NationStates Jolt Archive

At least in Canada....

So I've been out east and people there are nice and friendly and generally good and I just came back from a trip to BC and people were nice and friendly and generally good (in some cases offering free booze). Now, why is it that people on the coasts are generally laid back and awesome but people in Ontario suck?

p.s. I gave some serious thought to cashing in my return plane ticket and just staying there. It would have been great.

It's not just Canada...I'm fleeing to one coast or another just as soon as I am able.

People seem less fucking uptight there. People in this area seriously just need to dial it down sometimes.

The ocean has a tranquilizing effect on people. I'd assume that they have a high quality of life, are intellectual, and relaxed.

It's not just Canada...I'm fleeing to one coast or another just as soon as I am able.

People seem less fucking uptight there. People in this area seriously just need to dial it down sometimes.

Yeah, Wisconsinites are a screwed up bunch of people. -is a F.I.P- :D

Yeah, Wisconsinites are a screwed up bunch of people. -is a F.I.P- :D

I was refering to the upper Midwest in general, but yeah, we're among the screwiest of the bunch. :p

...and it's F.I.B. ;)

I was refering to the upper Midwest in general, but yeah, we're among the screwiest of the bunch. :p

...and it's F.I.B. ;)

Oh I was going for the more politically correct term :p

Oh I was going for the more politically correct term :p

Pfft...you haven't been living in the midwest long, have you? :p

Pfft...you say you've lived here a while? :p

Well, I am the black sheep of my family, so I suppose that explains a lot!

Well, I am the black sheep of my family, so I suppose that explains a lot!

It's a familiar story. ;)

Coasts - cool? I live in a coastal city and it's 30C+ outside!

Well, I am the black sheep of my family, so I suppose that explains a lot!

And you'll never go back! :p

At least in Canada....

So I've been out east and people there are nice and friendly and generally good and I just came back from a trip to BC and people were nice and friendly and generally good (in some cases offering free booze). Now, why is it that people on the coasts are generally laid back and awesome but people in Ontario suck?

p.s. I gave some serious thought to cashing in my return plane ticket and just staying there. It would have been great.

People are friendly, laid back and generally good...Exactly NS too...

At least in Canada....

So I've been out east and people there are nice and friendly and generally good and I just came back from a trip to BC and people were nice and friendly and generally good (in some cases offering free booze). Now, why is it that people on the coasts are generally laid back and awesome but people in Ontario suck?

p.s. I gave some serious thought to cashing in my return plane ticket and just staying there. It would have been great.

somehow people do seem to be more laid-back on the coasts, generally, in my limited experience. maybe its because people move to the coast to get away from the more-up-tight places or something? a concentration of laid-back people perhaps, drawn by a common wish for tranquility... that and holidaymakers there for the same thing.

but it does depend somewhat where you're talking about. i live in a city on the coast, and its not laid back here. no beach. but just down the estuary there are beachy places that fit the laid-back idea (as laid back as you get in britain anyway...)

just got back from a holiday on the west coast of France, and it was certainly laid-back there. i miss it :(

I dunno. Apart from Newquay, my experience is that British coastal towns are full of old people. Stuffy old people at that.

dunno, must be some soothing effect of seaside sounds and smells and sights. for three years i lived about 4 miles from the coast and i found that to be too far having grown up in a house that literally stopped at the beach. now i live about 500 metres from the sea, it's much better.

At least in Canada....

So I've been out east and people there are nice and friendly and generally good and I just came back from a trip to BC and people were nice and friendly and generally good (in some cases offering free booze). Now, why is it that people on the coasts are generally laid back and awesome but people in Ontario suck?


You mean it is rare for you to get offered free booze? It's easy for me, but then I live on the coast as well.

NYC is not so laid back, exactly... Cool, but not laid back.

It's not just Canada...I'm fleeing to one coast or another just as soon as I am able.

People seem less fucking uptight there. People in this area seriously just need to dial it down sometimes.

Why not just move to Madison? I've heard nothing but good things about that town.

