Dislike Where You Live

I was reading through the anti/pro Texas thread in the Pit, and it got me thinking, “There are probably many people who have a huge sense of pride about where they live. What about those who dislike where they live…” So that’s what I’m asking you. Do you dislike where you live?

I do! I live in Kansas City, Missouri, and frankly, I don’t like living here. Now, I have only lived here for five years. I was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada.

First of all, is the construction. The Roman Colluseum (sp?) was built faster than when pot holes are fixed here. We are the Pot Hole capital of the world, by the way. Not because they’re huge; just because there are a lot of them. Becuase nobody fixes 'em!

Second, I don’t know why this city gets so worked up and excited about a football team that sucks.

And third, I think there’s a higher level of idiocy here than normal. The people here have a huge level of superiority. They put down everybody. They put down people in California, in Texas, in Iowa, and anywhere else.

Now, I’m talking about KC, Missouri–not Kansas.

I’m about fed up with northeast Florida. I came here in 1983 and kinda liked it. I married here, had my daughter here, we owned several houses - it was home till '97 when we moved to Virginia. I’d forgotten how much I loved that part of the country, and when we moved back to Jax last July, I was not very happy.

I’m sick of people who are still fighting the Civil War - get over it already!!

I’m sick of the narrow-mindedness I encounter everywhere - if you’re not a good church-going WASP, you’re a target of bile.

I’m sick of the heat and the bugs and the drought and the ugly brown water (rivers and creeks are full of tannic acid) and the idiot boaters.

I’m sick of the politics and the local power mongers and the Jag-wires and Gators vs. 'Noles.

I hate my neighbor - but even her demise wouldn’t change my opinion of this area.

I miss the Chesapeake Bay and the beauty of southern Maryland. Once the kid is out of high school, I’m gone…

When I left upstate New York, I was sick of the everlovin’ cold. I was sick of peope with no manners. I was sick of the people, who live in farm country but continue to insist that they are oh so damn sophisticated. I was sick of acid rain.

Three and a half months later, here in Mississippi, I am sick of being allergic to everything. I am sick of people looking down upon me because I am a Yankee. I am sick of people who assume that being a New Yorker means I’m from New York City. I am sick of the apparent high water table that means half an hour of light rain or drizzle results in ankle-deep puddles and having to squelch around in the mud for the next three days.

When I’m South, I long to go North. When I’m North, I long to go South. I can’t win.

bean_shadow I’m so sorry to hear you are sick of Kansas City. I am originally from there and I miss it sooooo much!! But I can certainly concur with your assessment that the MO side is less desireable than the KS side. I lived in Raytown for 3 years and was miserable!

Right now I am living in Texarkana, Arkansas. I never thought in a million years that I would end up in AR, however it is growing on me. The state of AR is really a beautiful place, the lakes, national forests. And the people are wonderful, salt-of-the-earth types.

However, the town of Texarkana is HORRIBLE. The only entertainment here is the mall and the movie theatre. The downtown is all delapidated and run down, the libraries suck and the restaurants are all of the Applebee’s caliber.

Plus, to go ANYWHERE interesting, it’s at least a 4 hour drive, and KC is a 9-hour drive. We have a regional airport here, but it costs TWICE as much as flying out of a city like Dallas or Little Rock. I feel like we are stuck in the middle of nowhere.

Cautionary Advice: Tread lightly here, folks! No matter what you think of some place it’s home to someone else who loves it.
That said, I am not at all too fond of Cincinnati. It’s the third time around for me. Cincy is a comfortable place, in it’s way, and Rue lives just across town, but it’s not for me. It can be a very small minded place at times, and takes itself way too seriously. But more important is that my family is not here, and most of the friends I made on previous stints have moved on to greener pastures. In full disclosure most of the people here are very friendly and my kids really enjoy themselves, plus our schools are very good. And the quality of the ethnic restaurants is generally improving.

But if I had my druthers I could think of many, many different places where I would rather be right now.

Someone already got on my case for dissing Los Angeles in another thread. But since you ask…

The weather: Some people think it’s paradise. But 190 days without rain is too much. Sure, people come here and enjoy the sun; but they don’t go without rain every single day for over half a year. Yes, rain can be a bitch; but you need it. It keeps the air clean and the grass green. L.A. does not get enough rain.

And it’s too hot. I lived in the Mojave Desert for 11 years when I was a kid, but I always preferred it cool. L.A. is too hot, and my apartment doesn’t have air conditioning. For me, the ideal daytime summer temperature is 75ºF. Overall, I like it in the 60s. Nights should be in the 40s. I used to like winter in the desert because it would get down to about 12ºF and I could have my window open a crack to let the heavy cold air come in.

The traffic: You really have no choice. You must drive. Otherwise you’ll have to get on a crowded, ugly, slow, dirty bus. Wanna take the train? That’s fine if you’re downtown, Hollywood or Long Beach. The West Side (where I live) is not serviced by rail. So you have to drive everywhere. So does everybody else. Traffic sucks much of the time. Parking is often difficult and/or expensive (unless I’m on the motorcycle :smiley: ).

