Why you should never live in Alabama.

robert678 wrote:

Is the cheaper housing worth living in Alabama?

In all seriousness: It depends in part on how cool you are with being around fat people.

There are some genuine positives about Alabama, but for some people having fat neighbors/coworkers/fellow residents would be a serious negative. AL has about 40% obesity, and of course another large swatch of the overweight-but-not-obese; people respond differently to that kind of situation.

Lucas Tanner wrote:

The voted out arguably the smartest and hardest working senator in the US Senate in Doug Jones and replaced him with (get this) Tommy Freaking Tubberville. There’s really just no way to account for that level of general stupidity.

It is worth noting that no matter your political affiliation, this is pretty egregiously bad. Not voting in David Duke as your congressman bad (Louisiana), but bad.

Lucas Tanner wrote:

The voted out arguably the smartest and hardest working senator in the US Senate in Doug Jones and replaced him with (get this) Tommy Freaking Tubberville. There’s really just no way to account for that level of general stupidity.

Don't you mean Tubby Tumorville?

That guys is as dumb as my boots

Yeah, about that... wrote:

robert678 wrote:

Is the cheaper housing worth living in Alabama?

In all seriousness: It depends in part on how cool you are with being around fat people.

There are some genuine positives about Alabama, but for some people having fat neighbors/coworkers/fellow residents would be a serious negative. AL has about 40% obesity, and of course another large swatch of the overweight-but-not-obese; people respond differently to that kind of situation.

Is 40% obesity that much more than the national average?

coach wrote:

Just Another Hobby Jogger wrote:

There are many interesting places to visit in Savannah, but probably not to people who lack intellectual curiosity.

There are many cities in the South with more interesting places to visit than Savannah. But dio probably doesn't know most of them.

BTW, this is not a diss to either of you. Lacking intellectual curiosity does not make you a bad person.

I plan on visiting Savannah and Charleston this winter any other interesting places you recommend?

Montgomery is interesting for the Civil Rights memorial, but when I lived there in the early 2000s they had to have an armed guard to deter vandals. The main country club still had only white members but black staff were quite common. Racism was pretty rampant back then, but I haven't been back to see if it has improved since it was the least safe place I have ever run. Cars steered at me to "scare me" when running on the shoulder (though they may have been trying to hit me for real). I got things thrown at me enough times so I started running at night, which was much safer since I just presumed as if the cars couldn't see me and acted accordingly. That worked fine, except for the time a cop turned on his lights and pulled me over during a fartlek workout for running at night. After I explained why i felt safer at night, i was allowed to continue on my way but sure messed up my rest interval. So be careful as a runner.

As to the people enjoying trashing any particular state or location, for all the criticism of SF have any of you given thought to why real estate values in a free market economy don't match your perception of SF being a terrible place to live? With so many workplaces going remote over the pandemic, SF should be a ghost town and yet rents have rebounded and real estate prices are continuing to climb.

As to the article, sure walgreens might have 5 less locations but that means just like chicago and many other major cities there are still plenty more than needed. These articles accurately cite instances of shoplifting, but certainly don't provide any real numbers on dollars lost per year and total overhead costs versus declining sales in person in the e-commerce era.

Could a company be citing a few crime instances and exaggerating the impact in order to break leases that were already onerous? Sure would be nice if journalists investigate and provided data rather than reciting a corporations press-release as incontrovertible fact.

interloper wrote:

As to the people enjoying trashing any particular state or location, for all the criticism of SF have any of you given thought to why real estate values in a free market economy don't match your perception of SF being a terrible place to live? With so many workplaces going remote over the pandemic, SF should be a ghost town and yet rents have rebounded and real estate prices are continuing to climb.

Not exactly. Within the city prices have been pretty flat or declining for several years. The further out you get from the city the more prices have increased. According to the Zillow home value index a house in the Soma district is still worth less than in late 2015:

People are tribal. You don't know what you don't know. You are a product of your culture and that includes the physical environment, social norms, and family environment, etc. people are free to have their own feelings and emotions tied to a certain place or a certain upbringing. There is no right nor wrong answer. There are only different experiences.

Also, how you respond to different cultures, different upbringings, different behaviors and norms, different values and beliefs, says a lot about you and how you can adapt to our world.

It's a positive thing to be more accepting of other peoples cultures is it not? Or if not excepting at least understanding. You may not share the same beliefs or norms but you can at least understand and except that there are differences and that is OK.

