Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
"Quaint" and "charming" in New England is defined by towns such as Nantucket, Northampton, Marblehead, Camden, etc., etc. "Quaint" and "charming" in the PNW is defined as places where you can expect to find the un-expected, for example, on one street you may have four houses with pink flamingoes, on the next street you may find six houses with RV's of different sizes parked on the FRONT lawn, one block over you may find a crack house, two blocks down you may find entire walls covered with graffiti, and right in the middle of all this you will find a little old lady trying to keep her property absolutely gorgeous. Now surely you must be thinking this is the ghetto, right? Unfortunately no, this is the PNW's version of "quaintness" and "quirkyness" and it occurs in middle-class and upper middle-class neighborhoods and towns across the PNW, and even in very expensive areas.
This form of "quaintness" stems from the "live and let live" mantra espoused by many PNW'ners, wherein it is perfectly acceptable for neighbors to pretty much do whatever the hell they want with their property with no regard for their neighbors whatsoever. So if you are someone who enjoys seeing toilets used as floral planters in the front yard, huge 35' RV's and boats on trailers in plain view for months on end, houses with peeling paint and missing gutters, houses painted with chartreuse and purple polka dots, etc., etc. the PNW is a good fit.
If, on the other hand, you are looking for a prim and proper town with one manicured yard after the next, and flower boxes not made from bathroom fixtures, and houses in good repair and painted in tasteful historic colors, etc. then you may find that you are quite miserable in the PNW. It's rather ironic that in such a beautiful part of the country that there are so many slobs who have no pride in their home or their neighborhood, as compared to New England. Are there exceptions? Well, besides living in a cloistered gated community, let me put it this way: if you find any please let me know.
And this brings me to my second point.
Although PNW'ners tout themselves as being environmentally conscious and progressive and tolerant of diversity as compared to the arrogant intolerant neandrathals living on the evil east coast, there is much hypocrisy and irony in the logic of the typical PNW'ner.
For example, PNW'ners have a real love affair with their huge RVs (10mpg or less) and very powerful boats, while at the same time accusing the evil east coast folks of being the ones irresponsible with gasoline and emissions.
And forget expressing a different viewpoint to a PNW'ner, because many of these supposedly tolerant, progressive, open-minded, out-of-the-box, thinkers, are, in actuality, intolerant of viewpoints different than their own. It's a case of pseudo-liberalism and pseudo-progressiveness, if you will. Nothing is as it seems in the PNW. Whereas, on the evil east coast with all the supposedly unenlightened neandrathals, at least there are fewer pretenses of being something they are not. This makes communicating in New England less complicated than communicating in the PNW with the pseudo-environmentalists, pseudo-deep thinkers, pseudo-tree huggers, pseudo-hippies, pseudo-hipsters, etc., etc.
LOL! That's funny. My choice overall is New England. I much prefer historical, culturally rich and established places.
However, I find the PacNW to be intriguing. I doubt there's anywhere else in the U.S. as beautiful as that region.
I doubt there's anywhere else in the U.S. as beautiful as that region.
So true.There is no place in America that has as much scenic natural beauty as the PNW. Too bad we can't move all the natural splendor that's in the PNW over to New England where people actually care about keeping their yard nice. It would probably be easier to do this, than to change the mind set of the PNW slobs.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,544 posts, read 56,098,022 times
Reputation: 11862
New England has culture and the four seasons, but in terms of livability I would pick the PNW. The winters in Seattle etc may be gloomy but they are not as harsh as New England, no shovelling snow and blizzards for the most part. The landscape in the PNW is comparatively speaking more natural.
So true.There is no place in America that has as much scenic natural beauty as the PNW. Too bad we can't move all the natural splendor that's in the PNW over to New England where people actually care about keeping their yard nice. It would probably be easier to do this, than to change the mind set of the PNW slobs.
But of course all the homes in new england are just perfect. Come on now! I've seen the black faced, white lipped little statues, plastic pink flamingos, broken down cars, dirt for yards in New Enland. No big deal.
The two best regions of the U.S. hands down are NE & PNW. NE & PNW are the only two parts of the U.S. IMO that have retained a lot of uniqueness and character and have had "smarter growth". When so much of the rest of the U.S. (especially the sunbelt) is totally gone generic and is nothing but fast food chains, soulless cookie cutter house developments, big box strip centers and low mentality people driving their gigantic 6 mpg Escalades 90 MPH on the freeways when gas is $4 a gallon (freaking geniuses).
It's a TOUGH call. The PNW is nice in the summer, but I think you get a longer summer in NE, 4 mos June though Sept. I hear Seattle really only gets about 2 mos of real summer. I think the PNW has more dramatic beauty with the snow capped peaks viewed from Seattle (when you can see them). NE is colder, but it has more sunshine. I hear PNW can be dark 7 overcast and you may not see the sun for a month. Definitely way more feeling of history and cooler historical architecture and more cool old homes in NE. Both have awesome road trips...if you live in Boston, Vermont and the Maine Coast are OFF THE HOOK. VT is top to bottom a gorgous state that is so well zoned with no billboards and so many pretty small towns. The PNW does not have all the pretty small towns with Norman Rockwell mainstreets. But Seattle has a ton of great road trips too. The lawns all get brown in the PNW in late summer b/c it doesn't rain all summer. NE has a more lush feel b/c it gets more summer rains. NE has a lot more species of deciduous trees (elm, hemlock, maple, birch, etc...) which makes the forests very pretty. PNW is mostly evergreen and pine.
