State favorability poll

February 22, 2012 7:31 PM

Americans love Hawaii and hate California. A new PPP poll asks respondents which states they like and dislike, resulting in favorability ratings for all 50 states. Full results, including crosstabs, here. (.pdf) Sorry, Illinois! Nice work, Colorado!
posted by escabeche (190 comments total)

I've been pretty sure Californians love living there but are determined to kill the infrastructure for most of my lifetime. There's a lot wrong there, but there's also a lot right there.

deep thoughts.
posted by smirkette at 7:38 PM on February 22, 2012 [3 favorites]

On behalf of Massachusetts, I'm going to be working on a series of attack ads to drive up Tennessee's negatives.

Tennessee is long and thin, just like the serpent in the Garden of Eden. Can we really trust a state that may in fact be trying to tempt us to eat the forbidden fruit of knowledge?

Tennessee: Satan's agent on Earth.

Paid for by Citizens for Truth About Tennessee.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 7:39 PM on February 22, 2012 [24 favorites]

Women have a higher opinion of New York by 27 points more than men

(cue Sex and The City music)
posted by Sticherbeast at 7:39 PM on February 22, 2012 [7 favorites]

Haters gonna hate.

shallower thoughts.
posted by KChasm at 7:41 PM on February 22, 2012 [3 favorites]

*lump of granite slowly twists into silent scowl as wind whistles across the wastes*

No longer the Man of the Mountain.
posted by Mblue at 7:43 PM on February 22, 2012

North Carolina: just about average in every way, but sadly tied to South Carolina by name and long-held stereotypes.
posted by sonic meat machine at 7:46 PM on February 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

Ah, y'all got to read into the fine print.

Democrats’ favorite states include Hawaii (62-7), Washington (50-10), Massachusetts (49-9), Oregon (46-6), Vermont (46-9), Colorado (45-8), and New York (51-15), and their least favorites are led by Texas (17-51), Alabama (13-45), and Mississippi (13-41). Republicans love Alaska (65-3) and Texas (66-9), and absolutely hate California (12-68), followed distantly by Illinois (15-44) and Massachusetts (19-47).

So Dems love us Massholes and Reps hate us, vice vesra for Texas. We're divisive. But I can live with that. If you need me I'll just be polishing the monument to the 54th Massachusetts at the top of Beacon Hill.
posted by Diablevert at 7:46 PM on February 22, 2012 [9 favorites]

Iowa: equal parts "not sure" and "favorable" - splitting the middle of opinion polls and the country since 1846, more or less.
posted by webhund at 7:47 PM on February 22, 2012

huh. those are some really unexpected states up there at the head of the class.

i mean obvsly new york should be #1.
posted by elizardbits at 7:48 PM on February 22, 2012

Where's Manitoba.







Ducks.
posted by clvrmnky at 7:48 PM on February 22, 2012 [2 favorites]

Colorado? Colorado is like the Dave Matthews Band of states.
posted by jessamyn at 7:49 PM on February 22, 2012 [49 favorites]

I've heard much of Hawaii is, in fact, a giant shit-hole.

Discuss.

Also, MARYLAND4LYF
posted by bardic at 7:50 PM on February 22, 2012 [2 favorites]

Everybody is pretty much okay with Oregon, but nobody is super balls-out crazy for it. It's like the being picked third or fourth at kickball of state favorability results.
posted by cortex at 7:50 PM on February 22, 2012 [7 favorites]

More than half the people polled had no opinion about Connecticut.

That doesn't surprise me in the slightest, actually.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:52 PM on February 22, 2012 [3 favorites]

This survey claims that 57% of Americans have never lived outside of the state of their birth.

Which means 57% of Americans talk a lot of shit.

Sounds about right. Especially for those South Dakotans.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:52 PM on February 22, 2012 [15 favorites]

Hawaii Has a Racism Problem
posted by eddydamascene at 7:52 PM on February 22, 2012

Diablevert: "If you need me I'll just be polishing the monument to the 54th Massachusetts at the top of Beacon Hill."

Is that what you kids call it these days?
posted by koeselitz at 7:53 PM on February 22, 2012 [7 favorites]

It isn't' so much that Americans hate California. Conservatives hate California. Everyone else seems OK with it.

A lot of states need to work on their reputations because the "Not Sure" contingent is pretty high in places. Frankly if I were a respondent in this poll, and was asked "Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of [STATE] I'd say not sure for about 40 states because they're quiet and keep their heads down.

People love Hawaii because most have never been there except through the magic of Magnum PI and that Brady Bunch storyline of when they went on vacation so of course it will be positive.
posted by birdherder at 7:53 PM on February 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

Vermont has fall and winter, NNE.
posted by Mblue at 7:54 PM on February 22, 2012

I think it's notable how the real message of this is 'most people think pretty much every state is meh'.
posted by gracedissolved at 7:54 PM on February 22, 2012

You know what state is truly beautiful?

Wyoming.
posted by bardic at 7:54 PM on February 22, 2012 [3 favorites]

If this keeps stupid people from moving to California, then MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
posted by oneswellfoop at 7:56 PM on February 22, 2012 [14 favorites]

jessamyn: "Colorado? Colorado is like the Dave Matthews Band of states."

...and unfortunately, evidence suggests you can only buy those little white oval bumper stickers with "Crested Butte" and "DMB" as a set.
posted by notsnot at 7:56 PM on February 22, 2012 [3 favorites]

If this keeps stupid people from moving

object is visit, dump money.
posted by Mblue at 7:58 PM on February 22, 2012

I've heard much of Hawaii is, in fact, a giant shit-hole.

I went to Honolulu and naturally I found the island of Oahu absolutely beautiful. But from everything I've read, I wouldn't want to live there (housing difficult to impossible to find, everything super expensive, etc.)

Everybody is pretty much okay with Oregon, but nobody is super balls-out crazy for it.

I grew up in Oregon. This is basically my opinion of it.

Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of the state of Michigan?
Favorable........................................................ 38%
Unfavorable .................................................... 21%
Not sure .......................................................... 40%

... Yeah, that about sums that up. Lovely state pockmarked by decaying cities.
posted by asciident at 7:59 PM on February 22, 2012

The "27% Unfavorable" view of Massachusetts is awesome.

"Sure, number one in healthcare and education, but fuck them for Ted Kennedy and treating homos like human beings. That 'best in energy efficiency' means 'best in communism!'"
posted by Mayor Curley at 8:04 PM on February 22, 2012 [6 favorites]

Is that what you kids call it these days?

What can I say, I like a nice handlebar and chin-puff combo. You leave me and Robert Gould Shaw alone.


Actually, you know what state I randomly hate? Delaware. I once had to do some research for a project on women's history, and one of my tasks was to find little fun facts for each state. Nothing has ever happened in Delaware. Northing. The signed the Constitution, invented plastic, put up about 900 tollbooths, and laid down to die. They should chuck it in and join Maryland; Maryland's got personality.
posted by Diablevert at 8:05 PM on February 22, 2012 [7 favorites]

Nothing has ever happened in Delaware.

Fight Club took place there! That's something!
posted by Sticherbeast at 8:09 PM on February 22, 2012 [3 favorites]

I was born and raised in Colorado and live in California. I feel really conflicted about writing this poll off.
posted by vorpal bunny at 8:11 PM on February 22, 2012

Man, there are some bullshit states that beat out my ancestral homeland, New Jersey.
posted by entropone at 8:13 PM on February 22, 2012 [2 favorites]

Wait, Delaware invented plastic? Okay, I hate them now too.

Vicious vacuum-packaging vipers.

Oh, but the state bug is the ladybug. That's kinda cool.

Nevermind.
posted by misha at 8:14 PM on February 22, 2012

I remember those bumper stickers that said, "Welcome to California. Now go home." i guess they worked.
posted by charlesminus at 8:15 PM on February 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

Having lived in Hawaii and California, I feel relatively secure saying: America, you're talking out of your ass. Hawaii is only a nice place if you're not planning to stay more than a week or if you're "local," which means (practically speaking) AAPA or at least partly so. Otherwise? Blerg. Trask can have it as far as I care, have fun making sennet rope.
posted by 1adam12 at 8:16 PM on February 22, 2012 [2 favorites]

I'd be interested to see crosstabs for preference by state. To see how many Californians, for instance, view their own state unfavorably.
posted by Defenestrator at 8:16 PM on February 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

On behalf of Massachusetts, I'm going to be working on a series of attack ads to drive up Tennessee's negatives.

I'm sure the Tennessee State Legislature would be happy to assist you. I'm pretty sure "driving up negatives" is in their job description.
posted by DiscourseMarker at 8:19 PM on February 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

Colorado? Colorado is like the Dave Matthews Band of states.

Dahwwwwwww. I live around a DMB concert. It explains everything.
posted by alex_skazat at 8:22 PM on February 22, 2012

Hawaii is only a nice place if you're not planning to stay more than a week or if you're "local," which means (practically speaking) AAPA or at least partly so.

Huh. My brother (white) and his wife (Japanese) choose to live in Hawaii partly because they feel like it's pretty much the only place available to them where their kids get to be normal people, not racially-marked people. My brother says that there's some anti-white (or really anti-mainland-white) prejudice, but it's nothing he can't deal with. They really like Honolulu, even though it's true that it's expensive and they can't afford a lot of the stuff they'd probably be able to afford if they lived on the mainland.

