Anyone have issues about their home town?
 

I do have issues about living in Toronto. Yes, it's diverse, and yes, diversity can be good, but sometimes, I feel like I can't function my way, and do things I'd like to do. I feel that a diverse city such as Toronto isn't as "old fashioned" or "formal" as it can be. Our mayor is left wing, for example. People here can also be kind of weird. I have my own group that I sometimes hang out with who are kind of on the old fashioned side, and while they're a good group, I'd also like to expand a bit. Any ideas of what to do? Should I move away?

I effing hate my hometown, for what it's worth. The only good things I can see about it are the lowish cost of living despite relatively high incomes, the beach, and the excellent public schools. Otherwise, it's polluted, provincial, anti-intellectual, and you can't imagine the hell I got for being non-white AND non-Christian.

I got the hell out when I turned 18. I'm much happier for it, too. If my parents and grandparents didn't live there, I'd never go back.

Is Toronto where you grew up AND went to school? If so, I can understand why you might feel stifled. Maybe trying a new city might be a good change for you--and if you don't like it, you can always move back.

Other than one year in Bermuda and four years in Kingston, Ontario, yes, I've been here all my life. I grew up in the suburbs, where things were a little more "old fashioned", but things aren't so down where I am now. It's a great area, I'm near a shopping district, near the subway line, and near several good movie theatres that don't necessarily play the latest blockbusters, but it just feels, well.....liberal.

I love Honolulu and everything it stands for. They say we have a high cost of living, but it's not so bad because I get to live in paradise.

If I were to move away it'd be for personal growth and not because of this place.

I love Pittsburgh. I love everything about it. It's where my family settled first after immigration. The town is a huge part of who I am. I've got a very deep investment in the town and in the people, and I wouldn't trade living in the inner city for the WORLD.

I have an issue with the view of Pittsburghers as these uneducated masses who just work in steel factories.

People in my literal hometown are OKAY....but people from the St. Louis area in general are about as friendly as a water moccasin. People here are so superficial, racist, closed-minded, cliquey, and boring. Thanks to my out of town friends and associates, I now realize that not everyone in the country is like this. I used to think everyone behaves like St. Louisans. They always say how much better California, NY, etc. is.

I WANT OUT! :(

I will switch towns with you taualumna.

I think everybody should move away from his or her hometown, at least for a few years, after college.

Technically Palo Alto is my hometown where lived, but I went to grammar/high school in Menlo Park because of the way they drew the disrict lines. I actually really love the whole Menlo Park/Palo Alto/Atherton area. I think it's beautiful, lots of trees, nice homes, good weather, great schools, even though it's suburban there's still a good amount of stuff to do, and the people are generally very nice.
Some things I don't like, that everyone is very cookie cutter. People there seem to be trying sooo hard to live that "perfect" little suburban life and it's so obviously fake sometimes. It seems like everyone has an SUV, and a golden retreiver and if you deviate from that "status quo" you aren't included. There's obviously nothing wrong with golden retreivers or SUVs but I guess my problem is it's not very diverse. My high school was diverse because it drew from a larger area, but my middle school (where everyone had an eddie baur backpack) had only I think maybe 20 minorities in a school of just over 300 children. Palo Alto is great I'd just say it's rather sheltered and if you grow up there you definitely should travel and know that life isn't always perfect, and that's ok.
I also don't like that it's sooo expensive.... but as OTW said you pay for "paradise." While mine isn't as literal a paradise as hers, I don't think there's much to complain about.

Issue...
 

I have only one issue with my hometown. Not that I don't love it here because I do, but my issue is....

I'm still here. I need to get away. A vacation might help, but its been six months since I have had one and its long overdue. HELP!!!

Other than that, I love it here! Here being VA, in the DC Metro Area. 15 minute from DC and the Pentagon.

Q

My hometown is a suburb of the Bay Area. It sucks. It's ghetto. I hate going back because there's nothing to do except visit my family and a few friends. I haven't been back for a few months.

I think almost everyone has some issue with their hometown.


It's full of conservatives - to the point where a mayor who was seen at a function condemming the Jewish and Muslim faiths and who was fined by the Ontario Human rights commision for gay discrimination was reelected even though she did not campaign for the position.

Everyone thinks that the entire city is just made up of the north west and south west corner of the city. The city spruced up the pool in the north west of the city and then refused to fund a indoor pool in the south east - even thought there wasn't a single indoor pool.

The bus system sucks.
Our orchestra is half rate.
The downtown is dead.
And the crooks in city hall very often end up to be real crooks.


But I still miss it at times! It has great bars, a good university, and my entire family is there.

Don't forget the fact that a train will cut the town in half until it's passed through town....

I detest my hometown. Dayton itself isn't horrible, but the suburb that my parents live in is small in size (with nothing to do) and small-minded in its citizens. Family aside, I'd be happy to never step foot there again.

I love New York City. I am very happy here. There are hundreds of things to do and millions of people to meet. :D The only downside is that everything is expensive.

