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View Poll Results: Your favorite neighboring state
Rhode Island 7 9.72%
Connecticut 6 8.33%
NY State 7 9.72%
Vermont 14 19.44%
New Hampshire 18 25.00%
Maine 20 27.78%
Voters: 72. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 12-06-2013, 08:16 AM
 
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RI. My husband lived in Providence for awhile before we married. I love the vibe of the city and the fact that, IMO, it's a compact version of Boston Great undiscovered beaches, too. We have family who lives in the closer-to-CT-border and it's quite a different state once you get away from the coast. The first time we visited them, I was like, "Really?!? There's such a thing as somewhat-bordering-on-really-rural RI?!?!?"

My second choice would be ME. Love Portland's vibe and how different things are up there. We've pondered moving up that way a few times but we've since discarded it because it's simply too far away from our families. But we've got friends up there with whom we can always visit
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Old 12-06-2013, 10:09 AM
 
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Originally Posted by ipoetry View Post
I think of Connecticut as being a bedroom community of NYC. It's quintessential New England on the exterior but it lacks the friendliness of let's say NH or ME. Same with Vermont... it's where New Yorkers go on vacation.
That's an easy swipe at Connecticut from a Boston area vantage point. Anyone who's lived in Western Mass doesn't see CT that way. Hartford, New Haven, New London and Groton, and all the places in between are the real Connecticut and aren't bedroom communities of NYC. Places like Greenwich and Stamford might as well be in Westchester County, except that the New Yorkers love being able to escape to a legitimate New England state that's so close at hand.

Vt. is full of (ex-) New Yorkers but in the transition they become good-guy Vermonters, like Ben and Jerry (yumm!)
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Old 12-06-2013, 10:52 AM
 
Location: near bears but at least no snakes
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I've lived in MA and CT but my favorite state is Vermont.

CT is a great place to live as it is suburban and yet partly rural and there are a lot of good towns. Not like MA where everything is crammed in around Boston and the rest of the state is all spread out. The SW corner is practically a part of NYC so I don't count that as CT.

Went to college in RI--there are great areas and run down areas but gorgeous beaches. The state just doesn't do much form me, not that much of interest.

New Hampshire doesn't have much to offer although it's very scenic in many places. Too redneck for me though and too many guns.

Maine doesn't do much for me. Not a fan of rocky coastlines but maybe I just haven't been there enough.

But Vermont. Green mountains, small towns, vast open areas. You also get good towns like Brattleboro and Burlington. There seems to be an emphasis on organic and other natural products. The Vermont Country Store. The Northeast Kingdom which is amazing and remote but good to visit in the summer when it's finally warm enough.
I try to stay away from the areas that have been invaded by New Yorkers trying to turn Vermont into New York.

New York state. A huge boring state to drive through. Very cold in winter. I prefer New England.
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Old 12-06-2013, 11:00 AM
 
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Originally Posted by in_newengland View Post
New York state. A huge boring state to drive through. Very cold in winter. I prefer New England.
I had the same experience traveling over the Thruway to western New York for college. Then I discovered Route 20--only a few miles south of the Thruway--which is so scenic, even breathtaking, that I never thought of NYS as boring again.
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Old 12-06-2013, 11:15 AM
 
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
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Originally Posted by missionhill View Post
I had the same experience traveling over the Thruway to western New York for college. Then I discovered Route 20--only a few miles south of the Thruway--which is so scenic, even breathtaking, that I never thought of NYS as boring again.
New York State does have many bright spots that are far from boring, just got to get off the interstate. The Adirondacks are wonderful, anyone who likes Vermont would most likely appreciate it with quaint small towns, beautiful mountains, and tons of beautiful lakes, and tubing though Au Sable Chasm is awesome. Ithaca is a nice college town with very impressive waterfalls and rocky gorges, The Finger Lakes area is very nice, lots of scenic rolling farmland and a few vineyards.
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Old 12-06-2013, 11:19 AM
 
8,875 posts, read 6,182,335 times
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Originally Posted by massnative71 View Post
I went with Maine. If I have to go with an actual bordering state it would be NH, but I just feel like it is falling too fast and in 10 to 15 years it will be another MA. So even though it beats ME in things like taxes and opportunity, that doesn't really change where my heart is. It could be that I don't like change and that is why I love ME!

