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I've been thinking a lot about whether NY is really "my state" long term, looking at it from every angle, I'm starting to think the answer is yes.
Most of the reasons people have to leave don't really stand up to scrutiny. If you are desperate for warm weather year round then sure, leave. But when I hear people who leave because of gun rights, seriously? You can still own a gun in NY. Actually, our Civil Rights Law art. II, § 4 provides that “[a] well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms cannot be infringed.”. Unless you are desperate to carry openly, the benefits of leaving NY are marginal.
The other big thing is the supposed "freedom" afforded by more conservative states. I'm a huge supporter of individual freedom and civil liberties. But when I look at other states, say TX or FL, those are places dominated by social conservatives, not libertarians. They pass laws to about sagging pants and feeding homeless people, how is that freedom? Sounds more like a police state. I don't think NY'er would allow any of that crap.
NY is the empire state, it's a big state with lots of diversity. I'm in NYC now, I could move to Buffalo and cut my expenses in half if I wanted. NY has some of the cheapest COL anywhere in the US. NY has all the beauty of New England, without any of the lilly white uppityness. It's got a great history of immigration and is truly a place where everyone has a chance to make their place in the sun. It's got amazingly developed and civilized communities all over the state: great schools, hospitals, universities, farms, factories, shops, markets, churches, civic groups, charities. Sure there are taxes and the government is relatively big, but that's kind of OK. It's OK to collectively decide that we want good roads, food stamps and help for the poor, and laws to protect the environment, it's OK for New Yorkers to have ideas and values that are expressed through governance.
NY isn't perfect, but I feel better about the future of NY than I do about many of the hot destinations people rave about on here. My advice: if you hate it and have an opportunity to leave, grab it! If you are "stuck" here then try to think about our challenges as opportunities. Get involves in your community and seek the positives, NY is pretty cool in many ways...
And sounds like you left for financial reasons, which is exactly my point.
No, we left for a better quality of life, warmer weather and a great community. We only did so when it became a sound decision financially and professional opportunities opened up to us.
You surely are good at rash generalizations and baseless speculation.
I would think in your neck of the woods, those 30-40 educated folks are either in Corning or Ithaca, with maybe some sprinkled in within the immediate area. Is there a young professional group in the area?
What did the report measure and due to the area's proximity to the Guthrie Medical facilities, do people go there for healthcare?
Funny you should mention the young professionals group, ck...I just looked for their website and found one. But there was very little info there, and the VP of the group is (was!) employed by Schweizer Aircraft - they closed up shop here in 2012. LOL
I think the bigger problem for us here is that we don't fit in to any group. We are parents - but older than most of the parents in the area with children the same age as ours. We are college educated - but still work in (underpaid) service fields. We aren't really into sports, we don't drink...we're kind of nerds. While we're okay with being outsiders to some degree, it is tough to find anything/nybody that really fits very well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NyWriterdude
Even upstate NY had better public transportation (particularly towns with colleges). than the rural South, and more amenities like the YMCA (I love swimming).
We have a college and a community college (Elmira College and Corning CC) and the public transportation options are abyssmal. The bus system is complicated and inconvenient for most people. And the only YMCA is in Corning (at least a 30-minute one-way drive from where I live) - there is a YWCA in Elmira, but their pool is kept at therapy pool temps. A minor quibble, I know, but annoying for someone who wants to do lap workouts.
As our child gets older, the problems with the school systems in the area (and the state in general!) are becoming a bigger concern. Merger plans float around, but no one will commit, no decisions are made, taxes keep going up...I'm concerned about my child getting lost in the shuffle when they talk about closing this school one day, that one the next. :/
However, we're not looking at the South, either. If we leave, it will probably be for points West, since my spouse has family out there. I'm sure there are problems everywhere, but I'm still young enough to crave a bit of adventure - after weighing the risks, of course!
