Are you glad you lived where you lived during the pandemic or wish you lived somewhere else??

[DisneyMommy77]

I am in California, and I have been less than pleased with the situation.

I feel controlled. Mostly because the decisions made appeared more political than anything else. I am all for following science, but some things just haven’t added up to me.

My kids have almost been out of school for a year, and we don’t have an end in sight. It’s too many restrictions and people are fed up.

I also saw that California ranked 49th in rolling out the vaccine. I was up next to be vaccinated due to my occupation, but now I am being moved to the bottom of the list due to more changes.

However, I am always thankful for California weather and nice open-minded people.

 

[Heather07438]

Most people found a nice balance between getting on with life while not spreading the virus to each other like an oozing herpes sore. I can't complain.

but with all the restrictions New Jersey has I don’t think it’s any better than Florida going by population. Update I looked it up. Florida has more than double the population of New Jersey. But New Jersey has 20,972 deaths and Florida has 25,672 deaths. So Florida is doing a lot better job than New Jersey.

Plenty of important things could be measured and learned from one another.

Going just by death numbers, if we only look from mid-May when society's learning curve was finally shrunk for Covid, we see 9.4k vs 23.7k for NJ & FL respectively.

It's so much more than this though. Short & long term health, same for education, economic rebound across all classes, recovery of business sectors, access to treatment and now prevention, future preparedness, etc. I can't say Florida did a bad job necessarily, definitely can't say it about NJ yet either.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

I’m happy. I agree with Disantis on keeping stolid open here in Florida.

 

[mrodgers]

I'm in California, one of the states with the toughest restrictions and guidelines (if not the most). But there was ZERO enforcement. I guess it was as good a place to be as any. Yet, here we are only days past record deaths, and yesterday they EASED restrictions. But that's all Political and we can't discuss politics here.

Not zero enforcement. Friends of mine were kicked off the beach because they were alone but not distancing from each other. That's ridiculous that you can sit at the dining room and eat every night and all sit together watching movies in the living room, but can't be outdoors near each other.

 

[pxidst119]

Now that it’s winter I wish I was somewhere warmer since there’s not as much to do in the cold. Overall I’ve been greatful to be living where I do. Having a backyard and walking trails, skiing and being an hour from the beach have all been sanity savers. This weekend my friends and I were masked, bundled up and spread out but we got together by the lake. It was 20°. We are normally outdoorsy people but I have to say this year has really pushed us to hike and ski and just be outdoors so much more no matter what the temp. Might be a little nicer in Florida right about now though!

 

[Jennasis]

I'm happy with my state's response. There are plenty of PEOPLE who i could do without, but the state response has been good.

 

[holden]

I'm happy with my state's response. I'm also glad we have good friends/neighbors who are in our bubble. They have saved our sanity.

 

[tvguy]

Not zero enforcement. Friends of mine were kicked off the beach because they were alone but not distancing from each other. That's ridiculous that you can sit at the dining room and eat every night and all sit together watching movies in the living room, but can't be outdoors near each other.

Well, just my wife and I at the dining room table, all those other folks at the outdoors are not in my bubble. Not ridiculous, risky to be outdoors with others right now.

 

[Minnesota!]

I feel our governor has done a good job...just wish the teachers union didn't control all the ish.

I wish we had lived in the woods, to be honest. I have extreme anxiety, as does my husband. Being in the urban core during a pandemic - those first few months were ROUGH. I have calmed down, my husband is trying. I would have liked to live where nobody else was so we could have alleviated SOME stress.

 

[Eeyore daily]

I live in Florida so no. But I dislike living here even without a pandemic so not much of a surprise. It's pretty bad when my family in Arkansas says our governor was on their local news of "what not to do in a pandemic".

 

[Moliphino]

I've been pretty happy with my state and my location. I think I would've gone a bit mad if I lived in a city with no outdoor space to myself.

 

[dvcgirl67]

All of this is to say that I personally think when history reviews the "reactions" to the pandemic it will likely fault most of them (I can't say I've reviewed every state's reopening guidelines) for falling to the extremes. They either pretended like the present virus wasn't really there in a false bid for "normalcy" or so heavily restricted people that the many of the very people who were being "protected" began to resent their "protectors." And I understand people's desire to make their own decisions and agree with that school of thinking up to a certain point, but we also all have to acknowledge that we share certain hospital and medical resources, so we all have to make some compromises. These aren't normal times, so nobody can reasonably expect everything to be perfectly normal. It's all about balance. Whenever we've faced abnormal times/times of crisis before, it's always felt like people were more willing to acknowledge/accept that. This time around, it seems like lots of folks just wanted to make this a front in some culture war or something, while the rest of us are caught in the middle.

