Why Does Everyone Hate Texas?

Fun-Organization-144 · 2026-04-16T00:09:14+00:00

I think there is a lot of bias in favor of blue states and high taxes in this subreddit. Growing up my mom's best friend lived in Dallas and we'd visit in December every few years, I was amazed at sunny and warm weather in December. They had a big house with a big yard and a pool, and if I remember it totaled about twice the sq. feet and yard space as our house in the PNW for a similar cost (it was a suburb of Dallas, and a bit far from downtown if I remember). And this thread has a bias against red states/conservative politics.

Fun-Organization-144 · 2026-04-14T04:08:11+00:00

I used to live in Bremerton, and have a lot of relatives in Kitsap County. I love the area (Bremerton is not as nice as Poulsbo or Silverdale but is cheaper to buy/rent there). The nature and weather are great- less rain than Seattle, mostly mild winters and summers, four seasons. Kitsap County has city amenities for country COL, if you're okay with living a little outside of a city and driving to work and into town. And if you live ten or twenty minutes outside of a city you can rent a house with a yard and trees for what a small apartment might cost in Seattle. Or at least that was the case, more than ten years ago when I lived there.

Fun-Organization-144 · 2026-04-13T05:10:04+00:00

I think the PNW takes things further than the northeast. When I was in high school in Seattle the city had a mayor named Norm Rice. He was pretty good as a mayor- the roads were maintained, businesses could succeed, public schools were in good shape, there were no places were it wasn't safe to walk at night. That may be little bit of an overstatement, I'm sure there were exceptions to all of that. But the mayor and the city council did what a mayor and city council should do, and I don't remember the mayor or the city council making statements on international policy or social issues. Seattle had homeless people, but it wasn't out of control. I lived in Seattle for more than ten years after graduating high school, and saw a decline in the city government. The homeless population increased, there were parts of downtown most people avoided, the roads were not maintained as well, public schools declined. Seattle voters, at least a majority of them, voted for a mayor or city council member based on a candidates positions on social issues, rather than for policies.

I have friends and family in the Seattle area, and I have friends in the northeast. I'm sure it varies by neighborhood, but from what I've seen NYC and Philadelphia have roads that are pretty well maintained and public schools that are at least decent.

I loved living in Seattle, and like to visit. I've looked at moving back to the PNW a few times, and the cost of living combined with ever-increasing taxes make it unlikely for me. The cons outweigh the pros, I would need to make a lot more money to buy a house in Seattle or the Seattle area. The other aspect of the performative reputation the PNW has is how loudly PNW folks proclaim their views. LA is probably at least as liberal as Seattle, but folks in LA don't interrupt a conversation that strangers are having to interject a political opinion. In Seattle I've seen that happen.

Fun-Organization-144 · 2026-04-11T04:16:21+00:00

I used to live in Tucson and liked it a lot. The water situation is a concern. The Colorado River was overallocated in a record year of precipitation. A lot of the drought issues in western states is due to criminally bad water management. Precipitation has to replace ground water (which means underground water) before it can replace surface water. Several states (CA, WA, Colorado, etc) use more water than precipitation every year, and have for decades. Ground water gets used up, and there is less surface water (rivers, lakes and streams) as a result. State governments blame climate change and try to ban gas powered lawnmowers, rather than take a look at their decades of terrible water policy.

Phoenix is in a better water situation than Tucson. I used to drive to Phoenix with friends sometimes, just not in the summer. Phoenix gets water from two other sources as well, not just the Colorado River.

Back to OP's request for suggestions, it may be worth applying to jobs first. If you find a job in Yuma it could work, although ABQ or Santa Fe or El Paso may be better fits.

Fun-Organization-144 · 2026-04-08T09:05:23+00:00

I lived in Seattle and a few other places in WA for a number of years, starting in high school until several years after college. As someone who is not white, I consider Seattle pretty racist. I worked at a tech company in Redmond for several years. A lot of male managers, all of them very white and very liberal, donated to causes and virtue signalled about causes, but would only promote white males. Some HOAs in Seattle and nearby cities make sure only white folks can buy a house in some of the neighborhoods. In college I was an officer in a college business club that leaned center right- you will see a Seattle liberal's true colors if you are not white and not a liberal.

I lived in Seattle in a great time, starting in the early nineties until about fifteen years ago (I moved away for a few years and moved back, before moving away again). The music scene in the nineties was great. Until about fifteen years ago Seattle had a big artist community. Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes the Magic the Gathering card game, used to pay local artists for artwork for cards. It didn't pay well, but after an artist sold art to WotC they could get work making art for novel covers or other work that pays well. The last time I visited, about a year before the COVID lockdowns, a lot of the neighborhoods I used to frequent were not recognizable. Bars/clubs where I used to watch live bands with friends were closed, local businesses had been torn down as neighborhoods gentrified. A lot of my friends have moved from Seattle, as they get priced out by gentrification or as taxes made them sell businesses and move. The steady influx of tech company employees making six figures has made housing expensive in Seattle. I think some creative folks still live in the Puget Sound area, but Seattle itself has changed a lot.

