Living in the same town for your entire life: Most Americans live within 25 miles of their mothers

[Dannyblueyes]

Born and raised in and around Vancouver, Canada. Moved to the Bay Area and never looked back.

Still go back to visit family a few times a year, but doubt I'll ever live in Canada again.

 

[BGLR1212000]

Ever since me and the lady been living together, we never moved more than 15 miles away from her parents. My parents live 2 hrs away.

 

[largebillsonlyplease]

Traveling is different than living.
I've traveled. I love to travel. I've been to several countries and a few continents.
I live where people are trying to live. People leave where they are to come here. So I don't really feel any kind of way about it to be honest.
I agree with traveling and seeing the world
I also see if you live somewhere worth something it's perfectly OK to take the place that's worth something and build it up even more so that when you're gone your family can have more than you did.

 

[CPT Callamity]

I left home for college and military, lived overseas for a while and ultimately came home. Didn't think gentrification would be this bad. My sister came back too. We love DC and since we were native born, it gets hard thinking about other places. Lots of folks our age feel the same. It is only now that this city is drained of its culture that natives are considering leaving. My mother lives nearby as well as most of my paternal side. I know how to make it here buy thinking about my next move in 3 years. Ultimately I would like to retire overseas

 

[Dannyblueyes]

Bruh, your right.. Ive lived in 4 states during my time on this earth and might move to another state soon.. I know many kats that have never left the location they were born in.. I grew up in denver and I know guys that have never been to the mountains!! Unbelievable, when you think about it!! The only way you grow, is moving away from your family and friends!! Thats just the way, I see it!!

My home town was Abbotsford, BC. An isolated hyper-religious town where everyone was either Mennonite, Mormon, or Sikh. Being a complete heathen I had a hard time fitting in and the school counselor told me "You'd better learn because the rest of the world is no different."

She was wrong!

 

[roots69]

My home town was Abbotsford, BC. An isolated hyper-religious town where everyone was either Mennonite, Mormon, or Sikh. Being a complete heathen I had a hard time fitting in and the school counselor told me "You'd better learn because the rest of the world is no different."

She was wrong!

Oh boy, that teacher was WRONG!!! Sounds like she was trying to get you to conform to their way of thinking or something..

 

[Dannyblueyes]

Oh boy, that teacher was WRONG!!! Sounds like she was trying to get you to conform to their way of thinking or something..

LOL she literally told me that I would end up selling my body if I didn't give up music and pick a serious career path. Had a math teacher that let me retake an exam and pass the course on the condition that I went to church with him. I felt no guilt about breaking that promise.

It always seems that the smaller and more isolated a community is the more they think they're a microcosm of the universe.

 

[DJCandle]

If you have never been told how to hold onto wealth, or if you have rented your whole life it won't matter if you stay together. It will just be a house full of broke miserable muthafuckas.

My family example. Great Gramps was a WWI vet and used that to buy a house in Cali. My family lived there and chipped in. My great uncles got sick so moms held it down with the bills and cooking while her brother went out fucking/wifing white broads. When Great gramps passed, they left the house to her alone cause nobody else held it down.

So recently my deadbeat ass cousin who's the eldest was popping off like this was the "family" house. Nah baby, since I was a little boy I went there and cleaned up, painted and repaired the property between tenants so I have sweat equity in this. You have none. I'm not going to support people with no drive simply because we have a common ancestor.

My wife's family is the opposite. A bunch of fucking grown babies living off of Momma. None of them own their own home and when mom passes there will be a mad scramble between 4 kids for 2 properties. I can't really blame them though, moms didn't have a husband and had to spend time working to provide and the kids missed out on a balanced life. So they were sheltered and protected to the point that when they go out to eat, they still expect moms to pay for them and their children.

So yeah it takes a village, but a shitty village will just create more shitty people. Sometimes you have to leave the shit and create your own.

Sometimes sure. And while I can appreciate your situation and experience, we have way too many of these situations across the black American community and that's the problem. If everyone keeps on looking out for their own vested interest 24-7 and nothing else, we're gonna be stacked with the very problems we face as a community today.

Zero unity makes for fallen indidivuals. Change has to start somewhere and that's usually in the home.

 

[LordSinister]

Sometimes sure. And while I can appreciate your situation and experience, we have way too many of these situations across the black American community and that's the problem. If everyone keeps on looking out for their own vested interest 24-7 and nothing else, we're gonna be stacked with the very problems we face as a community today.

