I'm from the MS gulf coast and let me tell you. Summer lasts 8 months and from June to August it's painful to walk outside. It's not like arid heat where you can get under some shade and it makes a world of difference. Shade during the summer here basically does nothing it feels like you're being steamed.
Was born and raised in southern Mississippi and can confirm. It has 90%plus humidity for sooooo much of the year. That includes the winter One time the weather man said it was too humid to snow. I once saw a summer there break up an engagement. She was from off the coast in Washington/Oregon. The humidity that year was especially bad.
I don't know too many people who "beg" for gulf coast weather. Maybe in the middle of winter North Dakotans want it to be 60° like it is down there, but the summers are downright miserable and they seem to drag on forever.
No way. I am from North Dakota and I know for a fact I wouldn’t beg for southern weather in winter. Way too humid. There’s a reason that most North Dakotans who leave the state for somewhere warm go to Arizona.
Lived and worked in the heat and humidity in Pensacola, FL since 60s. Moved away many times and always returned. It's my home and I love it. Doug Curled, age 72
I’m 67 and have lived on the Northern Gulf Coast (Mobile and Pensacola) my whole life. The summers can be brutal here for non-natives who aren’t used to it. A Yankee friend of mine came down and went fishing with me a few years ago. He said he felt like he was going to die from the heat and humidity. Now, he’ll only visit in spring and fall. Our winters on the Northern Gulf Coast are not necessarily mild like the Southern Gulf Coast of Florida. Last winter we had several days with night time temps in the 20s. But none of that is as detrimental to growth as the insurance problem we have. Due to the regularity of hurricanes, wind insurance can be prohibitively expensive. My wind insurance is $8000 a year. Wind in most Florida communities is a separate policy and the deductible is a percentage of your property value, so your deductible can be exorbitant. My homeowners is another $2500 a year, so over $10,000 a year for wind and homeowners insurance. Now, the further inland one resides the less it can be, but I’m assuming your description of, “Gulf Coast,” means closer to the actual coast. Insurance is a really big deal for this part of the world. I’m currently living without wind insurance because I paid off my mortgage and it was no longer required, but it’s a huge risk on my part. One good hurricane and I could be homeless. That’s a pretty good incentive to live somewhere else.
@@susanvinson2667 I grew up in Mobile. That’s my hometown. Still have a sister there, but yeah, I don’t think Montgomery’s on the Gulf Coast. We lived through hurricanes Camille in 69 and Frederick in the ‘70s and everything in between. After Andrew hit South Florida, all the insurance companies pulled out of Florida. The state came up with a plan to write wind insurance subsidized by the state, but the premiums and deductibles went sky high. It’s a real problem in Florida that no one has been able to figure out.
Oh yeah I remember this past Christmas I froze whenever someone opened the door 25 degrees Fahrenheit is so freaking cold, and it’s been getting colder and colder every year in winter
"If you don't mind the humidity" is the understatement of the year. I live in Houston. The Gulf coast from here to the tip of Florida get an ungodly amount of rain. And sometimes when it's not raining the sky looks like it will start pouring all day long. And the heat is brutal. Mixing the two plus tossing in "the occasional" tropical storm, like you say, is almost unbearable. At 4am here in August it's over 80 outside. You can't escape the heat and humidity for MONTHS. The only reason I live here is family and good economy.
@@johncalvo1743 Dude I've been to Vegas many times. The heat here is way worse. I remember it was 108 there once when I was there and the cab driver was asking what we thought of the heat and I said it was like 90 in Houston. Dry heat isn't bad at all. Just wear sunscreen and drink extra water. But walking around isn't bad since the sweat evaporates immediately.
I live in Memphis and it can be 80 degrees at night here too. But not week after week, lol. My brother came from CA to visit us. He said, "Oh, I get it now! Living here means just going to one air conditioned place after another." Then we got into the argument re tornadoes vs wildfires.
@@robloxvids2233 I was raised in Miami. I lived there for over 40 years. The heat there is NOTHING compared to the heat in Vegas. The heat in Vegas is debilitating. It makes you not want to go out during the day. It is well over 100 late into the evenings. Miami was a piece of cake.
@@johncalvo1743 Never been to Miami but it's on the Atlantic coast, not technically the Gulf coast. Quick Wiki review looks like Houston is 2-5 degrees hotter than Miami in the 3 hottest months, with same relative humidity. So me going to Miami would actually be cooler. But anyway, I don't believe you that Vegas heat is worse than Miami. If you are being honest then you're the only one I've heard say this. Dry heat is way better than humid heat. Like others have said, in dry heat you simply find shade and drink water. In himid climates, finding shade does NOTHING since the steamy air still touches you. Vegas ain't shit, bro.
I'm from Houma, LA. I think one problem aside from the insane humidity and threat of hurricanes, is government corruption (in Louisiana at least. I can't speak for the rest of the region), and the fact that the only major tourist destination is New Orleans. The oilfield industry is the only real job you can get without a college degree, and nobody truly wants to work out there.
When I was about age nine my sister lived in Houma. We went to a mall in New Orleans and saw a brutal murder. A guy had his head stomped flat. His eyes were on the pavement. That was my introduction to New Orleans. I also had a person threaten me with a knife in Houma.
Yeah LA is essentially a Petrol State run by the oil industry. That's why all the civilian infrastructure is trash. They keep New Orleans around as a place to entertain their workers but refuse to keep the rest of the state functioning.
I remember doing Army training in the dead of summer late July-late August 2009 at Camp Shelby, Mississippi. The most brutal humidity I've ever felt in my life. Our barracks had no AC and it was miserable, 90 degrees at 0500 wakeup and sweat already pouring off of you. I deployed to Iraq a year later and the dry desert heat in the 110-125 degree range was actually more tolerable than the 90-100 with humidity in Mississippi. I actually had spent a lot of time in the south during my time in the Army too (Fort Benning, Bragg, and Polk) so I wasn't totally unaccustomed to southern heat, but what I went through in Mississippi that summer was brutal. We actually had a lot of guys who passed out as heat casualties, more than I ever saw in Georgia or North Carolina. All the respect in the world to people who live down there and endure that humidity. I'll take the snow and no humidity in the midwest over that any day haha
Are you kidding, no air conditioning in an Army barracks? Boo hoo hoo. I was in Ft. Bragg NC in July and August 1966, our barracks were just reopened from WW2.Air conditioning was not to be found, we had other things on our minds.
My eldest son and his Army Reserve unit did their summer e er year at CA p Shelby.. below Hattiesburg ...His unit was in wayne co before Meriden Ms... group of GREEN Beret guys where Ne in a d wS going to show the reserves how to run long distances ....what those guys didn't understand was guys down here train in humidity ,sometime soaking rains and in in winter old and rain ect.. they started out our guys behind them and they got bright ide to speed up.. while reserves just keep same pace instead of speeding up apox mile.. they past these them about collapsed on side of road ...they looked at the.them and kept going without grasping for breathe.... guess .they kinda chuckled at them after how those guys saying locals guys needed to toughen up . Bah bah ..same two weeks Lottle guy Charlie Colley and my son shot expert in Chemical gear with their rifles and their machine gun I believe .They Won the ribbon streamer for their unit....
@@stevepanos2050wow, you must be the toughest guy on the planet! Your generation is surely the greatest. I’m sure the generation before you had nothing but the utmost respect. LMAOOOO
Five years ago, i had to stop over in Houston on flight back to Virginia. There was a storm that night forming in the Gulf, and i was lucky enough to sit on the right side of the plane in a window seat. The spectacle was beyond description. The interplay of cloud to cloud lightning at vast scales was both eerie and humbling. i don't think ppl can appreciate the absolute volume of wet, hot and angry air that can spin up in that hurricane hatchery we call the Gulf.
Houston in summertime, those storms seem to form up out of morning almost daily. That’s about the only break we get from the 100% nonstop humidity of summer here.
Yes! I was once on a flight from LA to Ft Lauderdale and saw something similar over the New Orleans area. It looked like bombs were going off all over the place. Surprisingly the ride was smooth.
If you fly Houston to New Orleans, you can regularly see the angry, hot cauldron that is the Gulf of Mexico, shooting rain clouds to Virginia like God's Artillery
I'm from the Gulf Coast so I have a lot of opinions of this. Firstly, New Orleans and Gulf Coast MS have prioritized hospitality and service industries jobs in terms of economic growth. They've done this instead of focusing on manufacturing and/or tech hub jobs. And the hospitality industry is so volatile that it can't sustain a city or region, especially when some sort of event, like a hurricane or Covid, takes place. I don't think it's some big coincidence that crime in New Orleans has skyrocketed since Covid. NOBODY had a job in the city. Sure, crime increased everywhere in 2020, but New Orleans is now number 1 in terms of crime.
New orleans has an enormous amount if industry. It s all just owned by Texans. We lost the oil game in the 1980's, man. Oil stands to lose a lot if they allow another industry to come in, and participate in politics, like medicine. We give away Billions in tax breaks to industry.
@@eustatic3832 wrong the oil companies left in the 90’s and New Orleans is the number one manufacturer of all oil not even Texas is. One problem is that the Long family still owns all the mineral rights since it’s in the Louisiana constitution. The south has a lot very poor politics as well a lot politics have stolen money like Huey P Long
it’s depressing bc i love the city, but the crime is just out of hand. i haven’t even gone to some of my favorite restaurants recently because it’s been so bad, shit is depressing 😭
It's super underrated. The coastline itself does not really get pretty until you hit Alabama. Everything west of Mobile bay is fairly dirty because of the way the Mississippi river breaks up into a delta, but there is a stretch of beautiful beach about 100 miles long from Gulf Shores, AL to Panama City, FL where the sand is brilliant white and baby powder soft. It is fairly developed for the most part, but the properties are considerably cheaper than other parts of the country. There are even a few places where you can still buy land on the ocean and build a dream home. Many people from the south call it the Redneck Riviera.
I mean ..... you assume everything west of mobile bay even has a beach. As a resident of Louisiana .... *ahem ....* .... yeah, not so much lol Its like people (not you, at least you mentioned the fact ....) forget that the delta even exists lol
@@Becca4.2 Right... there aren't really any beaches on the primary coastline until you get far enough west of not just the Miss. River delta but also the Atchafalaya R. basin (which I suppose most geographers would consider all part of the same system). Although there are beaches on some of the barrier islands off the coast, those are being steadily eroded away. So, there are beach areas along the southwestern coastline, but they don't have nearly the quality of the beaches east of the Miss. River delta region. And, there's no way to develop tourist-type infrastructure to support them (as is done along parts of the Texas coast) because they're backed up mostly by marshlands. Final strike against them is the frequency of tropical storms that tuck into that area -- with at least two major storms in the past 15 to 20 years, not to mention several smaller storms. (I'm originally from southwestern La., about 25 to 30 miles from the coast.)
Hey I resemble that remark. We love Destin FL and Gulf Shores AL. Vacation there all the time. Don't know if I would live there if I wasn't on the beach...
I’m original from NOLA, but just one note here, Geoff, Mobile is pronounced “Mobeel”. It’s actually yet another town with French roots in this area. Just wanted to share. Thx.
I can't keep up with how to pronounce all these names. Try Henrico County, Virginia, Bexar County, Texas (or the town of Boerne in that county), or even Pierre, South Dakota.
@@DieFlabbergast He's probably not from the area, people pronounce things differently across the US. Plus if you're British you might've picked up the correct pronunciation from your proximity to France.
The actual Gulf Coast region is much narrower than your map indicates, extending only 25-50 miles inland in that area. Beyond those few miles, you're back into Eastern Forest, just like the rest of the State. Like most have stated, the frequency of hurricanes is the number one deterrent to human population growth. It's a beautiful retirement area, or would be if Biloxi/Gulfport/Mobile concentrated their effort to improve the quality and reputation of their health care facilities.
You nailed it. In all the maps you could see differences between the narrow band you describe and the pine belt north of it. The author should look at just the area of these states between I-10 and I-20 - that would have even worse stats. The area also lacks a very large city (or more accurately the suburbs of a very large city).
I think you should also include that the weather down there is barely within the spectrum of tolerable during the summer months. I've had the pleasure of visiting the area, and while the people, food, culture, and scenery were amazing, the extreme heat and humidity made me immediately homesick.
My husband and I are from MS, and we go mad literally every summer. The heat makes us sick. We get depressed and either sweat our asses off or waste away indoors. Sept-May are very lovely
I used to live in Houston and the summers are unbearable along the coast. The Florida beaches might be a nice vacation spot during the summer, but most people can't handle the humidity.
@@goxyeagle8446I was impressed with Mississippi when I stopped at the first Mississippi exit to get the free map they gave us free Coca-Cola!!! So friendly!
I grew up in Pascagoula, Mississippi. It was a small town and a wonderful place to grow up. My dad had a great job as an architect, but most everybody worked for either the ship yard or the Chevron refinery. I couldn’t continue my current career if I lived there, so there’s no reason for me to move back. Like a coal or steel town, there’s little to do outside of the main employer.
I’m originally from this region and moved away as soon as I could. It really is a great area but economically poor, bad and corrupt politics and infrastructure is horrible, especially with the hurricanes and tornadoes that are pounding the area in the last several years. I go back to my hometown often and not much has changed since the 1980’s.
@@michaelgomez3044 You forgot the biggest point, the people are just god awful. Hyper religious and bigoted people who vote against their own best interest, leading to brain drain as anyone with sense leaves. All that’s left are landed elites or people like Michael Gomez here, convinced it’s great to eat the landed elites shit
Am moving there this summer. Spent every summer going there and the beaches are amazing. The people friendly and homes affordable. The gulf coast is Amazing
@@JohnGarnerIII I love that it’s underrated, keep them northerner and Californians out of here. I have been in the NOLA area since 1976 and see myself retiring here. It’s not for everyone but if you work hard you can have a great life down here
get back to me after you've lived here for a year and a half or two. try to get anything done and not be part of the good old boy system here. don't piss anyone off minor offences result in unforgettable lifetimes of hate. I've lived in a five generation family home for most of my life here on the coast and I can honestly say at 70 years of age that I can think of not one single redeeming quality to the entire region. after losing my wife last year I'm preparing to sell out and never look back on this hideous place ever again. good luck to you but I found nothing but misery here.
@@chettravirca4028Yes that person will likely be in for a very rude awakening once they actually experience what you’ve described. The same exact thing goes on in rural PA and Delaware and I’ve seen outsiders get basically ran out of town within 1-2 years. I can only imagine how bad it is in MS…
As a student in Tallahassee, in just over a year the city has started to completely revitalize itself. When I moved here at the beginning of my freshman year it looked extremely unkempt and certain places looked almost abandoned. Since then I’ve seen so many construction projects that it reminds me a bit of Miami. I think Tallahassee is definitely going to start kicking off the spur of growth in this region, especially as people start getting priced out from living in South Florida.
What construction in Tallahassee do you speak off? Cheap wooden junk collegetown dorm apartments that will get eaten by termites or destroyed by a hurricane within 50 years? You you have to be insane minded to compare that place to a megapolis like Miami. Sorry to break to you bud, anything build after 1980 in Tallahassee is not going to last past this century.
@@MrPolandball I doubt all the glass and high rises in S FL will survive a cat 5. Hell. Even in Jacksonville when storms pass a hundred miles away our coast gets ate alive. At least tally isn’t right on the water front.
You missed how many hundreds of thousands of acres of land are owned by the government. Just in NW Florida, there is Eglin AFB with 340,000 acres. Blackwater state forest is 207,000 acres. Apalachicola forest is 633,000 acres. There are other smaller holdings, but it adds up to not a lot of space for people to live on. That land alone is ~1850 square miles, or nearly 20% of all of the land in the Florida panhandle.
Yeah, the reason for this is that nobody wants to live there. Believe me, if the land was that valuable, the developers would have bought the government out years ago. If you are blaming the government for this, you are barking up the wrong tree.
Many endangered species live in these areas that aren't elsewhere in the country. Plus these areas are important for maintaining the historic pine ecosystems.
@@paulkoza8652 Iam good with nobody wonting to live here in the panhandle. But the fact is the population is growing. You also don't get to buy Air Force property because you are a developer or anything else for that matter. And yes, a piece of land that has a bay on one side and the gulf on the other [Tyndall Air Force Base] is as valuable as it gets.
I moved to Gulf Shores, AL 13 years ago and do no regret it at all. It has to the best remaining affordable beach town with beautiful white sand in America right now. Summers hot. Winters short. Fall and Spring are gorgeous. Storms are a crap shoot - that can happen to you anywhere (I moved from the tornado alley part of the country). All in all, happy here.
We have a home in Foley, AL, and we absolutely love Baldwin County. We just do October to March and would like to stay longer, but with two homes back in Tennessee we have to come back to mow grass. Where we live in East TN, we have not had one day in the 100s for 7 years.