I was refering to the upper Midwest in general, but yeah, we're among the screwiest of the bunch. :p

...and it's F.I.B. ;)

Nope, sorry. North Dakotans win that prize. Wisconsin at least has a Great Lake nearby and enough popoulation to support subcultures that consist of more than one person.

As a confirmed coast lover who's spent the last two years in Amber Waves of Grain territory, Dakini's perception is 100% correct. There might be some scientific phenomenon to account for it, such as the "negative ions" churned out by all that moving, crashing and churning water. It might just be being near something much bigger and expansive than us makes us take life a bit less seriously than those surrounded by plains, farms, ranches, sky, one native tree only (the cottonwood) and Republicans (the other cottonwoods).

Whatever it is, I miss it with all my heart, despite the fact that there's no way in hell I could afford to live there again at my current salary. *begins sobbing uncontrollably*

NYC is not so laid back, exactly... Cool, but not laid back.

Doesn't that depend on where you are in the city? Isn't the Village at least a bit laid back?

I don't think I would call it laid back, it's very busy and crap, and very, very rich. There are places in the outer boroughs are laid back, but Manhattan is really not.

I stand corrected. I was just remembering my first trip there and I was fortunate enough to discover that the Charles Mingus Big Band was playing in the basement of the Time Out Cafe in the Village. Everyone there seemed very laid back. And yes, the band kicked major, minor, augmented and diminished ass.

EDIT: The timewarps knew I was wrong, apparently.

Doesn't that depend on where you are in the city? Isn't the Village at least a bit laid back?

I don't think I would call it laid back, it's very busy and crap, and very, very rich. There are places in the outer boroughs are laid back, but Manhattan is really not.

I stand corrected. I was just remembering my first trip there and I was fortunate enough to discover that the Charles Mingus Big Band was playing in the basement of the Time Out Cafe in the Village. Everyone there seemed very laid back. And yes, the band kicked major, minor, augmented and diminished ass.

EDIT: The timewarps knew I was wrong, apparently.

Well, I honestly never spend much time in the Village, so I could be wrong. I think like, Williamsburg or DUMBO in Brooklyn is going up in terms of laid back artsy people. Actually Williamsburg is becoming really expensive, really quickly. I don't know where "hip" is in NYC anymore.

Personally, the most laid back part of NYC I've experienced are those poor Spanish sections, with the old guys sitting in lawn chairs out on the sidewalk with little kids running around and a few guys drinking Coronas listening to Spanish music on a run down radio. Those memories are what I get nostalgic for.

Hmmm...

Observations:
Costal areas I'm familiar with and my subjective rating of their coolness:
Lake Jackson, Texas (where I grew up) - meh - mostly Uncool
Galveston, Texas - Fairly Cool
Houston - Meh
Beaumont, Texas - UNCOOL
Naw'lins - COOL
Gulfport, Miss. - OK
Padre Island, Texas - Cool aside from spring break
Corpus Christi, Texas - Meh...
Sado Island - laid back Inaka Japan cool
Nagasaki - cool China Town
Niigata city, Japan - not so cool
Osaka, Japan - pretty cool
Kannoura, Japan - coolest surfer place I've been
Eureka, California - Cool
Tara Village, Saga, Japan - another laid back country cool place

Well, it wasn't just directly on teh coast that I observed this effect, I also observed it in the Okanagan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okanagan_Valley) although I suppose that there are large lakes there so the large body of water=calm people thing could still hold... except that Toronto is on a large lake and people are uptight jerkwads there (on average).

You mean it is rare for you to get offered free booze? It's easy for me, but then I live on the coast as well.
It's rare to get offered free booze from complete strangers while just walking around here. If I go to a bar I get lots of free booze offers, but those are usually accompanied by some guy hitting on me while I finish it instead of pleasant conversation with people.

Well, I honestly never spend much time in the Village, so I could be wrong. I think like, Williamsburg or DUMBO in Brooklyn is going up in terms of laid back artsy people. Actually Williamsburg is becoming really expensive, really quickly. I don't know where "hip" is in NYC anymore.


