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People move to places for their best features but move out due to their worst features. How long you stay depends on how long you can tolerate the worst features, not how soon you tire of best ones (which is often ‘never’) “Fire pollution” might turn into the west coast killer.
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My list of worst features: Ann Arbor: snow Austin (circa 2001): self-absorption Ithaca: too small Rochester: snow, provincialism DC: anti-intellectual wasteland Vegas: sheer trashiness, soul-sucking desert starkness Seattle: Fire pollution, insularity Los Angeles: Fire pollution
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These assessments shift. I didn’t think of Ann Arbor as provincial when I lived there but based on visit last year, now I do. Even if you’re at the university. Insular != provincial. Seattle is very worldly and global (has amazon and Starbucks after all) but still insular.
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Provincial = kinda clueless about wider world. Insular = self-involved. A kind of regional narcissism. Cultural autarky.
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Self-absorption is different from both insularity and provinciality. Austin is neither. But it is very self-absorbed, like a lot of attention directed inward at live music scene. If you’re not into that, the city isn’t that interested in you.
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Applied to the US as a whole, the worst feature at the moment is definitely “Trump.” I bet he’s the top reason people who’re leaving voluntarily are doing so.
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I’m rating SoCal vs other places mostly based on how many days I have to shut all doors and windows. Other cities I have to shut the house due to crummy weather. Here it’s the few bad weather days + smoke days.
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Suggested minor edit to your Ann Arbor entry: "snow -- on Mothers' Day." I lived there too, and it's not so much that the winters are harsh, as that they're so *long*.
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