Question for you Easterners

[azkaisr]

I just looked at the ride tale that the boys posted about riding dirt across the Western US and a thought occurred to me...

 

Why would anyone live East of being able to see the Rockies? Yet the majority of folks do.

 

For the record.

 

I was born in New Jersey. Have lived back East and in Europe for a spell. And for the life of me, I would be so hard pressed to move back there again for any reason.

 

So what are some of the reasons that one should live in the East vs the West??

 

Tommy

[Lineareagle]

Damned if I know, we just do.

[Boone60]

So what are some of the reasons that one should live in the East vs the West??

 

Tommy

 

To live near family and friends.

[randys]

Probation

[Calvin (no socks)]

Roots....

 

My Mom, Dad and Bro...have not been west "O" the Mississippi! It takes awhile for the seeds to spread from Ellis Island and legal entry into the USA...Nearly 100 years so far...I on the other hand have had my eyes opened. During the last 5-6 years, and especially this year...with the help of friends... I took my wife all the way to the Pacific...A very emotional moment for me.

[Antimatter]

For me, it's a compromise. My wife loves Minnesota and has put a lot of hard work into our house and garden (her house, really). I live here and help pay for stuff. In return, she supports my motorcycle silliness. I'd just as soon move somewhere I could ride all year, but she's pretty firm in her conviction of wanting to stay.

[RodB]

I see a potential problem if everybody moves out west; the weight of all those people + the mountains, well.....

 

[Bheckel169]

That's a great question. We lived in Utah for 25 years and California before that and love the West. But, here we are in Western North Carolina and frankly, I've found more fun roads here and more friends in 3 years then I did in 25 years in Utah. Just me, I know and we'll still go out to the Red Rock country every chance we get and view that beautiful blue sky, but I make my home where my family and friends are and right now, it's the East.

Bruce

[KevinH]

The Steelers are here...

Serious - I wouldn't know how to live anywhere else. The Burgh is my home.

[4wheeldog]

Generally, it is because their ancestors couldn't fix the wagon when it broke......Or so I have heard.

[Richard_D]

Personally, I can be happy anywhere .

[JayW]

I have been to Colorado and Utah and New Mexico and, and, and, many times and even lived in Wyoming when I was a kid. I was born in California. I visit these areas regularly, but am always refreshed to come back to the mountains of western NC. It is more lush here than the Rockies I know, the air is not so dry, the oxygen concentration of the air is higher, and it seems more colorful. The roads here are wonderful. I love to visit out west, but it will never be home.

 

Jay

[tobyzusa]

Tom,

 

I'm with you, but I do know that the folks I work with in NY, NJ, and DC are fully convinced that they live in the center of the universe. They would live no where else, in spite of overcrowding, small expensive houses, a high cost of living, long commutes, and a relatively high crime rate.

[Matts_12GS]

Tom,

 

I'm with you, but I do know that the folks I work with in NY, NJ, and DC are fully convinced that they live in the center of the universe. They would live no where else, in spite of overcrowding, small expensive houses, a high cost of living, long commutes, and a relatively high crime rate.

 

All of those are reasons I would never live in CA.

 

Besides, I like the east coast. I understand it and the people. I've been all over the world and lived all over the country. This is my home.

[yabadabapal]

Im an easterner as well and always will be despite current temporary work related time in the west, ending soon.

I like the cultural and ethnic diversity of the East Coast.

[steve.foote]

Tom, I grew up in Colorado and Nebraska. I live in Georgia because I like the climate and love the people here. There is a mannerism in the South that you just don't find anywhere else.

 

Texas would be a close second, though.

[EddyQ]

I see you live in hotter than h%%&ll Arizona.

Personally, I hate the heat. I'd much rather a NE winter than a 100 degree week.

 

NE is full of changes. Spring, summer, autumn and winter. Change is good. I'm sure I wouldn't like constant summer.

At the moment Autumn is here. Most can tell from the color of the trees. I can tell from the smell in the air. Awsome, time to go backpacking in the white mountains with the guys!