I guarantee you as someone from Mobile most people cannot afford gulfshores it's a tourist trap now with no affordable housing for its residents and they cater more to tourists then the people who actually live and work here not to mention the rude tourists and snow birds who flock here for vacation and retirement that disrespect the people and the land
Lousiana and Mississippi are bayou; a lot of Florida is swamp; the "nice" beaches are really limited to Gulf Shores to Panama City, so just a small part of that area.
as someone who’s spent countless summers there let me give you an unabridged list. HEAT, TORNADOES, HURRICANES, humidity that would choke a horse, lack of equal education, and the bugs are effing massive!
And south Florida is heavily populated because it's all old people and drug smugglers and some Hispanic workers. In other words most people in south Florida don't work there and a large percentage leave during the sweltering summer heat. And the cost of hurricane damage is subsidized by FEMA but also the state of Florida pays to keep insurance affordable but it's still the highest insurance in the nation.
@@vernonfrance2974 I dont know about that one man. I live in new orleans and we do air bnb at my house. Had a guest last month from NY that saw a roach in our backyard and freaked out asking me "Are they all this huge?". Wasn't even one of the big ones. Never been anywhere else long enough to notice their bugs much, but it seems to be surprising to people who aren't from here. For context, the biggest ones I've seen are just barely smaller than a smartphone
@@Jermzzzzz I stand corrected. I am used to the small German roaches from when I lived in California and Boston. I don't have any here in Northern Nevada. The fire ants may be small but they can do a lot of damage through force of numbers and painful bites.
@@vernonfrance2974 Growing up, the small german ones were considered "nasty" b/c it meant they were infested in the walls and breeding. The giant tree roaches, although disgustingly huge, were not "nasty" b/c they lived and reproduced outside in the pine needles and did not in fact infest your home. Just some MS folklore for ya ;)
Because of Geological constraints. It could probably support a higher population as a part of Canada, just as the Milk River and Pakowki Lake of S.E Alberta would probably better develop as a part of Montana
I grew up in Fort Walton Beach, Florida! I used to love the daily thunderstorms. I live in New Hampshire now and we have legit 6 months of Winter 😢 We do get a few thunderstorms in the summer and I get excited every time lol
The brutal humidity that many write about extends down to Houston. Strangely, further down towards Corpus Christi and beyond, the humidity is significantly less. In Houston I'd be sweltering outside in early October at 10:00 PM at night , while in mid-August in Corpus, it's often comfortable to sit outside on the porch at 6-7:00 PM. Very warm for sure, but not stifling. The persistent breezes certainly helps too.
“Besides the occasional tropical storm is blessed with weather most regions would beg for” 13 seconds in and my mind is blown and I’m lmao. Devastating hurricanes hit the coast on a regular basis. Hurricane Ida, Laura, Marco, Delta, and Sally since 2019. With many more tropical storms. The weather itself is humid, like 80% or higher close to 24/7 365. So if you like to sweat, have two season then yes the weather is lovely…
Hot, humid, mosquitoes, flies, black widows, fiddlebacks, scorpions, rattlesnakes, water moccasins, copperheads, and yes, an occasional coral snake. Did I miss anything?
I agree that there's way more hurricanes and destructives storms that this guy says. Very many residents have been displaced every year and just don't return.
The MS Coast still feels “empty” compared to before Katrina. You’ll still find countless concrete foundations and empty use-to-be neighborhoods that have been reclaimed by nature.
I can’t really speak to a lot about this region, as it’s not my home per se, but I do live in Jacksonville FL, so I think I’m familiar enough with the weather. What I will say, is the weather in this region generally sucks compared to the more eastern parts of the south. Here’s why: 1) the sea breeze is very different from the East and west (gulf coast). A sea breeze off the Atlantic feels refreshing and comfortable. The west coast (Gulf breeze) feels like getting hit with a more humid sauna steam version of air. I think because the air is more stagnant over the gulf 2) hurricanes- while Florida does get hit, most places only suffer the brunt from west or east coast storms. The panhandle to LA can experience impacts from both sides. Also, a lot of storms that make landfall on the Atlantic coast are weakened by land such as Puerto Rico, Cuba, or the Bahamas. Once in the gulf, nothing really tears storms apart. 3) the Florida peninsula and Atlantic Ocean help to moderate temps. It will be over 100 in New Orleans, Jackson, or Birmingham but only in the 80s or 90s from Miami to the outer banks. This is especially true during strong summer highs. 4) a lot of potent and severe storms start to fall apart by the time they hit the Atlantic. The Deep South and MS delta seem to get a lot more of the violent outbreaks as compared to most of Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas. But, this is all just some general observations 😊
i noticed this too. storms approach mobile lately and they fall apart around there or as they approach my place in pensacola. reminds me of where i moved from which is bismarck ND where most of the storms develeped to my east. its like. i got the same luck but its reversed if you get my drift. i been here since 2021 and i still have not seen that. constant rains that i was promised.. at least locally. surrounding me sure.. but at my house no.. and your right about the sea breeze...
@@kennycarter5682 I think the storms are more common around Florida due to the collision of the breezes and then the northern part of GA , AL, and MS as the warm air meets the slightly cooler air coming down from both Canada/the Great Lakes and the smokies. For example, the wedge that happens in GA and the Carolina’s during the winter. It always seems like LA which can get a fetch from the East and then the northern part of those states get rain and Florida. But it does seem like very often there is less coverage from the MS gulf coast, to Birmingham and back down to maybe Panama City. Like not a crazy difference, but I do think it’s noticeable.
@@kennycarter5682 if you really want the rain here In Florida during the summer we can have several weeks of 50% chance of storms or higher. Growing up you could almost set your watch for 4:00. I hope you are enjoying life in the south so far 😀
I grew up in Fort Walton Beach Florida. The entire town is completely captured by the military-industrial complex and real estate companies. I eventually wanted to be able to afford to live outside my parent's home so at 24 I dropped everything to move into a friend's uncle's basement in Ohio. Best decision of my life. It was pretty easy to find a job that didn't leave me wondering how many meals I would have to skip to make rent. I even own my own home now.
I live in this region and two corrections: 1) it is pronounced Moe-beel and 2) brutal, you meant BRUTAL summers of 90's to 100's with 90%+ humidity. Other than those small corrections, this video is awesome. Love the information and historical data you provided. Keep up the good work!
Relative humidity is the percentage of the amount of moisture that can be held in the air. The higher the temperature the more moisture can be held. What that means it that, assuming the actual amount of moisture remains the same, as the temperature rises during the day, the relative humidity goes DOWN. That means temps of 90+ with relative humidity of 90% just doesn't happen. The numbers just don't work that day. On a really hot humid day you might get a RH of 70% at the peak temperature but that doesn't sound as dramatic. And then as the temperature drops in the evening the RH might approach 90%. This is why dew point is a much better measure of the level of humidity discomfort. Any dew point above 68 F is going to be uncomfortable and sometimes in the south the dew points can rise to the high 70's with temperatures rising well into the 90's.
The pronunciation of Lafayette was like fingernails across a chalk board, too. Locals say it more like Laffy-ette. I spent 8 long years in South Louisiana; don't need the subtitles any more if I watch "Swamp People."
@@David-hm9ic 'Spelt' is how they say and spell 'spelled' in the U.K. I hear people up north saying 'Spelt' at times instead of 'Spelled.' In the south it's left over from British settlers. Like people saying 'Yonder' which is old English.
The Mississippi coast is beautiful. We're 1 hour from New Orleans and have great fishing. Katrina slammed MS.worse than New Orleans. There are still empty lots everywhere. Our coast has a line of barrier islands which keeps our beach a little stagnant. If you have a boat, a short 10 mile trip and you are in clear, clean waters. We have great food, great restaurants. Biloxi is over run with casinos and traffic. Everywhere else is beautiful.
Katrina also destroyed most of the old homes that graced Beach Blvd across the Mississippi coast. My mother’s home in Bay St. Louis was wiped out. We only found a brass bell and her recliner was blown into a tree on the north side of I10.
@@susanvinson2667 I'm aware. I wasn't talking about Katrina, but rather the casinos and lost small town charm that Gretchen mentioned. Sad to see places like Waveland that just got completely wiped off the map
@@safron2442 that’s why I mentioned the beautiful homes that added to all that charm. I miss those second Saturdays in downtown Bay St. Louis and the Fire Dog.
I think some people commenting didn't notice that pointed out that south Florida & Houston are growing so much since they seem to be putting most of the blame on the weather. Hurricane Katrina is probably the biggest factor, it's tough to really understand just how much it just obliterated without seeing it first hand. My parents grew up in this region (Mom in Moss Point, MS, not too far from Biloxi, Dad in Grand Bay, Alabam, near Mobile) and my grandparents still lived there is 2005. So many people decided to leave instead of rebuild, and the impact of that has lasted a long time.
hello from the Gulf Coast of Louisiana, your channel and podcast are great! Wages here suck, the humid climate here is awful, people are not generally tolerant of minorities here, the coastline is eroding, crime is relatively high, poverty is high, and hurricanes routinely destroy the already bad infrastructure. Brain drain is pretty intense here, people tend to move as soon as they're educated. This just reinforces the poor state of this region's economy. The weather's nice, the beaches in Alabama and Florida are pretty, and the Cajun/Creole cultures are fun but this area is nicer to visit than to live in. I'm going to contribute to the brain drain and move to Cascadia in a few months 💀
Welcome to Cascadia. I live in Portland, and we are undergoing some difficulties right now (we're not alone in this) but it's still a good place to live, and the rest of Cascadia is as good or better. Except Crescent City. Don't move there.
Yup. Did the same except I moved to Orlando. It's crazy because, aside from food/culture, Orlando is better than New Orleans in every way. Similar temperatures but less humid, better education, more to do, prettier nature. And people are just happier with their lives and it's obvious. I always tell people that Nola is amazing to visit but rough to live in. Best of luck in your journey.
Cascadia isn't the utopia people claim. The major cities are pretty bad crime wise and the smaller cities are the same as anywhere else. If you like nature and mountains then welcome, if you're here for the rest then please don't get your hopes up.
This hits the nail on the head. Both my parents are from Lafayette LA, and both moved as soon as they graduated college (to Dallas, then Atlanta). Of my mom's three siblings, 2 did the same thing. Only the one without a college degree stayed. I explored potentially moving back but the high crime, bad weather, and bad job market just made it infeasible.
@@techtutorvideos that's kinda the point lol, I was trying to point out that the politics of cascadia don't make it any different then the rest of the country.
From gulf of Mississippi. Education system is poor Infrastructure is poor Humidity is horrific for people who have never experienced it. Once saw it end a marriage engagement
In some gulf coast beach communities, the tap water smells like sulfur and is barely drinkable. I remember a vacation where the first stop was to buy bottled water.
Go to Montreal. Their water is exactly the way you are describing as well. Very sulfurous. I rode my bike through the region and what i noticed wasnt that the water tasted terrible but that it was so soft. It ft like i couldnt wash the soap off myself in the shower.
I like the water down here it’s soft water and they say soft water soft skin cuz it permeates ur epidermis naturally or maybe it’s the humidity. Either way so long as you don’t smoke and don’t let your skin get fried you should have nice shiny skin leaving down here
@@voiceofreason2674 I used to live in the TX panhandle where the water is so hard, your showerheads would calcify shut in a year. The super soft water down there took some getting used to. I only live an hour north of New Orleans and the water here is nowhere near that soft. I've also heard anecdotal tales about the superiority of soft water.
@@zimmejoc Yea N.O. Covington and Mandeville all have slightly hard water but it’s really soft in Baton Rouge Slidell or Biloxi. I went from New Orleans to Baton Rouge for college and I remember washing my car the first time and the water just turned the soap into pure thick foam instantly I was like whoa this some magic water
8:00 I lived in Biloxi in 2008. Former houses and shopping centers were just slabs. I overheard poker players telling stories of riding out Katrina in a bathroom with their dogs with a mattress over them. The regions of Bay. St. Louis, Gulfport and Biloxi were destroyed, yet New Orleans got all the headlines.
Thats because yes, yall got fucked over by simple hurricane damage. but new orleans was only fucked over due to the government. Not only that yall got paid well after the storm, residents in Louisiana only got 2-20k maybe a bit more even though they were promised wayyyy more and the state government took most the money. The government fucked new orleans. Also got to remember new orleans at the time was a major city with a million people
It's crazy that you mentioned the alabama river as a major water wag when Louisiana also has the Red, Sabine, Ouachita Rivers which are all longer and larger
They're all major rivers that support the biodiversity of the gulf coast through their nutrient rich water same with the tombigbee they all deserve protection and respect
Your comment on infrastruture is so true. I have driven from Tampa to Dallas and back several times. The farther west you go, the worse the road conditions. And its a distinct transition right at the state lines.
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana have a lot in common in terms of the placement of cities. There's almost a straight line across these states that would be roughly equal to the top line in the region laid out here. This line is a string of cities. Macon and Columbus in GA, Montgomery in AL, Jackson in MS, and Shreveport in LA. There are also mid to large sized cities on the coast in every state. Pensacola and many other in FL, Mobile and Gulf Shores in AL, Gulfport and Biloxi in MS, and New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Lafayette in LA (although Baton Rouge and Lafayette aren't quite coastal). The area in between these central and coastal cities is where the real emptiness is and where there's much smaller populations. This area is almost the same in every state. A lot of farmland, very small towns, a very large slave population in the 1800's, and a lot of poverty. There are good pockets in there in every state, but that would be an accurate description for all of these. There's no big businesses that will ever be in this part of these states because they'll either want to be on the coast or at a larger and nicer centrally located city. That will make it very difficult for this area to ever grow. We may see this big gap and this large area stay rural for quite some time. However, as a native Alabamian, I can definitely there's nothing wrong with a good ole small town. Some of the nicest people in the world live in places like that, and I'd never want that to go away!
@@rickywatters7692 I've met more racist people when traveling the country than I have my whole life living in the South. That's a massive stereotype. Of course racists exist everywhere, but they are genuinely very few and far between. The vast majority of people here will determine their opinion of other people based on their character alone, regardless of race or social class. There's also plenty of "real jobs". We have doctors, lawyers, and big corporations like everyone else. The drinking water issue was rather localized around Jackson, MS. We've also got plenty of private schools and amazing universities to get a great education at. We've also got some of the most affordable housing and lowest taxes in the country. Don't listen to the news. Come and see for yourself. I'd love to show you around and show you that this part of the country really is a great place! Southern hospitality isn't a myth.
@@brandonspivey4467 That’s crap. You must not be a minority. Racism isn’t standing outside in a KKK uniform burning crosses anymore (not to mention they STILL do that sh*t btw lol). It’s “subtle racism” like refusing to service you at some stores. Blatantly being targeted by police in predominantly white areas as a minority. Things like that, as any “glory day” racism would likely get many killed in this day and age. I’ve lived in Bama my whole life spare a few years of elementary in Georgia and one thing I can say is when it comes to White and Black it’s all the way love or completely hate. There is no in between. But it does exist without a doubt.
@brandonspivey... As a long time resident of Jackson, MS now retired to Gulfport, I would point out that 'good private schools' do not make up for the poor public education that plagues so much of our beautiful, humid, hurricane prone area.
Hey Geoff, great video. I’m from the Biloxi/Gulfport MS area, and up until very recently I owned a U-Haul franchise. The amount of population growth we, as well as the other areas you’ve mentioned have experienced since COVID has been astounding. The U-Haul metrics have shown us there’s been a large influx out of CA and NY to the Gulf Coast. That being said, I believe “growth” as you’ve discussed in the video (and as people often do) is subjective, and that’s what so many people don’t realize. We don’t want to be like any other large metropolitan area, and our people don’t really value or measure growth by getting alot of people to move here. In fact many people I talk with are frustrated at the amount of people moving in and driving up real estate prices. The fact of the matter is our people don’t want to live in a metropolitan area, or they would likely move to one.
@@Combatwhombat That may be the case, I haven’t studied any census data, just citing empirical evidence and our U-Haul metrics. My whole point with this is that we don’t necessarily care because “growth” is subjective in some sense. People that live in more rural areas don’t necessarily place high value on a bunch of people moving in. And I’d probably attribute what you’ve mentioned to the vast swathes of desolate areas in these states, I can imagine people would want to leave those ultra impoverished areas. But for our areas that are more toured with beaches, casinos, etc immediately along the coast there has definitely been an explosion in immigration.
I agree with your sentiments about the culture of the gulf coast, we like it here because it’s not overwhelmingly populated or metropolitan. We like that there isn’t gridlock traffic during rush hours. The quintessential essence of the gulf coast is casual leisure, living a low stress lifestyle, being kind and sincere to everyone because it’s what you should do, not because you want something from people. We don’t mind if people move here but we explicitly do not want nor welcome people moving here when they are only interested in exploiting the affordable real estate market for the sake of accumulating as much money and passive income as possible while also making absolutely zero-to-no effort to assimilate themselves with the inherent local ethos and cultural values we are so fond of. I encounter so many transplants from CA now who only care about the local people or our rich history and culture when it involves an opportunity for them to make money from it. Theyll start a youtube channel giving advice on the best hot spots of the city to visit to drum up interest in their tour guide business they started, pretending they are experts on their so called “hometown” they’ve been living in since 2 months ago, yet they have no clue what the actual best places are because they’re getting their material from doing a google search for the best local spots to check out. These are the same people who, even though they chose to buy 3 houses here to rent out on Airbnb and start their tour guide business here, will complain about how boring it is to live here to locals and how much better it would be if only we had an in-and-out-burger and all the other things that they miss about California that makes it so much better than it is here, then go home to call everyone they know in CA to try and convince them to sell their house in los angeles so they can move here and buy several properties to rent out on airbnb just like they did, just so theyll have a west coast friend who can live 10 minutes away for them to constantly complain about how much it isn’t California together. I’m just saying.
