That is the most awesome avatar I have ever seen.
NYer.
I realized in 1996 that life was just a lot easier in the midwest. Living on LI, and driving OTR was a huge pain. I lived out east, and had a hell of a time trying to park a truck and trailer on something that wasn't private property, and resorted to hiding my ride behind shopping centers and abandoned lots and hoped for the best.
Until the one 4th of July when some rotten teenagers decided to break into the trailer, and light fireworks in it, setting it on fire and burning it to the ground. Luckily, I had my tractor at a friends house.
The insane cost of living, the crowds, the traffic, the attitude of incivility and apathy toward fellow man, the jobs that pay crap unless they're union all contributed to me leaving. In high school, I had gangs that wanted me dead for something I was asked (the subject of the question at the time was Mandela) the the high school newspaper printed it. I was branded a racist, a bigot, and the principal threw me out of school for 3 weeks in my senior year. Thank my friends from Pt. Jeff for that one. They let me go there for a while, thus ensuring my graduation, and not being held back my senior year.
Then, in November of last year, I went back for a quick visit, and I can honestly tell you some things have not changed at all.
They have gotten worse.
In Suffolk county, in places like the LIE on ramps, and Sunrise Hwy, the cops actually stop traffic on the ramps, and look in your car. If they see you not wearing a seat belt they point to you, and tell you to pull over! Then, they give you a ticket.
This reminds me of stories I heard about the Soviet Union, and East Germany, and places like that where the government had insane amounts of control over it's populace and it's comings and goings.
That's communism, and it's bullshit.
That's a good enough reason not to be there anymore, despite the many others. It's just not that good a place to live oeriod. When people say it is, well, they're probably simply doing so out of indignant pride rather than experience living elsewhere. I moved out and back to LI three times before I realized that as an OTR driver, I really didn't want to live there. If I could have a really awesome paying job, and live out east, and not have to commute, I might even move back. Oh, I have fond memories too, but I don't wear my NY on my sleeve. It's just not a good place anymore. There are, and will always be great GREAT things about it, like AC/DC in MSG, drunken train rides back east afterward, the food, etc., but overall, it's better "out here". Especially now with the little one. How the hell can a kid concentrate on education with gangsters hunting him? I don't want that for my son. A small, redneck town in Northern Wisconsin is a great place for him to grow up. There's just enough nastiness here that he won't be too shelterd, but he won't have to fight for his life every day either.