United States. Tell me the pride of your state.

[Guest]

I am curious about all the different states.

What is your state? Past or present is okay if you've lived in one previously that you admired.

What do you like about your state?

Why is your state awesome?

What's it like to live in your state?

 

Would you recommend someone to live in your state? If yes, why?

If not, I'll take your word for it. Don't want to get too political & locked.

 

Anything else I should know about your state?

[PlayStation 2]

I live in Alabama. It's a state that's changed quite a lot in the last 60 years. It's a cheap state to live in comparatively. Only thing that really kinda sucks is sales tax. It clocks in at a rather high 9%.

There's not much particularly noteworthy nowadays with Alabama, but there's a lot of high-paying jobs in Huntsville, so long as you have the skills. Those jobs can get you into a decent house easily. There's a lot of 90s GM piles of shit here that barely run that go for 2 grand if that's notable. Is it worth living here? It's not a bad state to live in, after being here for eight years. Anything actually interesting (unless you live in Mobile) is a drive away, but you aren't far from Atlanta and Nashville if you live in Huntsville, at least. 

 

Just don't go to Arab. By far, the worst city in Alabama, including the dilapidated hellholes that are Birmingham and Montgomery.

[AMDeeznuts]

Ive lived in kansas for almost my whole life, (moved to CA for a few years, just...dont go there.) After being there from 17-20 years of age I really appreciate our cost of living out here. And the general quality of people is much more kind and down to earth. Idk if id say its awesome. Theres nothing super amazing about it, but theres nothing bad either. If someone needed a place where jobs are somewhat available, non-expensive cost of living, and definitely likes the idea of small town living, for sure come here. If you dont like constant weather changes, lots of small towns and countryside, maybe dont come here. Interesting tidbit, its honestly not as flat as everyone makes it out to be. Its pretty flat in some areas, but not as much as people make it seem. Dunno whos interested, but I needed something to do while on the throne.

[pm128]

I live in Serbia- oops

[sora.sky]

Southern California (Los Angeles). California is so huge and diverse that such distinctions should be made.

 

I will say don't come and live here if you don't know what you're gonna do. Also if you hate the traffic and are sensitive to poor air quality (which in LA's defense has been gotten orders of magnitudes better within one generation). Cost of living is a b***h but its basic supply/demand at work sadly. Personally I will likely be leaving LA after finishing my CS degree as LA is not a tech hub to the degree other cities in the US are.

 

I will say that LA is one of the most diverse cities in the world, and the food and culture scene reflects upon it. As a foodie, living in a locale without a rich and varied immigrant population isn't fun. We're also close to varied activities and I've done the "surfing one day, go skiing the next day" thing during the winter months. LA also has a ton of different ethnic enclaves, including my own which makes connecting with the culture of the homeland easier and buying specialty items a lot easier. I've done the "living in small town America" and it is most definitely not for me.

[Mooshi]

I'll go by the current state I reside in and that's Arizona.

 

For the most part it's been pretty chill (and too damn hot most of the year), but been here for 5 years so.. One if the cool things is no food tax and lower cost of living. The mountains are also beautiful! What I recommend it? Depends on which city. Tucson for sure, not so much Phoenix. Before I came here I had all sorts of negative vibes from the state until I later discovered it was Maricopa county that's a huge yikes.

[PhantomJaguarr]

I’m from California, southern part.

 

If we were a country by itself we’d be in the top ten economies in the world. Also, we are known as the bread basket of the world.

 

Quote

California is the world’s fifth largest supplier of food and agriculture commodities

http://eb5northerncalifornia.com/index.php?page=breadbasket-of-the-world
 

We have a diverse landscape from mountain ranges, deserts, forests, and beaches. I’ve visited Yosemite National Park and it was a pleasing change of scenery from home. We’re also known for our earthquakes and wildfires. I’ve experienced both. Don’t think I’ll ever budge from San Diego though. Can’t imagine not living by a beach. Plus we’re hardly mentioned in natural disaster movies.

[handymanshandle]

I live in Minnesota was born here too... because I’ve been discontent with its political leadership I can’t really say nice things about  it...

 

the weather is mostly fine, winter is cold as hell.

