# Hate where you live? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 29, 2009, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hate-where-you-live/515667 "2009-10-29T22:16:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hate-where-you-live/515667/21 "2009-11-04T01:12:55Z")
My Father just told me he’s buying a condo, as an investment. I offered to rent it from him. He said yes! No more crime raddled complex! No more riots from upstairs! YES! ---
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hate-where-you-live/515667/22 "2009-11-04T01:24:42Z")
It’s no use posting. The standard reply will be “Shut up, you live in Hawaii”. Try getting any sympathy in November, to boot. But two beefs: House prices. Looking at 3-BR for $650 and realizing what that will buy me in most states. We’re so far away. We took a fun trip to [Texas](http://picasaweb.google.com/TexasTrip09), but had to waste two whole vacation days on an airplane. ---
**Author:** ![Kid\_A\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Kid\_A\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kid_A_1)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hate-where-you-live/515667/23 "2009-11-04T01:46:28Z")
> [@Calluses](#): > > 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. Yup…that’s Toronto. :rolleyes: You’ve just described every major city in North America. ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hate-where-you-live/515667/24 "2009-11-04T02:08:44Z")
> [@Kid\_A](#): > > You’ve just described every major city in North America. Um, no. Lots of major cities have very distinct urban identities. NY, LA, Boston, Chicago, Miami … all have quite distinct personalities. Orlando, on the other hand, really doesn’t. It’s a suburb of Disneyworld, and everyone here is a tourist. Nobody is from here, and half aren’t planning to stay. It’s strip malls, condos, timeshares and endless fucking traffic as far as the eye can see. Ten months a year of hot, humid, windless summer. Weak job prospects if you aspire to anything other than fast-food or hotel work. Eleven more weeks, and I am outta here. ---
**Author:** ![Kid\_A\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Kid\_A\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kid_A_1)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hate-where-you-live/515667/25 "2009-11-04T02:12:15Z")
**Calluses** is clearly describing the Toronto suburbs. Let me clarify, they’ve described the suburbs of every major city in North America. Suburbs are suburbs are suburbs, if you’re looking for culture there then you’re SOL. ---
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hate-where-you-live/515667/26 "2009-11-04T02:14:25Z")
Not where I am now, but where we moved from. Columbia, Mo (well anywhere in Missouri really). Columbia is a small college town, 2 hours from any major city. Spring and Autumn are beautiful, but winters are cold and harsh and summers are overly hot and humid. We got extremes from both ends 110 degree temps, and -20 below temps with 16 inches of snow. Also, it is Missouri. We got asked if we had running water when we traveled. People were way to religious and I’m mostly (fiscally) conservative, but the people tended to be way to damn right wing. (though in Columbia, it was a college town so we had left wing crazies too, like PETA) We moved to the PacNW, so less right wing dingbats, beautiful mild weather, mountains and oceans. Probably a bit too much government for my taste, but it was the same in Missouri, except the papa-government was to protect bible thumping moralists rather than the greater good. ---
**Author:** ![lindsaybluth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90db22/32.png) [@lindsaybluth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsaybluth)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hate-where-you-live/515667/27 "2009-11-04T02:33:10Z")
> [@Kid\_A](#): > > **Calluses** is clearly describing the Toronto suburbs. Let me clarify, they’ve described the suburbs of every major city in North America. Suburbs are suburbs are suburbs, if you’re looking for culture there then you’re SOL. I don’t know if Pittsburgh counts as a “major” city, clocking in at around 350k in the city, 2.2ish million in the immediate areas, but I can honestly say that the suburbs have a lot of personality here. I had no idea suburbs were so soulless until I visited my relatives, who live in Palm Beach and LA. It’s pretty disgusting, especially if you’re not used to it. Suburbs here often have a quiet main street and houses that are similar but not identical, and the ones further out from the city (instead of 15-25 min they’re 25-40 min) just have bigger spaces and more land. I can’t speak for the North Hills, which certainly have at least some of those ostentatious McMansions, but the South of the city was largely built up after the invention of the Model T and especially after WWII, so they have some personality to them. ---
**Author:** ![Palo\_Verde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Palo\_Verde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palo_Verde)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hate-where-you-live/515667/28 "2009-11-04T17:48:35Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > 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. We’re in TUSD and it indeed suck. We are 50th in the nation in terms of education funding, and the voters just yesterday again refused to give more money to the schools. Plus I might mention that we are in November and today is expected to be 94 degrees. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2009, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hate-where-you-live/515667/29 "2009-11-04T22:57:58Z")
4 cops cars just rushed into my apartment complex, while I was taking out the trash. Locked in, with chair under door. I hate this place. ---
