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Old 12-14-2008, 02:05 PM
 
Location: Triangle, North Carolina
2,819 posts, read 10,370,553 times
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People go where the jobs are

Quote:
Originally Posted by kazoopilot View Post
True. That's basically the main reason. It's unfortunate that more companies aren't setting up in the North.
Second that, I was relocated to Atlanta due to this. My whole company moved out of New Jersey, which was a sad day for my family. With 20 years I could not just drop and go, but go with the flow.

Until the Northern States bring "Right to Work" into law and loses the Union mentality, the Rust Belt will continue to get larger. Heck, even with the slow economy KIA is building a new plant in Georgia, offering full benefits, good pay, etc. Even many American companies are closing northern offices and moving to Alabama of all places. They build new, bring the jobs down, or hire direct, yet offer the same packages as up north. The benefit, No UAW.

I for one miss Jersey and I'm a WV native. I wish things would head back too, but the overall mentality needs to change for that to happen. Fingers crossed
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Old 12-14-2008, 02:32 PM
 
Location: Chicago, IL
8,998 posts, read 14,739,674 times
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I would think lower cost of living and possibly lower taxes.
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Old 12-14-2008, 02:33 PM
 
114 posts, read 206,763 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 083190 View Post
It's true that many northern cities are dying, but I personally have not been attracted to many southern cities. There is not as much history, culture, interesting architecture, unique food, seasonal changes, powerful schools, mixed public transportation, and ethnic neighborhoods in certain new sun belt cities.
I have never really understood what is meant when northerners state that there is not as much history in the south as there is the north. It especially seems odd to me when I take into consideration the fact that many northerners can only trace their roots back in this country maybe 100 - 150 years. Many southerners can go back much further than that. My family came to this country in the 1600s. I do not know what northerners see when they come here, but I see plenty of history around me. Unfortunately, some of it is being lost. As for culture, most American musical genres have originated in the south. What do people think they would be listening to now if not for southerners? Unique food? The south is famous for “southern cooking”.


I am not trying to encourage more migration. I really would like to know what people mean about the north being more historical though.
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Old 12-14-2008, 02:52 PM
 
Location: St Simons Island, GA
23,319 posts, read 43,781,735 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 083190 View Post
It's true that many northern cities are dying, but I personally have not been attracted to many southern cities. There is not as much history, culture, interesting architecture, unique food, seasonal changes, powerful schools, mixed public transportation, and ethnic neighborhoods in certain new sun belt cities.
This is stating the obvious...the northern cities developed earlier, have a longer history, and received the brunt of European immigration. In the decades to come, the playing field is likely to be leveled.
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Old 12-14-2008, 03:13 PM
 
114 posts, read 206,763 times
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Northern cities may have developed much more quickly than southern cities but there is still a lot of history associated with southern ones.
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Old 12-14-2008, 03:19 PM
 
Location: Augusta GA
880 posts, read 2,850,814 times
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I consider "Right to work" one of the worst programs there is! When I worked in cargo at the Atlanta airport, many employees from NYC and Chicago who moved down for work complained about how much worse it was for them with no Unions. Up there, they had set work hours, in Atlanta you worked as long as the boss wanted you to, and with very little in terms of rights. Since there was no real Union protection, the management could get away with making the employees do almost anything in order to keep there jobs! I would take a Union state over a "Right to work" state anyday!
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Old 12-14-2008, 03:19 PM
 
3,326 posts, read 8,819,909 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by goozer View Post
Generally speaking, there are two reasons why people move to southern cities: warmer weather and lower cost of living.
Cost of living highly depends on what part of the north and south you're talking about. Much of the south is cheaper than many parts of the northeast, but the south is often more expensive than some parts of the midwest.

When you get down to it, people go where the jobs are.
Minneapolis has consistently been a thriving town, in spite of it probably being the coldest metro in the country.

