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f13.net  |  f13.net General Forums  |  General Discussion  |  Serious Business  |  Topic: Reflections from my time in the Northeast (Rhode Island) 0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
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Author Topic: Reflections from my time in the Northeast (Rhode Island)  (Read 17675 times)
Khaldun
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Reply #35 on: September 11, 2016, 02:08:07 PM

Except I have to say that in a lot of the American West, even the people who never left are more optimistic on the whole about the possibilities. When they're nuts, it's often an interesting kind of frontier nuts. The East's predominant mood away from the city cores and their suburbs is "sullen". Upper New England is the main exception, where it's kind of flinty-tough, which is sometimes admirable and sometimes a bit scary.
Nebu
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Reply #36 on: September 11, 2016, 03:05:12 PM

I enjoyed living in the mountain west FAR more than the NE.  I thought that people out west had a healthy attitude about their lot in life and seldom felt a chip on their shoulder.  East coast is filled with angry, bitter people that feel everything is someone else's fault. 


"Always do what is right. It will gratify half of mankind and astound the other."

-  Mark Twain
MahrinSkel
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Reply #37 on: September 11, 2016, 04:11:47 PM

The mountain west has a cultural quirk that knocks the roughest edge off their attitude towards outsiders: If you don't like someone but you don't know them well, you express it by being painfully polite. "After you" is their version of a northeastern "Fuck off".

--Dave

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Shannow
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Reply #38 on: September 11, 2016, 04:29:28 PM

The winters make people arseholes. That and the traffic.

Outside of that, did someone from NE once kill your puppy Schild?

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schild
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Reply #39 on: September 11, 2016, 04:41:49 PM

Is it wrong to observe a place being a total shithole? Why'd it have to do something to me?
Venkman
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Reply #40 on: September 11, 2016, 06:49:27 PM

Oh sorry, to your question about my "real tri state area" comment earlier. NYC tri-state area of NJ, CT, and NY. That's the one I grew up at, so it's the real one. smiley
schild
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Reply #41 on: September 11, 2016, 07:00:27 PM

oh I see

CT and NJ fucking blow and New York has one city that doesn't and really, most of it still does
schild
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Reply #42 on: September 11, 2016, 07:09:43 PM

Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of GREAT shit in NYC. Like, really great shit. But like, the city is surrounded by garbage. Don't even get me started on Long Island. Ugggggggggggggggh.
Draegan
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Reply #43 on: September 12, 2016, 01:50:41 AM

The Northeast includes PA, NY and NJ while New England is Connecticut through Maine.
Draegan
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Reply #44 on: September 12, 2016, 01:52:36 AM

Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of GREAT shit in NYC. Like, really great shit. But like, the city is surrounded by garbage. Don't even get me started on Long Island. Ugggggggggggggggh.

No one not on Long Island think there is anything of value there.
Khaldun
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Reply #45 on: September 12, 2016, 04:07:37 AM

Montauk and Shelter Island are vaguely sort of ok. The rest of LI is a toilet.
Shannow
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Reply #46 on: September 12, 2016, 04:13:45 AM

Is it wrong to observe a place being a total shithole? Why'd it have to do something to me?

Your particular vehemence for the region is amusing though. You're from Austin right? Do you live downtown there or out in the burbs? I'd argue that pretty much any city in America is a cultural wasteland outside of downtown, some just look shinier (I'm looking at you Midwest).

Someone liked something? Who the fuzzy fuck was this heretic? You don't come to this website and enjoy something. Fuck that. ~ The Walrus
Khaldun
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Reply #47 on: September 12, 2016, 05:51:57 AM

See, I dunno--I think there are cities which actually have interesting transitions from urban to rural, and cities that have interesting rural areas near them. And small cities that aren't intensely urban but are interesting.