 

Minnesota nice is a god damn lie, it’s really Minnesota Ice because of how passively hostile people here can be or otherwise. 

 

Minneapolis was where some cool stuff was but now I only recognize the airport as the landmark of the city because of how horribly that city is being ran. 
I guess Duluth and the Minnesota River Valley are nice areas. 

[handymanshandle]

7 hours ago, PhantomJaguar77 said:

I’m from California, southern part.

 

If we were a country by itself we’d be in the top ten economies in the world. Also, we are known as the bread basket of the world.

 

http://eb5northerncalifornia.com/index.php?page=breadbasket-of-the-world
 

We have a diverse landscape from mountain ranges, deserts, forests, and beaches. I’ve visited Yosemite National Park and it was a pleasing change of scenery from home. We’re also known for our earthquakes and wildfires. I’ve experienced both. Don’t think I’ll ever budge from San Diego though. Can’t imagine not living by a beach. Plus we’re hardly mentioned in natural disaster movies.

WI > CA Dairy No Cap

Yall ain’t even compare to Wisconsin, just imposters smh

 

my boyfriend is originally from SoCal and ironically my dad is from NorCal lol but I don’t really know my dad well lol

Edited September 28, 2020 by pinksnowbirdie
corrected a sentence.

[Rybo]

Florida.  

Disney pays our state income taxes for us.  Tons of coastline with all kinds of water activities.  We also have the gulf coast if you want a calmer/warmer beach.  Then you can go to the interior and get the rural experience.  I live in a solidly suburban area, but I have friends who live just outside of town with huge ranches and horses and they have shooting ranges in their backyards, etc.  So I can go 20 minutes in one direction to go jet skiing, 20 minutes in the other direction to horse ride across a rural landscape, 20 minutes in yet another direction to see shirtless rednecks in top-hats riding alligators.  

[Real_PhillBert]

North Dakota

 

This is our version of a traffic jam:

 

 

I really like living in ND, it's certainly not for everyone, and the winter are.. Rough, but about the only place I would consider moving to instead of ND would be the mountains of MT. 

[IkeaGnome]

I am curious about all the different states.

What is your state? Past or present is okay if you've lived in one previously that you admired. Born in Washington state, but live in Alaska.

What do you like about your state? You have a lot more (without getting political) general "freedom" than outside. Want to homestead, live off the grid and only go to town once a month or so if you have to? Go ahead. 

Why is your state awesome? We hold almost half of total US national park land with 8 different national parks. Homesteading, iditarod, mining, besides Fairbanks in winter, loooow polution, fresh air. We have one of the last railroads that you can use a pull cord to have the conductor stop and you just hop off the train and walk back into the woods to go hunting, fishing, camping, what ever you want to do. We have one of the oldest marathon races in America, the Mount Marathon race every 4th of July. Depending on who you ask it started in 1908, 09 or 1912. All the general out doors activities. I could go on.

What's it like to live in your state? Generally pretty good. The summer time is awesome with 16+ hours of light depending on where you live. Makes up for long dark winters(be ready for seasonal affective disorder to hit hard if you have it). Summers depending on where you are range from highs of 15 or 16C to 32C. Where I live we tend to be closer to 25ish C in summer. Winters get cold. Where I'm at generally hits -20C at least one full week. Some places get colder, seeing -40 or -45C. Some stay warmer not going much below 0. Alaska is large. For work I drive almost 2 hours to the airport. Fly to a different city in Alaska, 90 minute or so flight on a 737, take a bus for a little over an hour. Then I have an almost hour long boat ride then another 15 minute bus ride to get to camp. I can drive 5 or 6 hours south and hit Seward for the weekend, or drive 9+ hours north *JUST* to get to Fairbanks. There's another day or so of driving to hit the Arctic Ocean. 

 

Would you recommend someone to live in your state? If yes, why? Yes if you enjoy being outside, having the option to go weeks without seeing people. 

If not, I'll take your word for it. Don't want to get too political & locked.

 

Anything else I should know about your state?

