Do you live in a place you despise? Tell me all about it. Where do you live and why is it so crappy?
I guess I’ll go first. I live in Tucson. On the one hand, I love my neighborhood… I have great neighbors, I can walk to stores, restaurants, and my husband bikes to work everyday.
But I hate this town. It’s hot and dry. And really hot and dry. And really so unbelievably hot and dry. It feels very unnatural to me to live in a place that naturally doesn’t support much life. And the town is so spread out, with very poor public transportation. And the public school system sucks. And did I mention how hot it is? We went to a pumpkin patch to get ready for Halloween, and I got a sunburn because it was 99 degrees!
I live in a dull place with even duller inhabitants. More than once I’ve been asked, “What are you doing here?”
Answer: I own my own home, it was cheap, and to move would be a real hassle and invite economic problems.
Dull Soutthern college town.
Crummy apartment, with noisy neighbors.
No bugs, true, but no sleep, either.
Armed robbery at gunpoint, 20 feet from my front door, in September.
Springfield, Illinois. Pop: 130,000
The weather here is murder. It’s been cold and raining for the past 10 days. There’s a rumor that we might see the Sun for an hour or so this weekend.
Summers are awful. Hot, humid, muggy, lots of bugs.
Springs are awful. In a word: tornadoes.
Falls are awful. Just a reminder that winter is coming. And let’s not forget the rain. :rolleyes:
Winters are awful. Icy, windy, blizzards, temps in the -10F range. We consider it a mild winter if only one local person freezes to death. And let’s not forget the 4:30 sunsets.
This city has all of the disadvantages of a small town (nothing to do, uptight and gossipy neighbors) with none of the advantages (peace and quiet, low crime rate). It also has all of the disadvantages of a large city (crime, traffic, urban blight) and none of the advantages (a lively bar/restaurant scene, culture).
So why do I stay here? My house, my job, and my family are all here. I’m not in any hurry to give up any of them.
DISCLAIMER: Most of the preceeding is just venting. I actually like Springfield, most days. It has some redeeming qualities.
Several places in Nevada the local governments are really nasty. Fortunately the state is fairly good at putting some limitations on the local governments but even the state is not always effective. I know of two places where there were federal mandates to install a new water plant. In both cases the local elected officials gave employees the task and after the tasks was complete fired the employees for doing their jobs i.e. employees should not do what the feds mandate.
Southern California. DON’T COME! You can’t park, you can’t get anywhere.
Sure, the weather’s fantastic. Sure we got great beaches.
If you need to see the dentist on a workday, you will need the entire day off. You could take a sick day, but I usually don’t in case I really AM sick soon.
I’m still unemployed, but I’ve been doing freelance work around West Hollywood. On Tuesday, I went to an office that is 7.2 miles away from my home. That took 1 hour 39 minutes. No construction, accidents or quakes.
For lunch, I decided on fast food at Wendy’s after I stop at the bank. Wendy’s line was not long, but was 16 minutes to place an order. Total errand run time = 1 hour, 49 minutes. The bank and Wendy’s was less than two miles from the office I was freelancing at.
When I first moved here, I thought that showers in office restrooms were a luxury until I noticed them in the majority of offices I’ve worked in. Why? You get off a plane at LAX, or busses after lines of great length, you don’t have time to stop at home, you shower at work.
Every person I’ve ever met here is absolutely full of shit. They exaggerate their work, position, salary, everything. What you drive means who you are. Where you hang means who you are. Where you live means who you are. What you think, feel and believe in is just fluff to these gimmie gimmie gimmie people.
I can not even begin to guess the amount of times I go to a bar for a sports game, someone sits next to me and tells me their life story, their troubles, their woes, their salary, their divorces, their view on everything. Hours go by sitting there while I’m staring at the game I’m watching while this person keeps hitting my arm to get me to look at them and join their conversation. I could be wearing a full Philadelphia Eagles uniform, staring at the game and the person next to me has NO CLUE that I’d rather watch the game I came to see than hear their bullshit.
I own my own place, but I will wait a few years to move ANYWHERE else.
If I get a job offer here that is great salary and in my field, but I also get an offer to work in a General Store in a town miles outside of, I don’t know, Spokane, Washington, for $6 an hour, I will opt for the latter.
Shit, for what I paid for this condo, I can buy a farm in Idaho. Why stay?
I live in Fargo ND. Anyplace where you get warnings in the winter not to go outside with uncovered skin is a bad place to live.
On the list of communities in Canada with more than 10,000 people, this town is the most violent according to an article in the paper a few weeks ago. About one kid in fifteen or so has that very distinctive fetal alcohol syndrome face. The grocery store has an ambient aroma of exhaled alcohol breath. The last snow fall of the year was in June, the first snowfall was in September. There are big signs in the liquor store reminding you that bootlegging is a crime. The closest place to buy a book is 750 kms away. Eight year olds scream through town on snowmobiles. There is no 911 system, so when you have to call the cops (as you often do) you have to remember what the number is, and not confuse it with the different fire/EMS ones.
We’ll be (fingers crossed) leaving in a month or two, though. Yay!
Thompson, Manitoba, I will not miss you.
