I hear, you, I do! Sounds like my street. The town isn't too bad but the street I live on is a dead-end dirt road on top of a hill that gets far too much traffic. We've got at least three or four people selling drugs and the police aren't interested (guess who gets a cut). My next-door neighbor got curious and started asking around. Out of 27-28 people on the street less than half finished high school and five (including her step dad) are functionally illiterate. One woman is collecting child support for her five kids from six men (how does that work?). Every group of kids gets on one or another bus: the regular, long bus or the _^short bus.

I'm a senior citizen on a fixed income. My next home will be The Home. It would be hard to get away.

Oh wow, you live in WV or something? Sounds like that kinda crowd. A lot of that here unfortunately. Half my cousins have addictions of some kind. And most of their kids were unplanned. The people who would be responsible parents aren't having as many children

Everything is just so expensive here. Like my childhood home has doubled in price. Its rare to find a house under $400k or an apartment under $1500. If its not out of staters inflating property prices its immigrants packing into rental homes like sardines.

I live in Eastern Connecticut, in the area they call the Quiet Corner. My house was the newest one on the street until about twenty years ago; I built it 35 years ago after I had a place I'd lived in for 10 years torn down.

There are two less than 5-year-old houses on the street. One is about five years old and the other was built last year/finished this Spring. The older one started at $400K and sat on the market for so long the builder withdrew it, or he'd have to rent it out to Section 8 (Welfare/Underemployed). The final selling price is 'undisclosed' but the new owner is a nice person with a college degree. The other was bought by a Navy NCO for the asking price of just short of $400K. In this neighborhood? A mostly-unimproved trailer court? Sheesh.

Very few on the street have jobs. Lots of '100% Disability' and they drag out the wheelchair when the case Investigators come around. One guy was doing roofing under the table when the Disability Investigator (from one of my previous employers!) showed up. He told the Deadbeat Dad's girlfriend he had a check for him, so she told him where to find the guy. Oops. Now he's doing time.

Where do you live?

A little city called Wilmington. I dont hate it that much tbh. Just had one of those days where all my frustrations came to a head

Woof, so sorry to hear that. =/ It's hard to find a decent place to live at an affordable price, especially in todays economy. I sincerely wish you the best and hope you're able to improve your situation sooner rather than later.

Thank ya, man. My apologies for the outburst. Just had a bunch of frustrations come to a head at once

I feel you on that one too!

I've never been into the 'big city' aesthetics;' "woooah there are so many good restaurants!"

Unironically totally happy living in the same town I grew up in ; (central Ohio) ; its both big enough and small enough for me...

Its not a big town per se. I think the pop is somewhere around 100k. Its a stressful place to live though. A lot of different people who don't get along very well. I personally don't believe humans were meant to live in big cities.

Where in Ohio out of curiosity? Region is fine if you don't want to say the town. I've always liked the old Victorian architecture of the midwest region

Lancaster 😁

I understand where you are coming from friend.

I left Winnipeg,Manitoba because of the street gangs and violence and the heavy flow of drugs.
This was back in 1998-and I have not regretted it at all.
Keeping contact with friends and family through facebook I get a message every few months of friends dying by suicide,getting beat to death or locked up or bitter old age combined with sickness......
Sometimes one wonders what the hell is going on in society when you can see the nieghborhoods dying and politicians talking out of their ass about improving things....hey-it is not like THEY live in these places.

I hear ya. My best friend has lost a couple people he grew up with to violence and drugs. I've also seen it affect family members. And it seems like nobody in power really cares.

Thank ya for your reply

No problem buddy!!!!

I am a bit pessimistic when it comes to the state of the world and have been for some time with the cost of living shooting through the roof and war all over the place,.....I think that things will get a lot worse before they slowly start to get better,.....

i am as well. Unfortunately its had a pretty negative effect on my mood. Looking for ways to stay positive

Understanding and support from friends both in real life and online helps!

Gotta keep the small pinpoints of light close by!