@@CombatwhombatCensus data, especially 2021 estimates would disagree. MS and LA have population losses, however GA, AL, FL, and TX have all grown. You could make the argument that GA is not a red state, but the other ones would be difficult to argue against.
I’ve lived in Alabama my whole life, and it honestly isn’t as bad as people are making it out to be. Where I live we have a solid 6 months of perfect weather. Spring and Fall are magical here and the winters are gentle and short. Our “summer” is like everyone else’s “winter” where you just stay inside and chill for awhile until the weather is favorable again lol.
100% correct - I said exactly the same thing. In the summer, my wife and I just spend our days indoors and head out to the beach around 5pm after all the tourists have burned and broiled themselves to oblivion. We start our beach time when there's fewer people down there, and the weather gets cooler by the minute. Its actually fun and comfortable to be on the beach as the sun goes down.
I grew up in Birmingham and have lived in Mobile since 2000. I hate this heat and would prefer all four seasons including colder winters to kill off of the insects that abound. You'd think I'd be more heat tolerant, but no, this oppressive heat can take a toll. I do enjoy the rain especially since I've moved to Mobile we receive more rain than any other U.S. city. I've always wanted to live somewhere that has the climate of England, but I know most people don't care for the rain like I do. It's only since I've gotten older that I appreciate the beauty in this state.
Air conditioning made it possible to live here in the summer. The summers can be brutal and seem to be getting worse. Then the hurricanes… since 1995 when I moved here, Panama City, we have had several, most recently a category five. So in a blink of an eye you can lose everything. I guess some don’t have the stomach for the risks.
That’s exactly what makes it so appealing; low population. Plenty of other places are being overdeveloped, like most of Florida. I get tired of seeing all the land clearing and all the added traffic. It’s nice to have a place to go to escape all the chaos and crowdedness and good to go to where the “real Florida” does still exist in some areas.
I grew up in the panhandle of Florida and I can't express how much I miss it. I like to clarify something when it comes to the weather. The weather was nice with the occasional small pockets of rain showers but the humidity freaking sucked. lol
I was born and raised in Columbus, GA which is right at the edge of this region. We definitely see a lot brain drain here as well. The vast majority of young people who get college degrees don’t stay around. Most move to Atlanta or Birmingham which are close but offer way more career opportunities.
Here in South Georgia, it might be even worse with brain drain without any big-ish cities besides Albany, Valdosta, and Brunswick(well that is not the gulf coast but still is South GA). Especially for tech careers many like myself had to stay in the ATL area to find good employment with upward mobility after college. At least in Columbus, Macon, Augusta, and Savannah they have a little more opportunity being decently sized 200-500k but I’m sure the problem still persists there no doubt as well
@@lleytonc you’re definitely right that Columbus doesn’t have it as bad as South Georgia but it’s still not great when almost all the people you grew up with move to Atlanta
I’m from Atlanta, and everyone did move here! But a lot of people I know are buying homes in South Georgia, Alabama or the Florida panhandle, and plan to retire there. I think the perfect setup would be a home 60 miles from the Gulf Coast, and a cabin in North Georgia/Alabama.
@@lleytonc I'm from the Savannah area, eye-balling the Atlanta area for career growth. Most everyone I knew growing up left Savannah due to poor job market. Yeah, perhaps better than the rest of South GA, but it ain't pretty here either. It's Atlanta or bust.
I've lived all along this area and they only thing holding this region back is the lack of jobs. The University of South Alabama has become a major public university to the east and LSU to the west. Harrison County in Mississippi, Baldwin County in Alabama, along with most of the counties in Florida are some of the fastest growing counties in their respective states. The Gulf Coast is not the region you described. Most of the "Gulf Coast" culture is below or along I-10. A lot of French and Spanish influence has made this area super interesting to live in. Mardi Gras, obviously, is celebrated all along this region. Many manufacturing companies have moved to the South Alabama area. THE largest port in the US is also in this region along with BR, NOLA, Gulfport, MOB, and others bringing massive economic output for the rest of the country. The summers used to be brutal, but I have gotten used to them. Hurricane culture along the coast is very weird. Where I live, we do hurricane parties where a bunch of family and friends come over and pretty much camp out the hurricane. Very fun, might I add. Probably not the safest, and we don't stay around for cat 3 or higher. I have really enjoyed living in this area and the lifestyle is very relaxed all along the coast, especially in the sleepy beach towns along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Amtrak is beginning its service from Mobile to NOLA and that is going to be awesome for people without cars. Gulfport-Biloxi is seeing a major boom because of Casinos and subsequent tourism. A new one is even under construction right now. Sorry for the long message. This video seemed very negative and I thought I would highlight some of the positives of the region. This region is cohesive together and is vastly different than the rest of the states it is part of. Like night and day different. Def come visit if you are wanting to escape the cold.
Mobile is pronounced "Moh-BEEL", not "Mo-bill". There are a lot of other places on the Gulf whose names are generally mispronounced (Gautier, MS :) ), but Mobile sometimes gets national attention and when it's name gets butchered it is like nails on a chalk board to the locals. I used to live on the MS Gulf coast and loved it there. I just went back to visit on a vacation and was surprised to see how much development has occurred in the past decade. That was really encouraging. You hit on it, but jobs is the major issue. The MS, and AL gulf coasts are is lacking in stable high skill and high tech jobs. The major industries that do exist, such as ship building and oil and gas, tend to be volatile. After the 2008 financial crisis and during the Obama years there was major stagnation in the ship building industry. Ingalls (at the time it was Northrup Grumman) had hiring freezes and layoffs of engineers and skilled tradesman positions in their Pascagoula Yard and Avondale Yards. The smaller shipyards in the area were also hurting for business and weren't in a position to hire many of the folks. Also, working on Naval vessels isn't apples and oranges with oil and gas or fishing vessels. The area just north of the immediate coastal counties is extremely rural and sparsely populated. E.g. George County, MS, Greene County, MS, Stone County MS, Washington County, AL -- the populations of these counties are around or under ~20k. Property is cheap in this area but there is limited access to high speed internet. For new construction you're probably going to have to drill a well, put in septic, and pay to put in some power poles to build outside of the small towns in the area. You might have to drive 45 minutes to the nearest Walmart, and an hour to get to a decent hospital. Also, I wouldn't mention Montgomery, AL when talking about the Gulf Coast. The Montgomery area locally referred to as "The River Region", folks around there don't think of themselves as being on the Coast. Montgomery and Columbus are on the Fall Line and more Piedmont than Coastal Plain.
Doesn't it occur to you that some people do not care how the local yokels pronounce things? There are examples of this all over where people get upset and annoyed. Like Illinois where the "s" is not pronounced, Ne vad a with the sound of the first "a" like in "had", Boise like Boy zee, Cairo Illinois like Karo the syrup, Quincy MA like Quin "Z", Arkansas like "Ar can saw" instead of like Ar- kan's a$$., Connecticut pronounced like Cun etiquette instead of Connect ee cut. Paris KY where they say Pear iss instead of Pa ree.
@@sixoh_diesel5662 I consider myself to have been such a Yokel when young but by study and travel I learned about the difference between the original pronunciation of places named after those originals. I was studying Spanish when I remember first noticing this. A tiny town near where we lived was mentioned. It was Buena Vista but the locals said bew -knee vis-tee.
People often look at the Gulf Coast and think about the SUFFOCATING humidity. Here in Mobile, summer temperatures are very consistent, and it rains just about every day from late May through early to mid September. But what's often forgotten about is the insects being ruthless. We have mosquitoes the size of pterodactyls, flying swamp roaches, big orb weaver spiders with webs that are a nightmare in the woods at night, and endless flies. But the bugs I hate most are the Guinea wasps because they are so vicious for being so small.
@@zumis1011 "or even the guinea bears." ---- those are extinct: they were a small bear similar to the Mississippi green bears but being black and yellow striped they were a lot easier to see in the woods; the early setters killed them all off because they were vicious as crabs but made nice looking rugs
i lived in florida and we had all these but the worst to me was something i didn’t name. the fire ants. worst worst worst thing. u csnt go outside without shoes for even 5 seconds
I think you might have mistaken weather for temperature. I currently live in Florida, and I love the temperature, but I'm trying to move out because the humidity is awful.
The temperatures in Florida suck too. No seasons. Personally I prefer temps in the 20s to 60s. Cold to pleasant. Florida is too damn hot. 80s, 90s and even if its in the 70s the humidity makes it still too warm
A/C is mandatory in Florida. At one time, I had relatives in Tampa, Tallahassee, Winter Park and Orlando. I was always ready to leave after a day or two. Too hot and too humid.
I graduated High School in Gulfport in 2000 , and always end up going through Biloxi with Air Force or Navy. I recently got orders to move back there for a few years. What I find interesting, despite Katrina happening almost 20 years ago , the still present impact on local area development and overall psyche.
I lived on the Florida Gulf coast for twenty years. for the most part, that area survives on a service economy and tourists. Wages are low and almost unlivable unless you work two jobs. I stayed there way too long before eventually moving to NC. But it's a nice place to retire if you have a good retirement income.
Good points for sure , been in Pensacola since 2005 and things were very affordable until around covid . Some aviation industry is happening with STS and Lenoardo but finding work is difficult outside of the service industry and government/military.. I have 2 part time jobs to make ends meet but I’m comfortable , taxes are low and we aren’t yet congested like other parts of FL
Interesting vid! Good job! MY one caveat is this: you showed Lafayette, LA as an example of the anemic growth we have faced here historically. I would ask you to also look at the growth of Lafayette Parish (county) from 2010-2020 was 9.1% growth from 221K - 241K. Many of the people moved out of the incorporated city limits and moved to the unicorporated parts or Youngsville, LA which has bucked the trend! It has nearly doubled its population from 8K - 16K from 2010 - 2020 with a 96.5% increase! I know you can't hyperfocus the entire region, but please continue to produce these fun informative vids!
I moved from KCMO to The Mississippi Gulf Coast back in 2015 ( Long Beach MS ), for 4 and a half years, I will cherish all the people, friends, and times I had . I loved my little town, the food, and the weather; me being from the mid west I thought I could handle the humidity, but I was mistaken, the humidity there is on another level, but you get used to it . The problem I had, jobs ! I transferred with my company ( security ) to a Chemical Plant that starting wage was 12 bucks an hour, A place in my opinion that should been paying security at least 18 an hour . The only thing that kept me a float was overtime . That said, there is ZERO good paying jobs unless you want to drive to NOLA everyday . I would have loved to have stayed, but after taking a on a supervisor position over our camera systems then write up all the training tools, manuals, and being on time with it all and still no raise, I decided to move back to Kansas CIty, where I knew I'd make more money . Guess what happen ? I make more money . They just don't want to pay decent livable wages to people down there and it's a shame cause it's a wonderful place to live .
There’s great jobs if you get an education….Chevron, Bp destin pipeline, rolls royce, Bollinger marine, ingals ship building,Mississippi phosphate,Triton yacht,…..go to school and get that paper
I live in MS. The water on our southern end is not pretty ocean water. It’s greenish brown. The small beaches are full of seaweed and just not the best. In LA, the southern border is really swamp. We usually drive to AL or FL coast area for beach vacations. And, yes, the humidity is so bad it feels like you’re being hugged by water all summer (which is May to Dec) but it makes for nice soft skin 😂.
I’ve spent a few years of my life on the Gulf coast in the past, and have the freedom to move there any time. I don’t, basically because 1) it’s hot and humid, 2) don’t get real winters, 3) hurricane-prone. I don’t fear the personal danger of a hurricane, I just don’t like the idea of my home and all my stuff getting wrecked and flooded.
You are right about college educated people in those areas moving to other areas. Happens to every single smart LSU grad that's from Louisiana. I'm from Shreveport, and all my best friends that got 30+ on their ACTs and went to honors LSU or better schools almost always end up in Houston or Dallas. Same for others in Louisiana. The best and brightest end up in Dallas or Houston. There simply aren't any six figure jobs in Louisiana besides maybe a few in New Orleans.
You are correct in every aspect. New Orleanians leave for opportunity, then miss it and come back after they made their money. I’m one of those people.
My louisiana history professor in college .... "What is Louisiana's top export?" us: uhm ..... sugar cane? Soybeans? Rice? Seafood? Him: *laughing* "college graduates..." Us: Owwohhhh..... fuck.
The same thing is happening in Georgia outside of Atlanta. I’m from Columbus, GA, and almost everyone young with a college degree has moved to Atlanta for career opportunities.
I've driven down to Appalachicola from Nashville many times and the contrast once you get to Montgomery is very noticeable. It's a very depressed part of the world from there on down to the gulf.
That’s the Alabama Black Belt (named for the soil, not the skin color of the majority of the population) you’re driving through, then below that the wiregrass region.
since this is a series now, can you do the delmarva peninsula. it has decent temperatures, beaches, the agriculture seems decent from the perspective of google earth, and it isn't terribly expensive.
Agreed. I went house shopping there after I retired. I had taken a road trip up the peninsula exploring the area with my kids many years ago and never forgot how lovely the area was. Ended up elsewhere but one little trip was enough to make me fall in love with the area.
I'm from MD and had this discussion with a buddy the other day ha ha. The 2 major bridge/tunnels to the peninsula weren't completed until the 1950's/60's. This means people south of Philly had to drive all the way up to Delaware to get to the peninsula. I think the area is growing, but I think the lack of bridge/tunnels for most of history is probably what caused the rural "ish" population
Delmarva , is a pretty place , but you have mega mosquitos biting flies gnats that bite no great jobs unless your into agriculture or working in what seems like a 100 poultry plants that smell to high heaven and cut off from the world and in the winter time it’s terribly depressing there !!!!!!!
@@paulletchworth2036 I was excited to learn about the new medical center. Was planning to moonlight working there since that was my profession. And it never hurts to live near a hospital. I looked at a lot of old fixer upper houses and one modern home on an acre on the water. I ended up passing because I didn't want to remodel. Bought a repo elsewhere and ended up having to remodel anyway. Go figure.
I always tell people, "Maryland is beautiful on it's edges." The DC to Baltimore central zone is rubbish. I live part-time in Southern Maryland, and appreciate all the central folks staying home. All that said, I already have my retirement home on the Florida Gulf.
I've lived in Houston, New Orleans, and in between (the I-10 corridor). All the comments about weather, infrastructure, insurance, etc. are spot on. Also we have a severe education problem along with perception elsewhere that we're way dumber than we sound. Personally, if I lived elsewhere, the hurricanes would scare me off. HOWEVER, can't say I mind low population density that much.
I lived in Pensacola 5 years because I was in the Navy. Honestly extremely underrated town. I'm kinda happy the Florida growth hasn't totally hit there yet, might move back some day.
I live south of Houston about 30 mins from the coast. From about May through September it is pretty hot and humid. Mostly highs in the 90s every day if it doesn't rain. October & November its highs in the 70s-80s. From December to March its usually highs in the 60-70s with the occasional cold or warm front. (It can be below freezing or in the upper 80s), then March and April are highs in the upper 60s to 80s again.
This region is not evenly settled. Away from the coast, there are vast pine forests that are an economic resource, but support little population beyond a few interesting towns like Laurel MS.
As a Southern Alabamian I love the rural life. You city folks can have your crowds. Nothing like being outside at night and listening to the cacophony of insects chirping, whirring and fiddling up a storm and seeing the flashes of heat lightning... Then the stars come out and fill the sky with wonder. And heat and humidity? Haven't y'all heard of air conditioning? That's a background noise too!
The rural life down there sounds pretty nice but I think the heat would kill me. Plus bugs, venomous snakes, alligators, and not sure what else! I just moved to rural northern Wisconsin and love it. I'm so done with city life too.
Yeah in Mississippi 500,000 people about live on the Gulf Coast. I think that is a lot for a very small area. The coast alone is only 80 miles long and 55 miles wide. So I think we are pretty populated here.
