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I live in NC now... grew up in beautiful Columbia County, two hours north of the city. I cannot wait to get back up there, or possibly New England. Being in the Charlotte suburbs, at least for me, is a soul less place - with nothing but ugly sprawl everywhere you look. It may be tougher to make ends meet up there... in some respects, but to me the quality of life is so much better. But then again, it's all relative... and someone who moves down here from the north may think it's great. I am one, however, who absolutely hates it - coming from the area in which I was raised.
I live in the triangle right now, and while I wouldn't say I hate NC...I do hate how overrated it is. I'm so sick of hearing everyone from Long Island, California, New Jersey, and Florida gawk about how this is the promise land and it just makes so much sense to move here and it's "impossible" to stay where they are now. NC isn't bad...but it really isn't that impressive either. I love how everyone touts how " you have the beach a little ways to the east, and the mountains a little way to the west....it's just perfect"....as if that isn't the case with EVERY state on the east coast (except for FL, which has no mountains). You are definitly right about much of urban/suburban NC being fairly bland and lacking real culture...it's mostly just prettiefied tract subdivisions and polished up shopping centers. I am looking very forward to moving back to the COMMUNITY I left in Upstate NY....family too.
Apologies to all those who've read me waxing poetic about NY State before.
Reasons to Want to Return to NY State:
1. VARIETY. NY state has to be one of the most varied states in the nation. Setting aside NYC & LI, Upstate itself is amazingly varied. You've got all sorts of cities with real, distinct, proud, and often still-vibrant histories. Big towns. Small towns. Tiny hamlets. Farmland of all sorts. Mountains. Rolling hills. Rivers of all sorts. Streams. Ponds. Wetlands. Lakes big and small, including two Great Lakes (which are cleaner than they've been in many decades). The Thousand Islands. Canoeing, boating, and kayaking of all sorts. Skiing, skating, hockey indoor and outdoor. Plus most of the state is wonderfully uncluttered--like a New England with lots of elbow room. Don't like where you are, a quick trip and you're elsewhere. And you can stretch your legs and catch your breath on the way. Architecture ranging from gorgeous intact PRE-Colonial to Modernist to built-just-yesterday. A vast range of older, classic, stately homes, farms, commercial and public buildings, and neigbhorhoods. And SO MUCH of it is SO close by. Here in SW Virginia, where we're currently stuck, for example, to get to a decent-sized city we have to drive 45 minutes on an ugly, uninteresting interstate. To get out of our monotonous (and smotheringly dark) mountains and relentlessly run-down and charmless Appalachian towns, you have to drive HOURS, and only one direct (NE) will get out of this incredible (and smothering) monotony. In Upstate, an hour's drive in just about any direction will give you incredible variety, and often put you into a different environment entirely. How far is it from Lake Ontario to the Adirondacks? From Lake Erie to the Western NY Alleghanies? From the Hudson Valley to the eastern Catskills or to Lake George or NYC? How much HISTORY--so much of it so noble, an inspiration of hard work, ingenuity, and FAITH in America itself--is all around and within everywhere you go? Also, since the state has an incredible and--despite all the problems with illegal immigration--an on-going tradition of absorbing immigrants, it also has an incredible ethnic diversity. And much of this isn't a matter of people dividing themselves from others because of ethnicity for long, but, to the contrary, of people pretty soon becoming fellow Americans, and proud to do so. Think of all the Italians, Poles, Germans, and Irish who settled not only in Buffalo, say, but in the towns and country around there, too. No one bats an eye at a rural small town mayor being of Italian or Polish background; no one questions whether being Catholic keeps you from being as American as the next guy. Sure, there are intense racial tensions in the cities, as there are everywhere in America. But by far, most New Yorkers are profoundly pleased and proud to see a black family doing well; they very much believe in the best of the American Way. Their frustration is only when this way is frustrated by fleeing jobs and self-destruction. Likewise, by far, most would judge Arab-American neighbors, say, by the same standard of whether they were good neighbors or not to which they hold everyone, including themselves. Meaning, the best of the American ethic of "Every person their right to flourish" and "Judge poeple by their character" prevails up there. A great and still-generous sense of FAIRNESS, rooted in honoring your own family's FAITH in America's fairness, rules in most of NY State. There's simply too much of a tradition of too many kinds of immigrants--all of them proud to now be American, all of them with a history of contribution--for much prejudice to prevail. The human variety there is no less beautiful than the natural and historic variety.
2. OPPORTUNITIES. I know, I know: NY State's job-loss, especially of quality, move-into-the-middle-class jobs, has been terrible and heartbreaking. BUT you've still got a fantastic State University system, both in terms of its costs to the student and the incredible variety of educational options it offers. You can study ANYthing in a quality school located in just about ANY type of town/city at an incredibly LOW cost up there. And while the elementary, middle, and highschools do depend on your locality, IN GENERAL NY State does a great job preparing its students to compete. And while job-loss has been awful, and the state's finances and gov't. ARE a mess, because of the state's incredible variety, it is possible to pursue a job in just about any field, from testing varieties of apple trees to doing brain surgery.