Zero unity makes for fallen indidivuals. Change has to start somewhere and that's usually in the home.

That's why I moved my wife's niece to come and live with us. Got her away from the foolishness and she's out here working and going to school. I'm also helping send my Niece to USC. I'm willing to build with the family that won't waste my investment. All the other young cats that are getting high, having multiple babies and shit? Don't bring that struggle living here and expect me to bust my ass to take care of your responsibilities.

 

[Give Me 3ft.]

Good thread.

 

[ShortyCumStain]

Good thread.

Yep.

 

[cnc]

Born and raised in Gary, IN. Moved away for college at 17. Haven’t lived there full-time since.

It was once a great, proud black city that I’m fortunate to have enjoyed and to have learned a lot about being a black man from my family, most of whom came north as part of the great migration. Unfortunately, it is a decaying shithole now. I never realized how low the quality of life was until I lived elsewhere in the USA. Now, most of my family are dead and my mother still is hanging strong in a horrible neighborhood even though she can bounce and live wherever she wants with no issue. She tells me “this is home” and I think she’d be too scared to live somewhere else. I had to be straight and tell her, “if you get to a point that you can’t take care of yourself, you have to come live with me because I won’t come back here.

Going back to visit is depressing as hell and I sit counting the time until I’m back on the highway to my house and the amenities that GI doesn’t have (and there are a LOT). I feel for the kids who are there; when the old folks all die, all that’s going to be left are a bunch more folks in poverty.

 

[g0nbad real bad]

This is easily a non issue. Depends on the area. Here in Birmingham 25 miles can put you in another county or 3 cities away.

 

[dugington]

I was happy to get the fuck out of Oklahoma, should have left sooner.

 

[yureeka9]

I'm from Washington State but live in Ohio. I miss home. I miss the rain and the year round verdure that accompanied it. I miss getting caught in a cool rain shower--getting completely drenched, then taking a hot bath and drinking a warm cup of tea.
I miss the summers home where the temperature hardly ever got above the high 80's, and when it wouldn't get dark till after 9:00 p.m. I also miss my fellow Washingtonians, and the peaceful anonymity we all seem to share. I hate that weed is legal there, but not here. Fuck Ohio! I should have never left home.

 

[M.H.C.]

I hear ya.. Im in that situation right now, we take care of our grandkids while their parents work.. Its a good deal for us, we get to connect with our little ones. The little ones might not remember spending all their times with us, when they get older. But, they will know their connected to us and wont even know why!! If I had one wish, that would be to have all my family member living in the same city, just different locations!! Sum people might not know it, but families(good or bad) are what makes us tick.. As my grandma would say you can pick just about everything in this world, but you cant pick your family!! Even the bad family members play a big part in your life!! Believe it or not!!

Good reply, bruh

Family is the only reason why I'm still in Denver but I gotta move around. I'm getting older, time to see and experience something different. Some of my closest fam have already moved(most somewhere where it doesn't snow lol) so that's a sign.

 

[roots69]

That's why I moved my wife's niece to come and live with us. Got her away from the foolishness and she's out here working and going to school. I'm also helping send my Niece to USC. I'm willing to build with the family that won't waste my investment. All the other young cats that are getting high, having multiple babies and shit? Don't bring that struggle living here and expect me to bust my ass to take care of your responsibilities.

Right on, write on,, bruh!! Aint it funny how you can remove a person from sum madness and get them in a different spot and sum new air, they do pretty damn good.. Anyway, family is the only thing we really have in this life and you gotta help them if your able too.. I might be wrong for thinking that, but I believe it!!!

 

[havelcok]

I immigrated to USA 10 years ago

i would give anything to be able to move back to London
and find a job that pays even half as much

lived in 4 american cities and nothing compares to home

 

[roots69]

Family is the only reason why I'm still in Denver but I gotta move around. I'm getting older, time to see and experience something different. Some of my closest fam have already moved(most somewhere where it doesn't snow lol) so that's a sign.

I hear ya.. I left Denver in 82, 4 days after I graduated HS and havent lived there since.. I go back all the time to visit family and a few good friends.. Anyway, I was the first in my family to branch off and I wasnt going to leave. But my grandma and her special way with words, talked me into moving and what she said to me Ill never forget those words..

Bruh, I wish you the best of luck when you take that step and new surrounding is good for the brain!!

 

[godofwine]

born and raised in Cleveland Ohio, I got a chance to experience the world outside of Cleveland when I joined the military.

