What part of the US are you from and what are the pros and cons about it?

44 comments

  3. Northeast. Winters are COLD, and summers are hot and *very* humid. A number of years ago my wife and I went to Arizona mid July for our anniversary…..it was 110(F) and way more comfortable than 85 + humidity here.

    Edit: Arizona is huge, we were in the Scottsdale area

  4. North Carolina Pro: Proximity to both beach and mountains, Barbecue, nice variety of cities/small towns. Cons: Summer heat/humidity can get pretty brutal

  8. Buffalo

    **Pros:**

    * Affordable. There’s a reason why we lead the nation in Millennial homeownership
    * Amenities. Lots of walkable neighborhoods filled with local bars, shops and restaurants. Lots of museums and art galleries. An entire park system designed by Federick Olmsted. Tons of festivals. Great indie music, art, and theatre scenes. Some great bar hopping spots. Cool industrial areas that have been turned into lofts, breweries and art space.
    * Big City Amenities. Pro sports, 4 am last call, subway line, theatre district
    * Great if you work in finance, Bio-Med, engineering or professional services. Also rapidly growing startup and film industries. The brain drain has actually reversed and the city is gaining population again
    * Buffalo is pretty much climate proof.
    * Liberal politics: Free college, high minimum wage, legal weed, well funded schools
    * The “New Buffalo” culture. Buffalo is filled with creatives, dreamers and entrepreneurs turning under-utilized space into businesses, art galleries, urban farms, entertainment venues, etc. If you want to feel like part of larger movement or if you have an idea, Buffalo has the space for you.

    **Cons:**

    * The economy can be limited if you want to work in certain industries.
    * Taxes are higher than average
    * “Old Buffalo Mentality” of being cynical for the sake of cynicism. A skeptical can’t do attitude: “It can’t work here”, “You can’t do that”. Thankfully dying out with the older generations.
    * Buffalo isn’t booming in population so there’s a lack of transplants and transplant culture. While there’s neighborhoods filled with young professionals, college kids and transplants a good portion of the city and suburbs are aging or filled with people who might travel to Florida every other year.

    **Neutral:**

    Weather. Personally I love Buffalo’s perfect summers and I find Fall and early Winter incredibly cozy. There’s ski resorts just to the South and it’s not hard to avoid the worse of the Lake Effect Snow. Hell, most of the snow from the last storm has melted already.

    But yeah, winter isn’t for everyone so it could be a downside too. You also have to worry about seasonal depression due to the gloomy winters in the Northeast

  9. California (southern)

    Cons: expensive, traffic, tourists, cars are basically required

    Pros: my family, climate, culturally diverse (and all their culinary delights), diverse natural landscapes

  10. Connecticut

    Pros: history and historic architecture, all 4 seasons, water access, beautiful landscape and well kept properties (depending on the area lol), good food, proximity to NYC but not constantly in it, normal people, liberal to moderate government, safe from most terrible natural disasters, safe in general, low crime outside of 3 cities

    Cons: expensive, winters are too long, everyone forgets about us, other new englanders don’t like us (I think they’re just upset that we get the best of both worlds but whatever), new yorkers leaving reviews on pizza places starting or ending with “I’m from New York” like we’re not 30 min away and half the pizza places aren’t owned by new yorkers

  12. Pro: Highest quality of life

    Con: High quantity of money required, also very negative people

  14. California 😁

    If you like big cities, you’ll like California. Great place to be if you’re on a mission, but if you’re not it can leave you wanting calmer pastures and a better work-life balance.

    Pros: Good public transportation, lots of stuff to do, wages are higher across the board, gorgeous scenery

    Cons: Obscene property/rent prices, a lot more public filth/disorder than a lot of people like, a local culture that’s more fast-paced and less friendly than average, people from other states give you shit if you say you’re from here

  15. I’m from high elevation, ice cold, windy, empty, rural Wyoming.

    I love how isolated it is. I love living in the mountains, I live the wildlife, I love the untamed, open land.

    I do wish we had a longer growing season, if we are lucky we might get 3 whole months without a hard freeze. But I have seen snow in every month of the year. If we didn’t get snow in June I would be so happy.

    The mosquitos suck. They are so bad for the limited time it’s nice out.

    I hate having to drive to another state for medical care and stores.