 

NE has cities, country, woods, hills and ocean in one spot the size of Arizona.

 

As for biking. NE trail riding is boney. Some like it that way. Maybe not picture perfect, but gets the job done. You come home fried with a smile from ear to ear.

Road biking has may options too. Again, not as picture perfect, but very satisfying.

 

Huge traffic of NE is avoidable with planning.

 

High populated areas have plenty of benifits such as a variety of different events stemming from a broadway type shows to concerts in a park. And they are plentiful all year.

 

I've lived here all my life and have little to no experience anywhere else. I suppose there are nicer areas to live. Maybe even in Arizona. But there is nothing broken here, so I have no plans to fix it. Maybe if I lost my job and my family moved away, I might venture off to discover new lands, but I doubt I'd move away from NE.

 

 

[RichEdwards]

I traveled the country for three years after retirement as a NY teacher. I visited every state and chose the Tampa, FL area for these reasons:

1) My other first choice, California, has stomach-turning housing prices and taxes.

2) I love golf. There are about 200 excellent courses within 40 miles of my home. And the competition makes the prices for golf reasonable...average of $25 per round.

3) I hate winter. Black ice, snow shovels, frozen rain, constant grey skies. Ugh! A 90 degree day with 90% humidity beats 15 degrees every time.

4) I love the theater. The Straz Center in Tampa is one of the best in the U.S. Broadway quality (and I have been to about 50 shows on Broadway, so I speak from experience.)

5) No income tax and real estate tax that is about 10% of what I would pay on my house if it were located on Long Island, NY...my previous home area.

6) A one-day ride to the N.GA mountains which has some of the best motorcycle riding roads in the U.S.

 

[hANNAbONE]

Tom, I grew up in Colorado and Nebraska. I live in Georgia because I like the climate and love the people here. There is a mannerism in the South that you just don't find anywhere else.

 

Texas would be a close second, though.

 

 

**bING**..WINNAH

 

albeit, Georgia ain't AahWuh...but it's the same premise

[moshe_levy]

Tom-

 

The answer, in one word, is "masochism."

 

Here in New Jersey, I pay more to insure my car than most of you pay for all your cars, house, bikes, and life - combined. Depending on where you live, it's exponentially more. I pay upwards of 5-6x the national average in property taxes ($11k yearly and climbing, fast). I live within a stone's throw of some of the most crime ravaged areas in the country (Camden, Trenton, etc.). I pay outrageous tolls every few feet on nearly any highway I can ride on. We live nearly on top of each other in cookie-cutter developments that are devoid of any architectural individuality. Some people really do look and sound like track-suited "Sopranos" bodygaurds, with "yous" and other charming phrases. And so on....

 

I am close to NYC, which is the only silver lining - but that is a big one if you like culture and the arts.

 

"Masochism," pure and simple. That, and my family and job. But honestly, to compare living conditions here to the wide open spaces of the midwest would be completely insane.

 

-MKL

[Whip]

Born in Detroit MI.

 

 

I got here as soon as I could drive(16).

 

 

[Quinn]

I live about 15 minutes from cows in any direction. I'm about three hours away from the ocean or the mountains. Most traffic jams are related to the state fair or a football game. Nice, slow pace of life with urban culture if you go looking for it thanks to Duke, UNC, and NC State universities. Four seasons; although Summer was too hot too long this year and we've had no snow day for about three years, I've got faith that we'll get back on track in the next decade or two. Riding season is about ten months, and you can find a doable day about once a week the other two months. What's not to like?

 

---

 

 

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

So what are some of the reasons that one should live in the East vs the West??

 

Flyover country is apparently not an option?

