It does seem dirty and dead here, with graffiti everywhere, sky-high prices and a sort of resigned moroseness. People seem cheerful about Obama's re-election, which I understand only in the context of sycophantic commitment to an ideal despite the falling and crumbling reality that surrounds it.
But there's little that's "sunny" or "optimistic" about the region.
You have my deepest sympathies. The northeast is an immoral sewer...Red Hampshire just 'doubled down on depravity' by electing two of the most vile women imaginable to Congress and another as Governor. They join Senator Jeanne Shaheen as a true female 'axis of evil'.
I’ve lived here my whole life, and it certainly is deteriorating. I see nobody cheerful about Obama’s re-election (I noted before the election the absence of Obama stickers even in the ghettoes, whereas they were everywhere in 2008); even blacks I work with who voted for him did it as much as out hatred for whites as anything else. They are always lamenting how much worse things are; maybe they just believe it isn’t his fault. They reminisce about the cruises they used to take, they new cars they used to own, etc. (they were just making it into the middle class when things fell apart); they got a taste of a better life and now it is gone.
There is nothing sunny or optimistic here, and I feel there won’t be for years. We are bleeding our youngest talent, and importing illegals to simply keep schools open and housing afloat. Tell them in TX what to look out for (just kidding, apparently they already know).