  16. Massachusetts:

    Pros: Smartest population, best standard of living, greatest traditions and protestant work ethic, greatest and most interesting history, prettiest and least stinky major east coast cit, good laws to ensure morality, very beautiful, no earthquakes or hurricanes, best baseball team, best football team, best hockey team, best universities, coolest US navy sailing ship, oldest public park in the country, very pretty.

    Cons: High cost of living, New Yorkers and midwesterners keep moving here and trying to erase our traditions.

  18. Pros: living near the beach, only an hour from Nola, excellent fishing and restaurants.
    Cons: Mississippi

  19. Georgia

    Pros: pretty mild climate, winters aren’t too bad, typhoons arent too bad, summers are humid but stays below 100. Good tech industry presence, lots of racial diversity

    Cons: Mosquitoes and humidity in the summer can be brutal. Some areas are sketchy, so I don’t go there especially not at night (search Bankhead). Traffic sucks

  20. Originally New Orleans

    Pros: It’s New Orleans, Carnival, 2-3 weeks of winter spread out over 3 months. Winter for us is below 60 degrees. Good food and people. Plenty to do around town. A lot of it was in walking distance.

    Cons: Summers can be bit rough with high humidity and temps. Stepping out the door you’ll be enveloped by the air. The occasional hurricane. But they give an excuse for a hurricane party.

    ​

    Now in Dallas.

    Pros: Lot more restaurant options for different cuisines. Plenty to do around town.

    Cons: Everything is so spread out. You’ll likely have to drive in Dallas traffic to get where you’re going.

  22. Kentucky

    Pros: The landscape, the weather, and some of the people.

    Cons: The politics, religious culture, and infrastructure.

  23. I’m from the Mid-Atlantic.

    Pros: near lots of things, mild climate, good mix of Southern and Northern culture.

    Cons: not “iconic.” Very blended culture so people just assume we don’t have our own. Get treated as Yankees by Southerners, get treated as Southern rubes by Northerners. I had a friend from NYC suburbs who just assumed I grew up on a farm, even though my home county is more wealthy and diverse than his.

  25. Pros of DMV: lots of stuff going on and things to do, food is great, lots of history, lots of good schools, lots of job opportunities, generally high quality of life

    Cons: traffic, traffic, traffic, and also oh my GOD it’s expensive

  27. Florida

    Pros: Nice beaches, rarely gets cold, good food, pretty chill vibes

    Cons: Crime is higher than the national average, housing and rent is ridiculously priced, public school system is trash, traffic is horrible, too many ratchet/rude people

  28. Northern Nevada

    Pros: low taxes, safe, cool stuff to do outside, close to Lake Tahoe, decent job market, I like the gun laws

    Cons: public schools are terrible, housing is stupid expensive (California prices without the beach), too hot in the summer, too windy in the spring, fall doesn’t matter because everything is just brown and gray, winter is meh, no recycling, gas is higher than most of the US for no reason, medical care is a solid C+

    Thanks for this. I should probably move.

  29. Upstate New York

    Pros: very low cost of living but with high tech companies
    Very scenic Rolling Hills Finger Lakes cheap land

    Cons: cold weather, lots of pickups with Trump Flags

  30. New Jersey

    Pros:

    -Very diverse communities

    -easy access to NYC/Philadelphia metro areas

    -great pizza

    -beautiful world famous beaches to the south east. The cast of Jersey Shore were mainly from New York and not representative.

    -beautiful forested hills/mountains to the northwest, lots of hiking including part of the Appalachian Trail

    -the Pine Barrens are a unique, huge area in the south dominated by pitch pine pine trees

    -you can gamble in Atlantic city if you’re into that

    -someone will pump my gas for me so I don’t have to get out of my car in bad weather

    -blueberries are native, and domestic breeds were bred from NJ stock about a hundred years ago

    Cons:

    -Most out of staters only see the highways and industrial areas near the Newark airport and NYC, and think the whole state looks like that

    -everone hates you for existing

  31. Did anyone mention Montana yet? I was on the interstate (I90) and almost ran out of gas because of 100 miles to the next gas station…. And I have friends who have to drive 3 hours to the grocery store, and that’s 3 hours driving at 80 mph. And they drive 55mph on gravel roads. I’m not making this up. My aunt has to watch her small dogs going outside to potty because it might get eaten taking a piss.

