Want To Fit In? Complain!
By floor9 on Jul 11, 2008 in Central PA
You can’t really live in this area without noticing that a large number of people who live here complain about living here. You’ve heard it all before: Central PA sucks, there’s no culture here, people are inbred, our educational institutions suck, the job market sucks, the housing sucks, the transportation options suck … you name it. I always amuse myself by responding with “So then why DO you live here?”, the answer to which is always some fail-tastic statement like “Uh, well, I guess, uh, um … My husband works for Comcast. So yeah.”
Anyway, a fellow Farker pointed out Find Your Spot. Answer 8 pages of fairly straightforward questions on everything from weather to culture to geographic region and you’ll be paired with an ideal city. You even get to choose if you want a major metro, a secondary city, or a small community. You will ultimately be asked for your email address before seeing your results; just make something up.
My top spot? Fargo, North Dakota. Yeah. Carlisle (as in right down the road) was #7. Altoona was #11. My biggest city was Minneapolis-St. Paul at #14. No Chicago, no NYC, not even Detroit! I guess that’s because I selected housing “less than $140k” and rent under $800. But still:
Fargo.
Fargo.
Ugh. I just re-took the test, paying more attention to my answers. This time around I limited the results to “major metro areas”. My top 12 cities, starting with #1:
Denver, CO (not bad)
Toledo, OH (who?)
Cleveland, OH (been there; yuck)
Carlisle, PA (”major metro area”)
Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN (I could handle this)
Indianaopolis, IN
Great Falls, MT (smaller than Carlisle)
Milwaukee, WI
Columbus, OH (some of the highest crime in the nation)
Spokane, WA
Pittsburgh, PA (Pittsburgh!)
Ogden, UT (population: 77,200)
floor9 | Jul 11, 2008 | Reply
Having lived in Grand Forks, ND, let me say it’s actually a great area in which to live.
Fargo would perhaps be a bit big for me, but I like the smaller town feel.
That said, I chose to live here in Central PA, and will not complain about it one bit!
Steve | Jul 12, 2008 | Reply
Hey, I think my complaints are plenty valid- but according to that site, I’d be better off in-
1. Danbury, CT
2. Worcester, MA
3. Providence, RI
4. Erie, PA
5. Syracuse, NY
Pretty good list, methinks.
Good find, Dave.
Jersey | Jul 12, 2008 | Reply
Oh yeah, there ARE valid complaints about the area; the people who can actually back up their complaints with observations and research are the only ones who get to gripe. Those who can’t get past “OMG HARRISBURG SUCKS” are the ones who get shut down.
floor9 | Jul 14, 2008 | Reply