due largely to its lack of infrastructure and healthcare. I'm somewhat surprised by this, since I was so homesick after I left it for NC.
So, if I had all seven locales in six states to choose from, which one would be the worst choice for me these days? Highlands, NC. I need much better transit than it has, and better access to an airport and hospitals.
If you live in Chittenden County, Vermont has plenty of infrastructure and excellent health care with the UVM Medical School/Medical Center. The airport is OK. All the big box stores. Montreal is 90 minutes if you want a real city. The upper Connecticut River Valley has Dartmouth College and Dartmouth-Hitchcock just across the river in New Hampshire. You're 75 minutes from a good airport in Manchester, NH and less than 2 hours from Boston. The rest of the state? Not so much. I telecommute from a Vermont ski resort in the winter. The problem with Vermont is lack of economic opportunity. Other than health care careers, there is not much beyond service sector jobs or farming rocks once you get outside of Burlington. Anyone with much in the way of prospects leaves as soon as they become an adult. In a state with 600,000 people, there might be 25,000 "good" jobs. 5,000 at the semiconductor Fab plant IBM used to own, college prof jobs at UVM, St Mikes, Middlebury, etc, health care, some lawyers, a few successful small businessmen, a tough environment for a millennial. If you ski, winter is something you look forward to and nothing beats spring skiing in April.
Living there now - Austin, TX. Well, anywhere in Texas really. (I lived briefly in Houston as well). Hotter than hell for half of the year, never rains here, so everything is brown, dusty and/or dead. People call it the Hill Country, and I guess for Texas it's hilly, but to much of the rest of the country, that moniker is laughable. Austin has no towering trees, just a lot of large shrubs. Allergies are absurd. Everything is ridiculously spread out, so cities are not very walkable, except in a few areas. Public transportation is abysmal, at best, so traffic is a nightmare...and there are no viable alternatives to driving. Lots of bugs, many of which are venomous, and lots of snakes, also the venomous kind. People are polite, but not friendly. The politeness is in more of a condescending way. Austin is also NOT a big city. It has no pro sports team, no great museums, no zoo, no amusement parks, etc. You have to drive 2+ hours for any of that. It's also landlocked, which sucks. Can't wait to get out.
I totally disagree with you on that. I have lived all over TX (Amarillo, Gatesville, Dallas, Palestine, Tyler, and all areas of Houston), my sister lives in Austin, and although I dislike TX immensely, one thing you can count on is the kindness of most strangers. Texans are among the nicest, friendliest people you will ever meet, hands down. I have lived in other states (MT, VA, AK, CA) and even other countries, and Texans have them all beat in spades, in my experience. And BTW, if you can't find anything to do in Austin, you aren't looking very hard. Austin's population is just under 1 million, so it's hardly a small town, and of course it's the state capitol, so there's even more to see in Austin than other TX cities because of that.
I totally disagree with you on that. I have lived all over TX (Amarillo, Gatesville, Dallas, Palestine, Tyler, and all areas of Houston), my sister lives in Austin, and although I dislike TX immensely, one thing you can count on is the kindness of most strangers. Texans are among the nicest, friendliest people you will ever meet, hands down. I have lived in other states (MT, VA, AK, CA) and even other countries, and Texans have them all beat in spades, in my experience. And BTW, if you can't find anything to do in Austin, you aren't looking very hard. Austin's population is just under 1 million, so it's hardly a small town, and of course it's the state capitol, so there's even more to see in Austin than other TX cities because of that.
I would never pick Texas to live but I've spent a lot of time in Austin on business and it's as good as it gets for Texas. If I were forced to live there, I'd have the same kinds of things to say that you're rebutting. Stinkin' hot. Brown. Flat. Landlocked. Congested. It at least has a pulse and they wouldn't shun you if you had a Bernie bumper sticker or announced you were an athiest. For a left coast/right coast person, I'm not a fit for the local Texas culture.
I totally disagree with you on that. I have lived all over TX (Amarillo, Gatesville, Dallas, Palestine, Tyler, and all areas of Houston), my sister lives in Austin, and although I dislike TX immensely, one thing you can count on is the kindness of most strangers. Texans are among the nicest, friendliest people you will ever meet, hands down. I have lived in other states (MT, VA, AK, CA) and even other countries, and Texans have them all beat in spades, in my experience. And BTW, if you can't find anything to do in Austin, you aren't looking very hard. Austin's population is just under 1 million, so it's hardly a small town, and of course it's the state capitol, so there's even more to see in Austin than other TX cities because of that.
