Reviews & Comments
Tucson, AZ
re: Tucson Really Sucks! - 2/10/2011 Posted On: 11/13/2012 9:37:22 AMI was seriously planning on moving to Arizona based on a (albeit shallow) friends recommendation and realized from comments like yours that Arizona seems to be the worst American region. Exhaustive research has failed to find a single cluster of accolades or even "so-so" or "kinda OK" opinions about the place. The few recommendations to live there only come from the people do directly benefit such as realtors and mortgage lenders, but every other opinion is anchored in regret, warnings and a buyers remorse about moving there.
The lack of opportunities except for those with Masters in Engineering who have better choices than working for Intel in the desert seems the common theme, a cultural toilet with a population that measures eachother by the quality of beer you drink, the height of your bumper off the ground and the stamina of your liver is the top differentiators.
Thanks for saving me from a terrible relocation mistake.
Olathe, KS
The tornadoes just hover here. Posted On: 11/13/2012 1:46:46 AMOlathe has two large employers, Garmin the dwindling GPS maker that remains resistant to the reality of integrated smart phone navigation and the county jail for the largest Kansas county.
It is the county seat for the wealthiest Kansas county (Johnson County, the cleanest dirty shirt and home to one of the nations top ranked community college).
Tornado season March - June, used to be April and May but climate change has lengthened the season just like Daylight Savings Time was extended a few years ago, and the the twisters rush into town and just seem to loiter !!!! Tornadoes usually move quickly like hurricanes before losing energy but they statistically seem to just park here.
Midwestern cities were erected in areas known to be free of tornadic activity based on anecdotal observations of the 17th and 18th century, but Olathe ignored the data and built one of the fastest growing Kansas counties in the godforsaken spot.
The landscape is stitched with railroad tracks and the city's best days are 100 years behind it, major commerce will bypass Olathe and rest of Kansas City metro as long as the diesel trucks avoid it.
Wichita, KS
This is almost the perfectly perfect town. Posted On: 11/13/2012 1:33:55 AMWichita is just big enough but still small enough, just like Goldilocks choice of bedding and lunch. Every major retailer has at least one location here like Best Buy, HomeDepot, Lowes.
A single strip of cosmopolitan shops stretches through the center of town, old money wealth keeps Wichita stable since WW2 era aviation companies built factories here far away from the vulnerable coastlines. Koch Industries (the Koch brothers) is headquartered here and their main facility looms over the town like Montgomery Burns power plant, the building's imposing presence feels like Darth Vader's Eagle's Nest of the Kansas Alps.
Tornado's seem to hover here, Wichita is in the center lane of "tornado alley" and the months of March - June are scariest here since tornadoes usually behave like freight trains but they seem to slow down and just hover over Wichita as if stopped by god's vindictive thumb regardless of your religion.
Atheists quickly convert here during the tornadic season, crime is pretty low and seemingly isolated into a small, tightly packed zone of downtown poverty that feels more like a modern day Barter Town with nightly news reports of Thunderdome festivities.
Major airport access is non existent, you'll have to drive three hours to Kansas City International Airport or wait for the sporadic major flights out of "Wichita International"
Cruise ships dock here more frequently than United Airlines departures.
St. Louis, MO
Class spelled with a kapital "K" Posted On: 11/13/2012 1:11:15 AMThis entire region is the middle step child of American cities.
It isn't large enough in any positive category and it only has the worst qualities of midwestern living.
Lousy real estate values, terrible salaries, only IT jobs are well paying since the midwest is a top choice for data centers since it is easy to avoid disasters here.
The entire state of Missouri is a cultural toilet and St. Louis is the permanent brown ring that everyone refuses to scrub. The iconic St. Louis Arch is old and usually closed for maintenance to prevent the hapless from making the tourist climb to the top.
The Mississippi river creates a stench and the night life is either frightened or fleeing. Drivers are clog the passing lane and hate anyone with out of state plates, most people that visit Missouri are only doing so because their plane made an emergency landing and the pilot can't wait for the replacement parts to arrive.
