Hawaii ain’t Five-O? 
At the risk of having everyone laugh at me… what the heck is wrong with Arkansas? I was born here, and I have lived here my entire life.
I have traveled to other states, I am educated (and could be more educated if I wanted, we do have schools here), I make a decent living, and I love to travel Arkansas. It is beautiful here, and there is plenty to offer, why the stigma around Arkansas?!
OK, so the Hogs aren’t doing so hot… I still love 'em!
I’ve lived in only five states for at least three months, so I can’t really rank all 50.
I lived in Michigan for three years, working, in the Lansing/East Lansing area.
For almost eleven months I was stationed in California, in Monterey, while in the military.
For three months each I was in Texas and Washington state.
The rest of my life has been spent in my home, Kansas.
- Kansas
- Michigan*
- Washington state
- California
- Texas
What can I say, I love my home.
As for Michigan and Washington, I liked them both a lot, but I ranked Michigan higher because I was there longer, and could really get to know the area. I might have stayed but I came home to Kansas because I got a job there again.
California was fun, but expensive and I couldn’t afford it on my own.
Texas, the San Angelo area where I was stationed, was the pits, exceeded only by a one month stay in…
Massachusetts, at Ft. Devens. Hell on earth, the coldest I’ve ever been, January of 1976.
If I were independently wealthy and didn’t have to work for a living:
- Florida (the Atlantic coast, Orlando, or the Gulf Coast, in that order)
- Hawaii
- California (southern)
- Texas (coastal)
- Louisiana (New Orleans)
- South Carolina (coastal)
- Alabama (coastal)
- Mississippi (coastal)
- New York (NYC)
- Tennessee
- Missouri
- Illinois (it IS home, after all)
13-40. A bunch of states I could take or leave
41: Arkansas - Wisconsin
- Minnesota
- Michigan
- Iowa
- Nebraska
- Kansas
- Utah
- South Dakota
- North Dakota
If I had to work for a living:
- Illinois (since I’m already here)
- Florida (cost of living is high, but maybe, just maybe, I could make it work)
- Tennessee (Mrs. Homie and I have thought about Chattanooga)
- Missouri (we’ve also thought about St. Louis)
5-50. Anywhere else
I think that this thread and the responses within it are, in the main, based on perception (how many of us have lived in or even traveled to all 50 states?). We base our perceptions on what we are exposed to through the media, what others tell us, and what we see with our eyes.
The media tends to portray rural, southern-ish states like Arkansas as backward redneck places, even if it isn’t true. Plus, Arkansas is a VERY red state, and the SDMB leans blue.
Personally, I’ve spent time in Arkansas, and while I didn’t exactly hate it, it’s definitely low on my list of places I’d want to live. The NW part is beautiful, but it’s kind-of backwater for my tastes. Everywhere else I’ve seen in Arkansas: meh.*
*I say this without any intention to offend. I live here in Illinois and, but for the fact that my job, my family, my house, my childhood, and my baseball team are here, it sucks ass.
- Florida
2-49. Screw you guys
Well, we are 48th in most things. 
Family by marriage from New England visited. Cousin from NY Sally and I left the others to smoke in the bar. Surprised that I wore shoes and worked on computers, Sally asked me quite seriously, “This is the South, isn’t it ?”
I replied just as seriously, “Well, we lost the War.” She nodded her head with Great Understanding. :rolleyes:
- Tie between Massachusetts, Oregon, Connecticut, New York, Hawaii, and Vermont
- Tie between California, Rhode Island, Georgia, Lousianna, and Texas (only if Austin), and Puerto Rico if that counts
- Everything else except the more conservative states and more northern cold states would probably be lower
I haven’t spent too much time in NJ but I would actually love to live there. I think of it as one of the “all American” states, where Main Street USA still exists in a lot of towns, you have nice old established neighborhoods (not these cookie-cutter housing developments that qualify as neighborhoods now), four distinct seasons, proximity to the greatest city on Earth, close to the ocean, close to the mountains, etc. Maybe my view is a little rose-colored from watching too many Kevin Smith movies, but I almost feel nostalgic for New Jersey even though I’ve never lived there. The only thing that has turned me off recently was seeing a documentary about gangs that said NJ had the highest concentration of white supremacists of any state.
