A lot of people are irrationally opposed to humidity, made up their mind a long time ago, and the topic is no longer open for discussion. I’ve spent a lot of time in Miami and I’ll admit as a person whose favorite season was summer growing up, it was a little too hot even for me at times. Other than that I love it, though. And really, hot is hot. The “dry heat” that everyone talks about in AZ is just as bad as any humid heat. Sure, it feels nicer when you compare it at the same temperature, but it’s often 25 degrees hotter here. At those kind of numbers, throw out the effect humidity has.
Top:
Maine
New Mexico
Wyoming
Colorado
Arizona
Nevada
Washington
Oregon
Montana
Pennsylvania
Middling:
Texas
Massachusetts
Idaho
Vermont
New Hampshire
Rhode Island
Wisconsin
North Carolina
Virginia
New York
Tennessee
Georgia
Maryland
Kentucky
California
South Carolina
Minnesota
Iowa
Indiana
Louisiana
West Virginia
Florida
Bottom:
Ohio
Oklahoma
Michigan
Alabama
Illinios
Both Dakotas
Delaware
Kansas
Nebraska
Mississippi
New Jersey (except Cape May)
Arkansas
Connecticut
Don’t know anything about Hawaii or Alaska
I think I love you.
But not on Saturdays - that’s football time.
- California
- Colorado
- Idaho
- Washington
- Oregon
- Hawaii
- Arizona
- Montana
- Iowa
- Nevada
- Alaska
- South Dakota
- Illinois
- Louisiana
- Missouri
- Massachusetts
- Ohio
- Minnesota
- Wisconsin
- Mississippi
- Georgia
- Alabama
- Virginia
- Pennsylvania
- North Carolina
- South Carolina
- Maryland
- Kentucky
- Indiana
- Connecticut
- West Virginia
- Rhode Island
- Tennessee
- Maine
- Vermont
- Delaware
- New Hampshire
- Michigan
- Utah
- Wyoming
- North Dakota
- New Mexico
- Nebraska
- Kansas
- Arkansas
- Oklahoma
- Florida
- New York
- New Jersey
- Texas
The top 20 and bottom 10 are right on the list is pretty relative after that and a lot of states blend together. I’ve lived in California, Colorado and spend enought time to have lived there in Texas, Louisiana and New Mexico.
For me, it is just too darn hot for too much of the year. I like Northern Coastal states. That is me and I don’t expect others to be similar.
I do wonder how many of the low ratings on New Jersey are based on Rep and TV and how much on real experience. I have been nearly more than half of the US and I live in Jersey as I love it. I moved back here from San Diego. For every bad thing about this crowded state it has many things to recommend it. I understand **NinjaChick **lived here and hates it, but do the rest of you that have it near the bottom actually know Jersey? We have almost everything in one of the smallest states.
Jim
- Texas
- Anywhere else
I notice most people are putting Kansas in the bottom 10. Now I wouldn’t want to live in most of Kansas, but, the better parts of Kansas City are indeed in Kansas, which is why I ranked it high. I’ve always thought of KC as a very nice town, but YMMV.
Are people ranking Kansas so low not considering the nice part of KC, or is the ranking in spite of KC?
Kansas is in my bottom half of places where I would really not to live. I did not put a lot of thought into my bottom part as I just would not want to live in those states. For me it is about climate and location more than anything else. If I had to live in Kansas, I would want it to be very near KC. But even KC is not enough reason to live in Kansas if I had a choice. I just prefer the Northern Coastal States. So why did you put New Jersey last? Running joke or serious consideration?
I’m only really willing to live in California or Massachusetts so they’re probably at the top of the list.
Illinois was quite nice when I lived there (Champaign-Urbana). My sister was at Northwestern at the same time so I used to really like to go visit her and my brother-in-law up in Chicago.
Near bottom would be Indiana. I worked on a campaign for the Democrats during the 2000 elections and I was assigned there. The less said the better. The two black kids on the campaign and I were taken aside and shown on a map areas in which we were “advised not to wander.” It did not do much to endear me to that state.