When I left the military I moved in with my girlfriend not too far from my mother (who lived in East Cleveland), because it was the place my girlfriend picked out. I moved from East Cleveland to Willoughby Hills after my apartment got broken into.

After a few years in Willoughby Hills, in 2010 I moved SouthWest to a city named Medina, halfway between Cleveland and Akron. My mother is 30 miles away, but we don't really talk.

I live in a majority White City, and the only thing I miss about Cleveland is the food.

I wouldn't have minded staying in Cleveland, it's pretty big, but I couldn't find a black Utopia. Many of the places where middle-class blacks congregated their kids we're trying to act ghetto. I didn't get that.

These kids have parents who were lawyers, executives or what-have-you yet they clung to the belief that they weren't black enough unless they acted stereotypically black. This wasn't all of them, but it was enough.

I love my people, but there are a lot of us who don't respect others or other people's shit. You got Theo Huxtable acting like O-Dogg or some shit. You got Cockroach pulling licks and breaking into peoples' homes while they are at work.

People in Cleveland remember when East Cleveland was a nice area, when warrensville and warrensville heights were nice areas. Richmond Heights, same. Now they are run down or, for East Cleveland just trashed. when I bought a home I would have somewhere that was not just going to be safe now, but in 15 years and I couldn't see that in Cleveland

 

[0utsyder]

This is why Americans are so goddamn ignorant because the majority of them have never seen anything beyond their own block. This is the exact reason why they're so easily manipulated and racist. People that travel have a different outlook on the world. Great thread

Dawg if you looked at our government 30+ years ago a lot of politicians were people in the military who had to interact with other people/cultures. Now politicians go to schools that cater to their background and only interact with people like them

 

[Dark08]

Good post... a study on migration patterns. Gives you some of the outcomes and breaks then down by groups. There are a lot of complicated reasons to why these happens. You will see a whole bunch of countries with similar and different patters. Good information .. nothing bad or good just different and some of these things have different outcomes. Some follow up post concerning how much wealth is typically not left to us as a people. That definitely has an influence on some of the outcomes in the results seen among black people.

 

[jagu]

I immigrated to USA 10 years ago

i would give anything to be able to move back to London
and find a job that pays even half as much

lived in 4 american cities and nothing compares to home

I used to live in West Yorkshire long ago. I did A levels in England

 

[havelcok]

I used to live in West Yorkshire long ago. I did A levels in England

used to live in leeds

fun city
friendly women

 

[crossovernegro]

We talking travelling or moving away and living ? I don't think anyone here is saying they don't travel and see the world.

This is why Americans are so goddamn ignorant because the majority of them have never seen anything beyond their own block. This is the exact reason why they're so easily manipulated and racist. People that travel have a different outlook on the world. Great thread

 

[VAiz4hustlaz]

My home town was Abbotsford, BC. An isolated hyper-religious town where everyone was either Mennonite, Mormon, or Sikh. Being a complete heathen I had a hard time fitting in and the school counselor told me "You'd better learn because the rest of the world is no different."

She was wrong!

Interesting. I thought Mennonites and Mormons were mostly an American religious phenomenon. And the town had a lot of North Indians as well?

I immigrated to USA 10 years ago

i would give anything to be able to move back to London
and find a job that pays even half as much

lived in 4 american cities and nothing compares to home

What do you do?

 

[havelcok]

Interesting. I thought Mennonites and Mormons were mostly an American religious phenomenon. And the town had a lot of North Indians as well?



What do you do?

physician

did rotations in nyc
did residency in chicago
worked in detroit
now work out on the west coast

would give my left nut to be able to go back home
but the NHS pays like shit

 

[Dannyblueyes]

Interesting. I thought Mennonites and Mormons were mostly an American religious phenomenon. And the town had a lot of North Indians as well?

Most American religions can be found in Canada too. The only real difference is that Canada's religious right doesn't have nearly as much money or power.

And yes, Vancouver and all its surrounding towns have a large Indian population, especially Abbotsford and Surrey. That's partially because countries within the British Commonwealth tend to have a pretty fluid immigration system and also because of the human rights abuses committed against Indians 100 years ago. Typically, the more you try to exclude a certain group the more of that group you end up with.

 

[THREAD_CRITIC]

I like to visit Philly and Pittsburgh...couldnt go back living there due to the winters

 

[VAiz4hustlaz]

Most American religions can be found in Canada too. The only real difference is that Canada's religious right doesn't have nearly as much money or power.