Currently right in the middle of that. I think there are a few reasons why. 1. Humidity. Personally, I love humidity (rare, I know) but a majority of people down here HATE it. It’s so humid certain days that in the summer, you could step outside and immediately “dew” up in less than a minute. Some people just can’t handle that. 2. Everything closes WAY too early. Most people I know like to hang out at night; maybe have a drink or go to the mall or something. But most stores and restaurants close before 6PM, and the ones that are open typically aren’t the most appealing. Also, the malls here are quite small. Some people I know say the malls are alright here. But as an example, the Santa Rosa mall has about 10 stores and is almost completely empty on the average day. I’m used to going to 4-story malls with several hundred stores so this is a huge downgrade for me. 3. ROADS. The quality of the roads are not perfect with the common potholes and uneven lanes. Sometimes construction will be done with no real alternative detour route so you just need to figure out how you’re going to get around. Don’t know the area? Well good luck because the layout of streets are even worse than the roads. Everything is so RANDOM. A highway will turn into a side street with random diagonal, curved streets and sometimes oneways that have no explanation for its existence. It makes trying to find places all the more confusing. 4. It’s so random. I’ve never seen a mansion directly next to a couple run-down but occupied trailer homes, 5-part townhome, apartment building, and typical home all next to each other. Not to include the most random selection of stores, from a whataburger to an Alvin’s Island. Also, lots of stores here look no different than abandoned ones, so you really have to look in order to tell what’s open or not. But yeah, I don’t really hate this area, it just doesn’t make sense a lot of the time. This is my experience and might be part of the reason why most want to live elsewhere
I agree with the thought about being too random. Local government doesn’t really want to regulate uses, and control debris and abandoned junk. A little bit of control and cleanup would go a long way. The idea would be to raise the standards for living, not to interfere in people’s lives.
"Random and no sense" is a good way to put it. I've lived in, between, and around Mobile & Montgomery for 30 years and it's very much as you've said. 1. I don't mind the humidity and heat as long as I have ventilation. I actually hate the humidity in WINTER. It rarely snows but the cold is so infuriating. 2 & 3. YES. Next to nothing to do, limited time to do it, and stores are bare minimum compared to any solid urban area. VERY difficult to get anywhere without a car much like most of the country and everything is spread far apart. Katrina pretty much killed my weekend adventures to the arcade in Bel Air Mall or Biloxi casinos as a kid. 4. I never really thought about it like that but I definitely see strip malls with the majority of them closed down or historic homes in proximity to areas that are falling apart. Some property is getting gentrified or built up but it's very scattered.
I paused the video at the beginning. As someone who lives in Alabama on the coast…it’s the humidity. It’s suffocating. You can hardly work in it for too long. Taking a walk is unpleasant. And that is for the vast majority of the year.
Corrupt leadership also contributes to the lack of jobs/incentive to move there. New Orleans has enormous strategic value and has the geography to be a major thriving metropolis, but bad decisions(especially since Katrina) have stagnated any potential there. In the case of florida, despite our capital being located in this part of the state, it’s generally a very ignored(and underrated nature wise) area in favor of the economic power houses of Tampa, Orlando, and Miami/ft lauderdale.
what you have outlined in this vid is not the Gulf Coast. The coast stops about 20 miles inland. Completely different culture and people in that short span of miles.
Yup. Sorta what I was thinking. To me, the Gulf Coast is that narrow strip from Mississippi east through the Panhandle, and is doing fairly well, hurricanes notwithstanding. Louisiana doesn't even have a coast - just swamp that eventually merges into the ocean.
Geographically it is different, but I’d say culturally it is all kinda just greater louisiana from east of Houston to around Tallahassee I meet a ton of people from the Louisiana diaspora and we all eat and talk similar.
I can say that the weather down here during 8 months out of the year is anything but comfortable. I lived in Louisiana my whole life and I still dread the summer months. The heat is brutal and walking outside is like walking into a sauna. I’d take 100 degrees in the desert over 85 degrees over here any day
I live in Georgia and I don’t think most of us think of ourselves as part of the gulf region. I always imagined it as the actual gulf like the west coast of Florida and Texas’s coast.
I agree. I live in Columbus which is smack dab in the middle of the piedmont and coastal regions. South Columbus definitely have different dirt than North Columbus, but most of us classified ourselves as a part of the piedmont.
I love the gulf coast and lived there for 8 years. Late winter and the spring are the only times it’s nice. Some winter days are so cold, with the humidity its penetrating.
I would move back to North Florida since I am 51 and now completely understand snowbirds (I couldn't understand them until my bones, muscles, and joints taught me at age 48). But the snakes are too much. Living in Northern California for 15 years, I have only seen 5 snakes. In the 3 years that I lived in Florida, I would see that many in a month. As for humidity, for some reason humidity doesn't bother me as much anymore like it did the 32 years that I lived in the Gulf region.
Never saw many snakes here in the Deep South. But when I went hiking out West almost got bit by a rattlesnake in Utah. Panhandle is where I would move back to as well. Just find some land 15 feet or more above sea level that's still relatively close to the coast and should be fine.
My problem with vids like this is generalization. If you get inland a bit, pick a well built house with a fortified rood & good local drainage, your hurricane problems become more manageable. Places like Covington/Abita Springs LA, Eastern Shore, AL, parts of Pensacola, Niceville, and suburban Tallahassee, FL are all wonderful, uncrowded places to retire with reasonable traffic & good health care. Yes, it's hot in summer, but in retirement you can hit the road for a month and the in-between seasons are amazing - I smoke my turkey in the backyard in 65-70 deg. weather every Thanksgiving. Go ahead and keep running this area down - me and my friends keep enjoying it.
I'd say it's more expensive to live along the coast because of the large amount of tourists. Florida for one is growing pretty quickly, including NW Florida. Unfortunately a lot of the wages don't match the increasing housing. Each area within this region has it's own issues.
I’m afraid that North Florida is going to quickly turn into South Florida sooner than later. I don’t want all of that mess up here, plus the less snowbirds that come here the better.
Housing is a problem in many places due to federal reserve policy and unbridled government spending - it's called *inflation.* Well, let's send another 150 billion dollars to that pervert the US installed in Ukraine.
Any reason why you omitted the Houston area from your analysis? It has the same climate / topography and a similar culture to the rest of the Gulf Coast, and it bucks many of the trends you presented here. (Btw I do agree that South Texas shouldn’t be included as it’s semi-arid and has a very different culture)
"The gulf coast is truly a beautiful part.....why don't more Americans live there?" so, you haven't spent a lot of time in that dump I take it? Maybe never experienced a hurricane, for one thing? "Amazing beaches"....by what standards? There's a reason you don't see Pensacola Beach, with the "famous white sand", draw people like Belize or Miami or California or the Bahamas or....
As a born cajun from Louisiana, I will say our costal beaches is considered fisherman's resort. No crowds or tourists to bother you while catching a red. Also, the reason why the louisiana bridges are bad bc most of the Govt money is being spent on Casinoes, we're pretty much like the southern Las vegas
Most of my family lives in this region of southeast Texas and it’s absolutely awful every time I have to visit. Overcast, depressing, hot weather and flat, swampy scenery. I think they were tricked by being told they could afford coastal property and it was always warm. But when they got there, it wasn’t what they expected… yeah it’s by the coast but it doesn’t feel beachy. And the oil refineries.. god they’re everywhere and so unpleasant to look at and probably make my health worse every time I go. Horrible horrible place to live.
If anyone watched the first season of True Detective. It captures the culture pretty well. From East Texas Gulf coast to Panhandle Florida. It all shares the same dynamic. Hot Swampy. And oil filled land.
Everyone I know who has lived in that area hated it. My sister moved to Houston from the Midwest. She lived there for several years and never grew to like it. She said the oppressive heat and humidity are constant for much of the year. When winter finally arrives you get some mild days, but occasionally, cold fronts arrive from the plains that feel even more miserable because of the humidity. She said the wet, cold air seeps into your home and chills you to the bone. She also said the beaches in that area are gray, dirty, and depressing.
@unknown that's exaggerated. It's pretty lush and a ton of neighborhoods are very nice. (The suburbs do not count as Houston). And the weather from Central Texas to Alabama to South Carolina. It's all the same. Miami and New Orleans are just as humid and hot. Except Miami at least gets an ocean breeze.
Misleading title 10million people on the coast line of three States is still a big number. Also humidity is not just a throw away reason to live in the south, It is brutal half the year.
Appalachia has only 26 million and is much larger geographic from Albany NY to Alabama. That comes out to around 126 per mile using the definition from the federally designated Appalachia Regional Commission.
As someone from New Orleans this was a pretty fascinating watch. However, the weather is actually brutal here. The hottest parts of summer are intolerable and temperature changes feel much more extreme here because of the humidity. Not to mention the hurricanes. You're spot on about the infrastructure though. I think New Orleans is legitimately the greatest city in America though. I wish it was possible for all of the economic and systemic problems here to get fixed.
The more humidity the less the extreme in temps are. That's why such a wide range in the winter record highs and lows because of less humidity. Humidity stops temps from having extremes.
I live in Lake Charles and I do agree that the summers are way to hot and miserably humid, but after just a little bit of experience with the freezing temperatures and snow of the north, I can safely say that I much rather be uncomfortable here than suffocating in snow up there. Though I wouldn’t mind not having to evacuate twice a year.
@@MJIZZELhe said it feels more extreme because it does .. humidity and hot make it feel hotter .. humidity and cold makes it feel colder .. good arguments tho, too bad no one said that
@@MJIZZEL This is wacky misinformation; like saying being on fire helps keep your core body temperature 'stable.' The most common way to get high humidity is through extreme temps so saying humidity stops extreme temps is in itself kinda backwards. High humidity _traps_ heat in human bodies. The biggest danger of high humidity is deadly wet bulb temperature events where humidity gets so high that sweat can't evaporate so heat gets trapped in the body instead.
In the Summer down here you'll have days where the sky looks like it should be storming, but it's literally too hot to rain. It tries to, but the drops just disintegrate and the heat recirculates the moisture up again, so you're basically just in this humid convection oven of death.
Can't help but point out its "mo-beel" not "mobull". I think the ever present threat of a new severe storm is a huge part of what is keeping the small coastal cities from growing. It is hard to invest when each year it could also be loat,plus sky rocketing insurance costs. In the rural areas there is very little infrastructure or economic opportunity and as seasons get more volatile that is not going to improve.
You should’ve mentioned the TX gulf coast. The Golden Triangle (Beaumont, Port Arthur, and Orange) is experiencing a boom from industry and urban sprawl from Houston (another city that shares the same gulf coast culture and weather) Not to mention Galveston a historic populated city sitting on the coast.
@AM L yea but the point is its the gulf coast. Everyone that lives in houston, Beaumont, PA, know we live in the gulf coast. This dude left out the largest gulf coast city to skew the numbers.
I grew up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and I know how beautiful it is from Corpus Christi to Fort Myers. I get why some people don't like it, that's fine. But along with the heat you get the Gulf, a southern-facing beach that affords both beautiful sunrises and sunsets, great seafood, reasonable prices, and good people. And living on the beach means you have moderating breezes. Military who come here eventually retire here; one of the Armed Services Retirement Homes is located in Biloxi. Now it's not for everyone but for those it's for, it's great.
I'm from the MS gulf coast and let me tell you. Summer lasts 8 months and from June to August it's painful to walk outside. It's not like arid heat where you can get under some shade and it makes a world of difference. Shade during the summer here basically does nothing it feels like you're being steamed.
Not to mention the no-see-ums will eat you alive from March - October if you live anywhere in Jackson, Harrison, Hancock counties.
Anything is better than the midwest where it’s -15 in the winter. Also we only get 3 months of “summer”.
I have lived in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, In my opinion, the worst part of living in the south, are the mosquitos.
@@olivia_kinney cold>hot
From Pascagoula
It's because it's a swamp
This is my swamp
And a hurricane magnet.
Was born and raised in southern Mississippi and can confirm. It has 90%plus humidity for sooooo much of the year. That includes the winter
One time the weather man said it was too humid to snow.
I once saw a summer there break up an engagement. She was from off the coast in Washington/Oregon. The humidity that year was especially bad.
And a mosquito breeding ground.
Drain the Swamp!
I don't know too many people who "beg" for gulf coast weather. Maybe in the middle of winter North Dakotans want it to be 60° like it is down there, but the summers are downright miserable and they seem to drag on forever.
best temperature in america is the DC area
No way. I am from North Dakota and I know for a fact I wouldn’t beg for southern weather in winter. Way too humid. There’s a reason that most North Dakotans who leave the state for somewhere warm go to Arizona.
@@iboKirby Dry heat and dry cold are your two best options. Humidity in the heat is smothering and bone chilling in the cold.
When you start to sweat and your glasses fog up walking to the car at 5 in the morning, you no longer claim to enjoy the climate here
It makes me question why anyone would beg for Florida weather. 🙄 Last summer it was 103 with a heat index of 111. At night it's still 85.
Lived and worked in the heat and humidity in Pensacola, FL since 60s. Moved away many times and always returned. It's my home and I love it.
Doug Curled, age 72
I’m 67 and have lived on the Northern Gulf Coast (Mobile and Pensacola) my whole life. The summers can be brutal here for non-natives who aren’t used to it. A Yankee friend of mine came down and went fishing with me a few years ago. He said he felt like he was going to die from the heat and humidity. Now, he’ll only visit in spring and fall. Our winters on the Northern Gulf Coast are not necessarily mild like the Southern Gulf Coast of Florida. Last winter we had several days with night time temps in the 20s. But none of that is as detrimental to growth as the insurance problem we have. Due to the regularity of hurricanes, wind insurance can be prohibitively expensive. My wind insurance is $8000 a year. Wind in most Florida communities is a separate policy and the deductible is a percentage of your property value, so your deductible can be exorbitant. My homeowners is another $2500 a year, so over $10,000 a year for wind and homeowners insurance. Now, the further inland one resides the less it can be, but I’m assuming your description of, “Gulf Coast,” means closer to the actual coast. Insurance is a really big deal for this part of the world. I’m currently living without wind insurance because I paid off my mortgage and it was no longer required, but it’s a huge risk on my part. One good hurricane and I could be homeless. That’s a pretty good incentive to live somewhere else.
I hear you. We live in Mobile as well. I’m not sure if he means right on the coast. He also mentioned Montgomery. They wish! 😂
@@susanvinson2667 I grew up in Mobile. That’s my hometown. Still have a sister there, but yeah, I don’t think Montgomery’s on the Gulf Coast. We lived through hurricanes Camille in 69 and Frederick in the ‘70s and everything in between. After Andrew hit South Florida, all the insurance companies pulled out of Florida. The state came up with a plan to write wind insurance subsidized by the state, but the premiums and deductibles went sky high. It’s a real problem in Florida that no one has been able to figure out.
@@bigrich6750 as someone who had plenty of insurance issues after Katrina I sympathize. We ended up having to take a loan to pay off the mortgage.
Kindly have an insurance it’s safe option even if it’s expensive
Oh yeah I remember this past Christmas I froze whenever someone opened the door
25 degrees Fahrenheit is so freaking cold, and it’s been getting colder and colder every year in winter
"If you don't mind the humidity" is the understatement of the year. I live in Houston. The Gulf coast from here to the tip of Florida get an ungodly amount of rain. And sometimes when it's not raining the sky looks like it will start pouring all day long. And the heat is brutal. Mixing the two plus tossing in "the occasional" tropical storm, like you say, is almost unbearable. At 4am here in August it's over 80 outside. You can't escape the heat and humidity for MONTHS. The only reason I live here is family and good economy.
Try living in Las Vegas in July/August. Over here it is 105 at 8pm.
@@johncalvo1743 Dude I've been to Vegas many times. The heat here is way worse. I remember it was 108 there once when I was there and the cab driver was asking what we thought of the heat and I said it was like 90 in Houston. Dry heat isn't bad at all. Just wear sunscreen and drink extra water. But walking around isn't bad since the sweat evaporates immediately.
I live in Memphis and it can be 80 degrees at night here too. But not week after week, lol.
My brother came from CA to visit us. He said, "Oh, I get it now! Living here means just going to one air conditioned place after another."
Then we got into the argument re tornadoes vs wildfires.
@@robloxvids2233 I was raised in Miami. I lived there for over 40 years. The heat there is NOTHING compared to the heat in Vegas. The heat in Vegas is debilitating. It makes you not want to go out during the day. It is well over 100 late into the evenings. Miami was a piece of cake.
@@johncalvo1743 Never been to Miami but it's on the Atlantic coast, not technically the Gulf coast. Quick Wiki review looks like Houston is 2-5 degrees hotter than Miami in the 3 hottest months, with same relative humidity. So me going to Miami would actually be cooler. But anyway, I don't believe you that Vegas heat is worse than Miami. If you are being honest then you're the only one I've heard say this. Dry heat is way better than humid heat. Like others have said, in dry heat you simply find shade and drink water. In himid climates, finding shade does NOTHING since the steamy air still touches you. Vegas ain't shit, bro.
I'm from Houma, LA. I think one problem aside from the insane humidity and threat of hurricanes, is government corruption (in Louisiana at least. I can't speak for the rest of the region), and the fact that the only major tourist destination is New Orleans. The oilfield industry is the only real job you can get without a college degree, and nobody truly wants to work out there.
Lmao. You're from commiefornia and talking about other states being corrupt.
You come from one of the most corrupt states and cities.
Houston is a tourist destination kinda lol
When I was about age nine my sister lived in Houma. We went to a mall in New Orleans and saw a brutal murder. A guy had his head stomped flat. His eyes were on the pavement. That was my introduction to New Orleans. I also had a person threaten me with a knife in Houma.