The most important thing that I have learned from this is that women have much better taste in states than men do. My opinion on this has absolutely nothing to do with my being a woman.
posted by craichead at 8:28 PM on February 22, 2012 [2 favorites]

Actually, you know what state I randomly hate? Delaware.

New Hampshire! "Want to drive up to see your folks in Maine? Two bucks each way for a couple miles, please. And don't forget to buy some (not really) discount liquor and some fireworks. Perhaps you could shop and evade the Massachusetts sales tax so we can continue to eviscerate our landowners while screaming 'tax-free' like a broken record."
posted by Mayor Curley at 8:29 PM on February 22, 2012 [2 favorites]

General take-aways:

1. It isn't your imagination, the United States is very politically polarized.
2. Most people don't know much about most states.

Can anybody find any studies on the ability of Americans to even identify most states? I'm turning up short. Based on stuff I remember seeing about inability to identify Mexico and Canada I'm guessing the results wouldn't look too good.
posted by Defenestrator at 8:32 PM on February 22, 2012

bardic: You know what state is truly beautiful?

Wyoming.

Parts of it, yeah. Yellowstone is there, of course, and then you have the Wind River mountains and the Tetons. There are some good places down by Laramie and Cheyenne, as well. The entire northern part of the state is pretty good.

On the other hand, a lot of the southern half is windswept wasteland. The interstate corridor, in particular, is pretty bad. It gets pretty by Laramie, but near there the weather will doing its absolute best to kill you, so you might not be appreciating it at the time. Personally, I rather like wasteland, but it's a matter of individual taste.

I like Idaho as well. You wouldn't think it's nice based on the reputation or anything, but once you get out of the snake river plain it's beautiful. I'm pretty sure the entire northern half of the state is made entirely out of mountain ranges and canyons. Plus, you get a real city (Boise), with all that comes with it. Boise has suburbs larger than Wyoming's biggest towns. Colorado is tempting too - it's a beautiful state - but Denver is really too big and has a lot of really nasty slums.
posted by Mitrovarr at 8:32 PM on February 22, 2012

The only thing more dubious than America's aggregate knowledge of geography is an organization called "public policy polling" offering "affordable" surveys....... sheesh.
posted by onesidys at 8:33 PM on February 22, 2012

Wooooooooo! Alabama is not negative! We're No. 1!

What did Louisiana do to tick everybody off so badly, or does all the association with drowning in storm surge whilst being coated with spilled oil cause some subconscious negative feeling?
posted by SomeOneElse at 8:33 PM on February 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

I understand hating L.A., but California is a big state. On the other hand, so is Texas, and it all sucks. I kid, 99% of it sucks. Some of the area west of Austin wasn’t bad.

I’d like to see results only counting people who’ve actually been to the states they have an opinion of.

How the hell does Tennessee rate so high? Are there that many Arrested Development fans?
posted by bongo_x at 8:33 PM on February 22, 2012

The only states that I particularly like are New York, Missouri and Maryland.
posted by knoyers at 8:35 PM on February 22, 2012

North Carolina: just about average in every way, but sadly tied to South Carolina by name and long-held stereotypes.

Average?!?

We produced Thomas Wolfe and Michael Jordan and the finest goddamn BBQ in the whole United States!

Pistols at dawn, motherfucker.
posted by Rangeboy at 8:37 PM on February 22, 2012 [4 favorites]

How the hell does Tennessee rate so high?

Elvis and Al Gore.
posted by Sys Rq at 8:38 PM on February 22, 2012

On behalf of Massachusetts...

I'm pretty sure that the middling performance of Massachusetts - a fine state! - in this poll is probably due to the fact that like 80% the population of Boston is 24 year old dudes wearing leather flip flops, distressed cargo shorts, polo shirts, and backward ball caps.
posted by entropone at 8:39 PM on February 22, 2012 [4 favorites]

Hawai'i has a racism problem.
As a white guy married to a Hawai'ian, I can tell you that most people's problems aren't with white people. They're with people from the mainland, especially tourists with no interest in Hawai'i or its culture beyond beaches, maitais, or buying up realestate.
Can you really blame them?
posted by kaiseki at 8:40 PM on February 22, 2012 [4 favorites]

"Democrats’ favorite states include Hawaii, Massachusetts, Oregon, Washington,
Vermont, Colorado, and New York,"

What? No, Illinois. They all keep fleeing here.

Plus, Illinois abolished the death penalty, got civil unions, and raised taxes ALL IN ONE YEAR. We have ALL the liberal testicles for the whole country.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:42 PM on February 22, 2012 [5 favorites]

On behalf of the great state of South Carolina, I would like to take this opportunity to say fuck all you motherfuckers. Still beating Mississippi bitches! Whoo!
posted by ND¢ at 8:42 PM on February 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

Hawaii is an amazing place and an awesome place to live; haters be damned. Actually, it's fine by us that so many of you think it's a shithole. Stay away. It'll leave more of the place devoid of annoying mainlanders who want to change it because you all think you know better. (Said as someone who didn't grow up there but lived there a long time, whose family has all moved there from Massachusetts, and fully intends to move back in a couple years.)
posted by lazywhinerkid at 8:43 PM on February 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

27% unfavorable to Utah? AWESOME. Just means more of stuff like this to go around. Their loss.

TEAM UTAH WOOT WOOT
posted by Doleful Creature at 8:48 PM on February 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

Hooookay, speaking as somebody who knows that their state has a racism problem, if 12 year old girl is getting stitches due to racial violence, (per article above, granted the attacker was also a child), this sounds like a racism problem. Not saying that the native Hawaiians were/are fairly treated, Unfamiliar Fishes was a very interesting book, but:

annoying mainlanders who want to change it because you all think you know better

I mean, that sounds like classic Alabama to me, and not the one that I like to call home. I'm sure Hawaii has a lot of great things about it, and it would be good if racism discussions weren't what you are type discussions, but given what I'm reading in that article, yeah. It isn't a personal attack to be able to discuss racial issues.
posted by SomeOneElse at 8:54 PM on February 22, 2012 [3 favorites]

Americans can barely locate their own country on a map of the world, so the finer level of resolution required to judge States is pretty much impossible. New Yorkers know that there's a State between North and South Dakota, why wasn't it included?
posted by twoleftfeet at 8:54 PM on February 22, 2012 [3 favorites]

that map is missing the important state of CHEESE. iirc it is near those lake thingies.
posted by elizardbits at 8:59 PM on February 22, 2012

I'd love to see a breakdown of positives and negatives by the number of counties within a given state respondents had lived in and visited.

I know that many of my perceptions of most places are limited when not cartoonish, and I've actually travelled a good chunk of the U.S.
posted by weston at 9:05 PM on February 22, 2012

New Yorkers know that there's a State between North and South Dakota, why wasn't it included?

I have no idea what you are talking about.
posted by eddydamascene at 9:09 PM on February 22, 2012

There should be an economic stimulus that requires people to travel and see more than their own filthy corner of of the world.

Most of the states not on the Pacific coast, west of the Mississippi, and in most of the Rust Belt (outside of a few bigger cities) have always seemed hopelessly boring to me outside of a collection of natural wonders. That makes up a lot of them. That's not to say I wouldn't visit them if given the opportunity, but if I had some extra cash there are many more places I'd go before them.

I'm guessing I'm not alone. So when you add up people like me and the non-travelers that makes up for a lot of states that live in obscurity.
posted by Defenestrator at 9:36 PM on February 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

Having lived from east to west, I can truthfully tell you there is nothing I've left on the eastern side of the Mississippi that would be worth going back for. The Pacific Northwest and the North Central Mountain States have got the rest of the US beat hands down.

I like Idaho as well. You wouldn't think it's nice based on the reputation or anything, but once you get out of the snake river plain it's beautiful.

Exxxxcuuuuuuuse me!?!! I live in the Great Basin Region of the Snake River, and I'd like to invite you to sit with me on the edge of a lava escarpment to watch the sunset across the desert. I won't talk, so there will be no sound, except for the sighing of the gentle sage brush scented wind. Then you can take the I84 corridor outta here so we can make sure it stays empty and quiet. And seriously, we're cool here; all those skinheads live up north.
posted by BlueHorse at 9:37 PM on February 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

SomeOneElse: With my off-the-cuff comment, I wasn't responding directly to the "Hawaii Has a Racism Problem" pseudo-argument (with which I take issue because the framing sucks, isolated incidents against a few white people do not a "problem" make, and I really respect the SPLC but when you use Ken Conklin as supporting evidence, well you're drawing on flawed data) but more to the original "shit-hole, discuss" comment. Disappointed I wasn't clear, but I've just heard so many people make ridiculous comments like that that I'm more than happy people who feel that way want to stay away.
posted by lazywhinerkid at 9:42 PM on February 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

Hawaii Has a Racism Problem

Oh, Jesus Fracking Christ.

I am white. I'm from Connecticut. I've lived in Hawaii for 20+ years. I have never once been treated any different from anyone else by anybody anywhere I've traveled on any Hawaiian island. Indeed, while I wouldn't go so far as to say that there is no racism in Hawaii, the main problem people have here is with people being loud and obnoxious with no respect for anyone.

BUT HEY! I used to work on Cape Cods during the summer and you know who we hated there? People being loud and obnoxious with no respect for anyone.

You know what the stereotype of Americans is abroad? That we're loud, obnoxious and with no respect for anyone.