I think about this a lot, from a sociological perspective....how we'll look back on our response to the pandemic. Overall, I think this experience is going to leave a mark...a big one. Once the scientists were pushed aside and not allowed to lead in favor of elected officials....we were in trouble. And I worry that any similar situation in the future will be even more of a "culture war".

 

[Gamedog]

In Colorado and think my state maneuvered through this whole ordeal pretty well. Definitely kept safety in mind while also allowing for our economy to take as small of a hit as possible.

I live in Florida so no. But I dislike living here even without a pandemic so not much of a surprise. It's pretty bad when my family in Arkansas says our governor was on their local news of "what not to do in a pandemic".

Can't help but raise an eyebrow at this post seeing as how you say you don't like the way your state is handling the pandemic, yet you have a countdown timer posted in your signature for an event happening in your state... Not picking on you by any means, just got a chuckle out of it is all lol

 

[Orion Nebula]

I live in the worst ranked state for vaccine distribution. My grandmother is 96 and there is no vaccine in sight. There are also a lot of anti-maskers in my area also, many who even will start arguments with the people following the guidelines. My county also refused to ever put in place a mask, social gathering etc mandate. Even though EVERY other county did around us. Why? Because admin said "you can't make everyone happy". We weren't even required to wear them when voting. And.. the cherry on top was a letter sent to the officials that read "if someone asks you to pull your mask up act surprised and do so, you are allowed to remove it once they leave".

This is perhaps one of the MOST sketchy areas to be enduring the pandemic, and the real kicker is that my county is in a major metro area, so it's not like it's out in the middle of nowhere.

/rant off

 

[DLgal]

I am glad I live in the geographic location where I live. It's absolutely beautiful, our city has over 150 parks, hundreds of acres of open space trails, 63 miles of paved bikeways that stretch from the mountains to the sea, a plethora of nearby shopping and dining locations, easy access to delivery for everything, etc. I love our neighborhood and our house here. I don't want to live anywhere else.

That said, I can't STAND the way our governor managed this pandemic. He was WAY too strict and there was little enforcement of the guidelines anyway, so it just served to absolutely crush our local economy. I think a more balanced approach would have been equally successful. I live in CA and at this point our states response is a national joke.

I still wouldn't have wanted to live anywhere else. I live here for a reason and it's not the politics of my state.

 

[RamblingMad]

Fine by me. But I wish I had bought a home with a pool.

 

[mrodgers]

Well, just my wife and I at the dining room table, all those other folks at the outdoors are not in my bubble. Not ridiculous, risky to be outdoors with others right now.

I did say alone, so no one else. Alone.

 

[KPeterso]

I am happy with where I live. The climate allows for a lot of outdoors. As far as restrictions, I’m glad with where I live. I think some things were overreach and knee jerk as opposed to science backed, but overall, I’m good with it. I’d rather this than a state who didn’t take it seriously.

Also CA and you captured my sentiments well. Happy to be where I am to be able to enjoy the outdoors. But also happy that science is being followed in decisions. I agree with the cautious approach to reopening things.

 

[Snowflakey]

There is absolutely no place I'd rather be! So very proud of the people who live here and our governor. A friend just moved a week ago to North Carolina and they are floored that most people don't wear masks. I couldn't even imagine that. Everyone wears them here. Even outside pumping your own gas everyone is masked. Stores are right on top of not allowing anyone in without them. My county I live in consists of 5 towns and there have only been 80 positive cases. We are definitely doing something right here!

 

[design_mom]

Overall, I've been happy with the leadership in our state. There are a few things I could "armchair quarterback" but I believe they're doing their best to balance public health with the economy and have come up with some creative ways to do so. Although there may have been a few missteps, I think they're trying their best to do what's right (and that's really all you can ask).

When I first read the question, my first thought was "I'd like to live somewhere that has good weather all year round!" And that's true. It's winter here and we can't really socialize outside right now -- and I'm really getting cabin fever. However, in general, it's a good place to live. We had a beautiful fall that let us stay outdoors much later into the year than normal. Now I just hope for an early, warm spring.