Shithole Cities

[G19Fan]

Texas Worst State to Live/Work

Texas has received the number one spot on a not-so-pleasant list: The top ten worst places in America to live and work in 2023.

While Texas landed at number six on CNBC's yearly America's Top States for Business study, the state scored significantly low in one category: Life, Health & Inclusion. Factors in this category include:

crime rates
environmental quality
health care
quality and availability of childcare
inclusiveness in state laws such as reproductive rights, protections against discrimination and voting rights
Texas received 53 out of 350 points for its 2023 Life, Health & Inclusion score, giving it an F in its Top States grade and the lowest nationwide, securing its number one spot on the list


My wife was reading me this article and I was just laughing. When they said inclusion was part of it I rolled on the floor. Oh no Texas is horrible! Stay out!

We literally had same reaction to this lol

[luckyman]

We literally had same reaction to this lol

Same with me too when I read it. To me they had the polarity reversed.

ETA I say this as the proud dad of a wonderful woman who is getting married to another woman next month.

[Borderland]

Texas Worst State to Live/Work

Texas has received the number one spot on a not-so-pleasant list: The top ten worst places in America to live and work in 2023.

While Texas landed at number six on CNBC's yearly America's Top States for Business study, the state scored significantly low in one category: Life, Health & Inclusion. Factors in this category include:

crime rates
environmental quality
health care
quality and availability of childcare
inclusiveness in state laws such as reproductive rights, protections against discrimination and voting rights
Texas received 53 out of 350 points for its 2023 Life, Health & Inclusion score, giving it an F in its Top States grade and the lowest nationwide, securing its number one spot on the list


My wife was reading me this article and I was just laughing. When they said inclusion was part of it I rolled on the floor. Oh no Texas is horrible! Stay out!

I knew there was some reason I left TX in 1971 and never went back.

[Coyotesfan97]

I had to go back and watch the Babylon Bee series Californians Move to Texas.

[G19Fan]

Same with me too when I read it. To me they had the polarity reversed.

ETA I say this as the proud dad of a wonderful woman who is getting married to another woman next month.

Yup marry who you want. Gov should stay out of bedroom.

Gov should make sure crime is prosecuted and society functions though

[DDTSGM]

I think the growth in Disease of despair deaths over the last decade is one of the most concerning trends in society for me. And right now if it wasn’t hard drugs I think it would be shit like alcohol or huffing paint and gas or any of the other ways people use to temporarily escape what they see as a society that they don’t want to participate in for whatever reason.

This is spot on. The more people tune out of society the more our society goes downhill.

As a whole isolation, lack of community and online lifestyle are not helping

I'd add one thing. I believe there are a lot of young folks looking at things and not thinking that they don't want to participate, but, instead realizing they there is little chance they will be able to participate in a self-actualizing way.

I related this story once in a thread somewhere in which a guy was pontificating about being a self-made man and anyone can grow up to be President: I am generally curious, and I hope caring, about folks I see. While not a particularly strong conversationalist, I do enjoy talking with random folks that I meet while out and about. One day I'm trucking through the Atlanta Airport and decide to get a burger. I walk up to the counter and see a young black guy, nametag says 'Josh.' 'What's good today?' Nothing back but a shrug so I order a burger and a coke. As I pay I try again 'How you doing today?' Clearly not wanting to talk, the kid looks at me mumbles 'I'm here.' At that moment I understood him to be saying 'this is it, life ain't getting no better' and it saddened me to think there wasn't anything I could say or do to help in the moment.

I think there are a lot of 'Josh's' out there, they may want to participate, but they see a life where they have little choice but taking what's available, what they can get, not what they want.

I think that's a different kind of despair.

[randyho]

This kinda describes the Dayton OH area. Many people lived here because of GM and the buttload of UAW jobs. Lots of opportunity with supporting businesses also, skilled and unskilled. But if you could make your way into the union a person could make a living and hate it the rest of their life. Still lots of opportunity here (Univ of Day, WPAFB), but not as much high paying opportunity for unskilled workers. So now we have people that are from here and stayed here but are 2-3 generations from the people that made the house payments and bought the cars by going in on third shift and shooting the screws.

And it wasn't just GM, the city continuously exploited the income from many other companies until they got recruited away (NCR is a prime example) or otherwise tanked. This local museum has a fantastic display highlighting all of the many companies that developed many products here, but only a couple of them are still operating here.

Dad worked at NCR in Dayton. Spent many evenings at old river, the park NCR had set up for the company's families. GM, Frigidaire, Dayton Tire and Rubber, Wonderbread, and Wright Pat along with NCR were the standout employers.

Then, NCR started sending people to Chicago for weeks at a time, they started letting people go w/o any notice. The place changed. Back toward the rest of the family in VA and MD we came. Been here ever since. The comment regarding MD being middle America with the parasites of DC and Baltimore and parts of Annapolis dragging it down is accurate.

My commute's from suburb to suburb which is unusual, in a good way, but I have to work goofy hours to make what was a half hour commute, or less, under 90 minutes now. Property tax bill arrived the other day and it's insane. I really don't understand any enthusiasm, by non-sailors, for MD. Can't wait to leave.

[Caballoflaco]

@Dan Lehr what you just posted was definitely one of the things I was getting at, just more specific.

[Crazy Dane]

It’s not impossible to fix, but it does require wholesale turning over of city councils, mayoral offices, and possibly a DA.

These types of scenarios are not just theoretical. Yesterday, I’m on my way downtown for work, and I pass a couple of permanent car residents, with attendant hangers-on in my neighborhood next to the park. I texted my wife—who was doing yardwork—to give her a heads up.

Of course, nothing came of it, and most times nothing will. But circumstances dictate that I *have* to have a plan B in mind: I have verified, on 3 separate occasions, that calling 911 will likely do fuck all. So that means dealing with anything that I might hypothetically have to deal with will be, #1, all on me, and #2 will be all on me in the current victimhood political climate. That’s an uneasy truce with the current zeitgeist of my city, and it’s a city that’s still better off than a couple of coastal cities I could name. Sobering. Very sobering.

Our whole council is made up of liberal females.... This is what they voted for and the decisions from council reflect as much. I don't see this changing for a while.

Thank you for the "permanent car residents" I wasn't sure what to call these people. Planet fitness parking lot is full every night as is Craker Barrel.

I, a member of the FD, have radioed for the PD "emergency " and we are still waiting. If you come to this city, you will be responsible for yourself.

[cheby]

It’s not impossible to fix, but it does require wholesale turning over of city councils, mayoral offices, and possibly a DA.

City Councils, mayoral offices, and DAs are elected by people of those cities. I do not believe those people will vote differently even after everything that happened in the last 10 years. It did not happen overnight. It took many years to get to this point. It would take that long to fix it if we are lucky. (Spoiler alert, we are not).