[Alfonso]

Could someone who is well-traveled and has lived in various regions of the United States give me general patterns in regional societal differences? For example, what, if anything, makes the Pacific Northwest different from the Deep South?

User Detail :  

Name : Alfonso, Gender : M, Age : 19, City : Brooklyn, State : NY, Country : United States, Occupation : College sophomore, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Lower class, 

[Michelle20581]

PART 2 Northern California: URBAN San Francisco Bay Area (early 2000s) –From the central valley I moved to San Francisco, where housing was so expensive I ended up across the bay in Oakland. Very racially diverse, though becoming I think less economically diverse as housing costs rise and the less wealthy are forced out–I ended up moving back to the central valley. –Loved the food…an overwhelming amount of cultural activities and events to see…lots of Asian infuence…segregated neighborhoods…very image consious….very P/C, like to be cool you have to drink free-trade coffee with soy milk while you’re on your way to a reading by some ex-political prisoner and so on…lots of homelessness…everyone hates Los Angeles. Southern California: Urban San Diego (present) –We live in an older part of town that is mostly white and pretty upper-middle class. There’s a strong gay/lesbian presence in our area and a huge Mexican influence being next to the border. –Everyone wears flip-flops year-round…a real beach culture, laid back, carefree…less cutting edge than the Bay Area as far as cultural events and diversity issues…ladies pay lots of attention to hair and nails and wear really tight clothes…tacos are a cultural phenomenon here…right on the border but most people don’t seem to know Mexico is there, let alone go there…a military town so lots of people from other parts of the country…Los Angeles is nearby but feels like a whole other world in terms of the pace and the values and so on…it does however look like the movies here, lots of palm trees and beaches, somehow seems more like real ‘America’ to me than other places I’ve lived since it is the setting for so many of the media’s portrayals of ‘American’ life. Northern Nevada –My folks live there now in a sort of rural area outside of Reno. –People smoke a lot, tourism is huge, really friendly people, folks seem to hold traditional values (conservative), few Asians or Blacks, substantial Mexican population in some areas, generally lower-class…even the rich people don’t come off as being rich…it’s …isolated, no other big cities nearby…beautiful with mountains and lakes and everything.

User Detail :  

Name : Michelle20581, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian, Age : 25, City : San Diego, State : CA, Country : United States, Occupation : Community Researcher, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 

[Michelle20580]

Here is a list of where I lived and when, a bit about the racial and class mix to provide some context and a few observations:

Pacific Northwest (late ’70s-early ’90s)
–I grew up there in a middle-class, white part of a mostly working class, racially diverse city. –Not too much concern about if you’re rich or poor/black or white…friendly people, you can talk to anyone in the grocery store…people talk slow and loud…there’s a notable American Indian and Asian/Pacific Islander influence but not many Mexicans until you go east of the Cascades…that’s a real difference, if you’re from eastern or western Washington – there’s a rivalry there…the food is bland, meat and potatoes kind of fare, plus salmon and berries.

Northern California: Suburban San Francisco Bay Area (early-mid-’90s)
–From the Northwest my family moved to an upper-middle class, almost entirely white suburb. Blech! Enjoyed lots of good food I’d not had in the Northwest…Mexican, Indian, Thai, real ‘Californian Cuisine’…folks in NoCal are obsessed with food and can be elitest about what they eat…lots of great grocery stores and such…really dull architecture…people were cold and fearful of strangers, you could barely stop someone on the street to ask directions…family-oriented, not a friendly place for singles or young people (not to mention minorities or poor people)

Northern California: Central Valley (mid-’90s–early 2000s)
–From the suburbs I moved to a small town in the central valley that was mostly white with a substantial Mexican population. –Agriculture is the economy and that’s reflected in everything from who lives there to what is in the grocery store and so on…people were much warmer than in the Bay Area…slow paced, not a lot of traffic or anything…segregated, Anglos on one side, Mexicans on another…growing really fast, lots of sprawl and pressure to grow.

Northern California: Urban San Francisco Bay Area (early 2000s)
–From the central valley I moved to San Francisco, where housing was so expensive I ended up across the bay in Oakland. Very racially diverse, though becoming I think less economically diverse as housing costs rise and the less wealthy are forced out–I ended up moving back to the central valley. –Loved the food…an overwhelming amount of cultural activities and events to see…lots of Asian infuence…segregated neighborhoods…very image consious….very P/C, like to be cool you have to drink free-trade coffee with soy milk while you’re on your way to a reading by some ex-political prisoner and so on…lots of homelessness…everyone hates Los Angeles.

Southern California: Urban San Diego (present) –We live in an older part of town that is mostly white and pretty upper-middle class. There’s a strong gay/lesbian presence in our area and a huge Mexican influence being next to the border. –Everyone wears flip-flops year-round…a real beach culture, laid back, carefree…less cutting edge than the Bay Area as far as cultural events and diversity issues…ladies pay lots of attention to hair and nails and wear really tight clothes…tacos are a cultural phenomenon here…right on the border but most people don’t seem to know Mexico is there, let alone go there…a military town so lots of people from other parts of the country…Los Angeles is nearby but feels like a whole other world in terms of the pace and the values and so on…it does, however, look like the movies here, lots of palm trees and beaches, somehow seems more like real ‘America’ to me than other places I’ve lived, since it is the setting for so many of the media’s portrayals of ‘American’ life.