The people: Not everyone fits the L.A. stereotype, of course. But there sure are a lot of shallow status seekers around! And they’re not very friendly. If you want to talk with someone they think you’re A) Trying to get in their pants; B) Trying to take their money; C) What’s wrong with you? Don’t you know you’re not supposed to talk to people?

Concrete: Everywhere you look. That, and asphalt. I took off from Seattle a while back, and looked down at all of the green. I dozed off, and when I woke up I looked out the window again. Looking down at L.A. all I saw was brown and grey. Ugly. What’s at the side of the road? Dirt? Nope. Concrete. It reminds me of a cartoon I saw that showed a man standing in a small sqaure of grass. A docent is telling him, “It’s called ‘grass’. It’s softer to walk on than concrete.”

L.A. does have its good points. You can go to the beach, desert or mountians in a reasonable amount of time. There are some really good places to eat. Everyone envies you for living in such a hip place.

But. I’d rather live in or near mountains than have to drive to them. I’m quite capable of cooking my own tasty food. I have no need to be envied. I don’t like the crowds, traffic, weather, need to drive everywhere, concrete, filth…

The good news is that I’ll be moving up to The Great Green Pacific Northwest as soon as I get laid off of work. I’ll be outta here, and up where people appreciate nature.

Living in Maryland I gotta say I love it here. We’ve got the ocean, mountains and forests all within a days drive, we’ve got the city of Baltimore which has got a great night life, and of course our capital Annapolis, a drinking town with a sailing problem. Then if you count what’s nearby there’s DC with the Smithsonian and Georgetown nightlife, and NYC, Philadelphia and some other cities are all accessible as day trips. Then the history of our state: Civil War battlefields, one of the original thirteen colonies etc. The weather’s pretty sweet once you get used to the humidity; I honestly would miss snow and (lots of) rain which are pretty much lacking in other places. And on top of all that we’re pretty ethnically diverse with our population being approximately 40% black and a lot of immigrants move into this area when they come into this country; IMHO I think that makes a lot of people here more tolerant of diversity (still have discrimination and prejudice in all fairness tho’).

There’s only two things I don’t like:

The traffic: we’re rated third worst in the country for our traffic. We were number two until last year, but we didn’t drop because we improved (we actually got worse), another city got really bad quick.

I’ve lived here my entire life. As much as I love it here I really would like to live in a number of other places before I die. Right now LA’s topping the list (I think I can cope with the weather loss for a few years) and then with luck NYC. Ultimately MD’s where I wanna retire and die.

I don’t particularly care for where I live, which is a medium-sized city in the northeastern corner of Tennessee.

It’s a pretty place, I suppose, but there’s nothing to do here. The nearest large city is Knoxville and that’s quite a drive. You want anything remotely foreign? You might find it in the college town nearby, but that’s doubtful.

There’s little to no diversity. The college and the chemical plant bring in some Asian people, but that’s about it. Worst of all has to be the utter lack of religious diversity. It’s the same old, tired, stereotypical Southern Baptist churches. Even the ads for bail bondsmen hype up how family- and Christian-oriented their businesses are. This wouldn’t be so much of a problem if the self-righteous attitude didn’t saturate the atmosphere. It’s a “good ole boys” feel that I hate.

I don’t know, it just seems like the whole area is in a rut. I can’t wait to leave. If I’m going to be stuck in a rut, I prefer it to be one of my own choosing.
jessica

Yep, I dislike where I live–Arlington, VA, just across the river from DC. I’ve been here six years now, and I’m ready for a change. Driving and traffic suck, the weather is NOT what I’m accustomed to, and unless you’re connected in some way to indigenous DC/NOVa stuff, there just doesn’t seem to be any reason to live here. We’ll be moving as soon as the Foreign Service gives me my walking papers–probably South America. Then after I retire we’ll be going back to California.

I live in Raleigh, NC and don’t care for it. The people here are lovely, but good God, does any city need so many strip malls and subdivisions? “Hey, we live in a beautiful part of a beautiful state, let’s make it look like Anysuburb, USA!” Really, you just can’t have enough Wal-Marts, Blockbusters, and Pizza Huts. It’s not a terrible place to live, there is some diversity here, but overall it’s just a white-bread, frat boy, business first kind of town. Bleah.

Oh, god, the Bay…the Eastern shore…I miss Virginia so much!

I’m living in Indiana. 'Nuff said.

Yep, AR gets a bad rap. I spent a really happy couple of years in Fort Smith. I don’t think I’d want to live there forever, but it’s not a bad place to spend some time (and it doesn’t have these wretched midwestern winters!).

the barrio of Phoenix. The Mick is not too fond of his home.

Racist Mexicans: A lot of them here truly hate white people. I really dislike having to fear walking out of a convenience store and getting mugged in my own nighborhood.