Having lived in New Orleans for 4 years, I can testify that Louisiana has the best politicians money can buy!
Yeah LA is essentially a Petrol State run by the oil industry. That's why all the civilian infrastructure is trash. They keep New Orleans around as a place to entertain their workers but refuse to keep the rest of the state functioning.
I remember doing Army training in the dead of summer late July-late August 2009 at Camp Shelby, Mississippi. The most brutal humidity I've ever felt in my life. Our barracks had no AC and it was miserable, 90 degrees at 0500 wakeup and sweat already pouring off of you. I deployed to Iraq a year later and the dry desert heat in the 110-125 degree range was actually more tolerable than the 90-100 with humidity in Mississippi. I actually had spent a lot of time in the south during my time in the Army too (Fort Benning, Bragg, and Polk) so I wasn't totally unaccustomed to southern heat, but what I went through in Mississippi that summer was brutal. We actually had a lot of guys who passed out as heat casualties, more than I ever saw in Georgia or North Carolina. All the respect in the world to people who live down there and endure that humidity. I'll take the snow and no humidity in the midwest over that any day haha
That's dangerous. I'm surprised nobody died.
Are you kidding, no air conditioning in an Army barracks? Boo hoo hoo. I was in Ft. Bragg NC in July and August 1966, our barracks were just reopened from WW2.Air conditioning was not to be found, we had other things on our minds.
My eldest son and his Army Reserve unit did their summer e er year at CA p Shelby.. below Hattiesburg ...His unit was in wayne co before Meriden Ms... group of GREEN Beret guys where Ne in a d wS going to show the reserves how to run long distances ....what those guys didn't understand was guys down here train in humidity ,sometime soaking rains and in in winter old and rain ect.. they started out our guys behind them and they got bright ide to speed up.. while reserves just keep same pace instead of speeding up apox mile.. they past these them about collapsed on side of road ...they looked at the.them and kept going without grasping for breathe.... guess .they kinda chuckled at them after how those guys saying locals guys needed to toughen up
. Bah bah ..same two weeks Lottle guy Charlie Colley and my son shot expert in Chemical gear with their rifles and their machine gun I believe .They Won the ribbon streamer for their unit....
@@stevepanos2050wow, you must be the toughest guy on the planet! Your generation is surely the greatest. I’m sure the generation before you had nothing but the utmost respect. LMAOOOO
I live in Biloxi. This summer we had multiple nights of 100+ weather.
Five years ago, i had to stop over in Houston on flight back to Virginia.
There was a storm that night forming in the Gulf, and i was lucky enough to sit on the right side of the plane in a window seat. The spectacle was beyond description. The interplay of cloud to cloud lightning at vast scales was both eerie and humbling. i don't think ppl can appreciate the absolute volume of wet, hot and angry air that can spin up in that hurricane hatchery we call the Gulf.
Houston in summertime, those storms seem to form up out of morning almost daily. That’s about the only break we get from the 100% nonstop humidity of summer here.
Yes! I was once on a flight from LA to Ft Lauderdale and saw something similar over the New Orleans area. It looked like bombs were going off all over the place. Surprisingly the ride was smooth.
If you fly Houston to New Orleans, you can regularly see the angry, hot cauldron that is the Gulf of Mexico, shooting rain clouds to Virginia like God's Artillery
Poetry
Such an eloquent comment - hope you are a writer in break life
I'm from the Gulf Coast so I have a lot of opinions of this. Firstly, New Orleans and Gulf Coast MS have prioritized hospitality and service industries jobs in terms of economic growth. They've done this instead of focusing on manufacturing and/or tech hub jobs. And the hospitality industry is so volatile that it can't sustain a city or region, especially when some sort of event, like a hurricane or Covid, takes place. I don't think it's some big coincidence that crime in New Orleans has skyrocketed since Covid. NOBODY had a job in the city. Sure, crime increased everywhere in 2020, but New Orleans is now number 1 in terms of crime.
New orleans has an enormous amount if industry. It s all just owned by Texans. We lost the oil game in the 1980's, man. Oil stands to lose a lot if they allow another industry to come in, and participate in politics, like medicine. We give away Billions in tax breaks to industry.
@@eustatic3832 wrong the oil companies left in the 90’s and New Orleans is the number one manufacturer of all oil not even Texas is. One problem is that the Long family still owns all the mineral rights since it’s in the Louisiana constitution. The south has a lot very poor politics as well a lot politics have stolen money like Huey P Long
The motels and Hotels are nasty.
it’s depressing bc i love the city, but the crime is just out of hand. i haven’t even gone to some of my favorite restaurants recently because it’s been so bad, shit is depressing 😭
New orleans is 59% bwack. That's legitimately the only reason, and a perfect explanation, for why theres no jobs and high crime.
It's super underrated. The coastline itself does not really get pretty until you hit Alabama. Everything west of Mobile bay is fairly dirty because of the way the Mississippi river breaks up into a delta, but there is a stretch of beautiful beach about 100 miles long from Gulf Shores, AL to Panama City, FL where the sand is brilliant white and baby powder soft. It is fairly developed for the most part, but the properties are considerably cheaper than other parts of the country. There are even a few places where you can still buy land on the ocean and build a dream home. Many people from the south call it the Redneck Riviera.
I mean ..... you assume everything west of mobile bay even has a beach. As a resident of Louisiana .... *ahem ....* .... yeah, not so much lol
Its like people (not you, at least you mentioned the fact ....) forget that the delta even exists lol
@@Becca4.2 Right... there aren't really any beaches on the primary coastline until you get far enough west of not just the Miss. River delta but also the Atchafalaya R. basin (which I suppose most geographers would consider all part of the same system). Although there are beaches on some of the barrier islands off the coast, those are being steadily eroded away. So, there are beach areas along the southwestern coastline, but they don't have nearly the quality of the beaches east of the Miss. River delta region. And, there's no way to develop tourist-type infrastructure to support them (as is done along parts of the Texas coast) because they're backed up mostly by marshlands. Final strike against them is the frequency of tropical storms that tuck into that area -- with at least two major storms in the past 15 to 20 years, not to mention several smaller storms. (I'm originally from southwestern La., about 25 to 30 miles from the coast.)
Hey I resemble that remark. We love Destin FL and Gulf Shores AL. Vacation there all the time. Don't know if I would live there if I wasn't on the beach...
The beach is beating, but it's in the region of hurricane formations and path... that's the issue.
Might wanna recheck your property prices. If you're looking for any amount of land, you'll pay through the nose.
I was just on the Gulf Coast 3 days ago. I absolutely love that region.
I’m original from NOLA, but just one note here, Geoff, Mobile is pronounced “Mobeel”. It’s actually yet another town with French roots in this area. Just wanted to share. Thx.
Caught that too.
I'm British and I don't live in the US, yet I know that and have known it for about 60 years. Don't people learn ANYTHING these days?
I can't keep up with how to pronounce all these names. Try Henrico County, Virginia, Bexar County, Texas (or the town of Boerne in that county), or even Pierre, South Dakota.
@@DieFlabbergast He's probably not from the area, people pronounce things differently across the US. Plus if you're British you might've picked up the correct pronunciation from your proximity to France.
Another example of locals pronouncing a town name in a counterintuitive way, just to mess with out of towners I guess.
Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama are now getting way more destructive tornadoes than they used to. Look what happened in Mississippi last Friday.
I agree, something is definitely going on. I've lived on the Gulf Coast for many years. I have never seen this many destructive storms.
Right. Even the Bible says natural disasters will increase.
At the same time, Oklahoma and Kansas are getting way less destructive tornadoes than they used to get.
@@thearachnid7779 bible deez nuts
It seems like every week for the last six months there's been a devastating storm between Louisiana and Mississippi
The actual Gulf Coast region is much narrower than your map indicates, extending only 25-50 miles inland in that area. Beyond those few miles, you're back into Eastern Forest, just like the rest of the State. Like most have stated, the frequency of hurricanes is the number one deterrent to human population growth. It's a beautiful retirement area, or would be if Biloxi/Gulfport/Mobile concentrated their effort to improve the quality and reputation of their health care facilities.
I feel like University of South Al is contributing a lot here.
I’m from Bay St Louis, Ms the Gulf coast part ends when you get north of I-10.
Yep... As much as I'm tired of the cold in Wyoming? It's easier to prepare for a blizzard than a hurricane.
You nailed it. In all the maps you could see differences between the narrow band you describe and the pine belt north of it. The author should look at just the area of these states between I-10 and I-20 - that would have even worse stats. The area also lacks a very large city (or more accurately the suburbs of a very large city).
@@markmclaughlin2690 I am also from Bay Saint Louis, MS and I agree. If you go north of I10 it is either forest or country.
I think you should also include that the weather down there is barely within the spectrum of tolerable during the summer months. I've had the pleasure of visiting the area, and while the people, food, culture, and scenery were amazing, the extreme heat and humidity made me immediately homesick.
My husband and I are from MS, and we go mad literally every summer. The heat makes us sick. We get depressed and either sweat our asses off or waste away indoors. Sept-May are very lovely
I used to live in Houston and the summers are unbearable along the coast. The Florida beaches might be a nice vacation spot during the summer, but most people can't handle the humidity.
Same except people were not nice at all, especially Mississippi
When you're born and raised in the South you get used to the humidity lol...
Like people up North are used to snow lol
@@goxyeagle8446I was impressed with Mississippi when I stopped at the first Mississippi exit to get the free map they gave us free Coca-Cola!!! So friendly!
I grew up in Pascagoula, Mississippi. It was a small town and a wonderful place to grow up. My dad had a great job as an architect, but most everybody worked for either the ship yard or the Chevron refinery. I couldn’t continue my current career if I lived there, so there’s no reason for me to move back. Like a coal or steel town, there’s little to do outside of the main employer.
My in-laws worked for Ingalls Shipyard and lived in Pascagoula. It was always fun to visit them.
It’s either Ingalls or hospitality/Min wage jobs. Very stagnant place unfortunately,tons of potential.
Was that like 50 years ago?
I’m originally from this region and moved away as soon as I could. It really is a great area but economically poor, bad and corrupt politics and infrastructure is horrible, especially with the hurricanes and tornadoes that are pounding the area in the last several years. I go back to my hometown often and not much has changed since the 1980’s.
I'm from Mississippi I plan on moving to georgia soon or either New York 😂
Yeah being a theocratic libertarian hell hole doesn't sound appealing.
Thanks for leaving.
@@michaelgomez3044 You forgot the biggest point, the people are just god awful. Hyper religious and bigoted people who vote against their own best interest, leading to brain drain as anyone with sense leaves. All that’s left are landed elites or people like Michael Gomez here, convinced it’s great to eat the landed elites shit
@@michaelgomez3044 welcome.
Am moving there this summer. Spent every summer going there and the beaches are amazing. The people friendly and homes affordable. The gulf coast is Amazing
But sir house insurance is very high.
@@JohnGarnerIII I love that it’s underrated, keep them northerner and Californians out of here. I have been in the NOLA area since 1976 and see myself retiring here. It’s not for everyone but if you work hard you can have a great life down here
get back to me after you've lived here for a year and a half or two. try to get anything done and not be part of the good old boy system here. don't piss anyone off minor offences result in unforgettable lifetimes of hate. I've lived in a five generation family home for most of my life here on the coast and I can honestly say at 70 years of age that I can think of not one single redeeming quality to the entire region. after losing my wife last year I'm preparing to sell out and never look back on this hideous place ever again. good luck to you but I found nothing but misery here.
@@chettravirca4028Yes that person will likely be in for a very rude awakening once they actually experience what you’ve described. The same exact thing goes on in rural PA and Delaware and I’ve seen outsiders get basically ran out of town within 1-2 years. I can only imagine how bad it is in MS…
@@chettravirca4028 I’m sorry for your loss. The good ol boy system is truly disgusting. Hope you find a place you can enjoy!
As a student in Tallahassee, in just over a year the city has started to completely revitalize itself. When I moved here at the beginning of my freshman year it looked extremely unkempt and certain places looked almost abandoned. Since then I’ve seen so many construction projects that it reminds me a bit of Miami. I think Tallahassee is definitely going to start kicking off the spur of growth in this region, especially as people start getting priced out from living in South Florida.
and then comes the next hurricane washing everything clean.
id rather live in a desert than that death gulf.
What construction in Tallahassee do you speak off? Cheap wooden junk collegetown dorm apartments that will get eaten by termites or destroyed by a hurricane within 50 years? You you have to be insane minded to compare that place to a megapolis like Miami. Sorry to break to you bud, anything build after 1980 in Tallahassee is not going to last past this century.
@@Jack-he8jv Tallahassee fares really well in storms historically as it is just far enough east into the big bend region of FL.
@@Jack-he8jv Tallahassee isn't on the coast
@@MrPolandball I doubt all the glass and high rises in S FL will survive a cat 5. Hell. Even in Jacksonville when storms pass a hundred miles away our coast gets ate alive. At least tally isn’t right on the water front.
You missed how many hundreds of thousands of acres of land are owned by the government. Just in NW Florida, there is Eglin AFB with 340,000 acres. Blackwater state forest is 207,000 acres. Apalachicola forest is 633,000 acres. There are other smaller holdings, but it adds up to not a lot of space for people to live on. That land alone is ~1850 square miles, or nearly 20% of all of the land in the Florida panhandle.
45 percent of California is owned by the federal government but that doesn't stop people from moving there.
Yeah, the reason for this is that nobody wants to live there. Believe me, if the land was that valuable, the developers would have bought the government out years ago. If you are blaming the government for this, you are barking up the wrong tree.
Many endangered species live in these areas that aren't elsewhere in the country. Plus these areas are important for maintaining the historic pine ecosystems.
@@paulkoza8652 Iam good with nobody wonting to live here in the panhandle. But the fact is the population is growing. You also don't get to buy Air Force property because you are a developer or anything else for that matter. And yes, a piece of land that has a bay on one side and the gulf on the other [Tyndall Air Force Base] is as valuable as it gets.
Once the military is defunded we'll be able to grow-
I moved to Gulf Shores, AL 13 years ago and do no regret it at all. It has to the best remaining affordable beach town with beautiful white sand in America right now. Summers hot. Winters short. Fall and Spring are gorgeous. Storms are a crap shoot - that can happen to you anywhere (I moved from the tornado alley part of the country). All in all, happy here.
We have a home in Foley, AL, and we absolutely love Baldwin County. We just do October to March and would like to stay longer, but with two homes back in Tennessee we have to come back to mow grass. Where we live in East TN, we have not had one day in the 100s for 7 years.
@@ronwinkles2601 Its time for you to sell all that TN property and become full time South AL resident :)
I guarantee you as someone from Mobile most people cannot afford gulfshores it's a tourist trap now with no affordable housing for its residents and they cater more to tourists then the people who actually live and work here not to mention the rude tourists and snow birds who flock here for vacation and retirement that disrespect the people and the land
Lousiana and Mississippi are bayou; a lot of Florida is swamp; the "nice" beaches are really limited to Gulf Shores to Panama City, so just a small part of that area.
Those aren’t even the nice beaches……
Biloxi and Pass Christian have nice beaches too.
as someone who’s spent countless summers there let me give you an unabridged list. HEAT, TORNADOES, HURRICANES, humidity that would choke a horse, lack of equal education, and the bugs are effing massive!
You are over-generalizing about the bugs. Fire ants, flies, mosquitoes and roaches are NOT that big.
And south Florida is heavily populated because it's all old people and drug smugglers and some Hispanic workers. In other words most people in south Florida don't work there and a large percentage leave during the sweltering summer heat. And the cost of hurricane damage is subsidized by FEMA but also the state of Florida pays to keep insurance affordable but it's still the highest insurance in the nation.
@@vernonfrance2974 I dont know about that one man. I live in new orleans and we do air bnb at my house. Had a guest last month from NY that saw a roach in our backyard and freaked out asking me "Are they all this huge?". Wasn't even one of the big ones. Never been anywhere else long enough to notice their bugs much, but it seems to be surprising to people who aren't from here. For context, the biggest ones I've seen are just barely smaller than a smartphone
@@Jermzzzzz I stand corrected. I am used to the small German roaches from when I lived in California and Boston. I don't have any here in Northern Nevada.
The fire ants may be small but they can do a lot of damage through force of numbers and painful bites.
@@vernonfrance2974 Growing up, the small german ones were considered "nasty" b/c it meant they were infested in the walls and breeding. The giant tree roaches, although disgustingly huge, were not "nasty" b/c they lived and reproduced outside in the pine needles and did not in fact infest your home. Just some MS folklore for ya ;)
Cool video idea: Why most of central and northern Maine is underpopulated compared to its New England neighbors to the west?
Winter
@@dougmartin7129 but canada?
