i get the allure of the higher end cities if budget was never an issue i can see the action of living in some of those cities or locations, but for my economic standing, the housing and living situation Ohio provides me is well above anything I ever expected in life.
Yeah, and of course I'm looking at it from the opposite place. Living in Orange County, I basically have access to everything Los Angeles has to offer.
- Disneyland: Hell, I don't ever go. I hate that place. Crowded and expensive and I'm not 9 years old.
- Sporting events: I'm not driving to Dodger Stadium, or SoFi, or Crypto.com arena. It's a mess. And because there's so much money in this area, ticket prices are bid up so high that I'm going to be sitting halfway to Orange County where my seats are anyway. And the Angels? Yeah, I could get there easy... But who wants to?
- We get all the great concerts! Yeah, and I bought tickets to see P!nk, who I really want to see, and sold them secondhand to get the exact amount I spent because, as I said then, who wants to drive to Dodger Stadium on a Sunday night?
- But what about the celebrities and the clubs on the Sunset Strip? Uhh, nahhh... I'm 46. I'm in bed between 9 and 10 most nights. I don't worship celebrities and I am pretty sure it's been WELL over a decade since I've been in anything called a "club". I prefer craft breweries that are well lit, everything's at an appropriate volume, there's ample seating, and I can drink in the mid-afternoon.
- Beaches and mountains! Yeah, I'll grant that. It's beautiful here. And as someone who spent a lot of time hiking, close proximity to all of this is really nice. Yet I find myself getting my exercise on my Peloton, not out on the trails. Although I'm thinking about getting some more of that now that my son has been taking more interest in hiking. Maybe I'll take up some mountain biking--I bought one 2+ years ago during the pandemic and it's basically just hanging unused in my garage; I haven't even bought a helmet yet.
And on and on. There are TONS of tourist things to do here. But I'm not a tourist. So I pay an exorbitant cost of living for a tiny house on a postage stamp lot, deal with traffic, high taxes, HAVE to live in the good area so the kids go to good schools, etc.
I live here because the weather is amazing all year long. I have an excellent [and high-paying] job, so even though it's expensive to live here, I do alright. And, most importantly, because I can't leave until my kids are older because my ex wife certainly won't and I don't want to be a "summer-only Dad".
But the reason I asked is that it seems that a lot of people from a lot of places will talk shit about the bad things where they live... And I feel like Ohioans often seem to me to come off as if they live in a little slice of heaven on Earth... But maybe that's my perception only--it seems like nobody else sees it that way.