[BadAndy]

"Uh, have you visited upstate NY lately? It is a basket case. This will just make it worse. Everywhere you look are shuttered buildings and crumbling plants with weeds growing up through the empty parking lots. It seems three jobs move out for every one that moves in."

Yea, but we have "Child Health Plus" and no smoking in bars, courtesy of the George Cuomo Pataki administration.

[MamaDearest]

Try living in the Pacific Northwest, home of "cheap electricity" (/sarcasm). Every aluminum plant is shuttered and word on the street is that parts are being shopped out and shipped out. Thousands of unemployed aluminum and steel workers and an ever increasing crime threshold (burglaries up significantly, drug crime huge). But remember, the economy is looking up......or so they believe.

[weef]

Last time I visited my hometown in upstate NY (near Binghamton) was 1999 and at that time it looked like they could have filmed a depression era movie without making any changes. There were more vacant buildings than I have ever seen anywhere. Not too many more friends in the area either because all have fled to other parts of the country. Very sad...