Should I move to Utah?

[John Dule]

Unfortunately I'm locked into taking the California Bar Exam soon, but I'm thinking I should move to Utah at my first available opportunity. I've realized living in and visiting the East Coast/Midwest that I just cannot assimilate into the business culture and rampant alcoholism of the legal profession east of the Mississippi. I'm thinking being around a bunch of never-Trump Republican teetotalers might be exactly the change I need. I especially hate the nature and scenery of the East, whereas the West is the terrain I'm most familiar with-- I miss hiking and mountains.

I could always stay in California, but that has its own problems (high housing costs and terrible traffic in particular). Moreover, I'm increasingly feeling like my home state is simply a lost cause. My dream has always been to use my law degree to fix the Bay Area's land use policies, but the iron grip of the NIMBY/socialist alliance just never seems to weaken. I also find Bay Area progressives unbelievably annoying and hypocritical, and not much more fun to be around than the boozed-up soulless gremlins that populate the East.

The obvious problem is Mormonism, which I would never be able to jive with. However, I get the feeling that SLC has a sizable population of secular young urban professionals these days.

[John Dule]

Utah is tough to live in as an transplant. You still have Bay Area-level crazy progressives in SLC, and while it is true that practicing Mormons are a relatively small minority in SLC, you feel their influence all over the state, and in some ways, ex-/inactive Mormons are equally as peculiar as Mormons. Drive down past the Point of the Mountain to Utah County and you are in crazytown. Inversions literally kill you in the winter - I've been to Beijing before they cleaned it up and SLC is worse. Of course, the state is also a water time bomb, just like the rest of the West. Even the BYU scientists are begging for the state government to do more on the environment.

You could live in Park City and avoid some of those problems, but PC is a much better place to visit than to live, and is more expensive than all but the absolute most expensive places in California. And Ogden... has very few redeeming features other than being cheap. Logan is even worse.

Being as well-traveled as you are, have you ever been to Anchorage? I have a potential federal job lined up there for the fall, and it only requires bar passage in any state (so passing in California would do it for me). Is it a total sh*thole or a libertarian paradise?

[John Dule]

Utah is tough to live in as an transplant. You still have Bay Area-level crazy progressives in SLC, and while it is true that practicing Mormons are a relatively small minority in SLC, you feel their influence all over the state, and in some ways, ex-/inactive Mormons are equally as peculiar as Mormons. Drive down past the Point of the Mountain to Utah County and you are in crazytown. Inversions literally kill you in the winter - I've been to Beijing before they cleaned it up and SLC is worse. Of course, the state is also a water time bomb, just like the rest of the West. Even the BYU scientists are begging for the state government to do more on the environment.

You could live in Park City and avoid some of those problems, but PC is a much better place to visit than to live, and is more expensive than all but the absolute most expensive places in California. And Ogden... has very few redeeming features other than being cheap. Logan is even worse.

Being as well-traveled as you are, have you ever been to Anchorage? I have a potential federal job lined up there for the fall, and it only requires bar passage in any state (so passing in California would do it for me). Is it a total sh*thole or a libertarian paradise?

I've been to Anchorage, I think you'd appreciate the nature scene.

I visited it once on a trip, and it struck me as highly car-dependent. That was also in the summer, so idk if it was representative of the actual reality of living there.

[John Dule]

Rationally? No. 

For my entertainment purposes? Absolutely.

P.S.: Wth is wrong with the Appalachian Trails for hiking?

I've been hundreds of miles from any actual mountains for the past three years. It is driving me insane. Never been to Appalachia, but I probably wouldn't be able to find good-paying federal work out there, and I don't want to have to drive more than an hour to get into the wilderness. I also hate how the foliage of the East dies in the winter.

[John Dule]

Perhaps New Mexico or Arizona might be a better fit for you?

The car-dependent Phoenix suburbs are hell. Santa Fe or Albuquerque could be nice though. I could have a Saul Goodman phase.

[John Dule]

Have you considered Colorado or Montana?

I would say that in terms of places to actually live and work, this is what I'm considering. Colorado and Montana are definitely in the running. I would just need to find federal work there, because I can't bring myself to take a second bar exam immediately after California. That's why the federal position in Alaska I mentioned is potentially appealing to me.



The only eastern cities I really enjoy are Chicago, Baltimore, Washington, and Philadelphia (never been to Kentucky but I feel like I'd appreciate its nature). However, from what I understand of those places the Yuppie scene is pretty boozy.

Learn to drive and start drinking, then you'll be happy anywhere.

I actually quite enjoy driving. It's commuting I hate.