@BearonaBicycle
@mimi0000
I sympathize with y'all.
I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago. Then wound up working and living in Birmingham, Alabama in the mid-80s to early 90s. I recalled the images of Birmingham of the 1960's...Sheriff Bull Connor, civil rights marches, the bombing of the Baptist church ending in death of 4 young girls. But at the time I was there Birmingham seemed to have turned a 180 (but it really hasn't). I did like living there though. Just as I enjoyed living in St Louis for a year.
For the past 12 years I have lived on the gulf coast of Florida due to a job transfer with my small employer. I retired a bit over a year ago. Our town is an attraction for wealthy folks, wealthy foriegners, wealthy snowbirds, well-off retirees. Even for Amish, believe it or not. I really don't like living here and I don't believe my wife does either, but the job was the draw.
Florida is a very red state. But even in this reddest ink spot of a very red state the split between highly conservative and highly liberal is almost even. Our Representative puts out a poll every week and virtually all the time the split is almost even between two bickering sides. I imagine that in a less "red" state things might be more free and friendly.
This is an interesting spot to observe. As I mentioned, there are a lot of well-off and even well-to-do people (well, outright rich) that live here, either full- or part-time. But there's also a counter-culture of transplanted Europeans, the Amish, and old liberal hippies. There's also a tranche of drug-addled seniors who can't see or drive but do so anyway. And there's a tranche of younger people just trying to eke out a living...and that is very difficult here; their jobs are mostly service work for the seniors, the rich, or for the medical services. Many of these younger people work multiple jobs. And of course, there are many seniors working the tills in the stores as well.
I know that I am very fortunate not to have the financial worries and stresses that a lot of the residents around here have. And I sympathize with many of them.
But back to me and not liking living here. I think I mentioned that it is a big draw for retirees. But they are predominantly white conservatives. I recall going to a local restaurant years ago with my wife and looking around at a sea of elderly white haired white folks. I felt sorry for my wife, who is Asian. She is used to being the odd visible minority having grown up that way, but still... And I myself prefer a mix of cultures. We lived in Houston for some years and while it is a huge, sometimes unpleasant city, it did have a potpourri of cultures that we found fascinating and took advantage of. I feel like we will wither and die prematurely if we stay here.