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Connecticut is getting crushed. Like always. To h*** with this state. Everyone is aware of it. Nothing exciting has come out of this state in a very very very long time. It's far behind, but patches of wealth still exist and will continue to exist...
If I had to live in New England I'd live free or die.
You couldn't pay me to live in CT or RI. If MA, I'd take it west into the mountains. Maine is alright, and Vermont is too liberal for me.
Most of New England stinks, thats just the sad truth now. Not much availability for housing and some for jobs but high cost of living and heat costs which create a new disparity in itself in my eyes. Maine is too cold, it would be ok if it wasnt too cold. Vermont is too liberal. NH is the best but even then, by a narrow margin. No taxes on some things is a plus, I dont consider it a whole lot friendlier though. And its obvious MA and CT are bad places. RI is small but from what I seen its charming. I loved Providence when I went.
Though I rather move to San Diego or Sacramento. I do love the sun. Winters are a bit of dull, dreary, grey, and cold bitter land of meh!
For me Arizona personally. Thats where I'm going when I get the first opportunity although I did like Sacramento much when I was there. Not all of the area but I did like East Sac a lot, some of midtown, a few outskirts and so forth.
I liked to live by Once a NE always one but that can be unlearned too if you really want to unlearn that philosophy. I find amongst my own, I'm still miserable. Its only romanticized how great the NE is when most people leave there, but in actual practice theres a reason why they left to begin with. I just dont see the same connection to this region anymore and ya I Have the accent to a point but thats it. I dont see a ton in common really with the born and raised m*******s or even NH people plus I am not a sports fanatic really.
This is true, New England roots can never be severed. It was one of those cold New England winters that eventually converted me to desert sunshine. But my parents are getting older, so I'll end up back in New England fairly soon to start another chapter back there again. It's one I really look forward to after being away for 6-7 years. Obviously summer is when I miss it the most.
Well man I am on that final chapter.. returning for a 4th time and to say the least am being reminded more each day why I left to begin with all those times. The last 3 were for different reasons but my 4th move out which is to come in the future is going to be very similar to when I was approaching my 1st move out and mind you, I was in MA then too.. I am in SNH now realizing it has a lot of the same bullcrap MA had that made me want to move out to begin with. And if you go further up into NH it stinks too because you get even further and the winters get rougher. So this time around kind of feels like when I was first trying to leave NE back in 2000. A lot has not changed for the better here contrary to what some may tell you. I am only back now because my mom forced herself back here from CA. I tried telling her not to go too but here I am again, plotting to leave again within 2-3 years if I can just start work again and save money or simply just get lucky enough to go kinda thing.
My ranking revolves around my politics and love of nature and obviously.
1. New Hampshire: Best balance of all North East states with the most central location. Everything is very accessible 1-2 hour drive of everything (Ocean, Mountains, Boston, Lakes, Well paying Jobs) The libertarian nature of the state politics and live free or die spirit is what I really relate to. The scenic beauty of NH plus the opportunity to make a living wage is the icing on the cake.
2. Maine: What I love about Maine is the scenic beauty and the Hardy northern New England mentality. Well paying jobs are scarce and its a little too far at the end of the line from the rest of the North East for me however.
3. Vermont: I have always loved Vermont, Quintessential New England. The rolling hills and farms, farm to table everything, Northern New England Yankee spirit. However Vermont has gone off the charts to the Left and the lack of well paying jobs does not make it very livable due to the cost of living.
4. Massachusetts: Great state, who doesn't love Boston, the Cape, the scenic beauty of the Berkshires? The reason I put it so much lower on my list, Outside of Boston most other cities are run down and undesirable. The traffic and the roads are terrible. The state politics are so corrupt its maddening.
5. Rhode Island: The ocean is nice and its pretty close to the cape and Boston.. Besides that Im not a huge fan.
6. Connecticut: My home state. Left for college and never plan on returning. Sure there are some nice towns. but in general its place to live in the suburbs and commute to the city, thats about it. Cost of living is high, taxes are high, state is corrupt, cities are run down and dangerous. Not as many outdoor activities to take advantage of as northern new England and compared to the rest of New England its just meh. With that said its still much better than a majority of other states in the country. (still on my top 15 list)
Me thats who. I Hate Boston, I hate the Cape. And look to your last reason about state politics to give you the answer why. Its even amazing to me now that people even foolishly romanticize moving back here once they leave as if they never had a real reason for doing so and they were captured, forced to eat crappy food in a sunbelt state.
The poll only shows everyone's first favorite New England state. I figured it'd be neat to add up all the rankings to get a picture of how people rank their second/third/etc. favorites...
What's interesting is that people tend to like Rhode Island pretty well, but very few list it as their favorite New England state.
Here's the average ranking of everyone who's commented on the thread...
And here's the standard deviation (calculated with excel's stdev-s function) of all the rankings. I did this in an attempt to figure out which states were the most polarizing...
So Vermont seems to be the most polarizing state on the list (i.e. the people who've commented either love Vermont or they hate it). People seem to view Maine and Massachusetts favorably enough across the board. And finally, people seem to dislike Connecticut across the board as well (poor Connecticut).
I expected New Hampshire to have a higher standard deviation given how many people rank it first in the poll vs the fact that it's 4th in the overall rank count. If I had to guess, I might wager that a larger percentage of people who voted for NH in the poll didn't actually bother commenting on the thread to rank the rest of the states. And my data comes entirely from the comments.
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