  32. Mid Atlantic

    Great access to a variety of cities (New York, Philly, and DC are the big ones)

    Access to beaches and mountains

    Probably one of the best places to live without a car (if that’s important to you, which it is for me)

    4 seasons

    Great job opportunities/healthy economy

    Cons-

    High cost of living

    Traffic ig

  34. Phoenix, Arizona
    Pro – the winter is fabulous
    Con – it’s extra hot during the summer.

  35. Montana

    Pros: almost literally everything on earth.

    Cons: hardly any bands come through here but the people that do come here are rich people from out of state and they’re destroying our culture.

  36. Arizona

    Pros: food, diverse landscape, a few hours drive to the ocean, beautiful sunsets, gorgeous weather 8 months out of the year

    Cons: summertime heat and electric bill

  37. Mid-South (Memphis metro area)

    Pros:
    – Great food
    – Great music
    – BBQ capitol of the world
    – Tons of history and culture
    – Rap scene is lit
    – We have a restaurant dedicated to day drinking that looks like a feed store on the outside
    – Tons of live events
    – Peabody ducks are cool ig
    – The Grand Pyramid (tourist trap tbh)
    – The river smells like shit, but its pretty impressive to look at sometimes
    – Cheap rent
    – People can be very welcoming and nice
    – Good colleges

    Cons:
    – Smells like hot ass
    – The murder rate is 700% the national average
    – The poverty rate is like a quarter or more of the population
    – Crime, crime, and *drum roll* more crime
    – Confrontational culture (Honestly makes NYC look peaceful)
    – Ratchet shit happening randomly in the streets (Ngl its funny to watch sometines but it gets tiring)
    – Gangs
    – Drug epidemic (Drugs are readily available, but overly abused)
    – That nice Southern hospitality is 5/10 times backhanded insults
    – Racism (Racial tensions get inflamed every now and again)
    – Terrible police
    – Segregation
    – Black Hebrew Israelites and Hoteps

  38. Missouri

    Pros: a lot of cool people :), cheap, Amazing food, and probably a few others I missed.

    Cons: it has Saint Lewis, VERY DANGEROUS, in the winter it gets to sub 0 and in the summer it goes over 100 (-17 – 37 in Celsius). high taxes, boring, and probably a lot I missed

  39. New Hampshire
    Pros: mountains, mt washington, close to everything but far from people (never more than 4 hours from a large city: Boston, any city in Maine, if you’re willing to go 6 hours you can make it to nyc, providence, most of Connecticut) nice people, great skiing (basically, if you want to be outside but are in the north east, NH has you covered)

    Cons: racism (comes with being 97% white), aging population, really bad public education funding, no weed

  40. I’m from the Puget Lowlands of Washington. Pros: I can go skiing and crabbing in the same weekend because I live where the mountains meet the sea. Cons: Our population has grown massively over the last couple decades and our infrastructure struggles mightily to keep up.

  41. Alabama

    Pros:

    * The way the state developed means every area has a different history (It grew from opposite ends and slowly moved towards the middle over different time periods usually involving a new group of immigrants.). So while it might feel like the state has a monoculture, there’s actually a decent amount of subtle difference in different parts of the state. Before mass media, it was said that a skilled ear could tell what town someone from from by the accent, and it’s completely understandable. There’s a surprising number of small towns in Alabama that do a good job of differentiating themselves (Tuskegee – black history, Talladega – Nascar, Jasper – Alabama coal mining, Monroeville – To Kill a Mockingbird, Demopolis – old plantations and the remains of a failed Bonapartist colony, Aliceville – camp for German prisoners during WWII, Evergreen – a state favorite of Conecuh Sausage, Enterprise – Boll Weevil statue, Wetumpka – impact crater, Mentone – Alabama skiing, Clanton – peaches, Eufaula – bass fishing and old houses, Alexander City – near Lake Martin, old gold mines and the Horseshoe Bend battlefield, Scottsboro – Lost Baggage Store, Fort Payne – where Sequoyah created the Cherokee syllabary and the hometown of the band Alabama, etc.). I find it kinda funny that the Shoals area is primarily known for two things: music production and… Helen Keller. There’s a cave that was part of the DeSoto expedition, a native American burial ground, a Civil War mine, and a speakeasy. This level of nuanced diversity doesn’t seem limited to Humans either. The massive biodiversity of the area has the same localized, similar but different traits going on as well.

