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This is good advice. We have a major market about 15 minutes away and a grocery store four blocks away. Rather than a major run once a week, we buy more frequently when out running errands. That way, our food is also fresher. InsaneTraveler says s/he couldn't imagine shopping for groceries this without a car. Sometimes things are easier in reality than one might imagine. That said, this might not work for InsaneTraveler as we are all different. If not, then there is nothing right or wrong about this. It is probably just better that this poster live where he or she can have a car.
Totally agree that it's not for everyone, but as someone who grew up where a car was necessary....not having a car is great if you live in the right area.
You didn't state that it was preference, in your original post. Your inclination was leaning more towards them being "subjective".
I think in a lot of cases, it's more so preferences. Not in every case, but a lot.....
As far as I can tell, something being open to preference and being subjective are one and the same.
Quote:
Originally Posted by InsaneTraveler
quote=BruceTenmile;29246777]
No no. There are definitely things about the North that are difficult. The higher cost of living is just one of them. You can get a sky high condo in the south for what you will pay to live in a shoe box in DC for example.
These are not 'opinions'. These are facts. There are difficulties living up North that just don't exist anywhere in the South. My friends in New York City say that they have to factor in parking tickets into their monthly budgets for another example. There is no city in the South where you would have to do this.
You might counter with that they could sell their cars and just use public transit. Public transit will NEVER be as convenient as utilizing a vehicle. In northern cities if you have a car you usually have to pay an extra 100 bucks a month to have a parking space. Even then, you may have to dodge cleaners on several mornings or risk getting a ticket.
I remember the last time I visited friends in Chicago I had to move my car early in the morning to dodge the cleaners or I would get a ticket. I woke up early, drove around for an hour to dodge them. When I came back, all parking in the ENTIRE NEIGHBORHOOD was taken! I had to drive around for hours looking for a parking space. I finally found one a far away about four hours later.
Situations like that just don't happen in the South. They are routine in northern cities.
Add: I don't know why my post is saying I am quoting queen balm. I was supposed to be quoting Bruce?
As people have said since, the way to live in a more compact urban environment is without a car. You might find it harder if you must have a car, but there's no reason that you must, because these cities were not built with cars in mind, so they're far more walkable. Also, I've found numerous apartments in the Near North Side of Chicago for somewhat less than $200,000, and as far as I'm concerned, to be in the heart of a major city, that's great. I'm sorry, but maybe you'd find it harder to live in the north because of the way you want to live your life. You put the constraint of needing to own a car on there, and yeah, maybe it is objectively more difficult to own a car in a northern city, but otherwise, I'm still not with you on this, and neither are others on here.
Yeah, I think Queen Palm's having trouble quoting and it's messing the rest of us up.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jm02
Thanks for sharing the experiences of of you and your friends. Mine have been quite different. We are a couple who moved from Houston to Philly. Because of the compactness of the city, we were able to go from two cars to one. Imagine the savings. That would never have been possible for us in Houston. And even with one car, it is only used once a week to go to a volunteer activity and for the occasional weekend get-away. Because we keep it in a garage in our building we don't worry about tickets. We rarely use public transit because nearly everything we want and need to do is within walking distance. When we do need PT, however, an extensive and convenient system is at our disposal.
As for COL, housing is more expensive here . . . to purchase. But we found once we purchased, our living expenses are actually much less. Our insurance is a fraction of the cost (no hurricane, flooding or mold coverage is necessary), our utilities run less than a quarter of what we paid in Houston, and we were surprised to learn our property taxes are 20% of what we paid in Houston . . . on a more expensive property!
QOL is a magnitude of order better for us. To have every convenience within a short walk of our front door has improved our quality of life immeasurably. Living in a dense, walkable, and vibrant city is not for everyone, obviously. But to have all of this at our doorstep makes life in the "north" not only easier for us, but more fun.
This is one person's perspective on the premise of this thread: whether or not life is "harder" in the north.
Yes, that was all I was wondering, whether it was all down to preference or not, and of course, as I thought, it's all down to preference, no matter what some say.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hollytree
If you're from England, you will find the south to be much more of a culture shock for you than living in, say, New England.
I don't doubt it, though I have no interest in moving at all at the moment. Saying that, all areas of the US I'd wager are more similar in culture than New England to the UK, or at least more similar in comparison than you'd think.
I don't doubt it, though I have no interest in moving at all at the moment. Saying that, all areas of the US I'd wager are more similar in culture than New England to the UK, or at least more similar in comparison than you'd think.
Hmm, I don't know about that...
I always think of New England (if not the Northeast entirely) as a modern Loyalist stronghold in terms of politics and culture.
That isn't, of course, meant to disparage all Northeasterners, but I don't know, I consider the Northeast (along with their big, bad bogeyman known as "the South") to be the most incompatible with the rest of the country--most of them appear to despise Americans who reside in the interior regions, which, in my opinion, places them on pretty common ground with their British (UK) counterparts.
I always think of New England (if not the Northeast entirely) as a modern Loyalist stronghold in terms of politics and culture.
That isn't, of course, meant to disparage all Northeasterners, but I don't know, I consider the Northeast (along with their big, bad bogeyman known as "the South") to be the most incompatible with the rest of the country--most of them appear to despise Americans who reside in the interior regions, which, in my opinion, places them on pretty common ground with their British (UK) counterparts.
You may always think of New England that way, but that doesn't make it any less American, or any further away from the common American identity which it shares with the South. New England may be the closest in terms or culture to the UK, but that doesn't make it close, and it doesn't make it closer than it is to America as a whole.