 

Things aren't bad here in the middle. I came here for my first job out of grad school, and it's a good one: good benefits, good salary, and above all, really good job security, which is extremely valuable to me. I also have an extremely short commute, just 1.5 miles each way. Ann Arbor is home to a Big Ten school, which attracts plenty of culture - restaurants, concerts, etc. (you just have to remember to stay the hell away from The Big House on game days). We are comfortably removed from the Detroit metro area: five minutes on the bike, and I'm riding through sparsely populated farmland and forests of rural Michigan. Fields of corn and soybeans are growing just 500 feet from my house. It's not rock-and-roll twisties - for that, I head to the Smokies, or the Rockies - but neither is it the gridlock of urban sprawl. And at the same time, we are close enough to the Detroit metro area to take advantage of all its good things. Example: there is a large Japanese grocery store (and a Japanese bakery just down the road from it) in Novi, about 20 miles from here.

 

Property values around here are not insane. We live in a 15-YO house with 2K square feet and a two-car garage on a quiet cul de sac. A friend of mine and his wife bought a smaller, 80YO house wiht a 1-car garage in Livermore (CA) for the same amount of money we did, and they've spent a ton of time fixing it up, including bringing it into compliance with earthquake building codes. My brother rents a one-room piece-o-crap house in downtown Palo Alto; he's done the math, and buying a house around there just doesn't make any financial sense at all, the prices (compared to renting) are just too high.

 

Winter in the upper midwest varies depending on exactly where you are. Here in Ann Arbor, we're buffered by the great lakes: winter tends to be very gray-skied, with highly variable precip and temps. Average daytime high for January is around 30, but it varies a lot: we can get a foot of snow one day, and a week later it's melted away. In Madison (WI), there's no buffering from any great lakes. January highs there are around 20. Fargo (ND) is farther north, and correspondingly more austere: January highs are around 15, and the cold snaps can be brutal. When I was an undergrad there I recall periods of a couple of weeks at a time where the temp never climbed above -15F, and nighttime lows were below -30F. When it got that low, friends would cancel plans to go home for the weekend, because if you slide off of that rural highway (not the well-patrolled interstate highway) or your car craps out in the middle of nowhere, there was a serious risk that you might freeze to death before anyone found you.

 

Summers in all three places are nice, if a bit humid at times.

 

My sister and parents live near Boulder. It's nice to visit them, but that's at least partly because of the happiness of seeing family and being on vacation. The views of the Front Range are nice too, but I wonder how I'd feel living full-time in the middle of that huge sprawl between Boulder and Denver. It would be difficult, I think, to find a job and a home there that provide a short commute, AND let us live somewhere on the edge of it all that kept us away from the gridlock and put us close to the mountains, where I could enjoy afternoon rides that didn't require 45 minutes of crossing the metro area before and after the fun stuff.

[VinnyR11]

My wife and I take this question very seriously because we get to answer it for real every 4-8 months. A few years back we sold our home and almost all possessions, and now live in rented furnished homes and condos in neat locations.

 

There are a ton of places we'd be very happy to live permanently out west. Bend, OR, Sedona, AZ, Coastal OR (we love Oregon), Colorado Springs, come to mind, but we have a tough time being far away from the Big Apple and more importantly family for very long periods of time.

 

In addition to the culture available in the larger cities and certain areas on the East Coast, there are also spectacular riding roads, amazing beaches, and bucolic scenery.

 

The Berkshires are a perfect example. The scenery there is scaled to a level where we find a closer attachment to it than somewhere like the Rockies. We spent the past summer there and before moving, posted on BMWST for riding advice. Most responses were, "just take off you won't go wrong". Sure enough, they were exactly right. Every hill offers a new picture frame. There are also great opportunities for theater, museums, hiking, kayaking and skiing, all of which we love.

 

I guess the bottom line for most people in choosing is that sometimes it just feels right. When I'm on the left coast I'm very happy, enjoy so much about it, but almost always fell like I'm on vacation. When I'm on the east coast, and especially within a 4 hour drive to Manhattan, I feel like I'm home.

 

Those who love the west coast (many) or the Middle (Mitch) are equally justified in their choice.