I think that's my favorite, actually--small cities/big towns that are interesting. They don't really have dull outer suburbs, they're just big enough that everything that's there is "the city/town". There really are almost none of those in the US Northeast. I sort of like Portland ME but it gets pretty overwhelmed with tourists in the summer. Brattleboro, Bennington and Burlington are all sort of ok in Vermont. Great Barrington in MA is a good place, but it's just barely a large town. Actually some good food. Nothing in CT that is big town/small city is nice. Nothing in NJ, nothing in upstate NY, nothing in PA qualifies. Whereas I think the West has a lot of rather nice smaller cities/large towns. Even the South has a few.
Merusk
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Reply #48 on: September 12, 2016, 07:43:23 AM

I can never roll my eyes hard enough at people who call us life outside of big cities a 'wasteland.' They're typically the same assholes who say you have to go to rural cities in Europe to, 'see the REAL <country>,' and are immune to the dissonance of both opinions.

The past cannot be changed. The future is yet within your power.
schild
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Reply #49 on: September 12, 2016, 07:59:51 AM

There's a difference between visiting and having to deal with the ramifications of poor hick boondock fuckwits voting against their interests and allowing people like Trump to run.

I'm not saying this is political, I'm saying rural America is full of stupid. Stupid that affects us. Rural Europe is nice for food and saying how quaint it is.
Draegan
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Reply #50 on: September 12, 2016, 08:22:26 AM

See, I dunno--I think there are cities which actually have interesting transitions from urban to rural, and cities that have interesting rural areas near them. And small cities that aren't intensely urban but are interesting.

I think that's my favorite, actually--small cities/big towns that are interesting. They don't really have dull outer suburbs, they're just big enough that everything that's there is "the city/town". There really are almost none of those in the US Northeast. I sort of like Portland ME but it gets pretty overwhelmed with tourists in the summer. Brattleboro, Bennington and Burlington are all sort of ok in Vermont. Great Barrington in MA is a good place, but it's just barely a large town. Actually some good food. Nothing in CT that is big town/small city is nice. Nothing in NJ, nothing in upstate NY, nothing in PA qualifies. Whereas I think the West has a lot of rather nice smaller cities/large towns. Even the South has a few.

I dig the Morristown area and Chester area.
Draegan
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Reply #51 on: September 12, 2016, 08:23:35 AM

There's a difference between visiting and having to deal with the ramifications of poor hick boondock fuckwits voting against their interests and allowing people like Trump to run.

I'm not saying this is political, I'm saying rural America is full of stupid. Stupid that affects us. Rural Europe is nice for food and saying how quaint it is.

Rural Europe has a chance of having something older than 100 years which makes it interesting, sometimes.
Khaldun
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Reply #52 on: September 12, 2016, 08:25:14 PM

We drove through Morristown a few times when we lived in New Brunswick NJ. Seemed kind of interesting--I think we found a cool antiques place.

I also sort of like New Hope/Lambertville, though not on summer weekends when the bikers come up in droves. Delaware Water Gap is a beautiful rural area/park also.

Lewes Delaware/Cape Henlopen is also slightly more funky/interesting than the usual East Coast beach towns.

But almost everywhere that I sort of-kind of like takes special pleading of some kind or another out here.
Draegan
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Reply #53 on: September 13, 2016, 04:30:11 AM

I lived in New Brunswick for 22 years or so. Weird.

Morristown, Chatham and Madison have some great restaurants.
Rendakor
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Reply #54 on: September 13, 2016, 05:36:56 AM

See, I dunno--I think there are cities which actually have interesting transitions from urban to rural, and cities that have interesting rural areas near them. And small cities that aren't intensely urban but are interesting.

I think that's my favorite, actually--small cities/big towns that are interesting. They don't really have dull outer suburbs, they're just big enough that everything that's there is "the city/town". There really are almost none of those in the US Northeast. I sort of like Portland ME but it gets pretty overwhelmed with tourists in the summer. Brattleboro, Bennington and Burlington are all sort of ok in Vermont. Great Barrington in MA is a good place, but it's just barely a large town. Actually some good food. Nothing in CT that is big town/small city is nice. Nothing in NJ, nothing in upstate NY, nothing in PA qualifies. Whereas I think the West has a lot of rather nice smaller cities/large towns. Even the South has a few.