PS: yes I just thought a cultural competencies class as well as the BNVB model hahaha so this stuff is fresh on my mind.

Alan

Nope. Alabama is a sh*thole. Sorry

You don't like fat black people?

Have you ever been to Alabama?

I don't think you have. Nothing in your post suggests that you have. So that fact that you feel empowered to speak with such apparently earned expertise amazes me.

"The gulf towns are not that nice."

Have you ever been to Gulf Shores during the Memorial Day weekend? I have, many times. I've been on that beach. I've lazed on that fourth floor ocean-facing condo porch. Have you? Meh, I don't think so.

"Birmingham is not nice." Really? When was the last time you had a hot chicken sandwich at Hattie B's hot chicken? How often have you graced Birmingham with your presence in the last ten years?

Have you run the Azalea Trail 10K in Mobile? (Top 10 US 10Ks. I've run it twice. Great race.)

Meh, I don't think so.

You just don't have a clue. But ignorance can always be remedied. Just get on a plane, show up, use Tripadvisor skillfully, talk to people, and you might be surprised by how much there is to learn about the big world out there.

Yeah, about that... wrote:

In all seriousness: It depends in part on how cool you are with being around fat people.

Time for another weather wisdom moment.

In really hot weather - 98f or above - you can no longer cool by conduction (flow of heat energy directly from body to air) because the direction of heat flow is reversed. Sweating becomes necessary.

Fat people may have to sweat profusely to cool, due to low ratio of skin surface area to body volume. For the same reason, it is hard to freeze a fat person in winter. However, for still the same reason, it is hard to overheat a fat person in 98+ weather in the first place! Insulation works in both directions, winter and summer.

People email you for such things?!
Wow, I’m speechless.

As if this forum was life altering and needed immediate attention.

This is internet universe. Real life is happening out there so go on people, get out there and get one.

Yeah like how Alabama is disgusting

That's like....just your opinion man.....

Alan

I know more than one runner who went there for College, in Tuscaloosa. They loved it and yes the Summer running was tough but you acclimate and adjust. I visited the campus and thought it was absolutely amazing.

I've been to Gulf Shores as well, and that place was fantastic. I think there are rural places and urban places that are run down a bit, but I think all states have that.

Sorry, I'm not making fun of a homeless person or someone overweight, life is tough enough and I don't feel the need to knock someone down less fortunate. There are areas that were beautiful and rundown areas, like anywhere else.

vaccinatedspermguzzler wrote:

Alabama may be somewhat backwards, but at least the people know that a street or sidewalk is not a toilet, unlike California.

Unfortunately not all of those toilets are plumbed (Southwest Alabama is one of the few remaining places outside of Indian reservations where people do not have indoor plumbing and have to keep their kids out of some of the rivers because of raw sewage).

And it's ranked the 5th most polluted state by this ranking:

Roll Tide.

Appreciate the use of data, but having been active in the SF real estate market the past couple of years I can tell you that when you consider the vast majority of neighborhoods: the sunset, the richmond, pac heights, russian hill, nob hill, the marina, cow hollow, hayes valley, or west portal/forest hill/ etc the price per sf foot keeps rising.

For example, in the early pandemic I could find properties in one of those neighborhoods that were going for close to 2017 prices at a bit over 1100/sq foot and now in the same neighborhood equivalent properties are going for 1250 per sq foot if not more.

While Zillow is of some use for a broad strokes tool, if you want to check values there are more accurate ways. Zillow (using your same tool) says my neighborhood is down 3% over the past 6 years, but my unit has gone up 20%+ based on recent comparative sales in the building. Those numbers do not match, and given the identical layouts and multiple sales over the time I would have to doubt the Zillow numbers for my neighborhood.

That said, other areas are increasing faster. But, for a "terrible place to live", SF still has some of the highest property values in the country and they don't appear to be decreasing whenever I tour listings.

Runningart2004 wrote:

That's like....just your opinion man.....

Alan

Nice Lebowski reference.

We should never make generalizations about people based on where they live or where they are from.

There is a certain percentage of conservatives in San Francisco just as there are percentage of Bernie Sanders supporters in Mississippi and Alabama. I don't know anyone in Alabama, but I have some close friends of Mississippi, Georgia and Louisiana. Some are conservative, some are "moderate" and some are liberal.

We often want to "pigeonhole" people based on their race, nationality, skin color and where they live. This only deepens the social and political divide that is ripping this country apart.

We are one family, on one planet. Life is too short.