Which State Would You Never Choose to Move to?

[Chewbecca]

LOL, I was about to say tornadoes really aren't that bad. I've been in a tornado and I've been in an earthquake, and the earthquake was definitely more alarming. You get warning with tornadoes too though not as long as you get with a hurricane... though generally you get a feel for the weather patterns and know when "tornado weather" is coming, so you know that the weather can take a bad turn within the next day or so.

Most people living in a city will never in their lives actually experience a tornado. Yes, I've been in one - but my mom and dad, who were sitting at home which is literally just a few miles away from work, didn't experience it. Mostly you just have warnings and watches and you go sit in the basement or in the bathtub and watch TV/listen to the radio for a while, sometimes you end up taking a nap, and then it's over and you go back to your life as usual.

Now, if I lived out in the middle of the country, yes, I might be slightly more on edge... but the plan of action would be the same. Go to the basement, hunker down, and wait it out. But honestly my biggest concern living in the country in the Midwest would be the **** deer running across the road all the time. Tornado? PFFT. Deer damage to my car? Now that's something to be worried about.

The ONLY time I fear a tornado is if I am not near a suitable shelter once "tornado weather" hits.
I've lived in Illinois my entire life, and you can FEEL the weather shift into tornado gear. And THAT is more a warning than any newsflash they could put over the radio, tv, or whatever.

I can almost SMELL tornado weather.

You just know to get down low and, like Beanie said, wait it out.


I could never live in California, Ohio, FLORIDA, Mississippi, Arkansas or Louisiana. Not that they aren't great states to visit for me, but I couldn't not reside in them.
I can totally live without having the ocean anywhere near me every single day of my life. I could live with just visiting it.

California would irritate me because I think I am too confrontational to live in that state. :lol-sign:

 

[hankster]

Nevada - it's become such a depressing place. Highest in lots of things like unemployment and foreclosures - things you don't want to be highest in.

 

[Gypsydals]

For me its not just one state. But pretty much all of the east coast, most of the west coast (too many people on either end) and the north side (too **** cold). With the exception of MI on the northside, oddly enough we don't get anywhere near as cold as WI. I wouldn't live in the northern part of MI though. Because it does get down right cold there.

 

[CaliTerp07]

I could live anywhere for a couple years, if the jobs were right.

Top of my list that I would avoid though is Texas. I don't like the weather, the culture, the politics, or the (majority of) the people I've met there. I've been to San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston, and not one of the cities holds any allure to me.

Beyond that, I don't want to go anywhere in the south. The school systems in Georgia/Florida/Louisiana/South Carolina/etc are horrible and getting worse, and since my profession as of next year will be a math teacher, that's something I need to be concerned about. It would drive me absolutely crazy to be around people who didn't make education a #1 priority. (That's my favorite thing about living in the DC area--how respected schooling is).

Add to that that I don't want to live more than an hour or two from the ocean, or anywhere that drops below 30 degrees for weeks on end in the winter. My final list of "desirable" states is pretty darn small, actually:

California (southern, preferably, for the weather), Oregon, parts of Washington, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina.

I wouldn't mind living in a smaller town (somewhere between 100-150k residents would be ideal, I think), but finding something like that with any sort of tech industry for jobs is challenging.

 

[Paige]

any of them. proud canadian right here.

 

[MPP]

A friend of mine always claimed that when she retired, she was going to move to South Dakota and double the number of black people living there. (She lied, though. Here she is, still living in Fort Lauderdale.)

 

[MelissaCato]

I've been to 41 of the 50 states. I'd take a second residence in any one of them. Although my primary state will always stay in PA.