That's okay. I'm pretty sure that New Yorkers don't really know anymore either.

Well, it wasn't just directly on teh coast that I observed this effect, I also observed it in the Okanagan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okanagan_Valley) although I suppose that there are large lakes there so the large body of water=calm people thing could still hold... except that Toronto is on a large lake and people are uptight jerkwads there (on average).

Love the Okanogan. Best US Riesling grapes and best ice wines ever. It's cool becuase the Columbia River starts there. Coolest (and most unassuming) river in North America, if you ask me. Mississippi and Missouri and Ohio and others get all the press. Columbia just rolls on.

It's rare to get offered free booze from complete strangers while just walking around here. If I go to a bar I get lots of free booze offers, but those are usually accompanied by some guy hitting on me while I finish it instead of pleasant conversation with people.

Well, isn't free booze free booze, as it were?

Taking the libation doesn't entail a contract, does it? Though I can see how you'd prefer not to even SEEM to be in any kind of debt to some guy with no game hitting on you...or indeed anyone you didn't like at all, game or not, hitting on you.

Well, isn't free booze free booze, as it were?

Taking the libation doesn't entail a contract, does it? Though I can see how you'd prefer not to even SEEM to be in any kind of debt to some guy with no game hitting on you...or indeed anyone you didn't like at all, game or not, hitting on you.
Well, yes. My point being that these people gave my (male) friend and I free booze without any sort of strings attached and we sat and talked to them for a bit.

Try Falmouth, its exactly as described in first post. Newquay is filled with stag and hen do's, wannabe surfer types and beer wankers. To be honest most Cornish avoid it like the plague.

Well, isn't free booze free booze, as it were?

Taking the libation doesn't entail a contract, does it? Though I can see how you'd prefer not to even SEEM to be in any kind of debt to some guy with no game hitting on you...or indeed anyone you didn't like at all, game or not, hitting on you.

well, when guys are putting on their "game", there runs the risk of the girl getting the "hmm this drink tastes kinda funny.........*drops to floor unconscious*, doesn't remember anything the next morning" drink.

those drinks suck

well, when guys are putting on their "game", there runs the risk of the girl getting the "hmm this drink tastes kinda funny.........*drops to floor unconscious*, doesn't remember anything the next morning" drink.

those drinks suck
Uh... I can't say that that's ever something I worry about. Usually I'll sit close enough to the bar that I can see the drink coming from the bartender to me anyways (I don't like big places) and I'm usually there with friends who keep me from doing anything too stupid.

Well, yes. My point being that these people gave my (male) friend and I free booze without any sort of strings attached and we sat and talked to them for a bit.

Ah, now THAT's the Benedictine virtue of hospitality for you. Good on 'em.

well, when guys are putting on their "game", there runs the risk of the girl getting the "hmm this drink tastes kinda funny.........*drops to floor unconscious*, doesn't remember anything the next morning" drink.

those drinks suck

Yeah. I had a girlfriend a few years back get raped by that kind of drink, so I am acutely aware that one should never accept something you didn't see poured. By the bartender.

At least in Canada....

So I've been out east and people there are nice and friendly and generally good and I just came back from a trip to BC and people were nice and friendly and generally good (in some cases offering free booze). Now, why is it that people on the coasts are generally laid back and awesome but people in Ontario suck?

p.s. I gave some serious thought to cashing in my return plane ticket and just staying there. It would have been great.

Are you kidding me? When I get lost in downtown Toronto, people are generous enough to walk me to the place I need to go. People smile when their faces meet instead of frowning and screaming back "What the hell are you staring at?" One time, I was at Taco Bell and just as my order was done, I found out that my debit card was frozen for some reason. The manager said, "Don't worry, eat your food and get your banking problem fixed and then you could pay, I trust you." I paid the next day.

That's okay. I'm pretty sure that New Yorkers don't really know anymore either.

I think upstate NY is gonna get a wave of artisty people soon. Cheap housing+galleries=artist flocking. And my parents have been good at this kinda intuition before.