3. TRUE COMMUNITY & BIG-HEARTED TRADITIONS. In part exactly because NY State hasn't had the fevers of anonymous over-development that parts of NC, Nevada, etc., have experienced; and partly because so many immigrants and their children and grandchildren had/have so good a life in NY State; and in part because NY State simply offers such a BALANCED life, so many places are distinct up there that you can't miss the exceptional sense and variety of TEXTURE, of A PLACE'S CHARACTER, throughout NY State. Add to this the determination of so many NY'ers to sustain the best of the American traditions of volunteerism and local loyalty and honoring their forefathers by keeping up everything from the village green to the VFW all-you-can-eat to the old family home, and you'll generally find an old-fashioned loyalty premised on the Big Heart, which generally keeps that loyalty from being close-mindedness in disguise. Plus, knowing that YOU may need some help when you get stuck in the snow helps keep alive an ethic that you should be eager to help others stuck in the snow. Add to this the way people savor their summers up there, and SHARE those summers during the free concerts in the park, the lolling at the lakeside beach, the tables outside the pub, the church picnic in the park until the skeeters get too thick (that's about 10 p.m. in July!), etc., and you've got a strong set of uniting traditions that fewer and fewer places enjoy these days as the country gets more and more suburbanized, more and more (self-) trapped in the car- and iPod-bubble. Techno-autistic gypsies they aint.
4. FOUR SEASONS. Yeah, I know, the weather can be miserable, the winters draining. (I grew up in Buffalo!) But the fact that the weather IS alive, varied, and a factor in every day life up there is a big part of what makes living in NY State so satisfying. You don't need to hide inside of air-conditioning for four or six months a year--you may not need it at all. In fact, there aren't too many places in the country where, by contrast, you can, and want to, have your windows open for six months of the year. The summers are often superb: warm, even hot, in the day, cooling and cool at night. You put on the warmer shirt to walk in the evening, you're sweating and love jumping into the lake, pond, river, or pool in the day. The seasons, and even the day's cycle of temperatures and moods, give life a rhythm up there. And just how common is this ancient connection with natural REALITY in so many parts of the nation these days? There, it's almost inescapable. In summer, the days are long, the twilights slow, the shadows golden before they're blue and then blacks. It all seems to sink into your bones, where you can draw on it to endure the winters--creating an inner cycle, an inner rhythm rooted in nature, in a reality that's greater than we are yet makes a little room for us. It can give you a calming humility if you'll let it. Drive or bike or walk a half-hour or less out of just about every upstate city, and you've got all the stars your soul could want to wonder about. Droughts are rare, the green is deep, the clouds roll fast on the high Great Lakes winds. Falls may be brief, but with all the maples and birches against all the spruces and pines, they're spectacular, too. I know that winters go on for two months too long, but at least your kids will know what snow is--and at least have the opportunity to discover all the ways that winter and snow can be beautiful and magical. That by itself is increasingly rare in these apparently increasingly greenhouse days. And winter gives you time to warm the body and the family and friendships with cooking, with sitting by the fire with unashamedly over-big bottles of wine or whiskey, with thinking about summer events and fall complexities, until you've got them all straightened out by Spring. And as tiresome as muddy boots and assualted skin can be, there are few simple pleasures like taking your dog and/or your young kids for a walk in the deep and still-falling snow, and coming back home to the soup or stew or chili or curry, that warms so much more than the body when shared. Without the occasionally harsh winter, you can't truly savor the usually gorgeous summers.
5. THE STATE PARK SYSTEM. As if Adirondack State Park weren't enough--still the biggest state park in the lower 48 states--the number and variety of the smaller state parks is just incredible, and the variety of what' within them simply amazing. And since the summers are generally so great, you have more opportunies to do more kinds of things outdoors, in a greater range of natural beauty and uniqueness, than you do in most other states. Try hiking Florida's Alligator Alley. Or paddling across car-thick, highway-blocked Charlotte, NC.
6. THE FOOD. Thanks largely to the ethnic variety noted above, in so many places, it's incredible, and incredibly affordable.
7. PROXIMITY TO CANADA, and the fantastic provinces of Ontario & Quebec. Montreal, Toronto, Canada's Canada's cottage country--you're so lucky to have that within a few hour's drive from most places in NY State!
8. PROXIMITY TO NEW ENGLAND.
9. PROXIMITY TO THE UPPER MIDWEST.
10. SERVICES. Yeah, I know, the taxes can be bad, the state's fiscal mess worse than maddening. But you DO get SOME of your tax-dollar's worth there compared so many states with uniformly lousy schools, non-existent snowplowing, weak/corrupted environmental protections, steep and hidden "fees" that equal high taxes anyway, etc.
Believe it or not, when I moved out here 3 years ago apartments and homes were affordable.
