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Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?

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Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?

#81

Austin: - Traffic (goes without saying in most booming US cities). Infrastructure is largely unchanged since the 70s. Poorly mismanaged toll roads are instead implemented. Drivers are fucking god-awful (seriously, nowhere in the Northeast was it as bad as it is in the South -- something about the heat). With no short or long term solution in sight for remedying the traffic that worsens every day, makes me worry about…

1. Missing a big one that affects many people, 365 day a year ALLERGIES!

2. I would add politics. Yes, the city is "blue" but too much evil is produced from the capitol to ignore. Living in a state where almost every law produced goes against what you believe to be logical really wears you down.

3. Bad public transportation that will never get fixed. It is too late now for light rail or more than one train line, people keep voting against it.

Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?

#82

My only gripe with Tampa is the length & intensity of summer. It's incredibly humid the entire year. Close to 100% humidity and 100 degrees F quite often in the middle of the day. April through November is just hot as heck. You are hot and sweaty...and stay hot and sweaty until you take a shower and dry off. I see people walking around in suits downtown and I can't understand how they manage it. Getting into your car…

Having grown up in Bradenton, which is even warmer than Tampa, I understand the heat. However, your statement about 100% humidity and 100 degrees is not possible. If it were everyone would be dead after being outside for even a short amount of time. Further 100 degree days are rare in that part of Florida, in fact I believe that TPA has never measured 100 or above. The key to happiness is that area of the country, IMO, is to enjoy the water and the wildlife.

Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?

#84

SF / Bay Area: 1. Public Transit - a lot of the city isn't super walkable, and BART is dirty/unreliable/sometimes-sketchy. Something like NYC's subway system would be a game changer for me, but I tend to stay between only a few neighborhoods I can walk to, else I have to lyft (pretty quick, but usually around $8 to $15 each way). 2. No seasons - Personal preference, but I love winter and fall, and we don't really get…

I would have written the exact same points but you beat me to it. I'm planning on leaving for either NYC so at least I get _something_ in return for the absurdly high rent or something way cheaper as soon as possible..

Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?

#85

Austin: - Traffic (goes without saying in most booming US cities). Infrastructure is largely unchanged since the 70s. Poorly mismanaged toll roads are instead implemented. Drivers are fucking god-awful (seriously, nowhere in the Northeast was it as bad as it is in the South -- something about the heat). With no short or long term solution in sight for remedying the traffic that worsens every day, makes me worry about…

I agree with a lot of your points.

Personally, I dislike the nightlife. The entertainment districts are all about dive or patio bars with a band playing. Not many proper hip hop or edm spots.

There is not much diversity.

The main vibes are hippie austin slacker, tx country guy, college student, or tech bro. Which I do not like.

Considering a move to LA.

Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?

#86
Harrison, AR Population ~13k

1) There are few restaurants open past ~8pm. That's the one thing I miss most about living in a bigger place. Pizza delivery places are open until 10pm or so, but after that you're pretty much limited to Taco Bell, McDonald's, or Casey's (a gas station, much like WaWa or Sheetz)

2) Lack of a tech community. There are a few people in "tech" around, but the vast majority work for a single company, and it's a pretty Microsoft-focused shop. I'm not aware of any tech meetups of significant size unless I want to drive to Fayetteville, AR (~2 hours) or Springfield, MO (~1 hour).

3) Travel. We have a small airport, but no commercial service. When I fly to LA, I have to go drive at least an hour to an airport. Branson, MO has a decent small airport, but only one or two airlines and I'm often not able to get the flights I want from there and end up driving further.

On the other hand, there's what's nice:

1) Land values are cheap. We bought a five-bedroom home on half an acre for ~$125k. I'm looking at rental properties now, and it's not unreasonable to think I could buy a nice (if small) home for $40k suitable for a rental. There are even a few duplexes around $80k and a handful of 4-plexes for under $150k.

2) People are helpful, but keep to themselves. No one is out in my neighborhood after dark, and most everyone is in bed by 10pm. At the same time, I can always count on my neighbors to lend me a chainsaw or tools if I need them, and if you end up on the side of the road you literally have to make a sign saying you're OK if you don't want someone stopping to check on you every five minutes.

3) It's safe. The crime statistics belie this somewhat; the actual crime rate is fairly high. In reality, most of the crime here is either drug-related, or property crime drive by the same. The crime that does occur happens mostly within that social group, so if you don't hang out with druggies you're pretty much golden.

Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?

#87

Chicago (specifically Printers Row/South Loop): 1. Homes - Many apartment buildings are 75-100 years old which comes with a whole slew of issues - Buying a condo or apartment in the city is difficult due to Illinois taxes and the states shit financial situation 2. Outdoors - Chicago has a fantastic lake front and some public parks that are nice but there is little to no, "outdoory" things to do in the city or even ne…

I've lived in the Denver metro (suburbs) for 7 years now and still love it. I moved here from a small city in the south.

- Large and growing tech community. Every year, I see job postings from new companies in the area. Google, FB, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft all have sattelite offices. Plenty of options to choose from if you're in development, IT, finance, etc. Lots of non-profit organizations as well. Good universities in Boulder, Denver, Golden, Fort Collins.