What I have noticed is that a lot of white people get freaked the fuck out when they get here and suddenly they're not the majority. Indeed, white people get treated exactly the same as everybody else out here. My experience has been that much of the time when somebody says "resident whites get treated worse" what they really mean is "resident whites don't get treated better like on the mainland."

If Trask wants the whites to leave, you can be comforted in knowing that she wants everyone who isn't Hawaiian to leave also - and despite her rhetoric, that's an extremely reductive way of framing her beliefs. There are so few Hawaiians out here - and so few that are politically active - that your odds of meeting a "haole go home" Hawaiian are close to zero. And even that miniscule subset of Hawaiians are perfectly friendly people if you treat them with the respect that all people deserve.

Out here, any two people can date or marry at any time without a second glance. My wife and I walk around on the mainland almost anywhere and people eye us funny. Kids grow up in neighborhoods ad schools of mixed ethnicity as a matter of course.

There are times where racist things happen - like anywhere - but cherry picking one or two incidents and claiming that we have a racism problem is bullshit. Its smacks of the same "oh no scary brown people" hysteria that produced the Massie/Kahawai travesty.

Yeah, go ahead and tell yourself the reason anyone out here didn't like you was because of your race, certain of my fellow white people. It wasn't your race. It was you.

And there are a dozen reasons why Hawaii shouldn't be #1 on this list, not the least of which is our economy, how we fucked up gay marriage, and the severely damaged public education system. But racism? I can't call bullshit on that loudly enough.
posted by Joey Michaels at 9:53 PM on February 22, 2012 [18 favorites]

Colorado's kind of awesome, yeah. (Born and raised there). But they did manage to vote for Santorum recently. (whimper).
posted by nat at 9:56 PM on February 22, 2012

And one other thing - 95% of the people out here will cut you a huge amount of slack if you're a tourist.
posted by Joey Michaels at 10:00 PM on February 22, 2012

Yeah, California's ratings are so low because conservatives absolutely loathe it. Which just makes me love it more.
posted by Justinian at 10:02 PM on February 22, 2012 [2 favorites]

What I have noticed is that a lot of white people get freaked the fuck out when they get here and suddenly they're not the majority.

The reverse is also true. Visiting Hawaii for the first time as an Asian person, it was the first time I ever felt like a non-outsider in my own country and where my race was never a consideration to who I was as a person. It dawned on me that this is what white people must get to feel like all the time. It's not a bad feeling. I highly recommend it!!! A+++
posted by cazoo at 10:07 PM on February 22, 2012 [13 favorites]

Justinian, it's between that, and people who both hate Los Angeles, and don't know the first thing about it that they haven't seen on TV, or experienced in one trip to the wrong part of it.

I don't think there's reason for everyone to love it, but I have noticed that most people who hate LA don't really hate Los Angeles, they hate a caricature of Los Angeles that doesn't actually exist. Or, at the best, hate a part of Los Angeles that represents the whole about as well as gristle represents steak.
posted by flaterik at 10:19 PM on February 22, 2012 [2 favorites]

It's funny that Republicans like Alaska so much because it's the most commie state in the nation. Where else is 90% of the land public and everyone gets a cut of the profits?
posted by fshgrl at 10:23 PM on February 22, 2012 [7 favorites]

GOD BLESS AMERICA!*


*Except for California
posted by mazola at 10:24 PM on February 22, 2012

California has given the country both the "San Francisco Lifestyle" and the "Hollywood Elitist." When you look at the negatives in the cross tabs the negatives come from the political leanings of the respondents.
posted by birdherder at 10:24 PM on February 22, 2012

Fuck. That was "San Francisco Values" not lifestyle. I got the GOP talking points messed up.
posted by birdherder at 10:26 PM on February 22, 2012

I would like to 100% endorse the San Francisco lifestyle.
posted by Joey Michaels at 10:32 PM on February 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

Visiting Hawaii for the first time as an Asian person, it was the first time I ever felt like a non-outsider in my own country and where my race was never a consideration to who I was as a person.

One of the things my non-white students who go to college on the mainland tell me is that they hate that the first question almost everyone asks them is "what are you?"
posted by Joey Michaels at 10:33 PM on February 22, 2012

What did Louisiana do to tick everybody off so badly.

Liberals think it is full of Southern bible thumping yokels. Conservatives think it is full of sinful Mardi Gras lifestyles and weird French shit. Both suspect that it is probably still at least partially underwater since 2005.
posted by Winnemac at 10:36 PM on February 22, 2012 [17 favorites]

I don't think there's reason for everyone to love it, but I have noticed that most people who hate LA don't really hate Los Angeles, they hate a caricature of Los Angeles that doesn't actually exist.

I hate it because I lived there a long time. Hate is really too strong of a word, but I sure wouldn’t want to live there again. I’m not even thrilled with visiting except I get to see friends.

I find it’s usually the opposite, people love the caricature of L.A. from TV and movies that is nothing like the truth, and if they actually go there they either embrace the lie or are really disappointed.
posted by bongo_x at 10:47 PM on February 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

Republicans hate bowers of flowers that bloom in the sun. They probably hate birdies that sing and everything, too.
posted by trip and a half at 11:01 PM on February 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

I don't think there's reason for everyone to love it, but I have noticed that most people who hate LA don't really hate Los Angeles, they hate a caricature of Los Angeles that doesn't actually exist.

The city has its moments but driving to see them is a huge pain in the ass. That and the layer of smog puts it in the negative for me. The smog has gotten much better over the years though.
posted by dibblda at 11:22 PM on February 22, 2012

Or there are a million different ways to experience it, and you had crappy ones. Of course, I don't actually live in Los Angeles, I live in Santa Monica, and I don't spend much time in my car. If you arrange your life so that you're fighting the city, you're gonna lose. If you can do otherwise, it can be awesome.

Or it's not for you (which I don't mean as a reflection of your quality, just that different people like different things) But the idea that I've "embraced the lie" is pretty funny. I moved here because of college, expecting to not like it, believing the same wrongness that most people from the midwest who don't know shit believe, and ended up loving it. It's been 15 years, so I'm pretty sure it's genuine.

Which isn't to say your dislike for it wasn't. There are plenty of reasons and ways not to like LA, I just find that most people hate it because they're from San Francisco and therefore are legally obligated to, or think the whole metro area is Hollywood.
posted by flaterik at 11:34 PM on February 22, 2012

I'm glad so many people seem to hate California so I can have more of it all to myself!
posted by jnnla at 11:35 PM on February 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

Wait, jnnla is right. California sucks, don't go!
posted by flaterik at 11:36 PM on February 22, 2012

Of course, I don't actually live in Los Angeles, I live in Santa Monica, and I don't spend much time in my car.

So in other words you usually hang out in Santa Monica? People usually like Santa Monica. Can you really comment on the LA that most people talk about?

I live in Long Beach and drive very little as well. I also love it here. LA is fun because there is a lot to do, but I've always found it a generally ugly and disconnected city. I really can't comment though because as close as I am, I don't live there.

Anyway, this is a tangent. The California hate is obviously all political and I doubt has much to do with dislike for certain cities. Conservatives have seen the big swath of our state solid blue during elections enough times to know this is a place they're not supposed to like.
posted by Defenestrator at 11:51 PM on February 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

What's funny is that tons of Republicans who live in California, hate, hate, hate it. And the California Republicans are pretty conservative overall. Orange County, Nixon country and all that. A huge amount of that is racially driven. There is tremendous animosity from older Republican whites toward Latinos and generally anyone who is not white. They fulminate against "illegals" and "Mexicans" which are code-words for anyone who is Latino, never mind that some Latinos have lived here for generations long before any Anglo-Saxons made it out here.

If you have the stomach for it, go take a look at the comments under articles in LA Times. Dominated by Republican cavemen. Hate gays. Hate non-whites. Hate "feminism". Hate "libtards". Hate Obama. And wait for it... hate California. They revel in all bad news about California, and it's always the libtards and illegals fault. Oh, and constant threats that they'll "leave" California - frequently, you guessed it, for Texas. I wish they'd leave already since they seem to hate it so much. But funny, how they hang around, ironically on LA Times, which they also hate and somehow construe to be liberal paper(!). Hate, but hang around to complain and spew their poison.

So yeah, if you poll Californians, you'll find quite a few who hate the state with a passion, and overwhelmingly, they'll be Republicans.
posted by VikingSword at 11:56 PM on February 22, 2012 [5 favorites]

Nah, my girlfriend and I already got drunk and ranked the states (self-link, obvs).

The public reaffirmed the failure of democracy once again.
posted by klangklangston at 12:16 AM on February 23, 2012

Heh. It's sounding like it's time for another LA meetup. LA's pretty sweet, on the whole; the comment about fighting the city is right on. Also, east side is better than west side for actually living in a city.
posted by klangklangston at 12:29 AM on February 23, 2012

Oklahoma did far too well there. Damn, I wish I'd just kept on driving when I chose to stay there on my cross-country trip back in 2008. America had never felt more alien. Especially when I tried to get a fucking drink.

