View Full Version : What is your state good and lame at?
sorry about the dangling preposition. I thought this was interesting. I did not think we up here in WA would be known for the most invasive snails; invasive coffee shops, maybe....;)
http://www.upworthy.com/maps-what-your-state-is-good-at-and-what-its-lame-at?g=3&c=cd1
Seems this is geared toward environmental successes and failures, but if you're talking generalities,
My State: New Jersey:
Good at:
--being centrally located between big cities
--being accessible to those big cities (ergo the thing the map says it's good at: the most mass transportation)
--having really prolific ethnic and religious diversity
--growing tomatoes and corn
--educating people
--appealing to beach lovers and mountain lovers
--decent healthcare services
Lame at:
--branding itself as a cool place to live--because of the view of oil tanks and smokestacks when you fly in to Newark or drive down the NY turnpike
--branding itself as having cool people live here--because of the media portrayal of déclassé thugs and shallow wives and teens who say "joisey" and "fuggedaboudit"
--controlling growth of bedroom communities
--needing the decent healthcare services (mentioned above) because of the stressful lives most people here live
--claiming stuff that New York says it owns, like the Statue of Liberty (right off of Jersey City) or football teams (Giants stadium is in NEW JERSEY, not New York)
We just put up a bust to honor one of Missouri's favorite sons, Rush Limbaugh. Lame or good? You decide.;)
domestic goddess
5-27-12, 3:14pm
Illinois and politicians.Need I say more?
We just put up a bust to honor one of Missouri's favorite sons, Rush Limbaugh. Lame or good? You decide.;)
Yeah, and we did it in the dark of the night, behind closed doors with armed republican guards at the gate. Plus they are considering putting a video camera on the bust because it 'might' be subject to vandalism. ...what an honor....
My only question is, what did Rush and his admires have to pay Scott Tilley to do this? What's the going price to trash what used to be a Missouri honor.
Means nothing now, and never will again.
In MA, we like to think we have the intellectuals of California, but we really have the colloquialism of New Hampshire and Maine.
Illinois and politicians.Need I say more?
Yes, one of my friends from Ill noted that they could claim to have the largest population of former governor-inmates.
Seems this is geared toward environmental successes and failures, but if you're talking generalities,
The paragraph at the top notes the maps are based on environmental AND public health initiatives.
Minnesota. Hmm. We generally score pretty high on those Top 10 lists for things like education, literacy, quality of life and health. Those are pretty important things to be good at.
We're polite people and our cities are clean and have lots and lots of green space. I remember reading once that Minneapolis is second only to Portland, OR in bike commuters, which is pretty astounding because we are, afterall, Minneapolis and it is seriously cold here a lot of the year. We usually score pretty well on environmental consciousness too.
I don't know what we are lame at. Football, I guess, but I might be biased on that having been born in Wisconsin. :)
IL's having corrupt politicians - I think this could qualify for BOTH categories.
But lame - crappy gun laws. Only state without some form of concealed carry and the FOID card (in effect since 1968) is a bunch of nonsense.
Idaho. IN-DE-PEND-ENT. Red. Redder. Reddest? Really friendly people. Beautiful scenery. Lousy spring weather so far. Boise's a great city (BOI-see, not BOI-zee). Boise State Broncos football!! World Center for Birds of Prey/Peregrine Fund is here >8). Our sons and families are here, so when we retired we moved here too. It's definitely been worth it. We'll probably die here.
Oh yeah ... potatoes!
YUK ... I don't like that "eye-roll" above ^ . OOps! Love the Birds of Prey/Peregrine Fund!!!
iris lily
5-28-12, 12:04am
Yeah, and we did it in the dark of the night, behind closed doors with armed republican guards at the gate. Plus they are considering putting a video camera on the bust because it 'might' be subject to vandalism. ...what an honor....
My only question is, what did Rush and his admires have to pay Scott Tilley to do this? What's the going price to trash what used to be a Missouri honor.
Means nothing now, and never will again.
I am really not happy with this move since I think in a time of austerity we need to, you know, not spend money. On unnecessary things.
Wildflower
5-28-12, 12:20am
We just put up a bust to honor one of Missouri's favorite sons, Rush Limbaugh. Lame or good? You decide.;)
LAME LAME LAME >:(
Oh, this is FUN! Born in Washington but grew up in Michigan, so I'll take Michigan here.
Michigan coolness: Motown music. Urban farms blocks long in "downtown" Detroit. University of Michigan. The Upper Peninsula. The Renaissance Center. White Castle Hamburgers. Sense of humor and general friendliness of the people.
Michigan lameness: Horrible weather...good for farming, but not much else. Currently an employment wasteland. Far too much use of "sweatshirt fabric art" as a deliberate fashion choice.
Here in Nebraska we're good at growing corn, raising cattle, appreciating "elbow room", staying out of other people's business and football. We're lame at letting anyone not from here know that it really is a pretty great place to live, but a significant portion of the residents don't seem to mind the lack of influx.
Maxamillion
5-28-12, 10:24am
Well, things that Mississippi could definitely improve are healthcare, education, civil rights, literacy, and mental healthcare. And the summers here are terrible. Oh, and fire ants, horrible little insects. Things Mississippi is pretty good at: some nice parks, winters are usually pretty mild, low taxes, and a long garden season. And fried green tomatoes (yum!). Which reminds me, I need to try finding some green tomatoes next time I'm at the farmer's market.