- Cost of living was certainly higher than my hometown, but much more reasonable than many coastal cities. Not sure how it compares to Chicago specifically. Housing and rents have been rising rapidly over the past few years. I've seen two bedroom appartments listed for around $1600 - $2200, but that's still a fraction of what we would have been paying in the bay area.

- Purple state, if the local politics matter to you. Blue in Denver/Boulder, red in Colorado Springs, more or less purple in the suburbs. There's a pretty broad spectrum of people to connect with. There have been quite a few measures on our state ballot that passed that I've been happy with.

- Traffic on I-25 and I-70 sucks during rush hour. It's a high growth area, so it seems to get worse every year. It's no worse than any other major metro area that I've visited though. Population density is quite low, so you often end up driving longer distances but with less congestion than you would have in many cities.

- Lots of outdoor activities in the mountains (but weekend traffic on I-70 is attrocious because everyone does this)--skiing, hiking, camping, etc. Lots of music, art, cultural events, museums downtown. Lots of good concerts at Red Rocks.

- There are large (and growing) populations of homeless people in Denver and Boulder. I don't think it's necessarily as bad as SF or NYC, but it has definitely been getting worse, especially as housing prices have risen. If you rent, it's easy to get kicked out for a missed payment. Heroin and opiate addiction is a problem throughout parts of the area.

- There are major sporting events here (Broncos, Rockies), but I've never been interested in attending them. I hear tickets are hard to get. Shrug.

- Weather is pretty nice, but it's quite dry. Forest fires can be a problem during the summers (mostly in the mountains), but that's the only kind of natural disaster that I've been worried about since I moved here. We can get a lot of snow during the winter, but the roads are well taken care of, and we get a lot of sunshine when it's not snowing. Makes for some excellent powdery ski conditions.

- Major airport (DIA) with direct flights to most other major airports in the US, which is nice. It was built out of the way, northeast of Denver, but it's a large airport and traffic isn't bad on the express way (toll road).

- Misc: Food and services usually seem pretty reasonable to me. Uber and Lyft are all over the place.

No place is perfect, and it's all about tradeoffs... but life is good and I have no plans to leave Colorado any time soon.

Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?

#88
Bangalore, India

- Traffic : The traffic situation in Bangalore has spiraled out of control over the last decade or so. IT has brought with it loads of people, and the lack of a decent intra-city transportation system, coupled with roads which were never designed to handle heavy traffic, and a total lack of respect for traffic laws (which is common across India TBH) have led to the traffic being so bad that some of the worst affected junctions actually have their own parody Twitter handles [1][2]. The metro system is helping a little, but for most parts of the city, own vehicles/Uber are still the only options (Unless you want to take the bus, which almost always involves switching buses. Also, many routes have buses which are old enough to be considered historic artifacts instead of a means of transport)

- Bad Urban Planning: This is actually responsible of traffic as well, but this point is more of an extension. Bangalore has arguably the worst urban planning for any major city in India. Garbage segregation is still not done in many places, Real estate growth has been thoughtless leading to lakes disappearing and the water table not getting replenished. It's been a cash grab in the truest sense and no doubt made conniving, corrupt politicians and the land mafia very rich. The sad part if places like Whitefield, which were outskirts of Bangalore and were developed SPECIFICALLY for people coming into industries are designed just as badly, if not worse, leading to massive problems across the board. Bangalore has lakes which are LITERALLY on fire and noone seems to care [3]. Studies say Bangalore will be practically unlivable soon [4], and sadly, it looks like government/public apathy is only getting us there sooner.

- Traffic : Yes it's bad enough to be mentioned twice.

+ Besides this, Bangalore is great! Tech opportunities are aplenty, both for employees and founders. VC capital is readily available and the internet market in India is rapidly expanding so market-creating applications are in high demand. Employees get higher salaries here than in most parts of the country and over the last decade, thanks to some big exits, equity has come to mean more than just paper money. The weather is great almost through the year (Goldilocks zone). Housing is costly and the real estate market is frothy, but renting is relatively cheap. Dining out options are aplenty for all price ranges. And since a big percentage of the population are here from a different part of the country/world, there's very little "Outsider feeling" and the city ends up as a cultural hotpot (Of course, that means Bangalore does not celebrate one major festival like other cities in India, but instead celebrates a hundred festivals with much less fanfare).

[1] https://twitter.com/silk_board

[2] https://twitter.com/SonyWorldJn

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W84vziBNp-w

[4] https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/27081...

Re: Ask HN: What sucks about where you live?

#90

Dallas/Ft. Worth Since DFW is so spread out, many suburbs don't have public transportation or limited transportation. I cannot take a bus door to door to my office. I would have to drive to a "park and ride" location to begin my commute. There are no bus stops/lines near my home. I suppose this would be a welcome change for someone living in NYC. Everywhere takes 15-30 minutes to get to. We don't measure distance in…

TX property taxes are crazy high to offset no income tax, so the income tax is a trade off.

Very true. I'm a Mortgage Loan Officer by trade, doing a transaction for a client in Colorado right now. Her taxes are ~$2000 or so on a $500,000 house.

Compared to my ~$4000 tax bill on my $250,000 house.

You can dispute the bill and apply for exemptions that are applicable to you, but it doesn't help much.

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