Letters to the Editor
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C'mon, Carey
When can we get a decent advice columnist for Salon. We get the same crap, day in day out. Horrible advice. Moralistic drivel. Bullshit platitudes.
These people want to move to the Midwest. The proper advice? Why not give it a try! All the "Italy" bullshit is totally irrelevant. Sheesh, what garbage.
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Can you really handle it out here?
The pros (at least for here in the Flint Hills of Kansas): You really can leave your doors unlocked and go jogging alone in the dark. Parks and lakes feel like you have them all to yourself sometimes. Your commute will be 5, 10, or 15 minutes, depending on whether you have to drive "all the way" or just partway across town. Even young people hold doors open for the people behind them. People are generally genuine and friendly. The larger cities aren't too crowded, polluted, or dangerous.
Now the cons: you can't get really exotic food unless you want to make it yourself with ingredients from local markets. Night owls have limited options. Cost of living is low partly because wages are low. Travel is a hassle. The mountains are a long day's drive away. You have to seek out diversity, or your kids won't see much of it. The diversity of the weather is another story: wind, storms, rain, snow, and humid summers might test your limits.
Know what you're getting into--and what you're walking away from that you will miss. I've been around the USA and Europe and might settle on the East Coast someday. Southern California tops the list of places I could not live. Are you prepared for all the little things you're giving up?
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Some of Cary's best ever
I would only add that it depends where in the Midwest. Contrary to irritatingly popular urban belief, the Midwest is not one big homogeneous plain. Chicago is not Kansas City is not Wichita is not Iowa City is not Lawrence, KS.
Lawrence is heaven, though.
And one BIG thing to be conscious of is that most of the Midwest has no effective public transportation. Don't know if you're driving people, but it's hard to imagine how much you depend on public transit until you don't have it, and how much its presence or lack affects a city's character. I'm routinely heartbroken how the neighborhood where I grew up is increasingly just a massive road- and upscale stripmall building enterprise every time I go back to visit.
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Short answer: yes. But another question: have you gone in winter or summer?
If you feel like you're stagnating in SoCal, then now is definitely the time to go. Things aren't going to be getting any cheaper, and the quality of life isn't going to suddenly improve. And certainly before you have any kids.
As for Cary's other advice, don't take it too much to heart. Basically, you have to decide what kinds of things are important to you and what aren't. If good coffee, be it espresso or whatever, is important to you, then make sure it's there. If a certain kind of culture, maybe theatre or music, is important to you, then look for that. You're looking to make a change, not send yourself into exile or a witness protection program. You don't need to completely reject every part of your previous life. If it happens that a lot of your neighbors end up being former Californians, then so be it. You're all there because you wanted to do something new and that's as good a foundation for beginning a friendship as any.
The other big point to remember is that for a good chunk of the year, the much of the Midwest features weather that can kill you. Now, if you've been out there during those times and you're fine with that, then good. But before you commit to anything, you might want to take a trip out during the coldest and hottest parts of the year. If the Norman Rockwell allure is still there when going out improperly dressed could mean death then you'll do fine.
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Romanticizing the Midwest
I could not agree with you more firefly82. "Midwest" describes every state between Pennsylvania and Utah, at least in my mind, and there are major differences between Chicago, where I live, and Ames, Iowa, for example. A lot of times people use "midwest" as a catch all and they don't really see the forest for the trees, so to speak.
I feel like there is a romanticizing of the midwest by some people who live on both coasts and particularly leftists. I remember a class I took in college, "Evolution of American Capitalism," and near the end of the semester most of the students in the class we're arguing for "going back to the countryside" and rural living and what not. Living in the midwest or a rural area doesn't mean you are living more earnestly or honestly than someone in a city. Both cities and rural areas serve a purpose; one isn't better than the other.
What I would like to tell the letter writer is move to the midwest if that's what you want to do, especially since you do not have kids yet. But don't build it up in your mind so much that it cannot possibly live up to your expectations.
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Please move!
Dear LW,
If you feel about California the way you wrote about it in your letter, please, please, find somewhere you will be happy and go live there!
I love California, love it with a passion. I moved here 21 years ago and I have no intention of leaving, ever. I marvel at the number of people I meet here who carp all day long about how California isn't this, that, or the other. That it doesn't have NY bagels, or that you can't leave your doors unlocked. And to all those people I say, wholeheartedly, go where you are happy! Go to Montana, go to New York, go to Wisconsin, just GO!
And, ahem, leave California to those of us who love it.
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midwest
I'm an Ohio native who has lived in Florida for the past 11 years. I plan on moving back to the Cincinnati area ASAP. I visited for a week in August and was struck by the qualities I took for granted there that are missing in Florida. Affordable housing, nice people, better roads....
And as you know, you can always move back or somewhere else.