What is something Reddit often gets wrong about your state or city?

36 comments

1. People think MA is a high tax state. It’s closer to the middle of the pack, [ranked 20th by WalletHub](https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-highest-lowest-tax-burden/20494) (though methodologies for ranking tax burdens vary).

2. Chicago and violence.

   It’s a huge problem, but for the average person to see it, let alone be a victim of it, you’d really need to be looking for it.

   Yes there’s some general crime, but every big city has it.

   I felt safer in Chicago than I did internationally recently.

3. Just name something, and it probably fits this question.

4. Pick your sub first.

   Chicago can be a murder hellhole, paragon of US cities, or have weird pizza.

5. People erroneously claim that Florida stops being culturally Southern somewhere around Orlando, but the reality is more complicated than that. Drive an hour inland in South Florida, and you find Southern culture for sure. For example, as I’ve posted before, the town of Okeechobee is pretty far south, but aside from the giant lake it reminds me a lot of Southern Georgia.

6. Raleigh is Raleigh. Durham is Durham. They are totally separate cities. Yes, they share an international airport called Raleigh-Durham International.

   If you refer to Raleigh-Durham we WILL assume you are talking about the airport. “Hey reddit what’s good to do in Raleigh-Durham?” will get a “well the Salsarita’s is pretty good but really your experience depends on which terminal you’re in”

   Bonus: There’s not even a “Raleigh-Durham metro area.” Raleigh and Durham are in separate metros (MSA) but part of a combined statistical area (CSA).

7. The Wire was not a documentary. You do not understand Baltimore just because you watched The Wire.

8. Not a big one… just that “Utah” = “Salt Lake City”.

   Barstow CA and SLC UT are the same distance from me.

9. There are a couple of things that come to mind. First, you often hear people on Reddit repeat the claim that Flint’s water still isn’t drinkable all these years after the water crisis, but that’s not true. After the water crisis, the city launched a program to replace the lead water lines in the city, and as of last September, [said that the lines in 95% of homes had been replaced](https://www.michigan.gov/egle/newsroom/press-releases/2022/09/30/flint-enters-final-phase-of-lead-service-line-replacement).

   I don’t think that number will get to 100% because residents have to submit a consent form before their water pipes are swapped out, but the fact remains that the vast majority of homes throughout the city have clean water. [The city also did other things](https://detroitmi.gov/news/u-m-economic-forecast-shows-detroits-economy-more-resilient-likely-avoid-brunt-national-recession) to update the city’s water infrastructure beyond swapping out lead pipes in homes.

   Now, it seems that a decent portion of Flint residents don’t exactly trust the government on this issue, and I can’t say that I blame them. The water crisis was also a 100% preventable tragedy that could have been avoided, and the people responsible should be punished for it, but that doesn’t mean those of us advocating for justice need to go online and spread falsehoods about the situation.

   The other thing I see on Reddit that’s just plain annoying is people who have never been to Detroit characterizing it as a hopeless shithole. Detroit has had some rough years, but it’s on the upswing these days, and it’s frustrating to see people on Reddit continue to talk about it like it’s some kind of no man’s land when things have been improving.

10. That the entire state is either like LA or San Francisco.

11. It’s more than just the industrial area around Newark and/or what you see between EWR and Manhattan.

12. That Vegas is the reason the Colorado River is running dry when we have one of the best water management systems in the world and the entire state is only alloted 3% of the yearly usage.

13. This is a classic example. Anytime I mention I’m from New York, people automatically assume Manhattan or NYC in general. The vast majority of New York State is nothing like the city. It is a naturally beautiful and vibrant state with massively diverse ecosystems. But that one corner is so iconic it overshadows the rest of the state.

14. I live in Nashville and people on Reddit either talk like we are right up in the Smoky Mountains with waterfalls and gorges in our backyard ***or*** they’ll say it’s the worse city for nature they’ve ever lived in.

15. According to the Connecticut subreddit, the state is very poorly connected by rail.

    Meanwhile, in the real world, the New Haven Line is either the busiest or among the busiest commuter rail lines in the country, and the Amtrak Northeast Corridor runs the length of the state. Both are coastal (and overlap in the west). Because that’s where the majority of the state’s people and rail commuters live.