In general, the people up here want to live up here. For the most part if people don't like it, they leave. People are generally really friendly. UPS regularly leaves my packages about 1km or so away at my neighbors house. Either I just go over and get them or he brings them to my house when he sees them. I'll attach a couple pictures. The map is Alaska over western EU without the Mercator projection. 

 

Spoiler

 

Edit: forgot to mention that the cost of living is high because of logistics, but it's made up in pay. Wages up here are high. Minimum wage is $7.77, but it hasn't been raised because most places, even fast food, start well above it. Librarians start at $20 ish, in mining, I started at $22.

[PlayStation 2]

2 hours ago, pinksnowbirdie said:

WI > CA Dairy No Cap

Yall ain’t even compare to Wisconsin, just imposters smh

 

my boyfriend is originally from SoCal and ironically my dad is from NorCal lol but I don’t really know my dad well lol

Can confirm, I'm a SoCal fucker through and through. I half-miss living there, but I 100% wouldn't want to deal with the living costs. 

And for those who say that I'm exaggerating, well... I've got most of my family out there, but more specifically, one of my uncles brings in over six figures a year and still lives in a relatively dinky three-bed single story house out in San Bernadino County driving a 2nd gen Honda Odyssey.

[Donut417]

I live in South East Michigan. Where it’s clear and sunny one day and the next day it’s a damned Blizzard. So I’ll say Michigan is not for the faint of heart. We have Winters that are -30 degrees to having large amounts of snow. We have summers that can be triple digits. 
 

We do have some beautiful parks and lakes however. From the little I have seen of the UP, it’s really nice and peaceful up there. So much so I could never live there, LOL. 
 

BTW our state color is orange, which is based on our state flower the orange barrel, frequently seen at road construction site. 

 

The state flower in its natural habitat. 

[IkeaGnome]

10 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

We have Winters that are -30 degrees to having large amounts of snow. We have summers that can be triple digits. 
 

I've got a friend that moved there out of high school. You guys usually get more snow than I do. Out where I'm at we get cold dry winters. 

[Guest]

 

I'm from California, NorCal, specifically north of Sacramento. Lived my whole life here.

What do I like? I like that I live in one of the sunniest areas of the country. I like that it doesn't snow here. I like that I'm only an hour away from the mountains and not too far from the beach in the other direction. I like the beautiful places I can visit, like Yosemite and Lake Tahoe and the coastal Redwoods. No state has more geographical variety than California. 

I live in a pretty cookie-cutter suburban part of the state (it's so brand new that there are unfinished roads everywhere) but I still like it.

The bad is that it's becoming so expensive to live here that once it comes time for me to pay rent or buy a home, it probably won't be in California (especially since I probably won't want to go into tech, but who knows what'll change by then). Also the wildfires and the smoke which just gets worse every year. We had horrible air for almost a month. And where I live is a wildfire risk zone. I still don't have any particular desire to live in another state at this point, though. 

 

[IkeaGnome]

1 minute ago, Kylan275 said:

No state has more geographical variety than California. 

 

Might look into Alaska. The amount of variety we have up here will probably have you impressed. It's like people from Texas saying it's the biggest state or everything is bigger there.

 

Not quite. Just in climate types we're at a nice round 10. 

[steelo]

Kentucky 

 

What do you like about your state? Cost of living reasonably low, so long as you aren't in Lexington where you pay city taxes TWICE (I kid you not, you pay a Lexington city tax and then another tax for a road that encompasses the city), great motorcycle roads once you're in the country, fairly close to places like Nashville, Cincinnati, Cleveland.

 

Why is your state awesome? I wouldn't call it 'awesome', this state has A LOT of problems...eastern portion of state is dirt poor, Louisville and Lexington are quickly turning into slums. I moved here around 2004-2005 and Lexington actually was a pretty nice place. Since then, it has become grossly overpopulated, crime has skyrocketed (I believe it has risen 200% in the past decade) and traffic is almost intolerable...no, it's nothing like LA or NYC but the transit system cannot handle the sheer number of people traveling. Education system in this state is woefully inadequate.

