Your town

[ArenaBoy]

This is meant to rant about the idiocies of your town, state, province, county, and all that.

For me it's Michigan and Detroit. Job market here sucks, the Big Three refuse to get with the times, Detroit is on a steady decline, and if you so much suggest public transportation people freak out (Motor City).

I myself am planning on moving out of state. I am applying to Northwestern in Chicago to stay close to family and am considering the University of Toronto.

So even if you love where you live what do you hate about some things?

[CancelMyService]

Pittsburgh's actually a pretty nice place to live. I hate that people outside of here can't get past the "Smoky City" stuff. Seriously, that was like 50 years ago dudes. I laughed when they had a preseason Steelers game on national TV and they came back from commerical with a video of liquid steel being poured. The announcer was all "WELL WITH A SCENE LIKE THAT, YOU KNOW WE MUST BE IN PITTSBURGH" and I'm wondering how far they had to travel to find a working steel mill in the area, there's only 1 or 2 max off the top of my head still operating.

The only bad thing about Pittsburgh is that it's as if the city is in some sort of perpetual time warp where we're 10 years behind the rest of the world. The Southside of Pittsburgh is home to the largest collection of mullets in captivity. Any attempt at updating or modernization is met with a screaming legion of old farts who don't want to chancge from the old days. Sometimes it's irritating, but it's usually more entertaining since the changes usually get done anyway.


Statewise it's a little more annoying as PA likes to party like it's 1899 with their state stores and no beer/wine in stores policies. I know we were founded by Quakers, but goddammit it's 2007, time to get with the program. I felt like someone from the Soviet Union when I went into a Publix in Orlando and saw they had A BEER AISLE! OMGZ!

Also the description of PA as "Pittsburgh on one side, Philly on the other, and Alabama in the middle" is pretty much spot on. Take that for what you will. However we did finally tell Rick Santorum to GTFO, so yay for that.

[Dreamstalker]

Boston (Brookline) is OK but for a few things. There's a quite large social rift, and damn does it show in the public schools (kids can be brutal if they find out your family isn't near perfect--not country-club perfect, but your parents have to be well-off and not renting a place). I'm still surprised I survived.

In NM, you could get a State ID from one of the 'express" DMV locations...sure it cost a few more bucks, but it took 10 minutes instead of 2 hours and an argument with the clerk over what was acceptable for ID (I didn't have my social security card, the clerk at the express location said as long as I knew the number it was fine*). The express locations here don't/can't do it, for an unknown reason...they can reissue/replace IDs, but not issue them. The only difference really between the two is a form you can get online, so I don't quite get why it's not doable.

* I thought an SSN could not be used for ID purposes except by the SSA itself?

[Greenday]

Well, back home in Jersey (that's Jersey, not Joisey, no one says that here), I only have a few pet peeves. Gossip seems to be everyone's main hobby. Anything and everything that happens in my town is instantly know by everyone. It's ridiculous.

I also hate the ridiculous amount of benny's that come to my area when it gets warm out. They think they are the best thing to ever be born on this world and act like it. I'd really like it if they could keep the hell out of my state.

As for problems with the state itself, the insurance is total crap. One of my old teachers moved to South Carolina, and brought her BRAND NEW BMW. I'm paying nearly six times as much as she is on insurance and I'm driving a 2000 Cavalier. That's messed up.

As with my school in PA, I'm sick of people thinking Philly is the coolest place ever. Philly sucks compared to NYC, I don't want to hear it. And their sports fans are the biggest asses ever. I catch shit for walking around in a New York Jets jersey. The Eagles and the Jets aren't even in the same conference!

And what the hell is up with all their highways? Why are there three-lane highways with speed limits of 50mph? First sign of a cop and traffic literally does not move. And half the time there isn't even a cop in the car! Learn to freaking drive. And there is no turn on red most lights. Why!?

[rahmota]

Well the job market in SW Ohio is not exactly the best either. Mostly its dead man's boots or equivalent to being back in the tubes trying to get to the egg.

Also theres the city folk moving out the the country and building shroomhouses and complainging there isnt enough infrastructure or its too dirty or otherwise not fitting in well.

Some of the laws in Ohio are just plain dumb, annoying and set up by city people for the city life and dont work so well out in the country but oh well. Either that or the big companies bought and paid to ahve the laws put on the books as it benefits them.

Some good news Portsmouth may be getting another steel mill back. A russian company is investigating the possibility of investing in the old one there. That would be cool.

[XCashier]

I really like Eugene, especially now that the leaves are changing color. I didn't know leaves could turn so many colors; back in Phoenix, they just turned brown.

The one thing I don't like about Eugene is the layout of the streets. They go here, there and everywhere, twisting, turning, go back onto themselves or dead end. Freeway onramps/offramps can be frightening, sometimes they're on the right, sometimes on the left, sometimes with only a split-second's clearance. Often, it's next to impossible to find an address, even having researched it on Google maps beforehand! (I loved the street layout of Phoenix; it was a grid, with few bendy streets or dead ends, which made it extremely easy to find an address.)

The job market's a bit tight here, too. From what I've read, though, it's that way almost everywhere.

[squall]

What sucks about living in North Texas is the freaky weather. Most years we have droughts where we barely see rain. But this year we were over-drenched every day of the spring and most of the summer. It was always muddy, always storming thunder and lightning and beating rain. And floods happened in a flash.