And yes, Vancouver and all its surrounding towns have a large Indian population, especially Abbotsford and Surrey. That's partially because countries within the British Commonwealth tend to have a pretty fluid immigration system and also because of the human rights abuses committed against Indians 100 years ago. Typically, the more you try to exclude a certain group the more of that group you end up with.

Interesting theory.

 

[Dannyblueyes]

Interesting theory.

you can see it with Vancouver's Chinese population.

They settled in the 1880's to build the railroad. After it was finished the government wanted them gone. They refused to leave. Government banned opium to fuck with their economy. That didn't work. They expropriated large portions of Chinatown to build a highway. The Chinese built incredibly narrow buildings on the land they had left to make that impossible. Highway was never built. The Klan along with the Asiatic Exclusion League tried to force them out with mob violence. The Chinese fought back and drove the mob away. Now nearly half the city is of Asian decent. It used to be more than half, but a lot of Chinese moved to the suburbs and immigration from China slowed down after the country's economic boom.

Likewise, two of the most notorious sundown towns in Los Angeles were Compton and Inglewood.

The Mexican American population exploded in the 1980's after southern border enforcement became stricter

Japanese Americans losing land in Southern California

the list goes on.

It's not a firm rule, but generally that's what tends to happen.

 

[Rembrandt Brown]

physician

did rotations in nyc
did residency in chicago
worked in detroit
now work out on the west coast

would give my left nut to be able to go back home
but the NHS pays like shit

What do you think of Medicare for All in the US, from a professional standpoint? Is it good for the public and how would it affect you?

 

[havelcok]

What do you think of Medicare for All in the US, from a professional standpoint? Is it good for the public and how would it affect you?

its definitely good for the public

when i first came to the US

we had to keep turning women away because they did not have insurance

on no less than 10 occasions, we had to tell women to go to ED
and ask for us, so we could say it was an emergency and she could get the surgery she needed

women whose insurance would only pay for half of what they needed

Insurance would say "pap only" when she needed pap, mammogram and colonoscopy
and someone to manage her high blood pressure

women would come in with heavy bleeding and insurance would not pay for biopsy

ACA changed all that

people who hadnt gotten care in years could now get help

as for me its easier to get reimbursed from medicare than most insurances

but I would want a hybrid system where everyone gets medicare for all
butif you wanted it, you could also pay for private

 

[The Plutonian]

Wow, been all over the world. Thinking about moving back overseas

 

[gene cisco]

born and raised in Cleveland Ohio, I got a chance to experience the world outside of Cleveland when I joined the military.

When I left the military I moved in with my girlfriend not too far from my mother (who lived in East Cleveland), because it was the place my girlfriend picked out. I moved from East Cleveland to Willoughby Hills after my apartment got broken into.

After a few years in Willoughby Hills, in 2010 I moved SouthWest to a city named Medina, halfway between Cleveland and Akron. My mother is 30 miles away, but we don't really talk.

I live in a majority White City, and the only thing I miss about Cleveland is the food.

I wouldn't have minded staying in Cleveland, it's pretty big, but I couldn't find a black Utopia. Many of the places where middle-class blacks congregated their kids we're trying to act ghetto. I didn't get that.

These kids have parents who were lawyers, executives or what-have-you yet they clung to the belief that they weren't black enough unless they acted stereotypically black. This wasn't all of them, but it was enough.

I love my people, but there are a lot of us who don't respect others or other people's shit. You got Theo Huxtable acting like O-Dogg or some shit. You got Cockroach pulling licks and breaking into peoples' homes while they are at work.

People in Cleveland remember when East Cleveland was a nice area, when warrensville and warrensville heights were nice areas. Richmond Heights, same. Now they are run down or, for East Cleveland just trashed. when I bought a home I would have somewhere that was not just going to be safe now, but in 15 years and I couldn't see that in Cleveland

Yeah, 25 miles ain't that close. It can be an entirely different world. Like take EC to Streetsboro or Hudson or Mentor or Independence or Valley View. Ravenna is probably 25 miles from Cleveland, and you minus whale be in a different world.

Families can live within 25-30 miles of each other and only see each other on holidays.

I've traveled. I prefer Ohio. I like the pace, price, and chance of seasons. I couldn't live anyplace that stays warm throughout the year. Fuck them bugs. The shit some of those folks down south catch inside their homes.