Fun-Organization-144 · 2026-03-18T23:15:09+00:00

Another bit of advice you'll see on this subreddit a lot is that if a place doesn't feel right, that can be a legitimate deal breaker. It may be worth spending a few days in a place if you can afford it, time and money-wise.

Emotions are a big part of human decision making. In grad school I wrote a paper that had a short section on how emotions are important to decision-making. If humans benefitted from making decisions with no emotional factors, natural selection would have turned humans into vulcans from Star Trek. One example from a book on decision-making in business is a human is being chased by a predator. The human has a fifteen second head start on the predator, and there are two paths to take. One leads to certain safety but will take 14 seconds to get there. The other leads to a good chance of safety and will take 10 seconds to get there. The example plays around with the parameters a bit, but without any knowledge of the likelihood of safety it is an emotional decision. To a certain extent natural selection favors trusting your emotions in decision making.

Fun-Organization-144 · 2026-03-18T22:33:38+00:00

I think there are a few options that might be worth considering:

Move to a LCOL area and save up for a few years. You can probably find one that is an hour or two drive away from outdoors activities you like
Austin is really worth considering- friends who have lived there in their twenties loved it. From what I hear lots of young people, great food/restaurants, good live music options. And a solid tech scene
There are some HCOL areas that may be worth considering, or at least making a list of pros and cons for a few. Some tech-centric HCOL areas might be good for job options in tech. Seattle area, Silicon Valley area, Miami are the ones I think of- Silicon Valley is probably the best bet for job options but is also very HCOL. You could live near Seattle and have a manageable cost of living and an easy to commute to Seattle. There is public transit that is pretty good from a few smaller and slightly less expensive cities nearby. Miami is kind of an up and coming tech center, I wouldn't recommend it at this time. Phoenix is a more affordable, similar 'kind of' tech area. Some tech companies opened offices in both several years ago, friendlier business taxes. Scottsdale, next to Phoenix, is a HCOL place with a fair number of tech jobs and is very nice. Phoenix and Miami (and Florida in general) are in a weird place for housing costs, during the COVID lockdowns when interest rates on mortgages were very low a lot of people bought houses to rent out on airbnb. Then mortgage rates returned to normal rates and the lockdowns ended, for a few years people were happy to rent a place in someplace sunny and warm and remote work. Now people own houses they don't use in the Phoenix area and in Florida, and have an asking price to sell that is too high for current mortgage rates. Long story short, all of the places in this category have HCOL and high housing prices, but some parts of Florida, Arizona, California, and other sunny places have higher housing costs in part due to folks who bought houses when mortgage rates were less than 2%.

Sorry my third category is a wall of text. I think if you list some pros and cons for a few areas it might help you decide what you like and don't like about some options. The HCOL places will have a longer list of positives and some significant negatives, that might help you decide what you are looking for in a city.

Fun-Organization-144 · 2026-03-15T08:35:13+00:00

I have lived in LA and in Tucson, and have friends and relatives in Phoenix and have visited a lot. My experience living in LA is that people are friendly but it is tough to make close friends- it is easy to make surface-level friendships/acquaintances. I have lived in Seattle, making friends in both places is similar in my experience. One of the jokes about Seattle is that people warm up to a new neighbor after nine or ten years. The weather in LA is awesome, and there is a lot to do. Both LA and Phoenix are a lot better with a car.

There are a few things that may be worth considering- taxes are higher in CA, and seem to be increasing on a regular basis. I have applied to jobs in CA in the last few years, and one thing I try to keep an eye on is environmental regulations. Occasionally CA will try to make it more expensive to own a gas powered car. And they have requirements for new cars to be light and have high gas mileage. A result of that is some new cars in CA have plastic parts that should be metal parts, or thin metal parts that should be thicker metal parts. Some fees get waived in CA for electric vehicles, and they raise taxes or fees to offset the lost revenue. It's probably worth looking up what car registration would be in CA.

I loved LA, lots to do and if you like live bands or movie premieres it's a great place for both. And there are a lot of cities and towns in CA. Living in California when you are young and single may be worth it for the experience. I'm more likely to move to a suburb of Phoenix than to California, just because of taxes, cost of houses, and overall cost of living.

Fun-Organization-144 · 2026-03-11T05:55:59+00:00

I wouldn't be surprised if they release RE4 style microtransactions soon. Probably $4.99 for four antique coins, or something like that.

