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I think Americans should take advantage of the freedom of movement we have in our country, and live in several of the very different environments and communities encompassed in our nation.
I did. I lived a year in NYC and loved it, and four years in LA and never felt so sick (air pollution) and miserable (overpopulation) in my life. I've also lived in Seattle, Salt Lake, and numerous smaller cities, towns and rural areas throughout the country. The only parts of America in which I've never lived are New England and the coastal Southeast.
People who have lived in very different environments have learned that the stereotypes which exist about most locations in our country are based on ignorance.
There are plenty of cultural events in middle America. The best theatrical plays I've ever attended were in Louisville, Kentucky (the Actor's Theater), Iowa City (annual outdoor Shakespeare festival), Alma, Arkansas (community theater) and Bloomington, Indiana (opera). I've seen great plays, operas and ballet in NYC and LA too, but the experiences didn't have the same powerful impact on me as those in the places I mentioned. Great museums are scattered around the country. Great restaurants are also located in the most obscure locations. For example, there's an amazingly great Jamaican restaurant in Gilbert, Minnesota!
As for physical environments, much of middle America is incredibly beautiful. Get off the interstates, everyone! Those of you who enjoy very urban environments might be surprised how much you will like Tulsa, Oklahoma or Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
We all have different needs, likes, and hopes, and respond differently to different environments. Those of us who have lived in many different places have a very good basis on which to choose our permanent home. My choice is a farm near a small college town located somewhere in Middle America. I hope that you are enjoying your choice of home as much as I love mine!
I love to visit NYC every now and then, and there are still a very few beautiful spots left to visit in Southern California. But I wouldn't want to live in either place ever, ever again.
You are right about Southern California: very overpopulated and crowded. And the natural areas are few and far between, and one often gets stuck in major traffic either going or coming to visit these pockets of enjoyment. Very few places in So. Cal where you can really 'get away from it all' and enjoy nature. Even our local mountains are populated and crowded; they are 'urban' mountains or 'urban' wilderness. The Inland Empire is being gobbled up by subdivisions and strip malls, so the once 'rural' I.E is basically becoming an extension of the LA Basin.
Pockets of inland San Diego and Riverside Counties still have wide open spaces, but probably not for long.
Why are we talking about law firms and executives? That represents only a tiny fraction of society and not the ones who make places interesting. Cities are interesting for being places of cultural innovation and dynamism, not for having the largest pile of yuppies. As the coastal cities gentrify they are pushing out the sort of people who made them worthwhile in the first place and instead are having the culture of mid to late 20th century suburbia overlaid on them in urban format.
In the long run this will (and is) making mid America more interesting. In the past, places like San Francisco and New York were magnets for the creative types and free spirits of the entire country. They are less so now. One of the things I've noticed in Minneapolis over the last 30 years is that the sort of people from this region who used to end up in the Bay Area or New York now stay in Minneapolis. As this phenomenon increases pace throughout middle America, it will change both the cities of the interior and the cities of the coasts.
None of the major cities on the coast are very beautiful architecturally wise and actually very dull and old and very outdated or worthless in mass transit compared to asia and europe. America would do better to just start from scratch and look for europe for beautiful architecture and asia for amazing mass transit and well ordered cities and interesting culture. America needs better cultural capitals, just build futuristic and new cities somewhere, our cities are awful.
I would probably kill myself if forced to live in Fayetteville, aka Walmart-land. But different strokes for different folks, I guess.
Personally, I think NYC and Coastal CA are the best places in the U.S., and are certainly worth the higher housing costs. Would not want to live somewhere like Arkansas.
Arkansas has some nice spots, but if you don't really love the outdoors, its a better place to visit than to live. Places like Hot Springs, Eureka Springs, and yes Fayetteville are nice getaways.
Arkansas has some nice spots, but if you don't really love the outdoors, its a better place to visit than to live. Places like Hot Springs, Eureka Springs, and yes Fayetteville are nice getaways.
Well that was my initial point. Granted I do think that the small cities in AK have been booming i still wouldn't want to live there.
But I was just saying that while Tahoe fills up, there are so many under appreciated places in the states that people don't know about. If I were to tell the average American that Arkansas is beautiful they'd look at me like what are you talking about, it's a bubba state in the backwoods sticks. They think of it as being flat barren land not a gorgeous terrain of hills, mountains and beautiful lakes.
In the long run this will (and is) making mid America more interesting. In the past, places like San Francisco and New York were magnets for the creative types and free spirits of the entire country. They are less so now. One of the things I've noticed in Minneapolis over the last 30 years is that the sort of people from this region who used to end up in the Bay Area or New York now stay in Minneapolis. As this phenomenon increases pace throughout middle America, it will change both the cities of the interior and the cities of the coasts.
Yep, its history taking its course. When a newer, wealthier demographic emerges on the coastal cities, the old demographics pushes inland to cheaper cities. Not necessarily a bad thing. It amazes me how much of the country still glorifies California as being a sexy, youthful hippie haven. Ha, no. The hippies got priced out and have moved inland to cities like Denver and Austin now. California is now all about IT developers and other casually dressed yuppies.
I worked with angry whites in the suburbs of Seattle (Snohomish County) who blame Asians in IT for the cost of living going up in Seattle. One of them ended up moving to the Midwest. i grew up in the Midwest, and in my Rust Belt town Asians were hated. I never really understood why until ai moved to Seattle. At that point, I realized that once a change occurs on the coasts, the inland cities get thrown the scraps. There is some truth to the joke that the Midwest is 10 years behind.
On a side note, I believe that San francisco is the most futuristic city in the US, constantly on the leading edge of new. Seems like changes that sweep the nation usually start in SF.
Last edited by skidamarink; 07-06-2016 at 12:23 PM..
None of the major cities on the coast are very beautiful architecturally wise and actually very dull and old and very outdated or worthless in mass transit compared to asia and europe.
Oh, yeah, SF and NYC and Bos and DC need to tear down their historic neighborhoods emulate the "gorgeous" slum-architecture of Tokyo and Hong Kong. Or not.
Pretty much all the most beautiful U.S. cities are on the coasts, and pretty much all the most transit oriented U.S. cities are on the coasts.
Keep in mind that cities like Houston, New Orleans, Tampa, etc, can basically be excluded from this whole ordeal; all those cities lie on the Gulf Coast, a whole separate world from the East and West coasts.
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