@@outlaw1179 St Lawrence River
Because of Geological constraints. It could probably support a higher population as a part of Canada, just as the Milk River and Pakowki Lake of S.E Alberta would probably better develop as a part of Montana
@@outlaw1179 most Canadians live south of the northern parts of Maine
As someone who grew up in this region and moved out as an adult, I really thought I would be dealing with afternoon thunderstorms all my life.
we had the 1:30 pm - 2 pm thunderstorm just enough rain for the afternoon humidity, what's Florida without the humidity?😬
I grew up in Fort Walton Beach, Florida! I used to love the daily thunderstorms. I live in New Hampshire now and we have legit 6 months of Winter 😢 We do get a few thunderstorms in the summer and I get excited every time lol
I grew up on the coast and miss the thunderstorms to much 😭
The brutal humidity that many write about extends down to Houston. Strangely, further down towards Corpus Christi and beyond, the humidity is significantly less. In Houston I'd be sweltering outside in early October at 10:00 PM at night , while in mid-August in Corpus, it's often comfortable to sit outside on the porch at 6-7:00 PM. Very warm for sure, but not stifling. The persistent breezes certainly helps too.
“Besides the occasional tropical storm is blessed with weather most regions would beg for” 13 seconds in and my mind is blown and I’m lmao.
Devastating hurricanes hit the coast on a regular basis. Hurricane Ida, Laura, Marco, Delta, and Sally since 2019. With many more tropical storms. The weather itself is humid, like 80% or higher close to 24/7 365. So if you like to sweat, have two season then yes the weather is lovely…
Hot, humid, mosquitoes, flies, black widows, fiddlebacks, scorpions, rattlesnakes, water moccasins, copperheads, and yes, an occasional coral snake. Did I miss anything?
@@mickbadgero5457 don't forget the massive flying tree roaches
I agree that there's way more hurricanes and destructives storms that this guy says. Very many residents have been displaced every year and just don't return.
The MS Coast still feels “empty” compared to before Katrina. You’ll still find countless concrete foundations and empty use-to-be neighborhoods that have been reclaimed by nature.
I can’t really speak to a lot about this region, as it’s not my home per se, but I do live in Jacksonville FL, so I think I’m familiar enough with the weather. What I will say, is the weather in this region generally sucks compared to the more eastern parts of the south.
Here’s why:
1) the sea breeze is very different from the East and west (gulf coast). A sea breeze off the Atlantic feels refreshing and comfortable. The west coast (Gulf breeze) feels like getting hit with a more humid sauna steam version of air. I think because the air is more stagnant over the gulf
2) hurricanes- while Florida does get hit, most places only suffer the brunt from west or east coast storms. The panhandle to LA can experience impacts from both sides. Also, a lot of storms that make landfall on the Atlantic coast are weakened by land such as Puerto Rico, Cuba, or the Bahamas. Once in the gulf, nothing really tears storms apart.
3) the Florida peninsula and Atlantic Ocean help to moderate temps. It will be over 100 in New Orleans, Jackson, or Birmingham but only in the 80s or 90s from Miami to the outer banks. This is especially true during strong summer highs.
4) a lot of potent and severe storms start to fall apart by the time they hit the Atlantic. The Deep South and MS delta seem to get a lot more of the violent outbreaks as compared to most of Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas.
But, this is all just some general observations 😊
Very interesting Sir. Saying Hi from the Netherlands.
i noticed this too. storms approach mobile lately and they fall apart around there or as they approach my place in pensacola. reminds me of where i moved from which is bismarck ND where most of the storms develeped to my east. its like. i got the same luck but its reversed if you get my drift. i been here since 2021 and i still have not seen that. constant rains that i was promised.. at least locally. surrounding me sure.. but at my house no.. and your right about the sea breeze...
@@kennycarter5682 I think the storms are more common around Florida due to the collision of the breezes and then the northern part of GA , AL, and MS as the warm air meets the slightly cooler air coming down from both Canada/the Great Lakes and the smokies. For example, the wedge that happens in GA and the Carolina’s during the winter.
It always seems like LA which can get a fetch from the East and then the northern part of those states get rain and Florida. But it does seem like very often there is less coverage from the MS gulf coast, to Birmingham and back down to maybe Panama City. Like not a crazy difference, but I do think it’s noticeable.
@@kennycarter5682 if you really want the rain here In Florida during the summer we can have several weeks of 50% chance of storms or higher. Growing up you could almost set your watch for 4:00. I hope you are enjoying life in the south so far 😀
Yeah, a lot of people don’t think about the difference the sea breeze makes.
I grew up in Fort Walton Beach Florida. The entire town is completely captured by the military-industrial complex and real estate companies. I eventually wanted to be able to afford to live outside my parent's home so at 24 I dropped everything to move into a friend's uncle's basement in Ohio. Best decision of my life. It was pretty easy to find a job that didn't leave me wondering how many meals I would have to skip to make rent. I even own my own home now.
I vacationed near Ft. Walton many times!!!
@@DugrozReports It's a great area to visit, the beaches are beautiful. Don't live there unless you have money... Or work for the military.
Exactly. The military have destroyed niceville-it’s now houses with no yard and traffic. And average home price is $340,000
@@cdybft9050 $340 is cheap
@@cdybft9050 y’all have houses for only $340K? hook up your brothers from the other side of the bay!
It’s because the flies are the size of hummingbirds
Also, despite all the precipitation, there’s a distinct lack of Chocolate Rain…
Number 1 reason:
A particular swampdweller shouting "THIS IS MY SWAMP"!!
I live in this region and two corrections: 1) it is pronounced Moe-beel and 2) brutal, you meant BRUTAL summers of 90's to 100's with 90%+ humidity. Other than those small corrections, this video is awesome. Love the information and historical data you provided. Keep up the good work!
Relative humidity is the percentage of the amount of moisture that can be held in the air. The higher the temperature the more moisture can be held. What that means it that, assuming the actual amount of moisture remains the same, as the temperature rises during the day, the relative humidity goes DOWN. That means temps of 90+ with relative humidity of 90% just doesn't happen. The numbers just don't work that day. On a really hot humid day you might get a RH of 70% at the peak temperature but that doesn't sound as dramatic. And then as the temperature drops in the evening the RH might approach 90%.
This is why dew point is a much better measure of the level of humidity discomfort. Any dew point above 68 F is going to be uncomfortable and sometimes in the south the dew points can rise to the high 70's with temperatures rising well into the 90's.
It’s spelt mobile so ima say mobile
@@yearbyguy4470 That's about as good as "spelt" and "ima." It's as he said; MOE-beel.
The pronunciation of Lafayette was like fingernails across a chalk board, too. Locals say it more like Laffy-ette. I spent 8 long years in South Louisiana; don't need the subtitles any more if I watch "Swamp People."
@@David-hm9ic 'Spelt' is how they say and spell 'spelled' in the U.K. I hear people up north saying 'Spelt' at times instead of 'Spelled.' In the south it's left over from British settlers. Like people saying 'Yonder' which is old English.
The Mississippi coast is beautiful. We're 1 hour from New Orleans and have great fishing. Katrina slammed MS.worse than New Orleans. There are still empty lots everywhere. Our coast has a line of barrier islands which keeps our beach a little stagnant. If you have a boat, a short 10 mile trip and you are in clear, clean waters. We have great food, great restaurants. Biloxi is over run with casinos and traffic. Everywhere else is beautiful.
@Gretchen K. I'd say places like Pascagoula and Gautier still have that small town charm.
Katrina also destroyed most of the old homes that graced Beach Blvd across the Mississippi coast. My mother’s home in Bay St. Louis was wiped out. We only found a brass bell and her recliner was blown into a tree on the north side of I10.
@@safron2442 they were further from the eye of the storm.
@@susanvinson2667 I'm aware. I wasn't talking about Katrina, but rather the casinos and lost small town charm that Gretchen mentioned. Sad to see places like Waveland that just got completely wiped off the map
@@safron2442 that’s why I mentioned the beautiful homes that added to all that charm. I miss those second Saturdays in downtown Bay St. Louis and the Fire Dog.
I think some people commenting didn't notice that pointed out that south Florida & Houston are growing so much since they seem to be putting most of the blame on the weather. Hurricane Katrina is probably the biggest factor, it's tough to really understand just how much it just obliterated without seeing it first hand. My parents grew up in this region (Mom in Moss Point, MS, not too far from Biloxi, Dad in Grand Bay, Alabam, near Mobile) and my grandparents still lived there is 2005. So many people decided to leave instead of rebuild, and the impact of that has lasted a long time.
Very true!!
hello from the Gulf Coast of Louisiana, your channel and podcast are great! Wages here suck, the humid climate here is awful, people are not generally tolerant of minorities here, the coastline is eroding, crime is relatively high, poverty is high, and hurricanes routinely destroy the already bad infrastructure. Brain drain is pretty intense here, people tend to move as soon as they're educated. This just reinforces the poor state of this region's economy. The weather's nice, the beaches in Alabama and Florida are pretty, and the Cajun/Creole cultures are fun but this area is nicer to visit than to live in. I'm going to contribute to the brain drain and move to Cascadia in a few months 💀
Welcome to Cascadia. I live in Portland, and we are undergoing some difficulties right now (we're not alone in this) but it's still a good place to live, and the rest of Cascadia is as good or better. Except Crescent City. Don't move there.
Yup. Did the same except I moved to Orlando. It's crazy because, aside from food/culture, Orlando is better than New Orleans in every way. Similar temperatures but less humid, better education, more to do, prettier nature. And people are just happier with their lives and it's obvious. I always tell people that Nola is amazing to visit but rough to live in. Best of luck in your journey.
Cascadia isn't the utopia people claim. The major cities are pretty bad crime wise and the smaller cities are the same as anywhere else. If you like nature and mountains then welcome, if you're here for the rest then please don't get your hopes up.
This hits the nail on the head. Both my parents are from Lafayette LA, and both moved as soon as they graduated college (to Dallas, then Atlanta). Of my mom's three siblings, 2 did the same thing. Only the one without a college degree stayed. I explored potentially moving back but the high crime, bad weather, and bad job market just made it infeasible.
@@techtutorvideos that's kinda the point lol, I was trying to point out that the politics of cascadia don't make it any different then the rest of the country.
I grew up 45 mins from Gulf of Mexico in south Louisiana. I’ve always asked myself the same question.
I’m from Louisiana too . For me it was financials and education
From gulf of Mississippi.
Education system is poor
Infrastructure is poor
Humidity is horrific for people who have never experienced it. Once saw it end a marriage engagement
While I understand why people don't want to live there, I am very surprised it isn't more of a vacation destination.
@@8cupsCoffee During covid that's all you saw was New York plates all over the Gulf Coast.
@@PandorasFolly I lived there and sometimes in the summer, I would walk outside and feel nauseated smelling the heavy, humid stagnant air.
I lived in that area. It's hot, but really nice with plenty of friendly, chilled out people.
I live on the gulf coast and it’s packed with people. Traffic gridlocked, schools overcrowded, gas stations packed.
In some gulf coast beach communities, the tap water smells like sulfur and is barely drinkable. I remember a vacation where the first stop was to buy bottled water.
I mean no shit it’s saltwater
Go to Montreal. Their water is exactly the way you are describing as well. Very sulfurous. I rode my bike through the region and what i noticed wasnt that the water tasted terrible but that it was so soft. It ft like i couldnt wash the soap off myself in the shower.
I like the water down here it’s soft water and they say soft water soft skin cuz it permeates ur epidermis naturally or maybe it’s the humidity. Either way so long as you don’t smoke and don’t let your skin get fried you should have nice shiny skin leaving down here
@@voiceofreason2674 I used to live in the TX panhandle where the water is so hard, your showerheads would calcify shut in a year. The super soft water down there took some getting used to. I only live an hour north of New Orleans and the water here is nowhere near that soft. I've also heard anecdotal tales about the superiority of soft water.
@@zimmejoc Yea N.O. Covington and Mandeville all have slightly hard water but it’s really soft in Baton Rouge Slidell or Biloxi. I went from New Orleans to Baton Rouge for college and I remember washing my car the first time and the water just turned the soap into pure thick foam instantly I was like whoa this some magic water
8:00 I lived in Biloxi in 2008. Former houses and shopping centers were just slabs. I overheard poker players telling stories of riding out Katrina in a bathroom with their dogs with a mattress over them. The regions of Bay. St. Louis, Gulfport and Biloxi were destroyed, yet New Orleans got all the headlines.
MS and AL were hit so hard the news crews couldn't get there.
That’s because New Orleans was under water primarily due to government failure.
Thats because yes, yall got fucked over by simple hurricane damage. but new orleans was only fucked over due to the government. Not only that yall got paid well after the storm, residents in Louisiana only got 2-20k maybe a bit more even though they were promised wayyyy more and the state government took most the money. The government fucked new orleans. Also got to remember new orleans at the time was a major city with a million people
@@mssha1980 "government failure." The "government" and israel did 911. So, there's that!
This MS GUlf coast was referred to as a "Landmass"
It's crazy that you mentioned the alabama river as a major water wag when Louisiana also has the Red, Sabine, Ouachita Rivers which are all longer and larger
Not to mention the mighty Mississippi River
They're all major rivers that support the biodiversity of the gulf coast through their nutrient rich water same with the tombigbee they all deserve protection and respect
Your comment on infrastruture is so true. I have driven from Tampa to Dallas and back several times. The farther west you go, the worse the road conditions. And its a distinct transition right at the state lines.
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana have a lot in common in terms of the placement of cities. There's almost a straight line across these states that would be roughly equal to the top line in the region laid out here. This line is a string of cities. Macon and Columbus in GA, Montgomery in AL, Jackson in MS, and Shreveport in LA. There are also mid to large sized cities on the coast in every state. Pensacola and many other in FL, Mobile and Gulf Shores in AL, Gulfport and Biloxi in MS, and New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Lafayette in LA (although Baton Rouge and Lafayette aren't quite coastal). The area in between these central and coastal cities is where the real emptiness is and where there's much smaller populations. This area is almost the same in every state. A lot of farmland, very small towns, a very large slave population in the 1800's, and a lot of poverty. There are good pockets in there in every state, but that would be an accurate description for all of these. There's no big businesses that will ever be in this part of these states because they'll either want to be on the coast or at a larger and nicer centrally located city. That will make it very difficult for this area to ever grow. We may see this big gap and this large area stay rural for quite some time. However, as a native Alabamian, I can definitely there's nothing wrong with a good ole small town. Some of the nicest people in the world live in places like that, and I'd never want that to go away!
what about the garbage education system, horrible drinking water, racism, and lack of real careers (not "jobs") ?
@@rickywatters7692 I've met more racist people when traveling the country than I have my whole life living in the South. That's a massive stereotype. Of course racists exist everywhere, but they are genuinely very few and far between. The vast majority of people here will determine their opinion of other people based on their character alone, regardless of race or social class. There's also plenty of "real jobs". We have doctors, lawyers, and big corporations like everyone else. The drinking water issue was rather localized around Jackson, MS. We've also got plenty of private schools and amazing universities to get a great education at. We've also got some of the most affordable housing and lowest taxes in the country. Don't listen to the news. Come and see for yourself. I'd love to show you around and show you that this part of the country really is a great place! Southern hospitality isn't a myth.
@@brandonspivey4467 That’s crap. You must not be a minority. Racism isn’t standing outside in a KKK uniform burning crosses anymore (not to mention they STILL do that sh*t btw lol). It’s “subtle racism” like refusing to service you at some stores. Blatantly being targeted by police in predominantly white areas as a minority. Things like that, as any “glory day” racism would likely get many killed in this day and age.
I’ve lived in Bama my whole life spare a few years of elementary in Georgia and one thing I can say is when it comes to White and Black it’s all the way love or completely hate. There is no in between. But it does exist without a doubt.
@@rickywatters7692 Midwestern people are more racist than Southerners. I speak from experience. I'm white, too.
@brandonspivey... As a long time resident of Jackson, MS now retired to Gulfport, I would point out that 'good private schools' do not make up for the poor public education that plagues so much of our beautiful, humid, hurricane prone area.
Hey Geoff, great video. I’m from the Biloxi/Gulfport MS area, and up until very recently I owned a U-Haul franchise. The amount of population growth we, as well as the other areas you’ve mentioned have experienced since COVID has been astounding. The U-Haul metrics have shown us there’s been a large influx out of CA and NY to the Gulf Coast. That being said, I believe “growth” as you’ve discussed in the video (and as people often do) is subjective, and that’s what so many people don’t realize. We don’t want to be like any other large metropolitan area, and our people don’t really value or measure growth by getting alot of people to move here. In fact many people I talk with are frustrated at the amount of people moving in and driving up real estate prices. The fact of the matter is our people don’t want to live in a metropolitan area, or they would likely move to one.
Data shows that southern red states have almost all lost total population. In your area this might be less obvious than the influx.
@@Combatwhombat That may be the case, I haven’t studied any census data, just citing empirical evidence and our U-Haul metrics. My whole point with this is that we don’t necessarily care because “growth” is subjective in some sense. People that live in more rural areas don’t necessarily place high value on a bunch of people moving in. And I’d probably attribute what you’ve mentioned to the vast swathes of desolate areas in these states, I can imagine people would want to leave those ultra impoverished areas. But for our areas that are more toured with beaches, casinos, etc immediately along the coast there has definitely been an explosion in immigration.
