Frogwatch wrote:

I have read tha Madison is very liberal yet they must be doing
something right. Please allow me a comparison.
Madison: State capitol, large university, educated population, some
high tech industries, job opportunity, nice old buildings.
Tallahassee: State capitol, 2 large universities, educated
population, NO high tech industries, very few job opportunities, all
the old buildings have been razed.
Now, I am a 5 generation native N. Florida redneck so I am inclined to
defend my culture but even I see a problem here.
Looking over the UW campus, I saw a 12 story bldg dedicated to
licensing technologies developed at UW, FSU might have a cubicle
dedicated to the same.
I believe it is the cold climate. Bad weather keeps people in doors
and they are more industrious.

Madison is a pretty liberal area, and it attracts and retains some of
the best minds. While there are exceptions, of course, I think you will
find that generally the liberal areas attract the best and brightest
minds. A Southern state for which that is true? North Carolina, around
Chapel Hill, and, of course, Northern Virginia, near DC. Virginia and
North Carolina are now both blue states.

While Tallahassee is a hotbed of liberalism by Florida standards, the
state itself is quite backwards. Lots of talk about education, really
crappy pay for teachers. Too many religious fundamentalists. Not enough
stress on intellectual activities. The best thing to do in Tallahassee
when I visited in decent weather was to sit on the steps of the FSU
library and girl watch. It was either that or head over to Books-a-Million.

Example: soon after we moved to the Jax area, I was in need of some
bibliographic references, so I went to three of the local public
libraries in search of same. Nada. Not a hit. The libraries in fact had
very few books, I thought. But there was plenty of money around to
refurbish a football stadium for a millionaire's new NFL team.

I did find the books I needed down in Gainesville at the University of
Florida library.

Here's a telling, if not really true, anecdote. Most of the tales
surrounding the landing of flying saucers (aliens) involve swampy
southern areas. They never seem to land on the campus of the University
of Chicago.