 

 

 

[Bob Palin]

3) I hate winter. Black ice, snow shovels, frozen rain, constant grey skies. Ugh! A 90 degree day with 90% humidity beats 15 degrees every time.

I hate black ice, snow shovels, frozen rain and constant grey skies too, we don't need/get any of that here in Torrey!

 

The thing I hate most is humidity, I'm pretty sure I'll never even visit Florida again because of that, and no mountains, how can people live without mountains? And desert!

 

Give me 5% humidity and 15 degrees over 90/90 any day.

[Rocer]

I guess I just have to echo "home is where the heart is". We love the distinctness of the 4 seasons here. That's not to say that we don't like to travel and see other parts of the world (loved AZ Tommy and will be back one day) but we've never been moved to live anywhere else.

 

My work takes me daily throughout our rural highland countryside and not a day goes by without me thinking what a wonder it is. Following is a picture of one of my favourite stops. I've taken dozens of pictures of this pond but have never captured how it makes me feel when I see it. Not many who pass this site (and I've asked) realize that they are actually seeing a floating island which changes position with the seasonal rise and fall of the water. I guess I'm learning "to see the trees for the forest".

 

[Mike]

I guess we're in "flyover country," in the Chicago metro area. Scenery around here can be nice, but for the most part, it's a flatlander's paradise. Until you get a ways out from Chicago, the most scenic areas are the river valleys that have carved their way through the prairie. Nothing as spectacular as the Rockies, though.

 

I've had the opportunity to live on both coasts (California, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and New York), and when we had to face the question of where to settle a little over 20 years ago, we decided on Chicago (or, more accurately, the Chicago area). What brought and keeps us here? First, family. Both my wife and I grew up within a couple hundred miles of here, and still have a number of relatives nearby. Second, friends and community. We've been in the neighborhood long enough and have been involved enough in the community that we have developed innumerable ties to people for whom we care greatly. Third, employment. Both my wife and I have good jobs that pay reasonably well and have a degree of professional stature here (my wife more than I); we have portable skills that we could take anywhere, but we're likely to be held here by that factor until we at least semi-retire. Fourth, it's a fabulous city. Chicago is, amazingly to many, a beautiful city, situated on a lake that's more accurately a freshwater sea, with beautiful public spaces, and spectacular architecture, unrivaled in the world. There's a huge variety of entertainment and dining options. The best city in America.

 

We've begun to discuss, in a vague kind of way, where we want to end up once we retire. All of the aforementioned suggest staying put. However, the State of Illinois is totally screwed up, forever in the throes of self-serving politicians who have squandered the State's financial resources. It seems likely to implode at some point and, even now, we pay a lot in taxes--a middling state income tax, sales taxes that are among the highest in the U.S., and property taxes that are out of control (over $11,000 for our townhouse last year).

 

We like the west and have toyed with the possibility of a move to Montana. However, realistically, we'd have to consider whether we're up to the harsh winters, a total change of culture, and leaving behind our community. Likewise, we've talked about someplace in the southeast, possibly North Carolina. There, the winters are milder, larger cities are accessible, and the scenery is beautiful.

 

Really, if I had my druthers, we'd maintain a modest home locally and travel. I'd find a big-ass motorhome and just head out for points unknown for extended time periods, particularly during the uglier parts of our Midwest winter. Drag behind a sport little car and a moto, and life would be good.

 

Yes, the west is spectacular. I could see myself living there. But, it's easy enough for us to get to anywhere we desire. With the ties we have here, it's a little hard to imagine venturing too far afield in search of a permanent home. But, I'd never say "never."

 

[tallman]

"The East" is divided into SE, mid-atlantic, Appalachians, New Yawk, and New England.

The people in each region have distinct mannerisms and language characteristics.

The food varies by region.

The mountains are mature and lush, resplendent with color and technical roads.

The concept of America was created and formed out of the bedrock east of the Mississippi.

There is a lot to do and see, the people in our region of the east are noted for their hospitality, and the women are beautiful.

We have a sense of time and place, we respect the traditions of our ancestors, we have the ocean on the proper side, and we get the six o'clock news first.

