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I'm in the Massachusetts banana belt right on the coast. Growing zone 7a. It's normally a 2 month winter. 90F is pretty unusual in the summer. It snows occasionally but it almost always melts quickly. My rose hedge is usually still blooming at Thanksgiving. I'm 0.7 miles to my boat slip. 1.0 miles to my private beach. My lawn is green without watering it. I don't remember any wildfires ever in my town. The coastal climate from Chatham MA on Cape Cod to Cape May in southern New Jersey is similar.
Except there's a reason why people don't vacation in Chatham in the winters and why the Cape Cod population shrinks to a 1/3rd in the winters. The "banana belt" coastal New England wind chill in the winter is no joke. I'll take some snow over that icy bone chilling maritime winds. And "2 month winter" ...riiight.
New Orleans gets nailed by a category 4 hurricane 16 years to the day after Katrina hit. The remnants of that storm are now pummelling NYC and Northern New Jersey with epic flooding. There's water inside Newark airport, all New York City subways are shutdown, and 9 million people are under a flash flood emergency, but other than that the Eastern US is amazeballs. What're the odds there's a nor'easter this winter?
Yeah some wildfires in California from a century of poor forest management and the crowds come here screaming "the West Coast is done for!!!"
It’s not.
We’re all entitled to our opinions, but Missouri’s weather is neither worse nor more extreme than any state it borders or anything from Texas eastward.
The worst part is the hot summers, but it’s not the worst state in that regard.
I’ll agree that strictly in terms of weather and scenery, New Mexico is better. However, Missouri is typically middle-of-the-road on many other livability metrics whereas NM is near the bottom.
I've lived on the West Coast for a slight majority of my life and never really watched much TV or movies at least not until maybe 10-15 years ago. I actually went through a phase where I glamorized the East Coast after seeing it portrayed in the movies, especially the public transit, culture, tighter communities, etc. I quickly changed my mind after seeing the housing/rent prices there combined with the winter temps and snowfall. I couldn't imagine paying similar prices as California to deal with freezing snow for a good deal of the year.
I think part of the reason I wanted to move to the east coast from Texas was because of what I saw on tv. I even wanted the cold weather.
Location: Was Midvalley Oregon; Now Eastside Seattle area
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Guineas
Yeah some wildfires in California from a century of poor forest management and the crowds come here screaming "the West Coast is done for!!!"
It's not necessarily poor forest management but more about how much the timber people want to make and how much the consumer is willing to pay for lumber.
It's not necessarily poor forest management but more about how much the timber people want to make and how much the consumer is willing to pay for lumber.
The other two major factors are the ongoing 20 year drought in most areas of the West that shows no signs of ending, and increasing overall temperatures that lead to increases in the evaporation of soil moisture out of the ground. It is a never ending feedback loop for most of those areas.
There's just not enough fresh water to sustain the growth. There wasn't much to begin with and now we are seeing what happens when every drop is pumped out of the ground.
Bingo. Water sustains life….and the west is lacking.
The further away you are from the east coast the better the job market, I'm starting to find out. And no I'm not talking about tech bro garbage that is oversaturated and outsourced. More like blue collar or a blue/white collar hybrid. The DC-Boston corridor has been getting too wild with their weather for my liking.
But the droughts, insane COL, overpopulation, limited housing out west--renting or buying, no thanks. I'm already in NW Minnesota. The furthest west of the Mississippi I'd wanna relocate to would be in the Dakotas(the bigger cities).
People visit on vacation and go on and on about how pretty it is and how relaxing it is. Then they move there and realize people don't go to national parks every weekend and they aren't hiking, camping, and fishing all the live long day. They also learn you can't eat scenery and while locals are happy to take your tourist dollars that doesn't mean they want you to live there. I grew up in Montana and saw it. All. The. Time.
I don't personally care for most of the West because it's too arid for my taste.
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