I agree with your sentiments about the culture of the gulf coast, we like it here because it’s not overwhelmingly populated or metropolitan. We like that there isn’t gridlock traffic during rush hours.
The quintessential essence of the gulf coast is casual leisure, living a low stress lifestyle, being kind and sincere to everyone because it’s what you should do, not because you want something from people.
We don’t mind if people move here but we explicitly do not want nor welcome people moving here when they are only interested in exploiting the affordable real estate market for the sake of accumulating as much money and passive income as possible while also making absolutely zero-to-no effort to assimilate themselves with the inherent local ethos and cultural values we are so fond of.
I encounter so many transplants from CA now who only care about the local people or our rich history and culture when it involves an opportunity for them to make money from it. Theyll start a youtube channel giving advice on the best hot spots of the city to visit to drum up interest in their tour guide business they started, pretending they are experts on their so called “hometown” they’ve been living in since 2 months ago, yet they have no clue what the actual best places are because they’re getting their material from doing a google search for the best local spots to check out.
These are the same people who, even though they chose to buy 3 houses here to rent out on Airbnb and start their tour guide business here, will complain about how boring it is to live here to locals and how much better it would be if only we had an in-and-out-burger and all the other things that they miss about California that makes it so much better than it is here, then go home to call everyone they know in CA to try and convince them to sell their house in los angeles so they can move here and buy several properties to rent out on airbnb just like they did, just so theyll have a west coast friend who can live 10 minutes away for them to constantly complain about how much it isn’t California together.
I’m just saying.
@@CombatwhombatCensus data, especially 2021 estimates would disagree. MS and LA have population losses, however GA, AL, FL, and TX have all grown. You could make the argument that GA is not a red state, but the other ones would be difficult to argue against.
Mississippi SHRANK. Did you not even watch the video? 🤦♂️
I’ve lived in Alabama my whole life, and it honestly isn’t as bad as people are making it out to be. Where I live we have a solid 6 months of perfect weather. Spring and Fall are magical here and the winters are gentle and short. Our “summer” is like everyone else’s “winter” where you just stay inside and chill for awhile until the weather is favorable again lol.
100% correct - I said exactly the same thing. In the summer, my wife and I just spend our days indoors and head out to the beach around 5pm after all the tourists have burned and broiled themselves to oblivion. We start our beach time when there's fewer people down there, and the weather gets cooler by the minute. Its actually fun and comfortable to be on the beach as the sun goes down.
It’s also filled the brim with klansmen
I grew up in Birmingham and have lived in Mobile since 2000. I hate this heat and would prefer all four seasons including colder winters to kill off of the insects that abound. You'd think I'd be more heat tolerant, but no, this oppressive heat can take a toll. I do enjoy the rain especially since I've moved to Mobile we receive more rain than any other U.S. city. I've always wanted to live somewhere that has the climate of England, but I know most people don't care for the rain like I do. It's only since I've gotten older that I appreciate the beauty in this state.
only if you are white. Alabama definitely still has sundown towns.
Fake news. Lots of shootings, all out war in the Gulf of Alabama. Highly suggest staying away.
Air conditioning made it possible to live here in the summer. The summers can be brutal and seem to be getting worse. Then the hurricanes… since 1995 when I moved here, Panama City, we have had several, most recently a category five. So in a blink of an eye you can lose everything. I guess some don’t have the stomach for the risks.
That’s exactly what makes it so appealing; low population. Plenty of other places are being overdeveloped, like most of Florida. I get tired of seeing all the land clearing and all the added traffic. It’s nice to have a place to go to escape all the chaos and crowdedness and good to go to where the “real Florida” does still exist in some areas.
I grew up in the panhandle of Florida and I can't express how much I miss it. I like to clarify something when it comes to the weather. The weather was nice with the occasional small pockets of rain showers but the humidity freaking sucked. lol
I was born and raised in Columbus, GA which is right at the edge of this region. We definitely see a lot brain drain here as well. The vast majority of young people who get college degrees don’t stay around. Most move to Atlanta or Birmingham which are close but offer way more career opportunities.
Here in South Georgia, it might be even worse with brain drain without any big-ish cities besides Albany, Valdosta, and Brunswick(well that is not the gulf coast but still is South GA). Especially for tech careers many like myself had to stay in the ATL area to find good employment with upward mobility after college. At least in Columbus, Macon, Augusta, and Savannah they have a little more opportunity being decently sized 200-500k but I’m sure the problem still persists there no doubt as well
@@lleytonc you’re definitely right that Columbus doesn’t have it as bad as South Georgia but it’s still not great when almost all the people you grew up with move to Atlanta
As someone also from Columbus, they are 100% correct. Most of my friends move to Atlanta or bigger cities.
I’m from Atlanta, and everyone did move here! But a lot of people I know are buying homes in South Georgia, Alabama or the Florida panhandle, and plan to retire there. I think the perfect setup would be a home 60 miles from the Gulf Coast, and a cabin in North Georgia/Alabama.
@@lleytonc I'm from the Savannah area, eye-balling the Atlanta area for career growth. Most everyone I knew growing up left Savannah due to poor job market. Yeah, perhaps better than the rest of South GA, but it ain't pretty here either. It's Atlanta or bust.
I've lived all along this area and they only thing holding this region back is the lack of jobs. The University of South Alabama has become a major public university to the east and LSU to the west. Harrison County in Mississippi, Baldwin County in Alabama, along with most of the counties in Florida are some of the fastest growing counties in their respective states. The Gulf Coast is not the region you described. Most of the "Gulf Coast" culture is below or along I-10. A lot of French and Spanish influence has made this area super interesting to live in. Mardi Gras, obviously, is celebrated all along this region. Many manufacturing companies have moved to the South Alabama area. THE largest port in the US is also in this region along with BR, NOLA, Gulfport, MOB, and others bringing massive economic output for the rest of the country. The summers used to be brutal, but I have gotten used to them. Hurricane culture along the coast is very weird. Where I live, we do hurricane parties where a bunch of family and friends come over and pretty much camp out the hurricane. Very fun, might I add. Probably not the safest, and we don't stay around for cat 3 or higher. I have really enjoyed living in this area and the lifestyle is very relaxed all along the coast, especially in the sleepy beach towns along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Amtrak is beginning its service from Mobile to NOLA and that is going to be awesome for people without cars. Gulfport-Biloxi is seeing a major boom because of Casinos and subsequent tourism. A new one is even under construction right now. Sorry for the long message. This video seemed very negative and I thought I would highlight some of the positives of the region. This region is cohesive together and is vastly different than the rest of the states it is part of. Like night and day different. Def come visit if you are wanting to escape the cold.
Mobile is pronounced "Moh-BEEL", not "Mo-bill". There are a lot of other places on the Gulf whose names are generally mispronounced (Gautier, MS :) ), but Mobile sometimes gets national attention and when it's name gets butchered it is like nails on a chalk board to the locals.
I used to live on the MS Gulf coast and loved it there. I just went back to visit on a vacation and was surprised to see how much development has occurred in the past decade. That was really encouraging.
You hit on it, but jobs is the major issue. The MS, and AL gulf coasts are is lacking in stable high skill and high tech jobs. The major industries that do exist, such as ship building and oil and gas, tend to be volatile. After the 2008 financial crisis and during the Obama years there was major stagnation in the ship building industry. Ingalls (at the time it was Northrup Grumman) had hiring freezes and layoffs of engineers and skilled tradesman positions in their Pascagoula Yard and Avondale Yards. The smaller shipyards in the area were also hurting for business and weren't in a position to hire many of the folks. Also, working on Naval vessels isn't apples and oranges with oil and gas or fishing vessels.
The area just north of the immediate coastal counties is extremely rural and sparsely populated. E.g. George County, MS, Greene County, MS, Stone County MS, Washington County, AL -- the populations of these counties are around or under ~20k. Property is cheap in this area but there is limited access to high speed internet. For new construction you're probably going to have to drill a well, put in septic, and pay to put in some power poles to build outside of the small towns in the area. You might have to drive 45 minutes to the nearest Walmart, and an hour to get to a decent hospital.
Also, I wouldn't mention Montgomery, AL when talking about the Gulf Coast. The Montgomery area locally referred to as "The River Region", folks around there don't think of themselves as being on the Coast. Montgomery and Columbus are on the Fall Line and more Piedmont than Coastal Plain.
Doesn't it occur to you that some people do not care how the local yokels pronounce things? There are examples of this all over where people get upset and annoyed. Like Illinois where the "s" is not pronounced, Ne vad a with the sound of the first "a" like in "had", Boise like Boy zee, Cairo Illinois like Karo the syrup, Quincy MA like Quin "Z", Arkansas like "Ar can saw" instead of like Ar- kan's a$$., Connecticut pronounced like Cun etiquette instead of Connect ee cut. Paris KY where they say Pear iss instead of Pa ree.
Gautier!!
@@vernonfrance2974 Yokels? Lol, ignorant people mispronounce the names of places they have never been. It shows their ignorance and lack of culture.
@@kregcarpenter5785 (Go-shay) or (Go-sure)? Kinda like Saucier, (so-sure) not (saw-c-er)
@@sixoh_diesel5662 I consider myself to have been such a Yokel when young but by study and travel I learned about the difference between the original pronunciation of places named after those originals.
I was studying Spanish when I remember first noticing this. A tiny town near where we lived was mentioned. It was Buena Vista but the locals said bew -knee vis-tee.
People often look at the Gulf Coast and think about the SUFFOCATING humidity. Here in Mobile, summer temperatures are very consistent, and it rains just about every day from late May through early to mid September. But what's often forgotten about is the insects being ruthless. We have mosquitoes the size of pterodactyls, flying swamp roaches, big orb weaver spiders with webs that are a nightmare in the woods at night, and endless flies. But the bugs I hate most are the Guinea wasps because they are so vicious for being so small.
All facts
Not to mention the guinea bees, or even the guinea bears.
@@zumis1011 "or even the guinea bears."
---- those are extinct: they were a small bear similar to the Mississippi green bears but being black and yellow striped they were a lot easier to see in the woods; the early setters killed them all off because they were vicious as crabs but made nice looking rugs
i lived in florida and we had all these but the worst to me was something i didn’t name. the fire ants. worst worst worst thing. u csnt go outside without shoes for even 5 seconds
Yellow(Deer) Flies are the absolute worst. The painful itch is 10x worse than mosquito bites. Especially if you’re bit on your hands or feet.
I think you might have mistaken weather for temperature. I currently live in Florida, and I love the temperature, but I'm trying to move out because the humidity is awful.
Yup...
The temperatures in Florida suck too. No seasons. Personally I prefer temps in the 20s to 60s. Cold to pleasant. Florida is too damn hot. 80s, 90s and even if its in the 70s the humidity makes it still too warm
A/C is mandatory in Florida. At one time, I had relatives in Tampa, Tallahassee, Winter Park and Orlando. I was always ready to leave after a day or two. Too hot and too humid.
I graduated High School in Gulfport in 2000 , and always end up going through Biloxi with Air Force or Navy. I recently got orders to move back there for a few years. What I find interesting, despite Katrina happening almost 20 years ago , the still present impact on local area development and overall psyche.
I lived on the Florida Gulf coast for twenty years. for the most part, that area survives on a service economy and tourists. Wages are low and almost unlivable unless you work two jobs. I stayed there way too long before eventually moving to NC. But it's a nice place to retire if you have a good retirement income.
Did your brother Phil live there as well?
Good points for sure , been in Pensacola since 2005 and things were very affordable until around covid . Some aviation industry is happening with STS and Lenoardo but finding work is difficult outside of the service industry and government/military.. I have 2 part time jobs to make ends meet but I’m comfortable , taxes are low and we aren’t yet congested like other parts of FL
Interesting vid! Good job! MY one caveat is this: you showed Lafayette, LA as an example of the anemic growth we have faced here historically. I would ask you to also look at the growth of Lafayette Parish (county) from 2010-2020 was 9.1% growth from 221K - 241K. Many of the people moved out of the incorporated city limits and moved to the unicorporated parts or Youngsville, LA which has bucked the trend! It has nearly doubled its population from 8K - 16K from 2010 - 2020 with a 96.5% increase! I know you can't hyperfocus the entire region, but please continue to produce these fun informative vids!
Wow. I had absolutely no idea Youngsville had grown that much. Excellent!
I moved from KCMO to The Mississippi Gulf Coast back in 2015 ( Long Beach MS ), for 4 and a half years, I will cherish all the people, friends, and times I had . I loved my little town, the food, and the weather; me being from the mid west I thought I could handle the humidity, but I was mistaken, the humidity there is on another level, but you get used to it . The problem I had, jobs ! I transferred with my company ( security ) to a Chemical Plant that starting wage was 12 bucks an hour, A place in my opinion that should been paying security at least 18 an hour . The only thing that kept me a float was overtime . That said, there is ZERO good paying jobs unless you want to drive to NOLA everyday . I would have loved to have stayed, but after taking a on a supervisor position over our camera systems then write up all the training tools, manuals, and being on time with it all and still no raise, I decided to move back to Kansas CIty, where I knew I'd make more money . Guess what happen ? I make more money . They just don't want to pay decent livable wages to people down there and it's a shame cause it's a wonderful place to live .
Ah, an example of higher wages being beneficial
There’s great jobs if you get an education….Chevron, Bp destin pipeline, rolls royce, Bollinger marine, ingals ship building,Mississippi phosphate,Triton yacht,…..go to school and get that paper
GO CHIEFS (from Gulf Shores, AL)!
@@NolaH-sb4vf a lot of companies are starting to drop the college degree requirements because they are so strapped for manpower after covid
@@agricola I agree
I live in MS. The water on our southern end is not pretty ocean water. It’s greenish brown. The small beaches are full of seaweed and just not the best. In LA, the southern border is really swamp. We usually drive to AL or FL coast area for beach vacations. And, yes, the humidity is so bad it feels like you’re being hugged by water all summer (which is May to Dec) but it makes for nice soft skin 😂.
I’ve spent a few years of my life on the Gulf coast in the past, and have the freedom to move there any time. I don’t, basically because 1) it’s hot and humid, 2) don’t get real winters, 3) hurricane-prone. I don’t fear the personal danger of a hurricane, I just don’t like the idea of my home and all my stuff getting wrecked and flooded.
I have been all over Florida and have a relative there. I was there once in July and I find the humidity intolerable.
You are right about college educated people in those areas moving to other areas. Happens to every single smart LSU grad that's from Louisiana. I'm from Shreveport, and all my best friends that got 30+ on their ACTs and went to honors LSU or better schools almost always end up in Houston or Dallas. Same for others in Louisiana. The best and brightest end up in Dallas or Houston. There simply aren't any six figure jobs in Louisiana besides maybe a few in New Orleans.
You are correct in every aspect. New Orleanians leave for opportunity, then miss it and come back after they made their money. I’m one of those people.
+1 - grew up in St. Mary parish, now been in Houston for 11 years. I'd love to move back home one day, but there are just no job opportunities.
My louisiana history professor in college ....
"What is Louisiana's top export?"
us: uhm ..... sugar cane? Soybeans? Rice? Seafood?
Him: *laughing* "college graduates..."
Us: Owwohhhh..... fuck.
The same thing is happening in Georgia outside of Atlanta. I’m from Columbus, GA, and almost everyone young with a college degree has moved to Atlanta for career opportunities.
I personally ended up in Kansas City myself.
As a native and resident of the Gulf coast region, WE ARE NOT UNDER POPULATED !!!
Sourthern Louisiana native here. Hot summers? LORD it’s been HOT since April
I've driven down to Appalachicola from Nashville many times and the contrast once you get to Montgomery is very noticeable. It's a very depressed part of the world from there on down to the gulf.
that's just Alabama... we allow them to win college football so much because we all feel sorry for them. It's all they have.
That’s the Alabama Black Belt (named for the soil, not the skin color of the majority of the population) you’re driving through, then below that the wiregrass region.
You thought Montgomery was Beverly hills? lol.
like living in a 3rd world country.. with just as much freedom :)
since this is a series now, can you do the delmarva peninsula. it has decent temperatures, beaches, the agriculture seems decent from the perspective of google earth, and it isn't terribly expensive.
Agreed. I went house shopping there after I retired. I had taken a road trip up the peninsula exploring the area with my kids many years ago and never forgot how lovely the area was. Ended up elsewhere but one little trip was enough to make me fall in love with the area.
I'm from MD and had this discussion with a buddy the other day ha ha. The 2 major bridge/tunnels to the peninsula weren't completed until the 1950's/60's. This means people south of Philly had to drive all the way up to Delaware to get to the peninsula.
I think the area is growing, but I think the lack of bridge/tunnels for most of history is probably what caused the rural "ish" population
Delmarva , is a pretty place , but you have mega mosquitos biting flies gnats that bite no great jobs unless your into agriculture or working in what seems like a 100 poultry plants that smell to high heaven and cut off from the world and in the winter time it’s terribly depressing there !!!!!!!
