https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/maternal-mortality-rate-by-state
I mean, TX isn’t the worst, but there is a distinct pattern to the worst.
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And yet, despite all that, Idaho has achieved those things. Have you ever been to Boise? It’s really nice in terms of clean and safe streets, certainly far better than California’s big cities, or Seattle, or many other places in that respect. Idaho simply doesn’t have any of the kind of homeless encampment scenes that are common in California’s big cities. It seems like it has very good public transit too, appropriate to its small size. I have no explanation for why it has happened this way because it’s the opposite of what you would expect.
The big city that I’ve been to that has amazingly clean streets, effectively zero crime, and spectacularly great public transit, and also fantastic education systems, is Singapore. It’s a totally non-religious place but it’s also a place that’s almost fascist in its government system. I don’t want to live in Singapore but it’s a very pleasant place to visit.
And all of those things aren’t worth a lick of salt if women don’t have basic human rights.
I mean, have you ever been to Pyongyang? It’s really nice and clean.
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No, but as I mentioned above I know people who scouted it as a potential place to live or retire. They mentioned the lack of squalor but also recognised the political and cultural price paid for that. I’ve heard similar observations about Singapore and Dubai. That put all these places into the red on the pleasantness balance sheet as far as they (and I) were concerned.
I heard very different reports from them about Boise’s public transit system. Unless you live right downtown (which is walkable and, of course, has higher housing costs than in the rest of the city and state), you’re subject to the usual American situation of 30+ minute waits for buses, irregular schedules, multiple transfers, and long trudges to get to the stops. No subways or LRT, but that’s to be expected in a city of that size. Everyone told me you need a car to live comfortably anywhere in Idaho. Unlike your experience, they were not impressed that “the trains ran on time”.*.
Unhoused people flock to or stay in urban areas of California and the PNW instead of Idaho mainly because of the more temperate weather, especially the winters. Also, a bigger and more diverse economy, and the population that goes with it = more visiblity for and greater numbers of those who fall through the cracks.
[* Contrary to the myth, they don’t run on time in fascist societies unless they’re also considered everyday amenities for the society’s elites or tourists.]
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When I see squeaky clean, safe cities, or meet squeaky clean, safe people and visit their squeaky clean, safe houses, I always wonder what’s been swept under the carpet, and who got hurt or killed during the sweeping.
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This is a silly point to try and make. All small and midsize cities are cleaner and have fewer homeless (because they have fewer people) than big cities anywhere. This is not some magic property of Idaho, it’s just that small cities are generally pretty nice.
Nice small cities in California abound, too. San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, Los Gatos, etc.
You want a real comparison? Go visit all the border areas in Northern Idaho*, and compare to southern British Columbia. Northern Idaho is a shit hole of run down, half-abandoned towns with no services and nobody who cares about the place taking care of anything. There’s no shortage of giant American flags and Trump banners, though. And CostCos. When you see a giant American flag next to a strip mall that burned down years ago and nobody bothered to even tear down, you have to ask yourself, “what are they so proud of exactly?” Meanwhile small towns in southern BC are pretty universally delightful. Every single one has cute main streets, nice shops, great restaurants, live music, public transportation, local theatre groups, great schools, etc. Oh, and free healthcare, free education, decriminalized hard drugs, free birth control, and nationally-guaranteed abortion and trans rights.
Anyone who doesn’t think lines on maps matter, cross the border between Idaho and BC. It’s eye opening.
You’ve chosen a really weird hill to die on, friend. I don’t know what you’re even doing in this thread any more.
*You can do this same comparison with NE Washington state too. You know what it has in common with Idaho? Nazis.
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Sarah Shulman has entered the chat
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In addition to being smaller, these cities in California tend to be less diverse and more affluent. The size also makes it more manageable for their well-funded and militarised police forces to roust unhoused people and kick them out rather than the municipal government actually addressing the root causes.
Billboards about meth and opioid addiction and for-profit rehabs are also part of the landscape of Real America™ in a way they aren’t in the decadent land of the Coastal Elites.
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Because you are deliberately overlooking the obvious. Population density comes to mind.
There are suburbs in CA with more people than the entire state of Idaho.
My own county in NJ is about the same geographic size as Boise with 3X the population and the same average per capita income.
What is drawing people to Idaho? It certainly isn’t the booming expansion of industry/commerce to the region. Not the ever diminishing healthcare.
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But at least the ovens run on time.
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I once visited Buenos Aires, and the guide was very open about that. It’s a city that doesn’t have slums the way the major cities in Brazil do…but because the last dictatorship simply threw out the poor people, and never mind what happens to them.
They didn’t seem to like dictators there. I wish other countries would be as sensible about that.
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“… I’m not ADVOCATING fascism—I just want people to APPRECIATE and ADMIRE its many VIRTUES” 
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