Are you new here? This just gives me the honeymoon stage vibes of a new relationship.

For what it's worth, I'm a long term transplant who is a huge fan of the state, but I've lived in other small cities and other states and if I had ended up there I'm sure I would have had a happy and fulfilling life like my friends still in those places.

I am extremely involved in state and local meetings and the fact is that Rhode Island is just a messy as many other states. They definitely do better than states that have gone far right, but they're kind of iconic as a liberal state that just falls short of well run liberal states. The nepotism here is kind of insane and every appointment seems to be someone "knowing a guy" and giving them yet anothers high powered job in the state due to name recognition. Then getting a 150k salary. Some of these people have made wildly unpopular decisions like Gina and the pension debacle (named nationally as one of the worst restructurings in the county. Absolutely horrifying when you learn the details).

As far as negative press and weather, a lot of it depends on the year. 2015 was a mess where we were stuck in some kind of snow pile every other day and, as the ocean state, we aren't exactly in a position to cast judgement-- we are in a very vulnerable coastal area.

We do have super low crime rates. As someone who volunteers closely with people financially on the edge here, it's abysmal the direction that we are headed with COL adjustments and it makes me worry that decades from now we will see people in abject poverty, much higher homeless populations, and possibly higher rates of crime as a result. It's honestly a direction that the state has taken that keeps me up at night, as one of the best parts of the state has been seeing people thrive in FHA programs or build a great life in the trades. Now every town in the state has been ripe for rapid gentrification.

And I say that as someone who has built their entire life here by choice. Anywhere, USA is going through some tough times politically and economically and RI is not an exception.

When laid back locals speak, I listen. Those are people that have seen some wild ups and downs here and can tell you all about the hole of a downtown pre-1990s, high recession unemployment rates, and boom/bust cycles here with local governments. Those people have seen some shit lol.