We'll just have to agree to disagree. I don't find Austinites any kinder than anyone else. There is also a palpable pretentiousness to the city, especially in regards to comparing it with other Texas cities. Austinites are convinced it is the greatest city in the world and no data or thoughts to the contrary will ever get them to admit otherwise. Look up Austintude in the Urban Dictionary; it's actually pretty accurate. Like I said, I think people are polite, but there is a difference between being polite, and actually being kind.
There are just over 800,000 people in Austin. But they are spread out over 275 square miles. Just to give you some perspective, Boston has a similar population, but covers about 90 square miles. That means a lot of Austin if covered by strip malls and suburbia. We have the capital, and a few small museums, but they are a far cry from the world-class museums that cities of similar size boast. And again, no zoo, amusement parks, etc.
There are outdoor activities, but it is too damn hot most of the year to actually enjoy them. And honestly, most cities, even ones smaller than Austin, have parks, water, etc. That doesn't make the city unique by any stretch of the imagination. There are lists everywhere about "100 things to do in Austin," but a lot of the suggestions are things like "go look at Christmas lights along XYZ street." Well, just about every place in the country with a population of 10,000 or more could put the same thing on their list. Again, not unique to Austin. There isn't a lot here I can't see or do everywhere else.
Perhaps part of it is that I am coming from a much larger city, where there were tons more things to do. But I have heard more than one visitor say to me that there wasn't much to do here. Usually it was people in town for business.
It at least has a pulse and they wouldn't shun you if you had a Bernie bumper sticker or announced you were an athiest. For a left coast/right coast person, I'm not a fit for the local Texas culture.
No, but they would shun you for having a Cruz sticker on your window or you were Christian. If you don't lean left, you are very much shunned in Austin. The 'burbs are very conservative, but Austin proper is very liberal.
Franklin, North Carolina. It's absolutely beautiful, but was a real one-horse town when I was there in my 20s. Dry county, very small population, no nice places to dine out. The people were nice enough, but I always felt like an outsider even though I went to several functions/gatherings. I went there for money - big fish in a small pond kind of thing, but it wasn't worth it.
I can only speak for how it was then; it's likely grown and changed for the better. The clean mountain air was really lovely, and I always appreciated the scenery.
If you live in Chittenden County, Vermont has plenty of infrastructure and excellent health care with the UVM Medical School/Medical Center. The airport is OK. All the big box stores. Montreal is 90 minutes if you want a real city. The upper Connecticut River Valley has Dartmouth College and Dartmouth-Hitchcock just across the river in New Hampshire. You're 75 minutes from a good airport in Manchester, NH and less than 2 hours from Boston. The rest of the state? Not so much. I telecommute from a Vermont ski resort in the winter. The problem with Vermont is lack of economic opportunity. Other than health care careers, there is not much beyond service sector jobs or farming rocks once you get outside of Burlington. Anyone with much in the way of prospects leaves as soon as they become an adult. In a state with 600,000 people, there might be 25,000 "good" jobs. 5,000 at the semiconductor Fab plant IBM used to own, college prof jobs at UVM, St Mikes, Middlebury, etc, health care, some lawyers, a few successful small businessmen, a tough environment for a millennial. If you ski, winter is something you look forward to and nothing beats spring skiing in April.
I lived in South Burlington and Burlington. Although Vermont is beautiful, it's a place to live if you are very outdoorsy, granola, wealthy, have one of those good jobs, are white, are a little oddball, or are a native. They call everyone not from Vermont "flatlanders". LOL That aside, my biggest challenge was [lack of] diversity. I had to drive to Montreal or Boston to have someone cut my hair. If I wanted to get my brows threaded, the closest place was Montreal or Manchester, NH. Some of my friends there say that you can get threading in the mall on Dorset Street now, so that's amazing progress. LOL
Vermont was a great learning experience for me. I'm an oddball, had a good job, granola....but that's it. It wasn't enough to keep me there. I actually left for grad school.
I don't have a worst place. They all have had something good and something bad. Usually wherever I am currently is the worst.
South Florida. What can be said that hasn't been said 1000,00,00,0,000000,00 time already?
The slime trap of the USA. The "Welcome to Georgia" sign on I-95 is the greatest thing I have ever read
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My mom would love for me to move back but that's not happening.