OK Iris, let's tell them what we do right!
Some of the prettiest countryside you will ever see is in Mo. We have scads of beautiful wineries because Mo is perfect for growing award winning grapes. We have hills and valleys and plains. We have the Missouri Botanical Center in St. Louis and the Roots, Blues, and B B Q festival in Columbia.
Lake of the Ozarks is one of the largest man made lake systems in the country I believe with over 1,150 miles of shoreline
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_of_the_Ozarks
We have Branson, for those who like that sort of thing, and hundreds of thousands of acres of hunting and fishing and camping.
Apparently we are #1 in turkey hunting.
And in a related topic, we have the Testicle Festival. It's this next weekend by the way.
http://www.visitmo.com/testicle-festival.aspx
California, Liberal, Liberal, we live in the Sierras next to Big Trees State Park. I have the largest trees in the world as my neighbors. The Sierras are among the most beautiful mountain ranges in the world.
Love CA! Except the Central Valley, where I grew up ... ugh. Giant Sequoias! Redwoods! The Emerald Triangle :~)!
ApatheticNoMore
5-28-12, 1:49pm
I think there's a wide variety of people in California and some open mindedness (you can find your niche, you can do a lot of experimenting with social circles etc.). I'm very much in favor of such, so yea, that's the good stuff. And there is natural beauty. Yea the good stuff is good. It's a great place to play.
But what about the more practical aspects of life? Not so great .... The economics are entirely dysfunctional, double digit unemployment since 2008 and *still* everything is entirely unaffordable. Bubblicious economy that seems to need bubbles to survive. Extreme wealth polization, much political polarization in government, rather extreme (compared to many other states) polirization in *opportunities* (everything depends on buying a house in a "good" school district - oh how often the boring yuppie parents speak of it).
Entirely dysfunctional state (and often local) government. No indication that any of this is going to change anytime soon - ie no signs of new economic engines or even new bubbles, no way to fix all the dsyfunctions that the political process has bought, no chance of schools improving, and with the cuts to everything, such as colleges which were once a strength, many things will only go downhill more.
California at this point has become a bit of a test of endurance frankly. Can you STAY EMPLOYED (if you can keep your job when all about are losing theirs and blaming it on you .... ) and are you willing put up with this level of economic *AND* political dysfunction, well then you can stay :~).
CA has some environmental tendencies (that's a good thing) but not the TRUE environmental consience you get in the Pacific Northwest. Does grow a lot of organic food (I love that! No complaints about the food) but even agriculture is not ultimately sustainable to this degree here.
Oh yeah ... potatoes!
I had a geology professor from Idaho once who lamented on the fact that a person could buy a $500K Ferrari but had to drive around with the state's logo on the licence plate: "Famous Potatoes" :-)
Calif - Specificly Southern Calif (NorCalians wisely choose to secede sometime ago). Oh where do I begin..... Too many good things, and an equal amount of lame things, to menthion. Most being the same things.
i.e. good: property tax rates being only 1% of the purchase price of a house and can't be raised by more than 2% of that 1% per year.
i.e. bad: the price of the house.
California, Liberal, Liberal, we live in the Sierras next to Big Trees State Park. I have the largest trees in the world as my neighbors. The Sierras are among the most beautiful mountain ranges in the world.
Come on down to the OC where we gots them thar Mc Mansions and cement swimming holes (thank your for "sharing" you NorCal water with us so we can keep our tans up and our (vastly under paid hispanic) pool boys happy) and a BMW in every republican garage!
treehugger
5-29-12, 5:53pm
Calif - specificly Southern Calif (NorCalians wisely choose to secede sometime ago).
Well, we may have chosen to, but Sacramento hasn't actually let us. I guess we will keep trying! ;)
Good: open space; parks; natural beauty; diversity of population, but even more importantly, of food; live and let live casual atmosphere; relatively "new" society (we are all immigrants here) means that we don't have a lot of set-in-stone cultural or social restrictions.
Lame: budget woes; public schools are going rapidly down hill; Prop. 8 was voted in (what the heck??); our proposition system in general is broken and damages our state on a regular basis.
Kara
Speaking only of the left half of Washington: We do mountains, lakes and salt water frontage like nobody's business. We attract an exceptionally bright and well-educated population that in turn enthusiastically supports decent public schools, a world-class library system or two, and outstanding colleges and research facilities. We do coffee, software, bookstores, restaurants, and music pretty well. We harbor Sasquatch with at least a couple of local laws on the books to protect him/her. Artists from all disciplines choose to live here. We're reliably progressive; we support a robust network of no-kill and animal protective facilities. Our state and local park systems are outstanding and I understand opportunities for outdoor activities of all kinds abound. ;)
On the down side, our tax system is pretty regressive, relying as it does primarily on sales and property taxes. I always say that's the price I pay for a view. We could develop a better system of bike trails and our public transportation is just average. The Seattle police are under fire for a pattern of excessive force going back some years. Seattle core streets and parking are a mess, but they're "working on it." All in all, I like it here.
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