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Cost of Living #1, best in the ENTIRE US (including places in Ohio). If you live in Columbus, it ranks #55 on the list and Cincinnati is #47. So to claim that the cost of living is the same as it is in Huntington, not quite right.
Income Growth #55, pretty high ranking for income growth for those working at McDonald's like you say huh?
Job Growth #45, which seems like a pretty high ranking if it's only medically related or McDonald's jobs.
Wow, so you have the cheapest cost of living, which is far from true. Why is car insurance double in WV? Why are gas prices higher there? Groceries are the same price. I shop at Kroger out here just as I did back home. Same prices. Ditto for Wal Mart. Rent's the same.
Income growth? Easy to attain since the minimum wage is going up. Not only that, but I'm aware that many of Huntington's telemarketing jobs have raised their wages from 8 to around 10 bucks an hour now. Whoopty doo.
Job growth: Once again, where are these jobs? The only job I could find is working for the state highway department, which I might add pays $7k less than the same position in Ohio.
So you are going to try to discredit the Forbes ranking of Huntington since it is positive but yet say that ranking the state 50th in economy is accurate even though the rankings came from the same company? Convenient huh? Huntington ranked 36 places higher than than Charleston in the overall category and also ranked higher in many other categories since you are trying to compare the two cities. If you are going to accept such rankings, don't you pretty much have to accept them across the board, especially when they are from the same company?
I accept the fact that I couldn't find a job there that paid worth a damn. I had to move away to get it and I'm glad I did. WV had nothing, still has nothing. I will admit Ohio isn't exactly the greatest economy either, but it isn't dinkland and wasteland like Huntington is.
If you can actually find a decent job there you've done quite well. Of course unless you're into museums or hanging out at parks getting hit on by gays I don't know what you'll do with all your wealth. I myself really enjoy Ohio Stadium and Great American Ball Park. I haven't been to a Bengals game yet, but will go soon enough (even though they suck).
The Mountaineers are good (northern border, even farther away from Huntington than Cincy or Columbus), Marshall is a joke. Their fans are even a joke. Even when they were good the people didn't show up. Why? Because they either didn't care or didn't have the money, it's a tossup between the two.
I guess all those cars on I-64 at 5pm belong to the unemployed, driving home after picking up their welfare checks?
Traffic jams happen when road capacity is exceeded. Charleston probably does needs to improve its transportation system. But as an engineer, you should realize that it's not that simple. Where are you gonna put it? The Kanawha Valley is pretty narrow. What happens to the people who get displaced by the construction? Destroying neighborhoods to build highways isn't in favor any more. And, oh yeah, where's the money going to come from?
You're down on Huntington because you couldn't get a job there, but according to Workforce West Virginia, the county unemployment rate in September was 3.8%. Economists consider an unemployment rate below 5% to be "full employment". Engineering is really a collection of almost independent sub-specialties. When I graduated, if I wanted to work in RF circuits, the choices were basically Chicago (Motorola) or Cedar Rapids Iowa (Collins Radio). Lots of engineering jobs in Pennsylvania, but not in RF design.
Where are the opportunities? Well, the counties with the lowest unemployment are Jefferson and Hampshire in the Eastern Panhandle, and Monongalia (Morgantown). Beyond those, I'd say anywhere along the two major interstates: I-79/Rte19/I-77 from Morgantown to Princeton, and I-64 from Huntington to Lewisburg. Not for every possible job specialty, but for overall economic activity.
And don't forget that those tourists coming to the state parks, and the retirees escaping the big city, bring money into the state that's spent on food, health care, motor vehicles, and a myriad of other items. Florida grew (too much in my opinion) by attracting retirees and vacationers for the last 100 years. Only now are they discovering that there definitely can be too much of a good thing.
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You're down on Huntington because you couldn't get a job there
I had a job there. Making peanuts, making 25% below what the average civil engineer graduate makes. I left for average pay, which is what I went to college for. 25% below that and you're really tightening up the wallet. Who the hell goes to college to struggle financially? I sure as hell didn't, especially in a major like engineering that's hard as hell to even graduate from.
And the jobs are far from the only thing Huntington is bad about. The parks are overrun with bums and gays. You either get bummed for change or hit on by other men. There is nothing to do and nowhere to go. With gas soaring over $3 a gallon, a 3 hour drive isn't feasible anymore.
If you can actually find a decent job there you've done quite well. Of course unless you're into museums or hanging out at parks getting hit on by gays I don't know what you'll do with all your wealth. I myself really enjoy Ohio Stadium and Great American Ball Park. I haven't been to a Bengals game yet, but will go soon enough (even though they suck).
The Mountaineers are good (northern border, even farther away from Huntington than Cincy or Columbus), Marshall is a joke. Their fans are even a joke. Even when they were good the people didn't show up. Why? Because they either didn't care or didn't have the money, it's a tossup between the two.
Some people consider museums and parks to be nice things to have in a community. It's nice having a good art museum like the HMOA to go to. My family and I visit there frequently. I also enjoy going to the park on a nice day and actually having a choice of more than one to go to. Riverfront park could definately be improved and Huntington is working toward that goal. There have been a few meetings of people working to improve the park with more meetings and work parties planned over the next few months. I seriously doubt that Ohio is devoid of people asking for change and I imagine that if anyone was hitting on you it was a prank based on the pleasant personality that you display on here.
As for your criticism of Marshall, I've been to the last few games and there have been right at or over 30,000 people in that stadium to support a 1-7 team. That's pretty good for a fan base that "doesn't care" like you say. At least Huntington has a Division 1 school for education and athletics. And if I want to go see the Reds or the Bengals, it's a short three hour drive. Or if I want to be in Orlando, Ft. Lauderdale or Tampa, it's now a direct two hour flight from Tri-state Airport for about $60-$70. Not too bad for a "dinkland". I'd also wager you aren't even actually from Huntington. Probably somewhere on the outskirts like Lesage.
Last edited by tbailey1138; 11-07-2007 at 04:22 PM..
Reason: mistake
30,000--wow, that's the bigtime. And they stink. 1-8. Wait until it gets cold. See how many show up at the UAB game. Marshall has no chance of finishing the season any better than 2-10. Want to know why? Because when Marshall was on their way up they still couldn't sell out a soup can stadium.
They had under 30,000 for championships that they somehow connived into getting on their home field. Still couldn't sell them out. Ranked #10 in '99 and undefeated, not even close to a sellout for that MAC championship. I know, I was there.
Lesage is a nice place. I'd much rather live there than Huntington. At least Lesage is 10 miles north of the hellhole. Still it's WV though, still subject to the same taxes, same car insurance rates, same terrible job with peanut wages.
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8 pages of back and forth bickering is enough.
Thread closed.
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