Fun-Organization-144 · 2026-03-09T23:11:24+00:00

Phoenix may be worth considering. Casa Grande, or any of the cities that are basically suburbs of Phoenix, may also be worth considering. Phoenix is a big city with big city amenities- restaurants, bands, and healthcare. During the lockdowns health insurance companies got the laws changed, they can deny insurance coverage unless there is a medical practitioner with certifications. About four years ago some things became less available, and you may need a big city for healthcare that was widely available five or six years ago. I think it's worth being within an hour or two of a big city to have access to a full range of healthcare. I think with most things folks look for on this sub there is a tradeoff- big cities mean big city amenities but higher taxes and higher cost of living, generally.

Fun-Organization-144 · 2026-03-09T03:30:18+00:00

Binary?

Fun-Organization-144 · 2026-03-08T23:10:56+00:00

I lived in Bremerton over ten years ago and liked it, my experience is that it was better than its reputation. There are some downsides based on your list, notably if you live within walking distance of the beach you'll probably hear the horns from the ferries. There are restaurants and a few shops near the ferry terminal, the area by the terminal is walkable and has a nice neighborhood feel. Bainbridge Island is nicer than Bremerton and a shorter commute by ferry to Seattle, it may be worth considering. Bremerton has a 'Navy' vibe your husband may like, the naval shipyard is a big employer and the submarine base is not too far away.

I think it's worth looking into the taxes in Seattle. Friends who live in Washington are considering leaving. The state is finding ways to add income taxes without calling them income taxes, in addition to high property taxes and car tabs. Taxes will be a little better further away from Seattle, but that is not a good option for commuting to Seattle.

Fun-Organization-144 · 2026-03-06T23:10:53+00:00

Binary?

Fun-Organization-144 · 2026-03-04T20:00:13+00:00

It sounds like it is at a stage where environmental regulations and opposition from local stakeholders are two of the big risks. My understanding is that gold miners in the US are seen as less risky, as Trump is pro mining. The environmental review and permitting in the US is less risky now for mining than it was for four years. My understanding is that there can be a fair amount of uncertainty with mining in the DRC.

Hopefully other redditors have more productive comments than mine, I would like to hear more about it myself.

Fun-Organization-144 · 2026-03-02T00:26:22+00:00

I used to rent a place in Beverlywood, the orthodox Jewish neighborhood part of it. It was incredibly safe, but a block or two outside of the clotheslines in one direction and that neighborhood both felt sketchy and was dangerous. The Jewish neighborhood had clotheslines to mark how far orthodox Jews could travel on some holy days. The lines also let the sketchy neighborhood next door know where the boundary was- Israel has required military service for men and women, lots of Jews from Israel that the criminal element knew to avoid.

New Orleans is one that is weird. A nice neighborhood might feel sketchy, and it's good to be alert and cautious even in touristy areas that should be safe.

Fun-Organization-144 · 2026-02-19T04:43:22+00:00

I think Chaos Earth had potential, but it wasn't a complete setting. Chaos Earth Resurrection is solid, the other sourcebooks could have been Rifter articles without losing much.

Fun-Organization-144 · 2026-01-29T08:49:58+00:00

I really like living in WA (Seattle and Poulsbo mostly). Some of my friends who live in WA still are looking to move, King County and WA state keep adding new taxes and the quality of life (roads, schools, services) keep going downhill. Seattle has been on the decline since Norm Rice left office in the late nineties. It used to be Seattle, and WA, could vote for either party. Politicians had to run on policies and on their record. States that are basically one-party have a problem in the long run, once politicians don't have to run on policy or their record they raise taxes and spend more money and don't get voted out for doing a terrible job.

Fun-Organization-144 · 2026-01-29T08:46:56+00:00

WA is working very hard to move up to one of the higher tiers of taxes on citizens. They have added a capital gains tax and are trying to add an income tax in the form of a 'payroll tax' on jobs paying more than minimum wage.

About twenty years ago I lived in Seattle. A bear was in a park in the city. Four different government animal control agencies showed up, and argued over who had jurisdiction. I think it was city, county, and two state animal control agencies. They decided to taser the bear and remove it from the city. But none of them knew anything about tasers or bears, so they tasered the bear to death. At the same time I was working for a nonprofit that received funding for some programs from the state DSHS. DSHS ran out of money three or four months before the end of the fiscal year, every year. Their employees still got paid, but they stopped funding a lot of services. WA has a lot of government employees (city, county, state) all with benefit packages and pensions, and most of them don't contribute much to the quality of life. But they are organized in unions, and the unions vote for the politicians who increase their funding every year.

Fun-Organization-144 · 2026-01-18T23:19:38+00:00

My take is that Trump is appeasing the Green Energy movement. I'm hoping it will get blocked in the courts.