My ranking goes like this:

1. ME
2. NH
3. RI
4. VT
5. NY
6. CT (sorry CT, you are a great state but you just can't match what the others here have to offer besides higher incomes!)
My ranking is pretty close to yours. I would put NH first and VT (barely) above RI.

1. NH
2. ME
3. VT
4. RI
5. NY
6. CT
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Old 12-06-2013, 12:06 PM
 
Location: Massachusetts
6,301 posts, read 9,602,565 times
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Originally Posted by AtkinsonDan View Post
My ranking is pretty close to yours. I would put NH first and VT (barely) above RI.

1. NH
2. ME
3. VT
4. RI
5. NY
6. CT

I would rank CT last also.

1. RI (beaches, Providence, Newport)
2. NH (friendly, love Southwest and area around the Whites)
3. NY (NYC a fun and interesting place to visit once a year, upstate New York beautiful and very friendly almost like part of the Midwest)
4. VT and ME, a little isolated for my tastes
5. CT (very cold people, not as fun as NYC, Hartford is a grungy Springfield Jr.)
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Old 12-06-2013, 12:20 PM
 
Location: near bears but at least no snakes
26,648 posts, read 28,516,169 times
Reputation: 50473
I completely forgot about the Adirondacks. That's a huge wonderful area "forever wild."

But I don't understand why so many people dislike CT. It's better than MA in a lot of ways. It has a college area, Yale, and it has Wesleyan. That's good--it's not overloaded with college kids, it's for adults and families. It has the shoreline with towns like Old Saybrook and Essex. It has the CT River valley with towns like East Haddam that has the Goodspeed Opera House.

The beaches aren't that great and it's only Long Island Sound but it's good for boating and the beaches toward RI are pretty good.

There are pockets of affluence and scenery like Avon, Farmington, Simsbury. There are other clusters of affluent towns spread around the state--areas like Litchfield Country and others like Glastonbury. Then there are plenty of average towns where more people can afford to live and there are some poorer areas too. You have a lot more to choose from and in a much wider area throughout the state.

The nice thing is that it's all spread out, unlike MA. MA concentrates everything right around Boston and if it's outside of that ring it might as well be Siberia.
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Old 12-06-2013, 01:01 PM
 
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
10,731 posts, read 23,694,585 times
Reputation: 14590
Connecticut isn't really bad, it's just that every other New England state in my opinion offers something a lot more attractive to offer. Rhode Island and the Cape have better beaches and Maine has more scenic shoreline. Connecticut does have some lovely towns but they're not as quaint or scenic as Vermont, it doesn't offer the mountains or lakes the NH has, and a lot of the suburban towns could be replicated somewhere in Mass.

One hang up I have with Connecticut is the cities there leave a lot to be desired. I realize nothing else can compare fairly to Boston, but Providence has more charm, attractions, and interesting neighborhoods than say Hartford or New Haven. I'd rather go to some charming seaport city like Portland, Maine or an eclectic college town like Burlington, VT than Hartford, Bridgeport, or Waterbury. Hartford has a sterile workaday feeling downtown that's dead after 6:00 PM, New Haven is OK around Yale and the Green, but not as nice as Providence.

Another thing, if having to leave New England to all points south passing through the state on I-84 and I-95 are a big pain in the ***. Very congested and poorly designed highways, that stretch of I-95 between New Haven and Greenwich must exist in hell. Merrit Parkway is nice but equally as congested.

Otherwise Connecticut is OK, the Litchfield Hills are lovely, Mystic is neat, and Foxwoods/Mohegan Sun have their fanbase, I can just think of many options for places in New England to spend my time.

Last edited by Champ le monstre du lac; 12-06-2013 at 01:17 PM..
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Old 12-06-2013, 01:12 PM
 
2,463 posts, read 2,776,510 times
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1. Rhode Island - corrupt, organized crime, crooked politicians, verge of bankruptcy; tacky. Where many people go who can't afford MA. Too congested, in the northeast, very lopsided population. Too many illegals.

2. Connecticut - gateway to NYC, Foxwoods. Ugly cities. Boring

3. New Hampshire - where we go to buy booze. No state tax. Snow and more snow. fiscally sound.

4. Maine - hick, rural. Cold. Rocky coastline.

5. Vermont - rural, scenic. boring. Cold.

6. Massachusetts - too expensive, first state to have same sex marriage. Boston - NO parking, nightmare to get around, very congested. Finest hospitals and colleges/universities in the world. Colleges and universities buying up everything that isn't bolted down. Good sports teams.
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