[JGatti]

There are two forums I frequent on city data. Michigan of course because I live here, and Arizona because my wife would like to live there and I also have family there.
It seems that every time someone is trying to compare how much better Arizona is that other states they often compare it too and then proceed to knock or bash Michigan. It's kind of funny but strange. Why Michigan? I'd be willing to bet I see more references to Michigan in the Az forum than any other state. I just posted a long response in the Phoenix forum in response to some posts knocking us. Hell we even have some new tool from Georgia coming into our forum knocking our great state LOL.

I'm hardly thin skinned and this is not because it bothers me. It's just for the life of me I cannot figure out the connection or why the comparison always seems to be with Michigan. Does anyone else visit other states forums and if so does this seem to be happening there as well? If so why do you think that is? Is it because they feel everyone looks good next to us? LOL

[Wingnatic]

To be honest I think the media is partially to blame . There is so much more to Michigan to just Detroit , and Detroit isn't the first big city to experience Government corruption . People outside of Detroit , that many have never been to Detroit or Michigan can only judge by an unfair media at times . I hope by the time the dust clears and everybody is in jail , that the Federal Government will have sent a clear message to people in city Government . I've passed through Phoenix and Arizona and its beautiful , but I couldn't judge either because I've never spent time there . But really , one city in a beautiful State doesn't paint what Michigan is all about .

[Toymeister]

Its because people have left Michigan and are now happy with where they live. It helps them feel good to compare where they live now to Michigan.

I -for one- can tell you first hand that Michigan is much nicer than any city in Afghanistan. So there it is just a matter of comparison.

[michmoldman]

Lake envy.

[Bydand]

Michigan just happens to be the State that right now is fashionable to hate.

[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by JGatti

There are two forums I frequent on city data. Michigan of course because I live here, and Arizona because my wife would like to live there and I also have family there.
It seems that every time someone is trying to compare how much better Arizona is that other states they often compare it too and then proceed to knock or bash Michigan. It's kind of funny but strange. Why Michigan? I'd be willing to bet I see more references to Michigan in the Az forum than any other state. I just posted a long response in the Phoenix forum in response to some posts knocking us. Hell we even have some new tool from Georgia coming into our forum knocking our great state LOL.

I'm hardly thin skinned and this is not because it bothers me. It's just for the life of me I cannot figure out the connection or why the comparison always seems to be with Michigan. Does anyone else visit other states forums and if so does this seem to be happening there as well? If so why do you think that is? Is it because they feel everyone looks good next to us? LOL

As a native Michigander, there are two states that seem to have always been destination states for Michiganders - #1, by far and large margins, Florida. #2 is Arizona.

So, I'm gonna guess a lot of people in AZ are familiar with Michiganders. I've also read many times that AZ attracts a large number of just your general Midwesterner - i.e. more familiarity with MI.

SOOO...additionally, just about everyone else you can imagine rips on AZ...particularly as it is so spread out and car-oriented. There are only a few cities like that, and one is L.A., which having the ocean and Hollywood and everything else, is automatically better. What other city is predominately car-oriented? That city is Detroit's Metro.

So, if anyone rips on Phoenix in particular for it's many faults...you can always point to the fact that Detroit is also predominately car-oriented and spread out with a lot of ugliness in it. While Phoenix lost their major industry - construction as way too many houses in foreclosure already...Detroit lost it's cars. So both are losers there as well. What makes AZ feel better is that they have better weather. So, by default, they can feel better about all the other negatives by pointing to superior weather - unless someone hates that it is too hot that is.

Anyways, sorry that my entire post rips on BOTH MI & AZ. But those are the basic reasons that most people don't like either state. That being said, there are tons of positives on both states. Neither state is only Detroit or Phoenix.

Michigan has amazing scenery throughout all of it's 'above Lansing' areas and often even below it on the shore lines. Arizona has amazing scenery as well, no doubt about it. So, it comes down to if a person like desert/canyons/cactus scenery or beaches/lakes/ice-fishing/boating/etc.

-----

Anyways, mostly it comes to familiarity. Many southern states have many transplants from other places...and the more transplants that exist there, the more everyone from that state rips on them. Thinking Californians in Montana, New Yorkers in the Carolinas, etc.

[JGatti]

Originally Posted by Tiger Beer

As a native Michigander, there are two states that seem to have always been destination states for Michiganders - #1, by far and large margins, Florida. #2 is Arizona.