I’m not real happy with where I live. It certainly has its ups and downs. For one, people are ridiculously conservative here. If you’re white (or black or Latin American), it’s just assumed that you’re Christian. Depending on where I am and who I’m with, I may just pretend to be to save myself hassle. I’ve heard such things as, “How can we, as a country, elect someone for president with a name like Barack Obama?” and, “Of course I don’t believe in evolution. What, do you think I’m Russian or something?” And these are common opinions.
Another thing is that I live in a small city. Public transportation is almost nonexistant. Taxis are expensive. But the crime rate is high. Last I checked, Longview was ranked twenty-something in the whole country for cities of 60,000 to 100,000 people. The bars here pretty much suck. There isn’t a lot to do. On the other hand, I don’t have to go far to get to rural areas. Unfortunately, it’s mostly dense woods with tight trails so there aren’t any great places to ride my dirt bike.
And the climate here is the worst. For a large part of summer, it stays in the upper-90’s and lower 100’s. Coupled with the high humidity, it’s terrible. Did I mention I’m a cold-natured person? And winters get almost - but not quite - cold enough to snow. Well we do get snow about every two years. And it actually sticks for a couple of days about every 5 years. It’s never more than a couple of inches though. The only time I’ve ever seen real snow was when I went north a couple of winters ago. Ya know, -2 degrees in South Dakota didn’t feel much colder than 25 here, and there was actually snow to make it worthwhile.
Overall, I wouldn’t say I hate where I am. It’s what I’m used to. It’s the only place I’ve ever lived. I sure get tired of it though. Maybe some day moving somewhere else will seem feasible.
We should hook up cold weather Dopers who live in warm areas, such as yourself, with warm weather people like me who live in the snow belt. Want to trade? I just might be able to put up with the bible thumpers to get away from the snow.
Sounds like a deal, as long as it isn’t extremely cold where you live. I said I’m cold natured but I don’t know if I could handle -40.
Well, I don’t live with my family anymore, but my parents and siblings still live in a shithole. It’s an old steel town that never got back on its feet, it has something like the lowest percentage of college grads for a town of its size in the US, and there’s no nightlife, culture, or anything to speak of. It’s cheap to get a home there, but where are you going to get a job? Unemployment is like 18%. My parents have the money and means to pick up and move, but my father just WON’T. And it makes me sick. They’d have access to a better, fuller, not to mention healthier life in the small city I live in (that’s close to where they are now).
Boy, this thread is right up my alley today!
Rockford, Illinois.
Jobs? Non-existent. Oh, and if you DO happen to actually wheedle your way into a job, some Rockfordian co-worker(s) will be suspicious of your **good work ethic **and will go out of their way to make your life hell. Even if you JUST MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS AND DO THE WORK YOU’RE ASKED TO DO. Losers! Which brings me to…
People? Don’t even get me started. I don’t even know where to start here. But, the MAIN problem with this area is the people and their “I’m a victim” attitude. Also, if you don’t drink your paycheck away, you’re “weird.” Teen pregnancy rates are extremely high here. Well, why the hell not, your mom had you when she was 15!
Public School System: Probably the worst in Illinois. Fraught with legal crap (from a long time ago). Everything is “secret.” We’re giving it one more year (my son’s in 1st grade). If things look as shitty as they did last year, he’s going to a private school next year. P.S. So far, it ain’t lookin’ good!
I could go on and on and on…
We moved here from the Chicago suburbs because we could afford a house here. BIG MISTAKE! The sign at the entrance to my street says “No Outlet.” Couldn’t be more true!
Austin, Texas.
You’re probably thinking “What? Austin’s GREAT!” Live music, young population, booming economy, blah blah blah. Whatever. You don’t live here.
No, this isn’t a post from one of those old-timers who wants to close the gate behind them, and despises those newcomers that add to traffic woes. I moved here a year ago, and I’m trying to get back to upstate New York.
Why does Austin suck?
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It’s ugly. Too many signs and billboards, and too many 1950s-era commercial strips that remain ugly because the hipsters value the “mid-century authenticity”. The visual pollution in outlying areas isn’t half as bad as in other Texas cities, but it’s often still quite cluttered.
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Allergies. Two words: cedar fever.
I have the usual pollen and dust mite allergies. Here in Austin, my allergy attacks have taken on a whole new level of suck; I basically can’t breathe without a battery of medications taken in very heavy, expensive doses. If I dust a table, two days later a thick layer of dust reappears. I’ve never lived in a place that was so dusty, and that includes New Mexico.
- Lack of urbanism. There’s only a couple of neighborhoods in Austin that feel remotely like they’re “urban”. Go more than a mile and a half past downtown, and the built environment starts to resemble 1950s suburbia. Funky neighborhoods here usually consist of rows of strip plazas that have indie record stores, tattoo parlors, vintage resale shops, and the like.
There’s too many neighborhoods that are undeserving of they hype and exorbitant real estate prices they get, like Hyde Park (a few restaurants and a coffee shop at an intersection, surrounded by fairly small older houses) and French Place (a middle-class 1950s era subdivision that just happens to be a mile from downtown).
