The Meal wrote: ↑Sat May 18, 2019 2:06 pm
Apollo wrote: ↑Sat May 18, 2019 1:53 pm
I wasn't talking about climate when I was posting about Natural Environment. We have a wealth of untouched forests, lakes, rivers and beautiful beaches that blow anything in New York away. It's not even close.
I, too, was initially "up in arms" for my state's ranking on the Natural Environment metric, until I dug in and saw how things were actually ranked. We, too, have a wealth of untouched forests, lakes, rivers, and I'll throw in mountains instead of beaches. Guess what? That's not how they measured "Natural Environment."...
While I don't disagree with anything you have posted, this statement does figure into my root argument, which is that studies like this seem to downplay all of the advantages of living in many Southern states, while exacerbating the negatives. I think most people who are familiar with both states would agree with me that Alabama has more untouched, natural beauty in it's many rivers, forests and beaches than NY, and yet they have found a way to score the category that actually rates states like New York higher than Alabama. It makes the South seem far worse in some areas than it actually is.
To give one small example, Alabama dropped in "Infrastructure" from 32nd to 38th in one year, despite the fact that the State government actually passed an increase to the gas tax to help repair roads and bridges. (Yeah, even we Alabamians couldn't believe it!
).
Finally, for me the results speak for themselves. I'm indifferent to living in Washington or North Carolina, and I would gladly move to Colorado, Florida or California, but every other State that finished in the top 20 is a State I wouldn't move to with a gun to my head. Of course, reasonable minds may differ and all that...