St. Louis and Kansas City best days are a hundred years behind it since commerce bypasses this region just like the railroads after the invention of the diesel truck.
Dallas, TX
A modern West Berlin. Posted On: 11/13/2012 12:57:48 AMIn a state populated by stereotypical hicks (Texas has 17 registered firearms per every citizen including underage children), Dallas is the least dirtiest shirt in a laundry basket of dirty shirts.
Only stark contrasts here, a resident is either highly enlightened and tightly snobbish because they spent their formative years out of state or they're astoundingly dumb as the stereotypical Texan.
Dallas is a small cultural microcosm surrounded by a vast wasteland devoid of culture and commerce just like West Berlin before reintegration and similarly to the same deprived East Germans.
The weather is always hot or hotter and HUUUmmmmiddd !
Only two kinds of drivers here, maniacally crazy and because they're fleeing from the other type of driver that is amazingly stupid and unbelievably slow.
Eau Claire, WI
One of the best kept secrets of America. I'd move Posted On: 11/13/2012 12:48:15 AMTraveled extensively to this university town and it is the epitome of Wisconsin goodness and midwestern quality of life.
It would be perfect except for the lack of commerce, but the rest of this community is perfect, a sincerely friendly population, decent weather for a northern state and just 90 minutes drive from the Minneapolis international airport.
Great home values, a central core of "old money" that supports the community makes Eau Claire picturesque.
Kansas City, MO
Telecommuted to this place from California for two Posted On: 11/13/2012 12:41:02 AMHave traveled extensively across the majority of the US and this is one of the most provincial cities ever seen. Even Arkansian's laugh at the lack of culture.
The only river city I've seen that doesn't have a river district, the entire river is cordoned off from access by warehouses and train tracks that ensure you'll never sleep restfully, the water here smells putrid when it isn't frozen or hosting venomous mosquitos.
Housing is cheap since wages are lower than the national average, only a handful of large employers and the salaries are as bad as the post Katrina economy of New Orleans.
High murder rate that rivals a city five times as large.
The weather here is the worst of the worst, the stickiest summers and frigid winters, global warming avoided this place.
Schools are so terrible they lost their accreditation and taken over by the state of Missouri. Your high school diploma is only valid if applying to a public Missouri university.
No tourism so no out of state dollars flow into this over populated crater.
Zero night life, the downtown district turns into gangland at 6:03 PM every day since the miniscule financial district flees to the suburbs like Baltimore.
Todd Aekin, the legitimate rape congressman is from Missouri, so is Claire McCaskill who is the only person in the state that likes Aiken and was voted the most vulnerable senator guaranteed to lose her seat.
This was the state that elected a dead senators wife instead of electing John Ashcroft, thankfully he got hired by GW Bush for Attorney General, another scurrilous Missourian.
Kansas City, MO
re: Kansas City, MO - Going, Going, and Almost Gon Posted On: 11/13/2012 12:21:23 AMYour nickname is Ms. Succinct ?
Phoenix, AZ
Why are the few positive opinions of Phoenix writt Posted On: 11/13/2012 12:17:04 AMIt seems everyone who lives here hates it except realtors and lenders who directly benefit from anyone lured into moving here.
The few positive reviewers of Phoenix have made a Faustian pact to speak nicely about the place and the rest of the population is struggling to escape it.
Arizona, AZ
re: Arizona the Beautiful - 8/11/2011 Posted On: 11/13/2012 12:08:22 AMIt seems AZ is a nice place if you're privileged, privileged enough to live in Scottsdale where the 10 largest employers aren't even the 10 largest companies headquartered there since they're wise enough to avoid conducting commerce in the state. Scottsdale where the median household income is $90K annually and three times the national average and necessarily so since you have to have amplitudes of disposable income for your cooling bills.
Even Detroit Michigan would seem as limitless and wonderful if your income was as high.
Beverly Hills, CA
Beverly Hills Posted On: 11/12/2012 11:10:16 PMThe name and reputation speaks for itself, if you have to ask, you can't afford it.