Northern Nevada –My folks live there now in a sort of rural area outside of Reno. –People smoke a lot, tourism is huge, really friendly people, folks seem to hold traditional values (conservative), few Asians or blacks, substantial Mexican population in some areas, generally lower-class…even the rich people don’t come off as being rich…it’s …isolated, no other big cities nearby…beautiful with mountains and lakes and everything.

User Detail :  

Name : Michelle20580, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian, Age : 25, City : San Diego, State : CA, Country : United States, Occupation : Community Researcher, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 

[Jennifer30880]

Your impressions of different areas are pretty interesting. I guess it really depends on what type of neighborhood you live in. I’ve grew up in California, too. I was born in the Central Valley, grew up mostly along the coast in agricultural and tourist areas and have been in the Bay Area for the last 8 years. I’ve always lived in working class/middle class areas.
In the Central Valley, I agree with a lot of what you said, except I didn’t see a lot of the same racial segregation. The segregation I did see was mostly between classes rather than races.
Suburban Bay Area – I don’t see it as a bad place for singles or people without kids at all. Possibly in the more elite areas, but overall, I don’t think so. My husband and I are child-free by choice and think it’s a great place to live. As far as minorities, the Bay Area is one of the most diverse and integrated areas in the country. One of the reasons we have so much great food is that we have people from all over.

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Name : Jennifer30880, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 28, City : San Jose, State : CA, Country : United States, Occupation : Engineer, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Ed]

Having lived in the northeast (NJ), south (NC), and CA Bay Area in that order, I can say that: Northeast: People are generally more uptight, competitive, and worry about everything. Anything which goes wrong, even the smallest thing, seems to set people off. People are more honest with their opinions though, they don’t have time to BS unless they’re trying to intentionally trick you, which happens a lot. Actually, they don’t have time for much of anything, they’re always in a hurry. The only part of the country where they boo their own sports teams. That has to say something. South: It’s slow, and sometimes ass-backwards. People either go from being incredibly polite to outright rude. Some of the nicest people I’ve ever met were from the South. But there are lots of Southerners who just can’t stand outsiders. There’s definitely an anti-elitist feeling in the area, which is how Southerners view Yankees. It’s sad that the disdain for elitism often extends to hallmarks like education or cultural awareness, as if being ignorant is somehow equated with being honest and down-to-earth. People eat entirely too much saturated fat down here… CA, Bay Area – Very, very ethnically diverse. White people are definitely in the minority. Huge Asian and Latino influences. Very image conscious, very into politcal correctness and pseudo intellectualism. But I’ve seen more race mixing here than anywhere else, there’s so much diversity race is *almost* an afterthought. Somewhat friendlier than the northeast. Great place for food, you can get anything you want except NY style pizza (and I’ve looked all over). Very health conscious – only place in the world where a place can charge $5 for an all-natural fruit smoothie, and sell ’em like hotcakes.

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Name : Ed, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Asian, Religion : Christian, Age : 26, City : Milpitas, State : CA, Country : United States, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Elizabeth]

I moved to southeast Louisiana from the Ohio Valley in 1982. For me, the greatest difference is the pace of life in the south is much slower. Trust me, this can be a good thing. After all these years, occasionally I still must remind myself that I’m on Southern time, and to chill out. It may be partially caused by the heat and humidity, two factors that cause a certain languor in both transplants and natives. Good manners are expected, and saying ‘Yes, m’am’ and ‘No sir’ to almost everybody is quite common. Think conservative, with some flamboyant exceptions (New Orleans). Unfortunately, I have no personal experience with the Pacific Northwest, but would love to check it out one day.

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Name : Elizabeth, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, Age : 40, City : Hammond, State : LA, Country : United States, Occupation : writer / administrator, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, 

[Katie]

Hi, Alfonso. I’m originally from Louisiana, but have lived in Los Angeles since 1997. I’ve traveled in Europe and in the US, so I’ve been around a bit. I’ve also chatted online for years and years. One thing that people from the North do that no one in the South or West does is a particular greeting. They will say, ‘So how is Katie today?’ This sounds SO bizarre to me! It sounds cold, a little distancing and patronizing, almost something you would say to a child. This is just my own reaction, and isn’t representative of anyone else but me. Everyone else that I know just uses ‘you’ as in, ‘How are you today?’ Using the third person when talking to someone directly is a sure sign of a Yankee. I chatted with someone from the Northern US who used ‘be’ in a strange way too — Maine? Connecticut? I don’t remember. He said things like, ‘How do you be?’ and other usages which struck me as strange and highly cultural or perhaps even uneducated. The only other affect about people from the North that I’ve noticed on any semi-consistent basis is talking fast. I’ve been accused since childhood of being a ‘secret Yankee’ because I talk fast (and think and act fast!) LOL

User Detail :  

Name : Katie, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Episcopalian, Age : 37, City : Los Angeles, State : CA, Country : United States, Occupation : teacher, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

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