I don't "hate" my hometown, but I definitely don't like living there. I mean, you can't complain too much about a small city in a hot, almost desert-like valley that's only 1-2 hours from the beach, big cities, Mexico, the desert, and the mountains... we have everything nearby. My biggest issue with Moreno Valley/Riverside California is that you need to get away from it to appreciate the few good things about it. I only live 45 miles away and I've started to appreciate that you can find a decent home in a decent area for a near-decent price (yes, even MoVal and Riverside are overpriced... it's California).

If I end up moving back to the MoVal/Riverside area, I definitely won't be living in Moreno Valley itself... 22 years in that city has been enough for me, thank you very much.

I have no hometown anymore. My parents and I moved from my hometown when I was 14, moved to another town when I was 16, and then my parents moved again after I came to Iowa State. I can't claim any of those places as my hometown as I barely know anyone and few people remember me.
I rarely go to any of those towns, and have only been to my parents' new place 5 times.
Instead of "a man without a country" I am "a man without a town."

I pretty much had two small towns i grew up in in the same area as gphiangel lived. I grew up both in San dimas/ glendora area and also in Victorville( San Bernadino county).

I DETEST victorville and that is where i went t o HS and where i moved to when i divorced and bought my house. I also grew up and lived in the san dimas glendora area and absolutely love it there.

Victorville is getting to be purely ghetto and i hate it. No values or morals here and it is UGLY.

Where as Glendora there are morals and values with a small town family related feeling. When i sold my house last yr and moved here i was leaving a great church family , many perks to living in the san gabriel valley, and the feeling of safety , and the ease to get anywhere at a decent amt of time.

Where as victorville you have to COMMUTE.....no way around it.......the new houses up here are great and i LOVE my house , but i detest this place and the ppl here ...except for the few ppl i know that still live here.

Taualumna,

I hate Toronto too. I am so sick of this city and I really need to leave. I'm planning on moving out of the city...out of the country in fact when I finish my program.

Toronto is a hole. But for me it's not because it's too liberal...just a little too Liberal. The TTC is NOT the better way. It's far too expensive, it's making me sick. I just think I need a change of scenery, even if it's only for a few years.

:confused:

Okay, some places are "ghetto" and some are not. But...you're not going to find a place with "morals and values" or "no morals and values". It's about the same everywhere....immorality just shows up in different ways. Sometimes it is blatent and overt, sometimes it is subtle and covert.

I still live in my hometown of San Diego. I wouldn't say it's the problems with the town so much as the town not fitting the type of person I am.

1) San Diego is too laid back for me. I constantly need to be doing SOMETHING for some reason, and I think the city moves too slow for me.

2) Well, this is a bias standpoint, but of course, San Diego is a very superficial town.

3) This is NOT, HAS NEVER BEEN, NEVER WILL BE a sports town. SD is probably the most fair-weather sports city in America. There's just too much to do elsewhere to get religiously involved with sports, and I need to be around an environment where people actually take their sports teams seriously.

The positives (best weather on Earth, hottest women in California, most polluted yet still inhabitable beaches on CA) outweigh the negatives, but spending 21 yrs here, it's time for me to leave after graduation.

I can only hope Boston is the city I imagine it to be.....

I have only heard really good things about San Diego. I visited when I was 14 and really liked it. It's supposed to have the best weather during the winter when we in New York are covered in a foot of snow. San Diego is one of the few places to which I would consider relocating if the winter weather becomes too much for me to handle. :)

Where do you think you're going to go? My parents want to send me to China to take Mandarin for a year. It's not really something I want to do :(....I guess I'll have to look for something on my own.

If you're imagining that it's cold, very cold, and then colder, then your imagination is right on target.

:D

I live an hour north of Boston, and would trade you San Diego in a heartbeat. IMHO, it's far superior not only in weather, but in temperament of the people who live there.

(Geez, I guess I'm pretty cranky considering that it's only the first week of Standard Time and the snow hasn't even started piling up on the streets yet.)

There are some things about living in Vancouver that drive me up the wall, such as people who drive without licenses and people who refuse to serve you in English (or French), but it's nice living in a liberal, multicultural city (most of the time).

I think everyone has some issue or other with their city; if you lived in a city your whole life and outsiders come in and change its face its hard and vice versa, if people move to a city and it's not what they expected they make not like it.

I sweat very easily. A cold place would be the perfect setting to avoid this embarassment.

I'm also suffering through a long curse that's provided many let downs, so I think I can relate. In terms of temperment, I'll trade rudeness for superficiality, but that's just me.

The sun's over rated.......

You're going love it here then!

Just invest in some wool clothes and boots, you'll be good to go. :) Luckily, Trader Joe's finally made it here a few years ago, so it will feel almost like home.

Hope everything works out for you in Beantown.

I left the crappy transit system off my list - if you want me to go green build a sky train out my way and lower the cost of transit, oh and a bus route where I only need to take one bus would be nice... :p

I'm planning on moving to England. I can get citzenship through my mother, so really the only problem will be finding a job once I get there. Fortunately I have family that can and will help me out until I get settled. I really need a change and an adventure.

Find something you enjoy and go for it.

I've never taken any other transit system, so I don't have anything to compare it with. But right now, it's still not the better way.

I consider myself liberal, so that's not my issue with Toronto. I am definitly NOT, nor will I ever be a "big L" Liberal. But that's not really a Toronto things as it is an Ontario and Canada thing.