California is great. Especially northern California.
posted by Decani at 12:30 AM on February 23, 2012

How the hell did Wisconsin get so high?? I live here, and at best it's average feeling. No clue how people have much of an opinion of it at all.
posted by usagizero at 12:33 AM on February 23, 2012

By the way, someone should do this for UK counties. Yorkshire would win, of course.
posted by Decani at 12:35 AM on February 23, 2012

Mahalo, mahalo for all the trash talk about Hawai'i! - The poor islands have just about been loved to death. O'ahu is way over carrying capacity and tourism is a soul-deadening, enslaving economy. The Sovereignty movement has the right idea: freedom from the US military is the one thing that might make the islands liveable again. De-Occupy!
posted by Surfurrus at 1:19 AM on February 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

And, Joey Michaels, I can't favorite this enough:

What I have noticed is that a lot of white people get freaked the fuck out when they get here and suddenly they're not the majority. Indeed, white people get treated exactly the same as everybody else out here.

I have met very few white people outside of Hawai'i who have really understood the privilege of their skin color. Even when living and traveling to majority non-white countries, white skin people assume they will have privilege (a remnant of global colonial history). Many white Americans travel completely unaware of the contempt they leave in their wake; if they stay long enough in Hawai'i, they will feel it.
posted by Surfurrus at 1:36 AM on February 23, 2012 [5 favorites]

orleans > york
posted by This, of course, alludes to you at 1:41 AM on February 23, 2012

Actually, you know what state I randomly hate? Delaware. I once had to do some research for a project on women's history, and one of my tasks was to find little fun facts for each state. Nothing has ever happened in Delaware. Northing. The signed the Constitution, invented plastic, put up about 900 tollbooths, and laid down to die. They should chuck it in and join Maryland; Maryland's got personality.


In elementary school, we had to each do a report on whatever state we got assigned. I remember getting Wisconsin and being bummed out that it wasn't one of the more exciting states.

And yet, I still felt luckier than my classmate who got Delaware.
posted by The ____ of Justice at 2:03 AM on February 23, 2012

I guess how exactly you define "LA" is pretty fluid. I'm less than a mile from the "border", and not all that many people actually know where Santa Monica ends and Los Angeles begins... there's not much difference except for the gold border on the street signs. I spent several years living in various parts of downtown, and spend most of my recreational time there and in hollywood, so I'm not AWOL by any means. I just don't go east until after 8:30, and by now I know when and which ways to take so I'm not sitting in traffic unless absolutely necessary. I like having my quiet, walkable, bikeable city and neighborhood to retreat to, but I wouldn't like Santa Monica if it wasn't next to Los Angeles, so it's hard for me to truly consider it a separate entity. The huge variety this sprawl has to it is a big part of what I love about living here.

It is a derail, but Los Angeles Country could almost be a microcosm of the state in some ways, and how different parts of the region, and different parts of the state, view each other seems germane!
posted by flaterik at 2:25 AM on February 23, 2012

I bet the people that approve of Alabama are voracious consumers of Fox News. The people that disapprove of Alabama really know Alabama. The people that aren't sure/have no opinion of Alabama have to be newborns and toddlers. (Native Alabaman, still live in Alabama, strongly disapprove of Alabama.)
posted by loosemouth at 2:30 AM on February 23, 2012

North Carolina: a great place to live, but you wouldn't want to visit there.
posted by bendybendy at 3:21 AM on February 23, 2012

Rhode Island - More Likable Than Texas.

Rhode Island - Read It and Weep, Massholes!

(There are benefits to Family Guy and Farrely Brothers movies being the only thing people know about the state.)
posted by Slap*Happy at 3:33 AM on February 23, 2012 [2 favorites]

Austinites are likely screaming epithets as they wall off the city from the rest of Texas.
posted by Thistledown at 3:58 AM on February 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

Democrats’...least favorites are led by Texas (17-51)...

Oh, okay. So this is mostly opinions people have about places they've never been or maybe have driven through once, right? Because I was wondering why people like/dislike certain places, but a lot of these results are more in line with American mythology and make more sense interpreted that way. Hawaii is a carefree tropical paradise, California is either a failed utopia or a stinky hippie commune and Texas is where Republicans go after they die; et cetera.
posted by byanyothername at 4:00 AM on February 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

I once had to do some research for a project on women's history, and one of my tasks was to find little fun facts for each state. Nothing has ever happened in Delaware. Northing. The signed the Constitution, invented plastic, put up about 900 tollbooths, and laid down to die.

....what the hell did you find for Connecticut? Because that's ALSO a state with nothing.

I'm serious -- I used to do this thing in college to prove that: I'd play the word-association game with states' names. People always came up with something for every other state, even if it was off-the-wall or stereotypical:

"Hawaii."
"Palm trees."
"Oregon."
"Covered wagons."
"Oklahoma."
"Cowboys."

And then after they'd done a few, I'd say "Connecticut," and their answer was always: "....." Seriously, they'd open their mouths and take a breath, then hesitate, and furrow their brow when they realized that absolutely nothing had come to mind. It is a state totally devoid of any discernible identity.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:08 AM on February 23, 2012 [3 favorites]

The Babysitter's Club :)
posted by two or three cars parked under the stars at 4:25 AM on February 23, 2012 [3 favorites]

(There are benefits to Family Guy and Farrely Brothers movies being the only thing people know about [Rhode Island])

Isn't that amazing? Even people in Massachusetts don't know anything about it. I've lived in Boston or a inner-ring 'burb my entire adult life, and if you asked me "What's Rhode Island like?" I'd reply

Well, it's where my friend Tom grew up. Umm, there's a strip club that Mo Vaughn used to pretty much live at, and Newport's pretty incredible, but don't go there because it's impossibly crowded. There's a town on the way there called "Little Compton" and that's pretty hilarious because it's probably full of gangs of dwarfs. Lets see... Brown, RISD... oh, there's a giant bug on top of a building that you can see from I-95.

posted by Mayor Curley at 4:26 AM on February 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

The best state is one where the trees are the right height.
posted by futz at 4:26 AM on February 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

"Connecticut"
"county clubs"

I actually have pretty intense impressions of Connecticut, which mostly revolve around great extremes of wealth and poverty. Also the Gilmore Girls.
posted by craichead at 4:28 AM on February 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of the state of Indiana?
Favorable ........................................................ 31%
Unfavorable .................................................... 12%
Not sure .......................................................... 57%

Heh. That pretty much sums-up life as a Hoosier. "I dunno" is the unofficial state motto.
Though, I'd have expected the Favorable/Unfavorable percentages to be closer to a draw.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:38 AM on February 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

....what the hell did you find for Connecticut?

Well, this was years ago, so in all honesty I don't remember. But I don't remember it standing it out as awful, either --- and a quick google backs me up here. Did you know that the Nutmeg State established a Permanent Commission on the Status of Women in 1973? The PCSW says Connecticut had the first female newspaper publisher and dentist in the United States, and that Harriet Beecher Stowe lived there when she wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin. And the first female mayor of a major city, if you count Hartford as a major city. Also you're quite good at basketball.

One may dispute the funness of these facts but trust me, they would have been more than enough to cover the scope of what I required and perhaps now you will understand the depths I was willing to plumb when I say nothing has ever happened in Delaware.
posted by Diablevert at 4:55 AM on February 23, 2012

How the hell did Wisconsin get so high?? I live here, and at best it's average feeling. No clue how people have much of an opinion of it at all.

In spite of the recent political unpleasantness, Wisconsin can be quite nice.

Iowa, on the other hand, does not deserve to be ranked equally high.
posted by gimonca at 4:58 AM on February 23, 2012

I've lived in Boston or a inner-ring 'burb my entire adult life, and if you asked me "What's Rhode Island like?" I'd reply...

And I'd bet you still know more about Rhode Island than Connecticut. Everyone around here thinks Connecticut is a bunch of woods between Westerly and New York where you'd only ever go to visit the Aquarium. (Ten years ago, it would be the Casinos, too, but now the gamblers just get a budget flight to Vegas to make a weekend of it these days.)
posted by Slap*Happy at 5:07 AM on February 23, 2012 [2 favorites]

I dislike Nebraska and Iowa pretty intensely, both for admittedly petty reasons that involve driving their interstates.

Nebraska...okay, you know that part of your sight where your peripheral vision trails off and your blind spot starts? THAT'S ALL OF NEBRASKA SEEN FROM THE INTERSTATE. I had to follow a truck for three hundred miles just so I could have a visual reference point that wasn't corn.

As for Iowa? Mrs. Example and I were driving back from Toronto to Denver once on the return leg of a long road trip, and we got pulled over by a state trooper in Iowa. (Okay, fair enough; we were speeding a bit.) Upon hearing we were coming from Canada, the state trooper proceeded to search our entire car because a.) apparently there's a big marijuana-smuggling route coming from Canada, and b.) obviously marijuana smugglers are middle-aged couples driving late-model Saturns and attracting attention by speeding. As he was searching the car, he looked around conspiratorially, then leaned over to us and said "We have to search the white people too; otherwise it looks bad."

I haven't set foot in Iowa since.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 5:08 AM on February 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

MASSHOLE PRIDE, BABY. Suck it, Republican haters.

A few years ago, I ended up spending time near a major city in a midwestern state for business for a few days. Not even in the city, but outside it. I had never before, in my entire life, felt like such an asshole East Coast elitist. I mean, embarrassingly so. Some of it was the conversation "Hey, where's there a good restaurant around here?" "Well, there's an Applebee's down the road." Although they did have a pretty good microbrewery brewpub nearby, which pleased my coworkers quite a bit. (I hate beer, so it didn't do much for me, personally, but I appreciated that it was there and the food was pretty good. Also, not a fucking chain restaurant.)
posted by rmd1023 at 5:24 AM on February 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

men see North Dakota more favorably by 17 points, South Carolina by 15, Wyoming 14, Montana 13, and Iowa and South Dakota 10.

