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Having lived in the Bible belt and elsewhere in the US here is what I have noticed about most of the bible belt.
Yes, it is a terrible place for atheists and agnostics.
Grew up with Baptists, Muslims, Agnostics, and Atheists. My neighbor to the left was an atheist, there were Buddhists across the street, and Christians to the right. No issues at all. If anything, the worst thing to be is a Muslim because of the whole "towel-head" stereotypes. But I also knew several Muslims, and everyone treated each other respectively.
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Not that is matters but, there are mostly African Americans and Anglo Whites, all other races exist in sprinkles.
I guess Hispanics don't exist.
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Segregation there is very real.
No. I lived in a mixed neighborhood. The South is no more segregated than any other part of the U.S. In fact, the most segregated city in the U.S. is Milwaukee, a Northern city.
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Weather is terrible and unpredictable in some parts.
Any more terrible than other regions of the U.S.? No. And I never found it to be unpredictable.
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Southern hospitality is for visitors, not residents.
Strange. Everyone was nice to me, and I lived there.
As a child, I lived for three years in New Orleans, Louisiana, before moving to Baltimore, Maryland (aka a border state during the Civil War). In my experience, living in the South feels very much like living in the North, but it's hotter, and there's a Mardi Gras parade every year. We also went to the zoo every summer. There was one time when a hurricane almost struck New Orleans but missed completely and diverged toward the East; we nevertheless escaped to Texas and found refuge in a friend's home. We also went to a zoo in Texas.
People tend to congregate with people who act and think like they do. I've lived in the "bible belt" and found it not much different than anywhere else I've been.
People tend to congregate with people who act and think like they do. I've lived in the "bible belt" and found it not much different than anywhere else I've been.
Yeah I agree. I'm from CT and I lived in NC for a month (last year). Life was both similar and different. But at the end of the day......life is the same everywhere. People are more or less the same, everywhere. Maybe just different accents or slightly different interests.
In fact, I would say that life in the Northeast is more similar to life in the South than to life in the West. As 8to32characters has repeated in this forum, I think it's the whole "conventional" lifestyle thing. The entire eastern half of the U.S. (except for enclaves here and there) is just like that.
I see more interracial couples in Charleston, SC than I did in Rochester, NY.
I have visited BOTH Charleston and Rochester, even worked in Charleston before, have to disagree with your so called experience. Sure I did see some interracial couples but they were mostly tourists from other states and countries since Charleston is mainly a tourist spot. In Rochester I saw a lot of Black, mixed, and Latino looking men with White women and Rochester is not much of a tourist spot.
Rochester is an interesting metro area. It's like a "big" city out in the middle of no where, that nobody really visits. I've been there a few times and liked it though. The infrastructure is excellent for a metro of its size, and people are educated. The suburbs are very nice, too. I went once during a January and it was sunny and 40's.
I disagree with life being the same everywhere. What I found was that people of New England were more open to discussions that didn't just involved sports (mainly football) and their views were drastically different than those of people in the south. On top of that I also found that their work ethic, how they welcomed outsiders, and how easily they could form relationships with outsiders was different. When I was growing up in Atlanta what I noticed was that people would be kind to strangers and newcomers at first but very slow to accept them (sometimes they never did), this did not happen in the Northeast. In the Northeast people might be a bit standoffish at first but once they get to know a person for a while they almost become family in a way.
There is so much I can go into but things like culture and this forum here exist solely because people are so different all across America.
I disagree with life being the same everywhere. What I found was that people of New England were more open to discussions that didn't just involved sports (mainly football) and their views were drastically different than those of people in the south. On top of that I also found that their work ethic, how they welcomed outsiders, and how easily they could form relationships with outsiders was different. When I was growing up in Atlanta what I noticed was that people would be kind to strangers and newcomers at first but very slow to accept them (sometimes they never did), this did not happen in the Northeast. In the Northeast people might be a bit standoffish at first but once they get to know a person for a while they almost become family in a way.
There is so much I can go into but things like culture and this forum here exist solely because people are so different all across America.