So, I'm gonna guess a lot of people in AZ are familiar with Michiganders. I've also read many times that AZ attracts a large number of just your general Midwesterner - i.e. more familiarity with MI.

SOOO...additionally, just about everyone else you can imagine rips on AZ...particularly as it is so spread out and car-oriented. There are only a few cities like that, and one is L.A., which having the ocean and Hollywood and everything else, is automatically better. What other city is predominately car-oriented? That city is Detroit's Metro.

So, if anyone rips on Phoenix in particular for it's many faults...you can always point to the fact that Detroit is also predominately car-oriented and spread out with a lot of ugliness in it. While Phoenix lost their major industry - construction as way too many houses in foreclosure already...Detroit lost it's cars. So both are losers there as well. What makes AZ feel better is that they have better weather. So, by default, they can feel better about all the other negatives by pointing to superior weather - unless someone hates that it is too hot that is.

Anyways, sorry that my entire post rips on BOTH MI & AZ. But those are the basic reasons that most people don't like either state. That being said, there are tons of positives on both states. Neither state is only Detroit or Phoenix.

Michigan has amazing scenery throughout all of it's 'above Lansing' areas and often even below it on the shore lines. Arizona has amazing scenery as well, no doubt about it. So, it comes down to if a person like desert/canyons/cactus scenery or beaches/lakes/ice-fishing/boating/etc.

-----

Anyways, mostly it comes to familiarity. Many southern states have many transplants from other places...and the more transplants that exist there, the more everyone from that state rips on them. Thinking Californians in Montana, New Yorkers in the Carolinas, etc.

The post that made me take notice today was not made by people who were native to Michigan. It was posted by someone from Arizona who found some study that rated the opportunity in states and it started a whole discussion from Az residents who claimed it was false. Early on Michigan was thrown into it and then the slams began flying because this study claimed you had more opportunities in Michigan than Az. Rust belt blah blah blah. The people demanded facts about anything that was said about Arizona yet the same people began spouting off about what Michigan is and is not etc. So it struck me as kind of humorous that they required facts about anything negative but then proceeded to just slam Michigan. Can you say double standards?

I do agree with you that all too often people think only of Detroit when Michigan is talked about and I also understand the media does not help.

[Perferator]

Originally Posted by michmoldman

Lake envy.

I was thinking the same thing.


Hey Arizona, if you dont stop it we will stop giving you water.

[michmoldman]

Could also be that everyone, everywhere thinks that every person in Michigan worked in the auto industry and lived high on the hog for so long. I mean most people think Michigan or hear the word Michigan they automatically think Detroit and cars. Its just most peoples nature to kick a man when hes down, it makes them feel better about their situation.

[canudigit]

I have noticed this for a long time! I read the AZ forum a lot because we actually did live in the Phoenix area last year and what I notice is that it seems that a lot of the biggest Michigan bashers over there are the native Arizonians who have never even been here! When I think of all of the negatives that we found to living in AZ, it is all I can do to not rip into them and laugh at them for pretending that AZ is a Garden of Eden paradise with no crime, no problems, and no weather issues. What a joke. When it is hot in AZ, it is beyond awful and far, far worse than anything that winter in MI can dish up, and I was always one of the biggest avowed winter haters that I know. Everyone on the AZ forum, especially the Phoenix forum, is an expert on MI and feels free to attack and ridicule this beautiful state mercilessly, yet just try to go over there and say anything negative about their dustbowl of a state. And they go beyond reason too. Someone started a thread about scorpions a couple of weeks ago and when I posted that we found scorpions in our garage in an established neighborhood I was accused of everything from flat out lying to not knowing what a scorpion is...duh!!!! If you post anything over there that is even just neutral about their wonderful state, they start in with the comments like, "So, I hear you can buy a house in Detroit for a dollar now. What a joke that whole state is...yada, yada, yada...rust belt...crime...yada, yada, yada." Crime? Who are they kidding? Phoenix is rampant with crime of all types, even though they will deny it and act like you're crazy if you suggest such a thing.

Well, I don't mean to rant here. What I have learned is to stay away from the AZ, and especially the Phoenix, forum pretty much entirely at this point. The people spouting off over there know less than nothing about Michigan and there's no reason to let them get to me. Yaz is the one voice of reason on that forum, God bless him.

You know what has occurred to me more than once? That many of the people who live in AZ really DON'T like it much at all, and they feel the need to defend their choice by running down other places. Most of them are clueless when it comes to our great state, but it makes them feel better about their lives to attack a state that they know nothing about. How pathetic!