[ol]
[li]New York (but only Manhattan, and only if I didn’t have kids)[/li][li]Hawaii[/li][li]North Carolina[/li][li]New Jersey (plenty of very nice areas; a few miles of hell on Earth, but my home for most of my life. You gotta problem with that? :dubious:)[/li][li]Washington[/li][li]Louisiana[/li][/ol]
7 - 49. The Rest
50. California
[quote=“Zoe, post:28, topic:466774”]
I just can’t do it by states. I have favorite spots within states.
- Gibson County, Tennessee, mid-Twentieth Century
QUOTE]
whoa! i actually lived there mid century! what did you like about it?
California
New Jersey
Hawaii
New York
Connecticut
Pennsylvania
Washington
Oregon
Florida
Delaware
Maryland
Rhode Island
Massachusetts
North Carolina
South Carolina
Virginia
Illinois
Georgia
West Virginia
Indiana
Ohio
Vermont
New Hampshire
Louisiana
Texas
Arizona
New Mexico
Colorado
Nevada
Oklahoma
Kansas
Wyoming
Alaska
Michigan
Missouri
Tennessee
Montana
Idaho
Iowa
Nebraska
Kentucky
Utah
Maine
North Dakota
South Dakota
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Mississippi
Alabama
Arkansas
That’s a fair question. I’m really not much for the high population density of the eastern seaboard. The only reason Mass and NY are so high on my list is that I assumed I could choose to live in Mannhattan or a very specific part of Boston, where the fun aspect *could *outpace my dislike of dense populations and cold weather.
Also, I went into the excersise planning on a two year move. While Boston and New York City have a lot of things I don’t like about them, I feel like they would both offer a unique life experience for a couple years. Would I do it for 10? Hell no. I guess I feel like New Jersey has all of the things I don’t like, but no place particularly unique like NYC and Boston.
So, I did put some thought into it, I know Jersey isn’t covered in garbage and mob corpses.
I’ll have to go with Texas. You can have your pick of snowy plains, desert mountains, rolling hills, large urban centers, piney woods, gulf beaches, and tropical climes. and no state income tax.
Most of my experience has been with the western part of the state, Fort Hayes and Kanerado. i’ve been to the eastern part over by Pittsburg and I didn’t really like it either. It is a flat and boring state what I’ve seen of KC was in Missouri and it was a forgettable big city. I liked all of the trees up by Rola, Missouri, which moved it up my list.
I’m not going to rank all 50, but my top 5 would look something like this:
Washington
Oregon
Minnesota
Wisconsin (beer, cheese, sausages, what’s not to like?)
(Northern) California
I’m not sure about the order, though.
The next tier would include New York, Alaska (for its nature), Vermont, maybe Hawaii, maybe Massachusetts, and North Carolina.
The bottom tier for me would probably be Indiana, West Virginia, Nebraska, Kansas, and North Dakota. Ohio would almost make the list, but it’s just too varied a place, and they’ve got some good fried chicken down in Barberton, so they make up for the, um, weirdness I seem to always encounter in more isolated areas of Ohio.
Just to say, before I moved here, Mississippi was at the bottom of my list as well. But now I wouldn’t live anywhere else. 
Shhhhhhhhhhhhh! Don’t give the silly yankees anymore reason to continue to move down here in droves and screwing things up for the rest of us. The more of them that think that Texas is one vast oil field the better.
South Dakota
Florida
Kentucky
Oregon
Texas----I flip flop on Texas; it’s very much a love-hate thing.
For the rest, one is like another, barring weather.
I think most of know that Texas is a huge diverse state. In fact for some of us the huge part is a downside. To put things in perspective, Dallas is further from Houston than Cape May is from High Point State park*.
In fact, NYC, AC, Philly, Boston, Baltimore and DC are all closer to me than Houston is to Dallas. Texas distances are just too much and for me it is mostly the fact that it is too hot.
- The far south east point to the northwest corner of NJ.