Love the Okanogan. Best US Riesling grapes and best ice wines ever. It's cool becuase the Columbia River starts there. Coolest (and most unassuming) river in North America, if you ask me. Mississippi and Missouri and Ohio and others get all the press. Columbia just rolls on.
Yeah, I loved it there. If I was slightly more impulsive and slightly less responsible, I would have stayed.

I'm from NYC and I would have to admit that laid back doesn't cover a lot of it and certainly not most places in Manhattan. With upwards of 7 million people in one place people tend, unless in social situations, to avoid contact and hurry to their destination.

I've visited in Wisconsin a number of times, and I've always found folks friendly, helpful and pleasant -- out of curiousity, what makes them not laid back?

I think upstate NY is gonna get a wave of artisty people soon. Cheap housing+galleries=artist flocking. And my parents have been good at this kinda intuition before.

Right up about Monroe and Chester, Storm King area? Seems like a good bet.

Are you kidding me? When I get lost in downtown Toronto, people are generous enough to walk me to the place I need to go. People smile when their faces meet instead of frowning and screaming back "What the hell are you staring at?" One time, I was at Taco Bell and just as my order was done, I found out that my debit card was frozen for some reason. The manager said, "Don't worry, eat your food and get your banking problem fixed and then you could pay, I trust you." I paid the next day.
Uh.. I've had some encounters with some very rude people in Toronto, but what you described is the sort of thing I expect from anywhere (people smiling back at you with a nod of the head when you smile at them et c) and actually, I find that that happens more in Hamilton than Toronto (I even had a similar thing to your Taco Bell story, I was at a Subway in Hamilton and got all the way to the cash register before finding out their debit machine was broken, they let me eat and said that I could come back the next day to pay... I came back as soon as I had eaten my food and gone to the bank though so I wouldn't forget).

Really though, as far as Canadian cities go, Toronto and its suburbs are the rudest places I've been to.

Right up about Monroe and Chester, Storm King area? Seems like a good bet.

Wrong side of the Hudson!

But yeah, more or less exactly that area.

I don't know. Apparently people in California are more laid back, though.

I have not found people towards the coast to be more laid back. People tend to live in cities on the coast, and city folk are well, city-folk. I'm from the suburbs and rural areas, and the city is an alien environment to me. It is too loud, fast, bright, and it stinks. Plus all the violence in cities is no fun. Because the pace of life is so fast, people are not laid back, in my experience. People in the Midwest are generally much friendlier than people on the coasts, especially cities.


Plus, the ocean blows. I'll take the mountains and the great plains any day!

I don't know. Apparently people in California are more laid back, though.

You've never met anyone who works for a film/TV studio that isn't an actor.

I have not found people towards the coast to be more laid back. People tend to live in cities on the coast, and city folk are well, city-folk. I'm from the suburbs and rural areas, and the city is an alien environment to me. It is too loud, fast, bright, and it stinks. Plus all the violence in cities is no fun. Because the pace of life is so fast, people are not laid back, in my experience. People in the Midwest are generally much friendlier than people on the coasts, especially cities.


Plus, the ocean blows. I'll take the mountains and the great plains any day!

A) Go to the right cities. LA, NY, Miami and other coastal metropoli aren't, be definition, friendly.

B) People tend to live anywhere they like on the coasts. There are plenty of small towns and very isolated spots on both coasts. I dare you to call the nice people of Yachats, Oregon "city folk". Any more erroneous stereotypes?

C) Friendliness has less to do with where you are than who you are and what you're used to, and even what mood you're in. I've met friendly people in metropoli, and complete assholes out here on the plains. More often than not, the friendliness on the plains is a reserved form of judgment more than it is anything else. It's a shell. That's largely true of just about everyone, but to claim that the mountains or the plains have some corner on amicable behavior is ludicrous. The more people there are in a place, the more likely you are to meet anyone from every possible segment of society. Less people on the plains = fewer "flavors" of people. Plus, with so few people, of course they're going to appear friendly -- they're happy to see another living soul!

