Chicago isn’t as cheap as Detroit, but it’s still affordable considering what it has to offer. Brutal winters, though.
I was glad when Brooklyn finally got noticed but of course attention is a multi-edged sword.
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It’s funny I grew up like 1.5 hrs away and when I was in high school and old enough to take the train to NYC by myself I never once even thought about checking out Brooklyn. I would head straight to Soho and have so much fun! So, in a way I’m more saddened by how lower Manhattan in these days. Sigh… Brooklyn never had a big cool club moment in the way that Manhattan did when Twilo, Centrofly etc were open, or maybe I wasn’t aware of it…
Soho and the West Village are absurd now. East Village, Alphabet City, LES are the parts of Manhattan we visited the most, recently. But our day-to-day life would have been more miserable had we tried to live there.
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Would you by any chance be willing to exchange citizenships with me? I want to move to PEI.
Partner was in the US long enough to get a green card but never pursued it. Canada has historically been pretty friendly to US emigrants. But we also have a housing crisis and growing political extremism…
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Well, the world is changing and I don’t think I’m entitled to the same things my parents and grandparents had.
Still I of course understand the annoyance.
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I live in one of those smaller cities, in the Midwest US. Honestly they’re usually small for a reason. Shit weather, not much to speak of in terms of outdoor activities, shit nightlife, no real culture (unless racism counts). Bad public transit. Relatively low wages even in high wage industries which means far less social mobility (even if you get more for your dollar). Less opportunity in general. My friends from the coasts have had way more opportunities than I’ve had just by virtue of being in those places, even with everything else being equal.
There are positives - I can afford a house here - but everything else sucks.
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Fair enough. 
My point wasn’t to suggest that finding the smallest and most backwards hellhole to settle and be happy with that but rather to explore the options on a bit smaller cities than the capitals if the living expenses are getting out of hand.
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Yea but thats basically the state of things in the US if you don’t have a lot of money and seems to of gotten a lot worse since covid. Most people I know in NYC couldn’t even afford to buy a house in arkansas if they decided to move…
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Oops, I thought we we’re talking about living on rent, not buying a house. 
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Yea, well i think most Americans who move out of a big cities do so to follow the American dream of buying a house and building equity. I probably couldn’t even find a place to rent in Arkansas due to my credit score…
And I sure that many people who moved to Austin (for example) years ago had affordable rents only to be pushed out once the area got hot. It becomes like playing a game of whack a mole unless you buy a place.
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If we just believe, it will all work itself out!
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Seriously, I’m a vet and can’t even buy a house with a pre approval in Alaska where the real estate industry is being inflated by real estate agents who are forcing prices up. It kind of funny, it’s not the kind of place you’d expect to find 1,200 SQ foot single family houses approaching half a mil. But that’s the times we live in. In other words we’ve gone over the edge and are beginning to plummet into total absurdly. But it won’t last very long, after fuel shortage comes food shortage…keep believing!
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The “crazy shit” is not taking a part. How can things become fair if people don’t stand up to unfairness and loose skill and ability to be independent of the system of injustice? Doing nothing isn’t rebellious, it’s utter compliance with oppression. It not like kids are learning how to fish, hunt, grow gardens- many are playing video games and subsisting off of energy drinks and high carb foods. It’s not what Gandhi meant at all when he uttered “live simply”…We all share the same fate- equal opportunity still requires honest effort, and equal opportunity doesn’t ensure any particular outcome. We have come to expect way too much- a product of the First World National mentality.
I work for the younger generation and have most of my life and Ive seen an increasing lack of inspiration, ability, skill, honesty, integrity, community, willingness to learn, etc. More obesity and less empathy among the younger generations…a product of reducing physical education and art programs in schools as well as adults concerned way too much about themselves and their political beliefs.
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Every generation is going to have people who have no aspirations and do nothing.
That isn’t what I meant though. I see some kids who don’t feel the need to get into the rat race. They don’t care about having fancy stuff. They don’t have the same idea of what wealth is that the boomer generation does/did. They are questioning the current reality that we’ve created for ourselves.
It’s potentially not going to be a pretty change. It’s could be suffering for many.
Would I rather that we come up with a better way than everything falling apart to make things change? Yes!
I’m simply saying change will happen regardless of the way it happens (good or bad) eventually, naturally. I’m not hoping for it to be bad, just hoping for it to change.
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I hear you! Change is constant- we cannot prevent it from happening. It’s the resistance to reality which determines whether one changes by consequence or choice. The quality of change depends on the intention of those who push the hardest for it. Passivity is tantimount to victim of change, as is historically our role.
Any successful group has the same characteristics- strong leadership, defined mission, shared values among it’s members. That’s science. As a society these same conditions are what determines our power to influence change. Currently, at least in the USA, our society is more divided than at any other point in history. And worse, our laws and regulations have long since been authored by corporate interests. In reality the people of the US have no rights, only permission to work or subsist off of public assistance.
In any situation there is always a “better” course of action, as well as always a set of direct and external outcomes and consequences. A “better” action is only understood with a high aptitude of critical thinking, which is tantimount to “common sense” and is historically uncommon. So a “better” action would naturally require more commonly, humility among the masses and trust among the citizenry and loyalty vested in leadership in the community.
“Better” action in a situation of dependency or under representation, is always self-care and development of the skills which impart self/community reliance. Another way to look at it, corporation flourish among dysfunctional communities.
The situation we all face is complex. But for some of us who have been focused on civic engagement from our youth, and have been exposed first hand to government process as influenced by special interest, the situation is obvious. And the “better action” is simple. But we have silenced the critical thinkers in our society, and we follow reactionary extroverts who seek a bigger share of the spoils of war and environmental destruction.
So…funk is. We live and die in the fringe of mass exploitation- a cursory study of human history shows that is the only constant. A thorough study of political evolution over the past 20 years show without question nothing has changed and 'mass exploitation ’ or "manipulation has only become more effective.
So life exists beyond perception
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So life exists beyond perception. Most of what effects us directly occurs beyond our perception.
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I agree with this 100%
Which is why when things seem too excessively complex to logic out a solution I fall back on simpler ways.
Do what feels right, take the path that looks brighter, find the way that has the least resistance, and use logic when it presents itself to me.
In other words, I keep moving and don’t get stopped up on things that I probably can’t figure out right now anyway.
If it’s outside of our perception then we really have no intentional control over anything. All that is left is to decide how we want think, feel, and move among our experiences.
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All my old haunts…! : ) Lived in almost all those hoods at some point.
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