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These lists are worthless. The cities are listed according to such-and-such factors, but the article doesn't state how they arrived at their ranking or what the factors entail exactly
I've also lived in more than one of the list (even Detroit) and loved all of them.
Most large cities are rated as "bad" or "worst" because they are large cities and deal with more issues than smaller cities. That makes them more interesting too. I love Detroit in particular and may move back there after my kids grow up/get out of school. I would have moved there a few years ago if the schools were better there. I like to live in actual cities and not suburbs and love gritty cities in particular. I started not to like Atlanta that much because over the past 10-15 years especially it has become too plastic and fake to me and not as gritty and interesting anymore.
I was born and raised in the suburbs of Dayton, and while it was a great place to grow up, the list isn't wrong to include it because it's really struggling. Visiting family who still live there never fails to remind me why I needed to leave. It's not the same city it was when I was a child and it was right for me to move on. That said, I continue to root for Dayton's success, and nothing would make me happier than to see it pull out of its death spiral. I guess you can take the girl out of Ohio, but you can't take the Ohio out of the girl.
Last edited by randomparent; 06-19-2018 at 07:30 AM..
We left Dayton, OH a few years ago. Taxes being the primary reason. Between the state and city income tax, sales tax, and ridiculously high property taxes my cost of living is actually cheaper here in SW WA in the hot Portland metro area even though housing costs 2-3x as much.
I honestly don't believe that metro Portland, OR is cheaper on COL than Dayton, OH. That sounds kind of ridiculous honestly to me.
Will note, I have never lived in Dayton but know a lot of people from Dayton. They are the coolest people in Ohio IMO. I'm from Ohio but not Dayton BTW. I've never met a person from Dayton that I noticed that, no matter their class, ethnicity/background/religion, etc. They are just cool people (until I meet an a$$hole from Dayton that will be my stereotype of Daytonians - cool people lol).
I was born and raised in the suburbs of Dayton, and while it was a great place to grow up, the list isn't wrong to include it because its really struggling. Visiting family who still live there never fails to remind me why I needed to leave. It's not the same city it was when I was a child and it was right for me to move on. That said, I continue to root for Dayton's success, and nothing would make me happier than to see it pull out of its death spiral. I guess you can take the girl out of Ohio, but you can't take the Ohio out of the girl.
Right before I posted - one of those cool people from Dayton I bet!
FWIW I'm from Toledo and we are always on "worst" lists lol. It's our thing in a way. Toledoans are kind of a trip (as am I in many ways). I noticed living away from my hometown and coming back just how tripp-y we are. I love Ohio and how we are so different depending on which area of the state we are from. It is always astonishing to me how different the folks I know from Dayton are compared to the people from Cincinnati in particular, since Cincy and Dayton are so close. Cincy is way more "southern" in nature to me and, sorry for Cincy folks but they kind of get on my nerves more than any other people from Ohio. I think because I lived in the south for a long time and just felt that southern culture/attitudes/behaviors kind of got on my nerves and Cincy people remind me of them.
I honestly don't believe that metro Portland, OR is cheaper on COL than Dayton, OH. That sounds kind of ridiculous honestly to me.
Will note, I have never lived in Dayton but know a lot of people from Dayton. They are the coolest people in Ohio IMO. I'm from Ohio but not Dayton BTW. I've never met a person from Dayton that I noticed that, no matter their class, ethnicity/background/religion, etc. They are just cool people (until I meet an a$$hole from Dayton that will be my stereotype of Daytonians - cool people lol).
It's a very down-to-earth city, and I'll accept your compliment and thank you for it. I'm a seventh-generation Ohioan, and I often joke that I'm related by blood or marriage to at least half the residents of Montgomery County and likely Miami, Darke, Preble, and Butler counties, too. As I said above, I'm always rooting for Dayton to recover from its death spiral. I have a bizarre love for the place even with all of its faults.
Right before I posted - one of those cool people from Dayton I bet!
FWIW I'm from Toledo and we are always on "worst" lists lol. It's our thing in a way. Toledoans are kind of a trip (as am I in many ways). I noticed living away from my hometown and coming back just how tripp-y we are. I love Ohio and how we are so different depending on which area of the state we are from. It is always astonishing to me how different the folks I know from Dayton are compared to the people from Cincinnati in particular, since Cincy and Dayton are so close. Cincy is way more "southern" in nature to me and, sorry for Cincy folks but they kind of get on my nerves more than any other people from Ohio. I think because I lived in the south for a long time and just felt that southern culture/attitudes/behaviors kind of got on my nerves and Cincy people remind me of them.
Dayton's culture is the result of being a bit of a crossroads. It's not exactly Appalachian, although it has more than a touch of it thanks to what's known as the Hillbilly Highway that brought Appalachians from eastern Kentucky, parts of West Virginia, and Tennessee to work in the industrial cities of the Rust Belt in the run up to WWII and afterward. Additionally, it also drew the descendants of the Pennsylvania Dutch who came west along Zane's Trace in the nineteenth century, and there is also a contingent of the Society of Friends who came up from the Carolinas to escape the Civil War. And of course, there are also many, many African-American descendants of slaves, who followed the Underground Railroad to the freedom of Ohio.
Lots of fascinating history in Dayton, if you know where to look, and I think that's why I left my heart there.
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