Men, my brothers, I love you, but, guys, you need to get out more, and I don't mean outdoorsy "out," I mean to places that have things in them. Please. Stop being such a goddamned stereotype.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:27 AM on February 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

And I'd bet you still know more about Rhode Island than Connecticut.

Let's see. Looks small on the map but takes for ever to drive through. Out-of-state cars pulled over for speeding while the natives blast past at 85. Oh, and Connecticut is supposed to have some excellent pizza but I've never stopped because by the time I get to New Haven, I feel like I've already been in the state for two days and may have been depending on where the ubiquitous stop-and-go traffic started. I think that's it.
posted by Mayor Curley at 5:27 AM on February 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

So this is mostly opinions people have about places they've never been or maybe have driven through once, right? Because I was wondering why people like/dislike certain places, but a lot of these results are more in line with American mythology and make more sense interpreted that way.

As soon as you look at the breakout by political affiliation, that becomes really obvious. D's hate Texas, R's hate California, yuckity yuck yuck. My eyes are rolling so hard I'm having trouble typing.
posted by Forktine at 5:44 AM on February 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

Man, there are some bullshit states that beat out my ancestral homeland, New Jersey.

There are a series of image problems in the Mid-Atlantic. New Jersey has incredible regional diversity, and the imagined reality of the place from nearly everyone who doesn't live there is the "Sopranos"/"Jersey Shore" cultural wasteland. My wife's from Camden County and I pretty much didn't know about the Philadelphia-identifying portion of the state until I met her, and I thought that the serious agriculture was a public relations lie until I actually visited the most southern parts of the state. The only fact about New Jersey that you're really taught in New England is that it has the highest population density, so it was a real revelation to me to see the farms and the Pine Barrens.

I really like the place, and it's too bad that I thought it was the epitome of Low Culture until I was about 30. Just as I learned that Philadelphia is a really cool city with a lot of cultural offerings. Unfortunately, it doesn't have much of an identity outside of the region besides "generic East Coast metropolis. Not as vast as New York, not as cultural as New York or Boston." Unfortunately, I think it has a lot to do with the pleasant, restrained, "just plain folks" regional attitude.
posted by Mayor Curley at 5:46 AM on February 23, 2012 [2 favorites]

It turns out . . .
posted by bukvich at 5:55 AM on February 23, 2012

...if you asked me "What's Rhode Island like?" I'd reply...

I grew up in the south shore of MA, maybe 40 miles from Rhode Island, and I too had the same experience with not understanding our little neighbor. Then, I married a girl from Rhode Island. It has shed some light on the Ocean State, though there are aspects of it that are still a mystery.

Rhode Island is like the biggest little small town in the whole country. Everyone, it seems, knows each other. I've traveled a lot in my life, and when meeting strangers, if I told them I'm from MA, nobody has ever asked if I know a particular person. But, When my wife tells people she grew up in RI, if the person is from RI or knows people in RI, the first thing they say is, "oh, do you know [Person]?". The scary thing is, half the time, the answer is, "yes".

Because most of my experience with it involves going there to eat something with someone, I have a lot of good impressions and a lot of bad. There are some really great foods it seems like you can't find anywhere else; cold bakery pizza, clam cakes, Spike's before it moved up to MA and decided it had to sell (shitty) burgers instead of focusing on their wonderful hotdogs ... the list just goes on and on.

But lord have mercy on your soul if you go to anything claiming to be fine dining outside of Providence. And for the love of god, never, ever agree to go out for "family-style chicken". (Unless, of course, you're really interested in paying $5 a person to eat dried out, nasty chicken that was cooked 3 days ago, with a side of mushy pasta and a crappy salad).

The people of RI ... it's kind of a tough situation. I really like a lot of the people of RI. There are a lot of really caring, nice guys and gals, who love their families and will welcome you like you're one of their own. At the same time, they're the only people in my adult life who have ever described anything other than a rug as "oriental" in casual conversation, or have ever seriously used the word "colored" (and the n-word on at least one occasion) in front of me as if me being white means I am on board with that.

So, Rhode Island is ... complicated. It's a giant small town with some really nice qualities and some really backwards outlooks that seem about 30 or 40 years behind much of the rest of the country.
posted by tocts at 6:08 AM on February 23, 2012 [3 favorites]

bardic: "You know what state is truly beautiful?
Wyoming."

Yes, but it sounds like a verb.
posted by workerant at 6:24 AM on February 23, 2012 [4 favorites]

But lord have mercy on your soul if you go to anything claiming to be fine dining outside of Providence.

Newport ain't bad, but yeah. Some great family restaurants and diners downstate, but you need to be a local and be prepared for some trial-and-error to find out which ones are worth anything... and wherever you go, whatever you do, never order the Family Style Chicken. Trust me, no matter what it says on the chalkboard, it's not the special of any day.
posted by Slap*Happy at 6:26 AM on February 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

Connecticut is the Orange County (the Californian one) of the East Coast. Nothing that interesting there, always takes longer to drive through than you'd think, and it's between two places (Boston and NYC) that are actually worth visiting.
posted by Aizkolari at 6:27 AM on February 23, 2012

It's true - Connecticut is sort of Massachusetts and sort of New york, but not either one. I did live there for a year, and there are worse places, but it wouldn't be my first choice. Was dragged to Mystic Seaport a couple of years back, and was not really impressed (I'd been there as a kid, many years ago.)

All the things said about Republicans who live in and hate CA are just like things you could say about Republicans who live in and hate MA, except ours often do move to NH. Then they commute back here to work so they can continue to pay MA income taxes, while enjoying the stratospheric property taxes and substandard social services of NH. After moving, they continue to complain about how awful MA is, sort of like former MA Governor Mitt Romney.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 6:57 AM on February 23, 2012 [2 favorites]

always takes longer to drive through than you'd think

Connecticut is fucking bigger on the inside or something cause you're driving through it going Oh this shouldn't take too long and then two hours later there exists YET MORE POINTLESS CONNECTICUT SPRAWLED BEFORE YOU and you just want to die.
posted by The Whelk at 6:58 AM on February 23, 2012 [4 favorites]

Colorado's kind of awesome, yeah. (Born and raised there). But they did manage to vote for Santorum recently. (whimper).

The rest of the country is thankful for causing the GOP to spend $N million on self-attack ads.
posted by a robot made out of meat at 7:04 AM on February 23, 2012

I've come to the conclusion that Western Connecticut is the sixth borough of New York City; while Eastern Connecticut is a buffer zone between Yankee Fans and Red Sox Nation.

(I grew up in Eastern CT, in the region of the state that the tourism board calls "The Quiet Corner." There's a reason they call it that.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:06 AM on February 23, 2012 [2 favorites]

Connecticut is the Nutmeg Curtain we built to keep the New Yorkers and Bostonians from killing each other.
posted by The Whelk at 7:14 AM on February 23, 2012

Everybody is pretty much okay with Oregon, but nobody is super balls-out crazy for it. It's like the being picked third or fourth at kickball of state favorability results.

Only an Oregonian would think of a kickball metaphor before anything else.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:36 AM on February 23, 2012 [3 favorites]

I've lived in Hawaii for 20+ years. I have never once been treated any different from anyone else by anybody anywhere I've traveled on any Hawaiian island.

I have a good friend who has lived and worked there for years. It was enlightening to go around town with him, and watch him switch between English and Pidgin without even seemingly being aware of it. He does very well there, even out surfing.
posted by Danf at 7:51 AM on February 23, 2012

How the hell did Wisconsin get so high??

cheese. delicious wonderful cheese.
posted by elizardbits at 8:01 AM on February 23, 2012

bardic: "You know what state is truly beautiful?
Wyoming."

Yes, but it sounds like a verb.
posted by workerant

No, it sounds like a gerund.
posted by msali at 8:12 AM on February 23, 2012 [2 favorites]

delicious wonderful cheese.

That is the WRONG COLOR, and they're whiny about it being second best...

My favorite thing about Vermont is that most of the people who live where I do really like it here. This wasn't true when I lived in the Pac NW ["Oh shit it's raining again..."] or when I lived in Florida ["Tourists!"] or when I spent a lot of time in Northern or Southern California ["Parking! Traffic! People different from me aren't living up to my standards of social justice!"] or when I grew up in MA ["THEY are moving in and raising property taxes!"]. I mean there's some of that and the selectboard election is particularly heated this time around, but people who don't like it here--because the food can suck and the population doesn't have much racial diversity (tons of class and age diversity though) and the winters are punishing and the jobs don't tend to pay well--tend to leave for one of the other nearby states that may suit them better. The folks who stay, whether it's typical New England taciturness or what, tend to not spend all their time bitching about the way the place isn't living up to their impossible standards.

I figure you can find nice natural areas to walk around in almost anywhere, but my favorite thing about where I am is that chitchatting with neighbors is usually about things we all really LIKE about it here. I am secretly pleased that Vermont didn't do "better" on that poll. I'd love to see a poll that was "This is what the people who LIVE here think about the state. This is what the people who don't live here think"
posted by jessamyn at 8:12 AM on February 23, 2012 [3 favorites]

Colorado? Colorado is like the Dave Matthews Band of states.

