Seattle is Dying (local news program)

[Paul Blackburn]

Bringing back mental institutions and keeping these people tranquilized and off the streets is the only workable solution. For many of them this is permanent because they were either born mentally ill and/or are just unable to be rehabilitated and released.
https://www.dailysignal.com/2018/02/...s/#dear_reader

[Nephrology]

I was in Denver a couple of weeks ago for the first time in 12 years. The outdoor amenities are no longer worth the cost of living, traffic, and homeless potheads.

Portland has taken a huge dive in the past 10 years. The police chief seem well intentioned but is swimming against the mayor who is beholden to BLM/Antifa/Occupy/orwhateverthefucktheycallthemselvesnow.

https://www.portlandmercury.com/blog...nto-a-cesspool

You should have dropped me a line! Give me a heads up next time you come through and I can show you one of two neighborhoods in Denver that aren't irredeemable.

That said your assessment of Denver is accurate. The traffic, and frankly the behavior of the average citizen here (not just those w/o fixed domicile), is repugnant. It is a city of full of aggressively selfish douchebags who should never have been given a license. Denver itself is not an attractive city outside of a few areas, and it's almost impossible to enjoy the outdoors because everyone and their mom is on I-70 by noon each friday, turning a camping/skiing trip into a little simulacrum of daily driving in LA.

Affordability in Denver (and many, many other cities) is also a huge problem. Despite a massive expansion of worrisomely cheaply built multifamily rentals (like the one I occupy now), you cannot find a 1br for under $1k unless you don' mind bedbugs or gun crime. It's insane. My girlfriend and I make slightly over the Denver median household income, and even then we have to split a tiny 600sqft 1br just to keep housing costs under 25% of our monthly budget. It's nuts. Many of my classmates look at me like I have 2 heads when I tell them that: many of them seem to think its normal to spend 40% - 50% of your paycheck on rent and utilities (in order to live in trendier pars of Denver, naturally).

I had no idea Portland was that bad. If the Mercury is pissed about it, you know it is a problem. They are left of Timothy Leary.

His description of the changes in the city are sad, too. Portland was eminently liveable when I was there - I remember paying ~750/mo rent to split a 1 bedroom with my ex-girlfriend in a reasonably nice part of Sellwood. I would love to live in the Portland of my college years again, but it sounds like that city is long gone.

[fixer]

Just watched the video...

WOW...massive respect for the LEO in that town.

[Tabasco]

"Those whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first make crazy".

[TGS]

Affordability in Denver (and many, many other cities) is also a huge problem. Despite a massive expansion of worrisomely cheaply built multifamily rentals (like the one I occupy now), you cannot find a 1br for under $1k unless you don' mind bedbugs or gun crime. It's insane. My girlfriend and I make slightly over the Denver median household income, and even then we have to split a tiny 600sqft 1br just to keep housing costs under 25% of our monthly budget. It's nuts. Many of my classmates look at me like I have 2 heads when I tell them that: many of them seem to think its normal to spend 40% - 50% of your paycheck on rent and utilities (in order to live in trendier pars of Denver, naturally).

Looking at things through our respective lenses:

When I was assigned to NYC, almost everyone who was married lived in NJ because it was vastly more affordable. My buddy and his wife, both from Kentucky, wanted to do the NYC experience. They're glad they did it, but their enthusiasm waned sharply after a year. They lived in Queens and paid $2500/month for a 490sqft "1 bedroom" that he could touch the stove while simultaneously sitting on the toilet. This was some grungy 4 story walkup in an area dominated by blue collar Slavic workers and low-level organized crime, too.....it's not like he was in Midtown Manhattan living in a luxury high rise......

It was cheaper in northern NJ, but even still it was much closer to NYC in prices than it is akin to what you're paying. Usually we'd be paying the same price as the guys living in NYC, but be living in nicer conditions (1, maybe two of the following: yard, higher end apartment, twice the space, good commute, good place to raise kids, etc).

So, geez, $1k for a 1BR sounds like a dream comparative to NYC/Northern NJ! Northern VA is an expensive area relative to flyover America, and even still it's so much cheaper than NYC that we breathe a sigh of relief every time we look at what we have!

[fixer]

The Rhode Island MAT program sounds like a decent enough countermeasure. However it is a countermeasure deployed after the problem has arisen. Its still a ton of effort, funds, and resources directed at someone's drug problem. So the real question is--how to stop the problem in the first place.