    Reddit in general won’t be happy unless we have Japanese style high speed rail connecting every town of 1,000.

16. We are more than just Detroit.

    Downtown Detroit has come back in a big way and is a pretty nice place to be.

17. Most of the content in the Arizona subs feels like it’s put there and commented on by people who don’t even live here.

18. That there’s a ton more to Philadelphia than strung out dope fiends. That’s one neighborhood under an elevated train line.

19. It’s not all Portland.

    It’s not all rednecks.

20. Thanks to a massive amount of ignorance on the part of both reporters and redditors, the site continually thinks Phoenix is a doomed city set to run out of water when in fact it has a more robust and sustainable water supply than most large metropolises. Los Angeles and Atlanta will run out of water at least a decade before Phoenix does.

21. Ohio – that being mediocre or boring is a flaw. It’s a feature! Maybe not always the most exciting place to visit but that makes it perfect for day to day living. Low traffic / no congestion. Middle to low cost of living. Can always find a parking spot. Few natural disasters. Mild summers in the northern Ohio. Mild winters in southern Ohio. Accessible nature.

22. At a state level, they think New York City is a stand-in for all of New York State.

    At a city level, they think Manhattan is a stand-in for all of New York City.

23. California and Los Angeles are not all boiled down to a couple neighborhoods like Venice or Melrose. And a lot of the negative stereotypes people have of Californians / Angelenos are associated with out of state transplants by locals.

    Also, all the complaining about Californians moving elsewhere and driving up the cost of housing…..you guys did it to us first!
    In my lifetime, I’ve seen a house in my old neighborhood go from $150k to $400k to $700k to $1.5 million and beyond. It’s rarely people originally from California buying these homes. That’s what kicks the chain reaction.

24. Outside of Burlington, Vermont is a lot more purple than many realize.

    I’m not from New Jersey, but I’ll defend it… most of the state is much nicer than the area immediately around NYC and what you see from the turnpike.

    Most of the Jersey Shore is actually beautiful. I’d take Ocean City, Brigantine, Avelon, Stone Harbor or Cape May over any beach town in Florida.

25. I live about 10 mins from Detroit. Where do I even start ?

26. That nothing exists out here and that it’s all just farmland

27. For Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 specifically:

    The status issue in two key elements:

    1. How status preference shifted in favor of statehood in the last 20 years at the expense of keeping the commonwealth as is.

    2. How certain activists in the US who are very vocal about their support for independence drown out statehood supporters who reside on the island and have easier access to Congress and media in general. They also get feisty with anyone supporting statehood on Twitter.

28. Dallas/Fort Worth isn’t a desert. Most of Texas isn’t desert, just hot.

29. Indiana is entirely red. The state as a whole is, but the city of Indianapolis is very blue.

30. Midtown Manhattan is not the only part of the city and the city is not representative of the entire state. And crime is not that bad.

31. That the only two places that exist in Minnesota is Minneapolis/St.Paul and Duluth. Minnesota has deep cultural variety on all four corners of the state.

    Oh and that is a haven for pretty much everything. Quite delusional.

32. A lot of people on Reddit have a bizarrely difficult time wrapping their heads around the fact that just because southern states have a legacy of racism (a legacy that is shameful and should never be downplayed), we are not white ethnostates where non white people are hunted for sport. There are, in fact, lots of non-white and non-Christian people here. Probably more than where you live, in fact! The truth of institutional and societal racism down here is much more nuanced than that, but Reddit is allergic to context, so they never learn.

33. Ohio is not that bad. We like to make fun of it and think that other’s are funny when they do it. There’s nothing inherently wrong with Ohio, it’s just kind of mundane.

34. Florida is not nazi germany

35. High property taxes in Texas definitely do not offset the low cost of living, zero state income taxes, and general low cost burden overall. Data back up this conclusion.

    Contrary to what is seen on Reddit even in the Texas sub, the vast majority of people here are not miserable and aren’t planning to leave.

    Texans aren’t as conservative as people might think outside the state. We’re more libertarian and prefer a hands-off approach.

36. No, the train derailment in East Palestine isn’t killing us all.