Having lived on both places, I'd still choose the coast. Plus, my favorite coast has mountains, plains, forests, you name it, all within two hours. Such is the cool part about the PNW.

You've never met anyone who works for a film/TV studio that isn't an actor.

Well, I've never met anyone who works for a film/TV studio period. I've been there with family, but the only person we talked to was from back home.

I have not found people towards the coast to be more laid back. People tend to live in cities on the coast, and city folk are well, city-folk. I'm from the suburbs and rural areas, and the city is an alien environment to me. It is too loud, fast, bright, and it stinks. Plus all the violence in cities is no fun. Because the pace of life is so fast, people are not laid back, in my experience. People in the Midwest are generally much friendlier than people on the coasts, especially cities.
People in Vancouver and Halifax are both quite laid back compared to people from Toronto. Also, suburbs aren't at all laid back, suburbs are possibly the worst places ever.

Plus, the ocean blows. I'll take the mountains and the great plains any day!

Or you can go to Vancouver, where you can have large bodies of salt water (I don't think it counts as ocean, it's bays and all that junk) and mountains in the same city.

THe folk on The linconshire coast are very strange well the native types it porably duee to living inbetween the sea and the marsh/fens

The ocean has a tranquilizing effect on people. I'd assume that they have a high quality of life, are intellectual, and relaxed.


hahaha... I live on the east coast (or near it, anyway, in New Brunswick [Canada])... relaxed, sure. But quality of life? Wages here suck, the maritimes are-- for the most part-- economically stagnant. Our population's being gutted because young people are leaving en masse and taking their creativity and energy with them. And intellectual? Well, I'm not saying people around here are dumb... but this is redneck country. The intellectual centres of Canada-- art, culture, ingenuity-- are urban. So Vancouver on the West coast isn't bad, but the maritimes are most decidedly not urban hotbeds of art and culture and high-minded thought.

But relaxed... sure.

The only time I lived near the coast was near San Diego, and I have to say California is one of those states that I won't return to without a fight. That place was so stressful, crowded, and the people there were so mean. The cost of living was quite awful too.
Ohio's certainly not without it's flaws either, but I'm much happier here than I ever was in California. It's just less stressful and friendlier up here.

It's because nobody found out that you where from Toronto.

It's because nobody found out that you where from Toronto.
I'm not quite from Toronto. I was born there, but I moved before I was 2. The only city I chose to live in for myself (i.e. that my parents didn't pick to move to) is Hamilton, so that's where I said I was from (though I probably told a couple of people that I was moving to London if they knew much about Ontario geography and asked. Otherwise I just said I was from Ontario because that's easier).

I'm not quite from Toronto. I was born there, but I moved before I was 2. The only city I chose to live in for myself (i.e. that my parents didn't pick to move to) is Hamilton, so that's where I said I was from (though I probably told a couple of people that I was moving to London if they knew much about Ontario geography and asked. Otherwise I just said I was from Ontario because that's easier).Basically, my post was code for I don't know.

At least in Canada....
p.s. I gave some serious thought to cashing in my return plane ticket and just staying there. It would have been great.

I did, I lived 2 years in Toronto (Humid environment and cold people) traveled to B.C. and I've lived 28 years in Vancouver, I've never regretted it;
I will never forget my first contact with a Vancouverite, I stepped out of the train station, asked for directions to UBC, this lady walked 3 blocks with me to show me the bus stop and which bus to take, that is called hospitality !

I have to agree the people that live on the coast seem to be generally nicer. I not only see that in the US but in Morocco too. Our family spends a lot of time there as well. Something to do with the salt air maybe?

I am born and raised in Ottawa lots of great things about the city. The fact that it has a great education system and money. But (bleh!) people don't know how to spend their money in order to have a good time.

I blame the climate for the extremes in behaviour. I went to school in Halifax for three years and I am already homesick for its relatively mild winters and relaxed student friendly downtown.

Vancouver, I went their once when I was 7 and am desperate to find an excuse to move their for next summer. I miss you left coast. :(