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The OP should try living in real horrible places like Flint MI, Youngstown OH, Niagara Falls NY, Baltimore MD and than he will have something very legitimate to whine about. Otherwise he needs to stifle it.
I just don't understand the bitterness! I mean , for 55 plus years, Rhody was the cat'so meow. Now, downstream 15 plus years, it's not. I don't know. I had one bad relationship in my life and when it was behind me, I never looked back. Unlike some people I didn't go back and back and back to diss the guy. I moved happily on. It is this paradox that raises all manner of confliction. Why the FIFTEEN YEAR retrospective?
"Rhody" hasn't been the "cat's meow" is at least 35-40 years, around the time the jewelry manufacturing industry began its exodus in the late 1970's.
I grew up in a very rural area of the state and I'm grateful for my experiences throughout those years. I also went to URI and wish I could hit the reset button and have that experience somewhere else in the country.
There's just this different complacency mindset that is all over this state and maybe that's how we keep allowing the same political figures into office. There's political corruption everywhere and RI has alot of bad stuff going on. Ever been to the DMV here? It's so expensive to own a vehicle. Not to mention, the state's on the hook for Curt Schilling's failed video game business which one of the old governor's approved.
It's tough to get out for a nice drive but the middle of the state around Providence is so congested. From Smithfield, Johnston, Cranston, N Providence, Warwick and other surrounding areas of Providence, it's a heavy Portugese/Italian influenced population. Then it's almost like we have our own yuppie Cape Cod but more congested all the way down from E Greenwich to Narragansett including Newport. Small town USA starts in the Northwestern corner with Burrillville/Glocester/NSmithfield/Foster where it's all dive bars and pizza places. Nicer people live in these areas in contrast to the rest of the state where people are just a lot more reserved and unfriendly. They are probably great places to grow up but not sure if you would want to settle down long term if you're looking for big things. Finally Providence is so hard to navigate through and find any parking. It's probably the best place in the state if you want to go out and meet new people but unless you live downtown, you have to go through the headache to find and pay for parking. Even though the scenery is lacking, the western part of the state is very peaceful especially riding down 102 and areas like Burlingame is a nice and less congested spot.
I live on the border of Cumberland and Lincoln and I don't think there's a more down to earth spot in the state where you could still get around and get to places. Being that I still have to make a living, I'm commuting all the way up to Boston five days a week. Job opportunities are just so scarce in RI. The state is what you make of it but I'd probably jump at the opportunity of leaving if I found something better.
I've lived in a lot of places around the country. . . . many parts of Rhode Island (especially, Newport, Portsmouth, Bristol, Barrington, Providence, Warwick, Greenwich, N & S Kingstown, Jamestown, etc.) are pretty nice. If you love the ocean, it's not bad living in the Ocean State.
Born and raised in RI and I agree with the original poster! RI is a horrible state... Not for me at all which is why I am finally moving out of this state.
Born and raised in RI and I agree with the original poster! RI is a horrible state... Not for me at all which is why I am finally moving out of this state.
I've lived in a lot of places around the country. . . . many parts of Rhode Island (especially, Newport, Portsmouth, Bristol, Barrington, Providence, Warwick, Greenwich, N & S Kingstown, Jamestown, etc.) are pretty nice. If you love the ocean, it's not bad living in the Ocean State.
Mick
Yep. The middle/upper-middle class coastal enclaves are just fine and vacation home owners and summer tourists inject a lot of money into some of those local economies. You can add Little Compton and Tiverton to that list along with Middletown. Providence is also fine around Brown and downtown.
Well the twins are home after their summer in RI (they get out of school in May). Most of our family and friends are still here in RI and the twins are young enough where an adventure home to RI is still an exciting way to to spend their summers.
We left in the mid 80's when manufacturing and RI's industry's were doing well. A lot has changed but it is still the RI I grew up in and spent 30 years in.
I know a lot of my friends and family are tired of the politics and direction the state has been going in but there is still a lot of love and pride for RI from it's residents in hopes the states future will somehow change course.
There is a small part of me that wonders what it would have been like to stay in RI and roll with the changes.
While we are not living in RI full time and can't experience the good and bad we still love the state and hope
the future remains bright!
We had a great time this summer......introduced the twins to Del's, although I must have looked like a mad man when I saw the price for a cup. Showing my age........I remember 10 cent cups
Home is where your heart is.......not everywhere is paradise. We moved to a sleepy coastal beach town much like Westerly and now it is dramatically changing to a very affluent community devouring the middle class.
The reason why most native Rhode Islanders eventually move back to RI after living elsewhere is because the majority of these ex-pats usually end up moving to Florida, which is a horrible state on so many accords (I'm speaking from firsthand experience of living there).
Unless they're originally from NY or NJ, I've found that most people who move to FL usually end up moving back to where they came from or to somewhere else entirely such as myself (moved to CA). Even a lot of FL natives end up moving elsewhere in adulthood for personal and/or career advancement reasons.
If you ever meet a Rhode Islander living in another part of the country (CA, CO, TX, NY, IL, VA, etc.) - and trust me, this is a very infrequent occurrence since the population of RI is so small to begin with and, again, there are very few ex-RI'ers living outside of FL - you'll rarely hear the same sentiments about wanting to move back.
The reason for this is, a lot of these people are educated, high-income professionals who are probably enjoying a much higher QOL outside of RI for professional, social, cultural and/or weather-related reasons.
Another thing, too - most Rhode Islanders that move to Florida or other transient, warm-weather destinations, such as Arizona or Nevada, are often either:
1) Retirees (who eventually need to move back to RI or to wherever they're children/grandchildren are living when they're no longer able to live independently), or
2) Uneducated, low-skilled types who don't have the means of financially supporting themselves in these deceptively high-COL areas and, by their very disposition, tend to be very "stereotypical Rhode Islanders" who probably wouldn't mesh well with people elsewhere and would have a hard distancing themselves from the local culture, attitudes and interests of working-class RI.
YMMV.
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