@@paulletchworth2036 I was excited to learn about the new medical center. Was planning to moonlight working there since that was my profession. And it never hurts to live near a hospital. I looked at a lot of old fixer upper houses and one modern home on an acre on the water. I ended up passing because I didn't want to remodel. Bought a repo elsewhere and ended up having to remodel anyway. Go figure.
I always tell people, "Maryland is beautiful on it's edges."
The DC to Baltimore central zone is rubbish. I live part-time in Southern Maryland, and appreciate all the central folks staying home. All that said, I already have my retirement home on the Florida Gulf.
I've lived in Houston, New Orleans, and in between (the I-10 corridor). All the comments about weather, infrastructure, insurance, etc. are spot on. Also we have a severe education problem along with perception elsewhere that we're way dumber than we sound. Personally, if I lived elsewhere, the hurricanes would scare me off. HOWEVER, can't say I mind low population density that much.
Enunciation plus pronunciation goes a long way!
I lived in Pensacola 5 years because I was in the Navy. Honestly extremely underrated town. I'm kinda happy the Florida growth hasn't totally hit there yet, might move back some day.
I live south of Houston about 30 mins from the coast. From about May through September it is pretty hot and humid. Mostly highs in the 90s every day if it doesn't rain. October & November its highs in the 70s-80s. From December to March its usually highs in the 60-70s with the occasional cold or warm front. (It can be below freezing or in the upper 80s), then March and April are highs in the upper 60s to 80s again.
This region is not evenly settled. Away from the coast, there are vast pine forests that are an economic resource, but support little population beyond a few interesting towns like Laurel MS.
owned by timber companies and military. thats why empty.
As a Southern Alabamian I love the rural life. You city folks can have your crowds. Nothing like being outside at night and listening to the cacophony of insects chirping, whirring and fiddling up a storm and seeing the flashes of heat lightning... Then the stars come out and fill the sky with wonder. And heat and humidity? Haven't y'all heard of air conditioning? That's a background noise too!
Nothing wrong with any of that and I can appreciate it. Sounds beautiful. But I prefer cooler, drier weather and mountains.
Biden is after your AC now.
the ideal is to have plenty of good options for every kind of lifestyle!
The rural life down there sounds pretty nice but I think the heat would kill me. Plus bugs, venomous snakes, alligators, and not sure what else! I just moved to rural northern Wisconsin and love it. I'm so done with city life too.
@@katiecrowley3417 air conditioning!!! I wouldn’t live here in the Summer without it. Even so, it cools down at night. Sticky though.
Yeah in Mississippi 500,000 people about live on the Gulf Coast. I think that is a lot for a very small area. The coast alone is only 80 miles long and 55 miles wide. So I think we are pretty populated here.
💯
I live in the gulf coast and i feel it’s mainly hard to develop swamps and gullies and hills
What do you want to develop them for?
Much of the land was owned by the military or the St Joe Paper Company.
@@brucesmith5773 I hope they did not rape the wilderness.
Sadly Mississippi was just walloped with tornadoes this week
That was north Mississippi. Not the Gulf Coast
Way inland, pumpkin. nothing to do with the coast
5 hrs north of the Gulf Coast
Currently right in the middle of that. I think there are a few reasons why.
1. Humidity. Personally, I love humidity (rare, I know) but a majority of people down here HATE it. It’s so humid certain days that in the summer, you could step outside and immediately “dew” up in less than a minute. Some people just can’t handle that.
2. Everything closes WAY too early. Most people I know like to hang out at night; maybe have a drink or go to the mall or something. But most stores and restaurants close before 6PM, and the ones that are open typically aren’t the most appealing. Also, the malls here are quite small.
Some people I know say the malls are alright here. But as an example, the Santa Rosa mall has about 10 stores and is almost completely empty on the average day. I’m used to going to 4-story malls with several hundred stores so this is a huge downgrade for me.
3. ROADS. The quality of the roads are not perfect with the common potholes and uneven lanes. Sometimes construction will be done with no real alternative detour route so you just need to figure out how you’re going to get around. Don’t know the area? Well good luck because the layout of streets are even worse than the roads.
Everything is so RANDOM. A highway will turn into a side street with random diagonal, curved streets and sometimes oneways that have no explanation for its existence. It makes trying to find places all the more confusing.
4. It’s so random. I’ve never seen a mansion directly next to a couple run-down but occupied trailer homes, 5-part townhome, apartment building, and typical home all next to each other. Not to include the most random selection of stores, from a whataburger to an Alvin’s Island. Also, lots of stores here look no different than abandoned ones, so you really have to look in order to tell what’s open or not.
But yeah, I don’t really hate this area, it just doesn’t make sense a lot of the time. This is my experience and might be part of the reason why most want to live elsewhere
Don't forget Hurricanes
I agree with the thought about being too random. Local government doesn’t really want to regulate uses, and control debris and abandoned junk. A little bit of control and cleanup would go a long way. The idea would be to raise the standards for living, not to interfere in people’s lives.
"Random and no sense" is a good way to put it.
I've lived in, between, and around Mobile & Montgomery for 30 years and it's very much as you've said.
1. I don't mind the humidity and heat as long as I have ventilation.
I actually hate the humidity in WINTER. It rarely snows but the cold is so infuriating.
2 & 3. YES. Next to nothing to do, limited time to do it, and stores are bare minimum compared to any solid urban area.
VERY difficult to get anywhere without a car much like most of the country and everything is spread far apart.
Katrina pretty much killed my weekend adventures to the arcade in Bel Air Mall or Biloxi casinos as a kid.
4. I never really thought about it like that but I definitely see strip malls with the majority of them closed down or historic homes in proximity to areas that are falling apart. Some property is getting gentrified or built up but it's very scattered.
I guarantee your average Michigan roads are x100000 worse than the worst roads in FL/AL/MS
I paused the video at the beginning. As someone who lives in Alabama on the coast…it’s the humidity. It’s suffocating. You can hardly work in it for too long. Taking a walk is unpleasant. And that is for the vast majority of the year.
Corrupt leadership also contributes to the lack of jobs/incentive to move there. New Orleans has enormous strategic value and has the geography to be a major thriving metropolis, but bad decisions(especially since Katrina) have stagnated any potential there. In the case of florida, despite our capital being located in this part of the state, it’s generally a very ignored(and underrated nature wise) area in favor of the economic power houses of Tampa, Orlando, and Miami/ft lauderdale.
💯💯💯
what you have outlined in this vid is not the Gulf Coast. The coast stops about 20 miles inland. Completely different culture and people in that short span of miles.
Once you move 10 miles inland you lose the sea breeze, and all you're left with is the oppressive heat and humidity.
Yup. Sorta what I was thinking. To me, the Gulf Coast is that narrow strip from Mississippi east through the Panhandle, and is doing fairly well, hurricanes notwithstanding. Louisiana doesn't even have a coast - just swamp that eventually merges into the ocean.
Agreed. Once you’re north of I-10, it’s a land of sandy soil, slow stagnant rivers, pine trees, and heat most of the year.
Geographically it is different, but I’d say culturally it is all kinda just greater louisiana from east of Houston to around Tallahassee I meet a ton of people from the Louisiana diaspora and we all eat and talk similar.
@@jimmydee1130Soooooo Texas is not on the Gulf coast? 🤔
I am from the Florida panhandle. Stop telling people about this area. I don't want it to get overdeveloped and overcrowded!
A lot of southern pine forests around there when I was driving through. Also got a rock kicked up in my windshield 😂
Keep it.
I can say that the weather down here during 8 months out of the year is anything but comfortable. I lived in Louisiana my whole life and I still dread the summer months. The heat is brutal and walking outside is like walking into a sauna. I’d take 100 degrees in the desert over 85 degrees over here any day
Phoenix or Tuscon, AZ awaits you ! Want something cooler year-round (?) ... then Flagstaff, AZ may be just the place for you.
I live in Georgia and I don’t think most of us think of ourselves as part of the gulf region. I always imagined it as the actual gulf like the west coast of Florida and Texas’s coast.
I agree. I live in Columbus which is smack dab in the middle of the piedmont and coastal regions. South Columbus definitely have different dirt than North Columbus, but most of us classified ourselves as a part of the piedmont.
I live on the Gulf Coast. People up north make fun of me and say I couldn’t survive that winter. But lemme tell you, they ain’t surviving my summer.
Most of those upper midwesterners can’t survive their winters either, that’s why they flee to florida
Why was malaria not mentioned? This surely had a huge impact on growth before it was eradicated
I love the gulf coast and lived there for 8 years. Late winter and the spring are the only times it’s nice. Some winter days are so cold, with the humidity its penetrating.
I would move back to North Florida since I am 51 and now completely understand snowbirds (I couldn't understand them until my bones, muscles, and joints taught me at age 48). But the snakes are too much. Living in Northern California for 15 years, I have only seen 5 snakes. In the 3 years that I lived in Florida, I would see that many in a month. As for humidity, for some reason humidity doesn't bother me as much anymore like it did the 32 years that I lived in the Gulf region.
Never saw many snakes here in the Deep South. But when I went hiking out West almost got bit by a rattlesnake in Utah. Panhandle is where I would move back to as well. Just find some land 15 feet or more above sea level that's still relatively close to the coast and should be fine.
Yeah I never saw any the whole time I was in Tallahassee
I actually like the humidity on the Gulf. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Fascinating and well presented analysis. Well done!
Yes, those hurricanes are very "comfortable". I have always thought it surprising that anyone lived in the path of hurricanes.
My problem with vids like this is generalization. If you get inland a bit, pick a well built house with a fortified rood & good local drainage, your hurricane problems become more manageable. Places like Covington/Abita Springs LA, Eastern Shore, AL, parts of Pensacola, Niceville, and suburban Tallahassee, FL are all wonderful, uncrowded places to retire with reasonable traffic & good health care. Yes, it's hot in summer, but in retirement you can hit the road for a month and the in-between seasons are amazing - I smoke my turkey in the backyard in 65-70 deg. weather every Thanksgiving. Go ahead and keep running this area down - me and my friends keep enjoying it.
I'd say it's more expensive to live along the coast because of the large amount of tourists. Florida for one is growing pretty quickly, including NW Florida. Unfortunately a lot of the wages don't match the increasing housing. Each area within this region has it's own issues.
I’m afraid that North Florida is going to quickly turn into South Florida sooner than later. I don’t want all of that mess up here, plus the less snowbirds that come here the better.
Housing is a problem in many places due to federal reserve policy and unbridled government spending - it's called *inflation.*
Well, let's send another 150 billion dollars to that pervert the US installed in Ukraine.
Actually I think it is Mo' bile as what you get when the ol' gall bladder's actin' up.
Any reason why you omitted the Houston area from your analysis? It has the same climate / topography and a similar culture to the rest of the Gulf Coast, and it bucks many of the trends you presented here. (Btw I do agree that South Texas shouldn’t be included as it’s semi-arid and has a very different culture)
If he included Houston it wouldn't be considered empty and Houston growth is because of Texas not because of the gulf coast per se.
Both Houston and Corpus Christi are Gulf Coast cities.
@@seanthe100Houston is literally a huge port and oil companies. How is that not Gulf Coast?
"The gulf coast is truly a beautiful part.....why don't more Americans live there?" so, you haven't spent a lot of time in that dump I take it? Maybe never experienced a hurricane, for one thing? "Amazing beaches"....by what standards? There's a reason you don't see Pensacola Beach, with the "famous white sand", draw people like Belize or Miami or California or the Bahamas or....
California…..lol
Best kept secret. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The population in this area exploded after central air became common, after 1970.
As a born cajun from Louisiana, I will say our costal beaches is considered fisherman's resort. No crowds or tourists to bother you while catching a red.
Also, the reason why the louisiana bridges are bad bc most of the Govt money is being spent on Casinoes, we're pretty much like the southern Las vegas
I thought in Louisiana most of the government money went into a politician’s pocket?😂
@@susanvinson2667 cajun politicians are a different breed lol
@@susanvinson2667 Oh yeah for sure, happened during Katrina most the money the people were promised went into there pockets
@@susanvinson2667 10% for the big man (not) biden..!
That cant be the only reason. I'm going to research the spending money casinos, i've never heard of that.
Most of my family lives in this region of southeast Texas and it’s absolutely awful every time I have to visit. Overcast, depressing, hot weather and flat, swampy scenery. I think they were tricked by being told they could afford coastal property and it was always warm. But when they got there, it wasn’t what they expected… yeah it’s by the coast but it doesn’t feel beachy. And the oil refineries.. god they’re everywhere and so unpleasant to look at and probably make my health worse every time I go. Horrible horrible place to live.
If anyone watched the first season of True Detective. It captures the culture pretty well. From East Texas Gulf coast to Panhandle Florida. It all shares the same dynamic. Hot
Swampy. And oil filled land.
Everyone I know who has lived in that area hated it. My sister moved to Houston from the Midwest. She lived there for several years and never grew to like it. She said the oppressive heat and humidity are constant for much of the year. When winter finally arrives you get some mild days, but occasionally, cold fronts arrive from the plains that feel even more miserable because of the humidity. She said the wet, cold air seeps into your home and chills you to the bone. She also said the beaches in that area are gray, dirty, and depressing.
@@Earth1218 Houston is like living in a toilet. A steaming hot, unflushed toilet.
@unknown that's exaggerated. It's pretty lush and a ton of neighborhoods are very nice. (The suburbs do not count as Houston). And the weather from Central Texas to Alabama to South Carolina. It's all the same. Miami and New Orleans are just as humid and hot. Except Miami at least gets an ocean breeze.
@@Earth1218 the Midwest is even more depressing.
Misleading title 10million people on the coast line of three States is still a big number. Also humidity is not just a throw away reason to live in the south, It is brutal half the year.
3% of U.S. population = about 10 million.
Appalachia has only 26 million and is much larger geographic from Albany NY to Alabama.
That comes out to around 126 per mile using the definition from the federally designated Appalachia Regional Commission.
As someone from New Orleans this was a pretty fascinating watch. However, the weather is actually brutal here. The hottest parts of summer are intolerable and temperature changes feel much more extreme here because of the humidity. Not to mention the hurricanes. You're spot on about the infrastructure though. I think New Orleans is legitimately the greatest city in America though. I wish it was possible for all of the economic and systemic problems here to get fixed.
The more humidity the less the extreme in temps are. That's why such a wide range in the winter record highs and lows because of less humidity. Humidity stops temps from having extremes.
I live in Lake Charles and I do agree that the summers are way to hot and miserably humid, but after just a little bit of experience with the freezing temperatures and snow of the north, I can safely say that I much rather be uncomfortable here than suffocating in snow up there. Though I wouldn’t mind not having to evacuate twice a year.
Come to Orlando and tell me about it.
@@MJIZZELhe said it feels more extreme because it does .. humidity and hot make it feel hotter .. humidity and cold makes it feel colder .. good arguments tho, too bad no one said that
@@MJIZZEL This is wacky misinformation; like saying being on fire helps keep your core body temperature 'stable.' The most common way to get high humidity is through extreme temps so saying humidity stops extreme temps is in itself kinda backwards. High humidity _traps_ heat in human bodies. The biggest danger of high humidity is deadly wet bulb temperature events where humidity gets so high that sweat can't evaporate so heat gets trapped in the body instead.
In the Summer down here you'll have days where the sky looks like it should be storming, but it's literally too hot to rain. It tries to, but the drops just disintegrate and the heat recirculates the moisture up again, so you're basically just in this humid convection oven of death.
Excellent content as usual. Keep up the good work.
Can't help but point out its "mo-beel" not "mobull". I think the ever present threat of a new severe storm is a huge part of what is keeping the small coastal cities from growing. It is hard to invest when each year it could also be loat,plus sky rocketing insurance costs. In the rural areas there is very little infrastructure or economic opportunity and as seasons get more volatile that is not going to improve.
Yeah just like how some people pronounce Biloxi (Bil ox i) instead of Bil ux i)
You should’ve mentioned the TX gulf coast. The Golden Triangle (Beaumont, Port Arthur, and Orange) is experiencing a boom from industry and urban sprawl from Houston (another city that shares the same gulf coast culture and weather) Not to mention Galveston a historic populated city sitting on the coast.
He literally left out all of the texas gulf coast. Houston, the Golden triangle, Galveston, etc
Nope
@@nomaderic Didn't fit his made up narrative.
Beaumont has one of THE worst crime rates in the country. Not just in Texas. In the country. Look it up.
@AM L yea but the point is its the gulf coast. Everyone that lives in houston, Beaumont, PA, know we live in the gulf coast. This dude left out the largest gulf coast city to skew the numbers.
I grew up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and I know how beautiful it is from Corpus Christi to Fort Myers. I get why some people don't like it, that's fine. But along with the heat you get the Gulf, a southern-facing beach that affords both beautiful sunrises and sunsets, great seafood, reasonable prices, and good people. And living on the beach means you have moderating breezes. Military who come here eventually retire here; one of the Armed Services Retirement Homes is located in Biloxi. Now it's not for everyone but for those it's for, it's great.