I wouldn't say any region's people, on the whole, or any country's for that matter, despise any other's people. There are some individuals who might of course, but I'd think them in the minority.
People in this country like to moan about a lot of things, and maybe for some, Americans, or America is subject of that moaning, but when it comes down to it, a vast amount of our entertainment comes from the US these days, just like the rest of the world, and we've been influenced in the last 100 years just as much as we influenced you in the previous centuries. If asked individually, I don't imagine you'd find many Brits who'd say they dislike America, and out of those that do, you take foreign policy out of it and they'd probably change their answer.
You may always think of New England that way, but that doesn't make it any less American, or any further away from the common American identity which it shares with the South. New England may be the closest in terms or culture to the UK, but that doesn't make it close, and it doesn't make it closer than it is to America as a whole.
I agree that there is indeed an American idenity--I claim it myself--but its meaning and significance is very obscure when you see the U.S. for being as polarized as it is.
Like many Americans, I obviously tend to view this cultural/political polarization as occurring along regional lines, but I must admit that it's a bit frivolous to view it that way; instead, the U.S. could more reasonably be viewed as a country divided more strongly along psychographical lines, which certainly permeates all regional and state boundaries (some might think of this as being an issue concerning urban v. suburban v. rural).
So, point being, you're correct, to a certain extent, when you suggest that the Northeastern and Southern regions of the country may share an identity, but it relies entirely on the existence of common psychographical ground (and yet, still, I strongly contend that the average Northeasterner of leftist orientation would formally surrender this country to the Commonwealth if such a thing were possible).
Quote:
Originally Posted by BruceTenmile
I wouldn't say any region's people, on the whole, or any country's for that matter, despise any other's people. There are some individuals who might of course, but I'd think them in the minority.
Well, I personally couldn't determine such people to represent a majority or a minority for sure, but the divide in the U.S. that we can see between Northern and Southern states (I'm referring to the Eastern Seaboard states most specifically) is a consequence of history that continues to weaken this country. The superiority complexes that exist on both sides of that spectrum are astounding, and it's particularly annoying that the rest of the country has been continuously drug beneath the fallout of their Civil War-inspired culture clash.
Last edited by JMT; 04-24-2013 at 07:34 PM..
Reason: Removed off-topic comments.
As far as I can tell, something being open to preference and being subjective are one and the same.
I disagree.
We know that the climate in the north tends to be colder than parts of the south. That isn't something that is subjective. Now, people wanting to leave a colder climate for a warmer climate is preference. There is a difference.
Quote:
Yeah, I think Queen Palm's having trouble quoting and it's messing the rest of us up.
my quoting isn't messing anybody up. stop trying to make this thing personal....
So, you've noticed posters doing that on these forums too, huh? lol.
It really boils down to some people really disliking cold winter weather and, in the case of the northeast, the high cost of living. For me, weather doesn't matter much and a few months of cold is not a problem. I also believe that for the most part you get what you pay for. Therefore, I'll take the northeast over any other region in the U.S. as a place to live.
You guys are just talking about cities, right? Not the rural or suburban parts of the northeast where individuals actually have to remove snow, drive in it and have the taxes and cost of living but not the paychecks to match?
We know that the climate in the north tends to be colder than parts of the south. That isn't something that is subjective. Now, people wanting to leave a colder climate for a warmer climate is preference. There is a difference.
my quoting isn't messing anybody up. stop trying to make this thing personal....
Apparently the post I commented on was removed, but it seems it's still here. Anyway...
The fact that it is colder in the north is indeed an objective fact. This does not make it objectively harder to live in the north. Some might find it harder to live with intense heat than with snow. You say it's all down to preference, and I agree, but whether it being colder is a bad thing or not, is subjective, that's why at least in this instance, I think they're the same thing.
Also, that was the first personal comment I made, I'm not trying make anything personal. It doesn't matter any more anyway, so sorry about that.
You guys are just talking about cities, right? Not the rural or suburban parts of the northeast where individuals actually have to remove snow, drive in it and have the taxes and cost of living but not the paychecks to match?
I live in Maryland. I used to shovel snow when I was a kid. Now, my landscaper/yardworker does it for me automatically. Most roads around here get cleaned up fairly quickly - within a matter of hours - after a modest amount of snowfall. If there's a heavy blizzard, then it can take up to 3 days to clean up most of the interior roads. But that happens once every 7 years or so.
Does that sound hard to live in? Not to me. Maybe to some folks. If someone can't stand snow, than yeah the north is a no-no. But most of the time, it's actually fun. I love watching my children play in it like I used to.
It's not hard at all to live in the North... at least the Midwest (Northeast is to expensive IMHO)
Most people have an aversion to winter... I can't say with certainty if it's simply biological, or if it's just the media shoving California, Hawaii and Florida down our throats to make us hate cold weather.
I, for one, welcome wintry weather. I'm originally from Iowa (now live in Alabama... I only moved here b/c of my wife) and Iowa (along with most of the rest of the Midwest) gets a perfect medley of all four seasons. And I love having variety - green springs, the warm (but usually not TOO hot) summers, the cool, colorful falls, and of course a nice blanket of snow in the winter.
The Midwest arguably has the lowest cost-of-living of any region in the country (but the average salaries are middle-of-the-road at worst, and well above average in many cases), is probably the safest region (of course, Detroit, St. Louis and parts of Chi-town aren't the nicest but they're the exceptions and not the rule) and the public school systems are the best in the country.
You can always put on a sweater if it gets cold... you can't necessarily remove layers in the summer time.
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