How is Arkansas a “VERY red state”? Democrats control the governor’s mansion, Democrats hold 77% of the state Senate seats and 75% of the General Assembly seats, and both US senators are Democrats, as are three of the four US Representatives.
Well, to counteract all the Michigan hate, my list goes like:
1: da UP of Michigan
2-50: everywhere else
Seriously. Mr. Athena and I both work out of the house, and could live anywhere in the country. We’ve occasionally played “what if” about where we’d go if for some reason we were forced to move, and we always conclude that it would take something incredibly serious (like we both lose our jobs and spend 2+ years looking for a new one and still can’t find anything) to get us out of here. And it’s not like we’ve never lived anywhere else - we met in Boulder, Colorado, where I lived for 11 years and he lived for over 20 years, and we’ve lived in various places considered very nice, including Minneapolis, Santa Fe, and San Antonio.
Michigan, at least the northern part, is an amazingly beautiful place to live. Keep up with the bad press; part of the reason it’s so nice is that it’s not crowded nor is it terribly expensive to live here assuming you stay away from the Traverse City area (and even that’s not too bad, depending on what you’re comparing it with.)
To be fair Mike Huckabee was a republican, still is I assume, but yea mostly blue in these parts. Yes, the NW part of AR is a little back wards in areas, but we aren’t all barefoot and pregnant I promise.
I meant to add my own ranking as well
Top five:
1: Arkansas
2. Colorado
3: Northern California
4: Wyoming
5: Maine
Bottom Five
1: Louisiana
2: Texas
3: Oklahoma
4: Iowa
5: Florida
The rest fall somewhere in the middle due mostly to my not having seen much of any of them, or I don’t care enough about them to love or hate them.
Those Democratic Senators are quite conservative, though. They’d be conservative Republicans if they were in the Northeast. Plus, I don’t think Obama is going to come close to winning there.
-
California - I was born here, live here, and if I don’t die here, then at least this is where my bones will rest. We have something of everything here, and I love it.
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Colorado - lived there 8 years, the family is there, it’s sort of my second home. I miss the snow sometimes.
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Everywhere else, in descending order from most liberal to least, with temperate-warm climates preferred.
I didn’t know about that last part. Damn, I know Wall use to have small active KKK group, but that was pretty much a failure in the 80s. I wonder what parts of NJ still have white supremacists. We never hear about them, just the overblown accounts of Mafia. I can pretty much guarantee there is minimal white supremacists in my area. Not that I am doubting what you said, but so I can read about it, do you have any link to the documentary you saw? It really has me puzzled.
Hey, I like Michigan! If I had to move back to the other places than home I’ve lived, it would be to East Lansing.
And the Yoopers! I still have one of their tapes, the one with “Second Week of Deercamp” on it.
- New York - West of the Hudson and north of the Catskills is the place for me
- Vermont - Come to think of it, east of the Hudson is mighty fine too!
- Maine - Twenty thousand Ethiopians can’t be wrong
- Montana - No rules kinda state, where even the mountains are Crazy
- Washington - The state ferry system makes this place a tourist’s delight
- Iowa - Great place for growing corn and pint-sized gymnasts
- Pennsylvania - Outside of the two major cities, a really beautiful state
- Ohio - No matter where you’re from, Cleveland will make it seem nicer when you return
- Oregon - The crazier you are, the better you fit in here
- Missouri - Anyplace that produced both Mark Twain and Ukelele Ike gets my vote
- Minnesota - Where royalty brings *The Watchtower *to your door
- **West Virginia **- When your best resource is your people they tend to be something special
- Kentucky - Fine horses and even finer fillies
- Illinois - Points for Lincoln, Steve Goodman, and Ernie Banks
- Connecticut - For a place that produces only nutmeg sure has done well for itself
- Utah - Points for keeping the Osmonds penned up within state lines
- Maryland - Big points for Edgar Allen Poe
- Alabama - Some of the friendliest folks I ever met, living in some of the poorest counties in the country.