Funny you should mention the young professionals group, ck...I just looked for their website and found one. But there was very little info there, and the VP of the group is (was!) employed by Schweizer Aircraft - they closed up shop here in 2012. LOL
I think the bigger problem for us here is that we don't fit in to any group. We are parents - but older than most of the parents in the area with children the same age as ours. We are college educated - but still work in (underpaid) service fields. We aren't really into sports, we don't drink...we're kind of nerds. While we're okay with being outsiders to some degree, it is tough to find anything/nybody that really fits very well.
We have a college and a community college (Elmira College and Corning CC) and the public transportation options are abyssmal. The bus system is complicated and inconvenient for most people. And the only YMCA is in Corning (at least a 30-minute one-way drive from where I live) - there is a YWCA in Elmira, but their pool is kept at therapy pool temps. A minor quibble, I know, but annoying for someone who wants to do lap workouts.
As our child gets older, the problems with the school systems in the area (and the state in general!) are becoming a bigger concern. Merger plans float around, but no one will commit, no decisions are made, taxes keep going up...I'm concerned about my child getting lost in the shuffle when they talk about closing this school one day, that one the next. :/
However, we're not looking at the South, either. If we leave, it will probably be for points West, since my spouse has family out there. I'm sure there are problems everywhere, but I'm still young enough to crave a bit of adventure - after weighing the risks, of course!
It sounds like you would have been a better fit for Ithaca or parts of the bigger areas in Upstate NY, where you would have been more apt to run into like minded/situated folks.
Ithaca is....weird. Nice place to visit, but not where we'd choose to stay. We ended up where we are for jobs, and since one of us is now unemployed, the "place for us" will be the place where one or both of us can get jobs that allow us to live comfortably.
Maybe because I grew up around here, I'm just getting jaded and ready to move on! LOL
I agree no one location fits everyone but it's not a sentence to purgatory as many make it out to be. I won't argue weather preferences, to each his own
If you like the high density living of NYC than stop here nothing will be agreeable to you...
Even I wouldn't quite say that nothing else is agreeable to me. But I do like the high density living in NYC and for me it has many advantages. I'm starting grad school soon.
After that is over, if I got the right offer at the right time yes I would consider working somewhere else or being out of NYC. It would likely be another major international city, though (Los Angeles, London, Hong Kong, etc).
As things stand though I would really prefer to stay in NYC. I'm established here, my support networks are here, etc. I'd have to have a truly fantastic offer to consider leaving and even then it wouldn't be permanent.
Ithaca is....weird. Nice place to visit, but not where we'd choose to stay. We ended up where we are for jobs, and since one of us is now unemployed, the "place for us" will be the place where one or both of us can get jobs that allow us to live comfortably.
Maybe because I grew up around here, I'm just getting jaded and ready to move on! LOL
Do what you have to do, however I would make sure that one or both of you could get jobs elsewhere before you move.
It's not fun moving to a place and finding out getting a job is going to be much harder than you thought, especially if a child is involved. Homelessness is not cool.
Now I will be the first to say not everyone's situation is the same. If you have close family or other people you know in the South (or if you're from there) you MIGHT retire that and LIKE IT.
But just to say the South is the solution to everyone's problem in life is utter nonsense and I wonder how many of the people saying this have ever been there.
What I don't like about the Southeast.
Long, Hot Summers to Me are Worse than Cold Winters. I can put on extra clothes when it's cold but could be totally naked and hot.
There are a lot more mosquitos, bugs, and reptiles in warmer weather.
Most people from New York City who are used to having things in walking distance have difficulty in adjusting to a place where one has to drive considerable distances to do everything. I've had my license since I was 18, but I prefer not to drive if I have to.
New York has one of the nation's best educational system when it comes to universities. It's nice to be close to that.
You have a huge variety of career options in NYC if you have a good education, more so than you would in the "South".
Even upstate NY had better public transportation (particularly towns with colleges). than the rural South, and more amenities like the YMCA (I love swimming).
Better calibur of grocery stores in NY. Upstate has Wegman's, better parts of NYC have Whole Foods, Fairway's and Trader Joes.
I should point out that the South is a pretty big region. Much of the South doesn't get a huge influx of Northerners. You do have a lot of poor Blacks that are priced out of Northern cities returning to certain parts of the South and in areas where that happens crime is high (all that ghetto piling up in one place, what does one expect). Florida has a lot of poverty in the form of recent immigrants as well.
