Carl, you are correct in much of what you say. However, let me add that this is so only in the Northeast urban corridor from nothern New Jersey to New Hampshire. In the rest of the Northeast, things are wonderful. I live in the Philadelphia suburbs. Our area stretches from the Amish country of Pennsylvania, to Northern Maryland, to Allentown Pennsylvania, to the Jersey shore. It is truly a wonderful place to live. Philadelphia is everything New York is not. Warm, friendly, REAL people, with a sense of themselves. We are not grumpy or crotchety. There is a great mix of people from different walks of life, cultures, and careers. The economy is strong, and there is a shortage of workers. Our jobs pay well, compared to much of the country. The price of housing is no higher than the Atlanta area, and our cost of living is MUCH less than North Jersey, NYC, Connecticut, RI, MA, and NH. Land is plentiful, my property is 3 1/2 acres, even though I am 1/4 mile from the Philadelphia border. We have a nice mass transit system that allows me to get from my nearest train station, less than 1 mile from my home, to my job in Center City Philadelphia in 25 minutes. The restaurants here are some of the best in the country. There is a lot of culture here, including the Art Museum, Rodin Museum, Please Touch Museum, Meutters Museum(for the macabre out there), Benjamin Franklin Science Institute, NJ State Aquarium(across the river), and the Academy of Music. Washington DC and NYC are both 2 hours away, Baltimore is even closer. For vacation, we go to the Jersey shore(the worst of which is Atlantic City), which is extremely popular in the summer, or the Pocono mountains. We do not have the best audio dealers here, in my opinion, but one is one of the largest(two of them take up a full page ad in Stereophile)... Audio manufacturers Rogue, BAT, Timbre Technology, and formerly Fried(sadly, no longer in business) are here. My point is that next time you come north, spend some time in the Delaware Valley. You may be surprised.
