communities for people local to the city/state I live in
Yep. Those communities on Reddit always seem to be a bit on the pessimistic/angry side compared to the general public, however they definitely had their usefulness and were great to keep track of local happenings. Local paper journalism being what it is now, it's a good way to keep a pulse on things.
definitely, the doom n gloom attitude on my city's subreddit really bugs me actually. hoping when a Lemmy community for it pops up we can avoid that. but regardless it's a great way to find out about local events or cool restaurants to try or just fun stuff that's a little more off the beaten path