By most objective measures, it's Mississippi. Highest poverty rate, lowest life expectancy, poor infrastructure, some of the worst education, poor health care access and quality...
I know people who live in the woods of WV and commute to northern Virginia/Maryland for work. They seem to all love it, and I can’t blame them. WV is pretty.
My old boss did that, lived in WV and commuted all the way into Bethesda every day. He spent DC money on WV land, so he lived well. His commute was long, but he shifted his schedule off-peak, spent the extra money on a very comfortable car, and genuinely appreciated having long and quiet car rides to himself every day.
You don't really have to go all that far and even then that's not a bad commute especially with 270 depending where in wva. Charlestown/Martinsburg to Baltimore is around 1.5 hours, 45 ish to Frederick, and hour to Germantown 1.5-2 to DC, depending on traffic. It is a lot of driving but it's all about what you want to do.
I commute from my little green cabin in a rural mountain town down to a major city every day for work - between the beautiful scenery, the peaceful drive, and the money saved on housing I really can't imagine wanting to live anywhere else!
As a kid, I never understood why my dad drove to work every day in rush hour like at least close to 2 hours each way or more when he could have taken a train in half the time but as an adult I realized that was his alone time in his nice car and I completely get it now.
Ive done that drive, but from Bethesda to WV for a job interview. Its a long ass drive. But yes, WV has its nice spots. Now I live in NJ and NY is right there with the catskills, gunks, and adirondaks which Im really happy for. To me, MD seemed way too boring for me haha
I know people who live in the woods of WV and commute to northern Virginia/Maryland for work. They seem to all love it, and I can’t blame them. WV is pretty.
Hey that's me! And yes, I love it. Commute is under an hour which isn't bad at all for me since I drive a fun car and have a motorcycle I can take in as well. I don't make much (more than I'd be able to make in the Charlestown area though) and I was still able to buy a house for under $150k, which is wayyyyy cheaper than anything I'd be able to get in Nova. Don't care about school quality because I'm not having children, and don't care about "things to do" since I pretty much just come home from work and play vidya. I basically live in the woods. Where I live is hardly even WV though, its less than a 10 minute drive to cross over the border into VA.
I live in the same part of WV. There is literally one non-religious private school in the area, and it's not really that good. You'd have to drive to Virginia for a decent school. I assume he is talking about Jefferson county because it's really the only part of WV with a less than two hour commute to the DMV.
Yep, WV is impoverished with terrible local government and a population that seems entirely unwilling to shift careers to an industry that isn’t dying but the state is not without its charms. WV has SOME redeeming qualities, not many but some.
WV is one of the worst states to start a business in, and that’s completely by design. It’s not that people are unwilling to change careers, it’s that the state government completely controlled by the coal industry has made it so there are no other careers to be had.
They are trying to change things, but it doesn’t help that we tax the heck out of businesses operating out of WV.. we have the I-79 high tech corridor with a nasa facility and other gov businesses, and Richard Branson recently selected Canaan Valley as the location of their hyper loop training facility
Worked on building a new wind farm in WV. Stayed in Maryland and commuted through the most gorgeous mountain streets with the WILDEST weather patterns ever. Great experience. People were great too.
The dmv area is the only good parts of West Virginia; it’s pretty lonely out there.. nowhere to eat, nowhere to shop—some people have to drive through 3 shitty towns, over an hour for a grocery store.
The DMV is the only good part of West Virginia? I highly disagree. I live in Tucker County, and we attract a LOT of tourism. Businesses thrive here and the population has been increasing - with hopes to grow even bigger since the announcement of the HyperLoop. We have Blackwater Falls State Park, Canaan Valley Resort, and Dolly Sods. Some of the most beautiful places in West Virginia. If anything, I would rather live here than the DMV. Although this is my opinion. :)
Really depends on where you are. Parkersburg is ruined by chemical companies. Though the haze does create beautiful sunsets. All the floracarbons really accentuate the light.
I’m grew up in WV in the northern part of the state and loved it. Mountains, lakes🙌. The southern part of the state is where the real sketchiness comes in
Makes sense. I live in Central MD, and recently saw WV housing prices. I legitimately had the thought that I could buy a second house out there just for fun, because they're so much cheaper.
I still might. Getting away from the rat race is appealing sometimes.
The one thing I will say for Mississippi is that it has plenty of natural beauty as well. Some of the most beautiful forest hiking I've done in the US was in that state.
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u/mahoujosei100 29d ago
By most objective measures, it's Mississippi. Highest poverty rate, lowest life expectancy, poor infrastructure, some of the worst education, poor health care access and quality...