Stupid Taggers: I took a baseball bat to an entire crew of them once. Damn punks getting my wall? I think not.

Gangsters: Everywhere you look, there they are. Or poseurs acting like them. They’d kill me without a second thought if I didn’t carry my piece strapped to my waist, in full view for everyone to see. It’s loaded, too.

All in all, I do wish that I could get out of here.

What Johnny said about L.A. I live in West L.A. too, we should do a West Side Dopefest at O’Brien’s.

I’ve lived here all my life. While I like it for the most part, I can’t stand the fact that we once had a beautiful, extensive rapid transit system (the Red Cars), and we got rid of it. I also hate the fact that most of the city is so ugly. Nearly everything seems to have been built with consideration given only to the bottom line and maximizing the generation of profit. There are not enough fountains or other visible water that would quench the thirst of the soul; it’s true we have the ocean but that’s not the same thing. There are very many beautiful, worthwhile things here that are worth the effort, but you truly have to look for them.

On the plus side, I love my immediate neighborhood, which is packed with restaurants, coffee houses, and other amenities all within a few blocks of my home.

I haven’t been there, but I’ve been to the BBQ place next door and the Yamaha shop is across the street (more or less). I usually go to Ye Olde King’s Head because they have the best fish’n’chips. Heloise had some mighty tasty-looking ribs there though. (And her food looked pretty good, too! :slight_smile: )

Say, what’s with people in this town blaring their horns in the alley? Don’t they know how to work the phone at the apartment gate? Can’t they read the instructions? It really makes me want to shoot holes in their bonnet. (They’d deserve it, but I’d get in trouble.)

I live near Boulder, CO, considered one of the best places in the US to live, and I can’t wait to get out of here. I’m sick of whiney Boulderites, traffic, and people talking about the great “sense of community” that exists only if you’re white & middle to upper class.

I’m dyin’ to get out of here. Dyin’.

You should try Florence, Alabama. It’s as closeminded and dull as you can get.

We have the ads for everything with Bible quotes in them also. We consider getting chain stores progress, then gripe about the loss of high-paying jobs and locally owned businesses.The only theaters in town are owned by one company, so there is no incentive for them to bring in anything but what the teenagers will see. Most of the time, any film nominated for an Oscar won’t play here until after it wins. The only foriegn films we get are Jackie Chan flicks, if we’re lucky.

Our big tourist attraction(a tower overlooking the river)has been a miserable failure that never made money in the entire 11 years it was open. It was finally closed due to lack of money, but some diehard locals are determined to get it reopened. Even though they admit they don’t have a real plan to make it feasible. When a company with a large local prescence offered to buy the thing and turn it into their headquarters, these folks raised a stink about the price until the deal fell through.

I always say we are the buckle of the Bible Belt. The letters to the editor in the local papers are full of sermons, Bible quotes, and condemnations. Anybody expressing a contrary view is blasted as a smart-alec Yankee who should go back up North. Draft beer is considered to be a sign of the Apocalypse and is outlawed here along with Sunday liquor sales. If you want to buy beer on Sunday, you have to drive to Tennessee.

Since my attitude, interests, and beliefs are not in lockstep with the masses, most people are convinced that I’m from somewhere else. But I was born and raised here. I lived in Arlington, VA briefly, then came back only to be greeted with people wanting to know WHY would I ever want to live anywhere else. Any reason that I offered was brushed off with statements that I would get over it in time.

There is some lovely scenery here and the winters are usually very mild, but that is about all that I can say in favor of this place. But, I actually got used lots of snow in VA. When we get three inches here, the whole area shuts down.

I’m ready to give up and head to the Northwest if I can find a job there. As for this place, if you like warm weather and don’t have much imagination, then come to Florence. There, I’ve done my bit to promote this hole to the outside world…

Louisville, Kentucky. Originally from Indiana. Hate it around here, and I’ve SO wanted to leave, but “small-town inertia” keeps me here. Familiar faces, and all that. Supergirlfriend and I have discussed running away to Arizona, but so far, nothing.

I had to bail out of Boulder after a few years. I finished up school there and stayed around 3 or so years after that. I left largely because of the stagnation I was experiencing musically and career-wise (this is back in the late '80s). I think it would have been a great place to live if I had an established career that I was happy with but I was just starting out and there wasn’t a whole lot happening. The proximity to all the outdoors stuff I like to do kept me hanging on but ultimately wasn’t enough to make me stay. I felt like if I stayed there any longer it would be like retiring without giving anything else a shot.

Salt Lake City, born’n’raised. I used to think I’d live my entire life here but in the last several years I changed careers and my interests changed almost totally. I’m not LDS, so I don’t have that tie here, and family members have moved out of the area over the years.

Now the Olympic Winter Games will be here in February. When Salt Lake won the bid 1995, I was excited about it. Now I’m vastly indifferent.

And it’s time for a change.