Hey now, let's not say things we'll regret later. We've got mountains, beer (no not the crappy massed produced stuff, things like this), rhythm, music, and my gal.Who could ask for anything more?

Seriously though, a domestic stout bottled with nitro. That alone puts us at least in Steely Dan territory.
posted by Gygesringtone at 8:15 AM on February 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

How many people actually know enough of a state to comment on the whole? I grew up in New York, and it's a really big state, most of which I'll never see. I lived in New Jersey for five years, and maybe can comment on the Newark-Trenton corridor, but not the rest. I've been in the Bay Area for over 15 years and can credibly speak about it, but, again, really big state.
posted by Zed at 8:24 AM on February 23, 2012

Colorado Springs in particular. It's like an entire city knit together from old used stripmalls.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:25 AM on February 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

oh god I once went on a car trip to Colorado springs with by Mom's then boyfriend who grew up there but hadn't been since like the 70s and his abject horror at what the city had become was ...memorable.
posted by The Whelk at 8:26 AM on February 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

And Boulder is a shadow of its former self.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:31 AM on February 23, 2012

How the hell did Wisconsin get so high?? I live here, and at best it's average feeling. No clue how people have much of an opinion of it at all.

Wisconsin has its nice features, but yeah.... totally unremarkable.

Idaho is actually quite scenic. The first time I was there was memorable, too.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 8:33 AM on February 23, 2012

Only a passing reference to Florida here. ...Maybe not surprising.

I’m from Florida; through my former job, I saw more of it than anyone I know; big cities, Hootervilles, undeveloped swampland and truly beautiful beaches. Even I don’t have a good sense of what ‘Florida’ is supposed to be about.

I don’t dislike it by any means. My personal feelings about Florida have fed my theory that your home state is like your family: it may embarrass and frustrate you sometimes, but you basically love it, are obligated to reference it on legal documents, and have to check in with it every so often.
posted by TropicalWalrus at 8:38 AM on February 23, 2012 [2 favorites]

, there's a strip club that Mo Vaughn used to pretty much live at

My wife is from Rhode Island and she still periodically mentions that Mo Vaughn loved the Foxy Lady.

Oh, and (I think) because of the Rhode Island's small size, everyone's loyalties are insanely local. My wife (obviously) hates people from both Massachusetts and Connecticut, but she also hates people from Barrington AND people from Cranston. You start trying to narrow down what she actually "likes" about Rhode Island and it's basically the East Side of Providence and a couple of stores that went out of business at least ten years ago.

And, yes, one of the stores was a Newport Creamery.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 8:47 AM on February 23, 2012 [2 favorites]

Call me old fashioned but there is a state called New York and within it there is a fairly important City called New York City...I love the City but am father indifferent to the rest of the state.
Snark aside, how many people voting for their favorite or least favorite have in fact been in the states the have voted for?
I love some 20 states...but would I want to live in them? That is another matter
posted by Postroad at 8:53 AM on February 23, 2012

Two questions:

What exactly is the point of this exercise?

and-

Have they done one on foreign countries?
posted by IndigoJones at 8:53 AM on February 23, 2012

As a Canadian, here are my thoughts on the various states:
California - potential to be awesome but seems very masochistic.
Colorado - potential to be awesome but seems very snobish.
Massahussets - probably awesome but no one stops there long enough to find out.
New Hampshire - not very awesome, but has nice mountains.
Maine - very awesome in a low-key kind of way.
Illinois - home of Chicago, Ferris Bueller, the Blues Brothers, and Wayne and Garth; so pretty darne awesome.
New York - totally awesome, from top to bottom.
Florida - very bland, no awesome here.
Alabama - nice to see what the US was like 50 yrs ago.
Texas - not as awesome as they think.
Arizona - golf courses in the desert? really? oh, but the north of the state IS awesome.
Nevada - whoopy, Vegas. meh.
Oregon - awesome like Maine only with nicer sunsets.
New Jersey - not quite as bad as you'd think.
Ohio - all work, no play.
Indiana - surprisingly pretty awesome.
Mississippi - rural Alabama.

Haven't seen the rest...
posted by Vindaloo at 8:55 AM on February 23, 2012

Indiana - surprisingly pretty awesome.

Well...that is a surprise.

Also, (and this isn't a dig, because everyone does it), but how can a place have nicer sunsets than any other place?
posted by TropicalWalrus at 9:20 AM on February 23, 2012

how can a place have nicer sunsets than any other place?

Air pollution helps
posted by IndigoJones at 9:23 AM on February 23, 2012

how can a place have nicer sunsets than any other place?

nuclear testing zones have the best sunsets.
posted by elizardbits at 9:28 AM on February 23, 2012

And, yes, one of the stores was a Newport Creamery.

Still around - they have a dozen locations throughout RI and nearby MA. The problem is that they're terrible... a low-rent Friendlies. This is awesome if you're a little kid and going out to eat at a sit-down restaurant is a Big Deal and you get to have the biggest burger ever and real fries with vinegar and an ice-cream sundae you don't have to share and no-one minds if you fidget or color at the table. Once you grow up, it loses its appeal.

Also, (and this isn't a dig, because everyone does it), but how can a place have nicer sunsets than any other place?

Air quality, the weather, the size and shape of the clouds, and what the sun is setting over - in Oregon's case, the Pacific Ocean. In Rhode Island's case, the Johnston Landfill.

Florida knew how to do sunsets right. Even if you were on the Atlantic side: the gorgeous pastels of the sky and the deepening cobalt of the ocean, the scene bedecked by dazzling clouds of golden fire as the last rays of the sun set them ablaze from behind you - not to be missed. Also, that part of Florida is pretty weird in a displaced-new-age-hippy sort of way. Pretty comfortable for liberal-left weirdos.
posted by Slap*Happy at 9:31 AM on February 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

The fact that it's in such a beautiful location makes it worse that it's such a shithole. The political climate is awful. Trying to live there and commute with the poor planning is

Okay I'm not gonna spend more time thinking about how much I hate Colorado Springs.

Yes, well your first mistake is thinking of it as a city. If you think of it as a giant religious compound or shrine to Sit-com suburban life, things make more sense. I remember looking at it on Google maps a few years ago, and I couldn't figure out why most of the parking lots and roads were so empty. Then I realized it was a Sunday morning, and that the lots that were full were all churches. Honestly though, I think what's happened is that people sort of decided that Colorado Springs wasn't going to be a city so much as a town with a lot of people. It's pretty much laid out like an extremely large suburban area. That's why people move there, it's got this image of being the last island of a type of life. Between the Evangelical Christian organizations drawing folks and military bases that exposes a constant churn of folks who are likely to be conservative, there's this big feedback loop of "Conservative Values" both socially and fiscally. Which is what happened to the infrastructure. They actually bought into the "taxes are bad" rhetoric.

I've got a lot of history in the city, and watching it deteriorate makes me very sad. Downtown used to be beautiful, (last time I was there was a few years ago and I was shocked). I'm descended from the guy who did most of the original electrical wiring for those buildings. On the other hand there's still the Uncle Wilbur Fountain, which is a great thing, and exactly how Uncle Wilbur would have wanted to be memorialized, so it's not all bad.

Colorado Springs is an easy place to dislike, but part of me still thinks of it as home.

And Boulder is a shadow of its former self.

Personally, I think it's become a bad translation rather than a shadow. Like the Springs it draws people looking for a certain type of lifestyle. Unlike the Springs a large chunk of the people seem more interested in the image of that lifestyle than the actual lifestyle. Plus, you know, CU.

Anyway, I feel like focusing on a couple cities sort of misses the reason people like Colorado. I'm about a 10 min. drive from good fishing\biking\beautiful hiking. All at the same place. Some of the most beautiful country I've seen is close enough that we can take a day trip with our two kids up there. There's still wilderness. If you're going to judge the state by the crap we've messed up, please don't forget to include the stuff we haven't. Chicago Lakes more than makes up for Boulder, and that's just the spot I go to, it seems like everyone has their own special place that they swear is the most beautiful spot in the country, and most of them are right.

Also, I go and meet my the animal my pork comes from every year. I know the guy who raised it, I know they're happy pigs living a good piggy life. That's important to me. My wife goes and picks choke-cherries every year for jam and jelly, and we do the same for other edible wild plants. It's very easy to eat good food, in every sense of the word.

I guess what I'm saying is, the crappier human parts of Colorado are easy to put up with once you connect with the rest of the place. There's non-crappy human parts too, but I don't think that's why people tend to have a positive image of the state.
posted by Gygesringtone at 9:35 AM on February 23, 2012 [2 favorites]

How do you get more low rent than a friendly's? Some kind of feed bag?
posted by The Whelk at 9:36 AM on February 23, 2012

Still around - they have a dozen locations throughout RI and nearby MA. The problem is that they're terrible... a low-rent Friendlies. This is awesome if you're a little kid and going out to eat at a sit-down restaurant is a Big Deal and you get to have the biggest burger ever and real fries with vinegar and an ice-cream sundae you don't have to share and no-one minds if you fidget or color at the table. Once you grow up, it loses its appeal

I should specify that it was a Newport Creamery that she misses, as in a specific location. Wayland Square in Providence, it's now a place called Red Stripe. And yes, this is all about childhood nostalgia.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 9:40 AM on February 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

How do you get more low rent than a friendly's? Some kind of feed bag

In Rhode Island, the answer is to drive into Massachusetts to go to the Bickford's in Seekonk. Hands down the worst meal I have ever had. It was even more disappointing because (thanks to the Rhode Island accent), I thought I was going to a restaurant called "Bigfoot's."
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 9:43 AM on February 23, 2012 [3 favorites]

Frankly, the most astonishing part of this (and other PPP polls) is that they've conclusively proven that it is, in fact, possible to get people to sit down and talk to an IVR poll for 20 solid minutes.
posted by Hollywood Upstairs Medical College at 9:44 AM on February 23, 2012

TropicalWalrus: “Also, (and this isn't a dig, because everyone does it), but how can a place have nicer sunsets than any other place?”