 

What's it like to live in your state - As is the case in just about every state, you have 3 main types of people...the ultra snobs (in KY, it is usually the horse farm owners) who seem to have all of the power,  the poor - and I mean dirt poor, and then the middle class who seem to carry the burden. One thing I greatly enjoyed about NY was the sheer number of attractions, camp grounds and lakes. KY is VERY limited when it comes to this. The people native to here seem to care about 2 things...horses and college basketball.

 

I know this was a pretty negative review, but I honestly do not enjoy living in this state and wouldn't recommend it.

[aDoomGuy]

12 hours ago, handymanshandle said:

Only thing that really kinda sucks is sales tax. It clocks in at a rather high 9%.

I'm sorry for going off topic but I had to comment on this. 9% sales tax is high? Well don't come to Norway as we have 25% lol.

 

[/off topic]

[IkeaGnome]

1 minute ago, aDoomGuy said:

I'm sorry for going off topic but I had to comment on this. 9% sales tax is high? Well don't come to Norway as we have 25% lol.

 

[/off topic]

We don't have a state sales tax. Towns, cities, and villages can set their own. For the most part the only places with sales tax are tourist towns and some of them have exemptions for state residents. The stuff that would be normally funded with sales tax comes from the oil surplus fund. The places that do have it average 3-6%

[aDoomGuy]

1 minute ago, Voluspa said:

We don't have a state sales tax. Towns, cities, and villages can set their own. For the most part the only places with sales tax are tourist towns and some of them have exemptions for state residents. The stuff that would be normally funded with sales tax comes from the oil surplus fund. The places that do have it average 3-6%

3% sales tax... Sounds too good to be true...

[IkeaGnome]

Just now, aDoomGuy said:

3% sales tax... Sounds too good to be true...

Since this goes with the thread and can be added to my post about Alaska. The majority of the state has no sales tax. There's just a handful of places with any sort of super low sales tax. We don't have a state income tax. When I file my taxes, it's federal only. We do have poorer infrastructure in part because of this, but it's also due to other challenges. Earthquakes, frost heaves etc. We do get a UBI type check once a year. It's calculated based on interest on a fund that was set up in 1980. It fluctuates. One year it was $300ish for each resident and we've seen it as high as $2000. Most of the typical stuff that sales tax is covered by is paid for by oil and mining companies. Taxes for them/us, permitting etc. It's also covered by the tourist industry. Hunting and fishing permits, docking fees at ports for cruise ships. That type of stuff. 

[Nowak]

Massachusetts. Rather expensive, but at least the sales tax is decent at 6.25%.

 

We had the original Silicon Valley. A lot of things we use every day, including the microwave and telephone, were invented here. The internet was made public here, in 1989. We've got Boston, a major political and economic powerhouse for the northeast. We have the highest educational standards in the country. Everyone knows us for our accents, JFK and Boston, really. If I hear "pahk the cah in Hahvahd Yahd" one more time-

[Rybo]

16 minutes ago, Voluspa said:

Since this goes with the thread and can be added to my post about Alaska. The majority of the state has no sales tax. There's just a handful of places with any sort of super low sales tax. We don't have a state income tax. When I file my taxes, it's federal only. We do have poorer infrastructure in part because of this, but it's also due to other challenges. Earthquakes, frost heaves etc. We do get a UBI type check once a year. It's calculated based on interest on a fund that was set up in 1980. It fluctuates. One year it was $300ish for each resident and we've seen it as high as $2000. Most of the typical stuff that sales tax is covered by is paid for by oil and mining companies. Taxes for them/us, permitting etc. It's also covered by the tourist industry. Hunting and fishing permits, docking fees at ports for cruise ships. That type of stuff. 

Funnily enough, I know this because of the Simpsons movie.  Isn't the fund that pays state taxes + your pseudo UBI funded through oil companies?  

[PhantomJaguarr]

5 hours ago, pinksnowbirdie said:

WI > CA Dairy No Cap

Yall ain’t even compare to Wisconsin, just imposters smh

Nah. I regularly follow news of natural disasters in our country and after following the Polar Vortex in 2014, I'm glad I don't live in any of the northern States. I'm just spoiled to having a sunny day at around a perfect mid-70sF most of the year. And that's reflected in part by the high cost of living here..

Edited September 28, 2020 by PhantomJaguar77