west coast

Region with lower test scores, higher crime rates, and higher obesity rates than the East Coast. Where people spend millions to build homes precariously perched on hillsides, only to have them swept away in a mudslide or burned down in a forest fire a few years later and then rebuilt. Worst urban sprawl in the world, contributing to unprecedented environmental destruction and attributed in part to a car culture that keeps the U.S. in OPEC's pocket. Go to British Columbia and everything is instantly nicer.