I live in a small city on the California Coast. North of San Francisco, and some ways south of the border with Oregon. It's a cold yet not frigid atmosphere. The whole place is wet with this very special kind of malaise. This cold, wet mixture of fungal spores, wet bark, and rain. Words can't really do it justice.
My city is effectively dying. Not a quick and harsh death. Rather the kind of death that faces small towns in countries like Japan. What I mean is that not enough young people are staying in town, and people just keep getting older. Because of this areas that were at once booming industrial centers in their own right are now nothing but overgrown feilds frequented only by the homeless and the occasional urban explorer. Even our mall, which I remember in my childhood as a rather bustling center of commerce in the city is now nothing but a walmart, a few shoe stores, and one pretty good chinese resturant.

One upside of where I live is the beautiful Nature. Situated squarely on the southerm end of the pacific northwest my city is surrounded by beautiful Mountains and hills, dotted with coastal redwoods. This makes it a great place to visit but a terrible place to live in. The Mountainous nature of my surroundings mean that there is little construction work to attract employment. In turn there is also little oppurtunity for expansion. As a result there is an ongoing crisis of affordability facing local business as there is a deficet of affordable venues and real estate to house local business. For this reason and more I can't really see my self staying here much longer. After I finish my schooling I'll likely try and move elsewhere. Somewhere more affordable.