Some places are like a crab bucket. It's crowded and violent, and the moment you want to climb out and leave the other crabs pull you back down, because: why should you have it better than everyone else? In that regard such miserable societies are closer to communism than libertarianism which is usually preached in American rust belt.

Why not learn a trade? Good welders, riggers, electricians, plumbers, installers, mechanics... They are needed everywhere, worldwide. Don't need a (mostly useless) college degree for that. Then you can move out.

Certainly feels that way here. Some neighborhoods are straight up no-go zones, though nowhere near as bad as Philadelphia or Baltimore are

I mow lawns and garden now, which pays pretty well when I can do it. Just limited by health and psychological issues for how much work I can do.

Sad to hear you've suffering from this.
I've known it myself over the decades. I made a personal Promise to NEVER AGAIN exist in any city/large town environment. I'm gonna finish out whatever time I've got left as rural as I can, and if given the choice/option, will meet whatever's on the other side while on a one-way vacation to a beautiful wooded/mountainous setting, seeing and hearing Nature. (FAR preferable to the noise/stinks/et al any medical facility offers!).

We gotta preserve our own sanity. Choosing where we live, when given it, is important.

I'm wishing you/anyone else enduring this, all the very best in making and achieving your 'Escape: 101' plan!

Thank ya, and maybe at some point. Used to get a break every so often camping, or getting out of the region for a week or so. That's all stopped though. Hard to find anyone with the time or money to do stuff like that with anymore. And family has been travelling Europe for vacation, which I can't afford.

Agreed!
The country side is much more better than the hustle and bustle(and lets be real-bullshit!)of cities!
I live in the countryside myself-close to the ocean as well and I have never felt better.

Being close to nature and keeping things humble is good for the soul.

Totally agree!
I'm content trading the drive-byes, loud (Obnoxious) music and neighbors' arguments/whatever, congestion, getting ALL the minerals with every breath taken (ie, smog/pollution), etc., etc., etc., for the occasional wandering bear, mtn. lion, wolf/wolvering/feral pigs, and the remote solitude/natural symphony, every day of the year!
It's tougher living rougher, no doubt. We have daily chores that cannot be ignored, must stock-up and prepare for the weather/elements/random natural event, and there's definitely the drawback of NO fire dept. (That'll actually save your home. Best our volunteers can do is prevent further damage from spreading). If any of us has a serious accident/medical crisis, we're basically screwed. Though 'We' don't need/expect it, should something happen requiring armed govt. (Sheriff), they're at least a couple hours out, at-best.

So, independence, yes, but ya gotta WORK for it!

WE love it that way.

:-D

A lot of the east coast is kind of a shithole unless you go north of MA.

Delaware I've been through a few times, it seems pretty depressing, honestly I'd GTFO.

I lived in MD for a year or two, I swore I'd rather drop dead than ever live there again.

NJ thoroughly sucks no matter where you go.

I grew up in a decent part of CT, the small towns are mostly very nice, but there's a lot of bad areas too, never too far away.

I lived in Maine for a few years, beautiful state, but there's not much work, and it's very isolated, and cold AF. (I like that part but some folks don't)

PA - no thank you all over. The countryside is nice but it can't make up for the rest.

I ended up in VA, which is alright, i can take it or leave it. West VA honestly, is much nicer if you don't mind rural poverty. The scenery is unbeatable.

Anything further south, i can't stand the summer heat.

If I won the lottery tomorrow, I think I'd move to Montana and buy a horse farm near a small town.

Hugs buddy. You'd like Arkansas and the area I live in.

Ive been to WV and Tennessee. Two of the most beautiful states I've ever seen. Never Arkansas yet though. I like those stone houses they have there. Giraffe stone they call it.

Nice. Its usually pretty calm up where I am.

I'm glad I don't live in blue states like California, New York, Washington State, Minnesota, Illinois, and those in where the cost of living is just not in our price range. I'm glad I live in Iowa that is dependent on agriculture and supplies food for the entire world more than anywhere else in the world.

That's good. We still have farmland here, though pretty much none left here in the north