Huh? In what way would the various substances present in the air not affect the appearance of the sunset? I have a hard time imagining how sunsets could be the same from city to city. Maybe if earth had no atmosphere, this would be possible.
posted by koeselitz at 9:49 AM on February 23, 2012

delicious wonderful cheese.

That is the WRONG COLOR, and they're whiny about it being second best...

QFT. After living in the UK for many years, I just cannot, in any capacity, enjoy rubbery, flavorless orange cheese anymore (yes I know about Red Leicester in the UK, which is not the same as good old plain cheddar). I am secretly grateful for Cracker Barrel's Vermont White Cheddar (as well as their Irish white cheddar), which can pretty much be bought in most grocery stores when I am not in the mood to go on a hunt for super-expensive uncolored cheese.

Please America, just say no to yellow cheese.
posted by triggerfinger at 9:49 AM on February 23, 2012

A few years ago, my boyfriend and I were bored at school (one of us was waiting for a class or something? I don't know) and we somehow decided to channel this towards Googling "Fuck [State]" for each and every state in the union.

Then we put it in a table.

Then we looked up the populations of each state and calculated the per capita results.

New York had the most hits overall at over 49 million, while North Dakota had the fewest (less than 30K.) Washington came up top in the per capita number, but we suspect that a large-but-indeterminate portion of that is hatred for D.C. California actually fared the best in per capita numbers, which I guess means that we're in disagreement with Pew's numbers, but who are you going to believe: a large and well-respected social science research institute, or some college students wasting time between classes?
posted by kagredon at 10:16 AM on February 23, 2012 [9 favorites]

Agh, it's PPP, not Pew. And 300K. That's right, hate for ND is an order of magnitude greater than you've been previously led to believe.
posted by kagredon at 10:23 AM on February 23, 2012

Then we looked up the populations of each state and calculated the per capita results.

Interesting, but I suspect your results are confounded by a lot of people expressing hatred for college sports teams, rather than entire states.
posted by Rangeboy at 10:25 AM on February 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

Colorado has some of the ugliest, worst cities in some of the most beautiful country. Fast Food Nation is written about Colorado! It's like a beautiful person with an unpredictably awful personality.

Exactly. I tried to love Colorado, I really did. I moved there when I was twenty-one, because I wanted to experience America west of the Mississippi, and what could be more exciting than Colorado?

I knew it was a mistake within fifteen minutes of stepping off the train in Colorado Springs. I was carrying two suitcases with another bag slung over my back, and I walked through downtown to my rented room. It was lunchtime, and the sidewalks were full of people.

I was prepared for lots of comments, because I knew I was an odd sight as a young woman loaded down with a ton of luggage. But no one said a word. They avoided eye contact, as if I was an untouchable. Not a single person made a silly remark or even smiled at me when I smiled at them. Then I knew I was in an unfriendly town. Anywhere else in America I've ever visited or lived, there would have been a ton of people making smartass remarks or just friendly asides.

I stuck it out, at first because I didn't want to waste all the effort I'd made in getting there and then because I'd met a guy. But I finally got the hell out of there and not a day goes by when I don't thank god that I don't live in Colorado. I have never been to a more unfriendly place in my life. Plus I missed black people.
posted by Toothless Willy at 10:40 AM on February 23, 2012 [2 favorites]

Wisconsin: Old white Independents love us!

I think we have a new state motto.
posted by desjardins at 10:40 AM on February 23, 2012

oops, I stepped off a train in Denver and took a bus to the Springs.
posted by Toothless Willy at 10:48 AM on February 23, 2012

Toothless Willy: “But I finally got the hell out of there and not a day goes by when I don't thank god that I don't live in Colorado. I have never been to a more unfriendly place in my life.”

Colorado Springs is emphatically not Colorado. Colorado Springs is basically an annex of Arizona, the worst state in the union.
posted by koeselitz at 10:48 AM on February 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

Joey Michaels: "I am white. I'm from Connecticut. I've lived in Hawaii for 20+ years. I have never once been treated any different from anyone else by anybody anywhere I've traveled on any Hawaiian island."

I am white. I'm from California. I've lived in Hawaii for 15 years. And I, also, have never once been treated differently because I'm white. Hawaii certainly has its fair share of problems, but anti-haole racism isn't really one of them.
posted by lex mercatoria at 10:57 AM on February 23, 2012 [2 favorites]

Colorado Springs is emphatically not Colorado. Colorado Springs is basically an annex of Arizona, the worst state in the union.

You know, I was going to mention that Boulder and the Springs are the two places that are most likely to get you a "that's not part of Colorado" from Coloradians who don't live there. They're our own little "No True Scottsman"s.

What's odd is that growing up in the Springs I was told that the rest of the state (except Boulder, and Manitou) was just like us. Part of that is probably the usual assumption people that grow up in relatively homogenous communities have: other people are all like them. I do however remember that being pretty well implied when discussions of state politics came up in the Gazette. I never did understand how a Democrat got elected Governor so many times. Until I moved.
posted by Gygesringtone at 11:22 AM on February 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

anti-haole racism isn't really one of them.

I should have specified "anti-haole" racism in my rant, too, since there is a certain amount of anti-Micronesian racism. The whole "oh noes whites aren't welcome in Hawaii" thing, on the other hand, is as close to being a myth as a thing can be.
posted by Joey Michaels at 11:22 AM on February 23, 2012

I live in Hawaii. The problem isn't racism. The problem is entitled jerks acting like entitled jerks. As one Hawaiian friend put it, "We know the difference between tourists and visitors."
posted by kamikazegopher at 11:23 AM on February 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

Colorado Springs is emphatically not Colorado. Colorado Springs is basically an annex of Arizona, the worst state in the union.

More like Kansas. And I would concede, if Pueblo, Denver, and Boulder weren't just as bad. I've heard that towns on the Western Slope are much better though -- I never made it that far in my travels.
posted by Toothless Willy at 11:48 AM on February 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

Or it's not for you (which I don't mean as a reflection of your quality, just that different people like different things) But the idea that I've "embraced the lie" is pretty funny.

I was specifically talking about visitors, I may not have been clear.

I will point out something I like about the L.A. area (and I consider everything from Simi to Orange County to be L.A.); you can never know it all. It’s endless. I know many people who’ve lived there their whole lives and you can name an area 20 minutes away and they’ve never been there, don’t know anything about it. Much of that is because it’s such a pain to get around that people just stay in their area, it’s almost like a gigantic collection of insulated towns. Ugly, dirty, crowded, towns for the most part, but still it can be interesting.

I lived in the Valley and after the first few years I pretty much never went to Hollywood or anywhere past that on a regular basis, to actually go anywhere to eat or see something, only on exploring trips. I know way more about Hollywood and the westside since I moved to the other side of the country. The unpredictability of it was the thing that wore on me. I would try to go to a bike shop in Santa Monica and it might be an hour round trip, or 6 hours. Of course the same thing might happen on a trip to Home Depot in the Valley.
posted by bongo_x at 11:55 AM on February 23, 2012 [2 favorites]

Also, east side is better than west side for actually living in a city.

Especially in Chicago.
posted by charlesminus at 12:00 PM on February 23, 2012

That is the WRONG COLOR, and they're whiny about it being second best

You're thinking of the mass-market cheese we let out for sale in East Coast supermarkets. The good stuff we keep for ourselves.
posted by escabeche at 12:08 PM on February 23, 2012

I have been to the Mars Cheese Castle, don't you blow smoke up my ass.
posted by jessamyn at 12:25 PM on February 23, 2012 [2 favorites]

Hmm, this is strange-
p. 2: "Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Washington state?" F:43 / U:17 / NS:40
p. 6: "Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of the state of Washington?" F:28 / U:43 / NS:29

Seems like a rather large discrepancy, and the demographics don't look too very different. I wonder if it's the wording? (perhaps some people associated "state of Washington" (but not "Washington state") with Washington DC?) What else would explain such an enormous discrepancy? (I only looked quickly, but didn't see other states that were on multiple polls).
posted by JMOZ at 1:19 PM on February 23, 2012

Also, (and this isn't a dig, because everyone does it), but how can a place have nicer sunsets than any other place?

I assure you, a New Mexico sunset kicks the ass of any sunset Indiana has ever seen. Period.
posted by Thorzdad at 1:25 PM on February 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

most people who hate LA don't really hate Los Angeles, they hate a caricature of Los Angeles that doesn't actually exist.

You have no idea the amount of anti-LA propaganda that is spooned into people's mouths starting when they are babies. I was raised in Seattle, home of the "DON'T CALIFORNICATE WASHINGTON" bumpersticker, and that was referring to LA, not SF. It wasn't until I was in my twenties and actually got out of the neighborhood a little before I realized that LA is actually pretty fantastic. It really is where the 20th century was born. Now, it's joint capital of the 21st century, with Mexico City, my two favorite modern cities in the world.