[Nephrology]

Looking at things through our respective lenses:

When I was assigned to NYC, almost everyone who was married lived in NJ because it was vastly more affordable. My buddy and his wife, both from Kentucky, wanted to do the NYC experience. They're glad they did it, but their enthusiasm waned sharply after a year. They lived in Queens and paid $2500/month for a 490sqft "1 bedroom" that he could touch the stove while simultaneously sitting on the toilet. This was some grungy 4 story walkup in an area dominated by blue collar Slavic workers and low-level organized crime, too.....it's not like he was in Midtown Manhattan living in a luxury high rise......

It was cheaper in northern NJ, but even still it was much closer to NYC in prices than it is akin to what you're paying. Usually we'd be paying the same price as the guys living in NYC, but be living in nicer conditions (1, maybe two of the following: yard, higher end apartment, twice the space, good commute, good place to raise kids, etc).

So, geez, $1k for a 1BR sounds like a dream comparative to NYC/Northern NJ! Northern VA is an expensive area relative to flyover America, and even still it's so much cheaper than NYC that we breathe a sigh of relief every time we look at what we have!

Yea, hailing from the east coast originally I see how rents here could be worse, but east coast salaries are usually commeasurately higher, too. I also didn't apply to programs in places I knew I couldn't afford to live on an MSTP stipend (i.e. NYC Chicago LA). I didn't know that Denver (and probably most places I applied) would be on that list too. I was also really spoiled by living in Rochester MN for the ~2 years prior to moving out to CO - I think I paid $600/mo for a beautiful 1200sqft apartment literally 250 yards from where I used to work. I don't miss the winters, but I would go back to MN in a heartbeat.

[RevolverRob]

Chicago is actually ranked consistently as one of the most livable big cities in the US. Median income is still close to the median middle class Nationally, here in Chi at ~55k and thus rents here are quite affordable.

In fact, my wife and I not only make more money here than we did in Austin, our rent is considerably cheaper. We pay $1900/mo for a 3-bed, 2-bath, two floor corner condo with washer-dryer, an off-street, gated, parking space, central air and radiant heating, and it’s an updated/remodeled unit in a six floor building with an elevator and just 36-units in the building total. I’m a 1-mile walk from my office, and a half block from the bus stop that takes me straight there.

By contrast, we paid $1100/mo for a 2-bed, 2-bath, second floor unit, no amenities, that was 8-miles (~1-hour) commute from my office in Austin. And that’s when we left 4-years ago. Good friend recently tried to move into the same complex, there was a five month waiting list and the apartment we’d had was renting for $1575/mo.

I make twice what I made in Austin as a grad student here, my wife makes 1.5 times what she made in Austin, here. We have to pay state income tax to the tune of about 3%. Even with that tax burden increase, our household income is up by nearly 50% from living in Texas.

No, you’re not going to rent a super cheap place. But compared to Seattle, San Fran, LA, NYC, Boston, Austin, and apparently Denver, you can have a very nice life here. If Illinois wasn’t run, politically, by corrupt morons, it would actually be a pretty okay place. And that’s saying something coming from a Texan who hates winter.

[Nephrology]

Chicago is actually ranked consistently as one of the most livable big cities in the US. Median income is still close to the median middle class Nationally, here in Chi at ~55k and thus rents here are quite affordable.

In fact, my wife and I not only make more money here than we did in Austin, our rent is considerably cheaper. We pay $1900/mo for a 3-bed, 2-bath, two floor corner condo with washer-dryer, an off-street, gated, parking space, central air and radiant heating, and it’s an updated/remodeled unit in a six floor building with an elevator and just 36-units in the building total. I’m a 1-mile walk from my office, and a half block from the bus stop that takes me straight there.

By contrast, we paid $1100/mo for a 2-bed, 2-bath, second floor unit, no amenities, that was 8-miles (~1-hour) commute from my office in Austin. And that’s when we left 4-years ago. Good friend recently tried to move into the same complex, there was a five month waiting list and the apartment we’d had was renting for $1575/mo.

I make twice what I made in Austin as a grad student here, my wife makes 1.5 times what she made in Austin, here. We have to pay state income tax to the tune of about 3%. Even with that tax burden increase, our household income is up by nearly 50% from living in Texas.

No, you’re not going to rent a super cheap place. But compared to Seattle, San Fran, LA, NYC, Boston, Austin, and apparently Denver, you can have a very nice life here. If Illinois wasn’t run, politically, by corrupt morons, it would actually be a pretty okay place. And that’s saying something coming from a Texan who hates winter.

I also generally don't desire to live in big urban centers if I can help it. Denver is about is about as big as I can do, really.

[olstyn]

I would go back to MN in a heartbeat.

C'mon back when you can - we can always use more gun-friendly voters.