**Author:** ![Sonnenstrahl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Sonnenstrahl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sonnenstrahl)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hate-where-you-live/515667/30 "2009-11-05T06:33:32Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > 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. 😛 You seriously think Toronto is a worse place to live than Thompson, MB? Seriously? Yes, the suburbs are sprawling. I go to see my parents twice a year and there’s a new subdivision each time I return. Some of the suburbs, especially west of the city, don’t have a city centre beyond a mall. The overall tone of the city is less hip than Montreal and Vancouver. But at least you can walk places in the city! There’s an enormous public transit system and a subway, which sounds like more than a lot of American cities have. It’s not all Brampton. (Former resident of Richmond Hill, who purposefully left the city because I didn’t like it that much - I’m far from one of those people who thinks Toronto’s the centre of the universe.) ---
**Author:** ![AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hate-where-you-live/515667/31 "2009-11-05T08:52:40Z")
Ah yes…My town which is a Stepford Suburb. Dumbassed rich kids who thought that being rich gave them license to act like they were better then everyone else. Uneducated prejudicated poor kids who thought that b/c my voice wasn’t exactly normal I was retarded (I got my bike stolen simply b/c it was my bike, hate letters etc) ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hate-where-you-live/515667/32 "2009-11-06T16:10:28Z")
Mexico City. Strictly speaking, it’s a suburb, but only in the same sense that Hamtramck is a suburb of Detroit. Mostly it sucks because everything is tall buildings and we’re forced to live in a tall building where there’s no such thing as personal space. Instead of having neighbors across the street and down the road on either side, they live _inches away from us_, up above, down below, and to the left (but not to the right, 'cos we’re on the end). I can’t take my dog out for a walk without passing through a double air lock-like security area. The traffic sucks and Mexico City people are the worst drivers in the world (although I’ve never driven in Jersey). There’s no grass, but there’s astro-turf on the patio. The restaurants all suck, and the service truly, truly sucks (I usually brag about the quality of waitstaff in Mexico, but for some reason, it’s pretty crappy here). It’s also hard to find Mexican food. Oh, even though everything’s close and the neighborhood is safe to walk in (crime-wise), you still have to drive everywhere because it’s impossible to cross the street on foot, and there aren’t always sidewalks. Here’s a map of this horrible area: [Google Maps](http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Huixquilucan+de+Degollado,+Mexico&ll=19.395323,-99.282331&spn=0.017366,0.043087&t=h&z=15) What’s ironic is that all of brainwashed Mexico City-ians think that this is a desireable place to live! //shudder// ---
**Author:** ![Redwing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/dfb087/32.png) [@Redwing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Redwing)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hate-where-you-live/515667/33 "2009-11-06T18:18:54Z")
Lynn, Lynn, city of sin. You never come out the way you went in. Ask for water, they give you a gin, it’s the damndest city I ever been in It’s the gateway to Revere! ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hate-where-you-live/515667/34 "2009-11-06T18:30:25Z")
I live in Manhattan. It’s actually awesome here, but the cost of living at this moment is overriding every other concern I have. I’m tired of it being so fucking expensive. ---
**Author:** ![Carl\_Corey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Carl\_Corey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carl_Corey)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hate-where-you-live/515667/35 "2009-11-06T20:04:39Z")
> [@Redwing](#): > > Lynn, Lynn, city of sin. > You never come out the way you went in. > Ask for water, they give you a gin, > it’s the damndest city I ever been in > > It’s the gateway to Revere! I grew up in the Boston area, and that made me giggle. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Furious\_Marmot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dfb087/32.png) [@Furious\_Marmot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Furious_Marmot)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hate-where-you-live/515667/36 "2009-11-06T21:36:50Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > Springfield, Illinois. Pop: 130,000… > > 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. Interestingly, all of this (except the traffic) applies to Oklahoma City also, although it is about 10X as large. The weather sucks, it is always too dry and dusty. The food is abominable. All anybody talks about is sports, church, recreational outrage, and (third-grade level) politics. The infrastructure is collapsing, especially the overpasses. Only 35% of adults have had all their shots. The schools blow. People drive terribly and slowly. There is a stagnant drainage ditch downtown that they insist is a river. Recently, they held a triathlon in it, then pretended that the water had checked out fine when a bunch of competitors got sick. Far too many people are big talkers, full of bluster and bullshit about how rich or badass they are and they insist on telling you all about their delusional get rich quick plans. Tons of near-empty strip malls adorn the landscape, even as new ones (that will never be more than half-leased) are built nearby. There is a sort of bullshit exceptionalism here: the weather is so extreme (it isn’t),the city is so livable (it isn’t), and always something big and important is about to happen (it never does). It’s isolated, the only things woth seeing within a 6 hour drive are Dallas, Kansas City, and Austin. What is perhaps most disappointing is the sense of squandered opportunity. This a large-ish American city, with abundant cheap land and a surprisingly surprisingly strong economic base. Instead of putting tax money to good use fixing broken things, they pay for unecessary renovations to the basketball arena and are now looking at building a third convention center (that will be used as little as the first 2). Instead of figuring out why Johnny can’t read, they grandstand about protecting him from the queers and that Darwinism thing. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Love](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Dr.Love](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Love)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hate-where-you-live/515667/37 "2009-11-06T21:50:15Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > 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). Campbell -\> Kino -\> Campbell. And don’t forget all the streets that just stop, and then continue on after a break: Ft. Lowell, Pantano, Sarnoff… Oh, and when parallel streets intersect, like Dodge and Alvernon. But I like Tucson. At least it’s not cold now. Cold kills people. ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hate-where-you-live/515667/38 "2009-11-07T04:38:01Z")
> [@Palo\_Verde](#): > > 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 also hate Tucson. After about 2.5 years here, I’m realizing just how much I hate it. I hurt if I don’t run 2 humidifiers in my bedroom almost every night. The people are way rude - or at least they come across that way to me, having grown up someplace where there is a much more obvious level of polite. It takes forever to drive across town. I’m lucky that I live in a spot where I can get on a bus and take it to work in less than 15 minutes, but driving around town pisses me off and takes forever. I want out, and I’m trying hard to do so. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hate-where-you-live/515667/39 "2009-11-07T13:15:41Z")
> [@Palo\_Verde](#): > > Do you live in a place you despise? Tell me all about it. Where do you live and why is it so crappy? Athens, GA. Home of UGA. Yeayea, also the place where REM and B-52s came out… Yea, like 20 years ago. TWENTY!!! Athens is a good place to live, and I admit, a great place to raise kids, if you fall in one of the following categories: 1. Professional or academic working with UGA or any other federal research facilities in the area, most likely with a family. 2. An undergrad, probably from GA, doing her/his degree at UGA. 3. A longtime, born and raised Athenian, and to a lesser extent, a born and raised liberal Georgian. 4. A graduate student with family. 5. Someone who truly really enjoys the outdoors. It sucks if you’re not from the above. The music scene is indie/emo/folksy, of which I can only tolerate folksy, and that is not even my favorite genre. If you’re an out-of-state (or country), mid-20s, single (or at least not married), without children… IT SUCKS!!! I like my neighborhood (Five Points), I admit that Athens has a better downtown than my previous city (Baton Rouge, where not even the homeless stayed). I like walking through campus during the late Spring/early Summer/early Fall, it is pretty. But I don’t like college football, or football for that matter. I’m too old for most of the amenities this town offers. I’m not married nor attached to better enjoy what little else they offer. I hate hills. I hate the cold. I have no family nearby. Also, this town is weirdly divided, and I think many of the hippy-types don’t realize how much federal animal research actually goes on in their town. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hate-where-you-live/515667/40 "2009-11-07T17:23:04Z")
Santa Fe, New Mexico. 1. Can you say sprawl, boys and girls? There’s the super-compact downtown section, which is really only a couple blocks. The rest of the town suffers from ‘ah, fuck it, make everything really far apart just because we can’. 2. Are you under the age of 55? Do you want more to do than browse shitty art galleries and go see shitty experimental theater productions? You’ll be bored out of your skull here. 3. Are you rich? No? You can’t afford this town. 4. It’s _always_ sunny. A day will start sunny, cloud up, dump six inches of snow, and then the fucking sun will come back out. The weather is obscene here. 5. This city is full of idiots who believe that their herbs and teas and yoga and meditation and “energy work” will keep them healthy. My housemate gets pissed off and lectures me every time I microwave something in a plastic container because it’s “bad for me”. If you don’t believe that meditation will cure your cold, or that suggest to someone that since they’ve been having this problem for a year maybe they should go to a _doctor_ and not a chiropractor, you’re derided as a closed-minded judgmental jerk. 6. I have never seen a greater combination of hypocrites who drive every-fucking-where in their big-ass SUVs and pickups…which are decorated with “Save the planet” type bumperstickers. 7. Want to go see a normal concert or play or see any non-high school sporting event? Enjoy your hour-long drive to Albuquerque. Want to go to a city of any considerable size, or see a major-league sporting event? Enjoy your _five hour_ drive up to Denver. 7a. People here think Albuquerque is a big city. 8. A town of about 60,000 people is the third-largest art market in the nation. I’ve heard, though I don’t know if it’s true, that there are more art galleries per capita than anywhere else in the world here. 99% of the work in them are more or less the same: uninspired and poorly-executed desert landscapes, almost certainly with Indians, horses, sunsets, or some combination of the above. We have an entire street that’s pretty much nothing but art gallery after art gallery. It’s not just the pointless amount of crappy art, it’s that it’s the same damn crappy art over and over again. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hate-where-you-live/515667.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hate-where-you-live/515667.md?page=3)