    * When a place in Alabama goes chain, it’s rarely a “grow big fast” mentality. Sometimes, it’s for things like [having more control in the meat prep process](https://www.al.com/businessnews/2012/05/birmingham-based_jim_n_nicks_b.html). Or being content to stay in one’s own market, like Foosackley’s, Milo’s or Jack’s.

    * Overall, it’s a low cost of living, and, in Birmingham at least, things like art museums, orchestra, etc don’t have jacked up prices. If fact, while there are a few, there’s not that many gated communities in the area (the ones I know of that are are near the edge of suburbia). The richest suburbs have villages and want people to visit. The cities in Alabama aren’t big enough where they can be all that exclusive with a lot of their hobbies (though golf is an exception). There are definite issues with the wealth divide, but in terms of cultural amenities, they are relatively available to everyone.

    * Despite it being in the deep south, Alabama has a sizeable number of historic black figures to look up to that don’t have to rely on their black activism to be noteworthy: George Washington Carver, Booker T Washington, Arthur McKinnon Brown, the Tuskegee Airmen, and Horace King being ones that come to mind. These aren’t people whose hard fight just allowed further generations to be allowed to do better, they themselves succeeded despite the horrible conditions.

    * Alabama’s got the whole southern hospitality thing going on, but is also a bit more snarky than the original colony states, and a bit more fight to them than Mississippi or Louisiana. So it tends to be a bit more frank sooner than other southern states (AL’s was a bit more frontier than its neighbors, LA, MS and TN were all states before it.).

    * Alabama’s essentially a concentrated version of the South as a whole. It’s got beaches, mountains, Piedmont, Black Belt, and river culture. It’s got French, Spanish, and British colonial influences. It’s got representative areas for Colonial, Antebellum, Industrialization, and Tech Age trends similar to elsewhere in the South. It just doesn’t have much in the level of the exemplars (You have to settle with Bankhead instead of the Smokies, or Mobile Mardi Gras vs New Orleans’). But if you want the exemplars, they aren’t hard to reach.

    Cons:

    * Alabama doesn’t sell itself well. You have to do the digging yourself often to find all the interesting stuff. There’s also a lot just not yet found. Alabama doesn’t just have a bunch of ridges and hills that hide things, but also a vast underground of caves, sinkholes and mines where things can stay lost for thousands of years (like the recently found cave art or the underwater cypress forest; people have been seeking Mabila for almost eighty years.).

    * There’s very little that’s representative of Alabama as a whole that isn’t generally southern as a whole (You often hear “~ isn’t like the rest of Alabama” for almost every part of Alabama, and it’s true for every one of them. There really isn’t a general overall “Alabama.”). People from outside the state don’t tend to know much about the state. And usually, it’s 50 year old info if lucky. So you tend to get the same small pool of responses when you tell someone you’re from Alabama. It leads to very tired conversation for the first part.

    * The worst poverty you hear about in Alabama is real, but the good majority of Alabamians will never see that level of severe poverty in person. The Black Belt is one of the poorest regions in the US, but the worst parts are far off the interstate and is the least populated part of the state. While the rest of the state isn’t the richest by any means, it’s closer to what you’d expect to see elsewhere. This rural, dispersed extreme poverty is really hard to deal with, and needs different approaches than urban poverty could use.

    * The more you look into Alabama history, the messier it looks, and the more damaging simple takes look to be. For example, in Jim Crow Birmingham, the most over-punished type of crime was indeed black-on-white. However the least wasn’t black-on-white, it was black-on-black crime which was basically ignored, even murder. That complete disregard for black-on-black, and those communities having to enforce their own justice from each other was a brutal element of Jim Crow.

    * The history of US government doing unethical experimentation on Alabamians. It’s not just the Tuskegee Syphilis experiments. It’s also the testing decontamination methods for nerve agent or mustard gas without telling the people who were being tested on. It’s like they say for free stuff, “If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product.”

  43. Puget Sound:

    Pros: Vietnamese restaurants that are open till like 4am

    Cons: it smells bad outside

  44. Illinois

    Pros: The people are nice

    Cons: Our politicians SUCK. We are literally ranked the second most corrupt state in the country.

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