The South (parts of it) are becoming dumping grounds for California, NY, etc.
I don't hear people talk about moving to the South's biggest economy (from the Northeast) to Texas. Because this kind of New York who thinks they are going to the promised land when they hear the South isn't going to get a good job in Texas for an oil company, a tech company, AT&T, Dell, etc. I doubt they will end up in the better parts of Florida either. They will end up in crappy small towns in Florida or the Carolinas, far from anything interesting or worthwhile. And that if they don't end up in a high crime ghetto on the outskirts of a place like Miami.
"Cheaper"? You get what you pay for.
You sound like you absolutely despise the South
If you prefer living North that is nothing wrong with that but you are exaggerating as if the South is largely devoid of quality living.
Answer this:With all those negatives about the South and how lacking it is largely WHY then are not people more people from the West,Midwest and South not moving to the rural areas of NY?
I agree with and I'd say you really do get what you pay for that's why people are not moving back after they leave the these rural Northern areas once they head South and West.
It's very true that even smaller cities up north overall have more amenities and tend to be easier to get around in but typically speaking,most people who are moving from the outer regions of the Northeast are looking for a change in every way.
Sure they miss certain conveniences and products back home but many of them have created business of their own very much like the ones they left in some of the rural areas in the South.Again why are they not moving back in larger numbers?
Just as you would not move to a area in the NE you are not famiar with why would you move just anywhere in the South before doing some researck?You would not so your point is ridiculous.
Places like Rome Georgia in the Appalachians,have sizable northern transplant residents that are older.
"Poor Backs+ are poor.They cannot affird to leave the North where public assistance is much more available than in the South.
People of every color and age are moving because they simply do not get what they are paying for.
Location: Westchester County, NY -> Pinellas County, FL -> Dutchess County, NY -> Denver?
348 posts, read 535,741 times
Reputation: 349
Quote:
Originally Posted by skytop
I've been thinking a lot about whether NY is really "my state" long term, looking at it from every angle, I'm starting to think the answer is yes.
Most of the reasons people have to leave don't really stand up to scrutiny. If you are desperate for warm weather year round then sure, leave. But when I hear people who leave because of gun rights, seriously? You can still own a gun in NY. Actually, our Civil Rights Law art. II, § 4 provides that “[a] well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms cannot be infringed.”. Unless you are desperate to carry openly, the benefits of leaving NY are marginal.
The other big thing is the supposed "freedom" afforded by more conservative states. I'm a huge supporter of individual freedom and civil liberties. But when I look at other states, say TX or FL, those are places dominated by social conservatives, not libertarians. They pass laws to about sagging pants and feeding homeless people, how is that freedom? Sounds more like a police state. I don't think NY'er would allow any of that crap.
NY is the empire state, it's a big state with lots of diversity. I'm in NYC now, I could move to Buffalo and cut my expenses in half if I wanted. NY has some of the cheapest COL anywhere in the US. NY has all the beauty of New England, without any of the lilly white uppityness. It's got a great history of immigration and is truly a place where everyone has a chance to make their place in the sun. It's got amazingly developed and civilized communities all over the state: great schools, hospitals, universities, farms, factories, shops, markets, churches, civic groups, charities. Sure there are taxes and the government is relatively big, but that's kind of OK. It's OK to collectively decide that we want good roads, food stamps and help for the poor, and laws to protect the environment, it's OK for New Yorkers to have ideas and values that are expressed through governance.
NY isn't perfect, but I feel better about the future of NY than I do about many of the hot destinations people rave about on here. My advice: if you hate it and have an opportunity to leave, grab it! If you are "stuck" here then try to think about our challenges as opportunities. Get involves in your community and seek the positives, NY is pretty cool in many ways...
Cool story but it is so out of touch. I'm really lost for words.
Some of the people posting opinions on here need a few more decades of life experience under their belts to argue about a reality they've yet to live.
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While we're okay with being outsiders to some degree, it is tough to find anything/nybody that really fits very well.
