Tell Us About Your State/Province/Etc.

[MidlifeMark]

Variety is the spice of life. And Connecticut is the embodiment of variety. Lower Fairfield County, the southwest corner of the state, is somewhat of a bedroom community for New York City. Very expensive, due to its proximity to The Big Apple. The northeast and northwest corners of the state are a combination of rural and small New England town. The southeast corner is the sub base and the casinos. And the cities are distributed along the shoreline and along a belt about 30 miles inland.

Several largish cities, which hold what is left of the industrial base. Interchangeable parts were invented in the gun factories here (Sam Colt's, I believe) as well as the cotton gin (Eli Whitney), and the helicopter (Igor Sikorsky). Remington Arms in Bridgeport, Winchester in New Haven, and Colt in Hartford are the three biggest names in Connecticut's gun-manufacturing history, followed by a host of others including Sturm Ruger and Marlin, to name a couple. At least half of the submarines in the US Navy were built at the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics in New London. One of Connecticut's nicknames is The Arsenal of Democracy. There are lots of examples of extinct industry as well: lots of mill towns along the several rivers that run into Long Island Sound.

I live on the shoreline, far enough east of New Haven to be in a small town that is not part of the unbroken strip mall that runs east for 50 miles along US 1 from the New York state line. I am about midway between New York and Boston; I can reach either by car or rail in a little over 2 hours (I generally prefer Boston for anything except a Broadway show). Five minutes inland puts me on some nice, winding state roads that go past horse farms, state forests, old New England church steeples, and other scenic treats. You can find boating, beaches, skiing, hunting, fishing, outlet shopping, antiquing, fine dining, casinos, and just about anything else you might look for within an hour's drive. And I am 109 miles from the Mecca of the NFL, Gillette Stadium, home of the soon-to-be-four-time-Super-Bowl-Champion New England Patriots.

Pros:
Variety of seasons, weather, countryside, architecture, culture

Cons:
Getting more expensive and congested
Tourists (if it's tourist season, how come we can't shoot them?)
Traffic (especially along I-95 in the summer)

[rph802]

Hey Mark

Much as I may have bashed Ct in my post, I live in Hamden and North Haven for about five years. That part of CT never impressed me but I did look at a condo up off Rte 8(or 80??) in Guilford. Couldnt believe how different it was being so close to paraphrase you, the unending strip mall that is I-95. Love the sentiment bout tourist season!!

Craig

[FGanger]

I'd love to pipe in with something to say about Illinois. Something good that is. This is my 5th and last year here. I've been to other places in this state and they all seem nicer and prettier than my stinking part of the state.

Perhaps I've got jaded tastes, after living 30 years in Alaska it's difficult to really be impressed by other places. This is especially true if one likes the out-of-doors.

In another year ("9 months" my wife chimes in) we will be living in a very nice section of Florida. Yes, there are still some nice sections of Florida left, especially if one likes boating. So if this thread is still around, I'll be happy to add to it.

Frank

[garylspolar]

Ohio:

Nuttin' wrong with keeping yer kids in cages, right?
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u ... hildren_13

[Shaman]

Montana is a terrible, terrible place to live.

Desparate peasants are everywhere. Illiterate mobs of the great unwashed grovel at the feet of tourists and passers-by; begging for money, alchohol, canned goods or a merciful death to quench their misery.

Wow, and I was considering a career change there for 15k more a year.
I better rethink that.

[gelbe Kulter]

latakia77 wrote:
Montana is a terrible, terrible place to live.
Desparate peasants are everywhere. Illiterate mobs of the great unwashed grovel at the feet of tourists and passers-by; begging for money, alchohol, canned goods or a merciful death to quench their misery.

Shaman wrote:
Wow, and I was considering a career change there for 15k more a year.
I better rethink that.

Yeah, that's what he wants you to do. "Don't move here with the mountains and the fresh air and the rich people with their "ranches" and the tourists who come back year after year. You wouldn't like it."

[arkline]

Yeah, that's what he wants you to do. "Don't move here with the mountains and the fresh air and the rich people with their "ranches" and the tourists who come back year after year. You wouldn't like it."

Well, at least it was tongue in cheek and subtle. Oregon, to my south, had an active "You can visit and leave your money, but don't even think about moving here." campaign going on for years and years. Quite hostile to those from California who looked on the vast, largely unpopulated areas and said, "Yummy".

I live in Seattle, Warshington (there is no "r" in Washington).

Pros
The environment is as varied as it gets anywhere in the continental US. Got mountains and rivers and lakes and and ocean and other stuff coming out our ears. And close by, too. Mostly green much of the year. At least on this side of the Cascades. This variety promotes any number of activities - bicycling, serious bicycling, boating, kayaking, snowshoeing, rock climbing, mountain climbing, volcano climbing, hiking, motorcycling, fishing, scuba diving (with appropriate wet or dry suit), camping, etc.. Or just sitting around.

The climate is pretty much what Goldilocks ordered up. Not too hot and not too cold. If we had seasons, we'd call them light and dark. During the "fall" and "winter" the sun doesn't get rolling very early or stay up very late. You go to work in the dark and come home in the dark. During the dark season, it can be quite damp. During the "light" season, the sun is popping up around 4:30 in the morning and doesn't really go down until 10 or so at night. Lately the light season has been dryer than normal and that is good for riding. On an interesting day you can get three or four distinct kinds of weather, one after the other.

Seattle is provincially cosmopolitan. Which means...a great variety of restaurants, live theater, bars, taverns, movie houses, coffee houses, and so on. Museums, institutions of higher learning, parks, parks, parks. Provincial in that there is a sort of quaint boosterism that exists in smaller towns.

We are very, very PC. Because there are so many different kinds of people living here and you wouldn't want to pi$$ someone off, would you? Or hurt their feelings? Geez...

Cons
Beginning in the early eighties, people began to move here from all over and the population continues to rise. This has resulted in some fantastically bad traffic, horrible transportation problems, urban sprawl where sprawl can occur, and an amazing rise in the cost of housing. Now, I know southern Cal has worse traffic and such, but I can remember when the freeway here was almost devoid of cars after nine or so at night. And I liked it.

We are very, very PC. Which makes having a dry sense of humor a big problem. Nobody can tell if you're being funny or serious. Or both.

We have a tendency to have the earth do these little dances that remind you that life is short. Disconcerting. And expensive at times. Did you really want a fireplace with a brick chimney???

We aren't as friendly as we think we are. And we're a damned site less courteous too. Being polite while clenching your teeth is not friendly or courteous...

[JCsman]

I left off one key factor for Alabama:

It's the ONLY state home to EVERY poisonous snake native to North America.



Uhhh, I guess that's a "con".

- Bill

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I feel the urge.....the urge to surge