Pulaski

Sinkholes mean very different things in different places, and pretty much any hole that opens up gets called a sinkhole. Many of them are annoying but not that dangerous, resulting from the leakage from a water supply pipe or drain, pretty much anywhere where there is concealed flowing water - the recent washout from under the Oroville dam spillway is a rare visible example, now imagine such a leak buried underground, and the result gets called a sinkhole. They occur across the US and around the world, and this type of sinkhole appears in the UK from time to time.

A few years ago a cavity created artificially in a salt dome under Louisiana became punctured under a lake, and the result was a huge amount of lake water flooding into a void that had been used to store natural gas, and was roughly the size and shape of the Empire State Building. This was a completely different phenomenon to a washout sinkhole, but to the media it was just another sinkhole.

Florida sinkholes on the other hand are quite different again, because Florida is effectively a sand bar that has collected on top of a slab of eroded limestone which has many numerous caves and channels carved into it. Occasionally the sand and rock over one of these holes caves in, as the limestone continues to erode away, and anything sitting on top can get sucked down into the ground, and potentially through a channel in the limestone bedrock and down into the cavern system filled with a freshwater acquifer that brings water all the way from Georgia - it is effectively an underground river. While similar geological collapses can cause sinkholes in other parts of the US, they are a much greater, albeit still very small, risk in Florida.

Hiro11

I'll add my impressions of Western Massachusetts where I lived for years:

Upsides:
- beautiful (as previously mentioned) with a very laid back, relaxed vibe. It's like the Shire from LOTR: little rivers, rolling hills, stone walls, local pubs with local ale, organic farms with rambling New England farmhouses. It's great.
- Terrific social liberalism. Everyone just living together and getting along. People are enormously accepting and unsurprised by people different from themselves. Race, religion, nationality, sexual orientation: it's all good.
- high percentage of well educated, interesting people. Lots of world-class universities in the area
- tons of cool stuff in easy driving range: the Maine coast, Boston, Vermont, Cape Cod, the Berkshires, great museums, cool old mill towns etc.
- excellent cycling (an obsession of mine)

Downsides:
- lots of entitled jerks. People drive like jerks, walk like jerks, treat employees in stores like jerks. Terrible customer service is common. Etc.
- really expensive for a rural area, which when combined with a limited job market makes it tough to live here.
- Taxachusetts is a real thing. Not as bad as IL, but close.
- Heavy, heavy liberal bias. This the home base of the Elizabeth Warren thought police. Heaven forbid you don't toe the line on every liberal obsession.
- Some of the poorer areas have been decimated by meth.

mrken30

It's interesting that not a single person has mentioned legalized cannabis. I guess it's not popular among BEers.

dc koop

Sinkholes are rare here but last week one swallowed up a SUV. It fell straight into the hole. Fortunately no one was hurt. On the other hand houses sliding off the sides of hills are a more common occurrence.

Some years ago a mudslide unearthed several coffins from a hillside in a local cemetery. The coffins ended up in the parking lot of a grocery store and one or two even ended up inside the store itself.

dc koop

Well it probably is but nobody really likes to talk about it

Twinkle0927

Western Washington here...

Love:
- no state income tax (although the downside is higher sales tax so they get you one way or another)
- a liberal state (mostly because of the influence of the western portion)
- mountains and coastline
- the sense of community and community involvement
- good public transport in the urban areas
- moderate climate
- wildlife
- being outdoors
- no theme parks

Dislikes:

- traffic on I-405 and I-5 never moves. I-405 in particular is a 30-mile long car park.
- roads in a terrible state of repair. The roads in Kenya were in better shape than Washington's roads
- Starbucks everywhere
- Blue Fridays
- slow internet speeds

Steerpike

After posting, you do get a period of time when you can still edit your post. So all you need to do is post, and review/correct. Did you just post and run out the door?

mrken30

I find it hard to edit on my phone.

Steerpike

Utah is perhaps the best looking state of all, in terms of natural beauty. I've also heard Park City is a cool town, not typical of Utah. I've also had the pleasure of spending a few days in Moab, and that is one party town - lots of bars selling (strong) craft beer, surprisingly. Zion, Bryce, Arches, Canyonlands are four of the best National Parks I've seen - and I've been to the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Kings, Sequoia, Lassen, Death Valley, etc. Utah really is spectacular. The prevalence of Mormons, with the associated liquor laws, and I assume peer pressure to join the church if you lived there, are the biggest downers. But as I said, Park City and Moab at least are fairly 'normal'. I'd give it a shot if the opportunity arose.

mrken30

I didn't realize quite how crazy things are in the Bay area

https://www.theguardian.com/technolo...droidApp_Gmail

Pulaski

That is true, but you can't edit the title of post #1 in a thread. However you can ask a Moderator to fix it for you.

Steerpike

I'd say the article is quite on the mark. The price of housing and rent is just nuts. $3,000/mo gets you very little. My nephew recently 'graduated' from one of those fast-track boot-camp training places, and immediately got a job over $100k but he can't find a place to live with his (also highly paid) partner. He moved out of the 'City' (SF) to Redwood City and has a very small, 1 br generic place for $3k.

The only reason my gf and I are 'comfortable' is because we bought our house in 1995. That despite making over $300k between us at the peak (we are both now making less, by choice, in return for flexibility / part time).

jambey2510

I spent many weekends in Park City when working at a summer camp in SLC. It is a very cool town, and from what I was told, has a great ski resort there!

dc koop

I stopped at a town called St George in Utah for a night many years ago while on my way to Wyoming. I never saw so many miserable looking people in my life. Maybe it's because there were no bars or cabarets in that town. Out of curiosity I asked a young Mormon girl if I could take a look inside the temple. She said it wasn't possible but if I liked she could give me a tour of the adjacent buildings along with a history of the Mormon people. Ten minutes later I found myself in a classroom, the subject of an attempted effort to convert me to the Mormon faith. They never give up.

Steerpike

I spent 3 nights in Moab, Utah and had the worst hangover of my life after drinking way too much at a local pub selling craft beers and great food. The place was wild. Obviously, in Utah, you have to pick your places. Park City, and Moab, are two places that I believe are quite 'normal'.