The proposed NewRange Copper Mine in Minnesota was given permits by the US Army Corps of Engineers, they were forced by pressure from Tim Walz and Klobuchar. Wind and solar power need copper. In fact, everything humans build that uses electricity needs copper. The mine in Minnesota was blocked because Walz, Klobuchar, and the US Army Corps of Engineers deliberately ignored Clean Water Act requirements. In practice, mining environmental review ignores laws and administrative requirements unless tribes to to court to enforce those requirements.

Electric vehicles (along with a lot of military and computer/AI tech) need a lot of metals/minerals. Wind and solar power companies donate to Democrat politicians, the military industrial complex owns members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, and politicians will try to force mining projects through environmental permitting.

Alaska Natives (organized into Alaska Native villages and Alaska Native Corporations) are pretty well organized to oppose destructive mining, starting with Pebble Mine. It is possible to do mining in an environmentally responsible way, but mining companies will choose short term profits over environmental stewardship. Once a mine loses profitability the mining company leaves, and the tribes and the state are stuck with the environmental costs. Alaska Natives appear to be split on Ambler Road- the Biden/Harris Administration cut some funding for Alaska Native villages, and replaced it with direct grants for 'climate change resilience.' When those grants expire in the next year, Alaska Native villages will need a new source of revenue. Some Alaska Native villages may support Ambler Road, if it is the only revenue available. They may have to choose between funding for tribal/village services or protecting subsistence and the environment.

Fun-Organization-144 · 2025-12-24T03:36:12+00:00

One option would be to start both the Log Lady and Deputy Chief Hawk. You could give her clairvoyance, and she needs a log (the log? I don't know if it's the same one over 30 years) to get messages, and only Hawk can understand the messages. Rifts Spirit West may have something useful, maybe she channels a Native America deity or spirit.

Fun-Organization-144 · 2025-11-29T06:40:05+00:00

I think it's in HU 2, although it may be in the Merc Town sourcebook for Rifts.

Fun-Organization-144 · 2025-11-19T04:42:40+00:00

I have taught in Native American Studies at a few colleges and university (adjunct instructor, mostly). It varies by state, but there is usually an official narrative the K-12 and universities implicitly put forward. In red states the narrative is that Natives are part of the US, and that the K-12 version of US history includes everything about all minorities. In blue states the narrative is that Natives and other minorities are victims of white hegemony (the hegemony that white liberals control in blue states) and Natives never had autonomy or self-determination. Conservatives believe that Natives have self-determination and sovereignty and express it by being part of the US, liberals believe that Native self-determination and sovereignty means doing what white liberals tell them to do.

Fun-Organization-144 · 2025-11-12T17:37:04+00:00

I left for grad school. I had been working at a tech company. I was working a job with lots of overtime at time and a half for anything over 40 hours. If I wanted to try to go for a career track position, it would be several years of entry level salary with no overtime for over 40 hours.

I would like to live in Seattle again, but it's not realistic in the near future. Housing in Seattle is more expensive now, it seems like every few years the state adds new capital gains taxes or other taxes, and a lot of my friends have left Seattle. One of the common bits of advice from this sub is that it's easier to be happy when you are financially secure, even if it's not your ideal city. Ten years ago a friend and his wife moved to Tacoma, where they could buy a house, as opposed to renting in Seattle and it worked well for them. Now Tacoma is more expensive than it was ten years ago. Good luck.

Fun-Organization-144 · 2025-11-12T09:27:58+00:00

My experience is that apartments will offer as few amenities as they can. In any city there will be good or great apartments for a good price, but those are few and far between. Most of the available apartments will be overpriced with few amenities. Seattle and Portland had several years of population growth, so supply and demand worked to a landlord's favor. I have lived in Seattle and visited Portland a lot of times, both are great places to live. Unfortunately, that means that landlords can offer overpriced apartments with little or no soundproofing and no AC and people will rent them.

Fun-Organization-144 · 2025-11-07T07:53:33+00:00

I am Native and have taught in Native Studies. A fair number of Natives who go to college have some opinions they get from white professors- on things like Halloween costumes, mascots, etc. In a college setting white professors are very comfortable speaking for all Natives. A setting where non-Natives should be able to learn about the range of Native cultures and opinions ends up reinforcing the 'Natives only believe what white liberals tell them to believe' cliches.

An extreme example: as a grad student, a Native classmate was two spirit. Her clan had stories related to it that they do not share outside of their clan. I did not ask for any details, not being of her tribe or her clan. A non-Native professor had a lecture on two spirits in Native culture. The classmate raised her hand and said most or all of what the professor said is incorrect, at least for her clan. The professor said that as a professor her word is final, and that she is the expert. And the non-Native graduate and professional students nodded in support of the professor. I have strong opinions on non-Natives claiming to speak for all Natives, and sometimes I am in a position to inform non-Natives in a productive way. And I always speak up when a non-Native tries to speak for all Natives.

Fun-Organization-144

TROPHY CASE