Streets often don’t have sidewalks, so the “funky suburb” feel isn’t even as pedestrian-friendly as older suburbs in other cities.
- Sprawl. All the things that are special about Austin – the live music scene, the “weirdness”, the cultural institutions – are located in an area that extends no farther than about three miles from downtown. Those areas are unaffordable to mortals, unless you’re willing to rent student-quality housing or a place in the barrio. Beyond that, you might as well be in suburban Dallas. (At least suburban Austin is fairly liberal, relative to the rest of Texas.) The point at which housing in Austin begins to get affordable, you’re facing a haul if you want to enjoy the Austin lifestyle. With the traffic, it’s even more of a haul.
Austin also has developed in a very linear fashion; mostly north and south along the I-35 corridor. Go a few miles to the east, and you literally hit ranchland. West of the corridor is the start of Hill Country, which the Californians have taken over, supposedly due to the landscape’s resemblance to hillier portions of the Los Angeles area. Basically, if you want to go anywhere in Austin, you’ve got to hit I-35, face stop-and-start traffic, and enjoy the billboards. That, or pay to drive on one of the new toll roads.
- Hipsters. My God, they’re everywhere. It’s like Williamsburg West in some places. The larger culture is strongly influenced by them; you’ll meet sweet suburban schoolteachers in Pflugerville that have arms completely covered with tattoo sleeves, or massive chest pieces scarring the view above their rack. If you’re in Austin and you’ve got tats, it’s not just going to be a little Celtic symbol or a couple of Chinese characters; you’re going to be inked like a Maori warrior or Attica alumnus. One time, while enjoying the pool at my new suburban apartment complex, I realized I was the only one of about 20 people out there that had no ink.
It’s not just the ink, which really doesn’t affect me. It’s that everything tries so hard to be “hip” and “authentic” and “funky” and “ironic”. The number of 1950s vintage stores in this town us unreal, and browsing one yesterday, I realized “I have relatives back in Buffalo whose houses look EXACTLY like this.” What’s ironic here is reality in the Rust Belt; I saw one skinny hipster wearing a t-shirt that read “AMERICA WORKS BEST WHEN UNION = YES”. Go to Buffalo or Cleveland, and you’ll see middle-aged tradespeople wearing those shirts with no irony whatsoever.
- Weather. Self-exclamatory.
What’s good about Austin? Live music scene, relatively low crime rate, decent schools (if you’re into that kind of thing), plenty of places to get a flat tire fixed (I got three flat tires since moving here a year ago), good restaurants and Mexican Food, the sight of an armada of hot college girls heading to the UT stadium in short shorts and cowboy boots, dog-friendly rental housing, and ubiquitous wifi. Otherwise, it’s not so much that it sucks bad; it’s just probably America’s most overratted, overhyped city.
Umm…errr…because you don’t want to be a farmer??
Toronto. Dirty, congested, full-of-itself Toronto. Stifling hot and humid in the summer; frigid, icy and snowy in the winter.
The city has no distinctive personality — but Torontonians seem to think this smoggy, overcrowded hell-hole is the centre of the universe.
The suburbs are all the same. Cul de sacs full of look-a-like McMansions and SUVs in the driveways going on for miles. Highways packed with tailgating idiots who think the rules don’t apply to them. There’s nothing pretty about the GTA. No mountains, no major rivers. The lakes are polluted, and the shorelines surrounded by homes.
The people here are obsessed with looking wealthy. There are huge ostentatious houses (built on teeny tiny lots) with no furniture in them, because the owners can’t afford to fill them up. So many leased BMWs and Mercedes that they have become ubiquitous. People spending money they haven’t got, to impress people they don’t know. Self-centred yuppies wearing LuluLemons as they drive their children to soccer in their SUVs, blindly following every new trend that comes along.
In the summer, everyone heads out of the city to a cottage — cottages are just another Toronto fashion accessory. Same as big dogs. Torontonians are cookie-cutter sheeples who spend their lives trying desperately to impress each other.
Toronto has no soul.
Reading this thread, I would pick Toronto as the most repulsive city described thus far. I’ve lived in shitholes and Nowheresvilles but the privileged McMansion suburbs truly do make me want to puke.
And it’s so unkempt, I mean, the place looks like it’s in a perpetual state of disrepair. The roads are so horrifically beaten up, you out-of-towners pretty much have to see it to understand. Not to mention we have a few too many roads that randomly change name halfway through (I think we might also have one that changes name and then changes back, but I can’t think of it). I miss the 6 months I lived in Tempe, that was a great town. I always say to myself now when I come back after an out of town escapade “yup, I’m back in Tucson, you can tell because you kind of feel like dying.”
Is the public school system really that bad? I mean, yeah, most of TUSD sucks*, but isn’t most of the Foothills area stuff alright? A tribute to white flight as I understand it.
- I say most because it does have University High School, which has been ranked 13th (or around) best high school in the country in a magazine/paper (Newsweek?) at least once in the past few years, as well as top in the world in AP US History, English Lit and US Gov (I think those are the three) by the College Board a few years ago. So at least we have that going for us.
I don’t know HOW to farm, but that’s a job! (Unlike here…)