Someone said because the south is friendlier... no comment.
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Old 12-14-2008, 03:29 PM
 
Location: Washington D.C. By way of Texas
20,501 posts, read 33,331,850 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 083190 View Post
It's true that many northern cities are dying, but I personally have not been attracted to many southern cities. There is not as much history, culture, interesting architecture, unique food, seasonal changes, powerful schools, mixed public transportation, and ethnic neighborhoods in certain new sun belt cities.
Everything in bold is somewhat true. Everything that is not in bold is not. In conclusion, your generalization of the southern cities is laughable at best.
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Old 12-14-2008, 03:46 PM
 
3,282 posts, read 5,183,434 times
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Because it's cheaper.

I, for one, have always been a big believer that 'you get what you pay for.'

I have been to the south. Most of my family is from there. I could not live there to save my life. Too hot, too sunny, the people are too imposing, the cities are too sprawled and the architecture is unimpressive, the suburbs are identical, I won't even get into how regressive it is socially and politically. There are a few cities, notably Austin, Asheville, Houston(even though it's incredibly sprawled), that stand out to me but other than that I would not voluntarily live anywhere south of D.C.
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Old 12-14-2008, 04:03 PM
 
3,674 posts, read 8,628,593 times
Reputation: 3085
Quote:
Originally Posted by Georgia View Post
People go where the jobs are

Second that, I was relocated to Atlanta due to this. My whole company moved out of New Jersey, which was a sad day for my family. With 20 years I could not just drop and go, but go with the flow.

Until the Northern States bring "Right to Work" into law and loses the Union mentality, the Rust Belt will continue to get larger. Heck, even with the slow economy KIA is building a new plant in Georgia, offering full benefits, good pay, etc. Even many American companies are closing northern offices and moving to Alabama of all places. They build new, bring the jobs down, or hire direct, yet offer the same packages as up north. The benefit, No UAW.

I for one miss Jersey and I'm a WV native. I wish things would head back too, but the overall mentality needs to change for that to happen. Fingers crossed

The term "rustbelt" is no longer appropriate. Many places are changing and changing dramatically. In some areas, there are dying cities, but that's happening everywhere in the United States. It's by no means limited to any one region. Most areas in the midwest and Great Lakes have moved on to different things. It's an agonizing process, a restructuring that takes generations, but it does happen.

Yes, even Detroit is changing its ways, and it's no longer what it was... That's both good and bad.

The untold story is the bleeding of unskilled labor from the midwest/northeast to the south. Yes, wages are low and so are costs, and at least for right now, that's fine. But those workers will get older, and they will need more money, and there's no infrastructure in place in the states that don't like to tax or unionize to take care of them. The south is growing, and it's because you can get paid nothing and live on next to nothing down there.

But the water is drying up, folks. The land in the south was never meant to be habitated, and the further west you go the more radical this fact becomes. Florida is literally sinking itself and its beaches are disappearing. Texas and Georgia have severe problems with pumping enough water to keep themselves, and their artifical agriculture, afloat.

Mark my words, the day will come when the old unskilled laborers need more and more, the land supports less and less, and the infrastructure that worships the suburbs will all put the bill on the table. Michigan and Ohio learned this the hard way, but they did so in a time when it was a hell of a lot easier to move elsewhere for work. There's no more Sunbelt left to flee to if you want to support yourself and your family by standing in an auto line or laying electric lines for new housing. All the aches and pains of these "old" cities in the cold north will have been solved by the very ills that nearly killed them. Michigan, for example, is hell bent on building an extensive light rail system, and Michigan has the perfect square grid patterns in a very large, organized metro area to support it. The Great Lake States and the northeast have the educational institutions to churn out the value-added positions we need.

It doesn't make the news, but it's something I've personally seen. Old people are returning north. They're not interested in staying south anymore, not even for the winter. The South was built on the economic basis of a population that needed very little, little more than paved roads and crappy jobs. The era of high-returns for industries like tourism is over, and they will have to find new ways to cope. As people age they need that city environment if they are to have access to healthcare, and the high-tax cities in the north have the resources to provide. In return, we receive their knowledge on things like city councils-- Michigan has some fabulous examples of this bizarre situation.

But again, and this I swear, the southeast portion of this nation and Texas will one day see the same economic catastrophe that destroyed the midwest. There's a critical problem in cash flow from industries that will not remain viable on the insular economic premises that funded the last building boom.
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