It's funny, though; while San Franciscans can never shut up about how awesome their city is (and it is, don't get me wrong), Angelinos can't stop competitively one-upping each other about what a miserable shithole it is.
posted by Fnarf at 1:27 PM on February 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

JMOZ: "Hmm, this is strange-
p. 2: "Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Washington state?" F:43 / U:17 / NS:40
p. 6: "Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of the state of Washington?" F:28 / U:43 / NS:29

Seems like a rather large discrepancy, and the demographics don't look too very different. I wonder if it's the wording? (perhaps some people associated "state of Washington" (but not "Washington state") with Washington DC?) What else would explain such an enormous discrepancy? (I only looked quickly, but didn't see other states that were on multiple polls)."

And by sending a quick email, I was able to answer my own question. Said the representative from PPP (reposted with permission):

"We had to ask about Washington a second time because the first time, respondents were not prompted that we were about to ask about a bunch of states, so many assumed we were talking about DC. The numbers that’re higher (the first one) [from the later poll] are the correct ones, which is why we reported them only."

posted by JMOZ at 1:49 PM on February 23, 2012 [2 favorites]

I assure you, a New Mexico sunset kicks the ass of any sunset Indiana has ever seen.

Pah. You can't have a champion sunset without an ocean for it to set in, and a northern clime to increase the angle. Ergo, the best sunsets are in Washington State.
posted by Fnarf at 2:31 PM on February 23, 2012

Coming back to this now, I think what bugs me is that "like/dislike" is really nebulous and doesn't really tell me anything. I think it would be way interesting to instead ask people what their preconceptions or specific impressions are about various states (/foreign countries), and then compare that to objective data. Or just report the most prominent impressions--that would probably be interesting in itself.
posted by byanyothername at 2:42 PM on February 23, 2012

Fnarf: “Pah. You can't have a champion sunset without an ocean for it to set in, and a northern clime to increase the angle. Ergo, the best sunsets are in Washington State.”

I love Washington – particularly Tacoma – so I feel some sympathy for this view. However, I have to say that, objectively, sunsets are indeed better in Santa Fe. Sincerely, anybody who likes sunsets should spend a week or two there.

It's kind of uncanny. The sunset in Santa Fe is always beautiful. Like, every single night. It's almost creepy, but it's consistently stunning. I think part of this has to do with the fact that it's sunny something like 355 days per year in Santa Fe; my observation was that sunsets are much more rare in Washington.
posted by koeselitz at 2:44 PM on February 23, 2012

You can't have a champion sunset without an ocean for it to set in, and a northern clime to increase the angle.

The absolute best sunsets I ever saw were in Vietnam. The sky was fluorescent from one horizon to the other. Never seen that anywhere else.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:45 PM on February 23, 2012 [2 favorites]

California sucks. I readily encourage those folks who hate Cali to leave and those folks from other states, please never decide to live here. Snow to the right of me, sun and spring where I am at, and oceans on the left. This California stuff sucks.... bad.
posted by couchdive at 6:02 PM on February 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

Just want to say, this is one of my favorite threads, ever. I love to listen to people talk about the places they're from, and the places they've decided they're from, and why they love them or hate them or both.

"...your home state is like your family: it may embarrass and frustrate you sometimes, but you basically love it, are obligated to reference it on legal documents, and have to check in with it every so often." - TropicalWalrus

I'll take that quote with me everywhere.
posted by Slap*Happy at 7:01 PM on February 23, 2012 [2 favorites]

Really surprised at all the Colorado hate in the thread. Yeah, the Springs sucks, but I thought Denver metro was beautiful and really livable. Someone upthread said it was too large and had scary slums. I could not disagree more*. I think Denver is the perfect size; large enough for great arts and culture, but small enough to be driveable. 20-30 minutes of driving takes you to amazing locations for hiking, biking, etc. You can walk, bike ride or KAYAK from the heart of the city to a state park on the south edge of the suburbs (a state park which hosts an awesome hot air balloon festival each year).

I loved it and hated to leave. I live in North Carolina now, which kind of sucks. I'm a few hours from the beach or the mountains, but it is a crappy beach and mediocre mountains.

* I grew up in Houston, which is seriously too large (in terms of sprawl) and has some very seriously scary slums. Y perception MV. And Texas is really too big to be lumped into one thing. Each major city has its own character and it's more like a collection of substates than a cohesive whole.
posted by jeoc at 7:35 PM on February 23, 2012 [2 favorites]

You know what surprised me about California? I grew up in Texas with the belief, as a younger person, that California was just lefty hippie commies flying out of holes in the ground. I moved to San Diego from (my entire adult life in) Dallas a year ago, and I've had more strangers say racist, christian-centric, conservative shit to my face in one year than in at least 10 if not the whole 20 years I lived in North Texas. Some of that may be my facade of 40, white, fat, dressed professionally. Certainly I had people I knew conversationally/in a business context in Texas say this stuff to me, but I'm talking about complete stranger customer service* experiences here.

*Except a few weeks ago, when I was visiting a customer at a non-profit major-religiously-affiliated charity to benefit minorities and underprivileged children, who said something so stunningly stunning to my face that I nearly walked out. I chickened out, and instead didn't give them my normal discount. I also turned off Rush Limbaugh on her computer because I couldn't work with him screaming in my face.

Possibly people in Texas are, somehow, more polite. Even my awful racist mother is capable of containing her shit better than some of the people I've crossed paths with here. I assume that all these alleged liberals live in San Francisco or Los Angeles (only some parts); the rest of the state is politically unpleasant.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:50 PM on February 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

To be fair San Diego is.like a sacred site in John Bircherism
posted by The Whelk at 9:16 PM on February 23, 2012

If I may paraphrase koeselitz, San Diego is essentially Arizona in the eyes of folks from any of the other major cities in California (although many people overlook that vast swaths of California are rural and often quite conservative.)
posted by kagredon at 9:19 PM on February 23, 2012

(Right on down to "The only reason you'd go there is to drive on through to Mexico.")
posted by kagredon at 9:20 PM on February 23, 2012

If you like San Diego, you'll LOVE Bakersfield.
posted by koeselitz at 9:39 PM on February 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

I moved to San Diego from (my entire adult life in) Dallas a year ago, and I've had more strangers say racist, christian-centric, conservative shit to my face in one year than in at least 10 if not the whole 20 years I lived in North Texas.

Yes sir. I never noticed an overwhelming amount of Conservative Christian stuff, but I moved to L.A. from AZ and was stunned by the blatant racism, and I know people from GA that said the same thing. There are racists everywhere, but I guess the ones in California don’t care for subtlety.
posted by bongo_x at 10:01 PM on February 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

It's probably rebellion from the areas where it's totally unacceptable. It definitely am NOT exposed to it, but the valley and san diego are very different places than the west side and hollywood.
posted by flaterik at 10:06 PM on February 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

...I definitely...
posted by flaterik at 10:11 PM on February 23, 2012

For what it's worth, I think Texas does trump San Diego where homophobia is concerned. I'm not sure if I just was in the wrong places - in and around Houston - but it really, really sucks to get enough extremely pissed-off glares and threatening glances that you have to go find a bathroom and change your pink gay pride shirt before you get your ass kicked.
posted by koeselitz at 10:12 PM on February 23, 2012

San Diego is a pretty conservative city. Also kind of awful. I grew up there.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:45 AM on February 24, 2012

Aw, I love San Diego, and am sad I ever moved away. I think the blatant conservatism is in some way a reaction to knowing they're in California, with all of its reputation, so they aggressively blast their right-wing views.

Of course, I was there for college, and then worked as a public school teacher, surrounded by other fairly liberal teachers, so maybe my view was colored by my circumstances.
posted by mdaugherty82 at 8:53 AM on February 24, 2012

I understand most of this is political, but I don't really the idea of hating a state. I don't understand how any educated, curious person could say "I have no interest visiting any state east of the Mississippi".

How do people have a negative opinion of Louisiana? The name alone makes me smile. Mississippi? You should tour the delta region. So much musical history. Florida has beaches that puts California's to shame, but I still love California for their beautiful coast line.

It's also ironic to hear the reactions from those that live in California. The whole 'yeah, we don't want you anyway', 'please don't come here'. You could take those statements and attribute them to residents of Alabama and no one would raise an eyebrow.

California and Alabama are so similar in their attitude they should just go ahead and get a hotel room and have hot, steamy sex together. Enough with the foreplay.
posted by justgary at 9:23 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

It's also ironic to hear the reactions from those that live in California. The whole 'yeah, we don't want you anyway', 'please don't come here'.

Hey, if you think you'd like it here, come on over! We've got oodles of foreclosed homes for you to move into!
posted by Zed at 9:36 AM on February 24, 2012

I was born in San Diego (Balboa Naval Hospital represent!). But my parents moved to Houston when I was 2. So I don't have an opinion about it. Just wanted y'all to know that.
posted by jeoc at 6:23 PM on February 24, 2012

Delaware. I once had to do some research for a project on women's history, and one of my tasks was to find little fun facts for each state. Nothing has ever happened in Delaware. Northing.

In terms of women's history, Delaware was the site of an interesting yet ultimately futile fight to be the deciding state to ratify the 19th amendment. Someday I will finish my blog post about it!
posted by interplanetjanet at 7:41 AM on March 14, 2012 [1 favorite]