We are just enough north of the coast enough to avoid tropical storms and hurricanes, but close enough to receive alot of the rain that runs off from the region.

Some summers have many triple digit days, this summer saw very few. Spring time is tornado season. Rarely does it freeze during winter, but when it does the Texas drivers freak out and slide all over the road.

The job market can be too competitive here.

[Giggle Goose]

There's a lot to do around here and the scenery is beautiful; but I think the people here in Maryland are a bit snotty and cliquish. It's all about "old money," especially in Anne Arundel County.

[protege]

There's not much I can bitch about in Pittsburgh. Other than our baseball team sucking, the poor roads, and taxes. But, a constant thing for years, has been our declining population and a job market that sucks. Because the job market sucks (and has sucked for some time), there's little incentive to entice people fresh out of college to stay.

No matter who we get in office, be it our governor, mayor, or whoever...they all insist they "have a plan" for creating more jobs and keeping people here. Yet, these plans are forgotten as soon as they get into office, and it's "business as usual." Jobs leave, taxes go up, and our politicians sit around and bitch about it.

[tropicsgoddess]

Things that suck in Fort Lauderdale:

• The cost of living being so damn high
  
• Crappy wages that don't pay enough to at least sustain a home without working like a dog!
  
• Humidity and the brutally hot summers
  
• The public transportation system
  
• The compulsory school (K-12) education system
  
• The rat race and keeping up with the Jones' mentality
  
• Insurance of any kind being insanely high!!!

[anriana]

I love Louisville. If it was somewhere not Southern, it would be great.

[Boozy]

I like my city. We have not one but two prestigious universities, so there are lots of concerts, bookstores, art galleries, etc.

We're also the hometown of RIM (makers of the Blackberry), which is mostly a good thing. RIM built us a new, beautiful park. They also sponsor a lot of scientific research in quantum computing and theoretical physics. This led to us being named the North American Intellectual Community of 2007...no, I don't know what that means, exactly. RIM probably paid for that title, too.

The economy here is booming, and jobs are so plentiful that even retail employees like myself are getting paid far above the national average.

The downside is that real estate is incredibly pricy; small condos start at $250,000, and houses start at about $300,000. We're one of the few North American communities whose property values have continued to rise in the past year.

As much as we'd like to stay, my husband and I cannot justify buying a place in the city. As RIM goes, so go the property values, and that's a risky proposition. We're planning on building a home in the country. We just have to wait until he can work from home one or two days a week. So that's what I hate about my city - I can't afford to stay.

[Norton]

The cost of living being so damn high

Crappy wages that don't pay enough to at least sustain a home without working like a dog!

I have the same complaints about Eastern Long Island (not the rich Hamptons area, but the middle class areas nearby). Even working full time plus overtime and making more than minimum wage will not give most people enough money to pay rent plus food and transporation expenses. It's common for people in their 30's to still be living with their parents out here.

Also, I dislike the state of our Main Street. We've got one major tourist attraction there, but nearby are a lot of vacant buildings. The few good shops we have are on the other end of Main St. past all the empty stores. The tourists never seem to make it that far down the road to spend any money. There's so much potential for the street, but nothing is ever done to improve it. Actually, no - some people have put effort into making Main St. thrive, but they get no real support from the town. Main Street should be a pleasant walk amongst the shops, and not neglected and crime-ridden.

[blas87]

Oh here we go:

Wisconsin, in general, is a very high taxed state.....way up there on the list. Why are there potholes the size of JUPITER nearly everywhere you go?

Road construction nearly 9 months out of the year

Rednecks. Not country folk, not farmers....rednecks. Aka, higher middle class kids dressing like Toby Keith and acting like they live in the country when they live in the most expensive housing areas in town with doctor/lawyer parents. The adults also aren't real genuine "rednecks". They are just hicks. Real rednecks don't drive brand new Chevy Silverados or brand new Dodge Rams, and real rednecks do NOT work white collar jobs. Sorry, you lose.

Gangsters. Upper middle class white kids pretending to be black and "po". Act all badass and try to start gangs and rile stuff up.

Everything is backwards. There aren't a lot of rich people. Mr. Menard is the richest man in town......the highest we go around here is upper middle class. Most people are middle class or lower middle class. The poor people tend to act like they are entitled to everything. The poorest of the poor waltz around and snap their fingers and act like the snooty rich customers you read about on CS.com. You DON'T see a lot of Beemers or Lexus' with balding rich men acting like jackasses. You see dilapidated pieces of crap vehicles with men with mullets and women with unkept hair causing a raucus because the gas station doesn't take foodstamp cards..

[Slytovhand]

Hmmm - only 1 thing immediately jumps to mind...

I had my 8am (yep - that's peak hour!!) train cancelled 3 times in 2 weeks. And then there were the delayed ones! In afternoon peak, it's sort of rare to get your train on time. When I was down at the station at the 10pm or so (when I was working a later shift), it was fairly common to hear the PA announce the cancellation of a train (often the same one) pretty much every damn night at the same time!

That's my biggest gripe! When I moved down here (from Bris-vegas) I was amused/horrified to hear that they actually had a recorded message for cancellations - it was that damn common. At least in Bris, if a train was cancelled, you'd hear a real person tell you!