Aim them down. There’s a screw.

It's drugs, mental health, guns, and our weak legal system. Our (former?) commissioner of Public Safety, Mike Sherling said as much. He also said that offenders have told law enforcement that they come specifically to Vermont to do their drug trade because our legal system is less robust than our New England neighbors. With drugs, comes crime. We also have a lot of suicide.

The cost of living is surprisingly high, e.g. Burlington’s is about 10% higher than Orlando. We have a relatively severe housing shortage. The median home cost in Burlington is 30% higher than Orlando. Religiosity is a lot lower in VT, which might be a culture shock coming from Florida. Our shortest day is 8h50, vs. 10h20 in Orlando. Our roads are terrible. We have very few chain restaurants and lots of very good independent restaurants. Our public schools are very good because our property taxes are high. Everyone drives a Subaru. There is no fake maple syrup. It gets really cold. It gets really hot, and not everyone has air conditioning. We have black bears, but no alligators. We have the best cheddar cheese and beer in the observable universe. We have hills and mountains. Our lowest point is still above where sea level would be if all the ice melted. Everyone’s front porch slopes down. The stripes they paint on our roads only last a few months before being worn off by people who leave their studded snow tires on year-round. Strangers don’t make eye contact or greet each other. Road salt both saves and destroys our cars. People ride bicycles for transportation. We have reproductive liberty. It costs about 4x as much to have your lawn mowed, so most people do it themselves. We have skiing, but it’s so expensive and so crowded it’s not much fun anymore. We have a lot of mountain biking. We have community supported agriculture. Gun violence is up about 1000%. Until recently there wasn’t any meth, but now there’s meth. Drivers are impatient and not very good. Waitstaff are overworked. We have amazing cheddar cheese (that bears repeating).

It's often worth it from both a time and cost perspective. You have many more nonstop flight choices, and nonstop flights substantially increase the likelihood that you'll get where you're going. I love arriving home after a trip to our cozy little BTV, but it's usually worth the drive to YUL. There are a number of hotels that do park and fly. If you have a morning flight, you can drive up, stay over, and take their shuttle to the airport. Most will even have your car shoveled out for you when you get back.