I dig the Morristown area and Chester area.
Chester, PA or Chester, NJ? The latter I've never been to, but the former is an absolute crime-ridden shithole that I have the misfortune of working in all too often.

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Draegan
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Reply #55 on: September 13, 2016, 06:08:36 AM

NJ.
Venkman
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Reply #56 on: September 13, 2016, 08:13:54 AM

NJ is a good example of everywhere.

The stereotype is the NJ turnpike driving past oil tanks, or the ridiculous number of lanes on the Garden State that really should be way the hell more than enough to handle what is still always bumper to bumper traffic.

But there's some gorgeous areas in the state, mostly south and northwest.

And those gorgeous areas have little hamlets of insular people who couldn't care any more for beyond their town borders than anywhere USA.  Ohhhhh, I see.

As to Long Island, the one thing it has is bagels. I've never been anywhere else in the US that has them as good, even Manhatten.

That's nothing like a reason to live there of course  Oh ho ho ho. Reallllly?
Khaldun
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Reply #57 on: September 14, 2016, 05:17:16 AM

I don't think anybody likes Chester PA, even people that live in it. (Maybe especially people that live in it.) Though I often feel sorry for Chester--it's a good example of what happened to the East Coast, because it was a boom town full of hope until the early 1960s, when all the industry suddenly just left.
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Reply #58 on: September 14, 2016, 08:40:03 AM

Yea, you could feel that shit within 2 weeks of moving to Providence. I mean hell, all the old industrial buildnigs have been turned into lofts. Shit, I live in one of the hundred+ year old mills.

Shame such a cool living space is in such an utter shithole.
Sky
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Reply #59 on: September 14, 2016, 09:33:52 AM

A place is what you make it. The key is finding like-minded people and creating a community that basically ignores all the negative people.

I remember being out at one of the great little music establishments here up in the woods behind the lake. Great local band playing, bunch of old friends and new sitting around on the porch outside the venue drinking world-class local beer. Some fat gothtard chainsmoking and complaining about what a shithole the city was and how she wishes she was in whereverthefuck (I was trying to ignore her stupid, ignorant rant). I asked her what would she be doing differently, what is better than good brews with good friends with good music playing on a beautiful night.

I happen to love the Northeast and New England, but it's undeniable that a lot of people love to bitch about how shitty it is and then do zero point zero to improve it. That's changing in a big way, but there's still that background of negativity that makes it tough at times.

Really noticeable in the government, too. The Class of 88 is getting an infamous reputation because we're pretty much taking over the city and getting it into a really cool place (police chief, chamber, council, etc). So much pushback from the old way of doing things, but it's slowly getting better. The only way to fix it is to target and remove the cancerous people from the equation.

So yeah. If you just want to leave your family behind and relocate to somewhere that doesn't require you to actually do anything to improve your city, that's an option. I'd rather stay here with my family and friends in the place I grew up in and love and make it a better place.
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Reply #60 on: September 14, 2016, 09:53:06 AM

It's ok for places to suck.

Also, not all of us want to be townies who live in the place we grew up in. That's how you end up with Providence.
Khaldun
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Reply #61 on: September 14, 2016, 05:09:51 PM

There is some validity to saying that it's easier for a place to suck when you suck, or you are unwilling to reach out for chances to find the unsuck in things.

But some places really do just suck.
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Reply #62 on: September 15, 2016, 08:35:38 AM

Sometimes there are no like-minded people nearby.

Why am I homeless?  Why do all you motherfuckers need homes is the real question.
They called it The Prayer, its answer was law
Mommy come back 'cause the water's all gone
schild
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Reply #63 on: September 15, 2016, 10:12:07 AM

I live in a building with like-minded people. Like-minded people being miserable together doesn't make a place less not shitty. It just presents a nice illusionary bubble to live in while the dread creeps in.
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Reply #64 on: September 15, 2016, 12:14:15 PM

Maybe if you sat in a circle and held hands?

Why am I homeless?  Why do all you motherfuckers need homes is the real question.
They called it The Prayer, its answer was law
Mommy come back 'cause the water's all gone
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