The Rockies are dramatic and beautiful, I love the PNW/BC area.

I've lived in San Francisco, Texas, and all over "the East.

 

For each, home is where the heart is and beauty is in the eye of the beholder truisms.

I admire the scenery of the west, but find the barren areas too desolate and the treeless slopes missing something.

Give me the mist/smoke of the Appalachians, the colors of the fall, the warm water of the Gulf, the sand white beaches of the Gulf, the Outer BAnks, the Shenandoah, the Catskills, the Great Lakes, and all of the unique features that say, this is home, this is where my heart belongs.

 

 

 

 

[Albert]

Why do we live here? It keeps the North American homo-mass in balance, preventing continental tilt. If we all moved out there the Pacific coast would be in Oklahoma and the Sierras would be a small island chain 500 miles out to sea.

 

You westerners should thank us, and send us each a dollar.

[Ohio48]

The Steelers are here...

 

Well there is the #1 reason to move west!!!

[Ohio48]

Green!!! Trees, grass valleys it's the color thats why we stick it out here.

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

...we have the ocean on the proper side...

 

The folks in Tampa are scratching their head on this one...

[tallman]

Mitch, technicalically sparking, yes, the Gulf of Mexico is part of the Atlantic ocean.

But, it is in the top ten all by itself wrt size and is referred to as "the Gulf" by all but displaced yanquis.

[Albert]

That's the part of the coast that's bent, right?

[tallman]

Correct, the orignal Big Bend area, a term later usurped by Texican insurrectionables.

[Mike]

It keeps the North American homo-mass in balance . . . .

 

That, sir, is a prime example of a comment that could be used to your disadvantage.

[tallman]

It keeps the North American homo-mass in balance . . . .

 

That, sir, is a prime example of a comment that could be used to your disadvantage.

 

Perhaps it was a reply to a different thread...

Go Westboro young man.

[Albert]

It keeps the North American homo-mass in balance . . . .

 

That, sir, is a prime example of a comment that could be used to your disadvantage.

 

 

OK ok time out everybody out of the pool. Yes I see that now. My reference was a left handed way of describing the distribution of homosapiens across the continent. Thus the term "homo-mass". My own invention having aboslutely 100% of nothing to do with anybody's sexual preference which I could care less about. I think I need a boiler plate sig line.

[DavidEBSmith]

It keeps the North American homo-mass in balance . . . .

 

That, sir, is a prime example of a comment that could be used to your disadvantage.

 

 

OK ok time out everybody out of the pool. Yes I see that now. My reference was a left handed way of describing the distribution of homosapiens across the continent. Thus the term "homo-mass". My own invention having aboslutely 100% of nothing to do with anybody's sexual preference which I could care less about. I think I need a boiler plate sig line.

 

You are talking about America's wang, after all.

[Mike]

It keeps the North American homo-mass in balance . . . .

 

That, sir, is a prime example of a comment that could be used to your disadvantage.

 

 

OK ok time out everybody out of the pool. Yes I see that now. My reference was a left handed way of describing the distribution of homosapiens across the continent. Thus the term "homo-mass". My own invention having aboslutely 100% of nothing to do with anybody's sexual preference which I could care less about. I think I need a boiler plate sig line.

 

You are talking about America's wang, after all.

 

Geez, Eebie . . . he's in Pennsylvania, not Florida. You've obviously been waiting to long to refer to that episode.

[ERdok]

Someone has to take care of all these old farts down here.

 

Besides, it's windy and dusty out west...

 

 

[Dave39]

I'm one of the many native Iowans who ended up in sunny California. Not enough jobs and farms to go around back there. There's more Iowans in CA than in Iowa.

[Bob Palin]

Besides, it's windy and dusty out west...

 

As I frequently tell Janet (a Mainer), it's not windy, it's just that there's a constant supply of fresh air.

[philbytx]

I'm from WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY East Texas and I haven't got one good reason to be back there !