Something happened shortly after I moved to send everything to San Franisco/NY levels. It's funny, I currently live in the San Fernando Vally, got my huge one bedroom apartment for $895 (now $960) and people were telling me that I "overpaid" for the Valley. They said no one pays that kind of money to live here. Well look what happened? You can't find a "studio" in the "city" of LA for less than a $1000. One and two bedrooms are $1200 and up.
If you ask me I lucked out big time. I just wish LA had the "salaries" to match these crazy increases.
I live in the triangle right now, and while I wouldn't say I hate NC...I do hate how overrated it is. I'm so sick of hearing everyone from Long Island, California, New Jersey, and Florida gawk about how this is the promise land and it just makes so much sense to move here and it's "impossible" to stay where they are now. NC isn't bad...but it really isn't that impressive either. I love how everyone touts how " you have the beach a little ways to the east, and the mountains a little way to the west....it's just perfect"....as if that isn't the case with EVERY state on the east coast (except for FL, which has no mountains). You are definitly right about much of urban/suburban NC being fairly bland and lacking real culture...it's mostly just prettiefied tract subdivisions and polished up shopping centers. I am looking very forward to moving back to the COMMUNITY I left in Upstate NY....family too.
I hear ya, man.... the community that I was raised in, was the perfect place to grow up... and now... to come back to and raise your kids in.... I couldn't imagine subjecting my kids to a future on NC suburbia. The funny thing is that most of my family from my hometown have all relocated ... here, around Charlotte. And for the life of me, I cannot understand how they could be happy. And yeah, ha ah... I hear that "Oh the mountains to west and the ocean... 4 hours away!" From them... Blah blah blah... The mountains were right there in NY, where we're from... and the ocean was a mere 2 hours away.... if that's a thing that matters... but meanwhile, they will be sitting in a cookie cutter, soul less freak show... where the most cultural thing to do is go shopping at Harris Teeter or something.
Oh well... I'll look at my old house up there, and wish my family were still around... but I know that for my sanity, and my childrens future... upstate NY or... possibly Western Mass is definately the best place for us to be.
Good luck on your move back... I'll be soon following!
Location: here at the the present time, but on my way to heaven to meet my Criator
45 posts, read 189,018 times
Reputation: 32
do you miss NY now that you have left?
I Sure Do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I Am American By Choice, Not By Chance.and I Love America So Much.
Moved Here When I Was 28 Years Of Age.went Straight To Ny And What A City It Is!the Best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There Is No Place Like Ny.not Even My Own City Where I Was Born And Lived For 28 Years.
Ny Is Unique In The Planet. Lived In Ct, Fl(and Florida Is Just A Nightmare) And Now Nc(and I Like It Here By The Sea).
Ny Is Such An Easy Place To Live. One Can Find Everything And Anything, No Hassel.
I Just Had To Buy Some Clothing Here And There Is Not Much To Choose From. Very Few Stores.
I'm Happy On The Other Hand Because Here I Can Have A Very Nice Place To Live, Ny Would Have To Be Rentals Only. Not A Good Thing.
I Miss It But Would Not Move Back. I Will Always Love Ny . Always!
It Is A Real City.and What A City!!
Ps. I Love The Southern Weather! But Miss The Snow(sometimes...)
To homeward bound..NY state outta' hire you as a public relations guru. Really couldn't have said it any better. Got a new interesting insight on the southern tier(Owego) where I live from a recent arrival last year. He pointed out a new plus for our area....lack of vermin..?? He then proeceeded to explain by saying, "no fire ants, no chiggers, no seriously poisionous spiders, no Africanized bees, no(or almost no roaches), no scorpions, rarely a poisoinous snake, and(at least in the southern tier)..almost no ticks(I'm in the woods/fields a lot..maybe 5-6 on me in the last 25 years). Never thought much of that as a plus, but I guess it just adds to your list. Ran into fire ants while in the military down south...now those are "ants w/attitude".
I've missed NYS for the whole 13 years I've lived in Florida. Florida is a nice place to visit but a whole different place when living here. We will be moving back later this year. I've had enough 11 month summers, hurricanes and bugs as big as horses! Time to get out of dodge and go home!
3 years is long enough and I have tried to find something, ANYTHING, good about Orlando, FL. Still looking. Hope to move back to upstate, NY end of August. Toto, there's no place like home.
To homeward bound..NY state outta' hire you as a public relations guru. Really couldn't have said it any better. Got a new interesting insight on the southern tier(Owego) where I live from a recent arrival last year. He pointed out a new plus for our area....lack of vermin..?? He then proeceeded to explain by saying, "no fire ants, no chiggers, no seriously poisionous spiders, no Africanized bees, no(or almost no roaches), no scorpions, rarely a poisoinous snake, and(at least in the southern tier)..almost no ticks(I'm in the woods/fields a lot..maybe 5-6 on me in the last 25 years). Never thought much of that as a plus, but I guess it just adds to your list. Ran into fire ants while in the military down south...now those are "ants w/attitude".
Here's more insight for you. Beers at The John Barleycorn, wings at O'Hara's, pizza from Mario's, recreation in Hickory's Park.
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do you miss NY now that you have left?