- Tennesse - Hell, Vandy’s undefeated, what more do you want?
- **North Dakota **- There’s a certain cachet to visiting here in winter; I mean, it can’t get any worse than this
- Mississippi - Much nicer place to visit than you might expect
- Nebraska - Anyplace where I can legally dump my 3 teens is swell in my book
- **New Mexico **- The highlands are nice, and should your wallet get too heavy, visit Santa Fe
- Wisconsin - Don’t wear your Bullwinkle hat during the fall
- **North Carolina **- Outer Banks and Piedmont make up for local politics
- **New Hampshire **- Best state motto in the country
- Arizona - Beautiful mountains and deserts, but too many yuppies
- Wyoming - The Grand Tetons are
- Texas - Shoulda raised the age of consent a lot earlier
- Delaware - See #31
- **South Dakota **- Aids and abets the impoverishment of credit card holders
- Colorado - Home to some of the worst small town speed traps in the country
- **Virginia **- Points for GW and TJ, but can’t they do something about DC?
- Michigan - Most popular pastime for folks here is to thank God they don’t live in Indiana
- **South Carolina **- There must be all of three bookstores in this whole state
- Georgia - Should you fancy red clay decor, drop on by
- Arkansas - Asked for a toothpick here and was a mite surprised at what was handed to me
- **Oklahoma **- Gets points for Will Rogers but not much else
- **Indiana **- Doesn’t anyone in this state know what time it is?
- Nevada - You won’t want to be here the day the taps run dry
- **New Jersey **- Such smart people and such a dysfunctional state government
- Massachusetts - Do they deliberately design roads to get people lost here?
- **Idaho **- Seems to collect all the folks run out of neighboring states
- **Rhode Island **- Aside of Newport, thoroughly depressing
- Lousiana - Should you sport gills and fins, this might be for you
- Florida - God’s Waiting Room
- Kansas - Unless you’re catching the daily twister to Oz, give it a miss
- **Alaska **- Anyplace with skeeters the size of small dogs is off my travel list
- Hawaii - I never was too keen on “Kill a Haole Day”
- California - If I could somehow drive to 1958 this might be a top pick
As much as I hate Texas, I would definitely pick it over Oklahoma.
A side note: Alaska and Hawaii were both admitted as states in 1959, the former in January and the latter in August. Back then, Hawaiians expected to become the 49th state. There was even a major local record company called something like 49th State Records. Alaska JUST squeezed in. So we almost got to watch Steve McGarrett in either Hawaii 4-9 or Alaska 5-0. 
It was an episode of Gangland on the History Channel, actually. They play them constantly so just look for the one about white gangs.
What part do you live in, out of curiosity?
What? Where did you get that impression? You realize that yuppie stands for Young Urban Professional, and there’s hardly an urban area in this state, right? I guess there are a lot of what would probably be called yuppies in Scottsdale, but we’re talking a few square miles in a big western state.
I’ll look for the episode; I rarely watch the History channel any more. I found once they left WWII behind their history was often iffy. They should do better with current events though. Thank you.
I am down in Monmouth County which is a shore county south of the Raritan River and thus south of the urban area of the state. We are a mix of old Main St. towns and villages, suburban sprawl & mall and older farms with one smaller area of urban blight, Asbury Park (You know of Bruce fame.) This is actually the heart of Kevin Smith territory and Clerks took place in the Atlantic Highlands in Monmouth County. I live very close to Red Bank which is one of the best throw back Main St. towns and where Smith has his comic book shop.