Yeah I guess you're right. I hate talking about sports, to be honest. I like talking about all kinds of topics, really. I'm not sure that I've ever really worked with newcomers though. Well, actually, I worked with this one guy who relocated from eastern Texas to the Hartford/Springfield area. He was a nightmare to work with. Nice guy to chat with, but oh my god. He was a storyteller and I just got so antsy sometimes. And he was VERY old school. He was only 36 years old though. Nobody in the office liked him, but it was NOT because he was from Texas or anything like that. We welcomed that, no problem. It made our office more diverse. But he was just a total backwoods goof off kind of worker.
Was Rochester a bad place to live? I have considered it from time to time. But, since you've moved to the South, have you had any issues with in-your-face religion and conservatism?
I'm not going to sit here and say Rochester was a terrible place to live. By many people's standards it is a great place to live. By my own, I wouldn't move back. It is terrible boring and naive for me. But this is just my personal opinion. The "in your face" religion and conservatism just doesn't exist in some Southern places, especially Charleston.
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Originally Posted by SignoreAmante
I have visited BOTH Charleston and Rochester, even worked in Charleston before, have to disagree with your so called experience. Sure I did see some interracial couples but they were mostly tourists from other states and countries since Charleston is mainly a tourist spot. In Rochester I saw a lot of Black, mixed, and Latino looking men with White women and Rochester is not much of a tourist spot.
You can disagree with my sentiment but can't disagree with my experience. I simply see more interracial couples in the Charleston metro than I have seen in the Rochester metro. If you have seen different, fine. Feel free to report that. I am just reporting my experience with no added bias.
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Originally Posted by nep321
Rochester is an interesting metro area. It's like a "big" city out in the middle of no where, that nobody really visits. I've been there a few times and liked it though. The infrastructure is excellent for a metro of its size, and people are educated. The suburbs are very nice, too. I went once during a January and it was sunny and 40's.
Everyone definitely has their own opinion, so never trust one person, but Rochester, to me, is a boring place. It pretends to be bigger and more important than it is. What people always touted as positives was always found elsewhere, oftentimes for less price or easier. I used to have conversations with people from NYC or out of town about how terribly out of touch Rochester was. I'm not going to rush out and say it is terrible, but I personally thought it was and one should question moving there. I was glad to get out.
In fact, I would say that life in the Northeast is more similar to life in the South than to life in the West. As 8to32characters has repeated in this forum, I think it's the whole "conventional" lifestyle thing. The entire eastern half of the U.S. (except for enclaves here and there) is just like that.
It is.
Lots and lots of people in the Northeast--especially in the smaller cities/metro areas (e.g., Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Scranton, Bridgeport, New Haven, Hartford, Springfield, Worcester, Providence, Fall River, New Bedford, et al.)--are complacent and sluggish. Aside from maybe Hartford, there isn't much of a competitive ethos in those smaller cities--certainly not places for movers and shakers, corporate ladder-climbers, et al.
Many people in those cities are have a strong preference for familiarity and are less questioning/more conformist overall, hence more conventional/old-fashioned and less resistant to change. This keeps many of these cities stuck in the past, so to speak. While growing up in a small Northeastern city, I felt like I was living in a time warp. My old man jokes all the time that although it's 2014, it's still 1954 in his house--or at least in his mind!
There's a very sedentary attitude among lots of people in the smaller Northeastern cities--and most of the South, for that matter--many don't travel much, don't stray too far from home, and show limited interest in upward social mobility. Lots of Nor'easters have never really left the Northeast, save, perhaps, a trip or two to Florida to visit the theme parks. Eek.
There's also a lack of awareness or sensitivity to the economic disadvantage in these smaller cities posed by the crippling high taxes, strict anti-business regulatory environment, and generally poor infrastructure of this region overall. The economy of this region is very mature and population growth is nil, making job growth very slow. Housing, in particular, is expensive, old, and small. All of these factors play a role in the prevailing attitude/mindset of the region.
At the end of the day, many people in the Northeast don't really know any better and don't really question matters such as these--many would rather be left alone to live in the basements of their parents' homes 'til age 35, working mediocre/dead-end jobs so they don't have to move to the bigger cities (i.e., Boston, NYC, DC), away from their families because that's what their parents did before them. That mentality is very pervasive.
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