I live in San Diego CA and it has made me REALLY appreciate growing up in NE. People are way less materialistic, more educated and it's so much more quaint and pretty. People are also so much more quirky and unique. Most people are just so terribly mainstream and plastic in SoCal. Or just plain dumb. SoCal is so GHETTO and cookie cutter! SoCal has a great climate, but that's pretty much where it stops.
While I do agree the PNW's natural beauty is probably ahead of NE, I don't think New England is getting enough credit. The fall foliage in New England is the highlight of the year and is unmatched by anywhere else in America, imo.
The two best regions of the U.S. hands down are NE & PNW. NE & PNW are the only two parts of the U.S. IMO that have retained a lot of uniqueness and character and have had "smarter growth". When so much of the rest of the U.S. (especially the sunbelt) is totally gone generic and is nothing but fast food chains, soulless cookie cutter house developments, big box strip centers and low mentality people driving their gigantic 6 mpg Escalades 90 MPH on the freeways when gas is $4 a gallon (freaking geniuses).
It's a TOUGH call. The PNW is nice in the summer, but I think you get a longer summer in NE, 4 mos June though Sept. I hear Seattle really only gets about 2 mos of real summer. I think the PNW has more dramatic beauty with the snow capped peaks viewed from Seattle (when you can see them). NE is colder, but it has more sunshine. I hear PNW can be dark 7 overcast and you may not see the sun for a month. Definitely way more feeling of history and cooler historical architecture and more cool old homes in NE. Both have awesome road trips...if you live in Boston, Vermont and the Maine Coast are OFF THE HOOK. VT is top to bottom a gorgous state that is so well zoned with no billboards and so many pretty small towns. The PNW does not have all the pretty small towns with Norman Rockwell mainstreets. But Seattle has a ton of great road trips too. The lawns all get brown in the PNW in late summer b/c it doesn't rain all summer. NE has a more lush feel b/c it gets more summer rains. NE has a lot more species of deciduous trees (elm, hemlock, maple, birch, etc...) which makes the forests very pretty. PNW is mostly evergreen and pine.
I live in San Diego CA and it has made me REALLY appreciate growing up in NE. People are way less materialistic, more educated and it's so much more quaint and pretty. People are also so much more quirky and unique. Most people are just so terribly mainstream and plastic in SoCal. Or just plain dumb. SoCal is so GHETTO and cookie cutter! SoCal has a great climate, but that's pretty much where it stops.
The temperate rainforest on the western slopes of the coast ranges is wet year round and is denser than any other forest in the US by a wide margin including the temperate forests on the western slopes of the Appalachians. In fact, the rainforests around the Olympics have some of the densest biomass concentrations anywhere on the planet, three times as dense as the Amazon rainforest according to the National Park Service.
That being said, the fall foliage in New England is a sight to behold. The only downside to that being it becomes a lot less green around those parts during the winter.
Also, the history and small towns of New England are amazing with the combination being somewhat unique to that area IMHO.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,544 posts, read 56,098,022 times
Reputation: 11862
Quote:
Originally Posted by jaboyd1
The temperate rainforest on the western slopes of the coast ranges is wet year round and is denser than any other forest in the US by a wide margin including the temperate forests on the western slopes of the Appalachians. In fact, the rainforests around the Olympics have some of the densest biomass concentrations of anywhere on the planet, three times as dense as the Amazon rainforest according to the National Park Service.
That being said, the fall foliage in New England is a sight to behold. The only downside to that being it becomes a lot less green around those parts during the winter.
Also, the history and small towns of New England are amazing with the combination being somewhat unique to that area IMHO.
Sorry I'm skeptical, do you have a link to the source?
But of course all the homes in new england are just perfect. Come on now! I've seen the black faced, white lipped little statues, plastic pink flamingos, broken down cars, dirt for yards in New Enland. No big deal.
Of course, I agree that there are places in New England that are tacky, poor, redneck, ghetto, etc.
But if you know of even one town in all of the PNW that is as well kept and beautiful as Camden (ME), Marblehead (MA), Essex (CT), Greenwich (CT), or Edgartown (MA), please let me know.
If you know of one inner city district in all of the PNW that is as nice as the Beacon Hill (Boston) neighborhood, please let me know.
I have spent a great deal of effort trying to locate such areas in the PNW over the past seven years, and so far I have be unable to do so.
Sorry I'm skeptical, do you have a link to the source?
You can go here and scroll down to Hoh Rainforest:
Popular Field Trips Destinations in and around Olympic National Park | NatureBridge (http://www.naturebridge.org/olympic-park/field-trip-destinations - broken link)
Or you can go here and explore the map of the US forests:
You can see that the Pacific Northwest is littered with forests that show up as red, meaning biomass densities approaching 350 tons per hectare or even greater in some cases, hence the >350 at the end of the scale.
Or here where the scale tops 1000 tons per hectare:
Most of the Amazon basin is in the 200-300 tons per hectare range.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
